playing a little catch-up!!!

In my head I have at least 5 separate blogs that I was hoping to post but for now I am going to do a quik debriefing and hope to follow up with more detail a little later.

detail from  'ball gown'

As my last post mentioned, this has been a wonderfully full month for my work.  I have pieces in many venues, from Cambridge to Worcester and some places in between.  

Last evening I gallery sat at the Fountain Street Fine Art gallery, Framingham, MA where the show is Present Company. This is a salon show of members' work.   I am exhibiting Treacherous and Do they know it is Christmas??  It is a rich show ~ the owners of FSFA, Marie Craig and Cheri Clinton always hang an exquisite show!!!

I also have delivered more dresscards to Artisans Way in Concord, MA.  I am so excited that my dresscards are finding homes ~ I love the combination of the quotes and the dresses.  And since I can never  make anything the same way! I am now incorporating papers that I make/design as well as the origami paper. I am very happy with how these have turned out and hope to expand on this idea.

 

In Attleboro, Emily, or the Dress of Etiquette, is holding court at the Attleboro Arts Museum, for their member show! The opening reception was quite crowded (always nice to see) and I was pleasantly surprised when Emily receive a merit award.

At the Sprinkler Factory, Worcester, MA there are two other dresses holding court, Provocative & Black Widow for the No Theme, No Limit show.  Love the gallery space!!!

And the other main project that has been demanding my time is a commissioned dress, made for the interior design store, Shafer O'Neil, in Wellesley, MA.  They asked for the holiday dress that highlighted their collection of vintage Christmas ornaments.  This is the first full-sized sculptural dress that I have happily completed in a long time, so there many aspects of this piece to celebrate.  

'ball gown' (working title?!?!)

I hope to elaborate further about 'ball gown' in a later post, but for now my studio is beckoning so  . . .

peace

'tis the season . . . & thank U!!!

To add to all the craziness of the season, I have pieces in four wonderful shows this month!! 

 I am truly honored and pleased to be included in them all.  Listed below are the show venues, dates and opening information. If you click on the gallery's name you will be sent to the gallery's own website for further information.   I am planning to make it to most of the openings - always a good time!

November 22nd - January 11th 2012

Cambridge Art Association's, Cambridge, MA

RED 

It's more than a color;

metaphor, feeling, idea or hue...

**RED Receptions at both galleries: 

Friday December 2nd, 5:30-7:30pm

Awards at 6:30pm at University Place 

124 Mount Auburn Street

December 2, 2011 - January 14, 2012.

​Sprinkler Factory's, Worcester, MA

2011 Winter Exhibition, No Theme - No Limits  

**Opening and Reception, December 3, 2011; 5:00-8:00 PM.

The reception is open to the public

December 10, 2011 – February 2, 2012

Attleboro Arts Museum, Attleboro, MA

2011 Members’ Exhibition

**Opening Awards Reception: 

Saturday, December 10, 2011; 2pm-4pm. 

Reception is free and open to all.

Live music at the reception by JAZZ SET with Tony Anzivino on piano, & Rich Balest on bass – alumni of Boston Conservatory & Berklee College of Music.

November 18th - December 18th 2011

Fountain Street Fine Art's, Framingham, MA

Present Company

member show and holiday sale

see website for extended hours

Lastly - this all could not happen without my many amazing friends who help me by ~ delivering work or taking care of girls or bringing a desperately needed cup of coffee or safely driving a sleepy me and so much more!! 

So a BIG thanks goes out to 'team fitzgerald'!!! U know who U r!!

( I am thinking of making a team t.shirt :)

So . . .

Thank you!!

Hope to see you at one of the Openings!!

& 

Peace!!! 

"all things are possible!!"

Wow, what a weekend, where to start....For those who have been keeping up, last week was a wonderful and wacky week; culminating with two magnificent openings this weekend. So not to make one crazy long blog post (that would never get finished until June) I am going to split up the events a bit.

First, let's start with Upon Further Consideration, David Lang and Virginia Fitzgerald at the South Shore Art Center, Cohasset, MA. Here are some photos taken after one of the long day/nights of installing the pieces (note the tired artist with the eggshells).

This is the first time that David Lang and I have exhibited together and we could not have asked for a more perfect space!!! The Bancroft Gallery, designed by architect Vcevold Strekalovsky with a 'trapezoidal floor plan and soaring ceiling (which) create intriguing visual planes and sight-lines' showcased our pieces beautifully. During the day the gallery is bathed with natural light!! Between David and I we had around 38 pieces in the gallery! The opening was a wonderful event. I, of course, in a exhausted daze, forgot my camera, but there were camera's clicking and I will get some of those pic. But besides this show turning out to be more than I could have imagined, I also debuted two new pieces ~ 'puzzle:red' and 'happily ever after'.

