Chalkfest 2012

Chalkfest is a yearly event at Bolton High in Alexandria, Louisiana. Every spring the art department invites 50-60 students to spend the day recreating beautiful and colorful works of art in chalk pastels on the concrete hallway in front of the school. This spring, the weather didn't cooperate and the students were moved indoors and given paper to work on. When the parents saw the works, many inquired about purchasing the art, so these beautiful creations are now going to be auctioned as a fundraiser for the art department.

I was contacted because the students chose one of my paintings to be recreated, and what a wonderful job they did! I was given permission to use the photos of the students with their creation to share on my blog. I'm in awe at their beautiful work and secretly wish I were a student in their art department. :)

 Here are some pics of the students recreating "Happy Hour For Two".

You can see more of the students in action at Bolton High Student Art Photos. Thank you, Tracie Campbell, for contacting me about this project. I'm honored that they chose my art. Keep up wonderful work with these talented young people.

Thanks for stopping by. Have a great day.

Venus Envy 2012, Baton Rouge Gallery

Last week while my daughter was out of school for spring break, we got away for a few days to one of my favorite getaway spots - New Orleans. We went to the Audubon Zoo (love that zoo!), the Aquarium of the America's, and the Insectarium. And of course, as always, we visited art galleries, the French Market, rode the streetcars and visited some wonderful New Orleans restaurants.

 A couple of notable adventures are when we wandered into a French art gallery on Royal and stumbled upon the art of Francois Gilot, Pablo picasso's lover and muse. She is now 90 and still painting. She is on the cover of Vogue (I think) with a spread about her upcoming show in NYC. And at our last night out, we had dinner reservations at Giovanni's restaurant (yum!) and ended up at a table next to ESPN's Dick Vitale. (No, I didn't take photos.) 

As usual, I'm craving beignets just thinking about our trip, but I know we'll be back. While we were there, I got notified that I had a painted accepted into a juried show. I haven't submitted art to juried shows in over 15 years, so this was so exciting. The show is the 14th Annual Venus Envy Juried Exhibition 2012. The theme for this show is "Too Much Pink" depicting the color pink (or lack of) in today's society. The juror for the show is Michaelene Walsh.

A blurb from the gallery website about the show: Every year, Baton Rouge Gallery and Venus Envy (a Missouri-based non-profit organization driven by women which positively affects everyone by empowering women through the arts) team up to present an exciting multimedia contemporary art exhibition showcasing the work of female artists in the southeastern United States. The 14th annual Venus Envy Baton Rouge exhibition will run April 17-26, 2012.

The reception for this exhibition is Saturday, April 21 from 7-9pm at the Baton Rouge Gallery Center for Contemporary Art, 1442 City Park Ave, Baton Rouge, LA. If you are in Baton Rouge, I hope you can drop by to see the exhibit.

That's all for now, but I will have more art to share next week. Thanks for dropping by and have a wonderful weekend.

Downtown Gallery Crawl, West Monroe TONIGHT

Been SUPER busy getting ready for several events - one of which is tonight! The Downtown Gallery Crawl, a bi-monthly event in Monroe - West Monroe, Louisiana is Thursday, April 5 from 5-9pm. My work will be the Ouachita River Art Gallery, 308 Trenton Street, West Monroe, LA.

In addition to my florals, birds and New Orleans scenes, I will be debuting my Vintage/Shabby Mixed Media Girls AKA "She Art". Most of the materials used are from the Feb/March Scarlet Lime mixed media kits. I love to "play" with this n that just for fun. They are both on reclaimed lumber.

If you are local, come out and visit. There are 10 galleries involved in the art crawl, and you can get a map at our gallery directing you to the others.

Check back Friday, as I'll be sharing some more news!

It's All About the Shoes! Fly Tribe Blog Hop

Thanks for stopping by my blog today. I’m a part of a group of creative people known as “The Fly Tribe” brought together through Kelly Rae Roberts “Flying Lessons” ecourse in 2011.

Today our blog is about:

Shoes!

For the past year I have been on a fast paced and fun creative journey. What do you need when you take a journey? Something on your feet. I’m following the footsteps (pun intended) of Dorothy of Oz and my shoe of choice is “the ruby slippers”.

 Shoes represent your “walk” - where you are and where you are going. The color - red/ruby - is the color of passion, fire, life and love. My passion for art runs through my blood like fire, and I love running my creative business. When you love something and are passionate about it, it shows in your work. The glitter on the ruby slippers are reflective. They reflect light - they SPARKLE. Four years ago when visiting Disney’s Epcot with my family, I picked up a small coin purse. It has Tinkerbell on one side and on the other side it says “I’m all about Sparkle”. What a way to live; to sparkle with the passion inside of you, have it manifest in your art and attract people to it.  A few months ago, an artist friend (who didn’t know about the coin purse) actually told me that I “sparkle”. That makes me happy.

For creative people that are out there - sparkle on. Don’t let anything or anyone try to take those ruby slippers from you. Do you remember what Glenda told Dorothy when she placed the slippers on her feet? She told her to never take them off!

Thanks for stopping by today. Please leave your “footprints” below in the comments section so I’ll know you were here. Then hop on over to the next blog and check out more shoes!

An Off The Wall Night

Last night my husband and I attended the Masur Museum "Off The Wall" Art Auction, a yearly fundraiser to help support the museum. Local, national and international artists donated art for a silent auction, and the winning bidders take the art "off the wall" and home with them at the end of the night. There was a great turnout for the event.

My husband had a mini-reunion at the event. The musician for the night was Kevin Gordon, formerly from our area, but now a successful Nashville recording artist. When my husband was a teenager, he and his friends used to skateboard - alot. They had ramps and half-pipes. Kevin was one of his skateboard friends. One of his other friends was also at the event last night, so they had a small mini-reunion. 

 

If you love music, check out the Rolling Stone magazine write  up of Kevin's latest album Gloryland. I think you will find a bit of Louisiana in it.

Thanks for stopping by. Have a wonderful St. Patty's Day. We are off to the Vineyard for more live music.

I'm a Flygirl Friday's Featured Artist

We just dropped off my art at Masur Museum. The Off The Wall Fundraiser is next week and I'm so excited. Kevin Gordon will be performing at this event. How exciting. Here's another one of the paintings I donated to this event.

"Cool Waters Run Deep" by Melanie Douthit

And I'm happy to share with you that I was recently interviewed by Violet for the Flygirl Friday's blog and today it went live! Hop on over there and check it out. Leave a comment so I know you stopped by.

Happy Friday!

The Art of a Daydream Believer

I was saddened to hear the news about the passing of my childhood star crush, Davy Jones. I have had "Daydream Believer" playing in my head since last week. As I've stated before, I'm very artistically inspired by music, and I already have several versions of this particular song swirling in my head. I completed one this week.

"Daydream Believer No 1" 20" x 20"

This painting was created for a silent auction raising funds for the Masur Museum of Art in Monroe, Louisiana next week. I'm so looking forward to this event.

The studio has been a creative hub for the past few weeks. I'm still frantically trying to get orders done as well as some personal projects I'm working on. Here's a peek at some in-progress work.

Here's a fun photo I took of one of the collectors of my "Bon Appetit Y'all" signs. I purposely had her stand in front of her camaro so I could show hubby that people that drive cool cars collect my art.

Lots to do today and some deliveries to make tomorrow as well as a supply run. We are expected to get 5-6 inches of rain in the next few days. (I thought it was April that had all the showers). Thanks for stopping by and have a wonderful weekend!