July Travels

Hello Reader

This last week has been a traveling week (again) for Jewel and me. We took the opportunity to visit our dear friend Beth Rentz who had moved to Thomasville Georgia last year. Although we've known Beth for over 20 years, we hadn't seen her in about 16 years. We've kept in touch with telephone calls, cards and letters. Beth is a traveling soul who had worked with me when I had been the advertising manager at Wellington Leisure Products in the 80's. After I had left to pursue a new career path, Beth left also and went to work in such places as the University of New Mexico at Albuquerque, Alaska where she stayed 2 years and took care of physically challenged children, The University of Michigan and in Wisconsin where she grew up. We were exceedingly happy when we learned that she would be moving to Georgia where it would be relatively easy to visit her.

Beth's enthusiasm for what she does and where she settles is unmatched. Thomasville is no exception. When we first arrived it wasn't long before she spirited us on a tour of the city and it was immediately evident that she was very knowledgeable about all the area had to offer. From houses and mansions that graced the area to museums, farmers market (the second largest in Georgia), walking trails, flower gardens, cultural center and more, Beth knew them all. Since she had only moved there less than a year ago and worked in Tallahassee Florida, 30 some miles away, she was obviously excited about her new community and it was infectious.

While there, Jewel and I visited the market, saw many of the landmarks in the city, traveled to close communities where I took photos for future Vanishing Rural Georgia art pieces, the fantastic Pebble Hill plantation which was a sporting center in the 1900's and which housed a great collection of artworks representing the shooting sports as well as Audubon's great bird paintings, Jewel and Beth went to the Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville Florida, and finally where I traveled to the Saint Marks National Wildlife Refuge on the Gulf coast to take photos of wildlife and do some walking. All-in-all our visit with Beth was not only a great personal reunion, it was a 3 day excursion into another world. Hopefully it won't be too long before Beth will pay Madison a visit and we can show her the changes that have occurred since she was last here.

I've included some photos that I took representing some old Georgia structures that I plan to paint and draw, some shots of Thomasville including its downtown street, some of Pebble Hill Plantation, and a few of Saint Marks. I hope you enjoy the.

Pete

Common Structures Show

Hello interested reader.

The opening of my latest exhibit, which is a collaborative effort with photographer and friend Tim Reilly, is up and running at the Lyndon House Art Center in Athens Georgia. We had been preparing for this for almost 10 months, creating posters, preparing frames with the help of some pro framer friends, creating email notices and sending them out, creating and printing invitations, designing signage and installing this at the Gallery, purchasing food items for the reception, plants for the floral arrangements, and, to top off all this, we were finalizing our art pieces right up to the week preceding the show.

It's been a hectic few months and it was well worth it to see the interested viewers that came to the opening, asking questions about our techniques, our vision, making comments on what specific pieces meant to them. Most show openings that I have attended had lots of folks talking with each other, enjoying the company and the refreshments, but rarely actually taking real notice or interest in the art itself. It was very refreshing to see people at an opening who took real notice of the art and the purpose behind the exhibit. A lot of that can be attributed to my collaborator, Tim Reilly.

Aside from beautiful photography, Tim is very knowledgeable with historic preservation and has a deep feeling about the nature of fine old structures and what they are to our cultural landscape. I can probably say that Tim's interest in the subject is greater than my own and this shows in the structure of the exhibit itself. Every step of the way he reviewed what we were doing and made recommendations for improving everything from the wording to the design of the pieces. All of this helped make our presentation as professional as our limited resources allowed. Thanks Tim.

Another great help was having the enthusiasm of the gallery's curator, Nancy Lukasciewicz. Nancy was there for us whenever we had any questions concerning the gallery's logistics, the Center's support facilities, mailing out invitations, distributing information to the community, etc. And, at the reception, she and her assistants Shannon and Patricia stayed almost 2 hours past the closing time to allow additional visitors to come and to stay and look around. On a normal "Gallery closed" day, this went far beyond the pale. We weren't surprised at this level of assistance and dedication from these fine people who have demonstrated such devotion and professionalism throughout. What a fine group and a wonderful venue.

And then there are our wives, Jan Reilly and Jewel Muzyka without whom none of this could have been possible. They put up with us through our anxieties about the show and the financial excesses with the cost of set-up. They helped with arrangements of food, drapery and prudent advice every step of the way. And not the least was there gracious co-hosting throughout the reception. We are so lucky to have them as our life partners.

If you get the opportunity, please stop by the Lyndon House Art Center and see this great place. Our exhibit is but a small part of what one can experience in this fine facility.

Thank you for visiting my blog. Talk to you soon.

Trip to Pennsylvania and Maryland

Hello Reader

I have returned from a trip up north. Every year I visit my parents and other relatives in Pennsylvania. This year there were 3 special reasons to take the long trip. My parents were celebrating their 65th wedding anniversary. I needed to complete 9 pen and ink drawings for my upcoming show. And, one of my artist colleagues who was part of the ArtBiz Breakthrough Program invited me to visit her studio and discuss art techniques and marketing ideas.
Fortunately for me, my wife Jewel decided to take the trip with me. It's a long drive and a flight would have been even longer as the layover in New Jersey is almost a day long. It gave us a chance to discuss plans for the future of my art business. It has been over a year since we had made a decision to leave commercial art and concentrate on my fine art career. The economy decided to take this opportunity to drop into the toilet. Art sales are down. I have been the gallery director at the Pantheon Fine Art Gallery in Madison since last October. We had developed several interesting and diverse art shows over the last 10 months with shows centering around my egg tempera works, gallery artists' work, Black History Month celebration show, a spring visual arts festival, "Georgia in Bloom", and, to top all this off, a fabulous equine art show this May through early July. Sales were dismal even though we had finely targeted audiences, excellent variety of price ranges on the works, great opening receptions, and very good advertising and press release articles. Art is an especially hard sell during an economic downturn. Now the gallery owners have decided to close the gallery and I must make some hard decisions. Find a new gallery for my work, get another commercial art job, or become a hermit. In the meantime I am the second party in a two person show at the Lyndon House in Athens Georgia, a great art venue.
I completed the 9 pen and ink drawings in record time (for me) under the watchful eyes of my parents who have never really seen me at work with my art. I think they got a new perspective on my passion for drawing. I've attached 2 of the pieces that I had completed while up north.
Then I had the distinct pleasure of meeting, in person, Lynne Oaks, the artist who has been a member of our ArtBiz Breakthrough group. She was not only very charming, she also displayed a vast resource of knowledge on the arts and excellent talent in her own paintings. She teaches students in her vast studio and it's plain to see that the knowledge that she imparts is well received and progresses her students into professional art levels. I find it very comforting to know that there are professional artists out there who are willing to share their knowledge and to share it with talented beginners. Maybe the computer won't kill the tactile art world after all.
Well, now I must get ready for my show opening this afternoon and at my next post I will share photos of the art venue.