'Puzzle:red" (shown right) is an unique woodcut print made with over 30some pieces which I inked separately and reassembled on the printing press. I am printing this dress in a multitude of different colorways, and as a result, each has a different feeling or emotion depending on where the colors sit and relate to each other. This print is close to 5ft tall so it is a good deal of work to get one good print.

The other new piece is 'happily ever after' (shown left next to 'treacherous').I am so pleased with this sculpture. The top is from the eggshell dress in my installation, 'this comes from within'. It was one of the few elements of the installation that survived.

I have always love the form and feeling of this bodice so i hung it in my studio. Seeing it suspended by itself I realized that it had a presence of its own, but I wanted to push it further. Preparing for this show I knew what to do ~ the top would have pieces of eggshell dangling from the bottom and be floating over a circle of broken egg shells. Since i was not sure how pieces of eggshell dangling from a thread would travel, I attached some at my studio and then finished the piece at the gallery. I am very please with many aspects of this piece and it was well received at the opening. Eggshells bring so many levels of interpretation to a piece,

I love working with them.

On so many levels this show has been successful. The South Shore Art Center has been so lovely to work with. And the show has gotten some nice press. Here is a picture of 'in memory of....' in South Shore Living and the blurb that went with the picture ~

"The South Shore Art Center’s Bancroft Gallery will be showing a non-traditional exhibit “Upon Further Consideration,” featuring the work of two Massachusetts sculptors, David Lang and Virginia

Fitzgerald. Known for their provocative and serious under the arch of humor or whimsy work, their art often poses questions,

considerations and alternatives to the status quo. This exhibit will show their unique vision and ability to work with a broad range of non-traditional materials. Using everything

and anything to create such a unique view, they present the idea that all things are possible."

Love that last line ~ all things are possible!!

thank you & peace

Treacherous' coming out party

The Gallery at Worcester State University is proud to host an opening reception of

“In-Between,”our Inaugural Regional Art Show,

Saturday,September 11, from 6-8 p.m.

The gallery is located in the Ghosh Science and Technology Building on the first floor.

All are welcome.
The show will run September 11th - December 2nd.
Gallery hours are:
Tuesday and Thursday, 1-4 pm,
Saturday, 1-4 pm,
and by appointment.
For more information:
Catherine Wilcox-Titus
508-929-8651
www.worcester.edu\gallery

need I say more..... peace

Wow ~ where has the time gone?!?

We are in the warped speed part of the summer .... the tick-tock until the school bells rings, all of us anticipating it with both excitement and sadness. For me it does mean a bit more of a regular work schedule ~ which i always welcome. But I have not been totally slacking off....yesterday David Lang and I delivered our respective pieces to The Gallery at Worcester State College for their show In-Between.Their call for submissions was intriguing, asking for art that combines one or more media or conceptually imagines in-between spaces, time, or identity. Artworks that think about space, time, or in-between sites may also reflect states of in-between. I submitted three pieces ~

1.'spirit' acrylic and stain on wood

2. in and out ~ a more conceptual piece with an interesting story of coming into being!!!
Made with these 'dolls' that i have been sewing for a year or so, in a jumble of pink and red remnant fabrics. My initial idea was to make a huge dress with all these 'people'~ a celebration of humanity ... a mass of these generic gingerbread figures. But I was a bit put off by the scope of this desired dress so these guys have been hanging around my studio - literally hanging on the wall. Now the interesting part ~ when I was cleaning up for my studio party I was looking for a place to stow this wooden frame and suddenly saw my 'dolls' thru the frame so I hung the frame around the dolls. This looked interesting and I lived with it for awhile. Then this in-between call came and I saw this piece through different eyes. I moved the frame so some of my dolls were contained and some were outside the frame. I loved it - it spoke to the same idea that made me want to create a dress out of these dolls - the idea of being included or not, the idea of community, fitting in or being an outsider. I also loved how the dolls were pinned to the wall, not the inside of the frame ~ emphasizing the idea of belonging, these piece is attached to the wall of the studio! For a person who really doesn't like cleaning it was a boondoggle to discover this piece.

3. Treacherous - this dress is made out of cooking skewers glued together, with 3 figures made out of masking tape climbing over it and one figure hanging/falling/suspended in the middle. the dress rest over a sea of broken mirror pieces. I love this piece. It was in the works for many years!! The first version i just connected the joints with masking tape ... sadly that did not hold up so in version #2 the joints are wired and super glued and then taped - quite sturdy.

I am happy to announce that Treacherous made the cut!! I am so glad that she is getting out in the world because for those who have seen her she is quite compelling. She is the classic 'dress project' story ~ i strongly needed to build this dress for my reasons yet many people have had their own personal reactions to it. I am writing this a bit vaguely because I don't want to tell people what to think, what the piece 'means' ~ there is no wrong interpretation. I just love that when I express something personal to me it can be read on an universal level.

