Business Council for the Arts: On My Own Time 2011

I visited NorthPark mall today to see the 2011 On My Own Time art exhibit sponsored by North Texas Business Council for the Arts. This is the 19th annual installment of this jurored amateur competition that features the artistic talent of North Texas business professionals.  This exhibition opened September 18 and runs through October 2, 2011.  I saw many photographs with painting, drawing, and sculpture mixed in.  Here are a few of the works that caught my eye:

Lisa Jones, Don't Look Back!, paint of canvas

UT Southwestern Medical Center

I'll start with Lisa Jones because she stopped by Ro2 Art gallery yesterday and told me that she had work in On My Own Time.  I had not realized the exhibition was up. Thank you, Lisa.

David Schulze, Gate House at Mabel Dodge, oil on canvas

DART

Of course this one caught my eye.  It is by my very good friend, David Schulze, who not only paints but is also a lawyer for the Dallas Area Rapid Transit.  I have one of David's paintings in my collection.  I don't recall, however, David telling me about this exhibition.

Norman Kary, Constillation, mixed media

IBM

Another Dallas artist friend.  I posted a pic of another of Norman Kary's works in my post "Meltdown" 2011 Annual MAC Membership Exhibition.

Doug Lott, Twin Cubes, sculpture

Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas

Lott's sculpture looks like folded paper on a wood base, but not sure since the card stated only "sculpture".  It caught my eye amongst the other objects because it resembles sculpture that I live with daily.  Not the same, but similar.

Tamara Wascovich, Red Balloon, mixed media

The Art Institute of Dallas

Vivid colors. Sweet face of a child. Red is quite literal.  Balloon is only imagined.

Richard Wright, Grain View, sculpture

Vinson and Elkins

Drawing. Paint. Hand carved wood. Folk Art in the mall with di Suvero and Dine.

Alecia Wortham, Mini Mickey, sculpture

Ben E. Keith

This one caught my eye because it was practically hidden behind a fluffy creche 'sculpture'.  The On My Own Time rules for artwork that will not be shown include:
"#2. Works of art that are not suitable for a family venue, including viewing by young children"

this one apparently barely made it into the show.  I bet the fig leaf was added later and then the sculpture was strategically placed behind a larger and fluffier sculpture.  I can't tell if Mini Mickey is carved stone or cast bronze, but it does seem to be well crafted.

Patrick Perez, Alamo Plaza, enhanced photography

Ben E. Keith

The Alamo Plaza hotel courts was torn down earlier this year.  It was a cool old place that had long outlived Dallas' rebuild it and they'll come back mentality.  I was glad to see this reminder.

"Meltdown" 2011 Annual MAC Membership Exhibition - Aug 6 - Sep 3

Put on my walking shoes, set my mindset to "art fair" mode, and started looking at 184 diverse works of art with barely any white wall space in between.  "Art fair" mode because I have to be ready to visually edit very quickly if I plan to see it all and make my picks.  You know the drill with these summer member shows - pay the dues and you get to play - and who knows who will see your art.  So everyone from art hobbyists to gallery artists, art students to art professors - some with PhD's join the fray, and we the viewers get to see a broad sample of art being made and taught in the Dallas/Ft Worth metroplex.

It is always a little strange to me to give artists a theme to work toward. But it does help to set up a loose non-curated frame work for the participants and viewers alike.  So my picks for this blog post are those works that more or less successfully met the theme.  "Meltdown" plays well for those mediums that literally melt at some point during the process - glass, ceramics, metallurgy, plastics, and encaustic.  But there are also the images and/or concepts that involve some level of psychological meltdown - homages to deceased loved ones as well as to pop icons that suffered meltdowns such as Amy Winehouse, Jim Morrison and James Dean.  And of course, there are always the works that don't even try to meet the theme.  They are artists, after all, marching to their own drummers!  WARNING - I've chosen 33 out of 184!

There is no jury. No Best of Show. No winners and no losers.  All very democratic really.

But here, anyway, is Hampton's Court pick for Best of Show:

Duke Horn, Mighty Fine Arts, oil paint

a demonic Uncle Sam leading a circus government while the world burns behind him.

 There is always a plethora of distracting frames in this exhibit, but I think Horn's frame completes the gaudy  psycho meltdown perfectly.

CERAMICS, GLASS, METALLURGY, and ENCAUSTIC

 Ryder Richards, Portales: Isolation, goldleaf, gunpowder, graphite on paper

 VET, House on Fire, encaustic

 Michael Christopher, Melted Miro, plasma etched screen metal

 Morton Rachofsky, Untitled, plastic

 Julia Ousley, Flying Pig Meltdown, bronze

 Kenny Hensley, The Trinity River Meltdown, glazed cast porcelain

 Val Curry, Playnado, polyester, wood, toys, computers, acyrlic & resin

 Brooks Oliver, Vortex Bowl, porcelain

 Jim Brightwell, What Was Sharp and Explicit, glass

 Gregory Nelsen, Paranoia, stoneware

 Peggy Epner, Ring of Fire, encaustic on panel

Jackie MacLelland, Phd, On the Edge, encaustic

IMAGES AND CONCEPTS OF MELTDOWNS

 Cabe Booth, Warhol, acrylic and oil on distressed wood

 Hadar Sobol, Myself Inside Myself, thread on vintage linen

 Terry Hays, And Then There was an Explosion, acrylic on Sintra

 Norman Kary, Broken Dreams, mixed media

 Alisa Levy, Losing my Religion, photograph

 Chris Bergquist Fulmer, Cowboy Meltdown: Prelude to the Fall, mixed media

 Margaret Rattelle, Head, etching spitbite drypoint

Michelle de Metz, Meltdown in Texas, mixed media on wood

Mark McGahan, Meltdown, digital print

 Sibylle Bauer, Reflections, photograph

 

Kathy Robinson-Hays, Receding, ink, acrylic and paper on Duralar

 detail of Receding

Anna Palmer, Ooze, digital photography

 Joe Ing, Scissors, print

detail of Scissors

BEYOND THE THEME

Jason Reynaga, It's a Little Bit Fuzzy, mixed media

David Dreyer, In To Down, oil on laminated birch plywood

 Fannie Brito, Mullenian Ducts, pigments & acrylic on canvas

Sheila Cunningham, Once, assemblage

Michael O'Keefe, Untitled, 2011 (Drill Drawing Series II), graphite on Yupo

Ann S. Adams, Swizzle, pastel

Ann Adams' work at least makes me feel like bathing in her cool pastel waters after all the heat and melting.  I understand the a/c went out in the main galleries just a few minutes after the reception opened on August 6.  It was an unplanned 'meltdown happening'. Lots of hot bodies in a hot space on a 100F+ night in Dallas.  Glad I couldn't find parking, because the a/c had just gone out in my truck the day before also.  I had it fixed on the following Monday. 

One final meltdown note.  On the day I stopped by to see the exhibit and I captured images of about 78 works before I edited down to these 33, I witnessed another 'meltdown happening'.  I know the opening night meltdown performance staged by the a/c was unplanned, and I suspect the one I witnessed may have been also.  But that's the thing about art happenings, the spontaneity is the art, right?  So I see this one sculpture with water all around it on the floor.  Looked like a hazard.  Then this guy, I presume the artist, came in and started mopping up and replacing the bucket:

Scott Sura, Tree of Strife, mixed media

I went to the MAC the next night for an unrelated poetry reading and book signing.  I noticed there was water on the floor around this sculpture again.  So perhaps it really is a performance piece.  Tree of Strife, indeed!

Stay cool out there my friends!