Love Your Mother Earth

 I'm a big fan of the German artist Joseph Beuys, who used small installations as a way to speak about how we need to wake up to environmental issues.  He has been a hero to me in the ways that he has included environmental issues in his art, as I do from time to time.  This encaustic painting is one of my environmental pieces:

"Whale Heart: Save the Ocean"

If you're interested,it's available through the studio or here at my Etsy site:

https://www.etsy.com/listing/955858403/heart-of-a-whale-save-the-ocean?ref=listing_published_alert#

But what made me think of environmental art and Beuys was this video about a couple in England who use grass and photography to make art.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cibOtoYn6d0&feature=youtu.be

 

Special thanks to Diane Smook of the Professional Women Photographers group that I belong to.  Yes, I stole this from her post on the PWP 

In other news, it looks as if we are moving to Rockport!  The condo life is not for us (tales best told with glasses of wine when we can gather) but prices here in Portland are getting sky high b/c of the pandemic flight from NY and Boston.  But RE prices 90 minutes north in Rockport are not as bad.  And our offer was accepted.  Commercial space for studios though are hard to come by, so after we close in April, work will begin on a new studio in the loft over the 2 car garage.  But it will take 3 months to finish so I'll be setting up a temp studio in the finished basement of the house.  Won't be able to do encaustic until the studio is finished b/c it's a bitch to set up the venting system and then have to redo it again. Or, maybe I'm just lazy.

Artists in their Studios

Unusual for me to post one week after the first post of the month, but what the heck, I'm happy that I got to see my friend Kifah Abdullah in  his studio as I was shooting a photograph of him taking a knee for the Kneeling Art Photography Project.  You can check out his website here. 

Kifah is a wonderful artist who I met when we first moved here and we both were part of the now defunct Constellation Gallery in Portland Maine.  He's not only a visual artist, but also a poet and writer as well.

I was thrilled that he wanted to take part in the Kneeling Art Photography Project.  I hope You too will thrill me by making a small contribution to this project.  Since we have a nonprofit fiscal sponsor (Creative Portland), you will get a tax deduction for your donation.  Click here to donate and help me and all the other photographers working on this wonderful art & social justice project.

I was lucky enough to have a piece of work published in the Maine Arts Journal, along with other wonderful artists.  Lots of wonderful work in this winter edition, please check the entire edition out.

And if you're looking for gifts, why not a gift certificate from my Etsy shop - click here.

I know I need to change up the art on that gift certificate, but first I have to process the rest of Kifah's photos (and send him some to use on social media) and then the photos of my good friend and activist Harlan Baker. 

Welcome to the Future

 Nothing like having a fresh year ahead of us to see how screwy it can get!  OK, feeling a little cynical after almost a year of mostly staying away from things I love - galleries, people, restaurants, live theatre, concerts.  I know you feel that way too, but we're doing our part - wearing masks and staying away from indoor venues until we get our vaccine and booster shot - which could be months from now.  Not old enough and not an essential worker are the reasons, but I'm not bitching because these folks are at far more risk than I am.  

Remember that photo shoot I did mid-December?  The result can be found at Hannafords stores here in Maine between the hot sauce and the booze.  Fitting isn't it?  Although I never thought of myself as timeless.  Twisted?  O sure! 

I did get down to Speedwell Projects to see Pamela Moulton's wonderful Forest Installation.  Here's a photo of Christine Sullivan and I playing around down there.  People were not being especially aware of only having 5 people in the space at once, so I had to go into Mother Superior mode and remind people that we had to wait until others came out before we went in.  I got the nickname Mother Superior from my younger sister and brother because we were a single parent family in the 60s and I had many mom chores to do for my mother because she was working.   

Here in the studio, we're working with Titi deBaccarat on his Kneeling Art Photography Project, click here to read about it and donate if you are able .

I'm also volunteering with the Union of Maine Visual Artists to put shows on-line on the blog I do for them - check out the mail art show here.

 I'm also gearing up to work on the Rage/Love:  The Goddess in All Her Guises which I'm co-curating with Christine Sullivan and it goes up at the UMVA Gallery in Portland this May.  I've finally figured out a way to do a small version of my War on Women installation that I had over at Running With Scissors a few years ago. 

 

Watch out Moira!

So many of you reading this blog know that before I started to focus on visual art, I used to work in radio as a journalist and before that in theatre and after 10 years of doing morning drive news, went back to theatre as I started Beyond the Proscenium Productions in Sacramento in the mid-90s and was a director and arts administrator for 15 years.

