Goal for Next Year - Guerrilla Art

Through the blog Art is Moving I recently came across this guerrilla installation by Catherine Sinclair. Staged on the lawn of the local City Gallery the dawn before a grand re-opening event, Catherine was able to get her piece "100 % Sheep" seen and viewed by thousands of art patrons. None of which had any idea that the piece was not sponsored by the museum. Brilliant!

This kind of thing has inspired me before. A couple of years ago when the Olympic Sculpture Park first opened there were some pretty incredible guerrilla sculptures that popped up. My all time favorite of course being the infamous "Eaglets". Three miniature replicas of the iconic soaring red sculpture "Eagle" by Calder all nestled into a nest placed underneath the towering sculpture park icon. Adorable!

But part of the true inspiration of these stories is the reaction of the institutions where the pieces were placed. The 100% Sheep were left undisturbed by the museum staff. Welcomed even.

And in the case of the Eaglets? The Seattle Art Museum ended up adopting the little guys. How's that for "getting your work into a museum"?

New Work Reveled

The Weight of Beauty
Oil & India Ink on Cupboard Door

New work recently completed! This painting features a very dear friend of mine who now lives in Hollywood. And a in a mere 2 days she will be coming to the NW for a visit which I'm super thrilled about. I have already anticipated just how strange it will be to show her this piece. I had asked her a couple months ago if I could use her image in a painting but I haven't yet told her that I actually did. Should be fun!

Even though they are not "commercially viable" I really enjoy painting my friends. It's sad but true - portraits are not an easy sell.

Unless you happen to be a magician like Maron Resur. Her portraits seem to fly like hotcakes. Smaller sizes combined with mixed emotions makes them more accessible for folks perhaps. Not to mention they're damn gorgeous:Antipas by Maron Resur
Oil on canvas
6" x 6"

Maron has a show up at Cafe Ladro on Capitol Hill until the end of December which I plan on stopping by. Maybe I'll even take my art loving visiting friend.

Folklore of the Senses

Last week I had the pleasure of attending the opening of a dear friend. This month at Marni Muir Gallery is a delightful show called Folklore of the Senses.
It includes work from three artists of the same family:
Jessica Dodge
William Burney
Laurel Dodge
You can preview the exhibition here.
Pictured above is Jessica and behind her are works by her lovely artist daughter, Laurel.

Jessica paints reverse oil on glass which is just lovely. We met this summer while attending Artist Trust's EDGE program.

Works by Jessica's artist father, William Burney. Tons of bright colors and frolicking forms to brighten the downpour we had that night!

This was my favorite piece in the show!
If you're in Pioneer Square you should definitely take a moment to check out this incredibly colorful show!

Perfect Fall Days in Blissed Out Olympia

Farm Bounty!

One Happy Jack o'Lantern

And on my favorite walk I found

Inlets & stretches of green
Map lines on paper
Tangled heart
Tangled roads
Pacific roots curl outward
Passages and Narrows
Inlets & stretches of green.

Artist Interview on Art is Moving!

Art is Moving, a fabulous blog about art, artists & community has been featuring local Washington artists and their processes this month. Last week I had the pleasure of being interviewed by Lauren. She asked some tough, not-your-typical sort of interview questions. It was a fun challenge to have to think about the role NW artists play within the larger culture.

The interview has been posted and you can read my responses here:

Artist Interview posted today on Art is Moving!

New Website and Miami Dreaming

www.SaraEverett.com

Figured it was about time I created a website just for my paintings - since they pretty much have taken over and all. All my illustration work will continue to be posted to Rekoj Design but I recently found a strong need to have people be able to find me by my actual name. Fancy that.

Just in time too because I recently found out that I get to travel to Miami soon with my gallery for AQUA ART MIAMI - !!!!!
Super duper exciting!

La Familia is hosting a really incredible online art auction in an effort to raise funds for shipping all the artwork we need to ship to Miami next month. Check it out for a chance to get a super sweet deal on some really lovely pieces - and support a whole group of NW artists to boot!
Bidding closes tomorrow at 5pm Pacific time so you better go take a peek right now:

La Familia Online Art Auction for Aqua Art

P.S. One of the pieces up for bid is this one:

Calling on Influences

I recently came across the work of Josie Morway and felt an immediate spark. She has the same love of found materials and the same ability to get lost in layers of feathers. She also complements her portraits with graphically influenced backgrounds. Only where I use Arabic calligraphy inspired lines she draws upon Typeface and lettering. I just love the softness she has achieved in this piece.

"The Beneficiaries of my Doubt"
Josie Morway - Oil on Wood

"Overlap"
Audrey Kawasaki - Oil & Graphite on Wood

Then of course there is the work by one of my original influences, Audrey Kawasaki. It was through a love of her work that I came across the oil on wood technique that I use in my own work. Audrey's work introduced me to the magic of sealing the wood with a clear acrylic polymer before painting in thin oil glazes. This allows the wood grain of the support to fully show through and in my case, be left exposed all together.

Tonight I'm excited to get to go see the work of one of my new favorite influences, Kelly Vivanco. Her solo show, featuring mainly new works on round panels, opens tonight at Halogen Gallery here in Belltown.

Having been someone who used to work in the round I'm excited to get to see what Kelly has done with her compositions. Her style of wide-eyed girls isn't necessarily an influence for me but her prolificy IS. (At least I WANT to be influenced by such!) Maybe it is just because she works in acrylic rather than oils but my oh my does Kelly put a lot of work out there. And her style is consistently hers every time with a sense of whimsy, fairytale and dream. Can't wait to see the show tonight!

"Pears"
Kelly Vivanco - Acrylic on Panel