AllFavorArt.com

When Tessa Mini, a Vintage senior, worked as an intern at the MBFA Gallery in Napa last summer, she came up with the idea of showing students’ works in the unique business, which combines art and real estate.

She present the idea to owner Mike Bolin and Katrina Giacalone, who signed on — and the result is a unique collaboration between a the local art students and the gallery that gives the artists a premium showcase for their art, and a view into the professional world of artists.

The show came together just before their winter break began Dec. 14, as the 44 works by 38 artists went up. Art students James Vietor and Kristina McDonald helped hang the show.

"I went there expecting that we were just going to throw it up on the walls, "Vietor said. "I didn’t think (hanging a show) was that complicated."

Alyssa Ciapponi, a junior, is one of the artists whose work is in the show, said, "It’s really exciting to be there."

"The location is amazing," said art teacher Christine Golick, "My friends are so impressed. Katrina and Mike Bolin and gave us a wonderful perspective on the art world."

Golik teaches about 50 advanced art students each year. "They come into the class knowing they are going to have to work hard," she said.

"We tried to get a variety," Golick said of the works in the show. "Surrealist, art nouveau, classical."

The requirement to have one’s work included, Vietor said, was "to be cool."

Source: Napa Valley Register

When you walk into the Dallas City Elementary School, art is everywhere. That makes art teacher Carrie Scheetz very proud.

New this fall is a display of ceramic tiles, created by students and staff of the school, and mounted by the volunteer help of Aaron Tate, a local business man and former Dallas City student.

"The assignment was for each student to design a tile that expressed them as a person. There are 280 tiles," said Scheetz.

The students made their six by six inch design on paper first, penciled it on the tile, and painted it. The tiles were kiln fired at Medium in Burlington, Iowa. Tate, owner of Quality Flooring for Dallas City, took it from there.

"I just glued them on to some concrete board, grouted it, and built the frames," Tate said. The tiles went into six frames of different sizes. Scheetz worked with Tate to mix the tiles for a good variety of color in each frame.

"This was an expensive project, for the tiles, the special paint. I came up with the idea and then had no idea how we would do it. The kids painted pots and sold them. There were other financial donations from the community, parents and staff," Scheetz said.

"Aaron made my dream a reality. He spent countless hours on this assembling and framing it. All this time was volunteered. We are thankful for all he has done as well as Gary and Billy Housewright and John Shuemate who hung the masterpiece."

Another art project with community support was a large plexiglas acquired from Cook's Glass in Carthage. It was painted by students in Scheetz's elective art class and hangs just below a ceiling light fixture in the library. A mural of Dallas City and the countryside surrounding it brightens the library wall.

More...

In a new show at Walker Art Center, St. Paul artist JoAnn Verburg photographs what she loves: friends, family, trees, water and light.

In an image-saturated world where gaudy pictures blast from computers, phones and television, the photos of St. Paul artist JoAnn Verburg are strikingly still, serene and spare: Italian olive groves shrouded in mist, her husband reading or napping, friends floating aimlessly in crystalline water. Such familiar and ephemeral subjects have captured Verburg's attention throughout her 30-year career, and they hang at the heart of her new show, "Present Tense," opening Saturday at Walker Art Center.

The exhibit is Verburg's first at the Walker, a Minneapolis institution to which many of her early images are deeply indebted. It was organized by the Museum of Modern Art in New York City, where the show made its debut in July.

In the early 1980s, shortly after she moved from Cambridge, Mass., to Minnesota, Verburg began photographing artists, especially dancers, who were in town to perform at the Walker. With their finely tuned awareness of movement and space, the dancers awakened in her a new understanding of the human body, its scale and how it inhabits the world. That's when she fixated on what became a signature element in her images; they always contain something life-sized, be it a glass of water, a tree branch, a daily newspaper or a body adrift in shimmering light.

Verburg, 57, recently recalled the excitement she felt in 1979 when she took the first of her life-sized photos. It was a portrait of a friend, Joel Janowitz, made with an experimental Polaroid camera to which she had access because she was managing an artists' program for the camera company. The camera took huge 20- by 24-inch images that were amazingly detailed and strangely focused, especially when compared with the little square Polaroids that were then common.

"I took the photo home, put it up on the wall and kept looking at it; I couldn't do anything else," Verburg said. "If my friend Joel had been in the room, I would have had no trouble making dinner, but with the photo, I just couldn't stop looking."

More...

Organizers of the Coconut Grove Arts Festival unveiled the 2008 event's signature poster by Miami artist Xavier Cortada.

This year's festival is scheduled for Feb. 16-18, which is the Presidents Day holiday weekend.

As with many of Cortada's works, the festival poster was inspired by the greenery of Miami. Cortada also is known for the Reclamation Project that promotes mangrove re-forestation throughout South Florida's coastline.

"We chose Xavier Cortada as this year's poster artist for his ability to capture South Florida's natural beauty in his work," said Monty Trainer, festival president.

"It is an honor for me to create this year's festival poster," Cortada said. "I am always excited to work with an organization that looks for ways to positively impact our local environment."

Previous artists who have created posters for the festival include Rick Garcia, Maria Reyes Jones, Lisa Remeny, Clyde Butcher and Romero Britto.

Source: Miami Herald