Jeudi 14 avril 2011

Local art gallery uses spiritual approach

The walls, ceiling and floor are painted a psychedelic mural, acoustic instruments strum, dancers fluidly move to the beat, friends laugh and art thrives. The masterpiece is complete.

In a few days, everyone will have cleared out, and everything will be painted white. A clean slate. Intricate details, memories, smiles and mistakes will be erased — hidden under a layer of latex paint, further burying the murals and memories that have come before it.

After being open for a year, The Church of Holy Colors art gallery has given a new meaning to independent art and has created a unique way of both displaying and creating art. It is not actually a church, but it is also an art gallery. And, for some, it is a place of worship that offers a chance to reflect spirituality through  inter-connectivity to art and color.

“It’s a place for creation. Our objective is to make art as much and as freely as possible,” said Joey Fillastre, co-founder and artist at Holy Colors.

The gallery takes an innovative approach to art by maintaining a non-materialistic, experimental outlook, which is evident in the lifestyle and works of the artists.

“If we make money off of our art, it just goes back into the gallery to buy more supplies and to keep creating,” Fillastre said.

Artists Evan Galbicka, Joey Fillastre and Felici Asteinza founded the gallery a year ago and have repeated the process of covering the gallery in murals seven times. Along with murals, they incorporate oil paintings, sculptures and collages. Multiple works are combined and placed strategically to create a collection of art, which is termed an installment.

Although they do not belong to any particular religion, the art is like a religious experience for them. Creating, connecting with others, digesting society and transforming feelings into art all contribute to what drives them.

Galbicka, Fillastre and Asteinza have shown their work at art shows in Gainesville, Tampa and Tallahassee. They also have had their art on display at local restaurants and bars such as Alcove and The 8th Ave Coffee and Bike House. Local companies also commission them to create art for their establishments. They are currently commissioned by The Top, a downtown restaurant, to design gift cards and also are painting a mural in a downtown salon, The Faun Salon.

All three are trained artists. Galbicka graduated from UF, concentrating on sculpture. Fillastre graduated from Florida State University, concentrating on painting and Asteinza is currently an art graduate student at the University of South Florida.

Their philosophy on creating art is unique and is what sets them apart from other galleries. They see people’s obsession with money, TV, pop culture and corporate America as detrimental.

      “We want the art to exist in a deep context, outside of consumer culture,” Galbicka said.

    The artists’ work can sometimes be politically charged, reflecting the frustrations of society.

We take the force of the human spirit and use it against the idea of sedimentary popular culture,” Fillastre said. “We take things such as pop culture, our personal gloom, everyday stresses and we make art. It helps you cope with things. It’s an outlet.”

    Upon the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, they felt the blow and channeled it into a massive installment, which included a complete mural covering the art gallery, oil paintings, collages and sculptures, all symbolically grieving the loss of aquatic life.

    Fillastre and Galbicka are influenced by the outdoors, especially the Florida landscape they have come to know and love.

    “We are inevitably Florida artists,” Fillastre said.

    “Being from Florida — in the outdoors and on the beach, we are intuitively drawn to bright, tropical colors,” Galbicka said. “The art you produce is relevant to where you live and what you see.”

Their unique approach to art also involves group collaboration, a process where other artists and friends come together to create an installment.  The artists said you can get a sense of what the gallery is all about through the concept of the installations.

     “It’s about sacrificing your personal identity for the group experience,” Galbicka said. “We stick to what we’re good at and we bring it all together and collaborate.”

 The artists said that the experience of creating the group installments, not the final product, is the art.

“The installations are only precious to the point of completion,” Fillastre said.

After a short time, they take down pieces, give them to friends and paint over the murals with white, erasing any evidence of its existence.

“In history, art holds a traditional theme of permanence and immortality,” Galbicka said. “We’re doing the opposite — once the experience is over, the art is no longer precious. The energy changes and it becomes a memory.”

    The artists have a non-materialistic outlook on the art. They said they will sell it if people inquire but that is not the reason they create.

    “ We don’t make art for the money. That’s not why it is created,” Fillastre said. “Money is just a symptom of something good. It just sometimes happens.”

    “If you make art just for the purpose of selling it, you are no different than the large corporations,” Galbicka said.

    The gallery has also provided a space for music. Local artists and friends of the gallery have performed shows amongst the creations. Fillastre and Galbicka said music is an integral part of how they create art.

    “The musicians get inspired through our art — it’s a catalyst. And we get inspired through their music,” Fillastre said.

    With a  living-in-the-now approach, the future goals of the gallery are to maintain a peaceful existence.

     “Our only plan is to keep creating,” Fillastre said.

Par oilpaintingsupplie - 3 commentaire(s)le 14 avril 2011
Jeudi 07 avril 2011

One day without shoes: McMurry students bare soles for children's health

Lee Jones went without shoes Tuesday despite the unseasonably cool weather.

