100% pure florida

This month, my painting, Storm Warning, is featured in 100% Pure Florida, a juried event at the Fifth Avenue Art Gallery in Melbourne, FL. This annual show includes the art of Florida artists from across the state. Only five award are presented. And Storm Warning took Third Place!

I was honored to have been one of the 43 artists selected from nearly 300 for this show, but winning this prize left me speechless. The exhibit opened on Sept. 4th and the gallery was packed with art lovers. The show runs through Sept. 30th. Fifth Avenue Art Gallery is located at 1470 Highland Ave. in the heart of Melbourne's Eau Gallie Arts District, across the street from the Brevard Art Museum.

Click on these links to read more about this exciting event: http://www.brevardartnews.com/2009/09/100-pure-florida-winners-annouced.html

http://www.myhometownnews.net/index.php?id=61814

directed individual study

I have just returned from a workshop, Directed Individual Study, at the Atlantic Center for the Arts in New Smyrna Beach. ACA is one of Florida's greatest secret treasures. It offers visual and performing artists a haven where they can explore and push their boundaries in a beautiful, natural setting. When in central Florida, please visit and support this unique arts center and the Pabst Gallery.

This past week, my art coach, Steve Aimone, gently pushed nine of us to fulfill our respective objectives. It was fun, frustrating, fascinating and productive. I completed some work that thrills me and one, in particular, that stemmed from a two-week long dream sequence. My dreams were haunted by an unknown toddler, about 15-18 months of age. I finally awoke midweek, sketched her out on a scrap of paper by the phone with a Sharpie, and dashed over to ACA's studio to paint her out. I have no idea whether I will let this piece survive my usual obliteration by painting, but for now, she will rest on canvas along with other elements from those lingering dreams.

The balance of my developing work incorporates language, musical elements, and stream-of-consciousness images that appear when I'm not analyzing. I don't know whether my paintings are completed. But I am certainly enjoying this process.

across the universe

I and fellow artists Fran Gardner (fiber and painting) and Cheryl Bogdanowitsch (sculptor), who are exhibiting together at the Harris Gallery of the Art League of Daytona Beach in March 2010, have started a blog, inviting public comments and critiques as our work progresses. Please follow it at: http://a-crosstheuniverse.blogspot.com/ and provide your input.

summer time is here

This month, two of my figurative pieces are being shown at the Art League of Daytona Beach, in its annual juried human figure show. The exhibition opened on June 28th and runs through the end of July. One of these works, Woman Emerging From Shadows, captured 3rd Place. More than 150 pieces of art and sculpture can be seen in this show, which was open to all Florida artists. The ALDB, one of the oldest art organizations in central Florida, is located at 433 S. Palmetto Ave., Daytona Beach.

On July 19th, the opening reception of a juried exhibition of the Florida Chapter-National Museum for Women in the Arts will be held at the new Gateway Art Center, 17-92 & Saxon Blvd, Debary. All are welcome to attend the reception, which will be held between 2:00 and 4:00 p.m.. This exhibition runs through August 16th.

Sidestepper in the New York Times

My piece, Sidestepper, a large acrylic on canvas piece, has made its way into the June 3, 2009 Arts Section of the New York Times. NYT set up a blog inviting artists to submit work portraying President Obama. For those of you interested in seeing the article, comments and blog, click on this link: http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/06/02/readers-portraits-of-president-obama/

as summer approaches....

Exciting news! Two of my paintings are being shipped off to Manhattan for inclusion in NY Presbyterian-Weill Cornell's public art collection. Melange, a 36 X 36-inch acrylic on canvas pictured at left, is one of them.

This coming summer, I will be painting and creating. However, I am also volunteering once again at a few art day camps in central-eastern Florida. These wonderful programs are worth investigating: please call or check out the websites for the Museum of Florida Art (De Land), the Art League of Daytona Beach, and Harris House at Atlantic Center for the Arts. I love working with the gifted kids who attend these wonderful day camps, but wind up learning more from them about creative play than I could ever teach them.

I will be the featured artist in a solo exhibition at the Orlando Museum of Art - Museum Shop Gallery during the month of April. The show, themed Degrees of Abstraction, opens on April 1 and ends on April 30. Join me for a 'meet and greet' during OMA's First Thursday event on April 2, from 6-9 p.m.., and on Sunday April 5, from 12-3:30 p.m. The Orlando Museum of Art is located at 2416 N. Mills Ave.., Orlando, FL. Please call Jamieson Thomas at 407..896.4231 x. 269 or e-mail me @ pat@pkzart.com for further information.