Over the years, I have enjoyed documenting experiences by painting my own renditions of various local activities. Recently viewed at a HARC Cooperative Pop-Up show on Franklin Street, the painting -- Citizens -- is the last in a series of nine paintings of various Moral Mondays protests in the spring of 2013 in Raleigh. The paintings were based on photographs by my…
For the past few years, I have been making collaborative mixed media paintings with another artist, Luna Lee Ray. Our process involves trading pieces back and forth continuously until we feel that the image is complete. The collaborative process is always an exciting one, especially when the layers of a piece begin to build and bring a piece to life!…
During the Renaissance, artistic ideals changed from a serious and formal way of depicting subjects, generally religious, to a much more realistic style incorporating scenes from common life. "Man is the measure of all things" was the motto of the time, and painters began to include details from daily life in their frescoes. With the invention of the perspective, paintings acquired a firm place…
As the Crow Flies Last summer, I began painting with an artist group at a friend’s studio. The tables we used were covered with white paper for protection of the surfaces, but by the end of two months the papers collected quite a mess of paint and marks. I didn’t see the beauty in those papers until I participated in…
I work in a variety of sketchbooks of varying sizes in my art making. A few years ago I realized that hundreds of books were headed for the landfill, so I began reclaiming some of them as sketchbooks to work in. In the first photo I have arranged a number of them on a table top along with my usual…
A Spanish dance troupe from Chicago on the outdoor stage at Jacob’s Pillow This summer, I returned to the Berkshire Mountains in western Massachusetts to hear live music at Tanglewood and attend dance programs at Jacobs Pillow. As usual, I brought my journal-sketchbook with me like I do whenever I go on a trip or attend a concert, theatre or dance program. The…
The idea for my new body of work was born during a figure drawing course I took last summer from the Ringling School of Art and Design in Wild Acres, NC. During the session, I collaged two previously drawn figures onto new surfaces. I loved the fresh start, but no ideas flowed for where to go next, so the two starts…
If you are looking for art that is fresh and special this spring, an event will be held soon that includes the work of three fresh OCAG artists: Cathy Kiffney, Luna Lee Ray, and Rebecca Neigher. Cathy Kiffney explains: "Four years ago I approached Luna Lee Ray with the idea of a small spring show. Although I did not know her…
Three OCAG artists are participating in an upcoming show at the Chapel Hill Gallery of Art on Franklin Street. Here at what each says about their particular path while making their art... Eduardo Lapetina notes: "The steps I go through are unpremeditated and unplanned. I might apply two or three layers this way, and then as shapes and forms emerge, a direction…
Center/Gallery thrived in the heyday of the Women’s Art Movement. Most active from 1977 through 1984, it was the NC Triangle’s response to Feminist Art, a center for creative energy, public statement, and enthusiastic expression of women’s experience. Even though it no longer has a physical space, many of the group of supportive peers has kept the spirit of the space alive. It…