September Already?

I hope we get one more week of warm weather before fall begins.  There's a little state park out here I want to visit that has a beach. But I will be a traveling woman once again when I go up to the University of Maine-Orono on Tuesday for the final exhibition of the Kneeling Art Photography Project and a round table discussion with the students.

I started work on this with artist Titi deBaccarat this past fall not really knowing what I should be doing and finally found my rhythm within a few months.  Not only was I one of the photographers, I helped out by writing news releases and sending them off to the media list that I've developed over the past 10 years that I've lived back in Maine.  

I wasn't able to do much this spring as we packed up and then moved in June.  Then a week later I got the studio moved out of Open Concepts down in the East Bayside area of Portland.  Then a week after that I had horrible dental surgery (you really don't want the gory details) and I didn't have strong enough pain pills and was miserable for about 3 weeks after that.  

Then I had company and couldn't go to the opening of our exhibit at the UMVA Gallery at the Portland Media Center (PMC) and then there was a panel discussion I missed about the role of art in social justice issues.  Lucky for both me and you, PMC video taped it and then put it up on their You Tube station... click here.

In other arty news, I'm making a few 4 x 4" blocks with photo images of Maine on them like these:

It's been an experiment with first printing on a thin archival paper (but not liking the loss of details in printing) and now experimenting with bamboo paper which lets the pigment (archival) ink really soak in for vibrancy.  They were going to be part of the Art Fest in Camden the beginning of Oct, but the Library which produces it, cancelled b/c of the rise in covid cases in Knox and surrounding counties.  Which is probably just as well.  Who wants to be around people whose vaccination status is not known?

Right now, I do have some work at the Meetinghouse Arts Gallery, 40 Main St. in Freeport.  Come October I'll be gallery sitting down in Freeport on 10/10 (noon to 4 pm), 1 to 5 pm on 10/16 and then 10 to 1 on 10/17.  Swing by and say HI if you're in the 'hood. 

Another project I'm working on is greeting cards with Maine images on them.  I'll be posting them on my etsey site - https://www.etsy.com/shop/AnnTracyFineArt - probably by the end of the week.  

Stay healthy my friends and share kindness with all.

Still unpacking

Just about the whole house has been unpacked (except for the I don't know what do to with this item that used to have a place in our old place, etc... we'll just call it the Mystery Room)  Our guest room shares space with the home office for now.  Once they finish my new studio and I get my stuff moved out of the basement, then that office stuff will move down here to the basement and we can move the dresser that's up in the Mystery Room down to the guest room.  And on and on it goes. 

 Heard from our contractor last week that they maybe could start this week... but haven't heard anything else to date.  So I just have to "sit with it" and do as much stuff as I can down here, b/c my friends the art world doesn't stop!

Cushing Historical Society Art Barn

This is the place where the KCAS (Knox Country Arts Society) had a group show last weekend.  I had several pieces in the show and sold a limited edition copy of this piece... click here to see it on my Fine Art America site.

In addition to that show, I gallery sat for two shifts at the Meetinghouse Arts Gallery in Freeport where I have some work now and will pick up the old stuff there tomorrow and deliver some new work for the next show - The Color of Light.  So of course I'm going to be showing a black and white image of the moon!  Sometimes light is white, right?

 Do  you like Hokusai, the Japanese artist?  I most certainly do.  So much so I made this encaustic mixed media piece as a tribute to him.

I just recently discovered that a Japanese theatre/dance troupe is presenting a multi media piece about him.  Click here to go to the link to access it on the Edinburgh Fringe Festival site.

Here's to  getting more stuff put away in the studio this coming week and starting to work on some pieces I want to re-do.  And some smaller pieces for the nest KCAS show which will be part of a bigger arts festival in Camden.  So I'm limited to acrylic and mixed media pieces at the moment b/c I don't want to try to set up the ventilation system for  it and right now, with the Pilates reformer I share the space with, there really isn't the room for it.  I envision making many encaustic pieces this winter when I've moved into the new studio.

