Friday, November 25, 2011

Moving forward through art...

 
a perfect day, mixed media on paper,  5x7" © 2011 Megan Chapman

Happy Black Friday or Buy Nothing Day or just regular old Friday! Here I am with my weekly installment of what is going on in my art world. Let's see... 

Last week fellow artist Jennifer Libby Fay and I drove down to Hot Springs to deliver my exhibition, A Certain Trajectory to the Blue Moon Gallery. My exhibition will open on December 2nd on First Friday gallery walk from 5-9pm. I hope all my friends and supporters from Hot Springs and Little Rock will pop in and say hello. It has been a long time since I have been at the gallery for a First Friday and I am looking forward to it.

Here is the press blurb for my upcoming exhibition:

Megan Chapman will be returning after three years for a solo exhibition at the Blue Moon Gallery in December. A Certain Trajectory contains paintings from two of her most recent bodies of work. Previously, Chapman was known for her richly-colored mixed media paintings. However, in these pieces she began the transition into more minimalist work, featuring a near monochromatic palette comprised of various tones of dark charcoal, translucent shades of blue, yellow, rust, and the occasional flash of green. Several pieces in this exhibition contain the artist's own words typed on paper torn from old books and give the viewer the sense of reading pages out of a diary or letters to a distant lover. 

In other news, the day before my exhibition, on December 1st it will be our last First Thursday as the Fayetteville Underground and at the location that has been our home for over two and a half years. I am sure it will be a bittersweet evening; I don't think I have really made sense of it all yet. All I know is that the artists will be having lots of special deals and a great selection of works for every budget and taste. Many of our visiting artists will return to show their work one last time in the Revolver gallery and the Hive Annex (the studio behind the Hive gallery). This is a great time to take advantage of great deals and score the perfect piece. All of my remaining color works will be on half price sale as I try to liquidate my older inventory to make room for new ideas and to raise money for my future travels.  
  
For more information about our new organization please keep visiting www.morphtheorg.com and learn ways you can help, as we try to find a permanent home and come back better than ever in January as the Fayetteville Art Alliance.

I have been busy this last week as well, restocking my etsy shop with fresh new affordable works. It is always fun to restock the etsy shop and get to know the other talented etsy sellers. I have been very fortunate as my new works have been selected for many lovely treasuries and I have been asked to be a part of two impressive etsy teams. If you are looking for small, affordable, one of a kind works of art, then please visit my shop. These piece are fresh and elegant and will pop into any 5x7" frame making presentation a snap! I am currently offering free shipping and I will happily ship to anywhere in the world!

I think that is about all I have for you this week. I know that some bigger ideas are brewing, it is just a matter of time... Until then keep fighting!

Saturday, November 19, 2011

Gratitude

 

A sneak peak of my upcoming exhibition,  A Certain Trajectory 
December 2011 Blue Moon Gallery Hot Springs Arkansas.


Dear Lovely Readers,

As some of you may have noticed, I skipped a week. I am not pleased about this but that is how it has to be sometimes. Life got in the way and I was happy to let it. I hope you all have been well in your art worlds and lives. Today, I just wanted to remind myself of some things and share some positive aspects of being an artist. I am grateful and here are some of the reasons why.

1. I have been showing my art in galleries since 1995. In those sixteen years I have been in over twenty featured and solo exhibitions and in over thirty group shows.

2. My work has been allowed to grow and change over these years because I have had good mentors in my life as well as friends, fellow artists and people around me who have supported, influenced and inspired me and encouraged my growth.

3. My art has put me in contact with lovely and diverse people all over the country and the world. My understanding of the world has been broadened because of art.

4. I am able to support myself doing what I know I am on the planet to do. I am able to express my inner most dreams, fears, secrets as well as passions and share them and give an image to feelings many viewers might not be able to express.

I am grateful for a lot more than this, but this seems like a good start.

In other news, I have been thinking about a new series of works. I am quite excited about the concepts, and truly I am just excited to be thinking of art again. I have been so caught up in the logistics of art and arts organizations that my work and that part of my brain have taken a back seat.

Soon the work will pour out of me again and I can't wait to share it with you. Thank you for being a part of it all.

Stay tuned....

Friday, November 4, 2011

Art update!


 
 he did the impossible 
© 2011 Megan Chapman 
sold

I have been hammered with work (not painting) as the Underground morphs into a new organization. We are a dedicated group of individuals who have worked too hard to make the Underground what it has become today to let it slide or fade away. We are all exhausted and yet at the same time deeply encouraged by the support of the community. I could write a lot about this experience and one day I am sure I will, but I thought I might return the focus to my art career for a split second.

So, here is my news. In December I will be having a solo exhibition at the Blue Moon Gallery in Hot Springs, Arkansas. It will be my first exhibition in three years at the gallery that has represented me since 2004. They have always shown my color work and have stood by me as my work has progressed and changed over the years, I am glad that I will be able to show some of my newer white series work in that part of the state. This exhibition will be a combination of my two most recent bodies of work, Falling into Sound and Sometimes I love you and other stories. I will be coming up with a title soon and picking just the right pieces to go together for this exhibition. I hope you will join me in Hot Spring for First Friday gallery walk December 2 from 5-9. It has been awhile since I have been down for a gallery walk so I am very excited. I hope I can get some of my fellow Underground studio mates to join me down there.

Also, in December I have been invited to show several works from my Sometimes I love you and other stories series in a gallery in Edinburgh, Scotland! I am very excited that some of these recent works will be shown at the Union Gallery in their annual Christmas show. I am sad I won't be traveling with them, but all in good time....

In other news, I just received word that two of my paintings. Home and He did the impossible, from my most recent series will be published in the winter edition of CALYX journal. CALYX is a journal that has been publishing fine art and literature by women since 1976. I am thrilled.

So, while I am currently not painting much my career as an artist keeps on moving forward. I know soon, I will have the time and the space to work again in the way I am accustomed, but first I must help as artists of the underground find a new home and get settled. Thanks for stopping by and for always reading, thinking, talking to me about my work. Your support is instrumental to my success. 

Have you helped morph the org yet? You can hear my fellow studio mate, Sabine Schmidt and me in a recent radio interview about the Underground artists and how we are morphing the org by clicking here. 

We are all in this together. Keep fighting, the world needs your art.