Bridgette Bogle

Georgia ( or What it Takes to Show Work in Another State)

2012-02-26T08:12:00.003-08:00

Back in the rosier days pre-economic meltdown, Montgomery County used to give money to artists in the form of an Individual Artist Fellowship, a grant distributed to artists who demonstrated a strong, innovative body of work. The last year I applied for this fellowship, in fact, the last year they were awarded, I was one spot shy of receiving funding. I received a copy of the breakdown of the judging in the mail after the process was done. The nine top artists were deemed the strongest and were awarded five thousand dollars - I was number ten. I guess everything has to have a cutoff point, but it's painful to be right on the brink. In the comments section of the results, the jury panel suggested that I needed to expand to show my work more nationally.

It was a critique that resonated, and it's been a goal of mine ever since.

Most of my exhibition experience has been here in Ohio both in the Columbus and Dayton area.

I love to show regionally for a number of reasons:

It's easy to deliver and install work, I often want to be hands on with installation and like to be able to change my mind about things at the last minute.
I know the venues, and how they fit or don't fit with the style of my work.
I can go to the opening and invite friends, the social act of being an artist is important to me and I enjoy the buzz of preparing for an event (and I can take cupcakes).

But ever since the grant that slipped right out of my fingertips, I've been working to expand my resume to include shows on a national level. It's been a bumpy ride. I started my plan of national domination in the same way probably a lot of artists go about it. Looking up calls for entry on the College Art Association website, in the back of Art Professional magazine, pretty much where ever calls for entry were to be found. Many of these applications resulted in polite and succinct rejection letters one or two months later.

And now to the point of this monologue...

Finally, I have started seeing some success from my national push. A call for entry from the CAA website resulted in my inclusion in a juried exhibition in Georgia; the 25th Annual National Juried Exhibition at the Cultural Arts Center in Douglasville, Georgia to be exact. The acceptance letter was an exciting one to get in the mail and it wasn't until a week or two later that I began to consider the practical implications of shipping a 40" x 40" painting across the bottom half of the country.

Thank goodness for help!

My first resource that I consulted was the excellent Art/Work by Heather Darcy Bhandari and Jonathan Melber. This book is a handy and current volume that gives professional practice suggestions for artists. The information found there was invaluable. My painting has an impasto surface, so just boxing it up could be potentially damaging.

Wuthering, Wuthering, Wuthering with special shipping frame

So, I bought some relatively thin and light strips of wood and begged? pleaded? with my husband Francis to use his wood working skills to help build a frame for the piece. After the frame was completed I attached some slightly sturdier pieces of wood to the back of the frame to act as a brace. I drilled a few short screws through the brace and into the stretcher bars of the painting from the back. The screws helped to stabilize the painting so that it wouldn't fall forward out of its frame.


You can see the backboards attached to the special shipping frame

Close-up of where I attached the back board to the stretcher.

After all this constructing, I channeled Dexter the serial killer and wrapped the whole thing in plastic, stapling along the wooden frame as I went. This was my favorite part of the entire enterprise.

Plastic!!!

After the piece was all plasticed up (Laura Palmer!!) I loaded it in the back of the Subaru and took it to UPS. They were able to pack it and construct a box without too much expense. The box is sturdy enough that I can reuse it again. I paid for shipping both to and back from Georgia. Ouch! There has to be a better way.

Paperwork and plastic.

Of course at the end of the show, the piece was shipped back to me, to once again inhabit my studio.

I wonder if there is some key to this puzzle that I'm missing. It seems inefficient to go through all that trouble and expense to get a line on my resume. I didn't even get to see the show! I'm curious about other artists' experiences with showing nationally and internationally.

Do you only do far away shows that have a stipend for shipping? Do you go to the venues where you will be showing? Do you avoid juried shows altogether (it seems really rare for me to sell a piece from a juried show).

I think that folks sometimes forget that artists are constantly constructing their own careers. I get a lot of "that must be fun" when I mention that I'm a painter. I would certainly say that I enjoy painting to a great degree (and sometimes I hate it) but overall it is just one component of "being a painter." Building frames and carting around giant paintings is a part of it too, as is searching out opportunities. The most difficult thing for me is trying to navigate the murky waters of my own ambition. Do I fight or succumb to the desire for validation outside of my own personal barometer for success in the studio? Then again, if I wanted a job with an obvious and straightforward path, I probably shouldn't have chosen this one.

Thankfully, the upside to being an artist is - sometimes you get to wrap giant things in plastic.

Violent Peach

2012-02-25T12:49:00.003-08:00

Francis took this photograph while documenting some of the room arrangements for Pot Luck.

This was by far the most eerie image of the bunch!

I love this violently peach room at the High Street Gallery. The color is strangely acidic for what is considered a traditionally sweet hue. The room is also fairly small, so it feels enveloping when you walk into that much vibrating peach.

