OPEN STUDIOS AT VISTA STUDIOS

701 CCA Columbia Open Studios, April 21-22, 2012

Saturday, April 21: 10 a.m. until 6 p.m.

Sunday, April 22: 12 noon until 6 p.m.

FREE!

701 Center for Contemporary Art (701 CCA), Columbia's nonprofit visual arts and artist-in-residence center, presents 701 CCA Columbia Open Studios on April 21st and 22nd, 2012, now a partner of The Nickelodeon's 6th Annual Indie Grits Festival. This free, self-led driving tour of 69 artists' studios throughout Richland and Lexington Counties showcases the Midlands' talented visual art community. Artists will open their studios and be on hand to share their personal stories, backgrounds and share their tools and techniques. Artists' work will be available for purchase at zero markup. VisitColumbia Open Studios for more information on participating artists and to map out your Columbia Open Studios tour.

Artista Vista 2012 - OH BROTHER! Where ART thou?

Vista Studios Offers Bluegrass Theme for Artista Vista

2012 Artista Vista Gallery Crawl! Thursday 5 - 9, April 26 for Art Night and Friday, April 27 and Saturday, April 28. 

Vista Studios has adopted and exhibition theme  : "O Brother Where ART Thou" (Bluegrass). for the upcoming Artista Vista event  April 19th through May 8th 2012. 


Among the artists exhibiting will be a piece by Susan Lenz ,”My Bluegrass Roots,” which is comprised of an image transfer on a vintage blue-and-white quilt fragment with hand stitching and button embellishments. Lenz describes the piece,”When thinking of Bluegrass music, the theme of lost love in a wild and wonderful landscape comes to mind.  This image is from my maternal Great Grandmother's photo album and dates to the mid-1920s.  I can almost hear a fiddle and banjo picking up this story of My Bluegrass Roots. Susans Blogg can be accessed at this address(http://artbysusanlenz.blogspot.com/2012/02/my-bluegrass-roots.html).

  Laurie McIntosh will offer a painting,"She's Already Gone With Her Red Shoes On," is based on the lyrics from "Go to Sleepy Little Baby" from the motion picture "Oh Brother Where Art Thou" soundtrack. Other works that will be shown are from her ongoing series of "All the In Between," a narrative series of a life lived. 


Michel McNinch will offer the oil painting  "Late Night Songs,  which features figures engaging musical instruments associated with the Bluegrass theme.  www.michelmcninch.com.


Kirkland Smith will be presenting a new portrait created from post-consumer waste. Commissioned by Department of Commerce employees, this portrait of SC Secretary of Commerce, Bobby Hitt, includes some of his own waste to create an image that represents not only his likeness, but his “likes” as well. Presented as a surprise, his wife and employees secretly collected materials to include in the Assemblage to make the portrait more personal and relevant to him. 

Sculptor Pat Gilmartin will be showing a number of new works, including one that connects with this year's theme of Bluegrass music. Entitled "Sit Down and set a While," the piece incorporates several found objects and sculpted details pertaining to Bluegrass. In addition, she will display some new figurative pieces, both realistic representations of the human figure and a more abstracted series, showing blocky, angular figures reminiscent of certain indigenous cultures. The meaning of the members of the latter series is ambiguous, as is its title: "Is it Better to Remember or to Forget?" 


Other Vista studio Artist exhibiting include:  Ethel Brody, Stephen Chesley, Jeff Donovan, Robert Kennedy, Sharon Licata, Heidi Dar Hope, David Yaghjian, and Laura Spong. Further Information is available at the Vista Studio Site; (http://gallery80808.blogspot.com/)


Entertainment:  

Come on out and hear the PALMETTO PORCH PICKERS play old-time mountain music, it’ll make you want to tap your toes, and maybe do an elbow swing with an innocent bystander.     Old-time music is the granddaddy of Bluegrass… it was played for square dances , pot luck suppers , and anytime people got together to visit in the hills. Yeah, we live in the Sandhills, but come on down to the Vista and get a dose of porch music….it’ll make you feel GOOD! Got a jug?   Bring it and play along, or just pass it around for the band to take a sip.  See ya there !

