Why the 17th? It’s the Friday before the World Canal Conference, hosted in Rochester, NY this year. Check out the schedule – there are lots of events happening on Sunday that are open to the public. Our goal was to have the murals installed in time for the Conference. We have plenty of time to spare, so be sure to swing by Henpeck Park after September 1st to check out the murals under the bridge. Let me know what you think!

For the sake of maintaining an element of surprise, I’m going to wait until after the ribbon cutting to post pictures of the entire murals. Here’s a detail of the last one! The boat is definitely my favorite part.

Monday was spent tweaking a few details on the third and last panel for Henpeck park. It was such a relief to finish the painting within the deadline. Then I spent most of today waiting for the threat of rain to pass so I could get on with the process of clear coating. Golden’s MSA Varnish requires an isolation coat of Soft Gel Medium. The medium dries to a moderate gloss and creates a permanent barrier to protect the painting in case the varnish must be removed. Little raindrops would not be a welcome addition at this stage!

The Great Lakes of Erie and Ontario, with the Niagara Peninsula in between, create some interesting weather effects. Sorta like big parallel stripes of clouds and clear skies that arch right over my house. It’s pretty neat! Today the very edge of the rain clouds hovered over the mural until 2pm, with clear blue skies to the North! Couldn’t the rain move just a LITTLE South?  It worked out alright since I had plenty of time to take care of a few other things, and finished the day by clear coating in the cool air and beautiful colors of twilight.

Sally and Henry, from the completed second painting.
She’s a good ol’ worker an’ a good ol’ pal…..

This week I’m finishing up the last panel of the Henpeck Park public mural. Below is a reference photo of Junction Lock I’m using for part of the painting. Grainy old photos always make the details challenging to render!

Painting is going well and I’m definitely amped up about the installation! Transporting the nine finished sections of three 8′ x 12′ murals – to install on a barge over the canal! – will be the most exciting and nerve-wracking of my career to date. (I get giddy and paranoid just moving them into storage!)  I will be so happy to see them permanently  hanging in their new home under the Elmgrove Road bridge. I cannot way to see the final effect with all three sections working together.

I wonder what my next public art project will be? There are so many small towns along the canal with empty walls and piles of history. I would love to create another Treasures project like the one we just finished in Holley – art that illustrates a town by exhibiting historical and current points of interest, then provides them with an easy way to find all of that interesting stuff! All art has a function, but when you can really make it work for you – that’s even better.

Looking for something to do this weekend? The Rose Lummis is taking passengers on a scenic tour of the canal. I went last summer and it was a beautiful trip. I learned a lot about the canal, including what sort of creatures are swimming around in there. Tickets must be purchased in advance. I hope they have some left!

Painting is going well this week and I’m definitely amped up about the installation!

Today a few representatives from Greece came by to check it out and give the thumbs up before I apply the clearcoat. Now that we have the all clear, I thought I’d share a few photos real quick. Unfortunately you can see a little gap between the second and third panels. That won’t be there when it’s installed. Hopefully it doesn’t disrupt your viewing experience! This section is 12′ x 8′. Click on the images for a larger view.

One of the biggest challenges for this commission is making sure that the painting is readable from 80 feet away. That’s where most people will be viewing it from, since it will be installed under a canal bridge on the other side of the canal! Of course, boaters will be able to see the brushwork.

Any comments, suggestions and criticism are most welcome! Thanks for looking.

Away she goes!

The unveiling for Treasures of Holley is only days away. June 5th, at 11am, the mural installation in Holley’s Canal Park (map) will be unveiled.

I’m very happy to be tying this event in with Holley’s Junefest. Crafters, many garage sales, a car show, chicken bbq and other festival food, drum corp show, 5k race, fun for the kids, fireworks!…. and of course an awesome mural!! There are a lot of reasons to come to Holley on June 5th.

The mural kiosk under construction. You can see the lift bridge and the canal in the background - great location!

It doesn’t seem like it was a year ago that I met Joyce Ridley, then president of the Holley Rotary Club. Somewhere in that first conversation the subject of creating a mural in Holley came up. Before winter hit I had spoken with the rest of the club about partnering with them for a community project, then applied for and won a grant through GoArt to fund the project. This project was even more involved, with way more potential, then we first anticipated. And this is just the beginning!

