More photos

Here is Joanne Mattera, artist, originator of the international encaustic conference, and artist supporter extraordinaire, speaking at the recent conference in Provincetown, Mass. She sets a tone of mutual support, respect, and help among the artists who attend- really quite amazing. She continues that attitude all year long at her informative blog:  joannemattera.blogspot.com/

Joanne Mattera

"Black and White" is a painting of one of the cows who live across the road from the VCCA in Amherst, Virginia. Someone recently said I should show my cow paintings in Vermont because they love cows there. I answered that there must be hundreds of cow paintings and they surely don't need more. She said, "But this one has so much soul."

Black and White, encaustic on wood, 6x6"

Work by Sondra Arkin at Longview Gallery.

Overwhelmed by successes. Part 2.

Saturday night - last weekend - we had a big "donor appreciation party" here. Invited were Musica Viva donors of at least $75. plus a couple of collectors that had purchased at least $500 worth of art from me.
We are not talking big bucks here. This is a grass roots operation - Marilyn Banner's art, Carl Banner's music, both of our visions and teamwork working to build an art life here and an artist friendly community. I often describe us as "under recognized sophisticates."

So why the overwhelm? Well....... as I did at my open studio last year, I put up on the music room walls (which now have track lighting to make the setting a real gallery) a few of my new marsh paintings. Two images had already gone out as Musica Viva publicity pieces via constant contact. I intend to show the best of the marsh paintings with the best of the 2009 VCCA paintings, all encaustic, at my Ceres show opening late April. The last thing I'm doing is "pushing" the marsh pieces.
Well, to my partial surprise - THREE of the marsh paintings were sold that night. THREE.

Writing this has already decreased the overwhelm feeling. Why NOT have what I want, a nice circle of my work doing its work for others and the others giving back to me in the form of money. The way it should be for artists all the time....

Dismissal by a gallery owner

The words came to mind today, "Sometimes good people do bad things." Hmmmm.
I visited my friend this past weekend. She lives in a small town in Pennsylvania 90 miles from NYC, and is a super strong gutsy highly skilled artist. And a good friend to boot!
She's having an exhibit right now at the upscale gallery in town. Somehow I don't want to use real names in this blog, despite the low readership.
Anyway, she offered to introduce me to the owner and suggested I bring some work up, which I did. I brought several nice reproductions and two very small encaustic works, to show the resonance and light of the medium.
Ah, how to get to the meat of this.

We left the work with the part owner who advises but does not make final decisions. He was terrific, warm, encouraging, and an unbelievably good artist himself. A master.
The next day we returned to check out the response. I was forewarned by my friend that the owner either loves someone and fawns all over them, or is an ice cube. heh heh. Guess what response I got!!

What amazed me was the chutzpah of this man, and his arrogance. When first introduced to me, he turned AWAY and spoke to someone else. When asked directly about his response to my work, he said "very lovely" and turned away, again brusquely. It's impossible to describe the VIBE of this man as he turned away. As if he was swatting at a fly or an irritating mosquito.

What's wrong with this picture? Here is what a mature and decent human being who is also a gallery could and should say: "Thanks so much for sharing your work with us. I'm sorry it's not a fit for the gallery."

Some people greatly enjoy getting away with reprehensible behavior! I had to clear away a ton of negative stuff before I could sleep.

Kendall Gallery

While in Wellfleet last month we stopped by the Kendall Gallery. I had met the owner at Carl's last concert in the town library, and had sent her my website. Not hearing from her, I assumed the usual lack of interest. Follow up, or let's say persistent and appropriately continual follow up, has not been my strong point.
Despite my hesitation, we went in and eventually spoke with her at length. I like the gallery. I'd say it's high end Wellfleet, if that is a category.
At the end of September I will show her some of my larger encaustic paintings. She's smart and art savvy. I have hopes.

Galleries

On July 6 we set out for Wellfleet on Cape Cod via Allentown, Milford, Kingston, Providence... with an agenda that included a visit to Kobalt Gallery in P'town. It was a family visit - my in-laws are 89 and 96!- but had a striking amount of art activity for me.

We stopped in York to check out my work there at York City Arts, stayed with Barbara Crooker, VCCA poet friend in Fogelsville PA, visited Blue Stone gallery in Milford, got to Kingston in time for a Richard Frumess tour of R&F, stayed with Carl's cousin in Red Hook NY, then with another cousin near Providence, and on the way to Wellfleet spent a couple of hours at the Cape Cod Museum in Dennis. All this before getting to the target.

Gabe's friend Ryan says that the elder Banner house is really the Marilyn Banner Museum. I have to admit that hanging out there in the living area overlooking a marsh, light flowing in, and gazing around at my work from the 70's (a huge lily of the valley center oil painting), the 90's (a deep dark Presence of Spirit piece) and the new millennium (think Prague Cemetery gravestones on yellow fabric, Scenes of Childhood (Carl's) and a dynamite big collage from the Song of Songs), and you might get a glimpse. Their home is FULL of art and music - including a mammoth Leonard Baskin rug in the bedroom. Enough said about that. I left them with 2 newish small encaustic paintings. They love them.

Provincetown! On Sunday that weekend we drove into P'town and meandered down the packed main street. Stopped into T J Walton's gallery (I had researched via the gallery guide a bit) and talked with the artist/owner. She was the opposite of pretentious and we later watched an interview with her on the web. Google her and find it and you'll see why. Cool woman and good art. She wore a t-shirt that said "F**k Me I'm Famous". And she said "and believe me, they do."

We went to Julie Heller's gallery to see the encaustic work I saw in the guide. Small world department - she's from !!! Kensington Maryland !! I pass near her childhood home each time I drive to my studio in Kensington. Julie's gallery was full of art - stacked on the floor, all over the place - much of it by well-known artists like Karl Knaths. Her gallery is the oldest one in Provincetown, and she was very simpatico. I felt like I knew her. Not a gallery for my work (maybe if I lived there), but a person I want to see again.

Eventually we made it to Kobalt - still looks good to me but the energy was a bit down, clearly from the recession mood. I like the place and John O'Shea suggested I send in some hard copy images for the owner to see. I'm on it, will send a package by the end of July.

We stopped by Cynthia Packard's gallery. Hmm, what to say. She's the artist whose work I fell for in Boston and I was so excited to see that she had a gallery. She generously demonstrated for me her use of encaustic - she uses oil paint mixed with Dorland wax and torches it right on the canvas. It ignites (!) - looked pretty crazy dangerous to me but she is very experienced and casual with it. Her attitude toward me was not the best - she kept trying to get me to study with her! Enough said.

Encaustic Conference at Montserrat

I am finally getting so excited about this one that I can hardly sleep. Here is the link: http://www.montserratencausticconference.blogspot.com/
tons of artists and tons of new information. yummy. overabundance.
I am staying on for a post conference day - Critical Feedback with Joseph Carroll, who runs a good gallery in Boston. ME going for a CRITIQUE is not your everyday thing. However he has a good reputation for support and has asked us to bring a goal and an issue for him to comment on. Also some work we're involved in.
Hope I can pull this together in the next two days, as I leave on Thursday, and need to send work up to Ceres for a summer show. I wrote up some background info on me - helps me see why it's tricky to set a "goal" - and maybe I'll share that next time I write on the blog.