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MacKenzieFest 2016

MacKenzieFest 2016

Join me this Saturday for a mini art and music festival at my friend, Michelle MacKenzie’s home! We will be open for business from 11 a.m. til 5 p.m. at 4601 Robertson Ave, Sacramento CA 95821.

Why MacKenzieFest? Well, as the saying goes, “Necessity is the Mother of Invention.” Over the course of the last 25 years Michelle has created a lot of art. Much of her art, both paintings and sculptures, has sold to happy buyers all over the world. Yay! Yet despite these sales, Michelle found that she had accumulated a house full of watercolors, acrylic abstracts, landscapes, and of course ceramic sculpture.

Add to this the news that Michelle and her husband, Lance, are required to move out of their rented home June 30, because the owner has decided to sell it. You get the picture? It’s not pretty.

MacKenzieFest is the result of brainstorming by Michelle and I over Mexican food one afternoon. (Almost everything we do together is over Mexican food, but that’s beside the point…) An open house and open studio event would appeal to not just Michelle’s followers, but to mine and our invited guest artists. Jeweler and metal artist, Stacey Lamothe, was chosen for her popular animal related items, and Jeremiah Jacobs and his amazing band, Heartbreak Time Machine, were chosen because they are getting closer to releasing a CD. Also, they are both really cool and fun. The result is a mini art festival in a casual relaxed home setting, we hope you will be our guest for the First Annual MacKenzieFest! Lance will put a burger on the barbie for you!

Black Beauty Shelter Horse by Michelle MacKenzie

Michelle MacKenzie uses ceramic animal sculpture to express the themes of relationships, love, compassion, home, shelter and family. Horses, birds, wolves, hearts, and little houses are hand formed, glazed in rich colors, and embellished with copper wire, nails, twigs and wood. Creating smaller gift items as well as larger sculptures, Michelle’s art is found in several fine art galleries in Northern California, Arizona, and Kentucky. Her art graces homes, gardens, and businesses in the U.S., Canada, Italy, Australia, Thailand, and England.

 

Carrot necklaces by Stacey Lamothe

Happiness is the reason Stacey Lamothe creates fabulous art and jewelry, “because through valuing and serving each customer with a little package of joy, giving smiles, laughter and inspiration, I cultivate my own happy heart.” She loves dogs, nature, love and laughter, and commits to bring that love and laughter to each customer; to enliven and enrich her collectors’ lives. People often respond to her artworks with broad smiles and warm words. If you have ever cherished a pet like family, have been unfazed to find cat hair in your butter dish, or lovingly tolerate dog farts as a part of your daily life, you are sure to love Stacey’s artwork, too!

 

The Heartbreak Time Machine on the cover of Submerge Magazine

The Heartbreak Time Machine is a Sacramento-based pop/rock act singing songs old and new. Their recent CD “THE512EP” was on Dimple’s Top Seller rack for six weeks, a record for a new band. Artist Judith Monroe’s work graces the EP’s cover. Their latest single “Talk To You” remains one of the most requested on 98Rock, and the band will be featured at Shannapallooza, First Festival, and opens the final night of Sacramento’s seminal “Concerts In The Park” series. The band will be fundraising to complete its album “The Great Big Book”, who’s title single was released in 2014. Band members will be at the event to say hello.

 

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Like a Child

Sometimes I can be just like a little kid, like when out on a walk and we find a butterfly. This time I just happened to have someone along to take photos of me for a new portrait…

 

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Look! Right there on the path, a butterfly…

 

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I better take a photo of it before it flies away…

 

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Oh my gosh, it isn’t flying away and it just crawled right onto my hand!

 

This is just the coolest thing, I think I’ll take it home and take photos of it in the studio! And wow, doesn’t that make a nice portrait, too?

 

 

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Transition

 

The only constant in life is that things are always changing… and you are likely to see some changes here on my website over the next few days and maybe weeks. My website is getting a little makeover and in the process of this transition it is possible that this blog page will be the only page that is up. (This, by the way, has everything to do with my personal lack of planning, but we won’t dwell on that now.)