He has several pairs of shoes to select from — including two pairs of TOMS Shoes — but the McMurry University sophomore was walking around campus barefoot in support of One Day Without Shoes to promote awareness of the health risks of millions of children across the globe who do not have proper footwear.

TOMS Shoes, a Santa Monica, Calif.-based footwear company founded in 2006 by Arlington native Blake Mycoskie, started One Day Without Shoes in 2008.

The company designs and sells lightweight shoes based on the Argentine alpargata design. For every pair sold, the company donates a new pair of shoes to a child in need.

Mycoskie visited Abilene in September, when he spoke at Abilene Christian University.

Jones, a sophomore art education major from Brownwood, is participating in the annual event for the fourth year — two at Early High School and two at McMurry.

"I do it to express solidarity with kids around the world who need shoes," he said. "Because of that, they get these horrible diseases."

Dozens of other McMurry students, including Miranda Priddy of Stephenville and Amanda Genzling of Artesia, N.M., also were barefoot Tuesday.

Genzling, a sophomore biochemistry major who attended a microbiology lab Tuesday morning without shoes, said interest in the event seems to be growing at McMurry.

"This year, it's a lot bigger," she said.

Jones agreed.

"The first year (at Early High School in 2008), I was the only one who did it, but it keeps getting bigger every year," he said.

Priddy, a freshman theater major who owns three pairs of TOMS Shoes, said she's a "big believer in the cause. It's a way to support children around the world. I've seen lots of posts on Facebook by people I know back home who are going barefoot today."

TOMS has given more than one million pairs of shoes to children in Louisiana, Kentucky, Mississippi and Florida in the United States, as well as in countries including Ethiopia, Rwanda, Guatemala, Haiti, South Africa and Argentina.

The company's website says more than one billion people in the world are at risk for soil-transmitted diseases, including podoconiosis, a form of elephantiasis that affects the lymphatic system of the lower legs. The company says wearing shoes helps lower the health risks and prevent the diseases.

"I've got two pair (of TOMS Shoes), and I need to get a third," said Jones, planning his next trip to Village Boutique, which sells TOMS footwear.

Violet Vaughn at Village Boutique said TOMS shoes are popular items at the store.

"Lot of college kids come in," she said, "but we have all ages. Everybody is coming in barefoot today and buying TOMS shoes. We have ladies 60 and 70 years old going barefoot. I love it."

Extrusion blow molding of tubes with soft segments

The new Durethan BC 700 HTS from LANXESS is an exceptionally soft polyamide 6. It has an elasticity modulus of only 210 MPa (conditioned). This non-reinforced material is perfect for manufacturing charge air tubes with integrated bellows as a single-material solution using extrusion blow molding. "This gives processors a cost-effective alternative to sequential coextrusion involving two polyamides of differing hardness, which is more time-consuming and sensitive in terms of the process employed," explained Dr. Günter Margraf, a product developer for polyamide compounds at LANXESS. The new material is so soft that it also has excellent sealing properties. This made it possible for prototype charge air tubes made from it to be flange-mounted to charge air coolers and air intake manifolds using just one bracket without leaks occurring. The need for additional sealing rings was thus eliminated.

Resistant to thermal aging and blow-by gases
Under the hood there is a trend towards supercharged engines with exhaust gas recirculation to cut fuel consumption and thus CO2 emissions. Charge air tubes with integrated bellows compensate for the relative movements of these engines and assembly tolerances. As a result of exhaust gas recirculation, the charge air tubes need to be highly resistant to exhaust gas / blow-by gas condensates. LANXESS therefore conducted appropriate tests using the new polyamide 6 grade in accordance with the OEM testing regulations. These showed that the material is more resistant to oils, fuels and acidic condensates than thermoplastic polyester elastomers and elastomer block copolyamides, which are also used for blow molding charge air tubes in series production.

Special blends of polyamide and polyolefins are also frequently used for flexible blow molding tubes. However, compared to Durethan BC 700 HTS, these materials exhibit much lower thermal aging stability, which is also the case with polyester elastomers. "This gives Durethan BC 700 HTS the edge over these rival materials in at least one key property," said Margraf.

For use on series molds
The new material has already been successfully trialed on series molds for charge air tubes with several customers, confirming its excellent processing properties in extrusion blow molding. One reason for this is its high melt stiffness, which ensures the extruded parison barely sags under its own weight. "Our material can therefore be blow molded within a wide processing window in a stable process," commented Margraf.

The new polyamide 6 grade is also ideal for injection molding of components with very strict toughness requirements and has already been successfully tested on series molds. It can be used, for example, to injection mold multi-flexible hose connections.

Wide product range for blow molding
LANXESS boasts a wide product portfolio of high-viscosity and heat-stabilized polyamide 6 and 66 grades for blow molding air-ducting hollow components in engine compartments. It includes both non-reinforced and filled materials with glass fiber contents of 15 and 25 percent. The "range of hardnesses" extends from very soft grades such as Durethan BC 700 HTS to hard polyamides with an elasticity modulus of 5,300 MPa (conditioned). Material grades for cooling circuit tubes that are particularly resistant to hydrolysis are also part of the range. Detailed information on the product range for blow molding can be found at durethan.de/.

