Looking back on 2009
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2009 was another great year for making art, meeting new friends and reconnecting with old friends. I’m very grateful for everyone who visited this site and for those who were able to attend the various exhibits that I participated in. Looking back, there were a handful of moments in particular that will stay with me for a long time. The first was the Local Strays opening with my CowBrow family at Chop Chop Gallery early in the Spring of 2009. The turnout for this show was incredible, the house was packed from opening to close, and the work itself was something we were all very proud of. Around that same time, I moved into a studio at Chop Chop to begin working on my solo show scheduled for later in the year. Working inside Chop Chop for the 10 months or so that I was there had a huge impact on me creatively. Craig and Ashley, in my opinion, run the coolest, most purely creative artspace in Columbus. I will always cherish my time there and the new friendships I made with Andrew Lundberg, Dave Denniston and Andrew Huffman. Later in the Spring, my wife and I learned that we are having a child (due in January 2010), which has filled me with so much excitement that I can hardly contain myself. As I write this post we are just under 30 days from our due date, and I’m busy painting a mural in our future son’s room. Over the summer I had the chance to reconnect with friends that I grew up with, many of which I hadn’t seen for 15 years or so. Seeing people like Kirsten (Bennett) Stillings and Daniel Myers in particular, brought back some great memories of our childhood adventures together. I had the most significant exhibition of my “career” in October of 2009. My solo show “Dreamsters Union” at the new Ohio Art League Gallery was a total blast. I had spent the previous 6 months creating new paintings for the show, pushing myself to create larger and more developed work. I also created a very limited (40) hard bound books containing images of my art and photographs from my personal history which sold out at the exhibition. The opening was packed and it was a big thrill to meet so many new friends. I owe a huge debt of gratitude to curator Nate Oliver, his wife and fellow artist Stephanie Rond and everyone at OAL who worked so hard to the get new gallery ready in time for the opening. As the year wound down, another fantastic opportunity presented itself. I have been selected for the Ohio State University’s Arts Initiative 2010 Fellowship for Emerging Artists. This year-long program will give me the chance to learn with, and learn from 10 other local artists from different disciplines as we move forward in our careers as working artists. So, like I said, 2009 has been a real whopper. Thanks to all of you who have supported, and encouraged me to keep painting. I’m looking forward to an even more incredible 2010. Happy New Year.
New paintings on Gallery page
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My show at the Ohio Art League was a big success, thank you to everyone who made it to the opening and those of you who sent well-wishes from afar. I added new paintings from the show to the Gallery page on my site. A few of the paintings are still available for sale, please contact me if interested. Now it’s time for a break from painting as I prepare for the arrival of our son due in January. The excitement never ends here in Monsoonville.
October solo-show: NEW DETAILS
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As previously mentioned, my big solo show in October has been moved about.
I now have the official details of the opening…
Thursday, October 8, 2009
Ohio Art League Gallery (new location)*
1552 N. High St.
Columbus, OH 43201
*located at South Campus Gateway, next to the theater
Please note that the opening will no longer be a part of monthly “Gallery Hop”
event. My solo exhibition, “Dreamsters Union” will be the first show at the OAL
Gallery’s new location. I’ve painted over a dozen new paintings for this show, and
I’m very proud of these larger and more developed pieces. So if you’re in town on
Thursday, 10/08/09 please stop by to say hello.
Show times they are a changin’…
Heads up… my show originally scheduled for Saturday, October 3rd has been changed. Although a bit stunned at first, I’ve accepted the challenge and will be bringing the mysterious Monsoon magic to a new time and place. I’ll have the new details very very soon. So dry your eyes, I won’t let you down.
Interview with The Artery Magazine
I did a short interview with Laura at The Artery Magazine last week. Be sure to check out their site. She and Matt are doing a nice job of bringing attention to some cool art and music from the east side of America.
Six months until my Dreamsters Union show at the Ohio Art League. Hubba hubba.
New paintings added to gallery page
A gigantic thank you to everyone who made it out to the Local Strays show, I was blown away by the incredible crowd that came through Chop Chop for the opening. It’s a wonderful thing to live in a town that is so supportive of its artists. And thanks to those of you who came up and introduced yourselves, it was a pleasure to have you there. I have added the four new paintings that I made for the show to the gallery page of my site. So if you were not able to make it to the show, please check them out.
Local Strays at CHOP CHOP on 3/28
On Saturday, March 28th from 7pm to 10pm, the Cowtown Lowbrow collective will
present a group show at Chop Chop Gallery titled Local Strays.
The show will include all new work by:
Dan Gerdeman
Stephanie Rond
Coreroc
Adam Brouillette
Cyrus Fire
Sharon H. Bell
Clinton Reno
Marina Goldshteyn
Skye Dalrymple
and Me
A special thanks goes out to Kim Glover, Wholly Craft and Black Creek Bistro
for helping to make this amazing show happen. Please support those who are
supporting local arts in our city.
Columbus Underground Poll
I was voted Best Local Artist of 2008 in the Columbus Underground
poll. Who says (alleged) bribery and graft will get you no where?
Here are some of the folks who should have won…
Laura Alexander
Craig Dransfield
Dan Gerdeman
Coreroc
Adam Brouillette
Ashley Puckett
Stephanie Rond
Kat Moya
Sharon Bell
Nikos Rutkowski
Tom Kelly
Yvette van der Velde
Vinchen
Mike Newton
History’s Future
A new year and new experiences. My exhibition proposal to the
Ohio Art League was accepted, and is slated for October 2009.
A special thanks to curator Nate Oliver, Stephanie Rond and everyone who
supported the proposal. Stay tuned for much more info about the show,
it’s gonna be a banger. Soon I will be moving into a new studio space at
the fortress of art known as Chop Chop.
ps… That’s my old man, younger than me standing by a road. Dreamster.
