Oil Region Indie Music and Art Festival 2009

Long, long time between posts -- and lots of activity outside the studio in Oil City, PA. Next Saturday, join us for the third annual Oil Region Indie Music and Art Festival. We have moved it this year to Seneca Street and joined forces with the first Summer Saturday Street Fair. That means from 2:00 to 9:00 there will be food, vendors, stuff for the kids -- and original music all day on two stages. If you play and sing, pick a corner and set up and perform -- in the Transit Building, in the Annex, wherever.

Stained glass and pottery demos will be going on, reiki massage, a drum circle, and artists will be showing their work indoors and out.
The event will be held rain or shine -- but let's hope for shine!

In other news, check out the new social networking site for Oil City artists at (look for a link to the right) www.nationaltransitstudios.ning.com .

Open Doors - SOLD

OPEN DOORS is painted and self-framed in the 8" x 14.5" lid of a styrofoam box that once held test tubes. It is the piece of work that most consistently elicits pleasure in a wide variety of viewers -- I think it is hopeful and happy!

We look through a series of open doors in a gray, old-fashioned, and rather sedate interior to a door that is open to the bright light outside. Three mysterious glowing glass balls have rolled in along the floor to entice us outside, where a column of light waits just beyond the door. It is reminiscent of the house I lived in in Somerville, MA, but even more, it represents my slightly agoraphobic desire to hole up and hibernate, one that I fight every single day at this time of year!

Today the Oil City streets are covered with black ice and I slid my car into the ditch, so I inched my way back up the hill to enjoy a totally justified day of working from home. But tomorrow I will follow the glowing balls again -- that's, after all, why I imagined them!

Solar and Lunar Aspects

SOLAR AND LUNAR ASPECTS
This is the piece of work I always turn to when I have to introduce myself. It is a 14" x 18" painting/assemblage on two joined styrofoam packing cases. It brings together the studious, responsible, orderly me with a wilder side and gives them a certain balance. At least, I like to hope so!

So why a blog? To make myself get back to work. To make myself get my work out into the public eye. It's so personal, I shy away from that, but it's time. My goal is to post several pieces a week here, starting with older work I already have on hand. As of December 1, I am renting a studio in downtown Oil City's National Transit Art Center to use as work and exhibition space. The 12 pieces that are now on display at Clarion University Venango campus will come home to my new studio instead of to my living room. Exciting! Scary. The hermit is finally going public.