Abundance

My show at Delaplaine comes down September 27. Today I got a call from York Arts - where they are doing the Hot for Wax show - and four of my pieces were accepted! They want the work on September 25. One of the pieces has been sold (January 1) and I HOPE that more will be sold tomorrow (the opening).

So September 21 I leave for 3 weeks at VCCA. Carl has offered to drive to Frederick, pack up my show on the 28th, DRIVE TO YORK PA with the pieces for the show there, leave them with the director (a few days late) and then drive back home. This is good. More than I can handle!!

Woah, I need to figure out a way to repay him. I couldn't even hire someone to do this - all of it I mean. And if I could - at what cost?
One thing I can do is attend the Musica Viva board meeting coming up, and help get things organized for all these cool events we are planning.

Art Scene in Asheville

Last week we traveled from my friend's place in Blowing Rock NC to Asheville. A few people had said we HAD to see Asheville... so we drove down, stopping at Black Mountain (a little town) where no one knew what Black Mountain College had been. Odd. On to the big town and somehow, I don't recall how, we found our way to the River Arts District. Now THAT was something! A bunch of old down and out looking factory and mill buildings had basically been turned over to visual artists, who poplulate all of them with studios open to the public. We found the ONE encaustic artist (a painter who paints with encaustic paint) and spent quite a while in her huge space. Very impressive, lots of sales, decent, actually lovely work - craft oriented (it's the South!) and a bit decorative, but she loves the medium and the work is nice and resonant and waxy. Yum.

What most intrigued me was that Asheville is a magnet for art buyers. DC is not. This woman had been approached by a Dallas curator to be in a show (I need to call that curator!) of encaustic work. And while we were there, potential buyers were milling around. The artist says she can't keep up with the demand.

Unfortunately we don't want to live in the South, and though I am pretty moveable, my musician husband and Musica Viva are not. But woah, would I LOVE to be in a place where art lovers are hungrily roaming around. Is this a fantasy?

Collage for the Soul

Update is that I have one excellent student committed to do this work with me and she is recruiting others in the neighborhood. I realized this is not just for the money - can't get rich on what I'm asking for this - but it's part of my right work to offer it. Hopefully it will feel just right and there will be synergy, energy, creativity, even love floating around!

January 1 is sold!

The gorgeous painting I chose for my last Constant Contact and the postcard announcement for the Delaplaine show has been sold to !!! someone who walked into the gallery and fell in love with it. Not a friend or acquaintance, but a genuine art lover. Yay! That may be all I say in this post.
Except that the opening is coming up in two days and I am hoping that even more such art lovers will show up. And this is not to say that my friends who purchase my art are NOT genuine art lovers - they ARE of course, AND they often also wish to support my vision. So interesting being an artist in this society. I have promised my friend Carol MacDonald that I will keep going for "no limits" in my work and work in the world. Hard to do, but I have committed myself.

Feature Article in the Frederick News Post

Yay, a really nice, well written and informative article about me and my history as an artist - just came out today in the Frederick News Post. I will put the link here. I hope it works. If not, you can always just go to the paper and search Marilyn Banner art, or Lauren LaRocca or Sacred Ground.

If ANY one reads this blog and goes to the link, please let me know!
I don't really believe anyone reads blogs - and I know from what folks say when I respond to one, that they are shocked to receive a response from a real human.

However, now that I HAVE a blog, why not experiment?

Sacred Ground show up at Delaplaine

I was a bit worried about hanging my paintings at Delaplaine Art Center - not its whole name, but enough for here - because they can't possibly look as incredible as they did at Ceres Gallery. Yes, I admit, they don't knock my socks off as much, (can't light them as well) but they still look like - well, it's often hard to get a distant perspective on my own work. January 1 and January 2... and then Don't Fence Me In next to Til I See the Mountains Rise. YUM! as they say in Julie and Julia. YUM! There is really something there, some kind of depth that is not the kind that I was taught to create in art school.

Not only is the show up, but a wonderfully intelligent and sensitive person interviewed me the other day for an article in the Frederick Post News. Lauren LaRocca. Very sympatico - she was unusually at home in my studio and eventually told me she'd majored in religion and poetry. Well, no WONDER she was at home there. Can't say more about that now. It's a book.
I've purchased a chapbook of Lauren's poetry through Etsy. The real thing.

Noyes School of Rhythm

I have not written since returning from Noyes Camp. Noyes School of Rhythm. Lately I want to share things on the blog but feel fairly speechless about them. Noyes is a best kept secret that is not totally secret. It is a magic land, a sacred ground like VCCA, filled with the energy of what takes place there. When I figure out how to upload images, I'll include some. If I lived with Noyes Rhythm every day - wow.