It’s a Surreal World opened on Friday, April 4, 2008, at the Progress Energy Art Gallery in New Port Richey, Florida. The featured artist of the evening was Patrick Stickney who explores dreams, meditations, and myths in his paintings.  He works in various media depending on what fits the subject matter and his inspiration of the moment – acrylics, tempera, charcoal, ink, colored pencil, paper collage, photo montage, and even enamel spray paints.

The exhibit also included three soft pastel paintings featuring my new goddess series: Polyhymnia, Summoning Brigit, and Mari, Goddess of Dreams.  This series explores various archetypes from the religious to creative muses with dreamlike imagery.  Polyhymnia features a nude transposed against a guitar with little cute goldfish swimming around.  Summoning Brigit is another goddess posing nude this time with a long flowing piece of silk amidst a colorful background with a hidden light bulb.  And finally, Mari, Goddess of Dreams, has a nude cradled by heavenly wings against a full moon and imagery of transformation symbolism with the butterflies against a stark ocean view with deep red poppies.

The exhibit also featured a new mixed media painting created just for the exhibit entitled, It’s a Surreal World.

[Featured in the photo: Polyhymnia, It’s a Surreal World, Summoning Brigit, Mari, Goddess of Dreams, Shakti, & Chaos Theory]

Along with these new paintings, the exhibit also features three large scale metallic prints of original paintings that have sold in prior exhibits and on my online Etsy store, Surrealmuse Studios: Shakti, Chaos Theory & Original Desire.

Other exhibiting artists include Eva Diana Berman who was born in Germany and grew up in Bavaria.  For this featured exhibit, she selected works from her portfolio that explore the discrimination, aggression, and violence that impact women, and explains:

Today, on a regular basis we are reminded of the fate of some of these unfortunate women. Some are scarred forever, some go missing, and some become pioneers to stand up for women’s rights.

It is these facts that prompted me to create the “Fractured Roses” series. Through the use of slashes and breaking up the planes of the canvas I intend to invoke feelings of uneasiness in the viewer as a reminder of the vulnerability of women.

Another exhibiting artist, Melissa Fiorentino, who’s influences range from Michelangelo to Piet Mondrian, strives to bring a convergence of the human passions, emotional thrills, despairing nightmares and the conquest of dreams together to the conscious and unconscious level of the human aspirations.  A variety of color schemes, intense and sometimes risky subject matter help Fiorentino’s work to project a very shocking and different motive . She tends to have a unique style bringing a representational piece, abstract and a portrait all into one. It is a way to allow for there to be a reality and dream or nightmare enclosed onto one image. As Melissa explains in her artist statement:

Nothing speaks to me more than our own emotion .. Basically my main goal is to … [bring] together a surreal and abstract idea of what a person feels while they are experiencing life.

Featured below, another one of Melissa’s paintings encompasses an esoteric metaphysical feeling next to Sherry Shamback’s Spellbinding Garden & Altar Stones, spiritual words encased in cement. The small round ones have astrological glyphs on them and double as (stick) incense holders.

Branden Lukes, another exhibiting artist of the evening, displayed very large paintings that were done on different types of wood.  It is surprising how the different textures of wood in each piece really contribute to the whole experience work.  His use of  simple colors and sweeping black lines is evocative of modern comic books, anime, tribal tattoos, and finer graphic novels.

The exhibit also includes works of art by Virginia Erdie, Kathrine Jakob, Wes Trigger, the curators of the event, Paula Showen and Michelle Collins, along with many other gallery members.  It’s a beautiful exhibit so do check it out if you’re in the area now through May at Progress Energy Art Gallery:

6231 Grand Blvd.

New Port Richey, Florida 34652

Phone: (727) 848-6500

You can read more about the exhibiting artist bios & artist statements here on PEAG’s website.

After after the art exhibit, we wandered the streets of New Port Richey and discovered the festivities of the Annual Chasco Fiesta that featured pow wow dancing and various vendors from food to arts & crafts.

This week’s theme at Illustration Friday is “Leap”, which is the perfect opportunity to share this soft pastel painting I’ve been working on the past month.

It represents a leap into experimenting. The semi-nude woman appears in a half awake dream state. The wings gently hold her as she chases butterflies, creatures of transformation and renewal, while the deep red poppies are in full bloom alluding to endless possibilities.

We must continuous challenge ourselves to evolve, to experient. As Marcel Proust once stated:

The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes but in having new eyes.

So if you find yourself emerged in creating from comfort, challenge yourself to try a different medium or style. These experiments in time will lead to inspiration, and possibly even a new direction with your artistic path.

Tonight I discovered Mixed Media Monday.  It’s another meme site that challenges mixed media artists around the world to create something new based on a weekly theme. 

This week’s challenge, Whimsey, sparked something inside so I pulled out my collage scrap box and instantly came across this design I had created a couple years ago during my decoupage cigar box phase.  Most of the design was created using Stampington rubber stamps if I remember correctly. 

It’s the perfect little creation to follow this past weekend where I literally locked myself in my studio.  Didn’t pick up the phone.  Didn’t even really go outside much.  And it was the best weekend ever.  I painted to my heart’s content. 

The painting, untitled for the moment, is quite diffent than anything I’ve painted in the past couple years, and I love it. 

For the longest time, it feels like I’ve gotten so serious about my artwork that I haven’t taken time to just loosen up and enjoy the moment.  As Linda Naimen wrote once, “Delight yourself and delight your world.  Edison, Einstein, Picasso, and da Vinci all loved to play and they loved to explore.  Through play we open our receptivity to imagination, intuition, and daydream.  Play is the root of genius.”

