There are two opportunities to visit my studio this month as part of POST (Philadelphia Open Studio Tours).
Can you come? I'd love to get your RSVP.
Visit me virtually from anywhere in the world
Wednesday April 14, 6-8pm Eastern time
Register here to participate (the event has free "tickets")
Visit me in-person
Sunday April 18, 2-6pm
** I am happy to say I'm fully vaccinated. Nevertheless we will all obviously wear masks and there will be other COVID protocols in place.
PLEASE RSVP
Looking forward to seeing you!
Interview on Ahtcast podcast
It was a pleasure to talk with Phillip J. Mellen on his interview podcast Ahtcast. Philip has a really nice, easy-going interview style that’s informed by great enthusiasm, openness and sensitivity to painting. And his archive of artist interviews is deep. Check it out!
Ahtcast podcasts are also available on Stitcher, Spotify, and Apple podcasts if you prefer to listen on those platforms.
Studio Sale through November 15
I regularly use my work to benefit other people and causes. I want to ramp that up right now.
From now through November 15, I will give 50% of all studio sales to groups working for peace and social justice. I want to make this impactful and accessible. There’s a lot available.
Here is a list of who I have supported so far. Funds from this sale will further lend support to these or groups like them. At the end of the sale, I will provide buyers an account of all the groups funded.
If you want to personally donate half of the purchase price to a particular group (i.e. for your tax purposes, or to a group you prefer), get in touch and we’ll work it out.
Let’s work together towards positive and lasting change.
New Oviette song: "Nightshades"
Forty, For You -- book and album release
My 2020 project “Forty, For You” is documented and available in digital and physical form.
45-page hardback book and digital music download
PDF book and digital music download
In early 2020, driven by a desire to establish a contemplative experience of space and time within the format of an often endless social media scroll, I created the project "Forty, For You." Beginning on February 26, I began to make a suite of 40 paintings on paper, which were accompanied by 40, 1-minute original ambient musical compositions. On Instagram, these could be viewed as a still image while the music looped to the viewer's desired length. The pieces were created and released daily through April 11. I chose the contemplative 40-day season of Lent as a chronological framework.
When I began the project there was little awareness in the US that a pandemic was developing. On March 5, I spent the day in New York seeing gallery shows with artists friends. There was a degree of concern, but nothing like the full-scale panic that set in just days later when stay-at-home orders began in Philadelphia.
Unfolding as it did against the backdrop of the global coronavirus pandemic, with hundreds of millions of people sheltering at home for months, the significance of creating a contemplative time and space for myself and others became incredibly important in a way that I could not have imagined.
The artworks were made and photographed in my studio. I often worked days ahead because of the uncertainty of being able to travel to the studio. The musical compositions were made daily at my home, extemporaneously and in response to the artwork. Most often I was working on the music very early in the morning. The recordings feature a wide array of guitar sounds, some electronic instruments, and occasionally my voice. There was also A LOT of technical detail...editing the images and music, and then combining them as short videos and getting them uploaded.
The process was a personal lifeline for me in a way that my art has never been before. And I was incredibly humbled to hear from others that the daily image and minute of ambient music was something they, too, relied upon daily in their own personal way.
Instagram stats tell me the pieces have been viewed nearly 16,000 times. Incredible!
The original 10" square paintings on paper were made in triplicate. (3 sets of very similar but unique works.) I will keep one of the sets for myself but the other two sets are available. Please contact me if you are interested in exhibiting or purchasing the series.