Art of the Steal at Hungerford Studios

The time has come to let go of many of my experimental surface design works and samples along with my dyes, silks and cottons, both undyed and dyed and printed -- and all of my sundry collected-over-15-years assortment of books, magazines, tools and equipment. It's a mega letting go and I'm excited. The old "one door closes, another one opens" adage fits here. I am committed to my new body of work and the directions it is leading me; these materials no longer fit.  

                     The piles for pricing keep growing and it's amazing how good it feels to let it all go.

This shift has meant pulling everything out of storage areas in both my home and studio and piling boxes and bolts and etceteras in my soon to be painting and printing space.  I'm pulling out the stove, washer and dryer to paint the walls and set up additional work space.  

As I prepare for the sale, I am visualizing a lovely clear space in my artistic life that is making room for new ideas and new works.  I am ready to pare down, let these much loved and carefully collected raw materials move along to people who will actually USE them!

The sale is mushrooming from my personal studio sale to a building-wide January clearance sale. Turns out that a whole lot of us need to let go of the old as we usher in the new year!

So if you are in the area and want to help me make this shift, please come to Hungerford Studios' "Art of the Steal Sale" on Friday, January 25 and Saturday, January 26, 11 AM - 4 PM.  

Hey There’s Nothing Wrong with the Old, But…

 

IN WITH THE NEW!! It’s 2013!!

A New Year always brings the energy of change and new directions with it and I love the feeling.

For years I’ve been a goal setter and list maker – every day checking off and adding to a never ending list. It feels great to be action-oriented and productive, but all my to-dos started to feel like an endless sea of chores. This year, after reading, reflecting and opening to new ideas for the past few months, I have a new focus: I’M FOLLOWING THE GOOD FEELINGS. That’s it. That’s my compass and map for the year.

How to set that exciting new energy into motion?? Make a list, of course! Here it is and I love it:

My Awesome Desires for 2013

Read more juicy, brilliantly written books that inspire and uplift me and transport me to other lives and times

Enjoy my body. Dance, swim, stretch, walk, bounce and skip through all the seasons and enjoy a limber, fit and trim body.

Savor delicious, healthful foods that nourish my being and delight my senses. Make eating and cooking adventurous and live-enhancing.

Laugh and play more every day. Sing my favorite songs.

Spread kindness, generosity and laughter. Lots of laughter.

Discover wonderful artists, musicians, writers and filmmakers and appreciate their creative offerings.

Practice hope and positivity for myself and for the world. All is well.

Share my thoughts, dreams, hopes and discoveries through my my art and my writing.

Delight in my creative process and make ample time to explore, research and flesh out exciting new works.

Speak about and to myself with kindness, love and nurturing.

Think and speak and practice positive thoughts and words about others. Share laughter and joy and appreciation with each member of my family.

Travel to fun, stimulating and exciting locations and find the best that each has to offer.

Update and refresh my home and studio environments so they truly allow me to feel open, expansive and fully at home, at ease and nestled snugly in comfort and beauty here.

Bring more art into my life. I've added some new pieces to my home in 2012; let this continue in 2013 and fully enjoy the process of selecting each piece. Love and appreciate each one and surround myself in beauty.

Enjoy discovering and purchasing wonderful new clothing and jewelry that convey my love of all things creative and artistic.

Thrill to new discoveries and growth in my body of work so it continues to be become more visually compelling and irresistible.

Accept and appreciate my authority and expertise as an artist, writer and wise woman. Radiate confidence in all that I do.

Connect with my inner compass and trust what it tells me.

Innovate and experiment feeling confidence and trust in the creative process and my connection with my inner compass.

Affirm and bless the gifts that my life brings me each and every day and appreciate how wonderful my life is.

Let my spirit soar and boldly express in every thing I do.

I wish you a joyful New Year filled with many creative adventures. We’re on our way!

Transforming a Yellow Spot into the Sun

 

There are painters who transform the sun

into a yellow spot, but there are others who,

thanks to their art and intelligence,

transform a yellow spot into the sun.

PABLO PICASSO

 

Isn’t this a wonderful quote from an incredible artist? I found it in The Zen of Creativity: Cultivating Your Artistic Life by John Daido Loori, which I spent this past weekend reading. I had just finished an intense period of creative work last week when a wonderful new friend passed along her copy of this book to me. The timing was perfect; I was tired and stressed and somehow the thoughts and ideas that Loori shared helped me release some of the tensions that had built over the past month.

Here’s what happened. In June I had three works to enter in an international juried fiber exhibition with an August 31 entry deadline. I looked forward to taking the whole month of July off from studio work.

Then two of the works sold (who could complain about that?!) and the third one went out on consignment to an art consultant. That gave me four weeks to create three new works to meet the submission deadline. Each piece normally takes me close to a month to complete.

Somehow I did it! A key ingredient was serendipitously finding an excellent studio assistant to help. In less than four weeks, I completed three new pieces in the Book of the Ancients series and made the entry deadline!

The works in this series continue to be inspired by remembered bits of personal history,  considerations of how and what we remember over time. I’ve returned to the photographer who is able to capture the truest representation of the luminosity and colors within each work.

