"Tarot" an Exhibit of my oil paintings

 There will be an exhibition of my paintings at The Genesee Co-op credit union here in Rochester NY. The show will be hung on Jan 8th and will be on display in the lobby of the Credit union. The paintings will be visible during normal bank branch hours and there will be a reception on Sat Jan 21, 2012 from 7-9.

In addition to the hair things and polymer clay things I make I also love to paint.I paint with acrylic sometimes at home but I have also been taking advanced classes in oil painting at  The Memorial art Gallery for a few years now. I began working with oil paints in 2000 while studying Arts for children and a studying as a sculpture minor at SUNY Brockport. My initial experience with painting for years had been only working with acrylics and my instructor there insisted on me using oils. Since the process of working with and disposing of oil paints in so hazardous I refuse to use them at home but have been happy for the chance to work with them at the MAG and use up the old paint remaining from my college days.

I have been working on a series of canvases based on imagery from the Deck of Tarot. As a teenager I became intrigued with the cards and wanted to get my cards read. I then took classes and studied bought myself a few decks. The symbolism and what we make out of it the personal connection to these images is what intrigues me most about the cards. Some people see them as evil but really they have suites just like playing cards but use wands, cups, coins, and swords in exchange for  hearts, spades, diamonds,and clubs.Their are also kings and queens in a Tarot deck just like in cards. Their are Pages in Tarot and Jokers in playing cards.

I have currently created roughly 25 out of the 78 cards that are in a Deck and hope to photograph these canvases and turn them into a deck some day that could be sold.

Shameless self promotion

So if you are a Facebook friend of mine you already know I will tell you all when I have new things online, have an art show or have an art teaching event I would like you to attend.
This year I was part of the Artists row event at the Public Market and took things up a notch. I finally bought that pop up tent I have been meaning to get for years. I had my friend at Instant Signcenter make me some signs to hang on my tent. I had Print Vista make me a car magnet and I used iron on transfers at home to make a t-shirt and hoodie(its crumpled on top of the car) for myself and Ed. That is the logo we desinged for mt Etsy shop from one of my oil paintings from the Tarot series.

Solstice gifts

I received a bunch of mail yesterday. Christmas cards, Ed's mom sent some cookies. Then I got this envelope from Arts And cultural council....I guessed what was in it: event invitation, a request for donations, My member ship should be fine, a grant rejections letter... I opened it up. It was a grant acceptance letter!

I also contacted someone from the Flying Squirrel community center
about hanging up an art show last week. I was surprised by the response I got. Why don't you hang it up for Solstice? So I prepped work on Sunday and hung it up Monday. The show is up and will run through Jan.

This is one of the images in the show. The show is all based on images from a Tarot deck. This is "4 of Pents". They are currently 13 works present and others will follow soon.

This is also the building that we will be painting the mural on starting in March. Meetings of the mural comittee will start on Thursday nights. Here's the link for their Facebook page.
http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#/profile.php?id=100000140036866

some of my work

This is an oil painting on canvas and is part of a series I have been working on since summer 2008. All the canvases are different sizes and are following suits of cards and major Arcana cards from Tarot.
This is from another smaller series called "Out to Eat" They are small drawing simply of what was on the table when I went out to eat. Several are ink and are smaller then a postcard.

To see more of my work go to myartprofile.com