#art365 : February in Chicago part one

I live really close to Chicago, but since I don't work there anymore, I don't go very often. It's a suburbanite thing. I can get almost anything within 15 minutes of my house and I don't ever have to pay for parking. That being said, I do like Chicago and I do like going to Chicago. But, I don't like the paying for parking thing. 

This month saw not one, but two trips to Chicago. This first was to see my friend Megan from Pratt who was in town for her nearly annual Auto Show gig. These visits usually involve art and always involve coffee. I met her at her hotel and we walked over to the Art Institute. (Walking around is one of the things I like about Chicago.) We saw a couple of shows and then had coffee. And then wandered through the Modern Wing for a bit before she had to head to the airport. I drove back to LSD through Grant Park and home. It was snowy, but not snowing and it was late afternoon. And that view inspired the next few days' #art365 paintings.

2.10.13 winter afternoon grant park chicago

2.11.13 with lake michigan beyond the trees

2.12.13 lake michigan

Some of the #art365 series will be at Candy Café in Dyer for the month of April. You can check out the whole series on my website. Which ones do you think I should include in the show?

#art365 : January's burnt prairie

I know, it's not January. But I've been diligently working on this #art365 project and I haven't missed a day yet. Even when I was sick, I still managed to do something. I am tweeting these and pinning these and I started posting them on my website and to google+ (which by the way, I really like. I did not jump on the g+ bandwagon when it started, but I'm there now and it is full of artists! I am a little bit in heaven there.) You'll notice facebook is missing, I've been divvying up what posts where. 

But I have been ignoring my blog, even though I was supposed to be posting  regularly here. oops. So I thought I would share a couple of my favorite #art365 pieces from January. There is a prairie preserve not far from my house which gets alternately mowed and burnt at the end of the season, in order to keep it prairie. 

1.12.13 prairie edge (kennedy and main) acrylic on paper, 4.75" x 6.25"

1.11.13 burnt prairie (kennedy avenue) acrylic on paper 6.25" x 4.75"

1.20.13 burnt prairie (main street, highland) acrylic on paper 4.75" x 6.25"

1.21.13 a dusting, acrylic on paper 4.75" x 6.25"

America at The Edge

Sounds ominous, doesn't it? But, it's true! America is at The Edge. How many crazy political extremists are totally disappointed that I mean my America paintings are at the Edge Coffee House? If I haven't lost you, stick around to hear to the controversy at the end.

I first heard about The Edge from my friend and fellow-artist/photographer Lora Mercado. It's a cool coffee shop in Crete, IL. She had a show of her photographs there last year. She'd been referred by someone else we both know. When she was installing her show, she showed the gallerist my facebook page on her phone, and just like that, a potential show.

This is why you need to know other artists. You need to support them and they will support you. And that's how things happen.

Yesterday and today I delivered and installed. I have twelve paintings form the America series up all month. A portion of all sales (20%!) is going to the Crete Food Pantry, so purchases are not just helping a starving artist, they're helping local people who are in need. Compliments were coming in as I was hanging, so I was very pleased.

Today, when I went in to wrap up the final details, one of the employees said a customer wanted to speak to me about the artwork. He said he saw human figures in the artwork and asked if he was correct. I confirmed this for him. It's in my artist statement, hanging next to my work. I don't know if he read it before or after he looked at it, or even if he bothered. He was very nice and enthusiastic about my work being there. Later, the employee came back and said he had complained that my work was "too explicit" for the coffee shop. That's right: My landscapes were too explicit. 

So, what do you think? Are they too explicit? This is my first art controversy. It's kind of exciting!