Tuesday, November 30, 2010

HIVE Revisit

Below are Cheryl McClure's and Carolyn Fox-Hearn's paintings that didn't make it into my previous post.  My apologies to Cheryl and Carolyn for not getting their paintings in there. 

Cheryl McClure (DallasWAX group) They Paved Paradise, Encaustic Collage

Carolyn Fox-Hearn, Man and Bee, Encaustic Collage


Below are different views of Denise Stringer Davis's collaborative book and the list of artists who collaborated on this project.  

Denise Stringer Davis, Collaborative book



Alex Brewer, Pat Burton, Denise Stringer Davis, Molly Davis, Zoe Davis, Loretta DiStefano, Alex Dupre, 
Claire Dupre, Lindsay Hill, Corinne Jones, Heidi Lingamfelter, Linda Pinkston, Hazel Shepherd, Jane Shepherd




I  would also like to mention that besides having Laura Tyler's film stream during the exhibition, getting lots of attention I might add, during the panel discussion, I  shared some of the images Laura sent me of a new project she has underway. Another collaboration but with the bees. She and the bees are creating a kind of quilt. Her idea, but the bees  are helping. Below is some information about Laura. Click here for Laura's web site. Thank you, Laura.


Laura holding up one of her frames that is placed inside the hive. It is a timely process she says, and much depends on the bee's schedule.

"Laura Tyler, producer and director of the documentary film Sister Bee, is a painter and filmmaker who speaks nationally about beekeeping and honeybees.  A co-founder of the Boulder, Colorado based honey company, Backyard Bees, she manages up to 20 colonies of honeybees. She earned a BFA in filmmaking from the Massachusetts College of Art in 1993 and is a lover of sunlight, flowers and alizarin orange."


SISTER BEE, SHORT SYNOPSIS
Sister Bee is a lyrical documentary about six beekeepers who find beauty and wonderment in their work with honeybees. Beekeeping is more than a hobby for the beekeepers of Sister Bee. It's a source of laughter, learning and connecting with the natural world.  Sister Bee follows the arc of the beekeeping year beginning with spring queens and ending with the fall honey harvest.  Each beekeeper's outlook is revealed through shared thoughts and gestures.  Expressive sound effects and a score of vocal music, antique whistling songs and acoustic guitar unify Sister Bee into a celebration of honeybees, beekeepers and the changing seasons.  Mortality, sisterhood and the palpable sense of connectedness some beekeepers experience while working with honeybees are addressed.



Lastly, I want to say a bit about the Bee Book I put in the exhibition. As I said earlier, it is a book we (my siblings and I) found in when we were going through my parents house after my mom passed. I remember my step dad keeping the bees, the honey and comb in jars, and seeing him in his protective gear when he was working. I think he had trouble with them surviving through the winter and finally he stopped. I don't know when or how he got the book. It was sealed in a zip lock bag on the book shelf when we found it. The book is C. C. Miller's Fifty Years Among the Bees originally published by A.I Root Company, Medina, Ohio in 1915. The copy I have is too fragile to read but I did take pictures of some of the pages. Dover republished an unabridged edition in 2006 which I have now and am reading.  Miller has a charming way of describing his life and his attitudes and it is a fun read so far. Not knowing much about keeping bees myself, I thought it would be boring and too technical but so far, that hasn't been the case. 


At one point, Miller had a job in another state and his beekeeping was being done long distance with the aide of his wife and some neighbors. He says, on page 36, "Clearly, keeping bees at along range was a very unsatisfactory business. City life was also unsatisfactory; a traveling life was worse. So in spite of the reduced chance of making money, I decided for a life in the country." Further on, he says, "If I had kept my other job I would have, no doubt, made more money, but I would not have had so good a time, and doubt if I would be alive now. "   Reminds me of how I felt when I quit my high school teaching job. 