 

I will still be posting weekly and hopefully will have portfolio pages so you can see more of my artwork back up rapidly, if you happen to land here when they are missing. 

 

Dakota and the deer skull in Judith Monroe's art studio

 

I just don’t feel right posting without a photo, so I took a quick shot of my small work table with my newest addition to my small taxidermy collection on it. Combined with the deer skull, it kind of has a Halloween flavor to it, so I thought it would be appropriate enough, though honestly this is just everyday stuff in my studio.

 

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Today’s Masterpiece

 

I’m so tickled that I am working with Jason Horejs at Xanadu Gallery, and now I get to send a dozen artworks to the gallery in Scottsdale so we can really get things rolling!

 

Artworks by Judith Monroe heading for Xanadu Gallery

 

I’ve shipped artworks before, but never so many and never so big, the biggest piece I’m sending is 40″ square, so this has presented a brand new challenge – find a box big enough… I have not found such a box but yesterday I hunted down a couple sheets of cardboard 48″x96″ each and today I spent a little over two hours building my box and packing up all the artworks into it. Whew! When things really get rolling, I’m thinking that is a job worth paying someone else to do, and I imagine they might do it better, too.

 

A big box full of artwork

 

So this is today’s masterpiece, taa-daa!! I think there are several dollars worth of packing tape on that baby. While I was making it, I was alternating between complete paranoia that it wouldn’t be sturdy enought and some disaster would befall my art and thinking myself an utter fool for said paranoia. Ah well, in a couple days I will get it sent off and once it arrives safely, I will be a very happy camper.

 

 

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512 Comes Alive

 

A while ago a musician friend of mine approached me about doing album art for his band’s first CD, he had really felt the synchronicity between his music and my visuals and I was completely flattered and told him of course I would love to work with him. Then a couple weeks ago he came to me again, “Can you do it now?” Like, really now? Get it to the printer next week now? Wow. Okay, let’s go!

 

And so we sat down with images on my computer and in my art journal and figured out what I could do in such a tight turn around time that fit what he was wanting and it happened! He’s happy, I’m  happy and it’s an awesome thing – The Heartbreak Time Machine’s first ever EP is set to debut mid November and I couldn’t be more proud to have done the cover art.

 

And now, right before your very eyes, you can watch the album art come alive…

 

Heartbreak Time Machine 512 EP art comes alive by Judith Monroe

 

 

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Autumn Harvest

 

I can’t believe a month has gone by already – it is actually my intention to post here weekly. Ah well, the best laid plans of rodents and artists… So much has been going on, I will just start with the big things today, and maybe save up some for next week. Seems like a good plan, eh?

 

Apparently Autumn is truly a time of harvest for me this year, good things are happening. First off, I am now represented at Elliott Fouts Gallery in my home town of Sacramento. I am so grateful to Elliott for giving my work a chance in what has long been my favorite gallery in town, if you are here, be sure to go check it out!

 

Bittersweet, mixed media art by Judith Monroe

 

And then, a truly amazing thing happened, I was selected out of a field of 500+ artists, to be this year’s Mentorship Artist at Xanadu Gallery in Scottsdale, Arizona. What that practically means is that I will be getting career coaching (broadcast for all of the hundreds of others), representation and a featured show in the spring at Xanadu. This promises to be a great turning point for me and my art and I am beyond words. It literally has taken me a couple of weeks to actually accept the reality of it.

 

All careers have upswings and downswings, and while I had felt that my artwork was reaching new highs, the business side had been in a slow downlide. Now, I am definitely on the way up and incredibly grateful for the harvest this fall has brought!

 

 

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Waiting for You

 

For the first time in many years, I entered the California State Fair’s Fine Art Exhibit. There were over 1200 entries and the jurors could only choose 180 pieces for the exhibit, but they chose one of my artworks, which I delivered to the the Expo building today.

