Calendar angst and pre-show jitters

The calendar is nagging me. Insisting it's been over 7 months since I last blogged. Threatening me that it's exactly 1 month till I have to deliver a show's worth of paintings to the Bert Gallery. And a few days later, another show's worth to DeBlois Gallery. And that I'm late, late, late designing invitations, getting out PR and related paperwork. And that it's been over a year since I dipped my kayak paddle into the turquoise waters of Alaskan Fiords.

Well I'm blogging now, so shut up calendar.  And the show will come together. After all, I have a month!

And, although I probably have lost any folks who have been kind enough to follow this blog, those who stumble upon it can see more about my exhibits here
https://www.facebook.com/KathyHodgeStudio
and suffer silly tweets here
https://twitter.com/KathyHodgeArt

OFFBEAT! ICONIC!

Monday I'll be delivering paintings to be exhibited in Green Airport, Warwick, RI, part of my Shoemaker Series

Here's the official description of the show...

CATE BROWN
KATHY HODGE
ALEXANDER NESBITT

OFFBEAT ICONIC features three artists who portray quintessential Rhode Island subjects in unexpected ways. Subject matters include our state’s landmarks, manufacturing history and maritime heritage. Views presented, however, are of the overlooked, bygone or rarely accessible aspects of these subjects. The viewer is invited to stray off the beaten path through the unique vision of these three artists.

So if you are taking a flight, and not running frantically for your plane, take a little detour to the lobby area at the base of the stairs to the Post Road pedestrian overpass. The show runs from January 13 through April 30,  2015.

If you'd like to preview the catalog of The Shoemaker Series: St. Hugh's Bones, and/or purchase a copy, you can see it HERE

Posterized

Gallery Night Providence is starting up again with a brand new website and a classy new poster which I am thrilled to report, has my painting on it! This is the second time one of my paintings have made it to the poster and I was very lucky to be asked again to supply the image, and it coincides perfectly with my exhibit, which is having a "closing reception" at the Bert Gallery on Gallery Night, March 20, from 5:30 to 9, if you're in the area. If not, you can always hop on a plane, but no pressure.


The painting is called "The seal" and is a kayaker's view of Harriman Fiord, where I went as part of the Voices of the Wilderness Artist-In-Residence Program in the Nellie Juan-College Fiord Wilderness Study Area of the Chugach National Forest.

This year I couldn't resist the temptation to apply again to the program, this time just south east in the Tongass National Forest near Juneau. I actually sold a few of my Alaska oils during the exhibit and all of my little gouache studies I did in the field, so need to do some more research and restock! And as this is the 50th Anniversary year of the Wilderness Act, it would be great to spend some of it in the national forest with the greatest number of wilderness areas! Wish me luck!

Hanging at the Bert Gallery

My latest exhibit at the Bert Gallery is coming together, with the help of Cathy Bert, who has somehow managed to take a disparate collection of my latest work and present it in a way that makes sense, and looks great. The show is still in "beta", but if you'd like to get sneak peek call (401.751.2628) and see if the gallery is open. The official opening is February 20, and will be up through the first Gallery Night Providence, March 20. There will also be a web component, still in development, I'll post a link when it's up. And by a great stroke of luck, an image from the show will be used on the March Gallery Night poster, so check it out!

Saving the Bay

The Rip, oil/canvas, 30"x40"    Artists for Save the Bay 2011

I guess if I've been blogging so long that bloggable items can become yearly events I can afford to be lazy and repeat a 2010 entry, with just some updating for 2011. Because, after all, this Save the Bay entry was a classic...

Every year Save the Bay holds an art exhibit of work inspired by Narragansett Bay. And every year I go in search for all the waterfront paintings I've done over the summer.  Since I live on a peninsula surrounded by saltmarshes, jetties and coves filled with swans, egrets and ducks and gorgeous sunsets there are endless subjects to paint and where the heck are all those paintings I did? Oh yeah, the same place my time to paint was—hard to find.  But I love being in the show and this year I did manage to submit two one pieces and have them it accepted. 

Unfortunately for us wine&cheese freeloaders, the reception is also a fundraiser for Save the Bay and tickets to the opening are $25. a pop. I found that out last two years ago when I blithely headed to STB headquarters with friends in tow. Only after seeing the ticket booth at the door did I realize that the crowd was decidedly better dressed than the motley artists who usually gather around the cheese trays (by which I mean us). But it IS an excellent cause, so if $25. is in your budget, you can enjoy an evening of drinks, good munchies and some very engaging paintings. Not to mention a great night-time view down the bay through the expansive windows and a rare sight — people with their checkbooks out, buying art!

