Exhibits of My Work | Beverly Shipko, Artist

Accepted!

June 18, 2015 by Beverly

It’s human nature to want to be recognized for your achievements – whether you’re applying for college, a new job, or an art show.

And there’s nothing like the rush you get from getting that email that says accepted.

Today I got to relive that experience when Jay and I went to the 65th Annual Art of the Northeast Exhibition at the Silvermine Arts Center in New Canaan, CT (through July 26th), curated by Michelle Grabner & Brad Killam, Co-founders of the Suburban and the Poor Farm in the Chicago area.

It’s always fun to walk into a new exhibit and see how your work is hung within the context of the show. We didn’t have to look far since we found Adrianna’s Strawberry Kiwi Blueberry Tart in the front gallery.

Here’s a closer view of the carton of eggs nearby, carrying on the food theme.

It was a quiet weekday, good for taking photos. We had a wedding celebration the night of the opening reception, so unfortunately I didn’t get to meet the curators (fellow Midwesterners) or other artists.

There was quite a variety of work, both in materials and techniques, with a fair amount of sculpture and ceramics.

The Art of the Northeast is a show I had heard about for years and intended to enter, and finally did this year. I had the pleasure of getting that stamp of approval – accepted.

Somehow it never gets old. Ask anyone who has ever applied for anything!

Open Studio 2015

April 29, 2015 by Beverly

Thank you all for coming to my Open Studio last weekend! You helped make it a wonderful weekend event on so many levels.

First of all, it was just plain fun to see old friends and patrons.

And then there were loyal Oreo Contest contestants, like Blake, who came back for another try year after year.

Part of the beauty of being on the RiverArts Studio Tour is meeting new people, and we had a steady flow the entire weekend. My friends Eva and Steve even brought their friends (middle couple) from Australia!

It was such a luxury to spend all weekend talking about art, past and present. We continued the art dialogue we had begun last summer with our first visitors, Barbara and Howard (and their friend Linda on the right), who we met at the Seward Johnson Retrospective at the Grounds for Sculpture in Hamilton, NJ.

Barbara made the first purchase of the weekend with Jay’s Blueberry Tart.

It was an exciting weekend that opened the door to a variety of potential new ideas and opportunities – everything from future commissions, to a request for private lessons, the possibility of another demo and talk, and an offer to explore the possibility of licensing my images to an upscale clothing company.

A great weekend by any measure. Until next year. But please don’t wait a year to stop by this blog and check in.

An Unexpected Opportunity

March 24, 2015 by Beverly

Sometimes good things happen when you least expect it.

Last week, I was meeting my friend, Marge, for lunch in Rye, NY, when I walked by a gallery that does custom framing. Since I had a question, I left a postcard for the owner of Gallery 52, who is coincidentally named Beverly (maybe that was a sign…).

The next day, Beverly called. Before I knew it, she was coming over on her day off with her sister, Joan, to pick up some of my work to put in Gallery 52 at 81 Purchase Street in Rye.

We certainly had fun that morning. It’s always a good thing to get feedback (especially when it’s so positive!) and to see which paintings resonate with people. Beverly’s enthusiasm for my work was contagious!

From start to finish, the whole process took less than a week. On my birthday, I went over to see how my paintings looked in the store, and got this nice present.

The colorful display is eye-catching from the street, and I couldn’t help but feel a sense of pride at this unexpected turn of events.

If you’re in the Rye neighborhood, be sure to stop by.

Katonah Museum Exhibit

February 12, 2015 by Beverly

Right before the 30/30 Challenge began, this painting was accepted to a juried show called Line Describing A Cone: Tri-State Juried Exhibition at the Katonah Museum of Art in Katonah, NY, which is up through February 15th.

This exciting news got lost in the shuffle of cranking out 30 paintings in January.

If you haven’t been there, the Katonah Museum is an interesting building architecturally. The museum is light and airy inside, and has a lovely garden in the back with lots of trees, which you get feel for from these snow scenes. It’s a small museum whose mission is not to collect, but to service the community by putting up exhibits. The museum does’t have a permanent collection or any storage space.