After all the work of the past year, it will be really great for everyone involved to see how this will all function on Saturday. The murals themselves were very well received at the preview (an article in the Journal Register Register). That was a great night! We saw more people then we ever expected, and the response to Treasures of Holley was just wonderful. Now it’s the other half of the project, the walking tour/treasure hunt that remains to be proven. We’ve tested the route several times to get the kinks out, but you know something will be not quite right, come the final reckoning. We’ve done enough ground work and preparation for it all to go smoothly enough, but I’m curious to see what the public will think.

That’s the moment I’m most looking forward to… when the murals are unveiled, the maps are picked up and people head out to explore the town of Holley. It truly is a launch, like sending a new boat into the water for the first time. Should I bring a bottle of champagne to smash?

A detail from "The Old Canal Spur" mural panel, Treasures of Holley

Spring has been a whirlwind of activity so far… or maybe a thunder shower, or a series of snow flurries would be a more appropriate metaphor.  This is Western New York after all, and while we’ve already seen temps in the eighties this month, today it snowed! So I reluctantly turned on the furnace, and spent the afternoon sending out promotional blurbs to local publications, announcing the ToH mural preview. I hope to see all of you there!

I eventually realized that the space I’ve been meaning to update for the longest time is still empty and waiting for some words. Sometimes it can really be a struggle to put the right words together! Sometimes it can be a struggle just to sit down and get close enough to this page to even begin thinking about finding the right words….But today, this is where the hard work and headache of composing press releases will pay off. Cut….and paste!

Treasures of Holley Mural Preview

On Saturday April 17th, from 4pm til 9pm, Marti’s on Main will be hosting an exhibit of all eight panels on April 17^th from 4pm to 9pm, the first exhibit in Marti’s brand new second floor gallery. This will be the last stop before the mural is permanently installed in Holley’s canal side park.

Enjoy live music and refreshments, while you learn about the purpose and intent of this interactive mural installation. Limited edition prints of the mural will be for sale. Meet the artist, ask questions, and learn about Treasures of Holley. All proceeds benefit this community mural project. Stop by for a sneak peak!

(I included a summary with the press releases as well. I’ll post it here just in case some of my readers are unfamiliar with the idea behind Treasures of Holley.)

About Treasures of Holley

This mural isn’t just a painting – it’s a Treasure Map!

This interactive mural installation designed for Holley’s Canal Park has been one year in the making. A collaboration between Holley’s Rotary Club, OCALS, and artist Stacey Kirby, Treasures of Holley is a community project that seeks to show people all that Holley has to offer. Eight mural panels illustrate a variety of interesting features of the town; historical architecture, natural beauty, interesting people – they’re all a part of Holley, waiting to be discovered.

After June 5^th, treasure maps can be found at the mural in Holley’s Canal Park. Use the map to explore the town of Holley, it will guide you to the different landmarks that are found in the paintings. Solve riddles, follow clues and answer questions as you go. The treasure hunt walking tour will be launched on June 5^th, with the unveiling of the mural installation.

“People from all over the country and all over the world travel the canal, and they love stopping in Holley’s beautiful Canal Park to eat lunch, relax and rest. Until now, there hasn’t been anything to draw them into the town itself, where their business would be very welcome.  Treasures of Holley is a solution to that problem. The colorful murals show visitors what Holley has to offer, but that’s just a taste. With the treasure hunt walking tour, they can see the sites first hand and learn all sorts of interesting facts about Holley. This is great for people traveling the canal that are looking for a new activity, people from the area that would like to discover Holley’s hidden treasures, and even people that live here in town.  It’s free, educational and it gets people active outdoors.” – artist Stacey Kirby

My intention in this panel is to create a sense of the individuals that built the town of Holley, NY and made it what it is. The same kind of people that live here today: hardworking, enjoying life, lighthearted, solemn, and giving to the community in more ways then one. It was quite a task to select the right photos from the many thousands that historian Marsha Defillips has in her collection.

Click here to read on about painting in monochrome:As I went from photo to photo, I realized this was a great moment to catch every layer of the painting process. Most of the panel is still underpainting, but a few of the photos are finished, and several have just been drawn in. I think it looks neat because there are parts of each stage that I love, that I would like to keep forever in the painting, even as I paint over them.

Painting in monochrome has been a refreshing change. Compared to working out a full color painting, monochrome is effortless. All I need to worry about is the value and how that creates the form. The shading, in other words. But even in a painting that is pretty much lacking color, there is quite a bit going on. I began with a dark based on a very cool Payne’s Grey. For some of the older images I wanted a more vintage feel, so I added burnt umber. This warmer dark also became effective for adding depth between layers of the image, and contrast between a midtone and a highlight.

