Saturday, January 31, 2009

New Exhibit at Henderson City Hall





A new collection of work from Henderson Art Association artists is now hanging at Henderson City Hall.

Work was submitted and installed on Thursday, January 29th and will remain up for viewing and for sale through the summer.

City Hall is located at 240 Water Street in downtown Henderson, NV. Be sure to check it out.

Pictured above with their work: Andrew Maioli, Sharon Menary, Dotty Fenner, Nicky Watts, and Yoko Konopik.

For inquiries about membership to the HAA, visit the membership page here: www.artistsinhenderson.com/membership.htm

Monday, January 26, 2009

Who Made the Blog Today? Colin Pringle




Born in Port Huron, Michigan, HAA member and artist Colin Pringle creates images that speak easily for themselves. But the man himself has a few things to say about his work.

"Art is the sum total of accumulated knowledge of man as expressed in any audio, visual, or physical form. I have devoted a lifetime to the pursuit of beauty—not just natural beauty, but those things generally considered not beautiful. Whether I have succeeded, I leave to the judgment of history and mankind. All I know is that I would consider myself to have succeeded if my epitaph were to read 'He saw beauty, kindness, and sensitivity in all things.'"

Colin has pursued his craft at over a half dozen renowned colleges, universities, and art institutes, including Art Center School in Los Angeles, California Institute of Fine Arts in San Fernando, and the University of Heidelburg in Heidelburg, Germany.
He has shown work in countless solo exhibitions and several pieces of his are held in an impressive set of private collections, including those of Kevin Costner, Marilyn Monroe, Liberace, President and Mrs. John F. Kennedy, President and Mrs. Ronald Reagan, and the Imperial Palace in Tokyo.

See more of Colin Pringle's work here: PaintingsDirect Presents Colin Pringle

Saturday, January 24, 2009

Calling All Artists. Upcoming City Light's Gallery Show at the Liberace Museum. Submit Your Work.



The Liberace Museum (a local favorite) is hosting yet another show to support the ever-emerging Henderson art community. Recently, the museum's cast members and volunteers have been kind enough to open their doors to the Henderson Art Association and Nevada Watercolor Society.

This time, it's City Lights Gallery whose first juried fine art show will be hosted in the coveted and sparkling Liberace Museum Showroom.

A formal call for entries has been put out to artists from the Henderson Art Association, Boulder City Art Guild, Nevada Watercolor Society, and Vegas Artists Guild. If you are interested in participating, please bring your work to the Liberace Museum on February 16th, between the hours of 10:00 am and 12:00 noon. Please be prompt and respect the schedules of others. Time is our most precious commodity.

Artists may submit up to three pieces. The first entry costs fifteen dollars. Ten dollars for each entry after that, again, up to three. Fees will go toward City Lights Gallery's planned $1200 renovation.

There will be a free reception open to the public in the Liberace Museum Showroom from 6:00 to 8:00 pm on February 17th, although donations are kindly accepted. The reception includes a partial tour of the museum. Pianist Dehner Franks will be tickling the Liberace grand piano ivories and there will be a ribbon ceremony for winners in two categories (photography and painting, which includes mixed media) at 7:00 pm that evening. The show will remain hanging until February 27th.

City Lights is a non-profit gallery located at 3 Army Street in downtown Henderson. Visit their website at www.citylightsart.com.

The Liberace Museum is located at 1775 E. Tropicana Ave in Las Vegas. Visit their website at www.liberace.org.

Visit this link directly on the museum's site to see other wonderful upcoming events in addition to this one: www.liberace.org/liberace_events.

Lastly, read the recent article announcing this call for entries in the Las Vegas Sun here: Entries sought for art show - Las Vegas Sun

Sunday, January 18, 2009

Who Made the Blog Today? Andrew Maioli





Andrew Maioli was born and raised in the suburbs of Boston, Massachusetts. After earning degrees in chemistry (B.S. UMass/Boston 1994; Ph.D. Brandeis University 1999), he worked for a small biotech company in Worcester, MA for nearly 6 years, before moving to southern Nevada in 2004.

In his early youth, Andrew studied art and painted with his grandmother, an artist as well. However, he took a nearly 20 year hiatus until he moved to Nevada. Shortly after that move, Andrew returned to art. Painting in acrylic, Andrew uses a series of dry-brushing and washes to create luminous landscapes, seascapes, still lifes, and pet portraits. Some of his creations have a photorealistic quality, while others lean towards the abstract. His collectors reside in the northeast and southwest.

Andrew is currently a member of the Henderson Art Association and, since October 2006, has served as HAA Gallery Director. You can see more of his work at Gallery-A.org

Tuesday, January 13, 2009

Who Made the Blog Today? KC Knight



HAA member K.C. Knight says she loves creating portraits of people and pets. She admits that before her best friend Teri Starr talked her into taking an art class in August of 2005, her familiarity with a paintbrush had been limited to painting walls.

Colin Pringle was the instructor. Acrylics were the medium. The end result was a newfound love of painting. Since that time, her love of portraiture has kept her pretty busy. She finds joy in the one-of-a-kind nature of commissions and, in between them, enjoys experimenting with different subjects.

K.C. goes on to say that membership in the HAA is educating her in the art world. She also displays at City Lights Art Gallery in Henderson and at fineartamerica.com/artwork/tag/kc+knight.

Sunday, January 11, 2009

Upcoming Ceramic Workshops. Mark Your Calendars.

Ceramic artist Conner Burns in his studio in Natchez, Mississippi.

Ceramic artist Ellen Shankin at Pottery West 2008.

Soda-fired fan stoneware by ceramic artist Linda Whitehair.

