A DEBUT GONE BY

Hard to believe that over a week has gone by since the Urban Artists Collective (uac) gallery show debut at Willo North Gallery. I thought it went well as there was a steady crowd throughout the night having a great time enjoying the local art scene.

The Phoenix downtown scene is yearning for a serious art venue that still maintains an urban fresh edge and I'm hoping that with so many artists in our neighborhood, we can contribute in giving this hot city (and right now, I do mean hot) its vibrancy that it deserves.

The show is up through the end of July with events planned for Third Friday and July's First Friday.

URBAN ARTISTS COLLECTIVE DEBUT

photo by Jill Lawrence, uac member

Urban Artists Collective (uac) debut gallery show is on First Friday, June 4th 2010, at Willo North Gallery. Much preparation went into putting the show together. The artists pitched in and helped hang and coordinate the space. Here I am figuring out some final touches. Come in to see the creative and varied work of uac.

PROFILE OF A MIGRANT

The sun rays beat down on the dark skin that blends into this barren land. Darkness nears as drips of freedom stain this earth. It had a good run, but greed creates borders. This race is an opportunistic, violent, talented race. This is the journey of the human race.

WHITE

This painting completes the Red, White and Blue series. I gave this one more movement than the others, but still tried to maintain a certain flatness to the figure. I wanted the white in this image to represent a certain type of haze, smoke, dust or light that impedes progress.

CHUCK CLOSE ENCOUNTERS

A full day of art was capped off by visiting the SMOCA (Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art) where they had a sketching event in the galleries alongside a Chuck Close exhibit. It's quite amazing how much patience is involved in creating these prints. Here's my sketch using white pencil on black paper.

BLUE

This is part of my Red, White and Blue series. It looks like this series is shaping up to be a statement on how unnecessarily complex everything seems to be in today's culture. What will we morph into? Can we keep up with the pace, and is it really necessary?

RED, WHITE AND BLUE SERIES

I've always been intrigued by the odd shapes of some of the creatures in the depth of the oceans, surviving in complete darkness. How do they adapt? Society too is morphing. I wonder what it all means as we start to live in the darkness of loneliness. This is the first painting for my Red, White and Blue series.