Beware the Ides of March

As the Ides of March approaches and it is raining here in the PNW while I am busily preparing for some exciting shows in the next couple of months.... but my mind wanders... I often think of this blog as a book of days... the ideation and progress of the work in the studio and the time spent there... 

The word Ides in latin refers to "half division" especially in relation to a month. In the Roman calendar it indicates the approximate day that is the middle of the month... But it also is best known for the day in which Julius Caesar was stabbed 23 times in the Roman Senate by a group of  60 conspirators... led by Brutus and Longinus... Their hope was to restore the constitutional government of the Republic.

I have been thinking of that sunny warm day I stood before Julius Caesar grave and placed a flower... 

Capitoline Wolf 

with

Romulus and Remus 

Standing before Ancient Rome.

The Poppies that grew around his gravesite.

Julius Caesar's grave

Missing Rome and hoping for our own Republic.

If you haven't seen the movie "INSIDE JOB," you might.                                                      

Roger Ebert described the film as "an angry, well-argued documentary about how the American financial industry set out deliberately to defraud the ordinary American investor."

Also, be sure to check out the Vatican sharing amazing documents:

Lux in Arcana: The Vatican Secret Archives reveals itself at the Capitoline Museums

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Happy Valentines Day!

Wishing you a great Valentines Day!

From Beth proprietor of Robin Press Studio

Object Acquisition # 2001-014 McLean Book Plate

Documenting objects from The Hunt Show:

Object Acquisition # 2001-014 McLean Book Plate
Object interpreted and Statement by: Jessie Benenson


"The McLean Prospected Fund Memorial Scholarship Trust"


The OHSU Archive is haunted by traces of the lives of medical practitioners, researchers and patients. A medical archive is filled primarily by the words and materials of dead men and women. Doctors and Institutions leave their papers to an archive in the hopes that their lives and sacrifices were important enough to be maintained and preserved. It is interesting to wonder at what is saved and even more intriguing to speculate what is not included; what stories are lost.


There is no way to catalog a life and even if there were, there is no way to control the way information is disseminated after you are gone. A brilliant and arrogant brain Surgeon donated his book collection to the archives perhaps in the anticipation they would be useful in the future.


My "object" in the scavenger hunt were the hand painted book plates. The Surgeon's attitude about death and what lies after, seemed to thumb a nose at a spiritual passage, and he asks specifically for his name to sink into oblivion. But the grotesque figures in the book plates look to me to be roguish Spirits who have not only kept the Surgeon alive in the archive, but let his personal story mutate into a fable. I used his own words, excerpted from his will, but I alternate them with my imagined puppet play. The Spirits form the book plate seemed vaguely Balinese to me, and drawing from my knowledge and love of puppet making, I fabricated a small shadow theater featuring the Spirits and my re-imagined Surgeon.


I have read that brain surgeons are often seen as "playing God," and if that is true, artist do it as well. I have taken information from the OHSU library, and shaped into a narrative of my own device, and to serve my own purpose.

Curator's Note:
This shadow puppet play was softly lit from the inside but yet showed the Surgeon in his true vocation. I am ever amazed at the artists in my life.... Jessie Benenson also grew and had a baby during the making of this piece. I want to thank her and her wonderful husband Ian for support and advising this project when itself was in utero to its fruition.  

Place Your Bid!

The Theory of Forms

Comes matted & framed.

Bidding Number for this piece is: 58

Bidding for this piece ends:

February 17th @ 5:00pm (pacific time)

This is your chance to support a great cause and get a really great piece of art.... All pieces start out @ $50!

Excellent opportunity to get one 

of my Artist Proofs and support a great cause.

As is the tradition with each February 100 Artists show @ Mary Lou Zeek Gallery, proceeds generated from silent auction sales will benefit a worthy project.  This year we will use funds to create Art of Communication activity kits for loan to teachers, after school clubs and home school programs, and perhaps even senior centers. Just think of the creative possibilities that an art pen pal activity can provide for all ages and skill levels and the interesting conversations it can provoke! Where would history be without the hand-written correspondence between John and Abigail Adams?  Is cursive writing a dead skill that shouldn’t be taught anymore in school?  

How do you know that what you heard is what I meant?  

Shared meaning… necessary or possible?

About the bidding…  

If you'd like to bid on this piece, please give Mary Lou Zeek Gallery a call @ (503)581-3229, and we can take your information, give you a bidding number and place your bid.  

Enjoy the Show!

