Raue Show at a glance 5-31-08

Here are most of the works that are in my gallery show. There are about 5 more that I have not uploaded to the photobucket album but you get the idea. Just pass your cursor over a thumbnail for a closer look. I had a blast creating this little slide show... Enjoy!

k

The Deed is Done 5-29-08

I am exhausted! It is 10:00 PM here in McHenry, IL. and it seems like I have been on my feet all day. This AM I assembled 18 of my works for transport the the Raue Center Gallery http://www.rauecenter.org/whats-on/2008/06/ackermanzimnylarocco/. I packed our van and my husband and I got out of our subdivision when I noticed that I forgot my camera, purse, cell phone...You know, the important stuff. So back we went. I must have been really nervous because I was told to get it together (something like that) several times. We had a nice lunch at a Crystal Lake restaurant (almost next store to the gallery )and then it started to rain. I just knew this day would be less than perfect. We brought the works in and then we had an hour to kill.

Gosh the suspense was building all day and now I was about to burst. I really had no idea what to expect...Well that is not entirely true.

There is an excellent blog out there...http://artistemerging.blogspot.com/ and I have been reading the info there for some time. There is an excellent tutorial on how to hang your pictures (http://artistemerging.blogspot.com/2006/08/hanging-artwork.html#links) but I sort of wrote it all off. It just seemed to complicated to me. Basically, the two shows that I have been in, I just sort of eyeballed everything. Boy was I in for a shock! It took 3.5 hours to hang the show! And I only had 18 works! And you know what, I am sure I could not repeat this again if I had to do it on my own! Anyway a wonderful Raue Visual Arts committee member met us there and he helped us hang the show. It involved a tape measure, string, and a level. To get the perfect measurements almost requires an advanced degree. I took a few pics and will post those later. Meanwhile, here is the last work that I did. She is called "Snow Queen" and she resides in the Nutcracker and my imagination.

K who is off to bed now!

Odilon Redon

Thank you all for giving it the old college try (so to speak). Here is the drawing by Odilon Redon that I was trying to "feel" in my own painting. I rediscovered Redon about two years ago at a big show in The Art Institute of Chicago. I had forgotten how wonderful and really weird his work is. Anyway..I was trying to capture his emotions as I did my Faith painting. I did not think anyone would guess him. My painting only slightly captures the mood. I am not so sure I would have guessed Redon either :) Thank you new and old followers. And Amy, your comments made me blush. You know I am a huge Rosa fan and I am blessed that she has "recommended" my blog on hers. I think as one of my paintings expressed."We are all in this together." A community of artists finding their way, reaching out, encouraging, and appreciating what we share.

K

Series Finished: 5-8-08

It has been about three month but my 4 virtues are finally finished. I had this idea to write a 4 line poem dealing with 4 virtues. Each line became a mixed media and collage work. The virtues I choose were Peace, Hope, Goodwill, and Faith. The works will look lovely together and of course it would be nice if they went to the same home. My poem is as follows :

With peace in her heart
Hope in her soul,
Goodwill doth impart

Faith sown to grow.

This is the faith work. I have been practicing drawing faces from the works of great artists. This is one of those drawings. And although I don't think it looks like the artist's woman, I am wondering if anyone out there has a guess as to the artist that I was trying to emulate. A hint, the original work was in graphite and the artist lived into the early 1900s. If you guess the artist, I will send you a print of the work "Faith Sown to Grow." That will give me an excuse to figure out how to have prints made :) Anyway the work was done using found papers, acrylics, oil pastels ( I love using those), and graphite. Oh and Rosa, I used all Golden products on this one :) The "glue" that I used was the soft gel matte medium. The work is about 4 by 6 and will be framed in an 8 by 10 frame.

Right now I am working on The Snow Queen from the Nutcracker. I wanted to get back to my children's ballets and the Nutcracker has been a part of our family for about 8 years. After completing three fairies from Sleeping Beauty, I wanted to give time to the Nutcracker. I am about a third of the way done and I hope to have it complete by the 15th of this month. Then that will be it before the show. I still have some administrative things to get done before the 29th and have to get myself in gear now.

K

Update: I have had two comments from friends who don't know who the artist is. Anyone else willing to venture a guess?