Artists can collaborate too.

Lately it seems I have been having lots of conversations with artist friends about the need to support one another. Share ideas. Show work together. Cheer each other’s’ successes. Hang out more often.

We often note that while the performing arts are by nature, collaborative, visual artists tend to be lone wolves working in isolation. Yet when we come together we have such a good time and thoughts practically bounce off the walls. Inevitably we ask one another why we don’t come together more often.

So, in view of the desire of many of us to mutually support each other I have been toying with a name for our endeavor. Artists Rallying Together? Artists Collaborating Together? (Redundant I know, but maybe that’s okay). Artists Supporting Each Other? Creative Collaborative Arts Collective? Greater Dayton Artists’ Collaborative?

Help me! Send me your suggestions for a group name that defines artists in support of each other. I will list them in my blog!

And, I am happily noting one artist’s accomplishment. Doug McLarty, scanographer extraordinaire, is currently featured in the Ohio Governor’s Mansion! Check out his work: doug@signaturefocus.com, or check http://www.ohiochannel.org/MediaLibrary/Media.aspx?fileId=145673.

ART SPEAKS FOR PEACE

On this Martin Luther King Jr. holiday we think not only of the great man’s work on behalf of justice, but also of the fact that pursuit of justice and peace is an ongoing process. Recent events only emphasize the truth that there is still much work to be done.

Today I am thinking of artists across the centuries who used their artmaking skills to call attention to injustices of many kinds. Picasso was incensed at the unprovoked bombing of Guernica in 1937; this led to his creation of the great painting of the same name.

Pablo Picasso, Guernica, 1937

Goya used his printmaking skills to document the Inquisition; Turner made paintings about the atrocities of the slave trade in Britain, as did William Blake. Benny Andrews, Elizabeth Catlett, Edward Kienholz, David Hammons, Jacob Lawrence, Robert Indiana, Norman Rockwell and many others all made work having to do with civil rights.

     Benny Andrews, Education Quest #1 (Migrant Series), 2004

My point is that art can speak for peace. Art can speak for justice. Art can direct our attention to wrongs that need to be made right.

Art is image. Images can be seen. Images have voice. Images have sound. Images have IMPACT. Art. Image. Impact. Peace. Justice. Right. Martin Luther King, Jr.

NEW YEAR, NEW STUDIO!

Starting 2015 in a beautiful new studio with great north light and lots of storage. This is a  panoramic view. Is there a better way for an artist to start the new year? I think not.