Second Chances Only Come Around Once...

Thanks to everyone who came out for 1st Friday! We know that Friday nights can be difficult to make for working folks & so, we present to you: 2nd Chance Saturday.

Missed out on 1st Friday last night? Good news, you'll have a second chance to see the Inside the Box show in the Dole Gallery: Join us for a relaxed, more private gathering this Saturday, April 13, 5-8 pm.

We have 57 new pieces of work on display - hope you can come check it out!
 
As we hung the show, I couldn't help but be awed by the added attraction of the historic architecture that surrounds us in this space...the floor alone is amazing.

Joe, right, explains some of the work...

If you haven't heard yet, here's the scoop on our current art exhibition:

Inside the Box - featuring our new shadowbox series & more!

Joe + kathleen isacson's collaborative 'solo' show
Join us for2nd Saturday 'opening night' on Saturday, April 13, 5-8 pm!

Where is the Dole mansion? 

 It's a historic 100+ yr old building by Crystal Lake's waterfront...

Dole Mansion/Lakeside Legacy Found.

401 Country Club Rd, Crystal Lake, IL 

A sneak peek at the first room of the show before opening.
Opening night 'soundtrack' below...

 Need more info?
Gallery site: lakesidelegacy.org
Artists' site: xculturearts.com

 
The show is also open for viewing m-f 9-5 until April 26, but we hope you can make it this Saturday when we're there to visit with you! 

 LIKE our Facebook page  to hear about our current art events, calls for artists & more.


 
more about our lives, universe & everything here: xculturearts.com

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The Little Ghost Girl Who Won't Go Away...

It's been said that the gallery in the Dole Mansion is haunted, but who would think my paintings would be too?

The site of our upcoming show was built in the 1860s and seen generations come & go. "Ghost" sightings abound. Both Joe and friend Angela Swan each experienced different mysterious sightings and sensations when we helped her prepare for her exhibition there last fall.

Sightings of inky apparitions and Victorian-era figures have been plentiful over the years. Many think Eliza, the widow of  circus magnate Lou Ringling (who helped purchase the building in the 1920s) is still roaming the halls.

So, keep your eyes open this 1st Friday's event on 4/5/13. Who knows, we might have an extra guest checking out the artwork!

 The picture on the right is a detail from the painting in progress for the show I talked about last post. To me this figure symbolizes looking into the future, just as the grown woman captures how we look back at our past. One is open eyed, confident and knowing, but the future is young before us, and sealed like a letter yet to be read. I've drawn her on a different scale than the 'past' figure, in the tradition of iconic symbolism, to express that even though we are constantly entering it, the future often seems distant, smaller than what has been.

The thing that puzzles me about this figure is that as I've started to paint it, I realize: she has haunted my paintings before. 

Another painting that will be in the show started with a very similar child figure that I removed from the its final composition and then there's this baffling piece:

This is an eternal work in progress, really, because Joe was so taken with it that he sneaked the painting out of the house to frame it before I had finished!  (He was afraid it would be painted over into another piece eventually.)  And there are other pieces where spirit figures emerge....

So, it seems the ghost girl has followed me for years. Is it possible to have haunted paintings? I suppose in time, I'll find out. I'll be on a search to find out who/what she is and why she won't go away. In the meantime, maybe I'll just call her Eliza for now.

Curious About the Dole Mansion? 
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Please Don't Swing From the Artwork (we know you'll want to...)

Detail of painting on day one (looking back)

 Getting ready for our 2 person, solo show at the Historic Dole mansion...It will be great to see so many pieces of the new artbox series all hung in one space!

Joe talked me into creating a large artbox painting (24"x24" compared to the 12"x12" pieces) to go with a 7 foot tall installation piece....but I hadn't been working long before I found that he "forgot" to leave room for the painting!

...so it seems that this may not be one of our collaborative pieces after all.

close to finished, now - just missing a leg bone

  Right now, he's having enough difficulty making it stable...He has some advice for opening night:

"It's tall, it's narrow -- so please don't swing the padlocks. I know it's so tempting..."

"large" 24"x24" artbox painting in the studio, day one

The odd thing (ok, one odd thing) about these two pieces is that Joe, who usually has his artwork "completed" in his head before he even starts to bring it to life, this time has been experimenting as he goes. This is a constant source of amusement for me, since I'm usually the one struggling with creative serendipity in my work.

This time, however, he's been burning and  "reburning" objects over and over again in near anguish, while I actually have a fully realized composition from the start, for once. (Not my usual intuitive approach at all! Typically, my pieces unfold before my eyes.) So far, my difficulties will rest in deciding if the figure should be 'less pretty' to fit the allegory, and capturing exact look I want...more on that later.... 

Hope you can come see the final results! Maybe I'll talk Joe into making a companion piece for this painting after all!


See the finished pieces here... 

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Off-balance Artists Strike Again

 I've been busy sketching as we prepare for our Outside the Box solo show at the Dole Mansion this April...This is a piece in progress features two creatures from the north: a Flicker Woodpecker & a girl of Irish descent. (Guess I'm sensitive to being a yankee at the moment, since it's so cold!)

The woodpecker historically has been considered a symbol of 'divine work', connection to the spiritual and, in general, of awareness. (One reason the figure is meeting our stare.)

My original sketch (Yes, sometimes I sketch my sketches first - how crazy is that?) actually featured two identical birds, each on either side of her head. This is because woodpeckers have also been considered a symbol of balance.

In the end, I decided to make it a contradiction of terms by having only one bird because that sort of thing amuses me. I know. I have a quirky sense of humor... and because awareness and focus on the spiritual tends to give me a hyper sense of focus that feels anything but balanced!

Meanwhile, Joe has been busy balancing his own work - a madly, curvaceous solo piece that looks like he's doing 'fine art Jenga' as he creates it. (more on that later)  Can't wait to see plans Joe has for this drawing. His assemblage will make it truly complete!             


Getta Cuppa Joe!

Cook Street Coffee

Now through mid - February, the artboxes will be at Cook St. Coffee in downtown Barrington. A portion of any sales now through Feb from this show will go to Willow Creek's C.A.R.S ministry, which helps area single moms have safe, reliable transportation.

Cook Street is a great, cozy place to get fair trade "coffee ands". (In Joe's family, it's unthinkable to serve coffee alone. You have coffee 'and a danish', so we refer to this as 'coffee ands'.)  Cook St. Coffee locally owned, so if you go there, you get to treat yourself while supporting independent businesses near & far.

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