More Art not Mad Art

Ron and I traveled to SIUE on Wednesday for studio tours with 5-6 MFA candidates scheduled to graduate in the fall. It was a great trip and we got to spend some time with Steve Brown, the photography professor who had a show at Mad Art earlier this year, and Ivy Cooper, Art History/Department Chair. I think so much of these two. And that school is really turning out some great artists. In the past two years I’ve come to know the work of Michael Lariccia, Brock Rumohr, Ben Bertocci, Brendan Tang, and Eric Nichols—all graduates of SIUE. Thankfully, I finally got to see the work of some women artists on Wednesday, both impressive. We wandered around some of the studios as well, so informally, I got to see some interesting things. All the smells and sloppiness…it really made me pine for school days and has me considering all over again whether I should try to get into a graduate program.

On the way home, I told Ron that I am “leaving” Mad Art at the end of the year. I have the new website done and the exhibitions curated through November 2006, so I feel like I’m leaving things in decent shape. I just need a break. And I need to concentrate on my own art and projects more. This was a very hard decision and I’ve been in turmoil about it for months. So much of my identity is wrapped up in that place. But I know I’m right about my decision.

I’m looking forward to the opening tomorrow night at Mad Art and to the Dewes Chili Cook-Off next weekend. Oh…and Thanksgiving…can’t wait to see my nephews. My brother said Sam won’t take his Darth Vader costume off except to go to school and that Jacob thinks he’s a dog and will only respond to questions by barking.

Carolina dreamin on such a winter's day

I just returned from wonderful five day visit to the Raleigh-Durham area of North Carolina. Lindsey and I were able to spend a lot of quality time with his family and friends. I was meeting many of them for the first time. What a generous and friendly bunch. Our trip was plagued with rain nearly every day, but we managed to have a great time and squeeze in visits to three great art museums in the area.

First on our list was North Carolina Art Museum, where I was able to see wonderful examples of Motherwell and Kline. The museum also had an outdoor sculpture collection, but rain prevented us from visiting up close. We did sneak around out back and they have a really cool amphitheater and outdoor movie screen. This outdoor entertainment/garden area also has a long concrete wall with words by artist Jenny Holzer casding amongst beautiful vines.

Later than evening we visited the new Nasher Museum on the campus of Duke University. This 65,000-square-foot museum designed by architect Rafael Viñoly just opened October 2nd and is the university’s first stand-alone museum in its 80-year history. Walking into the museum, we were rewarded with the work of Chapel Hill sculptor Patrick Dougherty. I love the work by this artist. Karen tells me he has exhibited at Laumeier, but I don't know when--I didn't see it, unfortunately.

Two of the Nasher galleries were highlighting The Evolution of the Nasher Collection and included a Jean-Michel Basquiat painting on a door that was a thrill to see and several Jasper John’s pieces. The Forest: Politics, Poetics and Practice was in another gallery at the Nasher and had some really outstanding photography including a Wim Wenders photograph that had to be at least 8 ft. tall. In person, the scale and luminosity of the colors it reminded me of a stained glass window. It was truly spectacular. Other favorite photos from this exhibit included Vancouver-based artist Rodney Graham and Anna Gaskell who had an amusing fairytale-turned-upside-down photo.

On Friday we visited the Ackland on the campus of University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. They had an exhibition of prints that did an outstanding job of illustrating the different print processes and how printmaking has been used as a tool to communicate, represent, and transform. There were at least 2-3 Durer’s that we were Unrelated was a beautiful Sean Scully painting. I had seen another impressive Scully at the Nasher the night before.

Other notes from the trip…

• Chapel Hill has a free, yes free, very fine bus system that covers a lot of territory—public transportation at its finest.
• The Rolling Stones played at Duke on Saturday night and their crew was staying at our hotel. Six huge buses full of hard rockers with the all the hair and drinking habits you’d expect.

Anyway…it really was a wonderful time. I'm looking forwarding to visiting the area again. I'd love to spend some time really driving throughout the state, as I've always wanted to explore Asheville and the coastal regions too.