As the new year takes hold of us or the other way around, we are taking it upon ourselves to give much advance notice for any and all things creative going on in the area. People need to plan so they can be present. So, here we go.

Pottery West is pleased to be hosting workshops in 2009. Here is a partial list of incoming ceramic artists and the dates of their workshops:

Demonstration Workshops:
Conner Burns: February 7th and 8th
Nick Joerling: March 7th and 8th

Hands-On Workshops:
Linda Whitehair: February 21st
Tom Coleman and Matt Long with a Soda Firing: April 4th-6th
Tom Coleman: June 8th-15th
Sam Chung: July 10th-12th
Ellen Shankin: July 24th-26th

To see the full list of artists, dates, and details, visit http://potterywest.com/a/?cat=3
Contact Amy Kline at Pottery West to register.
Call 702.987.3023 or email at potterywest@cox.net
Pottery West is located at 5026 N. Pioneer Way, Las Vegas, NV 89149.
Visit the website http://potterywest.com/ for directions.

Monday, January 5, 2009

Life Starts at the Spring.



I officially met artist and Henderson Art Association affiliate member Ozzy Villate at the last HAA meeting. I say "officially"  because we'd seen each other in passing before and nodded but it was that evening that we really met one another. I sat back and watched as he literally unfurled his plan for a mural that had just been approved by the city, then carefully took the fifteen or so board members and committee chairpersons—myself included—through it.

During his presentation, I actually stood to his right and helped him hold the two-dimensional scaled, vibrant, full-color rendering of the mural as he explained in vivid detail his vision and inspiration.

Then, when he was finished, I took the floor and presented to this same audience my vision for the HAA, itself. Visually, mine was a less colorful display but, I'd argue, equally passionate. Neither one of us is big on public speaking and we made that clear up front. We each broke the ice with a self-deprecating comment or two, then moved on with our respective agendas. Two different approaches about two disparate subjects. Oddly enough, we both finished to deliberate head nodding and a round of applause. The people in the room could see what we saw and I guess that's as much as any artist could ever ask.

That was the first HAA board meeting I'd ever been invited to and the first one I'd ever attended. That meeting inspired a lot things. For starters, it inspired this website and a deeper hope and belief that the downtown Henderson Water Street District will someday turn around. And we're all hopeful that this day will come soon.

Well, the next board meeting is this Wednesday and, I'd say, there's been a bit of progress for many of us since the last. This site has seen over 1100 hits. Many existing artists have been featured in cyberspace. New members have come onboard. PR Committe Chair Nicky Watts, who also shared her vision for the HAA with the board that evening, was recently featured in the Las Vegas Sun for her recycled paper project (see Older Posts). Now, lo and behold, an article of Ozzy's mural coming to fruition is breaking in the Las Vegas Sun this very day.

The article does a good job of explaining Ozzy's vision although little can do it justice like hearing it from the mural artist himself. Within it, there are rainbows, airplanes, a small mountain range, and elements from the periodic table. All of this has meaning. In the center, there is a fountain from which pours a body of water that grounds the entire piece.

The fountain is central visually and metaphorically. The rainbow gets a lot of love but, for me, coming to life on an aptly named Water Street, it is indeed the water that is symbolic. Its pale and dark blue ripples undulate rhythmically, almost mathematically, giving movement and representing the ebbs and flows of tides for the characters (seen and unseen) in the mural world but maybe even more for all of us artists and the community. It is a source of revitalization and replenishment. How incredibly fitting.

Thank you, Ozzy, for your dedication and your vision. We look forward to seeing it and drawing from it in its true form someday soon.

Read the full article from the Las Vegas Sun here:

Friday, January 2, 2009

Who Made the Blog Today? Susanne Forestieri


Las Vegas portrait and figurative artist Susanne Forestieri applies her expressive, impressionistic style to a broad range of genres—showgirls, dancers, New York City street scenes, and family portraits, to name a few. One of her favorite subjects—children playing dress-up—inspired a series of small paintings for which she was awarded a National Endowment for the Arts fellowship in 1996. As one of the few so honored, a record of her work is in the Smithsonian Museum of American Art.

In 2003, the Las Vegas Art Museum gave her her first retrospective exhibition. Over the past few years, her work has been featured in Artist's MagazineSouthwest ArtInternational Artist magazine, and Las Vegas Home and Design. Her achievements and accolades are many.

In addition to teaching drawing part-time at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV), she writes a bi-weekly art review column for the Las Vegas Weekly. Follow this link (Las Vegas Weekly: From Santa Fe, with love) to read her December 31st column, titled "From Santa Fe, with love," featuring a quartet of printmakers, each putting their modern spin on a printmaking tradition.

See more of her work at either of these two sites:
Contact her at sforestieri@hotmail.com

Thursday, January 1, 2009

Really Good Paper Goes Around More Than Once

Artist Nicky Watts (left) casting CEO of Aspen Communications, Toni Thornburn, for her recycled paper project. Photo courtesy of Heather Cory.


Think of all the paper in our lives. It's everywhere. Newspapers. Magazines. Circulars. Books. Holiday wrapping paper. We print, write, draw on, and discard it with abandon. Paper consumes us as much as we consume it. Then we toss it to the side like, well, like yesterday's news.

Well one local photographer and artist is doing right by her paper and turning it into art. Nicky Watts is casting and molding recycled paper art and then shooting the finished product to be sold as premium pieces of art.

As a fitting and optimistic close to this turbulent year, Watts' latest artistic and environmentally-conscious venture has been featured in the December 31st issue of the Las Vegas Sun. Read the article and watch the accompanying video "Getting Plastered" here. Then check out a couple of earlier posts detailing Watts' other pursuits.