Margaret Wall-Romana

Drop everything you're doing and head straight to The Minneapolis Institute of Arts to see the new MAEP exhibition of Margaret Wall-Romana's paintings. Try to go at a quiet time when traffic in the galleries will be at a minimum - solitude is best to dive into these works properly. I arrived at the opening early enough to spend some time alone with them and was actually moved to tears. This is what Art is.

UIU Exhibition Opening

I just returned from installing a solo show at Upper Iowa University in Fayette. Well, perhaps not that little... I brought 15 works in all and they filled out the space beautifully. The hospitality and response was great, just a wonderful trip.

Bios

I actually completed this piece, Bios, a few weeks back. My memory is so shot that I can't remember if I began it in my old studio or not, but it's definitely the first sculpture finished in the new space. Turned out quite nice. Better yet, a beautiful new piece is already well underway...

Elmhurst Art Museum

Last week I dropped off Nighthawk at the Elmhurst Art Museum for the Chicago Sculpture International exhibition. Named the “Best Suburban Art Museum in Chicago” by Chicago Magazine, it is a beautiful little museum located in one of the only three houses in the US designed by Mies van der Rohe.

The show will run until March 19, 2011 with a reception being held on Friday, January 14, 2011. Below is a quick snapshot I took after delivering my sculpture.

Jarvi Bench

I came across this and felt the need to pass it on to others. Beautiful video of some beautiful work, what more can you ask for?

New shop/studio

By request, here's my new workshop, in all it's disorganized glory. The space measures 40' x 50' with a nearly 16' ceiling, but as you can see I've already managed to fill a lot of it. It will take me some time to settle in, but already it's feeling quite comfortable. Every day I unpack and improve a little bit. Slowly, it begins to feel like home.

A long overdue status report...

I knew it had been a while since my last post, but I had no idea it was all the way back in mid-November. An explanation is in order.

A couple of weeks later, on November 30th, we closed on our new house. It was a foreclosure which had been vacant over a year - I guess you could describe it as a diamond in the rough. But we saw potential. It was 20 nice acres in the country, had a good size newer workshop, and a unique earth home. The next several months were spent trapping mice, renovating, and undoing years of neglect.

A couple weeks back we finally moved in. Already it feels like home. The seemingly endless work and wait were worth it. Now, life can begin again...

Before:


After: