Art is a Dangerous Business

As people were arriving for tonight's monthly critique group, we had to give Lisa plenty of space, as she was carrying this very dangerous looking piece, a blowfish sculpture made largely from bike helmets and golf tees. It was hung from the ceiling in the middle of the room, where Tim bumped his head on it twice- once before and once after someone gave him a hardhat to wear. The average person out there doesn't realize how dangerous art can be.

We opened tonight with Molly, who had an extra large supply of work, as she has a big group show coming up in a few weeks. Shown above are (top row) a silkscreen print, her long in process cougar block, a board cut to the cougar shape to eventually hold a rubbing (not shown) of the cougar block, a tail attachment for the cougar block, (bottom row), a lined up set of Robutts (which Jane would knock down accidentally on two occasions), a set of four silkscreen images on blocks, and two painted wood discs.

Several artists had work over by the main board. These included (left to right) Sheilagh's box assemblage/sculpture, Mary's mixed media drawing, my new woodcut, Lisa's cupcake sculpture. Up top, Edy's encaustic pieces.

Tim did his first ever oil painting (above), and figures this means he's reached a new level of status as an artist as a result. He plans to do more.

Newcomer Adam (not our regular Adam) brought a pouch filled with small treasures, small painted pieces of wood. Some are more like tiles with images, while others are dice or the equivalent. The book is not part of the piece, just a place to display them.

We then went out in the hallway to see the last couple of artists. Above are Vince's life drawings, which everyone thought were a little more realized than some of the previous ones shown. Jane's paintings on wood had also been in the hall (below) but we decided to bring them all back into the room where the light was better.

My new St Benno print was well received. Everyone thought that the color was just fine as it is, both in the choice of colors and in the application. One observation that I remember was one artist who liked the print noted the simplicity and stillness, especially relative to the intensely busy and dense boardwalk prints. The answer- the new saints are meant to fit with the older saint prints which were often simple iconic images, while the boardwalk images are purposely dense, reflecting the chaos and overstimulation of the boardwalk.