Tuesday, November 16, 2010

HIVE Exhibition

Telling Bees by Denise Stringer Davis

Above Paintings are top: Entomphily and Zoophily: Birds and Bees, etc by Deanna Wood
Next down: Vacant by Jennie Kimbrough
Next down: Decline by Hayes Parker
      


Sara Cooney's work

Work by Suzanne Shield Polk
Close up of Collections, collaborative book by Denise Stringer Davis

Above and below are images from the HIVE exhibition at the Cole Art Center in Nacogdoches this month. We had good attendance at the reception and panel discussion on Saturday. This project was conceived to promote a greater awareness of the importance of the honeybee to our society and create discussion about  causes for the current problem with the bee population called Colony Collapse Disorder, referred to as CCD.  
A major part of the exhibition is the wall of hexagon-shaped  Encaustic paintings by Houston and DallasWAX  member artists. Content of the work needed to pertain to bees in some way.  We have Laura Tyler's film Sister Bee, streaming in the gallery. A collaborative accordion-fold book conceived and assembled by Denise Stringer Davis with pages made by friends, family and artist members is also on display. Many of the members have bee keeping in their family history. I found a old hardback copy of C.C. Miller's Fifty Years Among the Bees in my dad's things after he passed. He had stopped keeping bees a long while back and given all his equipment to another family member but for some reason kept the book.  It is on display  as well.   Below is Denise's Honey Dreams which sits on a pedestal in the gallery. Honey is in the mouth.  

The panel discussion was a lively conversation with good audience participation. Marie Kucyen, president of the Pineywood Beekeepers Association presented interesting facts about our dependence on bees for much of our food supply. She cautioned that  even with the recent news about identifying the cause of CCD, there are still questions that have not been answered surrounding this disorder. There is still suspicions that  certain pesticides lower the immune systems of the bees so that they are unable to fight off the affects of the two suspected causes. 
Panel member Melanie Brakie gave suggestions for garden plants that bees and other pollinators love as well as good suggestions on better products to get rid of garden pests that don't harm bees nor the environment. Dr. David Kulhavy was very enthusiastic about the coming together of art and science. He spoke of his book A Forest Insect Alphabet which has just been printed and will be on exhibition this week. Animated, he read/sang some of the songs that he wrote in the book about the wiggle dance of the bees. There is more about his book at the bottom of this post.

Honey Dreams by Denise Stringer Davis
Honey Dreams by Denise Stringer Davis


HIVE exhibition L to R at far end L work by Sara Cooney, Deanna Wood and Denise Stringer Davis
L to R: Collections, Denise Stringer Davis, and other works in HIVE


Pollen Puffers by Larry Kitchens
Old book from Gwen Plunkett's collection handed down from her Dad. Book is an original copy of C.C. Miller's Fifty Years Among the Bees.
L to R Collections, Far left: Denise Stringer Davis; Untitled by Hayes Parker; Vacant by Jennie Kimbrough; God's Nectar I and II and Queen's Lair (A Room of Her Own) by Gwendolyn Plunett
Swarm I and II and Star's Tears by Gwendolyn Plunkett; Harmony  and Heartbroken by Carolyn Fox-Hearn and further down works by Linda Walker
Diaspora, Empty Nest Syndrome and Cast Aside by Linda Walker
L and R -  Harmony; Center-Heartbroken by Carolyn Fox Hearn

Panel: L to R- Gwendolyn Plunkett,  Marie Kocyan,  Dr. David Kulhavy,  and Melinda Brakie.


In the picture above, Dr. Kulhavy is holding up a copy of his latest project,  A Forest Insect Alphabet, a book consisting fifty-one original woodcuts and text printed by LaNana Creek Press. This book is a result of an SFA faculty research grant awarded to Charles Jones, retired professor of art and director of SFA's fine arts press, and Dr. Kulhavy. It was printed and bound by hand during the summer and fall of 2010. The 72-page book includes woodcut prints of forest insects created by Charles Jones and descriptions and texts are written by Dr. Kulhavy.  Included in each book is a compact disc of songs that are the actual texts set to music by Nacogdoches musician Miki Lynn. Click here to read more. 


The book and 26 selected framed pages will be exhibited Wednesday, Nov. 17 in Griffith Gallery on the SFA campus. 

Q is for Woodcut by Charles Jones

You can see more four more pages of images of the HIVE exhibition on my Flickr page here. 

Monday, November 8, 2010

HIVE Exhibition Opens next Saturday

Image by Deanna Wood - Entomophilly, Zoophilly, Birds, Bees, etc.
(Three 12 x 13.75 inch hexagon panels)
Stephen F. Austin State University
SFA Galleries
PO Box 13041, SFA Station
Nacogdoches, TX 75962-3041


hive   
Opening Reception with the artists  November 13, 2010, at 3 p.m.

