Art Opening!

This weekend at the West Hartford Art League, come and enjoy their most extensive show of the year.

CT+6: April 28th - May 29th

 

Morning at a Nursing Home, by Nicholas Zalevsky, Best of Show winner.   

Join us at the Opening Reception for CT+6 Sunday May 1st, from 2-4 p.m.

Awards will be announced at 3 p.m in the Clubhouse Gallery.

CT+6 is a regional exhibit open to artists from CT, RI, MA, ME, NH, NY,  and VT and was juried by Dina Deitsch, Associate Curator of Contemporary art at the Decordova Sculpture Park + Museum.

Also coming up, special events in the area  Save the Dates: 

Wed. May 11, 2011 Balkun Blues Brothers, hosting the blues jam, Black-eyed Sally's 8:30 pm.  

Fri. May 13, 2011  WHAL fundraiser  Starry Night: A fundraiser for the West Hartford Art League with Diane Smith of CPTV's Positively Connecticut as honorary chair and emcee. Dinner, dancing, live music, live and silent auction under the tent.   Tickets: $75 per person, West Hartford Art League members,  $90 per person, non-members.

Sat. May 14, 2011 Windsor Art Center opening for Women's Work 5-7 p.m.

May 14-June 25                                                                                                                 
Women's Work (Funded in part by the George and Grace Long Foundation)

is a compilation of art work by 11 women artists working a variety of mediums. In some cases the art represents the work women have done throughout history and in other cases it is simply women’s work. The artists are a diverse group from as far away as California, Martha’s Vineyard, Boston, North Adams and various communities throughout Connecticut. We invite you to view their work and find whatever message you derive from that exploration.

Exhibiting artists: Adele Schonbrun, Sandy Abrams, Joyce Agri Colvario, Lorraine Agri, Anita Gangi Balkun, Debi Pendell, Chotsani Elaine Dean, Joy Floyd, Rachel Siporin, Harriet Caldwell, Valerie Culbertson.

Mural magic

There's always great pleasure in going out and looking at art, but jumping in and making it gives you a richer experience. Last weekend I had the honor of working with Mexican artist Marela Zacarias, who orchestrated a mural for Trinity College at the Trinfo Cafe.  Marela invited our art students to participate in this amazing neighborhood project.  I took time to work with her each of the 4 days and photographed the mural's progress.  Many kudos go to my dedicated students!

 Day 1: Priming the surface, to protect against wear and moisture.  Two coats!!  Grade school students started the priming earlier in the week, but unfavorable weather delayed the progress until our h.s. kids arrived.

Day 2:  Taking shape:  The evening before, Marela drew the basic design in pencil and when we arrived, the task was to start filling it in.  Lots of blue and orange to make it POP!  The waves and sunset began to emerge. Two young ladies from Trinity joined in the effort.

 Day 3: Defining the waves, then adding the floating furniture and faces with stencils and spray paint.  Marela had designed stencil images from photos she took of Hartford students during her stay here. Our students cut the stencil and spray painted the images over the background.

Two neighborhood gentlemen painted waves with us for most of the day.

A two-toned dreamer, spray painted in the lower wave.

Solangel arrives to give us hugs of support.
Me, Solangel and Marela. 

Day 4:  Finishing the waves lines and hours of touch-up, motivated by the next task:  highlighting the dreamers and furniture.  A few more of my students volunteer to maneuver a brush (and missing class is always a lure).

Student assistant and Marela.

High tide!

2 dreamers and a brush.
(one of them is me.)

This is the mural at the end of the day on Monday.  We had buses to catch and Marela had a reception to attend.  She will be back in a few weeks to finish up and we'll surely be there to assist.  It was a 'must do' art adventure.  We love you Marela!!

Art Show - one night only!

Join us for a night of art, music, good food and friends, and LOTS of students as we open up our new building at Colt-Gateway.

 

INTEGRATIONS 2011

 an evening of visual art and music by faculty and students from all departments

and

housewarming party for the Academy’s

COLT GATEWAY CAMPUS

Wednesday, April 13, 2011

5:00-8:00pm

140 Huyshope Avenue, Hartford, CT

 please join us for this exciting Academy community celebration!

Questions? Please call 860 757-6300

Art in Your Own Backyard

While traveling is always an adventure, you don't have to go far to find creativity blooming around you.  Two great (and very different) events took place in Hartford this past weekend: the Northeast Utilities First Conn. Regional Robotics Competition, and the 6th Annual Trinity International Hip-hop Festival.  I had students from my classes participating in both events.  I've never been to either, so it was time to get out there and see what was inspiring them.

On Friday, I ventured into the Robotics competition at the new convention center and was surprised by the energy and noise!  Complete with dancing mascots, bleacher stomping and rock music, this was the place to be for aspiring engineers.  Best stated by one of my students:  "This is like an art show for math and science."

Here's their robot at the start of a match, complete with mini-bot named "The Flying Dutchman" (the team's robot is in the center w/the highest held yellow tube).

Here's a score for their team, finishing the 'triangle, circle, square' sequence!  Definitely creativity with mediums beyond my usual studio practice.  Go math and science!

On Sat. I stopped by the Hip-Hop Festival at Trinity just in time to catch a seasoned graff artist finishing up a mural that combined ideas from a symposium at our school the day before.  Student input about Hartford, identity and home was the essence of the piece.

Graffiti artist Create putting the finishing touches on a graff piece started earlier in the day.

Student work starting off "Hartford".

 Tools of the trade with Tanzanian graff silhouettes :

this says it all!

and from my own backyard, literally:  the 'old crocuses' planted under the lawn a century ago when the house was built.  Still bloomin' and blanketing my lawn with lavender every March!