Chains to be shown at the Saatchi Gallery, London!

I received an email today from the Saatchi Gallery in London, regarding my placing in the Saatchi Showdown online competition. "Chains" will be shown at Saatchi Gallery, scheduled to open in October 2008.

At first I didn't believe it, I hadn't heard about the gallery opening, it is a year behind schedule. But there is a link to the virtual tour of gallery on The Saatchi website. It looks too good to be true! I'm beside myself!

Thanks again to all of you for your constant support! ~ Alice

Black Butterfly

It was our 28th wedding anniversary yesterday, so I did this as a gift to Steve. The past month or so working on the portrait ended up being a kind of intense period of introspection for me as well. I think this was partly because of completing my White Album series of portraits of my kids, and feeling more like concentrating on myself at last, but it has also been a time of personal growth and transformation.

There were several unusual spiritual moments for me while working on this portrait. One was a near out of body experience while on a walk in the park, which spurred me to write my first poem in 30 years. You can read the poem "Fairfield Avenue" back further in my blog. A few days later, I started seeing black butterflies. Not so unusual in summer I suppose, but I don't remember seeing this particular type in Chicago, maybe it's due to our changing weather patterns. The odd thing was that I had just found a photo of a black butterfly online at RedBubble had favorited it and commented on it. Then a black butterfly fluttered around me several times while I was walking that same afternoon! It happened again a couple of days later, this black butterfly flying in loops around me as I walked. Odd that the only black ones I saw, also seemed to notice me as well! Almost like they knew of my transformation. So, that inspired my second poem, "Black Butterfly" and I decided to incorporate a black butterfly into the drawing.

Just a couple of days ago I came up with a way to add the text of the poem to my work. I used my home printer to print the text onto a letter sized portion I cut from the pink backing paper. After I printed it, I pieced it back together with acid free tape. The mylar film is translucent, so the text shows through in a subtle way.

The piece was made to fit a vintage distressed frame I found at my local antique shop. It is really in a bad way, but I think it suits me - I'm a bit rough at the edges myself these days. But I figured it's now or never to expose more of myself. :)

Steve likes the gift by the way.



The Poem:


Black Butterfly


Bemusing muse

Black butterfly

Came through the ether

Mystical wings

Encircled me along the way

Enraptured on a summer day

Music painted on the sky

Black butterfly



Blown in from far off dust

Astral soul

Dressed in stardust

Black butterfly

Draw me perfect

Emergent from this coal black shell

Wet wings spread in joy to stand

Transformed

Flawless at the artist's hand



Evanescent passion lies

In our wavelengths intertwined

Black butterfly

Never caught

Light gently in the mind

Bring luminous thought


(c) Alice McMahon White 2008





"Black Butterfly" 22 x 18" charcoal on mylar drafting film (c) Alice McMahon White

Poem: Fairfield Avenue

Walking long to the essential

Lonely

Fair field



Glinting cut-crystal-challis-brilliant summer afternoon



Recalling the morning

Soul meeting soul

Hungry for Your Love touch and gaze

Yet

Found deeper

Expression in shared thought



And so

Spirit

Overflows flesh

Once

More

Joyful

In the fair field

Half-century of being

Finally down decades

Lay back childlike on perfumed grass

To lift face to vapor mist clouds

Just now masking sunshine



How many years since this child play?

Neglected play

Forgotten play



An artist's game different with maturity

No longer hunting hares and lambs in cotton candy clouds floating through opal sky

This time

More metaphoric visions

More abstract thoughts

Up on

High breezes

Painting pastel strokes

Fast and slower

Eyes entranced by wing-feather

Cloud edge wisps

Rhythmic movements

Tendrils break free and rejoin

Come Together

First meeting

First kiss

Long separated jigsaw puzzle pieces

Found again

Bliss

In the interlocking re-union

Timeless inevitable moments of

Anam Cara



Too soon

Gusts blow off the muse

Revealing blinding sun

Moments of truth lost to reality

Shared words

Music

Touch

Imagined?



Back on the path from fair field

Down Fairfield Avenue home

Mourning morning

Dove and blood red songbird

Sing requiems for

Love

Found and lost before it occurred


© Alice McMahon White 2008

Swell Season & presenting the portraits to Glen and Mar

Teagan and I attended the Swell Season concert last night at the landmark Chicago Theater. If you don't know, that's the touring version of music from the Indie movie "Once". I blogged a few posts back about the charcoal drawings I made as a gift to Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova, lead actors in the film. Glen is also the front man for the Dublin based band The Frames.