A multi-disciplinary exhibition of encaustic paintings that shine a light on the plight of the bee featuring works by 12 Texas artists


followed by a panel discussion on the importance of the bees & colony collapse disorder at 3:30 p.m. 

On view November 12 - December 10
The Cole Art Center at The Old Opera House
Upstairs Hallway; 329 #. Main Street, Nacogdoches, TX
Gallery Hours: Tuesday - Friday, 12:30  - 5 p.m.,
Saturday, 10 a.m. - 5 p.m.

Sponsored in part by the SFA Friends of the Visual Arts
and Nacogdoches Junior Forum
For more information, please call 936-468-1131

Participating artists:
from HoustonWAX
Gwendolyn Plunkett, Denise Stringer Davis, Sara Cooney, Jennie Kimbrough, Hayes Parker, Linda Walker, Susan Shield-Polk

from  DallasWAX: Carolyn Fox-Hearn, Cheryl McClure, Larry Kitchens, Deanna Wood

From Boulder, Colorado: Laura Tyler (Sister Bee)

Panel members:
Marie Kocyan, president of the Pineywoods Beekeepers Association
Melinda Brakie, a soil conservationalist from the East Texas Plant Material Center
Gwendolyn Plunkett, president of Texas Wax Houston (the organization responsible for the exhibition)
Dr. David Kulhavy, SFA professor of forestry and a contributor to PollinatorLIVE, a national program on pollinators and public education.

Saturday, April 24, 2010

Reminder: TexasWAX/Houston Meeting Tomorrow

We are meeting at Gwen's (my) house this Sunday. That is tomorrow. Two thirty.
Bring something new to share.
See you tomorrow.

Wednesday, April 14, 2010

Exhibitions to See and Exhibition Opportunities

Left: Under My Skin, Gwendolyn Plunkett
Encaustic/Mixed Media
, 16 x 16 inches

Two solo shows at Buchanan Gallery in Galveston open this weekend. Locating Beauty/Skin Deep, works by Gwendolyn Plunkett, and Palimpsest, works by Deanna Wood are on view from Saturday, April 17 through May 22.
Reception is this Saturday during Galveston's Art Walk from 6-9 pm.

Just up the street from Buchanan Gallery at the temporary location of the Galveston Art Center you can see Houston artist Howard Sherman's exhibition Eating Your Friction.
The temporary address is 2501 Market at 25th Street.

Artist Call:
Dallas artist Junanne Peck has a call out for art for the exhibition: Dance of Life:Bras for Breast Cancer.
Click here for more information.

Houston Wax Sunday, April 25

Houston Wax meeting will be held on Sunday, April 25 at Gwen's house. Two Thirty is the time.

Texas

Friday, March 26, 2010

TexasWAX/Houston meeting Sunday, March 28 - 2:30 at MFAH Cafe Express

Two great figurative exhibitions are here in Houston now, one at the CAMH and one at MFAH conveniently located just across the street from each other. Alice Neel: Painted Truths at the MFAH and Barkley L. Hendricks: Birth of the Cool at the CAM, painters of the figure when figure painting wasn't so cool. TexasWAX/Houston is holding our March meeting at the MFAH in the Cafe Express downstairs and will proceed to the galleries to view the Alice Neel exhibition then across the street to the CAMH to see the Barkley Hendricks exhibit. For more information about each artist, click the images and the museum highlighted text in the paragraph above.

Clicking the painting by Hendricks will take you to the Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University. Here you will see a grid of paintings by this artist with dialog embedded in each icon. The dialog is activated when you click a painting.
When you click the CAMH site and scroll down to the bottom of the page, you will find an interesting video and interview with the artist.

I hope to see you Sunday.

Saturday, January 23, 2010

Texas Wax Logo Competition

Texas Wax Logo Competition

RULES & ENTRY PROCEDURE
Texas Wax, a Texas non-profit arts organization, invites you to submit
an entry to its Logo Competition. We appreciate your participation and
wish you good luck!

CONCEPT OF COMPETITION
Artwork should embody the spirit and mission statement of Texas Wax
(please see below). It will become the visual identification for the
Texas Wax non-profit entity and will be the property of Texas Wax.
Selected artwork will be used as the primary logo for the organization
on its website and other marketing materials.