The juror is Eva Respini who was a Photography Curator at The Museum of Modern Art when she put this show together. She recently became the new chief curator at Boston’s Institute of Contemporary Art (ICA). So it’s not surprising that the show, which was hung in three large galleries, includes a high proportion of abstract works and has a contemporary vibe to it.

It’s always fun to go to an exhibit and look for your own painting. I found mine in this room, among some abstract and semi-representational works.

The opening was a success and very crowded, so I didn’t get to take a lot of photos. Here’s one of my friend, Ceclia Soprano, and I in front of her painting, Web, an intriguing work with crystals embedded in it, giving it many layers of meaning.

My husband and I went back another day to get a better look at the show and to take the installation photos. Another visitor was kind enough to snap shot of Jay and I in front of A World of Cakes. Zaro’s Bakery at the Grand Central Station Marketplace was the inspiration for the painting. This angle really shows how the cakes define the seemingly endless space.

This light installation by Lara Knutson won first prize. This sculpture has great presence in person and certainly does an excellent job representing the theme Line Describing a Cone.
If you like seeing a variety of contemporary art in a single exhibit, this show is for you. There’s one more week to go. So enjoy it!

Bites in Print

July 7, 2014 by Beverly

Today’s blog focuses on various ways to execute bites from Oreo Cookies. If you were expecting bites from The Vampire Diaries or Buffy the Vampire Slayer, you may want to look elsewhere…. I finally took the plunge into the whole new world of prints, opening the door to a new area of exploration – along with a new gallery in California and a July group show in Hastings-on-Hudson, New York.

After working almost exclusively in oil for many years, I began a series of 6 x 6 inch Oreo cookie drawings. Since it is easier and quicker to draw than to paint (think no messy oil paint brush cleanup!), I am able to explore a larger variety of possibilities and whimsical compositions using this particular icon. Here are 10 drawings in cello bags, along with some of the original subjects.

My initial concept was to make prints of single original Limited Edition Giclée Art Prints based on the Oreo drawings, like this one.

While looking at the initial array square Oreo drawings on the table (shown above), I started playing with the tiles and arranging them. A composition eventually emerged. For the next two days, I intermittently rearranged the drawings, when I finally realized I was looking at my first composite print of 9 Oreo Cookies called “Oreo Mandala”. “Oreo Mandala” made its gallery debut at SuperFresh Food Art Gallery in Novato, CA, which Jay and I visited on the first day of our recent San Francisco trip. Let me introduce you to one of the co-owners, Jennifer Carden, a California food stylist, who coincidentally went to art school at SUNY Purchase. It’s a small world!

Don’t you just love the big fork next to the Oreo print?

Imagine being in a room surrounded by exquisite food, without gaining any weight… I have Cristine Kossow, a fellow food artist who I met through our local Art Card Group, to thank for telling me about this gallery.

Now that I am officially an artist who works in print, there are a plethora of opportunities to exhibit prints and drawings that were previously unavailable, such as the PaperWorks 2014 juried show at Upstream Gallery in Hastings-on-Hudson, NY, currently on display.

PaperWorks 2014 featured in the RiverTowns Enterprise – with a delicious surprise!

The two Oreo prints accepted into this exhibit are part of a series showing participating entries from my Oreo Cookie Contest, held during the RiverArts Open Studio Tour a few years back. Since the “biter” of the bottom Oreo neglected to leave their name, this “portrait” is titled “Oreo Cookie #2 – Anonymous”. The top print, “Oreo Cookie #8 – My Bite”, was my own contribution to the series and thus is my Oreo “portrait”. Can you see the resemblance?

Stop by the Upstream Gallery before July 27^thfor a closer look!

Thank you to all my loyal fans who have encouraged me to stretch, to be more adventuresome, and to try a new media. In other words, thanks for inspiring me to take a bite out of life!