During that time working in radio, I started to do voice work for a production house in Sacramento, mostly business to business and then I got out of news, started to do commercials, thinking it would all be voice overs.  My agent thought otherwise and sent me off to other auditions and sometimes I got them!  

 My terrific agents here in Portland Maine - thanks Dirigo Talent - got me another gig this past week for Maine Spirits - the exclusive wholesale supplier of liquor for the state of Maine!  I'm so grateful to still be doing this work at my advanced age! 

 I worked with a terrific stylist - Maili Lafayette - who got that ensemble together for me.  and our fabu makeup and hair person - Natalie Cusson.  We were going for a Moira from Schitt's Creek look and I think we nailed it!

 

 

 

And since I've got your attention over here... how about helping to fund an arts/social justice project I'm involved in?  

You can get more information and donate from the website:

https://www.thekneelingartphotography.com/

MeetingHouse Arts Holiday Show in Freeport

 

Yes... come see the wonderful things local artists have crafted for you and yours.  I'll be gallery sitting on Friday from 1 to 4 pm... Hope to see you there! And if you can't make it on Friday, my work will be there until Sunday.

Chocolate Church Art Center

 

From Home in Bunny Slippers: Creations from a Community in the Weirdest Year Ever is the title of a book which  has one of my covid photographs in it.  It's published by the Chocolate Church Arts Center in Bath and contains many funny and interesting things - from art by kids to wonderful poetry and my Covid Tulip Diptych.  This is a double exposure diptych measuring 7 x 14" and available from the studio or my Etsy site. 

The gallery is currently open 10am-1pm, Tuesday-Saturday to four people at a time (masks required).  The address is 804 Washington Street, Bath, ME 04530-2617.  But I would call just to make sure the show is still up by the time you read this blog - (207) 442-8455.  If you click on this link, you can purchase your own copy or one for a gift.

Matter of fact, I've got a special offer for my blog readers - get 20% off anything at my Etsy shop with this coupon:

https://www.etsy.com/shop/AnnTracyFineArt?coupon=XMAS2020

 

I'm also doing a 20% off sale at my https://ann-tracy.pixels.com/ site - if you use the coupon - XNYCRA.

 

Both are only good until December 15th.  

Did October Move Quickly for You?

I don't know about you but October somehow got away from me.  I've been unexpectedly busy with pro bono projects but also got to do two photo shoots with two wonderful actors - Rene "Goddess" Johnson and Jenny Anastasoff  and I entered a juried art book "show" at the Chocolate Church up in Bath.  And now they're doing a in-person show as well, which I won't be attending because here in Maine community spread is beginning to happen.  

It's so sad that people are making the whole situation worse by not wearing masks and distancing.  Or being whiny babies about it.  But that's a whole other rant.  But I was pissed off about it during October...

Very end of September, I was able to shoot some updated head-shots for my friend, René Goddess Johnson for her Patreon site where you can book her for working with your group or business as a Embodied Equity Consultant. 

René is also a modern dancer and so we went out to the Desert Of Maine near Freeport to do a dancey-type of art shoot.  Neither of us had ever been there before and it made for some beautiful photos, like this one.

It looks so good at 30 x 30" .  I made a big canvas in hopes of entering this into shows here and there.  Double Beauty.

 

We did get out to Hawk Ridge Farm, west of Freeport, where they had an art show including outdoor sculpture which was great.  If you're in the need of sculpture, check this out.  

when you get to the site, click on exhibitions

 

The other wonderful thing I was able to do is a photo shoot with Jenny Anastasoff, down at the West End Cemetery, where she has been walking a lot during the spring and summer.  We did some good head-shots and then had fun with props and costumes...

 

Dark Angel Atop a Crypt

All Hail the Fairy Queen

I happened to see a call for art from the Chocolate Church Art Center up in Bath and decided that I should offer up some photography that I did during the first days of Covid and was featured in the Maine Arts Journal.  But more on that next week.

	And since the holidaze are almost  upon  us, check out my Etsy shop - click here.

Blogging for Peace

 

The Official Blogging for Peace Day, was yesterday, November 4th, but seriously we need a month of blogging for peace in my estimation.  Because of getting flu shot and getting the flu for 48 hours, 5 hours after the shot, I haven't been on my top game, which is why this is a day late.  But still as heartfelt as ever

Big thanks to the Mimi Lenox for starting this move to have bloggers share one central theme on one day each year!  Go on, read her blog, she's a pretty fine writer.  Click here for Mimi Writes.

Since I didn't have the time nor energy to create a peace globe for this year, I'm going to post a piece of digital art that speaks to the political sentiment in this country.

