Openings Connecting: "catching up" to my brother Michael 25 years later...

Tuesday, March 13, 2012

"catching up" to my brother Michael 25 years later...

Kodak Gallery: NancyNeva's http://pix.kg/p/792591405409%3A1886098358/sct
the link above shows some of my brother Michael's drawings, news posts about his show at the Kalamazoo Institute of Art in 1986, where we were raised, a few snaps.
he was happiest with his natural 'art spirit' .... in the FLOW.
never a 'mistake' stopping him...just perhaps an "oops, i goofed" as he picked up his crayons again.

i think i may have wanted to follow his lead all these years, how to freely feel that creativity he possessed.
i'm not there yet, i don't feel all that comfortable putting pen or pencil or paint to paper, but i have found an expression this last year via my photography and alternative printing methods.

so finally, i'm in that same venue where his 30 pieces were shown...with my one small golden print of the church in ranchos de taos accepted into the juried area show...opening this friday. 14 counties, 600+ entries, 100+ accepted.

thank you, darling Michael, for loving and inspiring me!

6 comments:

Caterina GiglioMarch 13, 2012 at 6:06 PM
wonderful... just wonderful... you are such an outstanding artist... xx
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JudithMarch 14, 2012 at 2:43 AM
Nancy,
Thank you for sharing your brother's art and amazing spirit. I think he would be so proud of you.
Judith
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SethMarch 22, 2012 at 4:56 PM
How wonderful that things have come full circle with you showing in the same place your brother did. He seems to have been a very special and gifted person -- much like you Nancy!
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LeslieMarch 25, 2012 at 5:10 PM
How awesome are Michael's works! Thanks for sharing them with us. I too wish I could be as free!
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Renee HowellApril 20, 2012 at 7:22 AM
beautiful connection
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FOUR DIRECTIONS/FOUR VISIONS: Two Graces: First showing for me, JUNE 3, 2011

With no directions home, I found Taos in the late 60s. It felt like home immediately. It still does. I know this sentiment is familiar to countless others.

The mountain stopped me in my tracks, and I stayed for several years. Since that time, I circle back annually.

To me, that circle is symbolic of this body of work at Two Graces. This is a time in my life when I've been fortunate enough to experiment with art making. Not surprisingly, I found myself drawn back to the images in the Ektachrome slides that I'd taken in the early 80s of Chaco Canyon, the San Francisco de Asis Church, dusty roads, and the ever changing skies of Northern New Mexico. The spirit of this adobed land lingers in my core and manifests itself within these works.

This past Michigan winter was spent creating enlarged negatives from my thirty year old slides, pulling part of my past into the present via today's tools of scanner and computer. Using traditional silver-gelatin darkroom processes, these resurrected and modified negatives acquired a new life. The majority of these prints are the result of this mediated reincarnation.

The smaller images took me into photographic processes from the mid-1800s. These handmade platinum/palladium prints are created coating vellum, for translucency, with these metal salts and exposing them to ultraviolet light. They are then bathed in the alchemy of the darkroom. The tonal qualities are unique in each print. Finally, 24k gold is layered to the backs of the prints, emanating the warmth, glow, and depth of these beloved places.