This Sunday, May 4th, there are a couple of great art events to keep your eyes open for. The first is the 47th Annual Art in the Park event put on by the Lawrence Art Guild. I’ll be playing for about an hour in a jazz trio starting at 11:00 a.m., so if you’re free and want to see some cool art, you should come on by South Park on Mass. Street!

Also on Sunday is KJHK’s Jazz in the Park event featuring the Chicago Afrobeat Project, The Yards, and RedLefty. I have a couple of good friends in The Yards and they’re an amazing band, so get out there and support some live music! The other bands are great too, so it’ll be a LOT of fun! It’ll be at Watson Park (the train park) staring at 1:00 p.m.

Good ol’ pen and ink wash!

This is a brand new poster for the upcoming KU Dance Company concert on April 17 and 18, 2008. The performances are part of the celebration of KU alumna and professor of dance Elizabeth Sherbon in conjunction with Murphy Hall’s 50th Anniversary. It should be a wonderful concert! Visit the Murphy 50th website for more information on Elizabeth Sherbon and all of the 50th Anniversary events.

Justin Marable is a printmaker who works out of his studio which is located in a historic and charming neighborhood in Topeka, KS. His works are primarily silk screens that explore the element of rural decay occurring in the heartlands of America. However, this isn’t to imply that the works are unattractive in any way. In fact, the colors and compositions of his works are rich and beautiful and most everyone who is from the area connects to the imagery and colors of the Midwest. He has huge body of work and is clearly passionate about what he does.

From his artist’s statement:

The history of a place, as well as its land and inhabitants, are all vitally important in defining a community’s environmental and social conditions. In my prints I romanticize this idea with the use of rural landscape and landmarks. These rural devices serve to emphasize the ever-growing abandonment of small towns and farmland of the Midwest. With the medium of serigraphy, or screen printing, I can express the man-made qualities of rural architecture with a photographic stencil technique.

Justin is also a super nice guy and was recently kind enough to invite me over to take a look at his studio and talk about his work and his process.

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When I was in school, I took several life drawing courses. I really became interested in doing blind contour drawings and I spent a good semester working in pen and ink wash with a little charcoal thrown in from time to time. These are a few of my favorites:

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For those of you looking for great local art and music, this Friday night will not disappoint! Check out Liz Gardner’s show entitled “A Day in the Life: Pocket-sized Pieces (PSPs)” at the Love Garden in Lawrence! Her fabric and found material collage works are fascinating and she’s a really cool person as well. The band Ghosty will be performing at the opening as a CD release party for their new album called Answers.

The show is Friday, Jan. 11, 7 p.m. at the Love Garden, 936 1/2 Massachusetts St. and admission is FREE.

(The cover of “Answers” features one of Liz’s pieces to give you a feel of her work)

AND, if you’re not ready to turn in early that night, another great local band, Marry Me Moses,will be playing across the street at the Jackpot Saloon at 10 p.m. They released a killer album last year called Engine, Engine which has had a lot of rotation in my CD player since I got it. So, get out and support some local artists this weekend. You won’t be disappointed!

As a side note, one of my rock n’ roll moments was when Marry Me Moses asked me to shoot some publicity photos of the band (including the one above)!

On Thanksgiving Day, 2007, I took a tour of Joe Malin’s garage-turned-studio for the inaugural DESIGNOJEK studio tour. Joe lives and works in Plainville, Kansas, a small town about 80 miles from the geographic center of the United States. He was born in a farmhouse his father built right on the outskirts of Plainville and has called Kansas his home all of his life. After retiring from a career on farms and oil fields, he put his welding skills to work again and started creating sculptures made from scrap metal, bolts, nuts and various other items lying around his shop. Although not formally trained as an artist, he creates wonderful pieces of folk art that have immense character, meticulous attention to detail, and fascinating historical significance. Also a modest man, he chuckled when I called his work space a “studio” and would likely correct me if I called him a “sculptor”, but his love for what he does and the care he puts into his wonderful pieces makes him as much of an artist as anyone.
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