My dear readers—I’m moving my site from Artwala Road to www.catbennett.net. I’ve so enjoyed doing this blog and meeting some of you whom I didn’t know before. I’ll continue the blog as before at the new site. I’m moving forward with several projects and wanted my site to be a place to show my art and writing under my own name. So, please pop on over. That’s where you’ll find me now and I’ll be looking for you there. Please bookmark the new name. In time I’ll export the old files from Artwala Road to the new site so everything will be in one place.
March 8th, 2009 | Category: Dear Reader | Leave a comment
We had the reception for the Faculty/ Studio Artist Show last night and had a good crowd for a winter night. It’s so great to see friends and also connect with new people at these events. Art becomes a little bit like theater at these things, a nice change from the solitary business of doing the art itself.
That’s my piece, The Mahatma Gandhi Hat Company (”Keep Peace On The Mind”), at the top of the stairs. The beautiful paintings of my studio neighbor, Deb Putnoi, is just to the left of me. The sculptures on the stairs are sails, wonderful objects really, by sculptor Bill Frese. Click on the photos to see them large.
Despite the poor economy artists appear to be full of good cheer. We’re used to the challenge of making it in an inhospitable world. Good training, I think, for tough times. We did hear stories last night of job layoffs. It seems to me we have to ‘keep calm and carry on’! Check out this wonderful silkscreen poster I just bought on Etsy for $25. It was made originally in England during WWII and posted all around London during The Blitz. This new rather colorful version arrived a few days ago and is waiting to be framed. It’s available here.
I will announce my new site on Monday. Please come to visit. I’ll be posting there from Monday on. Meanwhile hope all is well in your world.
March 6th, 2009 | Category: Dear Reader | Leave a comment
Another full day at the studio today, and again so productive. I always start the day with a cup of tea and a little meditation then a bit of scrawling in a notebook or sketchbook—whatever comes into the mind goes onto the page. For me it’s part of the creative process. Yesterday I did 18 small drawings, some of which I posted last time. Today I did another fifteen, this time using much more red. There’s something so clean and strong about black, white and red.
These are just fun to do, evocative for me and freeing. They’re a little different from what I usually do but quite nice up close. Not sure a digital image really shows them to good effect. At any rate, it’d been great to play with drawing and to cut up a lot of old drawings to make these images.
I’m not sure what I’ll get up to tomorrow in the studio. I still have to do the banner for my new site which launches next week but not sure yet what I’ll do. It will come. And tomorrow is the opening for the faculty/studio artist show at the art center. Everyone agrees it’s a really fine show, full of fun pieces. I will photograph tomorrow.
March 4th, 2009 | Category: Dear Reader | Leave a comment
Back to the studio today after a week away with a rotten cold and then snow yesterday. It was really good to be back even though I got a lot done in my time at home. For one, I’ve finally designed my new website and am really pleased that I could do it myself, with a little help from my friend Kelly, and especially happy that I’ll be able to update it myself with new work as I go. I’ll be closing this blog and transferring the blog to the new site next Monday. It’s really just the name that will change and the look of things; the blog will continue as usual. The new site has lots of pages of art though and a few of writing.
I thought I might work on a banner for the new site at the studio today but when I started in these little people started to emerge. I really love them. They look particularly good grouped together. I ended up doing 18 of them. Usually I do art based on ideas so this was a bit of a departure for me. I started with black silhouettes of people and thought I’d put them on patterned backgrounds then got the idea that the people themselves ought to be patterned and just carried on from there. It’s part of the ‘All Are One’ theme.
At then end of the day my studio neighbor, Kaetlyn Wilcox, and I did show and tell. Her work is so wondrous and magical and it was really great to just share with another artist what had gotten done today. Looking forward to tomorrow and working some more on paper. Meanwhile, we have the opening of the faculty/studio artist show at the Arsenal Center for the Arts on Thursday and I’ll try to take some pictures to post of that. Hope you’re all well.
March 3rd, 2009 | Category: Dear Reader | Leave a comment
Yes, it’s true—at this point my little eyeballs are out on stalks and spinning around like whirling dervishes. I’ve spent the entire weekend trying to design my new website which will have both my art and writing on view. And yes, I did design a site already on iWeb, which is Apple’s dreamy web design software but as with all things techy there are pros and cons. A lot of research indicated that it may be difficult to upload new stuff to the iWeb site if not publishing on Mobile Me, which I’m not, for reasons too complicated and boring to go into. So I’ve decided to use Wordpress, which is the blogging application that I use here and to twist it into a website as well as a blog so everything will be in one place.
That’s the idea and I do think it’s coming along. I have sought the help of my dear friend, Kelly, who is a genius at such things and she assures me that we’ll get it together. I could not do it alone, for sure. I can get about halfway but can’t make it into the home stretch. Once Kelly figures it all out, I’ll be able to keep it up with it though and it will be great to be able to update the work as I do it.
It’s funny putting up a site with art because so much of the art was done in the past and it feels a bit like visiting a museum you’ve been to a few too many times. Was that me? I’m in a transition period with my art and I feel the wind is blowing in with new ways of doing things. This is my time to get clear about the vision and doing the site is helping, I can see.
On another note, I was down with a rotten cold all week so stayed home and chipped away on the computer. I even canceled my drawing class on Saturday so I wouldn’t cough and sneeze on my wonderful students. But I did pop my head into the Center on Saturday afternoon to see the Faculty/Studio Artist show which has just gone up. My own mini-installation piece, The Mahatma Gandhi Hat Company, is right at the top of the stairs to the right of the very accomplished works of Deb Putnoi. They are in very good company and feel quite honored, I must say. The whole show is very lively, full of wit and good energy. The opening is this Thursday for anyone in the Boston area. Come along! The Arsenal Center for the Arts. I’ll post photos soon.
March 1st, 2009 | Category: Dear Reader | Leave a comment
