Richland Center WRAP Show 2022

"Sweet Dreams"

The annual Richland Center WRAP show and workshop concluded on March 19th. 

Held at the Schmitt Woodland Hills Retirement Community (SWHRC), the exhibit was co-sponsored by the Red Door Gallery (RDG) which was founded and is run by local artists in the Richland Area Arts Council, and by the Association of Wisconsin Artists (AWA), a non-profit membership organization that sponsors WRAP exhibits for non-professional artists throughout Wisconsin in conjunction with local arts organizations or sponsors. 

Fifteen local and regional artists participated. Here's is a link to the online version of the show. It was a small but very impressive show.

The show judge was Lorna Filippini, a Mineral Point professional painter who works in a variety of paint media and has incredible drawing skills. She and her partner ran Sugar Row, a small gallery in Mineral Point, for several years. She was university trained and has been a life-long artist. Because of her training and experience running a gallery, she is conversant with a wide variety of media. Check out her website for a look at her work, lornafilippini.com. 

As in all WRAP shows, one third of the participating artists had one work selected to move on the the WRAP state show in September. But Lorna actually went the extra mile. She also provided brief written comments on one piece from each artist regardless of whether or not they were selected for the state show! Thank you to Lorna!  

I entered two of my small mixed media portrait collages - "Sweet Dreams", a matted and framed piece on paper, and "If You Say So" mounted on a board. "Sweet Dreams" was given one of the State Awards so I will be submitting it to the WRAP State Show later this year. 

"If You Say So"

2022 AMP Member Show and Lantern Festival

The 7th annual Arts Mineral Point (AMP) Member Show opened with an artist's reception on Friday evening (Jan 28) followed by the public opening on Saturday. 

The exhibit is once again at the Masonic Lodge, 304 High St, Mineral Point and will be open next weekend, Feb 5 -6 and Saturday, Feb 12th. The exhibit features works by a couple dozen local artists in a variety of media from painting, ceramics, fibers arts and more to handmade furniture from reclaimed materials.

Ben and I each entered two pieces. Ben submitted a couple of his more abstract photos and I entered two of my mixed media collage portraits - "Sweet Dreams", a small framed work on paper, and "He was Dubious", a larger mixed media portrait mounted on a board. 

The last day of the show culminates with the annual Mineral Point Ice Lantern Festival. 

The 5th annual Mineral Point Ice Festival is Saturday, February 12 throughout the downtown historic district. Lanterns are created by artists, businesses, MP High School art students and fun loving townspeople. Made of Ice by Mother Nature and powered by a single candle, lanterns are judged and prizes are awarded.

A lovely -and fun - winter night in Mineral Point.

 

Teeny, Tiny, BOLD Artist Reception

The artist reception for the Teeny, Tiny, BOLD exhibit at Rountree Gallery in Platteville was held on Friday, Dec 3rd. It was a great evening that drew a goodly number of the 37 exhibiting artists from all over Wisconsin, Minnesota, and northern Illinois.

Rountree manager Bill Mitchell read a statement from show judge Frank Juarez and announced the 1st, 2nd and 3rd place winners and two honorable mentions. Click here to see the winning artists and artwork. Delighted that local artist Linda Kelen took home 1st place. 

My favorite pieces in the show may have been three beaded stones by Chris Allen of Minnesota. Her art is so intriguing and unique - just made me smile. Here's a really nice interview with Chris and fellow artist Liz Miller.

Beaded Stone by Chris Allen

It's a wonderful show with a great variety of works, don't miss it!

Thru February 5th at:

Rountree Galley

120 W Main St

Platteville WI

rouuntreegallery.org

Gallery hours:

Thur and Fri 4 to 7 pm

Sat 10 am to 2 pm

or by appointment

My entry - Dream State

Teeny, Tiny, BOLD Exhibit at Rountree Gallery

 

Teeny, Tiny Bold exhibit is a regional juried exhibit of small works highlighting the power of the compact. The exhibit was juried by Frank Juarez, publisher of Artdose Magazine. Juarez is a leader in promoting Wisconsin artists, networking, ands attracting regional, national, and international artists to collaborate and exhibit in Wisconsin.

Thirty-seven artists from within 300 miles of Rountree Gallery are exhibiting. I am honored to have my piece "Dream State" accepted into the show. Hope to see you at the opening reception on December 3rd!

Thursday, November 18th, 2021 thru Saturday, February 5th, 2022

Rountree Gallery

120 Main St, Platteville WI

Gallery hours:

Thursdays and Fridays from 4 to 7pm

and Saturdays from 10am to 2pm 

or by appointment.

