Yikes! St Paul Art Crawl Again

Hi everyone,

Well, I’m doing it again.  I’ve entered as an artist in the upcoming St Paul Art Crawl, next Fri, Sat and Sun, Oct 8th, 9th and 10th.  What was I thinking?

I’ve got my little houses to sell and my cards.  No problem there.  But I wanted to have some new stuff and that takes time and patience.  Shouldn’t be a problem, but I’m the type of person who dislikes to be pushed.  “Disliked” is too diplomatic.  I get cranky, snippy and begin cussing under my breath.  From time to time my words become all too audible before I go back to muttering.  Not exactly the picture of a happy-go-lucky artist working away.

Here’s a picture of me looking relieved at the reception for The Art of Mentoring exhibit.  (See my little house, to the right of me, on the shelf?)  The work is done.  That’s the reason for the grin.

Which is not to say I don’t have times when I’m thoroughly in the moment or so far beyond it that the hour doesn’t even register.  That happens fairly frequently.  It’s wonderful!  I am lost in bliss and it’s the reason I always go back to art.  It takes me out of myself in a very Zen-like way.  But not when I’m feeling rushed.  (To be fair, I should include a picture of me when I’m fuming and frustrated.  Lucky for you, I don’t have one.)

This is a photograph of the outside of the Rossmor Building in downtown St Paul, where I’ll be exhibiting.  It was built in 1916 as the Foot Schulez & Co. Bldg, a shoe and boot manufacturer and now has condos and lofts available.  The lighting is very good here.  I’m on the fourth floor, in the hallway, and have southern windows brightening my space.

There’ll be music at the Rossmor!  Stella for Stars will play the lobby Friday night between 6:30 and 8:00 pm. Nathan Eliot Rowan will play the lobby Friday night, 8-10 pm. Tortuga! will play Friday night in studio 508, 8-10 pm.  Tortuga! is a four-piece experimental jazz electra combo with original music by P.J. Tracy.

Last spring, there was also a fair amount of drinking going on as people wandered the hallways on Friday and Saturday nights.  Everyone seemed to enjoy the ambiance, the music in the lobby, the twinkling lights after sunset and seeing bright young things gather to celebrate their art, their friendships and their youth.

St Paul Art Crawl map

I imagine it is similar to the days of the Roaring Twenties, with F Scott Fitzgerald, Zelda and their friends turning up around the most tantalizing night lights and sounds of music.  Some artists always seem to know where to gather, where the next good time will be.  I hope it happens again at the Rossmor, on the fourth floor, near me.  It would make all of this clock-watching, breath-holding and muttering worthwhile.

Hope so.  See you there?  —Chris

Protegees in the News

Hello again!

The reception for WARM’s The Art of Mentoring exhibition is fast approaching. Tomorrow, Sept. 17th, from 6 to 9 pm at the Bloomington Theatre & Art Center, you’ll be able to see the work of 19 protegees just finishing the 2009 to 2010 mentor program and that of their 12 mentors.

The range of styles is wide. There is fine metal work and collage (see below), pottery, installations, paintings, fabric, rice paper and beads, oil, acrylic and chickenwire (in a mobile), to name a few of the materials and formats. At times, there is a hint of influence from mentor to protegee (and sometimes the other way around), but for the most part, the work reflects each individual woman’s internal dialogue with her medium.

"Present Perfect Continuous," by Ann Viveros

Ann Viveros understands color and has been creatively combining it with mandalas in many of her paintings over the past year.  She also works on a large scale.  This piece takes up most of a wall at four feet by four feet.

"Final Exit," by Amy Tillotson

Amy Tillotson (MN Artists.org link) uses acrylics and collage very effectively in work that reflects bits of the world around us.  Like many types of art, the fragments hint at larger issues and can be interpreted in many ways.  With my background in commercial art and crafts, I would review a gallery of her work differently than someone with a master’s degree in fine arts and they would see things that a newspaper reporter might not.  Again, like all art, it’s subjective.  The best we can do is to interview the artist, when possible, and find out her intentions.  Even then, she might have been influenced by her subconscious and not know “why.”

"Polymer Clay House No. 49" and "Marketing My Art"

Here’s my work in the gallery.  It looks so much better there on a classic pedestal and shelving unit, with official labels, than on the couch at home.  Pretty swanky!

The second piece, “Marketing My Art,” includes portions of three printouts that show the websites I’m currently using.  This was a huge part of my learning curve with my mentor as I want to eventually create a market for my pieces, so I thought I should represent the online work I’ve done.  The Bloomington Art Center was kind enough to put a part of my artist’s statement on the pedestal to help explain this piece.

"The First Threshold," by Ellen Starr

Isn’t this gorgeous?  It’s by seriously intense Ellen Starr.  She’s always looking for new ways to interpret traditional spiritual themes.  It might help some of you to know that she loves steampunk.  (Click on the link for the Wikipedia reference to the term.)  Steampunk blends the Victorian love of elaborate detail with mechanical and technical references.  Ms Starr also covets gadgets (her tool shop is incredible) and intricate symbolism.  You’ll be able to see inside these doors at the exhibit for a peek at a small, delicate painting.

This is another glimpse of what you’ll see tomorrow night at the reception to the WARM Mentor Program exhibition.  Oh!  There’s also going to be food.  Come on.  That fact should overcome any lingering doubts about whether or not to attend.  Great art, many first-time artists showing their work in public and *free food!*

Life is good.  — Chris

Houses by Chris Madsen

Welcome back! Thanks for checking this post out and for stopping in again…

Here’s an image of the very first house I made. It’s created from Super Sculpey, a pinkish polymer clay that’s baked in an oven. I made the door hinge out of pieces of leather so it opens.

My first house

I enjoy making art, but I don’t always understand what inspires it. Sometimes I’m motivated after visiting a gallery, which makes sense, but other times it happens when I don’t expect it, like last week, when I was at Psycho Suzi’s in Minneapolis (psychosuzis.com) for the outstanding tiki drinks and the comfort-food appetizers. I found myself fascinated by the ceramic mugs all around the room, each different and many referencing Easter Island or other stone statues. It’s so exciting to be surrounded by such raw imagery.

So that was a definite creative shot in the arm, when all it was supposed to be was a night out with funny, dear friends. (Don’t you love it when the gods smile on us that way and give us what we need, without our asking? Such a gift!)

I made the house above last spring. By August I had seven and by December, eleven. But I lost track of their order and could only guess when each one was made. As an artist, I was failing one of my duties. I wasn’t documenting my art.

In January I started playing with Premo brand clay, blending pre-packaged colors into several shades and began using a dedicated pasta machine to produce smooth, even sheets. Suddenly the houses looked very different.

I realized then that I had another chance with this new series, to be very deliberate in documenting them. The first of these were numbers 13, 14 and 15 which became the piece entitled “Home,” currently in the Foot in the Door exhibit at the Minneapolis Art Institute through early June. (There are samples of some of the art and even an intro’ to a few of the Minnesotan artists on YouTube.)

"Home"

By house 19, I started stamping the number into the base and by 23 I was numbering the roof as well. To date I have 44 finished houses, 32 created since the end of January.

So that’s how the Cream-Stucco-and-Blue-Trim Fairytale Cottage of the last post started life as the inelegant No. 42. For the first time in my life I have sympathy for musical works with titles like “Sonata in C Major” or “Symphony No. 5.” Not very romantic, but so much easier for a craftsperson to reference and remember. As an artist, this insight into music was pretty much the last thing I expected, but then neither was I expecting inspiration from a tiki drink.

Cheers to your Muse and mine! Until next time… Chris.