Marfa Texas and Missouri Ozarks

Here are a few more new scratchboard pieces that I dropped off at Dahlia Woods Gallery in Dallas. http://www.dahliawoodsgallery.com/ "Bird with a heart" and "White Dog with Red".

Just got back to Austin from a few weeks traveling. First I went to Marfa Texas which is in deep west TX. Think, movie 'Giant', tumbleweeds, high desert, and Don Judd. The plan was for me to install kitchen cabinets and countertop etc...for a friend who has a vacation home there. The trade off was I get to go to the mythical Marfa and check out the gallery scene. I loaded the truck full of tools, cabinets and art and hit the road. Cabinets went well. Lots of hard work but I was up for it...considering I've spent half my life doing this kind of work it was possible to get it done in a week. (think about that the next time you hire a contractor who drags the work out for months!!) The town and gallery scene was almost non-existent. Slow, very slow. One gallery I wanted to check out wasn't even open and the phone number for the rep was disconnected. (They have a gallery in Austin as well...so I know they are still around) The other major gallery looked like a ghost town. In fact, to my eyes the whole place looked like a ghost town. Granted, I'm sure there is an underground scene there that I don't know about. Maybe I'm not cool or hip enough. Or frankly, maybe it's just not that interesting to me. So, thinking that I really want to have my artwork on the walls of a gallery that actually sells art and has pretty steady patrons, I packed up and left town. Felt like a good decision. Glad I went, and can't see any reason to go back.

On the other hand I went to the Missouri Ozarks for a week after a few short days and my birthday in Austin. Envision Branson as more "Green Acres" rather than it's current state which is "Las Vegas in the Ozarks".

Four years ago I helped my best friend build her house.....the whole thing from the slab up. Spent two weeks every month for 7 months. Two women in their 50's with nail guns and saws. Awesome! So on this visit we drove around the farm on the tractor doing chores and bought two cows and went to a neighboring town and got a washer and dryer...whoo hoo modern conveniences! I like to think of this vacation as "authentically rural"...like a dude ranch, only it costs me nothing but time.

All for now.

Chickens and Such

Scratchboard Demo at Jerry's Artarama was great! Good number of folks came and stayed and left with their own scratches plus extra sample boards and even a few tools. Will be doing this again May 9th. I realized that I love teaching, esp. about this medium. What was so interesting that day was how everyone uses the product differently. My friend Cheryl Finfrock took to it and it really works well with her abstract expressionism style. http://www.cherylfinfrock.com/ I hope she posts some examples soon and works it into some larger pieces.

I'm putting up some images that are new works I've produced for Dahlia Wooods Gallery in Dallas. http://www.dahliawoodsgallery.com/ They are 8x10 scratchboard which is a new size for me to work with. Plus I've introduced a quirky element of scratching on top of the acrylic...in this case some tic tac doe.

Just got back from Marfa, TX and will report on that soon.

Jerry's Artarama Scratchboard Demo Sat. March 14

I keep forgetting to do this whole networking thing....This coming Saturday I will be at Jerry's Artarama in Austin TX doing a scratchboard demonstration. It's free and it's happening from 12-3pm at their store at 6010 I-35 exit 238A #512-420-9359. Looking forward to recruiting new converts! I love scratchboard and need more people to love it so Ampersand will continue to make their excellent product. I have tried the paper type and even the expensive British Scraperboard, but I still come back to the Ampersand 'Clayboard' type. It is a superior product!

Here's an old scratchboard I did(from a couple years back) of 'Big House Orchids'. This was on 'scratch paper' spray adhesive mounted on a board. Turned out ok, but the paper is harder to work with and end product is not as clean as you know what....