As the new year begins I have just returned from my family’s home in Fort Smith, Arkansas. We enjoyed a delayed holiday and Betty and I made a new friend. Meet Lucy…
A generous gift from my brother, Lucy will join the Betty project for much anticipated art exploration!
A big thanks to Scott’s Bike Shop, 8434 Phoenix Ave, Fort Smith, AR, for a much needed Lucy tweek.
Betty’s Response: The…SHOW ME WHAT YOU DON’T KNOW POSSE! WOO!
Alright so off to a home-town adventure and an encouragement to all to check out art spaces “next door” and in your own back yard!
Fort Smith Regional Art Museum (RAM), 1601 Rogers Ave., Fort Smith, AR.
Through March 1, 2015 treat yourself to the works of Liz Whitney Quisgard. An installation of incredibly intensive organic and geometric tapestries rooted in traditional Moorish, Navajo, Byzantine, and Baroque design and color.
http://fsram.org/exhibitions/vivid/
Moving on to indoor and outdoor sculpture…
Karen Oppliger, Unity
Jaak Kindberg, Dangling Participle
Robyn Horn, Keystone
Jaak Kindberg, II Se Deplace
Pat Musick, And Quiet, Breeze, Gentle Harvest
And a surprise for sure, etchings by American artist James McNeill Whistler commissioned in 1879 by the fine Arts Society of London.
Sadly this is the only image I was allowed to take but I thoroughly enjoyed these Venetian city landscapes, portraits, and still lifes.
This visit was a reminder to me to never discount the “smaller” art venues. A big thanks to FAM’s gallery attendant Casey for the welcome and information about the museum’s happenings.
Last a welcome home landscape as I drove to sweet home Chicago!
So Betty, Lucy, and I are out for now but extending to you a great big invitation to get out there, explore the world of art all around you, and best of all SHOW ME WHAT YOU DON’T KNOW!
-The residual purpose of art is purposeless play. This play however, is an affirmation of life–Not an attempt to bring order out of chaos nor to suggest improvements in creation, but simply a way of waking up to the very life we’re living, which is so excellent once one gets one’s mind and one’s desires out of its way and lets it act of its own accord. -John Cage
My Bike Betty 