JAM FINE ARTS

I am preparing for a workshop I am leading with the Midwest Collage Society on May 1. I did this tutorial for any of the artists interested in how bead weaving works. I don't think I will play the whole thing, but now I have a tutorial, if anyone is interested.

We'll be talking about using beads and bead weaving as elements in collages and assemblages. I will also bring beads for them to string and use on 2nd-hand glassware for them to make little beaded votive holders just to give them a mini how-to on the process.

I'll give them tips on adhesives, different beadweaving techniques, needles, bead selection, and upcycling used items.

That reminds me. I need to put together a Powerpoint to guide us through these topics including samples of my work as they relate to collage/assemblage. 

I'm pleased with the cohesiveness of the group of art works I was able to enter.

Gallery Seven in Lockport, IL
Important Dates: 
September 7-9: Notification of selected works via e-mail
September 23-26: Delivery of Work 
September 30: “Illiart” opens 
October 3: Opening Reception 1:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m.
October31: “Illiart” Closes 
  
   Uh-oh-- "Work that requires special installation or instructions will NOT be accepted." Reader, the show accepts every media except video and film, so I don't know what they are going to do for installation art pieces. Most sculpture is somewhat challenging to display.

Anyway, it is in the jurors hands now. Jurors are people with their own tastes, skill levels, pet media and their own ideas for what kind of show they want they want to build.

So, I started editing some of my portfolio archive photos in Lightroom. After a couple of days of tutorials and videos, they are a hair better. I am still learning the program. I am trying to create a few good-enough pictures to post to Behance and hopefully make some connections there. The ultimate goal is to connect with architects.
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Goldilocks Panopticon 1, 2021, is a woven glass and reflective bead tile mosaic on a full dome security mirror with optional chain for suspending it from a ceiling or beam. It is part of the Panoption series. I am working on a 36" GP2.

Below are some WIP shots:

'Honeymoon Panopticon, the second piece in the Panopticon Series, was inspired by a lack of consent, betrayal of romantic intimacy, and a smart phone. That’s all I’m going to say about that.
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Unfortunately, the problem of lack of consent isn’t limited to intimate interpersonal relationships. It has become a concern worldwide. This results in an imbalance of power between the subjects of data collection and those who use it.
The Panopticon Series explores both the benefits and drawbacks of humanity's new capabilities to observe each other, our world, and our universe.

The piece is a woven bead tile mosaic on a 36" convex security mirror. Each tile is woven into the shape of a heart with reflective, pearly, and iridescent beads.

This piece will be debuted at Sculpture at the Kavanagh opening March 26, 2021. You can view the exhibition in person or through a virtual exhibition.
More info at the Fine Line Art Center's web site.

Drops of Jupiter was started in March and finished at the end of July 2020. I didn't have a plan for this when I started. C-19 quarantine had just started and I had finished Juicy Sunrise and had a lot of purple and pink beads and a weird purple vase on hand. At some point in the weaving I heard a sweet cover of "Drops of Jupiter" by Taylor Swift and designed off that. I don't have any art world influences for this one at all just the song and the stratified layers of Jupiter's atmosphere. Some scientists suggest (citation needed) that the composition and conditions in the atmospheres of Jupiter and Saturn may cause diamond precipitation. So that pink reflective-bead cloud suspended within the globe of the vase has a little crystal-drop chandelier. 

Design note: This piece was made out of a purple vase, but unlike the other vases I've done this one isn't a vase anymore. You can't put flowers or whatever in it because I nestled a bead cloud in the hole to suspend the chandelier cloud from. I'm calling it an assemblage sculpture with woven elements.

(I feel guilty that I didn't provide a reference for where the diamond rain on Jupiter thing came from in the explanation above, so I found some videos that can give you an overview.)