The concert was blow-the-top-of-your-head-off good. Most of the Frames members are touring this trip along with Glen and Mar - and there was a good mix of tunes from the movie soundtrack and Frames standards. Glen's vocal range is stunning, from rumbling lows to incredible high notes without falsetto, back to the crescendo of his signature passionate leather lunged wailing. Amazing! Colm Mac Con Iomaire, the violin player is absolutely astounding! His sound is so full and rich you'd think there were several violins playing at once. And Marketa's piano and gentle singing style add an almost hypnotic quality to the mix. It was without doubt the best show I've ever seen.

My friend, Chicago photographer Zoran Orlic is friends with the band, and he offered to do all he could to be sure I could present the drawings to Glen and Mar in person after the concert. There was a scary moment for me when security wouldn't allow me to bring the drawings into the hall. I had Zoran's cell and he soon met me at the coat check and claimed the framed drawings to bring backstage. He then arranged for Teagan and me to attend the backstage party after the show, so we went down to the hall with probably about 40 or 50 others who had passes. There were drinks on the house, and we got to chat with Zoran, his wife and friends, and my friend Mary Beth and her son and friends.

We met all the Frames members and some of their spouses, but were told Marketa would not be down. Glen came down later and visited for some time, and then he was gone before I met him! Even some of the band members didn't know where he'd gone. The manager of the band was really concerned that Glen should see my drawings, and everyone who knew about the gift was so kind!

The crew phoned around and located Glen, outside at the back of the theater, saying goodbye to some friends and getting ready to board the bus back to the hotel. So they grabbed Teagan and me with the drawings and hauled us out to where they were. I walked out the door and came face to face with Marketa. I spoke with her a few moments and showed her the drawings, and she smiled and thanked me.

The manager brought me over to where Glen was chatting with friends, and in a few minutes he was craning his neck to look at the drawings with wide eyes, so Zoran introduced him to Teagan and me. Glen seemed to be moved by the art - and I think he must be still bemused by the sudden fame and attention after all of the years of struggling. Glen picked up each of the works in turn and just poured over them, he said he loved them and as I looked at him looking at the portrait of himself, I could see I'd nailed his profile perfectly - he even has the same beard and hairstyle just now. :) He liked Steve's frames too, "The Frames are great!" he said, then joked about that. He thanked me sincerely and profusely, and I thanked him for the tunes. I was greatly impressed with this guy with an enormous talent and now success, and yet so humble, grateful and gracious in a quintessentially Irish manner. Wow!

Teagan loved the show too, and even put up with waiting around chatting with the adults for a chance to meet Glen. She's such a fine, mature young lady now, I was very happy she was with me so I could brag on my talented and beautiful daughter.

Mary Beth had stayed on just to take pictures of me with Glen and Mar, so thanks for that Mary Beth! Otherwise I wouldn't have a record of it.

I don't make much of a "fan" and didn't talk very long with Glen and Mar, I hope the art speaks for itself.

Thanks for the tunes and inspiration Swell Season! I love it!

Guinness for Gobshites

Boston's Irish Pub band "The Gobshites" contacted me and commissioned me to do a group portrait, Irish session style, for their next cd's cover art. Here's the result.



Working on the washes, and drinking the leftovers.



I painted The Gobshites with Guinness!




Commissioned drawing for Boston's The Gobshites
cover art for their new cd "Songs Me Da Got Pissed To", 16 x 20" pen & ink with Guinness stout wash, by Alice McMahon White

The Gobshites will have you gobsmacked! Check them out.

Norwegian Wood triptych

"Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown)" triptych, 24 x 48" charcoal and pastel on Mylar

This ended up a much more difficult project than expected and was on the easel for a full month. Finally finished my "Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown)" triptych today. It's the next in the ongoing White Album series.

I used three photos of my daughter for the work, cropped and manipulated in the computer until I found the composition I liked. I decided to do a triptych because I liked all three photos and thought they looked well together. I took the photos 2 years ago in the cemetery down the block from our home. My model was fascinated by a fallen mature oak, and was sitting on the trunk in the second view photo. She chose the clothing for the shoot, but I changed the t-shirt design to work with the theme for my piece, which is bird extinction.

The triptych is charcoal on a heavy weight mylar drafting film, and was worked on the frosted side. There is a backing of Canson pastel paper in moonstone (a pink gray) because the translucent paper needs some backing, and white was too stark for the effect I was attempting to achieve. There are small touches of "white charcoal" - white pastel pencil for highlights, I also used a gray pastel pencil in some of the tree areas.

The mylar is a very slick surface and fun to work on, and has more of a sensation of painting because of the "oiliness" of the charcoal on the mylar. Delicate areas are quite difficult to achieve. If you rub your finger over a fairly lightly covered area, the paper wipes clean, so soft gradations are troublesome. You can build up dark layers of charcoal and lighten it to gray by rubbing with your fingers, or erase back down to the surface with a kneaded eraser. I purposely left much of the work rough because the surface works so well for that. The finished work has a very interesting glow in person that doesn't photograph well. The frosted finish is quite lovely - almost like human skin in sheen.

