TODAY IS A DAY TO DO ART, TO BE AN ARTIST, TO THINK LIKE AN ARTIST, TO GO TO A MUSEUM, TO VISIT A GALLERY, TO GO TO YOUR STUDIO, TO GO ON AN ARTISTS' DATE, TO WALK IN NATURE AND OBSERVE, TO LOOK AT THE WORLD IN A DIFFERENT WAY!
17 WITH FLAT GREEN AND RUST
RIVETS
FALL LANDSCAPE
ART HISTORIAN AT GEORGE OHR MUSUEM
GEORGE OHR MUSEUM
ANHINGA
OXFORD EXCHANGE TAMPA
RESTORATION, LOOKING CLOSELY
SKIMMERS WITH SAND AND SHADOW
MANGROVE BAY
CREATE ASHEVILLE SIGNAGE
JACOB LAWRENCE
WASHINGTON D.C. WINTER SEPIA
TODAY YOU CAN BE AN ARTIST, TODAY YOU CAN CREATE, TODAY YOU CAN APPRECIATE BEAUTY, TODAY YOU CAN LOOK CLOSELY AND SEE IN A WAY YOU NEVER HAVE!
Yes, later this summer we will have a Royal visiting us!
Martin Stynes British Abstract Landscape Artist
Martin Stynes, Royal Fellow of the Arts, in England will be visiting the USA, networking, meeting other artists, and their studio's. His visit will start in Florida and work its way up to our Asheville studio before his return. We are all very excited here about having a talented abstract landscape artist like Martin visit. Needless to say there is much planning to do and setting up potential visits for him. Also he will get a much needed respite n the Florida beaches which I am sure any Brit would revel in. I will be posting more and more about Martin through the summer for you to get to know him and his work better.
Sean Starwars Outlaw Printer for educ. purposes only
Our print maker friend Sean Starwars in Laurel,Mississippi is on a relentless roll of energy to becoming a huge factor in the Outlaw Print world. We will continue to follow Sean and his adventures. With the addition of a new birthday iPad I have some new elements planned for our blog. We can do video recordings and interviews of artist and galleries and studios. Another artist we are following is the daughter of a fellow art teacher who is continuing to win awards and accolades as a fine violinists. She has recently received a scholarship for a college degree at Stetson University. It has a fine music program and she will continue to flourish there. We have know Molly since she was born, so it is following a life of a persons interest and development in the arts. I will post some of her concerts here for you to enjoy.
49,066! Wow we are getting close! It is so exciting. Soon we will be celebrating big time!
Soon we will be on site in New Orleans with updates on the arts, music and culture of one of our great cities in the world. There is no place quite like it. As Paris or New York, it has its own personality. It marches to its own sassy bluesy beat and people can party for any reason any time! I look forward to taking you on a virtual road trip. I know so many of you are from other parts of the world and I am happy to let you take a peak at place you may have been and remember or a place you can only travel to on line. We will definitely have cafe au lait and beignets at the Morning Call and roasted oysters at Drago's. We will walk the French Quarter and post pictures for you and listen to the blues and Dixie land jazz..and maybe a little zydeco. And we just may meet up with Sean Starwars one of our featured artists. At any rate we intend to share a New Orleans Christmas with you!
To meet Matt is a wonderful experience. He is a warm open man, who is interested in everything. He is down to Earth and non assuming. He is not an aloof conceited artist, but the opposite. If there is ego in Matt, it all goes into the creation process. He is the kind of man you don't expect to find hold up alone spending hours and hours in the studio, but instead in a crowd smiling and laughing away. He likes challenge and wants to keep his craft as pure and locally as he can. He buys local clay dug from the surrounding mountains and stores behind the studio in large mounds. He screens it and makes up his own blend. He also crushes beer bottles and uses them in his glazes!
Pottery Studio in the Blue Ridge Mountains
Bisque Wear Glazed and Ready for Firing
local clay stored behind the studio
Before firing it has a whitish grey look which made me think it might fire white, but Matt looked at me as if I was crazy when I said that...no it fires a darker brown he said. He is a tall lean lanky man with a crooked grin, who can throw huge pots. When I say huge I mean really really big. Most of his work has mostly the color of the glazes he mixes and the marks of the wood firing, but he does love drawing. He adds graphics when he can for his own soul and not the monetary bottom line. He has a sense of humor when he does ad the graphics that is a bit edgy and delightful I told my other Mississippi artist buddy, Sean Starwars, they must connect with each other, they would find a common ground.
portrait of tools
Matt's large wood firings go a week, firing all day and night. It is a large undertaking he only does a couple of times of year. Otherwise he does smaller firings, not loading the whole outdoor kiln.
For me I love wood firings. The glazes are earthy and warm...they show marks that say I am hand made, I am crafted, I an ancient craft and don't you forget it with your new fangled electric kilns and low fire glazes! I had hopped to find one of my favorite mugs and glazes Matt does, but he was sold out after an article had appeared the magazine Garden and Gun, Southern Made.
Mark is quite a surprising guy. As we are talking he says, "Do you know who Sheppard Fairey is?" I said yes, he is the artist who did the Obama poster. Then Matt proceeds to tell me that Shepard Fairey is a childhood friend and they have gotten in contact again after years of going their own ways. Sheppard recently bought a bunch of Matt's pottery that had a nod to Sheppard's own art work!
WhenI see the word Outlaw I have images of bandana's and masked faces riding after Roy Rodgers, one of my favorite Western heroes.
google image Then I think of the 1930's and Bonnie and Clyde
Outlaw Motorcycle Gang
Bonnie and Clyde
with the FBI and J. Edgar Hoover in fast pursuit. Lastly the image of the Outlaw Bikers Gang with wild tattoo's and motorcycles comes to mind. I decided I best look up the word Outlaw to see its basic meaning. So it can mean fugitive from the law, habitual criminal, and/or social non-conformist. I think they probably all apply in this genre if you think about it...a fugitive from the laws of printmaking art, a habitual criminal of breaking basic printmaking basics, and social non-conformisism needs no explanation with this group or most artists. Sean Starwars kindly led me through the history of the group. So with a little added research I will give it go at outlining this group for you. I think they are quite wonderful! I love the energy of Outlaws, but I just don't want anybody messing with my Roy Rodgers and Trigger! I need to find my Roy Rodgers badge!!
Tom Huck
Bill Fick
Richard Mock
Tom Huck, Bill Fick, Richard Mockare names that are at the foundation of the movement. I have provided links for each artist, so you can get a more in depth look at their art and history coming into this group. I also will include a couple of videos that give more insight into the group and how a movement in art begins(or at least that is how I see it). Each artist has a distinct style, the common expression is evident, as well as, a passion for printmaking.
Big Boss Cat by Bill Fick from google image
This a grainy sort of iPhone film in a dark bar and you here these excited voices talking about the beginning of a movement and the artists who are at the center of it. I was reminded of Black Mountain with Rauschenberg, Twombly, Cunningham and Cage. The grainy dark film in a bar with artists deep into conversation almost adds to the movements mystic beginnings. There is an excitement and passion you can feel about starting something new almost as if you just walked in and over heard the challenging the status quo of the art establishment! It also harkens back to Dadaism or the Impressionists...movements begin in reaction to the time, culture and staid rules of the art establishment(whether that be, galleries, museums, schools, or art critics).
Family by Richard Mock from google image
Tom Huck mention influences of Daumier and Albrect Duer, but also R. Crum who did illustrations and cartoons for early films. We will end here for this post and continue on for section two to look more in depth to the artist and movement of the Outlaw Printmakers.
Early influencer of Outlaw Printers... R. Crumb from google image
