First Friday Fractals

Last Friday, I visited the New Mexico Museum of Natural History & Science to take in one of three live fractal shows produced and narrated by Jonathan Wolfe. Friday's show included the world premier of two new spectacular fractal animations. Each fractal was a collaboration between Wolfe and Dylan Larson, a student at Sandia Prep who did an internship at the Fractal Foundation for his senior project. Both animations were dynamic hybrid 3D fractals that combined the Mandelbulb, the Mandelbox and the Menger Sponge fractal. 

Eyes of the Beholder - The Gallery ABQ

As many of you of know, I was diagnosed with breast cancer last November followed by surgery and chemotherapy. My surgery went well but, as you can imagine, my chemotherapy treatments were a roller coaster ride. I experienced the usual hair loss and neuropathy, however, it was the severe nausea that caused me to lose twenty pounds. Thankfully, with the love and support of so many friends, I was able to pull through. You may read my art reviews for Q CLAPS following the First Friday ARTScrawl of each month.

To get my feet wet again, I visited The Gallery ABQ last Friday, May 3rd, for their “Eyes of the Beholder” artists’ reception from 12 - 8 pm. What a treat! This gallery is beautifully appointed and the reception was well attended. The featured artists for this show were Sandra Baca, Fran Ryan and Patricia Klomborowski Williams.

Joe Coventry & Linda Logan-Condon

Two weeks ago, I attended the opening reception for Joe Coventry and Linda Logan-Condon at The Watermelon Gallery located in the East Mountains. I had already fallen hard for Coventry’s paintings a few months ago while visiting the gallery for another art opening. However, on this evening I had the pleasure of meeting Logan-Condon for the first time and admiring the breathtaking photography of her travels around the globe.

East mountain resident and professional travel photographer Linda Logan-Condon says, “After a long and successful corporate career as a trainer, executive coach, facilitator and organizational development consultant, I am having a love affair with travel photography. I’m an idea woman, a pioneer, a woman on the edge, a women filled with wonder and discovery. I have traveled to many parts of the world and have learned to marvel at the "firsts" in my life...the first time I saw my child's face, the first time waking up in a new country, the first time hearing an unfamiliar language, the smell of a new destination. What a gift it is to view the world anew with each turn of the head and touch of the hand.” Logan-Condon has exhibited her award winning photography both state wide and nationally since 2008.

Art & the Female Breast, part two

First, I would like to thank the readers who sent me well wishes, support, and comments on the first article in my discussion of Art and the Female Breast. I would also like to thank the many friends and colleagues who sent me books, articles, clothing, food and the others who shared with me their personal journey through cancer. The surgery is now behind me and I’m awaiting the pathology report on the mass and lymph nodes that were removed last Thursday. In the meantime, I wanted to continue my discussion and share with you one particular email that I received from Nina Baldwin, an artist from Rio Rancho.

In the email, Baldwin draws a connection to the Madonna and Child paintings by William Adolphe Bouguereau, the prolific French painter from the nineteenth century who was a mainstay of the Realism art movement, when she writes, his “Madonna paintings portray the female, fully clothed . . . all full of fabulous beauty . . . full of allurement, mystery, life, power, nurturing . . . full of spirit . . . truly beautiful!” According to Wikipedia, Bouguereau was a staunch traditionalist whose genre paintings and mythological themes were modern interpretations of Classical subjects, both pagan and Christian, with a concentration on the female human body. He employed traditional methods of working up a painting, including detailed pencil studies and oil sketches, and his careful method resulted in a pleasing and accurate rendering of the human form. His painting of skin, hands, and feet was particularly admired. The idealized world of his paintings, brought to life goddesses, nymphs, bathers, shepherdesses, and madonnas. Bouguereau painted plenty of naked women, but it was the ones he painted of them clothed which were particularly striking and inspirational. 

Baldwin also shared her mother’s story of a mastectomy at 48 years old and how she survived and went on to live a full life only to pass away in her 70’s from heart disease. Baldwin writes, “It is the spirit of the woman which far surpasses all beauty and goodness found in any part of the body . . . truly, it is your spirit which is beautiful, sparkly, fun, wise, miraculous, alluring, mystifying, nurturing and powerful . . . your spirit is the source of all that good.” Baldwin’s email truly touched me and uplifted me. Can you find the beauty and allure in these Madonna and Child paintings?

Gale O’Brien lives in New Mexico surrounded by the love and support of her friends. Follow her blog Passione Per L’Arte at www.passionateforart.blogspot.com.