I plan one or two more of these larger drawings on mylar for the January show.

Saatchi Showdown! Wild Ride!

What a ride! I've been in a love/hate relationship with Saatchi these past 5 months. I entered the competition on a whim. I was new to myspace, and some artist friends had entered round one. I voted for them and decided to try it out and enter.

When round one ended, I checked out the winner: the fabulous Laurie Lipton! So unexpected to see a graphite drawing (near to my heart) win such a competition against thousands of enteries. I found her here on myspace and friended her to congratulate her on her success.

Round two began, and no one could have been more surprised than I was to end up in the head to head a week later! I only sent a bulletin out to my 200 or so myspace friends and 300 or so personal contacts. I do have a large family and many friends in my neighborhood and in the art world. What I found was that people I didn't even know were sending the link on to friends, and those friends were voting and sending it on. My photorealist sweet subject matter appeals to the general public. They get it. No trying to figure out the meaning behind the piece. A pop contest. It was the round with the highest entry rate, over 6000! Most other rounds were in the 4000 range. Yet against the odds, "Chains" was one of two chosen works! I don't kid myself that I deserved it because I saw entries that blew my piece away! I give all the credit to my cute quirky model. A Fox some have said. Check out her art work in my last blog.

I Got By With A Little Help From My Friends!

The head to head against installation artist Albo Jeavons was a gut wrencher and I went to bed Sunday night thinking I'd lost, although I'd been in the lead the whole week. His score had been rising all day Sunday and mine was going lower, til we were neck and neck. With the trend as it was, I thought for sure I was out of it. Albo and I chatted online, we both agreed it was a wild ride and neither of us knew what was going to happen. I was so surprised to see I was the winner, and my inbox was loaded.

I Got By With A Little Help From My Friends!

It wasn't too long before the nasty Saatchi blogs started with my "insipid" work being the easy target for artists doing, shall we say, edgier work. Hard to see people bashing you and your work in a public format. It was an eye opener because in my idealistic view I thought most artists were basically supportive of one another. Also saw threads here and elsewhere suggesting any winners were cheating. If I cheated it must have been in my sleep. It was then that I decided Fame, even just a drop of it, was not all it's cracked up to be.

I Got By With A Little Help From My Friends!

A long stretch of waiting and watching other winners come along. 10 more! 5 months of watching and friends asking, so when can I vote? Three more months, thanks, I'll let you know! We're rooting for you Alice!

I Got By With A Little Help From My Friends!

And then, it was here! The day I needed to get my butt in gear and ask for votes against my usual slightly shy and introverted nature. A grueling week of long days, short nights, and some tears of frustration. But honestly there have been more tears of joy, because of the new friend requests, messages, offers of help, bulletins sent out on my behalf, and the love, friendship and support from all of you! I've pushed myself to get my work shown, and the rewards have been enormous!

I Got By With A Little Help From My Friends!

So, tomorrow will be a huge relief! No more begging, no more pushing, no more anxiety. I most likely will finish somewhere in the middle of the field. Thanks to all of you who have said I should be on top. That I don't believe. There are some really fantastic artists in the mix, I'm honored to have had the opportunity to be up there with them! I've spoken with quite a few, and they've been gracious, supportive and funny. They all are as disconcerted as I to be in this position. A wild ride indeed. It's a silly thing, surely not a true judge of exceptional talent. A popularity contest for sure! Pop art. Nothing wrong with that. Will I be disappointed not going to London? Why sure! But I did ok, didn't stoop to nasty behavior in the sake of winning, and got more exposure in the past few months than I ever could have imagined, or had a right to hope for!

I Got By With A Little Help From My Friends!

So, would I recommend you to enter the next Saatchi Showdown! Sure! But be careful what you wish for. Enter to be seen. Winning is tough work. I'm seriously wiped and stressed and generally DONE!!! Frankly, if I by some odd quirk in the stats suddenly leap to the top of the heap overnight, I might seriously go jump in a lake. My sympathies to those two lucky souls!!! Another week of this right now might do me in.

So, thanks for the support and love. Know I appreciate every gesture and I apologize if I didn't say thanks directly. I truly spent as much time saying thanks this week as I did politicking. But I know I missed some of you. Please forgive me, and drop by to say hi soon, ok? (And won't you seriously be glad to stop seeing all of those begging bulletins lined up every morning?)

I Got By With A Little Help From My Friends. THANKS TO YOU ALL!



Love, Alice xx