Friday and Saturday, May 20 and 21, 12:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m., are the last Weekend Gallery Hours for SIGNS & WONDERS. Please come see the creations my husband David and I made to celebrate the sacred we have found in our ordinary pleasures. There are many on exhibit—almost 100!
Have you seen “The Big Buddha”, painted on a giant tree trunk worn smooth before being rescued by David from rushing waters? Have you seen “Treesa”, painted on a bark-encrusted plank salvaged by our friend Jan from a pile of milled cast offs? Have you seen David’s appropriation of my favorite mini garden rake to serve as the tail for his giant “GARR”?
Have you seen the Wonders I have found in transforming common road signs into story-telling paintings? Have you seen my “Monk on a Mantle” sitting in quiet meditation before an amber field outside of Carthage? Have you seen my four black sheep in their mangers after a day of grazing the lawns around the Eiffel Tower?
Come see! Our SIGNS & WONDERS Exhibition remains on view through May 21.
Next up is artCentral’s ANNUAL MEMBERSHIP EXHIBITION, opening with the AWARDS PICNIC on June 3, Friday, from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m. Make your $10.00 dinner reservations early by email to [email protected] or call (417) 358-4404.
David and I have our artful contributions ready! They are our best offerings.
Appearing as an inspired vision on his morning commute to his day job, David’s “Second Coming” is a painting in oil, 40”x20”. Rendered in broad strokes that seem to vibrate to the breath of the frame, his scarlet crested pileated woodpecker flies through the picture plane as though on a mission for the Spirits.
My “Ozarkian Cobbler’s Abbaye du Mont-Saint-Michel” is composed of my gleanings from our sacred Sunday mornings made as my tribute to David’s courage and to the community of seekers with whom we gather at midday every Sunday.
Our Sundays begin with ringing our Tibetan singing bowl after we set our intentions. Finishing a mini morning feast we take to the woods for an up-and-down hike with our Aussie. David carries a shoulder bag to gather trash. Occasionally we collect deadwood—a branch or a root worth saving. I pick up shards strewn along the moss-lined path. Sometimes we find an unexpected treasure like a small, very empty discarded bottle of Captain Morgan Spiced Rum.
One Sunday, ready to head home, we were detoured by a sign pointing to “Old Stuff for Sale”. Stopping and shopping there as our fifth anniversary gift to each other, I discovered the base for my “Abbaye”—a vintage cobbler’s stand made of a heavy hand hewn wood support topped with an iron shoe form.
My following Sunday studio afternoons were devoted to constructing my tribute to David and our new found friends. I used a weathered board from our old Chickie Palace as the base. With wood and copper wire and lichen I built a church high up on top of the shoe last. Tibetan prayer flags decorate the perimeter. Below, like an undulating sea, my collected shards of glass wave up and around the cobbler’s stand. The empty Captain Morgan bottle lies washed up on a cluster of rocks as though an old habit cast off and left behind by a commitment to sobriety.
David tells me my “Abbaye” looks like a lighthouse. Hearing this, I feel happy. I like thinking of art as a lighthouse—a beacon of solace and safety. A place that stands strong and serene even when life’s seas roil rough around us. A place like our Sunday community of seekers. A place like artCentral. I wish for all at least one lighthouse.
At artCentral, standing like a serene lighthouse—the cultural center of our hometown—you will find many beacons of inspiration shining in the 2022 ANNUAL MEMBERSHIP EXHIBITION, June 3 through July 17! Come see!