The contrast between warm and cool is one of my favorite painting tools. The very atmosphere of the world around you creates layers of transparent coolness, a veil between near and far. Even in the flat landscapes of WNY we see those distant blues. Adding hints of warmth or an overall warmer tone (with nearly any red shade) to the foreground will often be an effective way of creating the illusion of distance in any drawing or painting. This method can be used to create depth and distance in any spatial work, even a still life.

It’s interesting because I’ve definitely seen successful paintings composed of the opposite. Like any rule, sometimes the opposite is true! Cool foregrounds …with warm elements in the middle or background. This is because the difference of temperature is a tool not only for creating depth, but also drawing attention to the focus of your painting. The human eye (as well as the eyes of other animals) is drawn first to the color red. Having your most intense warm colors near the main subject is one way to direct the viewer’s attention. Circles are another thing that emphasize a focal point. Drop a red circle into your work and what do you have? A bullseye, in more then one sense of the word.

I’m interested to hear how you observe the effect of warm and cool – in painting and in the world around you. How do you use this tool in your painting? Do you utilize color temperature in other ways? If you’re not a painter, take a look at the print media you’re surrounded with every day… how do graphic designers use warm and cool? Where else do you notice the effects of color temperature?

Over the next six months or so, I will be working on a public mural for Henpeck Park, in Greece NY. After a period of negotiations, the contract has been signed, the panels are ordered – it’s offical!

Panel 1 : Construction of the Erie Canal in Greece, NY

Click here to read the rest of this post.>>I heard about the call for proposals about a year ago. They were looking for something that would illustrate the historical significance of the canal and or/agriculture in the area. It was a very broad topic, but I love to spin out big complicated ideas, so I had a concept put together pretty quickly: a visual time line of the Erie Canal as it developed in Greece from construction to the present with appropriate tools, transportation and agricultural growth illustrated for each section. I was thrilled when my proposal was chosen!

The theme of a visual time line has stayed the same, but after meeting the board face to face and hearing what they really wanted, the idea was immediately simplified. I broke it down into three of the main stages of the Erie Canal. Panel 1: construction, ca 1820; Panel 2: 1st expansion featuring a mule towed barge, ca 1830; Panel 3: a later expansion showing Junction Lock and a steam powered tug, ca 1920. There are plenty of other details in each section – I’ll describe them more thoroughly as work progresses.

One interesting aspect of this project is that it will be installed under a bridge, on a concrete abutment. Each 8′x12′ section will be painted on MDO panel, a very durable paper-faced plywood, and then screwed onto frames mounted onto the concrete. (A separate surface is the way to go with exterior murals, in most cases. If you ever want to hear a passionate argument against painting a mural directly onto an exterior masonry surface, just give me a call.) There are definitely some logistical challenges, starting with the fact that no land access necessitates a barge to install the panels. But the positives outweigh the challenges, as the painting will be nicely protected from weather and wear while still visible from the park and the water.

I’m pretty excited about another opportunity to immerse myself in the history of WNY and the Erie Canal. If you would like to learn more, I’ll be manning a table at the Annual Greece Groundhog’s Day Festival this Saturday January 30th, talking about the mural to anyone that’s interested. Festivities run from noon to 4pm, so if you’re in the area, stop by! It’s a great family event with games, raffles and demonstrations, all raising funds for the Henpeck Park mural.

The TAG group painting will be raffled off on Dec. 18th at Elsewhere Coffee shop. Nine artists contributed to this painting! (I will take the time to get a decent photo in the near future... but paintings always look better in real life -hint, hint!)

(Please read the previous post for a little background info on “Read to Me: the Art of Literacy” if you need it.)

The opening was fantastic. Another one of those jewel-like situations where people come together and the results are exponentially wonderful in many directions. I’m convinced there’s a Japanese term that perfectly describes this phenomenon. Meeting new and interesting people, chatting with good friends, ideas flying to and fro like gleeful canaries. Yes, canaries. Let’s just say it was a very fertile environment for the creative mind.