I get to go free this year since I have work in the show (I can't make the opening this year, it's my last glass casting class, unfortunately on both counts), but everyone can visit (minus wine&cheese and entry fee) from Nov. 18-Dec. 27, Mon. to Fri. 8:30 – 4:30 at the Save the Bay center. 

Opening Reception: Thursday, November 17, 2011
5:30 - 8:00 p.m.
Save The Bay Center, Providence  Directions.
$25 includes drinks and hors d'oeuvres
Purchase tickets now.
The exhibit runs November 17 - December 27 and showcases Bay-themed painting, photography, sculpture and jewelry from artists across Rhode Island and Massachusetts. 50% of the proceeds benefit Save The Bay programs. More info.

On exhibit

Supermoon, 20x24, oil/canvas, 2011

I'm dropping off this painting tonight for its first foray out into the big, big world as part of the exhibition
VICINITY: RISD Rhode Island Alumni Group exhibition
November 10 to December 15, 2011
The opening reception is Thursday, Nov. 10^th, 7pm at 42 Rice Street Providence (directions)

I'm looking forward to seeing the venue,  Keeseh Studios, when I drop the painting off. From what I can gather on their website it seems to be like a Steelyard for the woodworking set. Here's their mission statement:

Keeseh Studio is a woodworking facility that serves as a resource for Rhode Island’s creative community. The communal woodshop provides machinery, tools and workspace for local artists and designers to rent using a membership system. As such, they have access to a wealth of capabilities and resources as well as the company of artists with whom to share ideas and gain critique. Keeseh also offers woodworking classes and services. The Studio welcomes a wide range of people — from those who have no experience and are looking to learn, to professionals wishing to engage with like-minded individuals.

Our mission is to:
-encourage the growth of woodworking as a design and craft.
-make woodworking accessible to everyone.
-educate and develop skills that will allow creative individuals to express themselves and their ideas through woodworking.
-connect local artists and designers in order to promote the exchange of information and knowledge.
-support the growth of Providence’s creative community.

Alas, I won't be able to attend the opening, since I'll be in my glass casting class at the aforementioned Steelyard (a Keeseh Studios for metal heads). Rats.

Posterized

 

This is the poster I designed for this month's Gallery Night Providence. I've got nothing to show in that fair city right now but I am showing 3 paintings in Warren at Imago Gallery, and one in Newport at the Newport Art Museum.

A seascape, hold the peanut sauce.

Recently I went to the opening of the Alumni Show at UMass Dartmouth in which I'm exhibiting a piece.  I have to say, Swain and UMass graduated some great painters. It's just so nice to see a show with work that speaks for itself, without the need for headphones on the wall next to it. Afterwards some congenial friends and I repaired to a Thai restaurant where one of my friends pulled out a painting she won on ebay that, as good as the other ones were, was even better.  It was the painting featured in The Art of Painting 4 - The Seascape, Spicy.  What made it even more special was that we knew that the underpainting was The Art of Painting 3 -Nude Sleeping Angel Thomas Kinkade.  As we were admiring it the food arrived and I watched in horror, as if in slow motion, as the plate of Thai Pork with Peanut Sauce tilted in the waitress's hand, and the aforementioned Peanut Sauce poured onto the painting! But somehow I think Lily would have just rolled with it. A few quick wipes with a napkin and it was as good as new, maybe a little more spicy.

The next night I went an opening at the Newport Art Museum which was so packed with the Newport art crowd so it was hard to see the work. Eventually everyone crowded into one room to hear the announcement of the prizes, some which get you awarded show at the museum. As the prizes in painting dwindled away my remaining long-shot hope was Best of Show. Finally they announced it...."The best of show award goes to Kat—" That was it, just Kat. Oh well, you can't win them all!

Here are some of the studies I've been working on for my next series, then I'm off to draw another angle of the raccoon in all his taxidermied splendor.

Group therapy

I'm showing paintings in two group shows opening this week, so I'm going to strap on my snowshoes and head out to the hinterlands for the openings.

The first....

