Friday, December 24, 2010

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year

"Our hearts grow tender with childhood memories and love of kindred, and we are better throughout the year for having, in spirit, become a child again at Christmas-time."
Laura Ingalls Wilder



This Santa is a  gift for my 90 year old Mom. She is hosting a party for 35 of her children, grand children and great grandchildren tonight. They come home from both coasts and all around the mid-west.
 It will be  a wild wonderful party on Christmas Eve. 
*****
The Santa painting is my first portrait attempt. Hopefully the subject will over come the errors. Acrylic on gessoed paper, framed and beribboned for Mom.
Brunch and presents to open on Christmas morning with my own children and grands. Love this time of year.

Blessings to you and yours in this holy season celebrating our Lord's arrival here on earth. 

Saturday, December 11, 2010

Showing my Chrome in a Classic Location


As I mentioned last month, the show at the Emy Frentz is followed immediately by a one person show at the Unique Specialties and Classics store. We took down my display at the gallery and hung the paintings at Unique the next morning. Owners Dani and Jeremy Thomas are very generous to let me show my work in an atmosphere that reflects exactly where my inspiration for the chrome hood ornament paintings come from. After all, they are selling the cars that the ornaments decorate. The following is one of my press releases. I tried to cover more bases than I have before. The local paper, an online listing of activities for the whole Mankato area and an announcement for one of our local radio stations. This release was sent to KMSU the independent public radio station at MSU Mankato.

Mankato native and former MSU employee, Margie Larson has a exhibition of her chrome series open at Unique Specialties and Classics at the intersection of South Victory Drive and Stadium Road. Margie retired from a career at Minnesota State University Mankato where she was the study abroad adviser in the International Office. She now has a studio in the Emy Frentz Art Guild at 253 Second Street in Mankato. Working full time as an artist and having the studio has made retirement a great experience for Margie. Her chrome series is the result of years of attending street rod and classic car shows where she photographed the chrome details of the cars and now has translated those images into paintings. Any one who loves color will enjoy these paintings. Unique is open from 9- 5 daily except Sunday.

Margie is proud to have been awarded a PLRAC/McKnight Emerging Artist Grant from the Prairie Lakes Regional Arts Council which has made this exhibit possible. 

Here are a few photos showing the paintings on their walls. It would be nice to have enough paintings to cover more walls in this bright space. Thanks again to Dani and Jeremy for letting me show my work in their store.