Photo credits: Barbara Longhi, google.com; William-Adolphe Bouguereau, wikipedia.com and google.com; Trent Burleson, http://burlesonart.blogspot.com

Art & The Female Breast

For centuries, the female body has been the alluring subject for many painters and photographers, from Pablo Picasso to Helmut Newton. The fullness, the roundness and the attraction of the female body are simply too beautiful not to appreciate in the art form. According to Susan Rubin Suleiman, author of The Female Body in Western Cultlure, “The female body has occupied a central place in the Western imagination, its images pervading poetry and story, mythology and religious doctrine, the visual arts, and scientific treatises. It has inspired both attraction and fear, been perceived as beautiful and unclean, alluring and dangerous, a source of pleasure and nurturing but also a source of evil and destruction.” 

For decades, I have recognized my feminine side with beauty products, hair color, stylish clothes, jewelry and perfumes. It wasn’t until I received a diagnosis of breast cancer two weeks ago, that I began to fully appreciate the beauty of the female body. I had been away on travel to attend my father’s wedding when I received the fateful phone call. Enjoying a coffee date with one of my sisters, my cell phone rang and the radiology technician read me the pathology report from my recent biopsy. With an impending breast surgery now scheduled for later this month, I've decided to engross myself in studying the art of the female breast.

Could I soak up all the beauty of mine own until then? One friend suggested plaster of paris. You know, make a plaster model of my breasts before the surgery so that I can remember how stunning they were before I went under the knife. I carefully considered this idea, but wondered where would I display “the breasts” in my house. Another friend hinted at doing a series of before and after photographs which could provide an artful documentary of my journey, but would I find beauty amongst all the scars? Finally, a third friend recommended a breast tattoo. I could design an artful bouquet of flowers that would bloom in abundance where there was once a nipple. Interesting. The pain of the tattoo needle would pale in comparison to the physical and emotional pain of losing breast tissue. What would Picasso or Miro or Dali suggest? Would they have considered painting a woman with no breasts?

Gale O’Brien lives in New Mexico surrounded by the love and support of her friends. If you have ideas or suggestions of how to celebrate the art of the female breast, then email her at gale2430@yahoo.com.

Photo credits: Dinh Hanh, vxartnews.com; unknown, drwlcarter.com; unknown, ebay.com.

Facing The Muse: A Portrait Exhibition

What a delight it was to step inside the New Mexico Art League building for the portrait and figure exhibition, Facing The Muse, sponsored by the Portrait Society of America in collaboration with the New Mexico Art League (NMAL). This exhibition was thoughtfully and beautifully displayed throughout the newly renovated NMAL building and was well received by a large crowd which spilled out into the garden with excited talk about the show.

After talking with Cynthia Rowland, the State Portrait Ambassador for New Mexico, I learned of the connection between the two organizations. The New Mexico Art League is one of the oldest such organizations in the country. It was begun by UNM art professors in 1929 to serve as a venue for showing their work and a forum in which to interact with the local art community. The League became a thriving part of Albuquerque which lasted well into the 70's but thereafter fell onto hard times. However, over the past several years a group of professional and aspiring artists and community leaders have worked diligently toward bringing the New Mexico Art League back to its former glory. The New Mexico Art League now offers excellent workshops and classes and has recently hosted several impressive exhibitions, "Facing the Muse" being its most recent.

The purpose of the Portrait Society of America is to foster and enhance the understanding of the practice, techniques and applications of traditional fine art portraiture and figurative works. These activities are instructional in nature. By working with the New Mexico Art League as a venue, the group has been able to offer this juried exhibition to the public. Internationally known figure artist Tony Ryder will be doing a demonstration at the New Mexico Art League on Thursday, October 18, from 5:30pm - 8:00pm. Mr. Ryder is known for his book, "The Artist's Complete Guide to Drawing the Figure" and now runs his own school in Santa Fe, New Mexico. 

About midway through the opening reception, Rowland announced exhibition awards in the following categories:

Best of Show, Mimi Jungbluth, “Midsummer’s Day Dream”

First Place, Professional, Robert Kuester, “Kelsey”

Second Place, Professional, Nancy Davis, “Sarah at the Window”

Third Place, Professional, Cynthia Rowland, “Self-portrait in One Color”

First Place, Aspiring, Doretta Bendalin, “Delaney and Madison”

Second Place, Aspiring, Barbara Endicott, “Luis”

Third Place, Aspiring, Rosalyn Roembke, “Eva”

Honorable Mention, Mary Jane Manford, “Everett Lawley III”

NM Art League Award, Marilyn Drake, “Effervescent”

Facing The Muse portrait exhibition will hang through October 26 at the New Mexico Art League, 3409 Juan Tabo Blvd. NE, Albuquerque, NM, (505) 293-5034, www.newmexicoartleague.org, Monday - Saturday, 10am-4pm.