RULES OF COMPETITION
1. Submit original artwork or comprehensive layouts. The work must be
original. Design must incorporate original ideas of the artist.
Because the artwork will receive widespread exposure, the design may
not be a close derivative of an existing logo.

2. Entrants are encouraged to include with their entries a brief
explanation of how the design of the logo reflects Texas Wax. The logo
should be suitable for adaptation to a variety of formats, such as the
Texas Wax printed materials, website, etc. The logo should maintain
its appearance well in different sizes. The logo must work in black
and white, gray scale, and in color. The logo should incorporate the
name "Texas Wax” and may, but is not required, to include the words
“Encaustic Arts.”

3. Board members and officers of Texas Wax are NOT ELIGIBLE to
participate. All Associate Members of Texas Wax are eligible and
encouraged to participate. It is not necessary however to be an
Associate Member of Texas Wax to submit an entry.

4. The artist agrees to indemnify and hold harmless Texas Wax LLC from
and against any damages or losses sustained as a result of any design
that is not original. By submitting an entry the artist certifies that
he/she is the author of the material submitted to Texas Wax and that
if the entry is selected, Texas Wax and its licensees may reproduce,
distribute, publish, display, edit, modify, create derivative works
and otherwise use the material for any purpose in any form and on any
media. By submitting an entry the artist further agrees if his/her
entry is selected he/she will assign free of charge all exclusive and
transferable rights to use, publish, advertise, copy, modify, alter
and reproduce the logo in any possible manner (commercial and non-
commercial).

JUDGES
Texas Wax will select judges for the competition that may include
representatives from the Texas Wax board, professional graphic
designers and representatives from the arts community. Judges will not
know the identity of the entrants and will base their decision solely
on the artistic merit of the entry.

AWARDS
The winning artist will receive a $250 cash award and will be
identified on the Texas Wax website with a link to the artist’s
website, if requested.

ELIGIBILITY
1. To be eligible to win the $250 cash award, entrants must be 18
years of age or older and reside in the state of Texas at the time of
the competition.
2. Entries submitted must be the original artwork or design of the
entrant.
3. Each entry should contain the design of the logo, including any
associated lettering. Each entry must include the entry form (below)
with the following information: name, address, email, phone number,
and signature.
4. Entries should be submitted as jpeg, tiff or eps files and should
not exceed 3MB in size.
5. There are no fees to submit an entry. Limit one logo submission per
person.

CALENDAR
All entries must be emailed by March 1, 2010 to Sharon Kyle Kuhn of
Texas Wax at: bay6studio@gmail.com. In lieu of email submissions,
digital files may be sent on a CD to Sharon Kyle Kuhn at: 5305 Bolm
Rd, Unit6, Austin, TX 78721. Mailed entries must be postmarked by
March 1, 2010 to be considered.

April 2, 2010
Winning artwork and artist will be announced. All entrants will be
notified by email when judging is completed.

MORE INFORMATION
Contact Deanna Wood, Texas Wax Communications Committee Chair -
972.345.9968 or deanna.wood@verizon.net

TEXAS WAX MISSION STATEMENT
Texas Wax is a nonprofit organization whose mission is to support,
educate, and promote the efforts of its associate members in the
creation, exhibition and distribution of encaustic arts in Texas.
Texas Wax provides support and education for its associates through
workshops, seminars and group meetings regarding the use of the
medium, business advice and artistic review. Texas Wax promotes the
efforts of its associate members through group shows, digital media
and marketing materials. In addition to the services provided to its
associate members, Texas Wax promotes encaustic arts throughout the
state of Texas and beyond through programming, events and educational
materials that educate art collectors, art dealers, aspiring artists,
students and the general community.

--include completed entry form with your entry-


ENTRY FORM

Name:

Address:

Phone:

email:

The artist agrees to indemnify and hold harmless Texas Wax LLC from
and against any damages or losses sustained as a result of any design
that is not original. By submitting an entry the artist certifies that
he/she is the author of the material submitted to Texas Wax and that
if the entry is selected, Texas Wax and its licensees may reproduce,
distribute, publish, display, edit, modify, create derivative works
and otherwise use the material for any purpose in any form and on any
media. By submitting an entry the artist further agrees if his/her
entry is selected he/she will assign free of charge all exclusive and
transferable rights to use, publish, advertise, copy, modify, alter
and reproduce the logo in any possible manner (commercial and non-
commercial).

