Friday Finds: Hurt books and a hometown finale



Final curtain for Lotus Dickey Hometown Reunion
This weekend's Lotus Dickey music and arts festival on the Orleans Square has been billed as the last. That's sad, but it also makes it even more special than usual. The free event starts tonight at 6 p.m. and runs till 10 p.m., and then it resumes tomorrow morning at 10 a.m. and provides 12 nonstop hours of music. In addition to the stage entertainment, check out the jammers' area, the Saturday morning Farmers' Market and regional artisans and crafters.

Buy a hurt book

Interweave is selling damaged/bruised books at half price. Go to http://www.interweavestore.com/Hurt-Books-and-Overstock-Sale.html to check out the offerings. Click on either the Art or Mixed Media tab to limit the listings; otherwise, you will have to plow through lots of back magazine issues. Under the Art tab, look at 600 Watercolor Mixes: Washes, Color Recipes and Techniques and Botanical Sketchbook. Under the Mixed Media tab, my pick is Art at the Speed of Life, which promises to help you create art on a daily basis.

Friday Finds: More Zentangles and Art:21

Carla Hedges and "Feathered Flowers"

Zentangles explosion
I'm experiencing pattern hypersensitivity. Everywhere I look I see Zentangles: the neighbor's trellis, the cut-glass decanter, a palm tree's trunk, even the wallpaper in my powder room (never got around to stripping that; just hoping now for wallpaper to come back in style).

Here are a few Zentangle artworks I will share. The first is Carla Hedges' "Feathered Flowers" that I mentioned in last week's post. She will be featured in the June issue of Bloomington Watercolor Society's Brushstrokes.

I stumbled across the second one this morning while checking my blog feed. The headline, not the art, is what drew me in: "Balancing roles of artist and mother" by guest columnist Sandhya Manne. When I clicked on it, the artwork appeared. Go to http://www.artbizblog.com/2011/05/artist-mother.html .

Art:21 Must-see TV from PBS online
Since seeing the John Marin exhibition at the Art Institute of Chicago in April, I have been thinking about realism and abstraction. And that has led me into an exploration of more contemporary themes and works.

Art:21, a PBS series about contemporary visual arts, is now available online at http://www.pbs.org/art21/index.html . The site offers not only 20 full episodes but also slideshows of more than 2,800 images, educator's guides and online lesson library. This Web site was a hold on me for the next few months!

And remember that PBS is public funded television, so donate through your local station. In Bloomington that's WTIU and the link is http://www.indiana.edu/~radiotv/wtiu/support.html . (Full disclosure: WTIU is sort of the "family business": my husband is executive director, but I would tell you to support WTIU even if I weren't married to him.)

Friday Finds: Out with the old; In with the new

Spring cleaning: Out with the old

I confess to not doing as much spring cleaning as is needed. However, I have cleaned up my palette and, thanks to my friend Carol Rhodes, Aureolin got the old heave-ho! That’s right. I scraped the old paint out of the palette and even tossed the brand new tube of Aureolin in the trash.

Those of you who have taken my classes recognize the paint as one of the paints I’ve listed as a must have. How did it lose favor so quickly?

I had noticed that the pigment took on a brownish cast when left on my palette for very long. When Carol told me she had read that Aureolin also turns brown in paintings, I took action. To read more, go to http://www.hilarypage.com/#page7.

According to Hilary, the best substitutes are paints listed as PY175: Winsor & Newton’s Winsor Lemon, MaimeriBlu’s Permanent Yellow Lemon, Schmincke’s Chrome Yellow Lemon and Daniel Smith’s Lemon Yellow.



My first (and second) Zentangles


In with the new: Zentangles

Last week I was fascinated by a painting of Carla Hedges that is currently hanging in the Waldron’s Flashlight Gallery. The intricate design intrigued me, and because I couldn’t find Carla I asked Linda Meyer-Wright about it. (Carla and I have both taken classes taught by Linda, a mixed media artist.)

Linda described the painting as a Zentangle, explaining this has taken on almost a cult status with a following, its own language and even disputes about whether the method is an art form or a doodle. She referred me to http://www.zentangle.com, where I have spent some time reading through its archive of newsletters.

I’ve been playing with some of the Zentangle patterns on Artist Trading Cards and have found the experience to be almost meditative.