Remembrances - Photography & Gravure by Karl Koenig

The passing of Karl Koenig in January 2012 left a huge gap in the world of photography. It was his imagery that he was most well known for: Striking shots of concentration camps, majestic trees, lonely grain elevators, remote places in New Mexico, and haunting French cemeteries. Last Friday evening, to a standing room only crowd, his beloved widow Frances Koenig led a special presentation: “Gumoil Photography Demystified” to discuss Karl’s career and his discovery of polychromatic gumoil photography.

Koenig explains the process of gumoil photography as follows, “Each gumoil image is hand-crafted after coating a sheet of 100% rag paper with sensitized liquid gum arabic and contact-exposing it to a transparent or translucent positive under intense ultraviolet radiation. The coated sheet is then developed in water, thoroughly dried, and later rubbed with a dark pigment such as lamp black oil paint. Excess pigment is wiped off and the paper is briefly dipped in a bleach bath to oxidize away (etch) some of the light-hardened residual gum arabic. This leaves the next tonal region of the picture open to a second pigment application. The sequence is repeated until the print is finished over the course of several days or weeks. It is the successive etchings and applications of oil colors which lead to the richness and dimensionality of the finished print. No two gumoil prints made from the same transparent positive can ever be truly identical; there are too many variables for exact replication.” 

After a career in academic psychology at Stanford and the University of New Mexico, followed by several years in private practice, Karl Koenig pursued different interests: art, photography, lithography, silkscreen and non-silver photography. In 1990, he created a new — but old-looking — ‘alternative process’ which he called polychromatic gumoil photography. Koenig published a book, Gumoil Photographic Printing, and several articles on the discovery. Soon he found himself giving university lectures, doing demonstrations, leading workshops and exhibiting work worldwide based on the process. Perhaps, his most important work was his series of photographs taken on multiple trips to Europe to document buildings and grounds of the ten remaining camps of Nazi Germany. Many of those images are included in Koenig’s definitive book on gumoil photography, Fragments: Architecture of the Holocaust, An Artist’s Journey Through The Camps.

Karl Koenig’s memorial exhibition will hang through the October 27 at New Grounds Print Workshop & Gallery, 3812 Central Avenue, SE, Suite 100 B, Albuquerque, NM 87108, (505) 268-8952, www.newgroundsprintshop.com.

The Pilar Studio Tour

Billed as the Jewel Box of art tours along the banks of the Rio Grande, the Pilar Studio Tour was decidedly small in attendance but emphatically large on talent. It was my first time visiting the town of Pilar, New Mexico. I should have known to slow down as I got closer because I blew right past this small town and ended up in Taos! After a few phone calls to the studio artists, I headed back reducing my speed through the horseshoe turn on Highway 68 and enjoyed a leisurely afternoon wandering from studio to studio. 

This year marked the 15th annual Pilar Studio Tour which included artisans Meredith Garcia, Bruce Gourley, PattyMara Gourley, Carl Gray Whitkop, Kit Lynch, Patric Carter, Stephen Kilborn, Anita Bauer, Arthur Gledhill, Leslie McNamara, Sheena Cameron, Laura Ramnarace and Sunita Smith. Three artists in particular resonated with me. Kit Lynch, an international artist known as the “painter of unleashed, untamed nature,” Patric Carter, an explorative photographer, known as the “Image Alchemist,” and Sunita Smith, a mystical, spiritual painter of wood, canvas and blocks.

Kit Lynch’s paintings reflect the movement of water, wind, clouds, leaves, branches, churches and adobes that implies unity and interdependence. Her paintings of wild waterfalls and dark skies hold the promise of a storm coming on the high wind. Lynch’s paintings are big, often seen as diptychs and triptychs. Patric Carter can take an image of a sunset or an adobe wall and transform it into a world of chaos, colors and rhythmic illusion. His work is known for its “phenomenal sense of expansive healing energy.” However, it was the work of Sunita Smith that captured my heart. Her beautiful, soothing paintings calm me after a full day of driving and walking. Smith’s Lotus block, with its translucent hues of blue and orange radiates both energy and peace. Her artisan faire and market was enhanced by the soundscape music, “Enchanted Lands,” provided by her brother John Patrick Funk.

