Rozie Vajda at GroundSwell Gallery

What a fun month at the gallery with the complex and beautiful characters created by Rozie Vajda.  Each marionette with it's own detailed expression, components, and stage is an example of Rozie's true investment into the whole creation of personality and placement.  We are honored to show this work and we welcome you, if you haven't already, to visit GroundSwell Gallery during this heartwarming season - open through January 10, 2012. 

GroundSwell Gallery is located at 3121 E. Colfax Ave. Denver, CO 80206 (Bluebird District). 

Open Monday - Saturday 11am - 7pm, Sunday 12 - 5pm

“I like to think that some of my work at least will stay in the present tense.”

Ellsworth Kelly at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts.  Not his usual paintings, but his wood sculptures.  Just wanted to link to this NYTimes Article including some statements from Kelly himself.  I am especially interested in artists like this who are interested most in remaining in the present tense.  This image is of Spectrum V, 1969.  I remember seeing this on a visit to see art somewhere in the world...  Anyway, I remember loving it. 

City Smiles

Today an Open House at City Smiles Dentistry, 100 Spruce Street, Suite 100 Denver, CO 80230.  Everyone is invited from 5:30p - 8:30p.  This is a great chance to see what Chelsea Mayer, DDS has done to build out a beautiful new dentist office that all who care about design and good space can really enjoy!  She smartly requested good art curation for the office and I reached out to local Denver Artists.  The result, the best dressed Dentist office I've ever been to!  I'm honored to work with the artists:
Sara Guindon
Sandra Fettingis
Rob Mack
Shayna Cohn
Debbie Clapper
Alan Kitchen
Paul Langway
Bethany DeMarco
Derek Keenan 
Jared David Paul

Rozie Vajda at GroundSwell - through Jan. 10

I call this a successful art opening.  The highly detailed and exquisitely constructed characters that are Rozie Vajda's marionettes now grace GroundSwell Gallery.  I am so proud to curate with such a talented and hard working artist!

Please visit the gallery before Jan. 10, 2012 to see this incredible show. 

Below, please find Rozie Vajda's artist statement. 

"I work with found objects. Some discarded, some given, others forgotten, all rediscovered and repurposed. I help these treasures discover a new life with new companions in a new story.

My studio has a floor to ceiling collection of these found, gifted, and salvaged treasures and art parts collected over a lifetime. Chosen for the emotion as much as the aesthetic, in this show can be found roots, twigs, and seaweed, accordion parts and the keys to my first car. When these parts make their way into my art, so too do the people, places, and experiences they represent.

In these most recent pieces, my explorations with assemblage art, doll-making, sewing and felting have come together in a whimsical way that surprises and delights me. With the pull of a string these characters come to life with motion and dance."

-Rozie Vajda

3115)| +! |(3121 East Colfax Ave.

MAD KING  In Transit  2011

Running the gallery at GroundSwell with Danette Montoya has been immensely enjoyable for me in the months since we opened in May 2011.  I find that I have more fulfilling and inspiring conversations with artists around Denver than I would have thought available to me.  I happily do this work and I'm inspired to keep on with my own art work.

The current show at the gallery with MAD KING is definitely worth a visit.  GroundSwell is open daily from 10a - 7pm and this show runs through November 8th.  If you're like me, you may find yourself brightened by MAD KING's layered patterns, colors, textures and characters.  I especially invite those interested in enriching their visual promotion and representation materials with the skillful and soulful imagery of this artist.
http://www.madkingproductions.com/

Finally, I want to share, through pictures (below), the happenings between 3115 East Colfax and 3121 East Colfax (GroundSwell).   Artists working this week, and pictured in the first photo here are Denver's own Max Kaufman and Nice One, Denver native, now working from Chicago. 

Max Kaufman and Nice One work out the details of what will be a very large mural on the side of GroundSwell Gallery and Cannabis Boutique

newest stencil in the past month

This wheat pasted painting appeared in the past month as well.  We're into that on our unpainted brick wall, but the stencil to the Right is totally inconsiderate of the brick material.  Boo.  Also, see left, part of Paul Langway's mural from last Summer on the low wall bordering the alley.

"Own Your Soul, Monster."  We're especially into the painting, being not the expected xerox, and the poeticism of this wheat paste.

In closing,
Thank you Denver Artists.

ART by CRAFT at REDLINE

I  am honored to show my work, Migration newly formatted as a stand-on-it's-own sculpture piece, at the Denver Handmade Alliance's Art by Craft exhibition this coming Saturday!  The show runs through October 16th and coincides with a craft Market held on Sunday Oct. 9th.  Exhibiting the work of the artists listed below, Art by Craft explores craft-based mediums in fine art.  I hope you will consider visiting!!

Migration (detail), Rebecca Peebles

Art by Craft Exhibiting Artists:

Adriane Horovitz & Marc Horovitz 
Andrea Thurber
Becky Wareing Steele
Beth Wood
Dea Webb
Hope Morgan of Haunted Sparrow
Lara Nickel
Martina Grbac
Pamela Webb
Patrice Washington
Rebecca Peebles
Sandra Fettingis
Sarah Wallace Scott
Vanessa Gochnour

303

Laney McVicker of 303 Magazine wrote an  article about myself and my work.  You can see "The Hol Sum Art of Meditation" article on 303's site for the Fall Fashion Issue 2011.

I'm especially grateful to Laney for quoting me when I said about my art work, "Really, it's just a practice of working toward something beautiful or peaceful."  This is true for me.  I am most accurate as an artist when I'm creating work that offers beauty and opportunity to rest in one's own peace.