Jeanne Raffer Beck, Book of the Ancients 8: Remembered Teachers, 2012, 36” x 48”, composition gold leaf, spun polyester, fiberglass window screening, acrylics. Screen printing, gel medium transfers, cut, stitched and constructed.

Detail, Book of the Ancients 8

Book of the Ancients 9, 2012, 36” x 48”, composition gold leaf, spun polyester, fiberglass window screening, acrylics, oil stick. Screen printed, cut, stitched and constructed.

Detail, Book of the Ancients 9

Book of the Ancients 10, 2012, 36” x 48”, composition gold leaf, spun polyester, fiberglass window screening, acrylics, oil stick. Stenciled, cut, stitched and constructed.

Detail, Book of the Ancients 10

Photographing New Works: Your Opinion, Please

I work with three photographers. One doesn’t have a studio to photograph my larger works so I have to pay for his travel time and set up in my studio; another has a studio but it’s a two hour drive away. I took this latest work to a third photographer who has his own studio and he shot it a bit differently. Here’s your chance to take a close look and share your opinions about how it turned out – I would greatly appreciate it if you do!

We had to jury rig a hanging device for the piece. Since he is a Photoshop wizard, he was able to remove all signs of the orange clamps from the final image. Because of the slope of the hanging mechanism, the piece listed a bit to the right.

Jeanne Raffer Beck, Book of the Ancients: Memory 2, 48” x 48”, 2012

That’s the final image above. The reflectiveness of the piece by photographer #3 is less visible than the one in the piece below done by photographer #2. Here is the question:

Jeanne Raffer Beck, Book of the Ancients 3: Memory, 36” x 36”, 2011.

Which photograph best holds your attention and interest and makes you want to see more?

Hungerford Artists Open Studios and ACC Member Showcase 2012 this First Friday

 

Please join me and my guest artist, Christina Laurel, as we show our work together this Friday, August 3, 6-9 PM at the Hungerford Building First Friday Open Studios, 1115 East Main Street, Rochester, NY, at my studio, #366 on the third floor,  5 –9 PM.

Christina Laurel, Black and White Fan #14, mixed media; collaged, layered, found and prepared papers.

In addition, one of my silk and thread constructions, “Pages 7”,  is in the Arts & Cultural Council Member Showcase 2012 Exhibition at 277 North Goodman Street, a short walking distance from the Hungerford Building. You’re invited to this opening as well this Friday evening  5 – 9 PM.

In total, ACC received 204 submissions from 73 member artists. The exhibition jurors selected 20 pieces from 19 artists, so I am delighted my work is among them. The exhibition runs August 3 – 30.

Oklahoma’s FiberWorks 2012

 

I spent this past week in Oklahoma City as this year’s FiberWorks juror, lecturer and critique presenter.  FiberWorks, a juried annual exhibition produced by Fiber Artists of Oklahoma, is now held at IAO, an expansive new gallery in a downtown neighborhood where various studios like Paramount once stored and distributed movie films.

This exciting and diverse annual exhibition, mounted by its talented founder Sue Moss Sullivan for 34 years, showcases the full gamut of traditional and contemporary fiber art and fine craft.

A great crowd gathered for Friday night’s opening and I enjoyed giving an opening lecture to a supportive, interested audience.

The gallery is extremely spacious and well-appointed, with excellent portable walls and numerous pedestals, a spacious lecture/reception area in the back, kitchen, storage area and office space. It is a dream space and IAO is truly an asset to Oklahoma City artists.

On Saturday morning, we had a strong attendance of artists in the show who gathered for a juror’s walk-through and critique of each work in the exhibition.

I  felt honored to meet this talented group of artists and artisans and be so involved in this year’s exhibit. It was a busy week filled with lots of friendly artists and interesting conversations.

Check the Fiber Artists of Oklahoma website in a few weeks to see images of some of the works selected for FiberWorks 2012.

Memories and Recollections: Autobiographical Imagery

 

How would you tell the story of your life visually?? That’s a question I’ve been asking myself as this excavation of personal memories as visual imagery continues. Memory is a quirky thing – full of random bits and pieces, some crystal clear and others a bit muddied or vague.  All fuel for artistic inspiration.

My Pittsburgh childhood in the 1950’s holds both urban and suburban recollections. One vivid memory is the streetcar or trolley car. We would dress up and take the trolley downtown to shop at the downtown department stores like Joseph Horne’s, where uniformed elevator operators with white gloves would call out each floor and its products – “Fourth Floor,Ladies dresses, Lingerie”, until we reached our desired destination.

 

My grandparents ran a lunch counter and soda fountain much like the one shown in this early Pittsburgh historical photograph, called the H & H Dairy Bar. The two H’s stood for Herman & Helen Haupt. Men wore hats, suits and white shirts with ties and women wore stockings with a seam up the back, dresses and high heels every day.

As a young girl, when I visited my grandparents, I slept in the front bedroom of their apartment above their store. The wires for the trolley cars ran level with the second story window ledge. As I lay in bed I could see the sparks fly from the wires as the trolleys sped by and hear the clattering of their wheels on the tracks. The trolleys lulled me to sleep.

I’ve been mining this rich vein of recollections from my personal history and contemplating how they might fit into my work.