 

The alumni show, which includes Swain alumnus as well, is being held at UMass Dartmouth from February 3rd to March 4, with an opening this Thursday, Feb. 3 from 4:30 to 7. There should be lots of fine paintings in the show judging from the list of participants.
(Here are directions to campus - you can use parking lots 7-8, see campus map)

• • • 

The other show is the Newport Art Museum Annual Members' Juried Exhibition and runs from February 5 to May 22 ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ sigh ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ oh sorry, I was just thinking about May. A glance out my window with new snow falling on 5 foot piles of dirty ice brought me back to reality—anyway, the reception is on Friday, Feb. 4 from 5-7.

I might be late for both openings, unless I can get out of work early. Such is the life of the working artist....

Snow day

 

The gift of a snow day yesterday gave me a chance to explore another gift, the set of pastels I "inherited" from the studio of painter Louise Marianetti. It was a well-used and well-loved set, the hinge broken but the softly worn pastel sticks carefully arranged. Heavy on reds, pinks and light orange it was obviously used for portraits. Not being a portrait painter I needed to rebalance the colors for landscape so sorted through them, adding my own earth colors. It was strange picking up the velvety ovals of color, knowing that the last hands to touch them were Marianetti's adding a stroke to an unknown drawing, and that the next stroke of the pastel would be on mine.

With snow still  falling outside I decided to work on a snow scene using a sheet of Canson paper also from Marianetti's studio.

 

I haven't worked in pastel for awhile but found it freeing to work quickly and without detail, even though it will take me awhile to get back in stride with it. It's a good winter medium, I just wish they weren't so hard to frame! But that's a problem for another day.

Louise Marianetti's show is now up at the Bert Gallery in Providence until March 19 and I highly recommend it. The work shows the obsessive focus of a real artist. The more you look at her work the stranger and more interesting it becomes, a quality that seems rare today. Don't neglect to look through the rack of unframed paintings by the door, some of the best work is in there. And the exhibit includes some artifacts from her studio, including art supplies and props, beautifully arranged by Cathy Bert.

Artists for Save The Bay

Every year Save the Bay holds an art exhibit of work inspired by Narragansett Bay. And every year I go in search for all the waterfront paintings I've done over the summer.  Since I live on a peninsula surrounded by saltmarshes, jetties and coves filled with swans, egrets and ducks and gorgeous sunsets there are endless subjects to paint and where the heck are all those paintings I did? Oh yeah, the same place my time to paint was—hard to find.  But I love being in the show and this year I did manage to submit two pieces and have them accepted. Yea! (click on the invite, and then my name, to see the work).

Unfortunately for us wine&cheese freeloaders, the reception is also a fundraiser for Save the Bay and tickets to the opening are $25. a pop. I found that out last year when I blithely headed to STB headquarters with friends in tow. Only after seeing the ticket booth at the door did I realize that the crowd was decidedly better dressed than the motley artists who usually gather around the cheese trays (by which I mean us). But it IS an excellent cause, so if $25. is in your budget, you can enjoy an evening of drinks, good munchies and some very engaging paintings. Not to mention a great night-time view down the bay through the expansive windows and a rare sight — people with their checkbooks out, buying art!

I get to go free this year since I have work in the show, but everyone can visit (minus wine&cheese and entry fee) from Nov. 19-Dec. 28, Mon. to Fri. 8:30 – 4:30 at the Save the Bay center. (directions)

It was a little hard to adjust to life back on the mainland after spending a weekend on Block Island for the BioBlitz show at Island Gallery, especially when we had Kira Stillwell from the Rhode Island Natural History Society (foreground),  Kim Gaffett of the Ocean View Foundation and Cindy Kelly of the Island Gallery  providing accommodations for ourselves and our artwork that were well beyond our expectations.

The show looked great, and as you can see, was well received, especially by Kira's daughter Brin. I've gotten compliments on my paintings at openings, but this was the first time someone felt moved to kiss one. (The lucky painting was not inspired by the BioBlitz, but a day trip to Mohegan Bluffs 17 years ago.)

The other painting I brought was of the trip I took with Captain Feather and his crew in the pouring rain off the north end of the island on the second day of BioBlitz.

The weekend got me psyched and now that we've practiced with the first exhibit, we're hatching plans for a longer and more publicized version for the next one. Stay tuned!

Photos from the weekend can be seen here and here.

