Two shows in June

I have two shows at The Double Door in June. I feel like a rock star!

Kaleidoscope is the June installment of the RAW:natural born artists ongoing series of events that showcase work by emerging artists around the country. I'm very excited to be participating for the first time. Part variety show and part art gallery, Kaleidoscope will give you a chance to see the many-faceted talents of up-and-coming artists, musicians, fashion designers, and filmmakers from Chicago. See them now so you can say you knew them before they were famous.

Thursday, June 13th
8:30 p.m. - midnight
The Double Door
1572 N. Milwaukee
Chicago, IL
Tickets are $10

*Please note: when you buy your tickets online, select my name in the drop-down menu as the artist you are coming to see.

Gynaceum is a unique and female empowering evening of performing, visual, and multimedia art. The evening's entertainment will include burlesque, comedy, dance, music, performance and video art, as well as visual art and fashion. The mission of Gynaeceum is to bring local awareness to those affected by eating disorders, with profits benefiting The Awakening Center and their Chicago‐based ED treatment services.

A Gynaeceum in Ancient Greece was a building or portion of a house reserved for women, generally the innermost apartment. I will be showing and selling pictures from The Doll Project.

Wednesday, June 19th
7:30 p.m.
The Double Door
1572 N Milwaukee Ave
Chicago, IL
Ages 21+
Tickets are $5

Destroy the Picture at the MCA

Painting is dead! Long live painting!

The debate over painting has been going on for a long time as artists dare to push beyond the limits of the picture plane, or obliterate it altogether. The artists whose work is on display at the MCA's exhibit Destroy The Picture: Painting the Void 1949-1962 have done exactly that. In some ways, their response to the destruction in the wake of World War II is similar to the reaction of the Dada artists to World War I. These postwar artists question the war machine and try to find ways to cope with the horrors they have seen: cities reduced to rubble, casualties, and nuclear devastation. These paintings have been covered in bandages, splayed open, burned, and shot. In addition to their social messages, these paintings challenge the viewer to see them as objects in and of themselves, and not just a two dimensional picture plane.

Otto Muehl

Salvatore Scarpitta

Salvatore Scarpitta

Salvatore Scarpitta

Lee Bontecou

Jacques Villegle

Alberto Burri

Niki de Saint Phalle

Kazuo Shiraga

The museum has done an excellent job of providing information about the context in which these works were created. There is even a small library of books by important authors of the era. For those interested in art history or world history, this is a show worth seeing. I plan to see it again. Destroy The Picture will be on exhibit until June 2nd.

New Work: Chromatic Quilt

I finally put the finishing touches on Chromatic Quilt, a piece I started on last year (or was it in 2011?) and then set aside because I didn't quite know what to do with it.  The answer was to add yellow. Cadmium Yellow Hue was too bright, so I toned it down with ochre.  And here's the result.

Chromatic Quilt

acrylic on cardboard

16" x 16"

$200

I haven't decided on what its official orientation should be. One nice thing about its square format is that I like the way it looks no matter how it's rotated.

Here are some detail photos of it.

And from this angle, you can see the pattern on the side of the painting:

All 4 sides of it are painted.  If you can't make it to my studio, I'm selling Chromatic Quilt on Etsy. Shipping to the US (except for Alaska & Hawaii) is free since this piece is over $100. If you happen upon this post after it's been sold, don't despair. I can make a similar custom painting for you. Click here to learn more about my commissioned art process.