Saturday, February 20, 2010

6 x 6 Show at Rochester Contemporary Art Center

6x6 2010 - You Asked For It!
June 5 - July 11, 2010
Deadline for Submissions: May 2, 5pm
[Prospectus & Submission Form]
Preview Hours: June 2, 3 & 4, 1-10pm
[Frequently Asked Questions]
Opening Reception & Artwork Sale: June 5, 6-10pm
Purchased Artwork Pick-Up: July 11, 12, 13 & 14, 1-7 pm

ABOUT 6x6x2010:
6x6x2010 is the third exhibition of thousands of original artworks, made and donated by celebrities, international and local artists, designers, college students, youths and YOU. Each artwork will be 6x6 inches square and signed only on the back, to be exhibited anonymously. All artworks will be for sale to the public for $20 each to benefit Rochester Contemporary Art Center. Artists' names will be revealed to the buyer only upon purchase and all artworks will remain on display for the duration of the exhibition. Don't miss Rochester's largest exhibition, and a chance to show your artwork in great company and support Rochester's downtown contemporary art venue. All submissions are due by May 2 at 5 pm and should be delivered or mailed directly to Rochester Contemporary Art Center. Submission form [Prospectus & Submission Form] INSTRUCTIONS: Please print and fill out BOTH halves (duplicate information on each side) of the submission form and submit this with each artwork. You may leave areas blank. We need a Submission form (2 halves) for each artwork. NOTE: The submission form is the final page of the Prospectus &; Submission document.

Friday, February 19, 2010

Commission for 8 Large Silk Paintings

"Passage" Digital Painting













Fatigue is such a weighty thing, combined with the pain it paralyzes me as if bitten by some venomous creature. I have been trying to finish up a couple of projects in the studio and get my submission packets out to a couple of out of state juries. I took on a custom order that I very nearly turned down because the size of the silk pieces is larger than I can comfortably work with my back issues but it is such a unique and whimsical project that I ended up saying yes.          
                                                                                
The project is for a gentleman who’s agent proclaims on their website that he is a Kennedy Center Award winning filmmaker, director, stage magician & film consultant (He consulted on The Polar Express). The commission is a wacky, whimsical project to be used on stage. There will be 4 large cartoon like characters with bodies and no heads each character will be painted onto a 55” x 55” piece of silk. The magician will them hold up the silk and allow his head to be the head of the silk character. I am not sure what happens at that point (maybe he disappears ). Then there are 4 other pieces of silk 36” x 36” and those will just have words on them that will be used during the shows. So it is 8 pieces in all.

To prepare for this project I finished up the projects that were lingering in my studio, placed an order for the large silk blanks I will need, filled out and sent in the jury applications that were racing towards deadline, and took apart my silk screening table so I could set up the large silk stretchers I will need to do this custom order.

"Reflection"













I have an appointment with my Lyme Doc in Ma next week and another appointment with my Dr up here so hopefully we can get this fatigue & pain tamed once again so I can start having some joyful moments & be more active again.

"Sun Window""

In my down moments I have found the creating art on the computer is a good way for me to express myself without adding to this terrible fatigue so I am posting photos of some of my digital paintings and manips.

"River Fall"
"Downpour"

                                                                        "Infected" (Neuroborreliosis)
 
 
 
 
 
"Rooted"

Tuesday, February 16, 2010

Screen Printing on Silk with Thickened Dyes

Spent the day cozy and warm in the studio watching the blizzard outside. Beautiful as long as you dont have to travel in it!


I have been experimenting with screen printing on silk using thickened stem set dyes and I am really enjoying the process.  Todays prints remind me of birds nests, which fits in with  my contentment at being nice and cozy inside watching the snow pile up outside.
Now I just have to decide if I want to take them further, perhaps using some discharge paste, maybe adding a raven or two or embelishing them in some other way to create works of art out of the or if I should leave them as is and sell them as scarves. I'll see how they speak to me after they are steamed.

