Chelsea Art Museum - July 21st, INNER FLICKERING LIGHT

Lindsay Jones is a fashion designer for Outlaws of the Border. When she was approached to put together a show unlike the conventional runway show, she envisioned LIGHT. She wanted to incorporate themes of a seance, ethereal music, darkness as well as lightness. Her vision came to fruition with everything in place at exactly when it needed to be. John Magee did the music and for thirty minutes, three beautifully dressed dancers, dressed in mostly paper, swayed to the music lit from within. There were many things we didn't anticipate, such as the loud crinkling sound of the paper during each movement, dresses detaching in certain moments...but also, just how beautiful it all looked and came together. It was a learning experience as artists collaborating on how the next one will be executed...because, there will be a next one. I was lucky enough to be asked by Lindsay to participate in this endeavor. It was one of the most pivotal moments of my art career, a jump off point of where my art can and will go. To see more (and better) photos, check out www.lindsayjonesdiamondbones.blogspot.com and www.jiancalazarus.com.

Mighty Tieton Gallery

Wow, looks cool framed!!!



This piece was chosen for a group show at Mighty Tieton Gallery in Washington State. I'm getting it framed today and sending it on its way. The place where the gallery is located is amazing. Apple and pear orchards, art residencies, a press and printmaking room, etc. The show runs from August 1st thru October 10th. All pieces in the show will be featured in a book.

www.mightytieton.com

Two pieces for ArtBridge

thirtythree, 1' X 3', acrylic and ink on canvas, 2010



better together, 1' X 3', acrylic and ink on canvas, 2010

These are two submissions for ArtBridge which is an organization based in New York which chooses artwork for the scaffolding while a building is being built.

I have a friend who is an artist whom I feel is largely responsible for this endeavor. Several years ago, she lived in DUMBO, one of the coolest parts of Brooklyn. I met her when she was doing a mural in my neighborhood in Park Slope. I was unemployed at the time and she was recruiting volunteers. I volunteered and as the weeks passed, the volunteers dwindled and we practically painted the mural ourselves with help from the kids in the neighborhood.

Anyway, to get back to the story, she would do these little paintings and leave them in different parts of DUMBO. She didn't care if people took them. She wanted to anonymously give a 'present' to a passerby, perhaps make them smile or perhaps, her work would just be ignored. She simply wanted to share her work and they were placed amongst a few broken bottles, or on a bricked up window sill. Well, one day, this super tall monstrosity of a building was being built on a corner that she loved, the first of many to inundate the once little neighborhood of DUMBO. All of a sudden, it was cool to live there which meant more buildings, the taller the better.

One morning, she placed one of her little paintings against the blue wall which normally indicates the start of a building project. She expected the painting to be gone the next day. Instead, a construction worker liked the piece so much, he nailed it onto the blue wall. She was then asked by a higher up of the project if she can paint the whole blue wall which wrapped around a whole corner through the duration of the project. Little did they know she placed her little painting there in silent protest of the whole project. She let them know that and they were okay with it. She had free reign on what she could paint even if it meant boldly painting her protest on the walls. From that project on, there were to be several more throughout the city, mostly in Brooklyn.

The artwork that gets accepted for ArtBridge will be blown up to four times the size of the original. There will be several artists represented at each building. Whether or not my friend had anything to do with this idea, and whether or not my artwork gets chosen, I'm thankful that this exists.

Push

It's 4am and I've been painting all night after coming home from work at midnight. Before work, I painted all day starting at 11am. My walls are filled with art that I've completed in the past several months, all ready to be seen, many of which I've still yet to post on this blog. It's like my wall, my sketchbooks are staging areas before the curtain goes up. And yet, it seems as if I've been rehearsing for this play that has had an opening date for so long now and the anticipation of it is so intense in my heart that sometimes, it makes me want to give up. But it's a drug, a beautiful drug and I know, just like the first time sky diver, I am both ready and frightened to make that jump. I just need that one push to make it all a reality. And I know that I am the only one who is holding me back and also the only one who will push me forward.