Blog: My NEW space ~ fresh beginnings

I've been meaning to move my blog off of it's former SPACE, so here it is. I deleted my two myspace accounts this week, long story but I'd been meaning to do so anyway. It felt like the world fell off of my shoulders to tell the truth. I may return to it sometime, but not quite yet. I saved my blog archives, wasn't able to save my blog comments, so feel free to revisit older posts here and comment if you wish.


Another fresh beginning: I moved my studio back to the Fine Arts Building in downtown Chicago this week, after working from home for about six months. It feels good being back at FAB, I'm sharing space with an artist friend who leaves for the warmer southwest in the winter months. He left me his easel and drawing table and one full wall to display my work, which is great during FAB's monthly second Friday open studio events. I was just in time to participate in the October Chicago Artist's Month open studio event this weekend. I moved in and organized, hung my work and started working right away on a new series of Irish related works. I'll be in a group show at the Beverly Arts Center once more in time for St. Patrick's Day, a big month in my Beverly neighborhood.

The theme so far for the series is sheep. For some reason sheep sell. Every sheep I ever painted sold within it's first showing or two, so there must be something to that. I don't mind painting them, so why not an entire series? I'm planning to paint a few of them life sized or so, just for kicks. My trip last month to Achill Island in County Mayo Ireland has left me with dozens of great sheep photo references. I'm sure I'll eventually get around to painting some of the other beautiful scenic shots and session musicians I snapped in the pubs as well.

If you're interested in seeing more of my Irish photography from the trip, visit my Flickr site here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/amwhitestudio/

It was great hosting friends from my Chicago artist community once more at the Fab Open Studio event, especially myspace friends Brett Manning and Morgan Leavitt.

I had a few new works to share and the reaction was very positive. The mylar works created lots of conversation, as did the new poems and butterfly metaphor. As always there are questions about my models and the Beatles themes, or discussions about my trips to Ireland. There were 25 other artist studios open at Fab for the event, and it's fun to visit some of my favorite artists and view their new work and catch up on the building news.

Thanks for visiting my new spaces. Ciao for now! xx ~ Alice