So Treacherous is now residing in Worcester. The show runs from Sept. 11th thru Dec. 2nd with the opening reception: Sept. 11th 6-8 pm. I think it will be an interesting show!!

Enjoy these glorious days of late summer & peace!!!

the girls are out and about...

Last Friday I had the honor of installing Provocative (the Rope Dress) in the window of Shafer O'Neil Interior Design in Wellesley, MA. Last summer Red Alert Cocktail dress and the VCR tape dress graced their window. This summer along with the earthy, organic Provocative, Judy O'Neil Labins and I have filled the window with many of the photos of the beach dresses. During the installation we decided to hang 'Beach Warrior' next to Provocative and I was amazed on how these pieces complimented each other! I am very happy with the way this window has come together.
After installing these pieces in Wellesley I returned to my oddly empty studio. It was then that I realized that many of my girls are out ~ besides Provocative, I have 7 large sculptures out in the world at this time. This will be ending tomorrow, but for now 8 of my babes are out of the nest.

Two of my girls are coming home tomorrow ~ Flower Power and In Memory of... have been residing at the Cultural Arts Alliance of Hopkinton since my lecture. I am hoping that there have been many strings of beads made so that i can continue to add to Flower Power. :)

Another dress returning home this week is the Dress of Etiquette (Emily) because the Cambridge Art Association's Northeast Prize Show is ending on June 23rd.

The Poetry Dress, the VCR tape dress and Packing Tape Party Dress have been part of Bead & Fiber's The Practical, Impractical & Artrageous: 2nd annual wearable art show which will be ending June 26nd.



Lastly Treacherous is making her window debut in downtown Natick in the windows of One80 Visual, 19 south Main St. The folks at One80 have been so generous with their windows since I left my store front studio. It is always nice to have a place to showcase different pieces & their windows are always a feast for the eyes. Besides my pieces they are featuring the wood working of Carl Staley and the work of Karin Stanley ~ definitely worth a look!!!


So it has been an exciting few months for my girls but it time to gather my brood and get them ready for the nest things to come!!!!

Happy Solstice to all & peace!!!

illustration friday ~ fearless

This week's topic for Illustration Friday is Fearless ~

“The fearless are merely fearless. People who act in spite of their fear are truly brave.” ~ unknown.

It made me think of this illustration i did awhile ago ~ two mice taking on the slopes in a teacup!!! weeeeee!!!

Last week I missed Illustration Friday because I was thrashing around trying to get my submissions ready for jurying at the Danforth Museum ~ which I successfully delivered with 2 hours to spare before the deadline!!! For all who are curious, I submitted Treacherous and Frida (one of the shadow boxes from my installation 'table of content'). Now it is the sit and wait time to see if I get in.... tick,tick....

While i was thrashing around I did make a piece that i call ' Mirror Gown'. When i was cleaning the mirror pieces that sit under Treacherous I couldn't resist putting together this gown - on the scoreboard page of the Sports section no less!!!

This week I did get some good news, my dress, the Dress of Etiquette (Emily) was accepted into the Cambridge Art Association's Northeast Prize Show . The show runs from May 14 to June 23, 2010 with the opening reception is Thursday May 20, 6-8pm ~ Yeah!!!
peace

Procrastination......

“Don’t waste yourself in rejection, nor bark against the bad, but chant the beauty of the good.”
~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

It is amazing to me the many life lessons out there if you just pay attention!! I am once again struggling to meet a deadline ~ the Danforth Museum member show. 'Submissions End ~ Saturday, May 1' ~ less than 24 hours and I am banging around trying to figure out what to submit and what i need to do to the pieces that i am going to submit. It reminds me of the time I had to pack up Black Widow to send to Chicago, the big difference is I was accepted to that show.... and with this one the wrong piece can equal rejection. So when I came across this quote in a friend's email I thought how timely & I wanted to share. Rejection is a large part of this artist's world. However I was told recently, if you are not getting rejected then you are not getting yourself out there enough!! So I am going to get myself out there ~ just need to figure out with WHAT!!!

I am truly excited about the jurors (as well as intimidated by) ~ Jen Mergel, Beal Family Senior Curator of Contemporary Art at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, and Helen Molesworth, Chief Curator at the Institute. Both have curated shows that I have enjoyed and studied!! So this seems to have raised the stakes a bit.
I am leaning toward Treacherous (detail shown above). It has only been shown once and I am tweaking it a bit and putting it on a black stand. I love many aspects about this dress and it seems to represent many of my emotions at this time in my life :). When exhibited this piece is over a mosaic of broken pieces of mirrors ~ however I am tempted to make it a pile of broken glass and mirrors - making the climb very treacherous!! Need to follow my gut. It will all be worked out when i dive in - I am just painfully aware on how I am not diving in. The word procrastination comes to mind.....helping remodel a kitchen, making the girls snacks, Illustration Friday, posting a blog, hmmmmm......

OK ~ back to sanding the black stand :)!!! peace