Gallery Opening and Reception

Mary Hood / Tempe AZMandala #22007crayon lift intaglio and unique impression

Opening tomorrow night. Don't miss this! The Printed Image II, a juried exhibit. Click here for a preview of the works that will be shown. Tomorrow night is also 1st Friday Art Walk, so be sure and check out the other galleries in town. Click here for more info about the participating galleries.

Printed Image II Reception Location: Alice C. Sabatini Gallery

Date: Friday, August 01, 2008 Time: 5:30 PM to 8:30 PM In the Topeka & Shawnee County Library

Topeka, KS

New work uploaded

Last night I uploaded several images of newer work to my website. Check out the Flash Tiltviewer! Dawn Blair Jewelry gallery page

My Favorite Color

Today at work (a farm of half cubicals) we were having a cross cubicle discussion of the word "fandango" and "What is your favorite color?". I thought to myself, I know what colors I don't like, but what is my true favorite. I love color, and I love so called "non-colors". I am pretty open about color combinations too. So, the best I could come up with was, "My favorite color is the color I see when I am sleeping." The above image was taken from mailto:Nuytsia@Tas photostream on Flickr. It is entitled Cats Chorus.

Are we bent a certain way?

Are we bent a certain way? Is a person who is messy capable of changing that? Can a neat freak leave a towel on the floor and walk away? Are we capable of liking or even tolerating foods we hate.

What about color? Can someone who loves orange and hates purple ever get rid of their distaste for purple? Really. Have you ever thought about that? Why do we have color biases? We make judgements about colors all the time. This color is boring. That color is tacky. This color is sweet. That color is rich.

Can a person learn to appreciate a color when they find it utterly offensive? Are we born with color tendencies and preferences? Or, are the colors that attract us somehow the result of fashion and media, or our environments?

I will admit, there are colors I don't like. More importantly, there are colors I don't like to work with for my jewelry. Some colors, when mixed, to me just seem hideous. Why is that? I can't decide if I believe that we are born having certain insticts regarding color. Actually, in a way that's not true. I believe artists are born and not made, and that we relate to color in ways that non artists can't. However, I think there is more to it than just genetics.

I am looking at the colors I don't care for with an open mind. I am trying to see their "potential". Sometimes it is a combination of colors that make the ugly color tolerable, or even beautiful. These are the things I am pondering as I work on my current project. Please comment on what you think about color.

Anti-cell phone crusade

Okay folks. This is one of the many reasons I am against owning a cell phone. I have "friendships" that only take place on the cell phone when said friend is on the way home from the airport and no one else answered their cell phones, or when driving to or from another friend's house, or when they are bored at the grocery store or mall. It amazes me how people think this is okay. I think it is the ultimate insult when people do this and a blatant display of their shallowness. More on reasons I hate cell phones in blog entries to come. C'mon people, stop it! You are shallow and rude! This image was taken from www.someecards.com

On Collections

I have been working on a collection of works for the museum gift shop at the Kansas History Museum. This is a project I have been planning for a long time. But here's the funny discovery I made as I have worked on each piece. I can't do what I plan. I can make pieces inspired by the Flint Hills, or the weather here certainly. But, I can't just decide to make them. I can only make what I am inspired to make in the very moment I start the piece.

So, this collection of pieces will be very diverse. I really wanted the collection to be about all aspects of Kansas. But instead, it will be all about my life and inspirations as a Kansas artist.

On our road trip to Grove, Oklahoma for the Fourth of July, Kassie and I discussed the Oklahoma landscape and how beautiful the grasses and grains were. They have a more rosey cast to them overall than the more golden grains in Kansas. And Kassie pointed out the abundance of trees and foliage.

When I think about it, I wouldn't expect those characteristics necessarily in Oklahoma. I have spent time in Iowa and Wisconsin, and I have never seen more green terrain. There are parts of northern Iowa that make me think about Ireland, or at least what I invision it to be like. Oklahoma is very beautiful in unexpected ways. I will have a few pieces inspired by the colors of Oklahoma landscape.

I have a large piece completed that is inspired by a trip to Florida I took with Dave a couple years ago. It rained and rained, but still we were out in the water and running around the beach. I picked up shells until my back couldn't take the bending over. During times when it wasn't raining, we laid on the beach. If we were really quiet and didn't move, we could see the sand crabs jutting about. They were like invisible little aliens. I would catch movement out of my periferal vision only to look and see nothing. Their camoflage was truly amazing to me. I got to where I could see lots of them, all over the beach. Of course, none of this would be of any note if I were living in Florida.

So what I am discovering though all this is that I make better work when I allow the pieces to come from my spirit and intuition, rather than a decision or a plan. The above pendant was completed two days ago, and is titled "Hidden Treasure". The treasure is on the back of the shell- two beautifully formed pearls embedded in the nacre of the shell. An extra gift for the wearer to cherish.

Fabulous 4th!

Well my trip to Grove was just fabulous. Perfect weather, the show went great, and I had a wonderful time seeing some of my extended family. The highlight was going out on the lake on a jet ski for the first time. That was definitely the best time I have had in a long, long time. A special thanks goes out to Kassie, my devoted and talented apprentice. I would have been completely lost without her, and she made a major contribution to the success of the show. And a huge thanks and appreciation to my aunt and uncle for feeding us and entertaining us all weekend. It was such a wonderful time. Pictured are two of the many special pieces that sold this weekend- "Joan of Arc" and "Road to Paradise"