The players are:

Kathy Bradley , playing guitar, fiddle, and accordion [they had those in the mountains?   Naw. But she has one]  Previous bands are: The Fabulous Porkskins, Granny Gotta Gig, and currently SLAP WORE OUT.

Kenny Barnes, playing bass and guitar. Previous band was The Homeboy Discount Band from Charleston.

Andrew Berger, playing banjo and guitar, hopscotch and checkers.  

Jack McGregor, playing guitar, mandolin, harmonica .  Other bands are SLAP WORE OUT and the WHATEVER BAND. 

Ray Murphy , playing a mean, mean banjo and guitar. He has played with the CHARLESTON BLUEGRASS SOCIETY , the TIRED HANDS, and THE HOMEBOY DISCOUNT BAND.

The Travelers’ Trio, Friday 4/27 12 3-5, featuring Kerk Spong on acoustic guitar, Robert Key on mandolin, and Vernon Dehart on stand up bass will be playing Friday 4/27 12 3-5  at 80808 Gallery/Vista Studios, 808 Lady Street. The Trio will plays a eclectic mix of country, traditional and bluegrass. Everything from Jimmy Martin to Marshall Tucker Band with a little Dylan, Haggard and Monroe on the side. Come on out for a lot of fun.

Kirkland Smith

Laurie McIntosh

Stephen Chesley

David Yaghjian

Susan Lenz

Pat Gilmartin

Michel McNinch

Michel McNinch

Sharon Licata

Darr-Hope & Miller/Saturday, April 28th 3-6pm

Healing Icons is about attitude and action.  It is about becoming aware and living with intentionality. Our goal is to inspire movement in your life's journey fueled by the creative act. Movement, Mindfulness & Mandalas   Led By Heidi Darr-Hope, MFA & Anne Miller,RYT Saturday, April 28th     3-6pm $35 (Preregistration/prepayment required contact AMSA YOGA  140 Pelham Drive Woodhill Plaza, Next to Target on Garners Ferry, behind San Jose,  Columbia, SC 29209  (803) 348-3387 Absolutely no prior experience is needed only a commitment to honestly explore and let your imagination unfurl. .  Yoga Awakens our  inner body intelligence. Art Communicates from the inside out through visual symbols.   Art and Yoga connect us with our most intimate self, leading us to  Quietness and that still small voice within.                 Creativity, art, and yoga open the space for unlived energies to emerge, bringing us closer to the union of mind, body, and soul-closer to our truest authentic self.  To interlace the wisdom of both of these ancient disciplines, each informing the other, is transformational. This is new territory, rich fertile soil where seeds of growth and change can flourish.    Within this retreat you will   Experience artmaking & yoga  as a portal into your  soul Learn the meditative art of mandala drawing (It is like doodling) Restore & renew your joyful expansive spirit  Together these practices empower that forgotten voice to gradually express and release that which has been held within.  When we hold on to  unresolved feelings, our life force stagnates and our growth, our union of mind, body and spirit is thwarted.   Slowly as we begin to remember that whisper as our own, we can begin to journey.   Moving into this creative flow cleanses our body and soul from these stuck energies, reconnecting us into our vital life force.    The resourceful current of our art-making and yoga postures is the balm that transforms this cleansing process into a deep long lasting healing experience.  Whether it's the yoga mat or the studio table, Heidi and Anne see both practices as a means to allow the mind to still, the body to awaken and the soulful psyche to open.  Intensely interested in a creative process that respects intuition and introspection, Heidi brings over 30 years of experience in artmaking and teaching to this series. In 2011, the state of South Carolina awarded her theElizabeth O'Neil Verner Award, the highest honor given to recognize accomplishments within the arts.  Those who have experienced her work recount profound shifts in personal and spiritual awareness. Heidi's method of teaching grows out of a deep respect for dreams, the work of C.G. Jung, as well as the joyous transformative qualities inherent within the creative act.  Her extroverted husband, her beloved "road less traveled" daughter, her joyous newly wedded son and his beaming wife, along with her family dog Ziggy... keep her grounded and real.     Anne's interest in the body began with her dance studies in college, leading to personal training and then to yoga.  She has spent the last 8 years deepening her vinyassa yoga and meditation practice while raising a family of boys.   Anne  has completed her 200 hour yoga certification with Stephanie Keach.  Anne's father is a Lutheran minister who instilled a practice of deep heartfelt intuitive prayer at an early age so her interest in reflective meditation comes to her quite naturally and effortlessly.  Her words brush soulful profound images into the spirit of  all who are fortunate to have Anne's voice wash over their yoga practice.  Together Heidi and Anne will lead you towards the inner aspect of your true self, stretching beyond your known borders into the spaciousness of  the world around you.