As a side bar to my review, Pilar (formerly Cieneguilla) is a small unincorporated town of just over 10,000 people located in Taos County. It is located on the Rio Grande. The name Pilar comes from the Spanish word “cienaga” which means marsh or marshy place. The swampy ground is caused by several streams running across a small flood plain formed by a bend in the Rio Grande. For more information about the Pilar Studio Tour visit pilarstudiotour.org or call (575) 758-0135.

Girls Art Night Out

The sky was filled with dark, ominous clouds as I headed into Albuquerque toward Old Town. The downpour of rain and traffic couldn’t keep me away from attending the Girls Art Night Out show at Bright Rain Gallery this past Friday evening. Carolyn Carroll, the owner, had dressed the gallery with a clothesline to display the “Fancy Pants” designed by Anna Goodridge, complimented by a gorgeous display of Geri Verbal’s tribal and ethnic jewelry and Sonya Coppo’s one-of-kind canvas handbags.

Geri Verble, a Placitas, New Mexico jewelry design artist, developed a passion for collecting ethnic beads and pendants while traveling with the Peace Corps. Bead collecting not only became a passion for her, but a journey into learning about the history of beads. Having majored in Theatre Arts in college, Verble’s focus was in Stagecraft Design. This sense of design has influenced her work in creating one of a kind, exceptional designs. Verble says, “The design of each piece is a contemplative process. Each ancient bead and ethnic ornament tells a story and has a spiritual energy that flows through each piece. I carefully consider color, selection, position and arrangement in the overall design. I have found that there is energy in metal that is in harmony with the earth. My goal is to create unique handcrafted beads and pendants to add to the design of my pieces.”

Sonya Coppo is a versatile artist who has created many types of art since childhood. As part of her interior design practice, Coppo has designed and painted custom furniture, wall murals, canvas floorcloths and table runners for her clients. After moving to Placitas, Coppo began creating interpretations of the Plains Indians Parfleche envelopes as well as handbags. Coppo designs and paints with acrylics and inks on heavy weight canvas reflecting the colors, culture and spirit of the Southwest.

Anna Goodridge, also a Placitas artist, spent her career as an elementary art teacher. The designs, colors, and shapes she uses are the result of her work with children and remembering what appealed to them. Recently her journey has taken her to painting with acrylic paint on gently used denims. Goodridge likes the idea of finding gently used denim that have lost its usefulness to one person then creating wearable art for another person to enjoy. This art show is not just for girlfriends to enjoy; husbands, boyfriends and children alike will find something eye catching in the gallery, too.

The Girls Art Night Out exhibition will hang through September 30th at Bright Rain Gallery located in Old Town’s Patio Market, 206 1/2 San Felipe NW, Albuquerque, NM 87104, (505) 843-9176, www.brightraingallery.com

Gordon Vanus & Melba Bushmire

Last Saturday, I attended the opening reception for Gordon Vanus and Melba Bushmire at The Watermelon Gallery located in the East Mountains. This beautiful gallery was packed with friends and art enthusiasts excited to see the floor to ceiling art collection, featuring the photography of Gordon Vanus and the paintings of Melba Bushmire. There’s always a certain happiness that I feel witnessing a good turnout for a local art show.

Gordon Ray Vanus’ fine art photography career began later in life after his lengthy business management career. At the age of 10, using his parents’ old box camera, Vanus photographed miniature model cars and 12 blurry images later he was hooked. Learning the mechanics and the art of photography during high school, Vanus’ interest continued through military service, college, and the start of a family. Even though there was little budget for equipment, Vanus’ eye for color and composition continued to develop. In 1998, he transitioned from film to digital which has allowed him to keep the spirit and intent of photography pure while enjoying the creative flexibility of technology.

Vanus’ main photographic theme is nature, then architecture and Americana. His desire is to witness the beauty and awe of untouched landscapes and subjects wherever he travels in the United States. Vanus’ expertise is “capturing macro images of butterflies, telephotos of birds or wide angle landscapes.” Through his photography, Vanus hopes to draw others into the beauty and experience of the great outdoors.

Equally humble in her talent, Melba Bushmire was encouraged by her husband to pursue her painting hobby more seriously. Bushmire enjoys painting arroyos, meadows, horses, ceramic pots and white water. Twenty years later, Bushmire is now an accomplished artist with a large stable of exquisite paintings. 

Gordon Vanus and Melba Bushmire fine art can be viewed at The Watermelon Gallery, 12220 N. Highway 14, Suite B, Cedar Crest, NM, 505.286.2164, www.thewatermelongallery.com