The blue card is my first Zentangle attempt; the pattern is called OOF (Out Of Focus) and was created by Zentangle co-creator Rick Roberts after visiting New York City’s Cloisters, which houses the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s medieval collection. On the yellow card I experimented with “a string,” Zentangle-speak for a free-form line that subdivides working space, and multiple Zentangle patterns.

Go to the Web site, but be prepared to “lose yourself” in the Zentangle world for a while.

Made it into the Sunday paper

Sunday HT featured Creative Aging shows in B-town this week, and the article mentioned me -- without listing my age. Glad to dodge that bullet!

http://www.heraldtimesonline.com/stories/2011/05/07/scene.qp-0389994.sto

Even better news: The painting sold!

Friday Finds: Bloomington never ceases to amaze me

Bloomington never ceases to amaze me. I’m always coming across creative people, wondrous programs and abundant resources on almost any topic.

This week I stumbled upon an annual book sale I had never heard of but plan to visit next week. The Indiana University Art History Association will offer gently used fine arts and non-fine arts books at bargain basement prices April 27 and 28. The sale will be in the lobby of the Henry Radford Hope School of Fine Arts from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Wednesday and Thursday. Proceeds will benefit the Art History Association.

This afternoon in the same neighborhood three professors will discuss Andy Warhol in a program called “Genius, Charlatan or Something in Between.”  History of Art professor Dawna Schuld, Journalism professor Claude Cookman and Alex Doty, professor of Communications and Culture/Gender Studies, will examine the impact of Warhol’s art on their respective fields. Meet in the Special Exhibitions Gallery of the IU Art Museum at 3 p.m. for this FREE one-hour Art-Side Chat.

Friday Finds: Paintouts everywhere

A little warm weather, some budding trees and paintouts are popping up everywhere. Here are possibilities for next three weekends:

1. Sketchcrawl No. 31 is Saturday, April 16. Go anywhere. Paint. Submit jpg of artwork to http://www.sketchcrawl.com/2011/04/ww-sketchcrawl-31/. It's that easy.
2. Wildflower artist Betty Wagoner will lead a T.C. Steele Art Trek Saturday, April 23, at the T.C. Steele State Historic Site, which is located between Bloomington and Nashville. Bring a sketchbook and your choice of drawing medium. Betty says it's an easy two-hour walk that will allow you to see the beauty that inspired T.C. Steele a hundred years ago.
3. The Bloomington Watercolor Society will paint together at McCormick's Creek arched stone bridge on Saturday, April 30, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. If you want to go in a group, e-mail nancy.davismetz@gmail.com.

Get your paintout bag packed so you'll be ready to go when the muse calls. Here's a handy checklist:

Traveling light:

• sketchbook
• paint (in weekly pillbox container for portability)
• palette
• pencil
• kneaded eraser
• 2 brushes (1 flat/1 round)
• water and container
• tissue pack

Painting add-ons

• paper/painting board/tape OR watercolor block
• easel
• spray bottle
• digital camera
• small trash bag

Comfort add-ons

• lawn chair or camp stool
• lunch
• drinking water
• hat with brim
• insect repellent
• sunscreen
• handiwipes
• cell phone

Friday Finds: Heads up to give you head start

Mineral Springs Hotel, Paoli, Ind. (Photo by Dan Davis)

I'm posting this week's Friday Finds a little early because you might need a "heads up" to take advantage of the information.

Paoli's spring art show
Delta Chapter of Tri Kappa sponsors an annual art show at the historic Mineral Springs Hotel on the Paoli Square. Tomorrow is the delivery date, but you should call Mary Limp at 812-723-3030 to let her know you want to enter. You are allowed two entries in each of the three categories: Oils or Acrylics, Watercolors, and Drawings (pencil, ink, charcoal, pastels, etc). You will need to drop off the work at the hotel Friday, April 8, between 5:30 and 8 p.m. Pick up is on Sunday, April 17, between 1 and 3 p.m. The show has cash awards of $75, $50, $25 and $10 in each category.

Inspiration at the IUAM
Who doesn't need an occasional quick injection of inspiration? Get yours in a one-hour exhibition at the IU Art Museum Friday at 3 p.m. The program features urban documentary photographs by Weegee, Brassai, Henri Cartier-Bresson, Robert Doisneau, Andre Kertesz, Robert Frank and Gerry Winogrand. The program is free and you do not need to pre-register. Space is limited, however. Meet at the museum's third floor office.