OK...  how about one more link to work that's available through the studio through Etsy?  Here you go!

Slowly Settling

The only thing I've got set up in the studio is my computer, printer and desk.  This is primarily b/c we didn't get enough stuff unpacked before the studio moved (a separate event) and I really needed to get the house more settled.  And then wham - dental surgery - kicked my ass for over a week now.  Didn't have the right pain meds and it was a horrible experience.  All I could do were meditation tapes, ice my face and try to knock myself out with weed tincture.  I'm still recovering from it all. And we are still surrounded by cardboard in some rooms...

I have some work at the Meetinghouse Arts Gallery in Freeport until August 15th in the Community of Artists show.  The gallery shares space with a performing arts site and a very diminished church congregation.  It's located at 40 Main St, Freeport, ME 04032, across the street and just south of the big LL Bean store.  And I'll be gallery sitting the afternoon of July 27th from 2 to 5 pm and the following morning from 10 am to 1:30 pm.  Please stop by if you can.

The Kneeling Art Photography Project had some great exhibitions up in Waterville at the Maine International Film Festival and at Colby College, while the photos were also being shown at the Francis, a boutique hotel on Congress St., in Portland.  It next travels to the UMVA Gallery at the Portland Media Center, 516 Congress St., Portland, in August if you've missed it at any of the other venues. 

Grateful to #MPR - Maine Public Radio for their story on the project - click here for link.

Coming up in August, I'll be showing some work with other artists from the KCAS - Knox County Arts Society at the Art in the Barn show in Cushing, ME From August 12th to the 15th.  And I will be gallery sitting from 1:30 to 5:30 on the last day of the show, Sunday, Aug 15th.  Come on down and say Hi.

After getting an email from Don Archer, one of the wizards of digital art and the guy who created MOCA - Museum of Computer Art, I went over there and saw that I did have some work in one of the galleries: click here.

So it might be time to refresh with some new work and a new page!  Check out the other wonderful work by other digital alchemists as well as my stuff.

And on a personal note, I'll still be masking inside public places even though I'm vaxxed.  There are just too many wackos out there who are thinking it's all over.  Sorry folks, covid rates are starting to climb again and unless we get more people vaxxed, we'll probably be looking at more quarantine time come late fall and early winter.  I so hope I'm wrong on this, but many other health professionals feel the same way.

Moving On Up

Remember that theme song from the TV series The Jeffersons?  Now it's an ear worm, right?  I'll be humming it as we pack to move from the condo up the coast to Rockport.  Maybe I'll even have the energy to make my own little box robot when we start putting things away!  LOL  Probably not.

Well... here's another blog post that I started a few weeks ago and am now just realizing that I didn't publish it yet.  But we have officially moved up to Rockport, about 90 minutes north of Portland, along the coast of Maine.  The studio will move up here next week and be temporarily housed in the finished basement of the house until my new studio is remodeled up over the garage.  Which the way the contractor is moving, might be September.  

But one thing I did do was to donate some artwork (prints of a limited edition series) to a very worthy cause.  I hope you can go to this site and find something that speaks to you to help support this worthwhile group.

https://app.galabid.com/icebailart/items# 

The site is up and is set to View Only until Sunday, June 27th when bidding will begin. We have had incredible interest in this auction and anticipate it to be a success. 32 artists, mostly from Maine but as far away as Florida, Texas, and New Mexico have donated a total of 54 items. Two more artists are submitting works this weekend. This auction has been shared with many individuals as well as many immigration justice groups across the country. Media releases have been sent to news sources across the state. 

The auction is scheduled to begin accepting bids starting this Sunday, June 27th at  8:00 AM EST and will run until 8:00 PM EST Tuesday, June 29th.

                                         https://app.galabid.com/icebailart/items# 

  

I also have some work over at The Francis, a lovely boutique hotel on Congress St. in Portland during the month of July, as part of the Kneeling Art Photography Project.

