Karen Kienzle (Director of the Palo Alto Arts Center), Dennis Lewis (accomplished painter) and Ronda Schaer (owner of RASgalleries in Napa, CA) selected two of my sculptures for exhibition in the Carnegie Arts Center show "Central California Arts Showcase".

It's been a bit of a rough couple of weeks so naturally I was THRILLED to get this notification in my Inbox this afternoon. It's a bit of a trek but it looks like a fantastic facility! I hope you can make an afternoon drive out and see my work.

Central California Arts Showcase
Carnegie Arts Center
250 N. Broadway, Turlock, California
April 1 - May 8
Please come to the reception!
Thursday, April 2, 2015,  5:00-9:00pm

The exhibition at Artworks Downtown was absolutely fabulous! The variety of work really showcased sculpture: kinetic, ceramics, glass, neon, found objects, and metal to name a few. What an honor to have been selected for this show.  

Little did I know that the amazing and talented Dan Caven - who also works in neon and found objects happens to teach classes at the Artworks Downtown facility.  When the show was hung, Dan reached out to me as he immediately recognized my work (as I would his) and let me know they looked fantastic.  It was nice to meet up with him at the opening as he and I have exhibited before in the same show. Good times!

I woke up this morning ready to make the trek up to Sacramento to deliver "Exploding Time" to the Sacramento Fine Arts Gallery for the "Bold Expressions" show.

Before heading out, I checked my email to discover that Bella Feldman selected two of my pieces for the show "Sculpture as Metaphor" in San Rafael at Artworks Downtown. How exciting! If you're in the area, feel free to come see me at the opening reception! Wow! I'll have two openings to attend!

Sculpture as Metaphor
Artworks Downtown
1337 Fourth St., San Rafael CA, 94901
October 3 - November 14
Please come to the reception!
Friday, October 10, 2014,  5:00-8:00pmo

Theme: Be bold, be bold, and everywhere be bold! 
There haven't been a lot of shows that have been interesting to me lately but I am thrilled to be participating in a show called "Bold Expressions 2014" at the Sacramento Fine Arts Center.
What's particularly intriguing about this opportunity is that it's 59th year that Northern California Arts has hosted this event. What's more... some of my goofiest friends (and number 1 fans) live up in Davis, California (pictured to the left) so participation in this show insures numerous visits with my favorite peeps in the coming months!

Bold Expressions 2014
Northern California Arts @ Sacramento Fine Arts Center
5330-B Gibbons Drive Carmichael, CA 95608
September 31 - Oct. 25, 2014
If you're in the Sacramento Area, please come to the reception!
Second Saturday @ Sacramento Art Walk
October 11, 2014,  5:30pm - 8:30pm

I stumbled upon this lovely video that was created at the opening reception for the ReTHINK it show at the Vernon Davis Foundation's Gallery 85.

Click Here to Enjoy!

I love it when an email with the subject message "Congratulations!" arrives in my Inbox.  This makes bad days good and good days even better!
Two of my sculptures have been accepted into a show in the South Bay.  The show is called ‘RETHINKIT’ and it is an opportunity to showcase artwork which inspires new ways of thinking about art and the environment.

Since I work with found objects, I use a lot of reused/recycled materials or discarded materials in my work so when I was submitting for this show I felt it was a perfect fit... AND SO DID THEY!

I dropped off my work at the gallery yesterday and the location is very nice and the staff were even nicer! What a nice bunch of people! In any case, if you have the opportunity to join me at the opening... come! I'd love to see you!

The show runs May 22nd - July 31st
The opening is on May 22nd from 6-9pm
Gallery 85
377 Santana Row Suite 1180. San Jose, CA 95128

One of the challenges with having a professional career that isn't your art career is that you can so easily get sucked into that other world. It's definitely an aquatic world as I feels a lot like how I imagine drowning might feel as you bob to the surface grab a mouthful of air and then head back under into the deep abyss. Ok... well maybe that's too dramatic but it's resonating with me! :)

In any case, I have a list of shows that look interesting and I'm submitting... :)  Hopefully I'll be posting about some acceptances in the near future.

Last night was the artist reception for the show "Where to From There?".  It was a very rainy and cold evening but the turnout was incredible. I simply adore standing near my piece and watching people walk up and admire it. Some of my favorite silhouettes of people taking in my work can be seen above.

Kemp says of the work in the show, "The works in this exhibition have social relevance in that they suggest new readings or mis-readings of received ideas and function as signposts of emancipatory thought. As I looked for visual pleasure I also was aware of ethical and social concerns in the works that connect them to contemporary dialogues that are simultaneously aesthetic and political. This is the type of work that can set an agenda for building, through visual conversations, a foundation of examples that could be used by future practitioners of art that calls for non-normative examples of beauty and happiness.”

Featured Artists: Ted Andersen, Tamera Avery, Jamie Banes, Randy Beckelheimer, Timothy Bluitt, Dustin Campbell, Lizzy Cross, Harris David Harris, Ira J. Hawkins, Angela Hennessy, Carol Ladewig, Todd Lavine, Mat O'Hara, Tressa Pack, Anne Pinkowski, Johanna Poethig, Clare Rickman, Rtystk, Laurie Shapiro, Chris Thorson, Pep Ventosa

With the world as my palette, I've been dabbling in Fine Art photography. I've been shooting portraits and have recently dipped my toes into the abstract as well - using LIFE as my medium. This shot is a moment in time. A drive home from Davis became an interesting exploration in painting with lights while driving home. The cars in front of me or the lights/signs to either side.  I took pictures and experimented until my battery ran out of juice. It will be interesting to see how these printed.

This piece was selected for the Pro Arts Juried Annual 2014 show called, "Where to From There?" in Oakland, California.  The juror, Arnold J. Kemp, chose my work and the work of 19 other artists for this show. W00t! :) Here's more about Mr. Kemp from the Pro Arts Call For Entry:

Arnold J. Kemp is an artist, writer and curator. An echo in his work across these disciplines is the presence of empathy and humor in conceptual strategies to address harder personal and collective realities. In considering the world in which we live, he explains, "I leave room for laughter, as, in our current cultural moment, perhaps that is all we have."

Kemp is the Associate Professor and Chair in the Department of Painting and Printmaking at Virginia Commonwealth University. He has deep roots in the Bay Area having worked as a curator at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts from 1993-2003. Kemp’s work is in the collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Studio Museum in Harlem and Berkeley Art Museum. He was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship in 2012. He is also the recipient of awards from the Joan Mitchell Foundation and the Pollock-Krasner Foundation.