WVAG Member Survey!! By Betsy Popp

Copy it, Paste it, Print it and mail it, do whatever you can do but I would "Select all" and copy to clipboard and then fill it out and e-mail it to Besty...............

This is how we make us a better group!!!!!   Rick

Betsy Popp writes............................

 Please read through the series of questions and provide some feedback. The sooner you send me back information, the sooner we can take our group down news paths as a benefit to all.

1.  What type of classes would you be interested in?

    What mediums?

    Short demos at monthly meetings?

    Possibly demos on video to pass around and/or to keep in a date base.

2.  When would you like to see a class offered?

    Weekends?

    Week Nights?

    Week Days?

3.  As WVAG member do you know of any facilities where classes could be held?

4.  If you have teaching skills and/or experience or an idea for a class, please list/discuss:

5.  What percentage of money received by an instructor through classes go back to the WVAG?

6.  Please include any other questions or information that you may have.


As I said, this is the start of an attempt to get going and organized with classes, demos, educational opportunities through the WVAG.

Please send this information back to Betsy Popp

Thanks

bpopp@wildblue.net

Ace Offers to Match Winnings money in Framing Grants!!

I talked to Christine this morning about a subject that was discussed briefly last night at the meeting. 

Amazingly she has talked our good friends at the framing shop at the Ace Hardware in Weston to match a WVAG members winnings in framing at the shop!  So if you won $150 at a show you just got $150 in free framing/matting/mounting/whatever you need from the shop!

Northern National Art Competition

3 $1000 AWARDS OF EXCELLENCE!!

Entries due by May 16th

Professional development, technical assistance and training programs and workshops

Entitled "The Work of ART" our friends at ARTS WISCONSIN is offering a series of workshops regarding how to market, price, display, etc your art. The workshops are offered at a host of locations from Madison to Marshfield to Minocqua and others.

Here is a registration form but the majority of the information can be seen from their web site by Clicking Here

I have attached a Registration form here as well.

Thursday Feb 21 Meeting notes

Meeting last night was well attended and informative. This blog was discussed as well as the gracious offer of Member Mark Mittlesteadt's offer to volunteer his web building services to re-energize the WVAG web site that has been inactive for some time.  Mark and I will be working together so as not to overlap info.  This blog will continue with day to day member information and quicker easier updates and the Web Site is envisioned as something bigger in scope and scale and more informative to the general public looking to get info on the Guild but who doesn't really care about getting the entry forms or topics from the latest meeting went.

Mark is looking for any input you might have and can be reached at his business Air Designs at markm@airbrushdesigns.net.  His work can be seen at www.airbrushdesigns.net

There was discussion about making a higher quality brochure design to make available at shows.  Our current one is a little bland and should be more artistically representative for an artist group.

Artists were awarded cash prizes for work entered in the Reaching New Heights Gallery show.

Christine offered handouts of monetary awards for the last 13 shows.  You can see this form elsewhere in this blog.

Patrick Plunkett Cattails Entry!

Top View of a Cattail - In Cubism - Whimsical

Applying Analytical Cubism to the top view of a cattail, this is one 

possible version of the result.

Acrylic on hardboard

Size approximately 20 x 20 long deep x 20 overall height.

Artist: Patrick Plunkett 

(Completed 02/10/08

Laura Nelke Cattails and Flowers Entry...

In the southern Mexican state of Chiapas clumps of white calla lilies grow wild, clinging precariously to steep, red, highland slopes.  Rural women, descendants of the proud and ancient Mayans, harvest the elegant callas by the armfuls to sell in the city’s marketplace.  The marginal existence of these indigenous women often seems as precarious as that of the blooms they depend upon for their livelihood.  Born on their sturdy stems these heart-shaped blooms are perfect visual metaphors for the people of Chiapas--great-hearted in their generosity; imbued with dignity and resilience of spirit.  Upon visiting my daughter in San Cristóbal she gave me a magnificent ‘welcome’ bouquet of these elegant calla lilies. 

My artistic challenge was to paint white callas, but to do it in such a way as to celebrate the riotous colors of Mexico:  lush tropical greens; the sunflower-cement walls of my bedroom; the terracotta-rose of sinuous window grills; gregarious magenta and fuchsia bougainvillea. Ultimately this painting is visual expression of gratitude.  It is both a thank you note to my gracious Chiapan hosts and a love letter to my daughter. 

.........................................................................................................................................

I love winter.  Like other forms of hardship, it forces people into community—“hang together and survive” is the message.  The subject of cattails seems the perfect vehicle for my wintry contemplations.  Who in Wisconsin hasn’t negotiated our snow-covered roads and observed the dried, brown clumps of cattails in our roadside ditches?  Standing tall in culverts they withstand the passing insults of snow plows.  Unrelenting Canadian winds snap the brittle leaves and accompanying weeds, but the sturdy cattail stalks prevail and resolutely await spring’s thaw.  In that regard they are much like the tough, mid-westerners who are their neighbors!

A frosty mid-winter afternoon lies at the heart of some of nature’s most glorious contradictions:  the shortest days are marked by the longest shadows; a cold, icy world is bathed in the irrationally warm light of a low-hanging sun.  This painting attempts to capture winter’s beauty and celebrate its contradictions.

 

Cattails and Flowers entry Deadline

Be sure to have your entry postmarked by Feb 14th for the Cattails and Flowers Show.  There is an entry form a few lines down on this blog that you can click on and print if you still need one.

Patrick Plunkett Flowers and Cattails Entry

Cubist Cattail - Whimsical
A Cubist version of a cattail, combining natural, as-cut cherry wood, with 
man-made, satin painted steel, elements.
The stalk is of .18" diameter steel rod attached to a modified 6"
structural channel, painted in a black satin finish. The Cattail,
including leaves, are of cherry wood, rough sawed to size with no further 
finishing.
Size approximately 6"long, 6" deep, 26.25" overall height.
Artist: Patrick Plunkett (Completed 02/10/08)

Peggy McDowell's Cellar 70 Show Show Invitation

On February 15th, don't worry if you haven't gotten your sweetheart something special...come to Trig's Cellar 70 for a wine-tasting, sweet treats, and a chance to view the recent artwork of Peggy McDowell and celebrate with her. There are things for the romantic and things for those celebrating "SAD" Day...Singles Awareness Day!

The piece "Mending" is a paper collage that reflects the subdued feelings one has after a relationship ends and healing begins. The paper doll figure stands on her head to get a new perspective and carries a thread in her hand that can begin the mending process. The figure's body is covered with the words from Edgar Allen Poe's classic "The Telltale Heart".

Holiday Spirits-The Winter show ends

The "Holiday Spirits-Winter Show ended yesterday, Feb 4th 2008.  

Obviously a rousing success.  Congrats to all participants and on to the next exhibit!

Member Betsy Popps Work

WVAG Member Betsy Popp's work is being featured at Nature Artists web site. 

Besty was selected as one of the top 100 for PaintAmerica!!   

To see the page featuring her works and some more of her awards and accomplishments Click Here.

Betsy is also teaching several classes and conducting seminars at the School for the Arts in Rhinelander and Dillmans Creative Arts Foundation in Lac Du Flambeau and more.  

To see the whole list and what the classes entail Click Here