More on bioblitz from my blog, and the website.

Sainted

Mass MOCA had a strange effect on me. But I think hiking in the Berkshires will stick with me longer.

Hanging at RISD

You know when you finish an large and ambitious painting, hang it on a gallery wall and feel that it accomplished everything you wanted it to?  Neither do I.  In fact, I'm now reworking a painting that I tried to convince myself was finished, and had the nerve to hang in my show at the Gail Cahalan Gallery in 2009. It's getting better now though, I think.

One reason I'm pushing this one is that the Art League of RI, of which I'm a member, is having its annual show at the RISD museum in June. And they're not shoving us into a little local artist corner, it's being hung in the huge new gallery space that usually hosts national shows. Since this is probably the only chance I'll ever have of hanging in the RISD Museum, the pressure is on.

So that explains the lack of blog posts lately, I'm too busy painting to write about painting when I'm home, and my day-job has gotten too busy to sneak it in at work, so there you go.

Art New England Review

I've been reviewed! The writer, Martina Windels, visited my studio about a month and a half ago and we spent a long time talking. She looked at both of the shows I had up at the time at RWU and the Bert Gallery. I would have rather she reviewd the Bert show, since that contained my latest work, but understand why she chose the longer show at RWU. Art New England only publishes every two months, so most shows are already down by the time they're reviewed. But the RWU will be up until June, so there's plenty of time to see if you agree with her assesment.

I'm generally happy with the critique, even the "They fail, however..." part. I know the large Badlands triptych was more of a transitional piece, and if I failed to convey the desolation, it could be because I found the Badlands not desolate, but incredibly rich in color and texture.  See what you think...

Criticism is easier to take if it is well thought out and informed. I know Martina spent a long time looking at my work, my website and asking questions. I'd rather get a bit of negative feedback in a review with substance than a flattering reprint of my press release. And I have no complaints about the ending!

So, thank you Martina, for a "fair and balanced" review.

(Art New England doesn't link all of its reviews from its website, so I took the liberty of *sigh* retyping the whole thing here)

Art New England APRIL/MAY 2010

KATHY HODGE: PAINTINGS 1993-2009
Roger Williams University Law School Gallery - Bristol, RI - www.bristolartmuseum.org - Through June 2010

In this fifteen-year restrospective, the Bristol Art Museum assembles just a small sampling of this prolific painter's work.

Here one sees how Kathy Hodge intently examines a subject for a long period of time. This exhibit includes work from several series: Train, Russia, and National Park. While working on the latter, she was in an artist residency at the Badlands National Park. She captured this landscape by breaking down and patterning earth tones. They fail, however, to convey the desolate nature she tries to depict. Hodge's patchy and detailed application of small color fields work much better when she paints the hard surfaces of buildings, as in Wait. In this lively and semi-abstracted scene, half a train emerges from an old metal building. The objects in the paintings — trains, bits of building, school buses, row houses, chimneys, and power lines — are all rendered at odd and often conflicting perspectives, which make the scene both mesmerizing and perplexing.

The most compelling paintings in the exhibit are taken from the Shoemaker Series, recently exhibited at the Bert Gallery in Providence.

Intrigued by old cast-iron machinery that she discovered in a local custom shoemaker's shop, Hodge took photographs of the unusual objects. The photographs became the source of inspiration as she started with quick, unfussy, and lively watercolor sketches that captured the equipment's character. Then, using charcoal, she created more studied and realistic portraits of the machine. Workings simultaneously on several pieces and in different media, Hodge would create a third iteration of the object — a loosely composed illustration in acrylic paint, overlaid with pastels for additional color and highlights. The grand finale would be a large painting, always executed in oil, with nuanced color application and a more refined composition.

In the oil paintings, Hodge would often combine elements from different objects, splicing them at obscure angles. The more abstracted the image, the more compelling the painting, shifting the focus from content to color, shape and composition, areas in which Hodge shows her strength and confidence.

—Martina Windels

From Providence Art Windows to Old Furnace

This is a shot of my "Providence Art Window" halfway through installation on Tuesday. Truth is, I was too beat to worry about photographing it when it was done, and too anxious to escape the claustrophobic confines of a 15'x3' glass window box and plunge into the woods of Old Furnace State Park.

The hike was the perfect respite after hours of unrolling yards of canvas, maneuvering a ladder almost as wide as the window and climbing up and down with the aim of avoiding losing my balance and plunging through the plate glass.