 

Needless to say, but I am pretty tickled. If you’d like to see the exhibit, it will be open with the fair July 10-26, 2015 and you can purchase tickets at their website.

 

Waiting for You mixed media home art by Judith Monroe

 

It’s title is “Waiting for You”, taken from a quote by Italian Poet Cesare Pavese, “You need a village, if only for the pleasure of leaving it. A village means that you are not alone, knowing that in the people, the trees, the earth, there is something that belongs to you, waiting for you when you are not there.”

 

It illustrates the place where one comes from, where you can never go back, yet never leaves you. The place whose map is etched in your brain like the lines in your hands, where the leaves on the trees and the birds are all comfortingly yet painfully familiar to you. The place where they have to take you back, but they never fully understand you. The place we call Home.

 

I hope you can visit it in person, and if you fall in love with it, you can also purchase it and make it a part of your home.

 

 

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Why my work is extraordinary…

 

I’m working on a submision packet for a really lovely gallery that I would love to be in and one part of packet is a “brief statement as to why your work is extraordinary.” This is above and beyond the bio (which I should have updated here on my website soon) and my artist’s statement (ditto.) 

 

Frankly, I was stumped, so I decided to go to my friends and supporters on Facebook for help. Over a month or so, I asked for reponses to my work, what people were drawn to, then to please help with this submission packet by telling me what makes my work extraordinay. The responses were all so affirming and wonderful, I was touched deeply and have also now been able to write that brief statement…

 

"Bittersweet" butterfly & leaf 8x8 mixed media art by Judith Monroe

 

My artwork is a unique blend of photo-based mixed media, always using my own photographs with layer upon layer of color, texture and images. According to my fans and collectors, “It evokes not only a feeling, but also an entire environment that surrounds the viewer and captures the heart.” People tell me that they “love the conversations you have with Nature, including Life-Death-Life… It is the ability to narrow our focus to elements of nature, sometimes a single element… Which is what we need.” My art has a way of touching people, making them see the world around them in a new way. “Small wonders of nature that we might pass by in our daily life becomes a moment to ponder and revel in their beauty on canvas.” Viewers are drawn in by masterful mixed media techniques and “the use of images of nature leading into the subtle details that is telling a message. A message of love, hope and beauty…” that makes my work extraordinary.

 

 

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Facination

 

I admit it, I am completely facinated with all kinds of natural artifacts that others may find odd or just plain creepy. It’s not that I think things are creepy and like that, but it’s just that I can appreciate the beauty in things that are not perfect or new or even alive anymore. I think the structure of a skeleton is amazing, just like the branches of a bare tree. And I don’t mind if an animal is no longer alive, I am still in awe of how it looks, whether it’s been preserved or maybe even if not…

 

So I have found myself in this place where I collect things, all kinds of things, on walks and hikes, and that friends who truly understand me have found and given to me and now – that I have purchased.

 

I aquired my first taxidermy specimen some time ago, an inexpensive pair of chicks, but they were a little funky. Recently, I decided to put some mony I had been given for Christmas toward something I really would enjoy and I got my first nice taxidermy bird. And then I got another one. (And a sweet little sleeping rat, too, but I won’t tell more about that one just yet.)

 

It’s not like one can go down to the local taxidermy shop and just pick up a little something, at least I haven’t found that shop yet. But I have discovered that there are some interesting taxidermy shops on Etsy, and that’s where I’ve made my recent purchases. So I order my new treasure and then patiently wait for it to arrive in my mailbox. I feel like a little kid again, eagerly inspecting the mailbox every day, wondering when exactly it will arrive. I try to be cool about it.

 

Finally, the package arrives and it’s so exciting that I even document the whole process…

 

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And upon opening…

 

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And finally…

 

Taxidermy Bird in a box by Judith Monroe

 

I love it! This lovely little songbird came from Europe and I don’t even know what kind it is, so if you have an idea, comment below. Thanks!

 

 

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