Women Creating Women, April 12-17: Smith and Goldberg

“Women Creating Women” is a show by women, about women, which will be on display April 12-17^th, 2012, at Gallery 80808. Columbia artists Bonnie Goldberg and Kirkland Smith have been painting together for over 16 years in a weekly sketch group called About Face, which meets at the Columbia Museum of Art. Together, with other artists, they work from figurative models. In this show, Bonnie and Kirkland celebrate the women they love to paint as a way to celebrate all women, everywhere. There will be an opening reception Thursday, April 12^th, from 5-9pm and another reception Sunday, April 15^th, at 3pm, featuring Cassie Premo Steele reading from her new book of poetry about mothering and creativity, The Pomegranate Papers. 

Bonnie Goldberg and Kirkland Smith both agree that working from live models is the best thing they do for their art. This discipline has helped each artist in their personal growth and both enjoy the connection they feel with the model. And yet each artist approaches the subject differently. Bonnie paints the model from the inside out, while Kirkland paints from the outside in.  

Bonnie:

“My work as a painter takes me to the figure as it moves in space. The gesture is important to me and taking out the detail and trying to capture the spirit of the movement in the smallest lines are what I try to achieve as I draw and feel what the pose is about.

My figure work is the embodiment of who I am as an artist.  I connect to the lines and shapes of the pose, the gesture of the model, and find the essence of the person who is posing.  As I work and find the gesture, I try to keep the details to a minimum.  I believe it is important to engage the viewer in a work of art and I see it as collaboration between the model, the artist, and the viewer.  We, as artists and as lovers of art, understand that art is what teaches us what is important in life and defines those moments that we all have when beauty becomes reality.”

Bonnie is a self-taught artist who has studied with many notable painters including Alex Powers, Katherine Chang Liu, Glenn Bradshaw, Ernest Velardi, Don Andrews, Sigmund Abeles, and Carole Barnes.   Her work is in private collections in the United States, Canada, and France.

Kirkland:

“In all of my work, the subject is the light, and how it falls across the form. I am endlessly fascinated with the figure and how the muscles move under the skin and around the skeletal bones. With my paint, I follow the light as it curves around the body and disappears into the shadows. I try to capture the model as I see her-and the characteristics that make her unlike anyone else.  

My inspiration comes from the women I paint; my goal is to capture their quiet strength. They are beautiful because they accept and rejoice in who they are.”

Kirkland earned a BA in Studio Arts at USC, studying everything but painting to get a broad background in the arts. Several years ago she studied classical painting and drawing at Studio Escalier in France. In addition to painting, Kirkland creates 3-D environmental art from post-consumer waste. Her work is in collections across the country and in France.

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For more information or hi-res images, please contact Kirkland Smith at (803) 622-7838 or Kirkland@KirklandSmith.com.