Artist Sunday: November 28th, 10am to 2pm

Artist Reception: Friday, December 3rd, 4 to 7pm

Dream State
Mixed Media
4.5 X 6.5

Platteville WRAP 2021

Hoorah! WRAP exhibits are slowly returning to in-person shows after a looong hiatus due to the COVID pandemic.

The 2021 Platteville WRAP exhibit is currently at the Platteville Library (second floor lobby). It's a small show with only 7 artists and 21 works. But small shows can have advantages, like enough time for each artist to talk a bit about their work. A real plus.

The exhibit will be up through December 5th, but the workshop day was last Saturday (Nov 13). Madison artist Angela Johnson was both the show judge and the workshop presenter, and I did not envy her the task of selecting only two State Awards and two Honorable Mentions from a truly fine set of work.

I entered three fabric/mixed media collages featuring Boro stitching. In 2020 I took a workshop in using Boro inspired Sashiko stitching in contemporary fiber pieces. After the workshop, Boro became my pandemic isolation project...really got into it and made a 3 to 4 feet square wall hanging. 

But when I hung the "finished" piece on the wall, it just looked like a hodge-podge to me and I hated it. Sigh. So I cut it up into smaller pieces and framed them, adding some mixed media elements (paper, beads and metal). I was totally surprised (and delighted and honored) to receive one of the two State Awards for one of them (top piece in the photo above)!

After the awards presentation, Angela led an interesting (and useful!) "Mindfulness and Goal Setting" workshop at the Rountree Gallery (sponsor of the WRAP exhibit). 

Overall, another good WRAP exhibit day.

 

Fly Away Home Workshop with Roxanne Evans Stout

Thoroughly enjoyed the three day Fly Away Home workshop at Shake Rag Alley with mixed media artist Roxanne Evans Stout. Fun project and Roxanne had interesting use of materials to show us.  

We made mixed media artist books with a birds and butterflies theme, plus a "nest" to hold our books. All of the participants made wonderful - and very different -  books.

We made the nests by weaving/binding wooden berry boxes. I really got into the nest. 

I imagined what a bird would do building a nest. 

Here's my nest in progress: 

Got quite a bit messier by the time it was done:

More in process shots:

Finished inside pages:

Spring Shows

I have works in three regional shows this spring: - the Drift Show at the Rountree Gallery in Platteville plus two WRAP shows, one in Madison and one in Richland Center.

The Drift show, Rountree Gallery, Platteville WI 

This is Rountree Gallery's spring show which is open to all artists 18 years and older, residing within 100 miles of Platteville. The opening reception was held on March 12 (Rountree Facebook post). The newly repainted gallery looked terrific and it's a wonderful show with a great variety of work. Plus, on top of that, after a very long year of pandemic isolation, it was soooo wonderful to get out to see in-person art and mingle with other art lovers! 

I entered three pieces which I exhibited in 2020 virtual WRAP shows but which I have not previously exhibited in person - He Was Dubious from the Prairie du Sac WRAP show and Carl and Lemonade from the Cambridge WRAP show.  

Madison WRAP Show

The Madison WRAP show is virtual this year. Madison is always one of the biggest, if not THE biggest WRAP show in the state, and this virtual show is no exception with 111 pieces. View it HERE. Should be up at least through April 3, 2021.

I submitted two of my portrait collages, both mounted on board (17 X 6):

Richland Center WRAP Show

The Richland Center WRAP show is also virtual this year. And also has robust participation - 63 pieces. View it HERE. Will be up at least through March 27th. 

I entered three of my "Faux Encaustic" painted wood blocks which I call my Apothecary Series:

Winter UFOs

In the craft world, UFOs are "Unfinished Objects."  We've all got them - that stack of half finished projects you started long ago but for one reason or another never finished, yet haven't quite been able to discard them. 

The pandemic plus a bitterly cold winter, has led to LOTS of staying-at-home time to sort through and cull all that stuff that's piled up over the years. Which unearthed a bunch of my UFOs.

Sometimes I cut up or repurpose old unfinished (or failed) collage or assemblage pieces and use them as fodder in new works, but here are three that I decided to actually finish:

Collaged Wooden Box

I started this box in a Shake Rag Alley workshop taught by Madison collage artist Rita Yanny back in 2007 (who says I'm not a packrat). Rita brought 4x8x5 wooden boxes to use as substrates which I painted using mixed media paint layering techniques, something I was just learning to do at the time. Not surprisingly it never really came together. So this time around I instead collaged the sides and top with various papers, actually using up some of my old UFO collages in the process (yeah!). Built up the flat top with some wood blocks and a wood ball, and added "feet." Left the original paint showing on the edges of the lid and base just for funky effect. I guess this was more of a redo than a completion, but I like the results much better than the old paint job.