Friday, February 12, 2010

Neuroborreliosis & Love Letters

When VT Art Zine published my blog post from yesterday about the "Love Letters to Obama" project I was a little embaressed by the paragraph about my illness being published on that site. I got some suportive emails from other folks also infected with Neuroborreliosis and in a response to one friend struggling with the disease I wrote the following:

The biggest thing the general public doesn’t realize about Lyme disease AKA Neuroborreliosis is that it is a disorder of the central nervous system and is a progressive neurodegenerative illness. Most people know about the pain, headaches, nerve stuff and disabling fatigue but many don’t realize that it can eventually cause severe cranial nerve abnormalities, and altered mental status such as prolonged depression, severe anxiety, dementia and Alzheimer-like symptoms.

The mental stuff is what scares me the most, I feel very unstable at times because of depression, anxiety and terrible brain fog. When I am in a relapse it is hard for me to hold a sensible prolonged conversation, it is difficult to write and almost impossible to paint. I have always been a very strong willed and strong minded woman but that is clearly slipping away from me and I feel as if the Lyme is slowly robbing me of my identity. I am very blessed to have Don in my life, he takes good care of me!

For years I thought I would beat this thing and be cured but now I am not so sure, I know so few people that have actually been cured after being infected as long as I have. I do still have high hopes for long blissful periods of remission some people can stay in remission for 5 even 10 years. And as long as I stay on abx I do not regress back to the wheelchair stage and the constant trips to the hospital that I had a few years ago.

The Love letters project is a delightful distraction and creating a silk painting for the project gave me great pleasure. My thanks to Callie for such a great idea.
The photo above shows me in my studio with a small portion of the medications I have taken for Advanced Neurological Lyme or Neuroborreliosis

Transfusing Lyme is an oil painting I did back when I started the Lyme Awareness Art Project (LAAP)
LAAP Website: http://www.lymeawarenessartproject.com/
My Lyme Blog: http://lindaslymediseasejournal.blogspot.com/

Thursday, February 11, 2010

Vermont Artists Send Love Letters To Obama

I have been experimenting a little in my studio but until I am back in remission and get my energy back I can’t really get into any big projects. I do feel like I am getting better every day but it is a slow process. So I was grateful for a fun little project that came along called “Love letters to Obama”. It was brought to my attention on Facebook by my friend Delia Robinson.

My Obama valentine was of course a silk painting. It is the statue of Liberty holding up a heart torch and a book of poems titled “To Obama with Love”. She is sitting upon rough seas and a darkened city is behind her. The painting represents Obama standing strong and helping us to navigate these stormy seas.




Love Letters to Obama was started by Vermont artist Callie Thompson as a way for people to show Obama their support for all he has done. The description Callie has posted in the information section of the projects Facebook page says:

We were there to help him get elected, now we need to step up and send him some love throughout his presidency!


Americans complained about Bush for eight years, now we've continued the same un-empowering, unhelpful cycle of complaining as soon as we feel that a leader is not doing exactly what each of us personally thinks they should have done by now. The truth is, the man needs some support. We worked together, in every grassroots method possible, to get Obama elected. Now we need to keep up the support and honor his work as he fulfills the mandate we gave him.

Get involved again! In honor of this, for Valentine's Day, send a Valentine to Obama. Let's tell him we're still here to help. If your Valentine is particularly rad, put a photo of it up here.

Send the man some love:

President Barack Obama
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20500

And send them they did! Everyday there are new works of art posted on the page by Vermont artists who are creating Valentines and mailing them to Obama to show him their support. Like Callie says ”Get involved again! Send the man some love.”

Link to the Love Letters to Obama page on FB: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=194350479998&ref=ts

Link to an article published in Seven Days about the project: http://7dvt.com/2010vermont-artists-address-valentines-white-house




Happy Valentine’s Day!

Linda Marcille