Signature:

Date:

--------------------------------------------------

Mail completed entry form to:
Texas Wax Logo Competition
5305 Bolm Rd, Unit6
Austin, TX 78721

Thursday, January 21, 2010

TexasWAX/Houston January Meeting

Meeting Place: Steffani Frideres (thank you, Steffani)

Attendees: Steffani Frideres, Julia Koivumaa, Cynthia Robertson, Gwen Plunkett, Suzanne Shield-Polk, Linda Walker
**********************************************
Gwen gave an overview of the executive committee meeting in Austin. Also, membership and memership dues were discussed. Everyone should email their information (name, email address, telephone #, etc.) to Roxy McCluskey. Gwen has Roxy's info.

-New logo designs for the Texas Wax website are being discussed and contest for new logo design will be announced soon.

-Gwen met with a TALA accountant Saturday to discuss artists responsibilities regarding collecting, reporting and paying sales tax. It depends on who actually makes the sales-the artist or artist's representative, ie, a gallery or designer. The party collecting the money is the responsible party.
When you make the sales yourself, you are the responsible party.

Anyone who buys to then resell is the responsible party for paying taxes. For instance, when an art consultant or designer buys directly from the artist, they are buying with the intent to resell. That cancels the artists responsibility for taxes. A contract stating such signed by both parties provides protection to the artist in case of audit.

Robert Schuller, CPA has a website that is devoted to the Business of Arts where you can find out more.
*******************************************************************************
The need for Texas Wax/Houston representatives on Texas Wax committees was stressed.
Gwen is the Program Chair for Texas Wax. She needs a Houston representative on her committee.

Suzanne Shield-Polk volunteered for Education (coordinate with Michelle Belton)
Julia Koivumaa volunteered for Communications (coordinate with Deanna Wood
Cynthia Robertson volunteered for Grants/Art Reviews (with Roxi McClosky)

Linda Walker volunteered to be secretary for the Houston group and is responsible for sending
out meeting information to members. Look for her e-mails in your mailbox.

Julia, Linda and Steffani have been invited to post information on the TexasWAX/Houston blog.
**************************************************************************
Promotion of our HIVE project was discussed and put as a priority for this year for the Houston Wax group.

Exhibition Opportunities in the works sponsored by TW: Possible juried show in Amarillo, August 2010. Particulars TBA.

Still time to submit for for the Luminous Layers, Contemporary Encaustics in Oswego, OR
Click Luminous Layers for information.

Combining encaustic work with printmaking was discussed at length. Elise Wagner,
Portland, OR artist will be in Houston February meeting Gwen. We talked about offering an encaustic/printmaking workshop later in the year
with Elise.
***********************************************
Things to think about if we have not done already:
-set up personal website and learn to blog!
-check out Joanne Matera's "Monday Morning Marketing"
-check out New England Wax website (for content)
-look for alternate meeting place for our monthly meetings that is more central

Next meeting will be February 21 at Julia Koivumaa's house (thank you Julia). Reminders will be emailed to you.

To be discussed:
- venues for monthly meetings (bring ideas and results of investigation)
- venues for Texas Wax/Houston shows (bring ideas and/or results of investigation)
***********************************************
Encaustic Workshop at Lonestar College, CyFair starts Feb. 5.

************************************************************************
Member News:
Steffani Frederes has work in the up-coming exhibition
LoneStar College Kingwood and Tomball Faculty Art Exhibition
at University of Houston - Clear Lake (2700 Bay Area Blvd, Clear Lake, TX)
Exhibition runs: Feb 1-Mar 25 2010
Reception: Friday, February 5, 11:00 a.m. - 1:00 p.m.

Gwen Plunkett has an exhibition, Collections: Ink, Paper, Wax; Work by Gwendolyn Plunkett at San Jacinto College Central (8060 Spencer Hwy., Pasadena, TX )
Exhibition runs: Feb 1 - Feb 19, 2010
Reception: Thursday, Feb 4, 11:00 - 1:00
Artist talk at 11:30.