The applications, materials and technologies presented in this news release should be checked prior to usage to ensure they do not infringe possible industrial property rights.

Par oilpaintingsupplie - 0 commentaire(s)le 07 avril 2011
Mercredi 06 avril 2011

Wheaton featured for fundraiser

The Cellarbration! for Education planning committee has announced Kim Matthews Wheaton as the featured artist for the 2011 event scheduled for May 21.

Wheaton's oil painting Vineyards on the Columbia will be used in Cellarbration! promotion materials and posters. The original will be sold at the auction during the Big Bend Community College Foundation's biggest annual scholarship fundraiser in the Masto Conference Center.

Known for her distinctive landscape paintings of wide expanses and dramatic coulees of the Columbia Basin, Wheaton has lived and painted here since 1997.

She was born in New York City and grew up in San Francisco, Berkeley and parts of Connecticut. She earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from UC Berkeley.

Wheaton sometimes works from her car, racing against fading light, weather systems and the whims of nature to capture the hues in her work.

"I was honored to be invited to create a painting for the BBCC Foundation," Wheaton said, whose work already hangs in the entrance to the BBCC library.

Cellarbration! is a premium wine dinner and auction that has raised $610,000 in nine years for student scholarships. The event is known for pairing a five-course gourmet dinner with the finest Washington wines, combined with exceptional service and decor.

Back again this year is the "Bling" raffle for a one-carat diamond from Harrison's Diamonds and Designs.  A new auction item is a one-week stay at an ocean-front time share in Hawaii.  The event again includes another Leonetti wine item — a chance to bid on wines unavailable to those not on the winery's waiting list.

The wines for the dinner are sourced by Butch Milbrandt, of Milbrandt Vineyards — one of the state's largest wine grape producers. Wine commentary is provided by John Allen, of Vino! A Wine Shop in Spokane. The popular Chuck Yarbro Jr. is the auctioneer.

The committee is in the process of soliciting sponsorships and auction items for the event. Those who would like to be involved can contact the BBCC Foundation at 793-2006 for sponsorship forms, auction donation forms or to make reservations.
Par oilpaintingsupplie - 4 commentaire(s)le 06 avril 2011

Artist finds inspiration in the humble T-shirt

Nickolas Hadzis won't give you the shirt off his back, but he will paint you another one.

For several months now, the 48-year-old artist has been creating a line of hand-painted tees and other shirts for men and women at his Distillery District studio in the Case Goods Building (No. 74, studio 303).

He shares space with two other artists. His cubbyhole includes a blue reproduction turntable that's playing David Bowie. "I'm old-school," he says. "I kept all my vinyl from when I was a teen."

Born in Toronto of Greek/Macedonian heritage, Hadzis is the classic starving artist. He still lives with his parents. (They're divorced, so he splits his time with them.) He has no phone and doesn't drive a car.

Some of his creations are done with fabric and acrylic paints; some are done with Sharpies. "They are hand-dyed, hand-cut and drawn," he says. "The shirts take 32 to 40 hours to do with a Sharpie, and then I paint them."

Custom shirts range from $300 to $1,000 (prices are negotiable). The custom tees are $30 to $50 — he is taking a screen-printing workshop to make his works more affordable.

The latter "are a steal for an original piece. I sold my first shirt for $300 — it paid my Metropass for three months."

We covet the circus/clown shirt, which isn't for sale.

"I did it when I was 19 and it got me into art school," he explains. "It was my dad's chef shirt from the ‘60s when he worked at the Cava-Bob. It took me a year — I drew the clowns from black-and-white photos and coloured them in the ‘80s. I left the back plain.

Hadzis went to OCAD studying painting, drawing and sculpture. "I graduated in the ‘80s but didn't commit to being an artist full time until 2001," he explains.

He worked in retail and bussing tables at Metro Toronto Convention Centre and had his first show in 2001 at Gallery Neubacher. "I had 50 oil paintings and I performed with my accordion," Hadzis recalls. "I started the fashion seriously this year. I love fashion. Being an artist I have a high sense of fashion, but I don't consider myself a fashion designer. I'm learning to sew."
Par oilpaintingsupplie - 0 commentaire(s)le 06 avril 2011
Samedi 02 avril 2011

Bobcat painting featured at Ronald McDonald House benefit

"Corks and Canvas," benefiting Ronald McDonald House Charities of Montana,is set for April 9 at the Riverside Country Club. Tickets are $150 per person and semi-formal attire is suggested.

There will be a wine tasting and appetizers with musical entertainment, dinner and a live auction.

The featured auction item is an original oil painting of a bobcat by Harry Koyama titled "Blue and Gold" in honor of Montana State University. The artist is a graduate of Montana State University-Billings. The "bobcat" will also adore the wine labels for the evening's festivities.
Par oilpaintingsupplie - 3 commentaire(s)le 02 avril 2011
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