 

Please help us fund the book by making a donation, which is tax deductible though Creative Portland.

May Musings

First off the bat - happiest of birthdays to my stellar little sister - Jude - you are the best!  Here we are in May, the kickoff to the non-winter season in Maine!  Actually April kinda is but it sometimes snows like it did this year.  So that's why I'm beginning in May.  

This May will be different in that we will be organizing for a move in mid-June to Rockport, a coastal village about 90 minutes north of where we are now.  It mostly boils down to not enjoying the condo life here at Applegate, which attracts little old ladies who should be in independent living situations and who don't have anything (apparently) to occupy their minds other than bitching about stupid shit to their neighbors.  Plus the fact that many there refuse to let owners put solar on their roofs, even if they sign a document that says they (not the association) are fiscally responsible for said roof.... Of course this is the same bunch of people who have a hard time distinguishing between what to recycle and what to compost... sigh.  Didn't realize people are still so stupid about that.

We literally could not find a suitable place in our price range in the Portland area.  Too many people are moving up here and really driving RE costs sky high.  Word has gotten out that this is a great place to live especially if you can work from home.

 

And while I'm trying to organize for another big move, I'm also co-curating a show for UMVA on the blog with Christine Sullivan - click here

The photo above is me in my "costume" for a TV commercial that my fabu agents at Dirigo Talent got me.  They wanted the actors to show up in a work costume, so since I'm primarily an artist, I sent this photo in and they liked it!  The spot should be good and it's to encourage people to get vaccines which is badly needed, so I didn't mind being a "featured extra" in it and not being paid much.  It's an important message!

During a break, I shot this selfie over my shoulder.  We were all masked throughout.

We were shooting out at Wolf's Neck State Park up in Freeport.  And boy was it cold with the wind coming in off the little bay there.  I forgot to bring a coat, (can I blame the pandemic?) but this great guy dressed in a clerical collar went to his car to get me the blue fleece that I'm wearing in this shot over my apron and the wool sweater I did remember to bring.

And if that wasn't enough excitement, the Kneeling Art Photo Project has a new partner with LumenArrt!, another project from the folks at UMVA.  You can read about it by clicking this link here.

Or you can copy and paste the link below:

https://www.pressherald.com/2021/05/03/mainers-take-a-knee-for-photo-project-aimed-against-racism/

I will only be in town for the first exhibit opening at a space at 525 Danforth St., in Portland's West End.  If you're in town, please stop by between 5 and 8 pm for music, performance by a dance group and possibly a food truck!  All this in addition to 80 photographs of folks taking a knee for racial and social justice!  Another good cause that we so need to face in this country.

I started this post on May 4th and now finishing it on May 22nd, which shows how insane this month has been.  I won't be posting at all in June b/c I realize that I have to pack up studio before we really start packing up the house, b/c the house moves first and then a week later, the studio.... WHEEEEEEE

I've been a fan of AfroFuturism since I first saw Pharoah Sanders back in the early 70s in Boston.  This continued when I discovered Parliment Funkadelic in the mid 70s... and then I discovered Octavia Butler's books a few years back.

So when I saw this article in Hyperallergeic, I wished I could go to southern California to see this show!  Maybe one day Alia Ali will have a show in Boston or New York!

It's ALIVE...... so pick up the phone

The international art project - Telephone - is now live!  Here's a link to this on-line exhibit featuring over 900 artists around the globe, including your truly just outside Portland Maine.  What a gift it was when Executive Director Nathan Langston announced the project and I signed on for this round two, having made a video for the first version that was launched five years ago.  This one differs in that it's HUGE and it's amazing and I love all the artists involved in it!

Click here to experience Telephone

 None of the artists - other than the first ones who received a quote from a book - knew what the beginning message was.  All we had was the image (mine was a photograph) and our intuition.  I made an abstract painting in response to the photo.

They even ran a little article in the local fishwrap about the event - click here.