My Country Tis of Thee - Digital Alchemy - limited edition - available in sizes up to 30 x 30"

If I had more time I think I would have put the planet where the sickly sun rests in the print.  Let's hope  the evil, racist #twitler gets voted out of office and we can once more begin to seriously work for peace and rejoin the Paris Accord and the rest of the world and deal with #ClimateChange, which is even a bigger monster than #twitler.

Mail Art Happiness

 It was making mail art that got me out of my creative doldrums this spring when we all got locked down in March.  I discovered the wacky fun of making something and sending it away and getting on to the next thing.  If you want a piece of mail art from me, contact me with your mailing address and you never know when you'll get a fun piece of mail art!

 

I used a page from an old geometry book, some "paint skins" - which are clumps of paint that dry upon a waxy paper palette and can be pealed off and made into mail art.  I've been doing this for some time now and and a great supply of them now.

Matter of fact, I like one particular mail art card so much that I'm using it as a template for a new large abstract painting... here it is:

But in other things, I just don't have the energy to participate in the Maine Craft Weekend Open Studios Thingie on  Oct 3/4.   I was thinking at first of just hauling some tables out to the parking lot and doing a big sale out there, but at 2 weeks out, that's really not enough time to properly prepare in terms of making it an event and getting the word out to media.  At least that's how I convinced myself not to participate.

I think I should do an in-person outside sale sometime while the weather is still good.  Just contacted the landlord to make sure he's cool with me using a couple of parking spots and have also contacted a tent rental company to see how much it will set me back.  Then once I have a price, I'll perhaps reach out to a couple of the artists here to see if they have any interest.  Or another of my artist friends.

August was Fruitful

 Not only in that I got to  have a fresh watermelon margarita but in making some digital art based on photographs I took of some hand based work and mixing it up with some old photos I haven't  used before from a photo shoot several years ago.  I guess using some monotype scraps and then old dried up pieces of acrylic paint from my palettes that I've saved over the years kick started my creativity.  So here's the latest mail art:

And these are the latest digital creations:

Corona Dance  -  a dance image appropriated from the internet and a monotype mail art card which I photographed with a filter and then brought together with the magic of digital alchemy to create this.  If you're interested, it was created as a 30 x 40" piece and can be produced in smaller sizes, but as in all my digital creations, I'm limiting the edition size to 25 pieces.

Dancing Through the Storm - was created to be 20 x 24"  ...  it's based on an encaustic monotype and a photo from a workshop with Elizabeth Opalenik where we had dancers on the beach a few years back.  This to can be had at just about any size and is limited to 25 copies in the edition...

Possibility of Bliss - This is a combo of a photo I took of an abstract painting I made in a workshop with Anita Holt years ago at Running with Scissors and a shot of the beautiful Rachel Schwartz from the aforementioned workshop and shot on the same day....

And since we're still in Pandemic Land, these have all been influenced by my feelings about the whole sorry mess we have here in the US.  We have an imbecile as President who refuses to take the counsel of scientists and has no idea about how to make a national plan to deal with it.  Matter of fact that #Twittler doesn't care about anything other than lining his pockets at the public's expense.   If the people of this country can't see this after FOUR YEARS, they are apparently brain-damaged and I don't want to be a part of their country anymore.

The bigger question is, who will take us in?  We are #PersonaNonGrata with most of the world now. 

#EncausticArt, #MaineArt, #MaineArtist, #DigitalAlchemist, #AnnTracy

More in Freeport than Beans

I'm so very pleased to announce that I have several pieces of work (and some encaustic monotype prints) in a real, physical show!  Let's give a shout out to the Arts and Cultural Alliance of Freeport and the Freeport Historical Society for banding together to work on a project that will enlarge the performing and gallery space in town and utilize an old church.  You can read the details here.

And as a participating artist in this special show - which will be open from 11 am to 5 pm on Thurs, Fri and Sat. - I will be gallery sitting from 2 to 5 pm on Sat, Aug 15th, Thurs, Aug 19th and Sat, Aug 29th.  The show runs to September 20th.

What's great about it is that it's a fundraiser with money going to the Meetinghouse Fund and to the Historical Society AND a small percentage back to the artist!  This is very important for artists as we can't write off donations of art given to non profits.  We can ONLY deduct the cost of supplies. 

Hope I get a chance to see you at this show....  and if you like imaginary landscapes, I've got some for you here:

You can find it here - https://fineartamerica.com/featured/orange-sky-at-morn-ann-tracy.html