Chunky Mixed Media Book

 
In 2010 I attended a Create Mixed Media Retreat sponsored by Cloth Paper Scissors magazine, where I took a workshop with Leighanna Light who does wonderfully fun and funky handmade books. This particular book is made from a single strip of accordion folded unstretched canvas. Leighanna mixes up a lot of dissimilar materials, like adding metal to cloth, hence the old tin plates on the front and back covers. Didn't alter the covers though I did add a bunch of sticks to the spine. I did, however redo all the interior pages. Mixed feelings about the results. I've always liked the cover, still do...just not so sure about the inside pages. Sigh. Maybe some things are just not meant to be.

Mixed Media Collage Portrait

This piece is probably the first time I felt I was successful incorporating one of my portrait drawings into a collage, something I had been trying to do for a long time. I created it in a Shake Rag Alley workshop with Andrea DeMeng in 2016. Although I considered it finished at the time and even entered it in a WRAP show, I later felt some alterations were needed.

Here's a (really bad) photo of it at the end of the workshop - 

The workshop project was to make this hang like a scroll (it's about 6 inches by 17 inches). Andrea had designed a clever hanger but for some reason I never could get mine to hang straight. So I ditched the hanger and mounted it on a piece of lumber - happily happened to have a board in just the right width. Then in my recent modifications I added the hat and the hand holding a flower, touched up the facial features, and simplified the clothing. Now it feels done to me. I'm planning to enter it in an upcoming WRAP show so we'll see what kind of a reception it gets.

Platteville 2020 WRAP Exhibit

Amerika Ist Anders

 Like other WRAP Shows, the Platteville WRAP was virtual this year due to the coronavirus pandemic.

The show was small - eleven pieces submitted by five exhibitors. But the small size actually allowed for a very enjoyable critique of all pieces with more artist participation than is usually possible with a bigger group.

I submitted two small collages on cradled panels, "Amerika Ist Anders" and "S and H". These two pieces are somewhat of a departure from my usual collages laden with lots of paint layers. Instead, while these collages incorporate some drawing and mark making, they depend on the unaltered papers and cloth collage elements themselves to provide texture and visual interest. 

I was pleased that "Amerika Ist Anders" received a State Award so will be eligible for the next State Exhibit in September of 2021.

S and H

UW-Madison Ag Hall Exhibit and Rountree Gallery Award

Wow! My piece, Gabrielle has received a quite a bit of recognition this year.

WRAP Show Awards
Gabrielle earned a State Award in the Madison Regional WRAP Show held last spring. The show was originally hung in the Pyle Center on the UW campus, but when the coronavirus hit the campus closed so the show moved online, as did most of the remaining 2020 regional WRAP as well as the WRAP State Show. View the State Exhibit here.

At the State Show, Gabrielle was given the Rountree Gallery Award sponsored by Friends of Our Gallery (FOG), a support organization for the Rountree Gallery in Platteville. As a long time member of FOG and a huge admirer of the Rountree Gallery, I was really pleased that my piece won this particular award. Many thanks to FOG for this award! 

Ag Hall Exhibit

Each year the UW-Madison College of Agriculture and Life Sciences selects a number of pieces from the annual WRAP State Show to hang in their AG Hall for the coming year. This year, due to COVID, the Ag Hall exhibit is going virtual. I am very flattered that my piece, Gabrielle, is among 14 pieces selected for their 2020 online exhibit. 

Click here to view the exhibit.

The UW Ag Department has a connection to the WRAP program going back to its inception. Here's the history of WRAP's connection to the AG program from the AWA website (AWA, formerly WRAA, is a volunteer support group for the WRAP program): 

"The association was founded mainly as a support group for the Rural Art Program (RAP), begun in 1940 by UW-Madison’s Dean Chris Christensen and Prof. John Barton. These visionary men believed the lives of rural families could and should be enriched with art. They recruited John Steuart Curry to UW to be an artist-in-residence who would spend time traveling about, encouraging citizen artists and crafts people. By 1945 the RAP had held its first exhibit in Madison of works by non-professional artists from around the state. The program became so popular that Prof. James Schwalbach was hired to coach rural artists and set up exhibits. He and Curry’s successor, Aaron Bohrod, attended a dozen shows per year, teaching and judging. The plan for a regional artists’ association was first proposed by a handful of artists who were excited by the early RAP and wanted to help UW Extension reach out to even more Wisconsin artists, stating this goal explicitly in their by-laws."

Thank you to the Ag Department for this honor!