Here is what my part of the game looked like and the other two artists that received it.  I'm amazed what they came to understand about the piece, which I called "To the Light".

Click here to find my part in this huge project.

 

 

Although one of the artists who received this talks about the "orange", it's actually gold acrylic paint. 

 

Coming up:  Latest news about the Kneeling Art Photography Project and the Love/Rage: Goddess online show that I'm co-curating for UMVA - Union of Maine Visual Artists.  After these two projects are put to bed, it's time to organize and deconstruct the studio for our move up to Rockport - most likely in July.

Is April the Cruelest Month?

 Literary references aside,  for us here in Maine, yes, it is.  Cruel because it should be warmer and we should be able to plant flowers and veg - but - Maine.  This part of the spring is referred to as Mud Season.  But for a literary discussion on it, I found this interesting:

https://interestingliterature.com/2021/01/ts-eliot-april-is-the-cruellest-month-meaning-origin/

So when we got our offer accepted for the Rockport house, I immediately joined the KCAS - Knox County Art Society.  Apparently at the best time, as they have put together an art show for the Rockport Public Library and I have a piece in it!  When the show is over I'll post a photo of the piece which is a digital photo enhanced with encaustic wax, after being printed on Japanese paper.  We got a mention in the local fishwrap too

So the house is officially ours now as we closed last week on it.  But now the waiting begins as there are a couple of things we need to do before we can move up there and then put our condo on the market.  Because of all the folks from other parts of NY and New England moving up here, not only is the RE market HOT - but contractors are slammed as the other residents are doing a whole lot of renovations too.  So for those of you not on Facebook, here are a few photos I copied from the RE site.

This is a drone view which shows this neighborhood about 15 minutes away from the ocean

This shows the front of the house which faces south

This shows the view we have from our back deck.

This shows the kitchen if you were standing in front of the fridge.  The door you see open leads to the mud room.

This is the dining room from the hall that leads out to the bathroom, guest room/office and living room area.  We will be replacing the tacky ceiling light.  It kinda shows the deck out back, which should be great for having folks over in the summer for BBQ.

 

 

 

This is the finished "walk out" basement where I'll have my studio until the contractor finishes the space above the garage in the loft where the studio will be located once it's finished... maybe August if I'm lucky.

This is the back of the house. 

We really want to move ASAP, but are being held back b/c the 2nd floor is all carpeted and that's not good for us with our elderly schnauzers.  But it's a 4 week wait for materials and then another 3 weeks for installation so if we can move by the 4th of July, I'll be surprised.

Marching Forward....

 Yeah, I know, lazy ass title for this blog post, but I'm a tired old dog this Friday... for a number of reasons I won't bore you with.  But one of the things I was thinking of doing this week, and actually did a bit of exploration on, is the  the NFT - non fungable token.

Since much of my work is digitally based, I thought, why not?  But a deeper inspection, highlighted by this Hyperallergic article, suggests it my not be a good thing for Mother Earth... I suppose the only way to do it is to buy carbon offsets as a mea culpa.  Considering I'm facing a move in May, we'll see how long I hold this idea.

My fabu agent - Dirigo Talent - got me another gig that I filmed at home, without the aid of pros in the lighting and makeup arena....  and boy it shows in this You Tube video.  I definitely look even older than I am - 69.  I should have called my friend Phil Cormier to help with it.  He's a fabulous cinematographer who shot the little Damnationland short I did a few years back - Sui Generis.  I can't thank Jenny Anastasof, the co-writer and director, enough for casting me.

OK... enough of the words, words, words.... here is the latest photo I took with the iPod.  If you can guess where I took it or what it is, email me and I will send you a 5 x 7" print.

In my little neck of the woods here in Maine - Portland - we've had a fake spring going on.  So I'm going to go meet some of my Pilates mates for a patio cocktail b/c TGIF!  Here in Maine we take advantage of every bright, lovely day to make merry... hope you have a merry weekend.

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/