There are so many things I love about this show. First and foremost, the fact that two young, enthusiastic organizations have come together to share their resources and talents with such great success. Secondly: The Artist’s Group is a very giving organization, we all love the fact that our passion for creating artwork has given us this opportunity to benefit OCALS and our community. And because of this, the collaborative piece is fantastic – everyone wants to win it! It is steeped in the sentiments that went into it’s creation.  I’m telling you, you can’t get 9 artists to create one painting without a lot of love!

Contributors to the group painting, from left to right: Tom Zangerle, Mike O'Keefe, Pat Greene, Connie Moser, Kim Martilotta, Stacey Kirby and Lori Groth. Contributors not pictured: Arthur Barnes and Tony Barry

And guess what! Raffle tickets are only ONE DOLLAR. Truly, there are few things that can be purchased for $1, and a chance to win this painting is a very good option, in my humble (completely objective) opinion.  Tickets are available for purchase wherever the painting is on display (destinations listed below), as well as a few other locations (details coming soon).

· The Book Shoppe, 519 Main St., Medina from Nov. 23 – Nov. 29

· Dr. Daniel Schiavone, DDS, 69 Public Square, Holley from Nov. 30 – Dec. 5

· Yates Community Library, 15 N. Main St., Lyndonville from December 7 – 12

· Swan Library, 4 N. Main St., Albion from December 14 – 18

The theme show itself – about 20 pieces by members of TAG – will be hanging in Elsewhere until mid January. As usual, it’s really fun and interesting to see completely unique interpretations of the same theme. The closing reception for the show is December 18th at Elsewhere, where we will find out the lucky winner of the raffle!

Thank you to everyone that attended the opening, for showing your support and making the opening such a successful event!

Ok, you have to promise not to tell anyone… I’m not supposed to show you yet… but I just finished my part of the collaborative painting this morning and I can’t keep it to myself. It’s just a little sneak peak!

This is a tiny part of a big painting that has gone the rounds among The Artist’s Group. By the time it’s finished, the work of about ten artist’s will be represented in one painting. I’ve never done a collaborative painting like this before, and I’ve enjoyed seeing how such distinctive styles can merge, creating one successful piece. Earlier today one of the painters commented on how this painting is very symbolic of our group; a range of unique individuals contributing their talent and skill to create one fantastic whole, The Artist’s Group!

This special work of art will be raffled off as a fund raiser for OCALS (Orleans County Adult Learning Services) an organization I’ve mentioned here before.  Discussions between Patty Hawley, (a member of OCALS and a very inspired woman) and members of our group led to the formation of a very beneficial partnership. Our two young organizations came together and planned a show of artwork created along the theme of literacy, with this collaborative painting as the centerpiece.

The show runs November 21st until January 8th 2010. Raffle tickets will be sold as the painting travels to different locations around Orleans County, while the show hangs in Elsewhere Coffeehouse in Albion. The raffle will take place at Elsewhere during the closing reception on December 18th. I’ll post more details as the date draws near!

Show Opening: Saturday, November 21, 6pm – 8pm

Unveiling of the Painting: 7:30

At Elsewhere Coffee House

November! Bringing us a brilliant show of color before winter paints the world white.

It’s time for another First Friday gallery event at Marti’s on Main! There are so many things going on in our scenic little town of Albion, (three art exhibits and two live music performances)  it looks like it will be quite a night!

• Apple-icious First Friday Live music at Spotlight Studio, a variety of shops open late along Main St for a little early holiday shopping, Apple Wine and Hard Cider tastings for $7 at Elsewhere Coffee House, with more live music upstairs.
• Closing Reception of Voices of the Earth at the Orleans County Chamber of Commerce 7pm-9pm. “The exhibit features more than a dozen pieces of pottery hand-crafted by Hispanic farm worker women who participated in a creative arts and English language program provided by the World Life Institute in Waterport. The program is supported by Orleans-Niagara BOCES and with a Reach Grant administered by GO ART!, funded by the state Council on the Arts.”
• Art Opening at Salih Studio. Salih Studio is a beautiful space. I’m not sure what will be hanging this Friday, but judging by the shows I’ve seen there in the past it will be full of great artwork.
• And of course the Exhibit at Marti’s. 5:30 – 9pm.  There are only two more First Friday events this year before Marti’s closes for the winter to begin renovations. When they reopen in the Spring, the gallery will have twice as much space to exhibit.

I hope you all have an opportunity to stop by and join in the fun – be sure to say hello if you see me there! It’s not just the events and activities that make First Friday great – it’s the friendly people and small town atmosphere. I love it.