Embracing the whimsical side of art allows us to experiment, to step outside the boundaries of what is considered proper, acceptable, or approved.  So the next time you catch yourself getting too critical or serious about your artwork, just place this quote by Henry Miller somewhere near your easel, “Paint as you like and die happy.”

Created for 4×4 Friday’s theme, Music, using soft pastels. I’m still working on the shoulder, and am debating on whether to leave the background simple or not. Please feel free to leave your thoughts and feedback…

Inspire Me Thursday’s theme this week is New Year Resolutions…

The new year is always the perfect opportunity to review the past year, and see what next steps we need to take to bring ourselves more inline with our overall goals. Yet, while I’m a firm believer of setting goals, I’m also think it’s just as important to listen to intuition if not more so.

Last year when I sat down to write down my goals for the year, I never would have imagined that by the end of the year I would have my artwork displayed in the Tampa Museum of Art nor I would have the opportunity to create a live painting at one of the museum’s Art after Dark events.

This past year brought many wonderful opportunities from redesigning my studio that has allowed me to finally create larger scale soft pastel paintings to opening my online Etsy store that has given me the opportunity to connect directly with art collectors near and far.

In this upcoming year, as silly as it sounds, I simply desire to lock myself in my studio and create. While this image is probably what most people would envision an artist doing, it’s been a challenge for me since I’ve become active in the local art community.

As an artist that has a demanding full time job outside of the arts community, my free time is very limited. So in this next year, one of my major goals is to plan out my month in advance to set aside for creating, networking, marketing, and setting up photo shoots with local models to develop a collection of source images for paintings.

So this upcoming weekend, I’ll be locked up in my studio with pastel dust flying everywhere, but I will be out and about next Friday checking out retro|perspectives, the last Art after Dark event, at the Tampa Museum of Art before it’s scheduled closing and demolition. There will be over 50 emerging and established artists participating so you definitely won’t want to miss it if you’re in the Tampa Bay area.

 

Believe, my 2007 Christmas design, is inspired by vintage photography provided by lorivintage55stock and the Lumos font.

Tell me what you think.  I’d love to hear your comments!

As I sketched in my pastel journal this evening, thoughts of balance came to mind and I recalled a post I once wrote in response to one of my readers. He asked advice on how to find time for art when you’ve got a full time career that exists completely outside of the art world. Some days it is definitely not easy and I find myself stretched thin to make time for everything I have on my to-do list for the day. Especially the last few weeks.

We had a bit a of a scare when Brian ended up going to the emergency room at the hospital after an accident at work. While I won’t go into the gory details, the doctors warned they might have to amputate his finger before they operated. So I guess in a way, this piece is also a tribute to him and the love we’ve shared these past seven years. I cannot imagine my life without him and I am so thankful that everything turned out okay. He still has a long way to go before he can regain use of his left hand due to the severity of the accident, but the important part is that everything turned out okay and he’s healing up better than expected.

My gratitude also goes out to everyone that night that played a role in getting him the medical care he needed. And yes, they were able to thankfully stitch his finger back to normal so he will most likely recover completely without any major complications. The bones will heal over time and although we won’t know the end result for a few months, we have plenty of reasons to be optimistic. He is left handed, so it is more frustrating than anything else.  His biggest problem right now is boredom. Despite it all, his spirits are high and he is keeping a very positive attitude.

So this is for you, my love. I feel so blessed to have you by my side in life. Every day I discover more reasons to love you…

The online Art Gallery has been updated with hover graphics embedded directly on the same servers for quicker page load times. No more transfers to flickr! Yea!

In addition, the Gallery has been broken up into five different collections. The first and most comprehensive gallery features 20 of my soft pastel Portrait paintings. My entire portrait painting collection does include more pieces so I’ll be expanding this gallery soon.

The second gallery features 12 selections from my original Pastel Journal. These were always created on the spur of the moment without any pre-planning. Starting first with the images ,and then, the words.

The third gallery features some of my Abstract paintings. Ranging from tribute pieces created in honor of Paul Klee and Jackson Pollack to studies in pointism and cubism. The Abstract Gallery also features some of my own takes on musical studies, mantra art, abstract flowers, and the prozac generation.

The Project Gallery includes eight projects ranging from explorations using mosaics to pressed flowers…even hundreds wine cork thanks to my Uncle Paul. The Project Gallery also features my impressive collection of homemade Magnetic Poetry that includes over 650 words and only took one Sunday afternoon to create.

And to give you a taste of what my surroundings look like when creating, here’s six shots of my Studio including Cleo, our little artist cat.

Here is the finished piece of artwork I created at the Art after Dark event at the Tampa Museum of Art. It’s part of my recent series in exploring abstract designs. Since I’m working with larger works of art now, it’s taking longer to scan them in. I’ve actually got a stack of new work awaiting to be scanned and finally framed.

So far this weekend’s been pretty amazing. We checked out the 2012 show on Friday night. Brian got a ton of great footage that he’ll be going through soon to upload another YouTube video. Then today we had a little party at our place with some new and old friends.
Next Friday, we’ll be going to Permission to Spreak Freely @ International Bazaar in Centro Ybor. It is a venue for all artists and musicians to perform or show pieces of their creative abilities whether it’s through spoken word, visual creations, dance…you name it. It’s a great way to get exposure, make new friends, or just be entertained. So come check it out if you’re in the area.

Recently Natalie took part of an event at the Tampa Museum of Art, “Art After Dark.” It was wonderful! Natalie had several pieces on display and actually created a piece live while the event was going on. There was music, an open bar, tons of art, and an all around great vibe you only get from the Tampa art scene.

I will have to write more later, but here is quick video montage of our adventures. We just got a new video camera and I have been itching to put it to work.

Enjoy!