Surreal Salon IV Exhibition

 

 

Presented by Baton Rouge Gallery center for contemporary art

 (BRGCCA), Surreal Salon IV is aimed at engaging audiences in a multi-sensory art experience and shedding light on the growing popularity and exceptional quality of the pop-surrealist/lowbrow movement. This exciting and irreverent movement has come to the forefront of American contemporary art in recent years and Surreal Salon IV will celebrate all the reasons why.

This exhibition will be held from January 3 – 26, 2012 at BRGCCA. The exhibition will feature over 60 works by 54 artists representing 21 different states. This multi-discipline show will include everything from paintings to sculptures, video art to photography and more.

Surreal Salon IV Exhibition Catalog

The Baton Rouge Gallery

"Seeing by Skull Light"

is my work included in this exhibition.

Venez Par!

Thank you to Special Guest Juror artist Casey Weldon

and to the Baton Rouge Gallery

The Art of Communication – 100 Artist Show

"The Theory of Forms"

The Art of Communication – 100 Artist Show

Artist Reception: February 1, 5-7pm

February 1-March 3rd

During the month of February, the Mary Lou Zeek Gallery will be presenting “The Art of Communication”, the 10th annual 100 Artists show. Participating artists received a blank letter through the mail and were asked to write a thought, a story, a description or whatever they so choose and then send to their “partnered” artist. That artist then interprets the writings that were sent to them and then used the writings as their starting point for their own artwork. The completed maximum size will be 12″ x 12”.

My artist statement for this image:

"The Theory of Forms"

I was very excited when I received my letter so I took my time to slowly look over all the elements of it. The first inspiration was on the back of the envelope where I found the number 85 printed twice once right side up and then right next to it again upside down. I began thinking about duality and it grew as I read Betsy's letter. I was imagining her writing in the past while I was reading. She had asked several questions which sent me researching while also thinking if she had already found the answers. I enjoyed playing with the dichotomy from this simple letter. The idea that as distinct and immaterial substances of this object (a letter)and phenomena (the words on the page that carried ideas and questions) that we perceive in the world are nothing more than mere shadows.

My pen pal is Betsy Moore

Awesome artist and penpal!

Mary Lou Zeek Gallery

Hope you can drop in!

First Friday Artwalk: Fri. Jan. 6, 5:30 - 8:00 @ the Jacobs Gallery

I'll be @ the First Friday Artwalk

Fri. Jan. 6, 5:30 - 8:00

@

The Jacobs Gallery

for the

Small Pleasures Invitational 2011

The Gallery is in the lower level of the 

Hult Center for the Performing Arts

Located between 

7th Ave & Willamette Street, Eugene OR

http://www.jacobsgallery.org/

Gallery Hours:

Tues - Fri, 12 - 4pm

Sat. 11am - 3pm

Come by if you can!

Object Acquisition # 77-108.1.33 Cautery Transformer

Documenting objects from The Hunt Show:

Object Acquisition # 77-108.1.33 Cautery Transformer
Object interpreted and Statement by: Isaac Yoder


Veil

The cautery transformer I had picked at random was manufactured in 1928 by The Wappler Electric Company during the tail end of the Comstock laws. At the time public opinion and federal law made it impossible for physicians to disseminate any information regarding contraceptive or reproductive health. The electrical device was used by a local obstetrician for cervical and surgical cauterization. Looking at the object, I was instantly reminded of the wood burning kit my older sister had given me one year as a birthday gift.

Veil, is a series wood burning based off of a selection of historical painting depicting the annunciation; The annunciation is the point at which the angel Gabriel appears to Mary and informs her she will conceive and give birth. Annunciation paintings are accompanied by a criteria of symbolism, all geared at informing the viewer of Mary's pure nature. the original paintings(and source material for my work) dating back from 1436 up onto 1712 were created during the wide spread witch hunts of Western Europe, in an age where seeking out information regarding one's reproductive health was criminalized. Midwives, who had originally been the source of information pertaining to birth control, were labeled witches, hunted down and executed.

I chose to focus solely on Mary's face - all of Mary's faces, at the most critical moment of her life. I wanted to show who she was -- not what she was. I delineated the planes and values of each face as if they were parts of a map, or the wavy lines of a cat scan, to present this historical figure in a contemporary context.

Curator's Note:

I think it is amazing how history comes back on itself... People today are still fighting for reproductive health rights to remain safe and available yet people are quick to burn the witch or critique the single mother. Amazing work!