The installation also involved importing thorny branches, thistles and burrs into the floor of a city window. They scratched and drew blood in protest as they tried to wrestle from my hands. In the woods, the understory let me pass unscathed, the sharp edges softened by days of rain and the emergence of spring.

The opening of Providence Art Windows is tonight at Providence City Hall atrium from 5 to 8. My window is right across the street on Fulton Street, right next to the windows displaying the Big Nazo Puppets. It's also gallery night, so there's a lot of art going on in the city tonight. Oh, and I've heard something about some basketball game...you might want to take advantage of the Gallery Night parking.

I'll post some photos soon of the completed window for those who can't make it downtown. It will be up till June 11.

Prize surprise

Since I wasn't able to make the opening of the members show at the Bristol Art Museum last night I took a break today from planning my Art Window — figuring out how to transport yards of canvas curtains without wrinkling, and brittle thorn branches without pain. I headed over to the Bristol to check out the show and how I was hung. Turns out I was hung with a label that said "First Prize"!

Now I am not usually a prize winner, a few honorable mentions were the only ones in my trophy case, so First Prize is kind of a kick. It even comes with a small check.  But me and Obama, we like to donate our prize money to charity. (Although if I had gotten his Nobel Peace Prize one million plus, I confess I'd keep it in order to ditch the day job. But I'm glad he likes his job enough to hang in.) I'll send mine to Haiti, the rainy season is fast approaching and they need all the help they can get.

—Written as the rain beats against the windows and the wind gusts, and I sit warm and dry in my house.

Caution - Opening!

I just dropped of my painting of the Goodyear Welt machine (see previous post), titled "Caution" to be part of the Bristol Art Museum Member's Exhibition. The show is up from March 13 to March 27 and the museum is at the corner of Hope and Wardwell Streets in Bristol (map), right behind the Linden Place mansion. The opening is Friday, March 12 from 7 to 9. Unfortunately, I won't be able to go, but they put on a very nice opening so if you can make it, enjoy!

HELD OVER

...but not by much, so you'll have to hurry if you'd like to catch my show at the Bert Gallery.  The last  day will be this Saturday,  Feb. 13.  I'm sorry to see it come down—it's been a great few weeks and  I can't think of a better person to work with than Cathy Bert. I wish she had a bigger space to display her contemporary artists, but she does more with her beautiful little gallery than most do with huge white boxes. If you stop in, wish her a happy 25th anniversary, it's quite a feat to survive that long as a gallery here in Providence!

It's funny, when I exhibited some of this work over a year ago the silence from the press was deafening. This time around, the show was mentioned in 2 reviews - Providence Phoenix  and  The Providence Journal,  and had a full-page write up in The Warwick Beacon.  It was also mentioned as an editor's pick in a several publications and will be reviewed in the April/May edition of Art New England.  Working in the newspaper business I have come to realize that the merit of a show is only one factor in whether it gets press. Others factors are:

• The writer's schedule
• The news hole
• Whether you have a "hook" or local connection
• What else is exhibiting while yours is up
• Whether they've been sent good imagery
• Whether the reviewer takes your venue seriously
• Other miscellaneous factors

I'm just glad the planets aligned for this show. Thanks so much to all who came, purchased or wrote about my work, it is much appreciated!

Reviewed!

I was happy today to open The Providence Journal and find my show got a positive mention in the weekly art review.  Although I work for the paper, that by no means guarantees a review.  In fact, I think it works against me most times. It's hard to maintain that bohemian artist mystique when you're seen every day trudging up the stairs to your cubicle.

It was even more fun to get a phone call from my mom, who lives in Warwick, that the show got a full page color write up in the Warwick Beacon. It's nice to make the folks proud once in a while. And just think, all the neighbors will see it!

I get a kick out of it too, since The Beacon was my first job after I graduated the Swain School of Design.  It wasn't my first newspaper job, which was typing in stories for the RISD Press, but it was where I learned the trade of newspaper design and production.  A lot has changed in that field, but it still provides me a paycheck, and now supports my painting habit.

And unusual for art reviews in this area — the reviews were published before the show is over.  Yea!

The show is up until February 12 at the Bert Gallery in Providence.

• • •

RIP -  J.D. Salinger. His books helped me survive high school.