There is something William Eggelston-esque about the color interplay and the areas where you can see the paint has been patched. In this photograph, the room itself has an down-beat institutional feel with the linoleum floors and the small details of grate, wall socket, smoke detector and can light.

The fact that the floor is tilted to a slight degree adds to the vertigo (although that could have something to do with the glowing crazy painting on the wall too).

All in all, I love this photograph. Thank you Francis for the strange and perfect documentation.

POT LUCK

2012-01-12T13:09:00.000-08:00

I feel incredibly fortunate to have crossed paths with Jessica Roller and Michelle Blades - two amazing artist friends in the Dayton / Cincinnati area. Jessica harbors a love of Modernism that I share, and Michelle and I clicked immediately while installing our two-person show Cavort (which Jessica coordinated) in Yellow Springs last spring.

So, it is with great excitement that I announce our upcoming group exhibition called Pot Luck - a title coined by Michelle to help convey the post-holiday free-for-all this experience is sure to become.

The reception which will be held at 48 High Street, will have a pot luck theme. I'm bringing pigs-in-a-blanket. Any intrepid viewers out there that want to bring something to share are more than welcome.

Gallery 510

2011-11-18T18:19:00.000-08:00

Just in time for the holidays! Loretta Puncer of Gallery 510 is displaying three works from the Candy Store Grid, in new fresh white floater frames. Head down to the Oregon District and check them out!

Art Prize, Art Prize, Arty Arty Art Prize

2011-09-20T17:09:00.000-07:00

Francis and I had serious fun times in Grand Rapids, MI setting up for Art Prize this past weekend. GR is a fun town!

I installed Candy Store grid (at least a part of it) in the front window area of Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan. If any of you are out and about in Grand Rapids - vote for me! The instructions for doing so are on the Art Prize site and my number to vote me up is 51271.

Some pics of the work:


from outside looking in

my labels!

grandiose candy store

note the white frames...

Faculty Show 2011

2011-09-20T16:52:00.000-07:00

Fall is upon us, and that means it's time for the Sinclair Fall Faculty Show. This year I decided to keep it simple and show some paintings. I've really felt like committing to painting lately (although sometimes it feels like a scary commitment). Both pieces are looking their best under the bright lights of the Triangle Gallery.

Traffic and Francis Dance, Triangle Gallery, Sinclair Community College


Francis Dance (diptych), 2011, water-soluble oil on canvas, 24" x 46"

Francis Dance, was shown in Cavort and I've posted the two separate parts of it on this blog. I like it best as a diptych, however, as it's shown here. The original painting is the one on the left. It was inspired by a dance Francis was doing (I think an imitation of the Swedish dancing demonstrated by the women of ABBA in their heyday) while wearing his blue striped overalls. The pink on black companion piece was done a couple of days later as a further exploration of the "dancer" motif. Once finished they seemed to go together - it's nice to dance with a partner after all, and the flipped orientation helped them fit.

Traffic is my most recently resolved painting, inspired by the black on yellow traffic sign arrows that help you nudge in when going around a curve.

Traffic, 2011, water-soluble oil on canvas, 40" x 40"

Francis Dance detail

Passing Conversations in an Airport

2011-06-09T08:37:00.000-07:00

Candy Store Grid on the brain

Specifically in the hallway to the bathroom...

I had one of my most interesting artist days ever yesterday while installing the Candy Store Grid at the Columbus International Airport, Gateway to the Arts.

It all started with Francis and I furiously trying to cram ourselves and 101 paintings into the Subaru, before our trip to Columbus. Not having coffee yet, this felt like a painful logic puzzle. After some cardboard boxes were swapped out and some Saran Wrap was deployed (don't ask) we headed out.

The installation itself took forever - hanging light paintings on wires in a somewhat regular grid formation actually isn't that easy. So we had about nine hours of time spent in the long corridor in CMH while probably a couple hundred people hurried by on the way to the bathroom.

chairs and painting glowing

At least ten people asked some variation of which kids / schools made the artwork we were hanging. One woman was even disbelieving when I said it wasn't kids' work. "Oh really?" she asked. Yeah trust me, I know this one. Some people then seemed a little embarrassed when I told them that no actually it was my work, "made by just one big kid" became my refrain.

Obviously, in the Midwestern mindset at least, my work reads as children's work. I wonder why? Francis told me it's because I need to be more somber to be an adult.

Thank goodness for Francis!

A number of folks (mostly older gentlemen) asked Francis if he was the artist. I figured my hot pink Pondo Beara t shirt would show obvious solidarity with the paintings on the wall. I guess having a penis trumps a hot pink t shirt when it comes to assuming who the artist is in a given situation. It also seemed that when Francis would redirect these guys to me they would lose interest pretty quickly - but maybe they just needed to use the john.

A few folks used the word "decorating," as in we were decorating the hallway. The words "pretty," "fun," and "adorable" (once in a genuine way and once in a sort of fake way) were all thrown out.

entry grid

Some folks seemed really interested and engaged with the work and actually stopped to comment and ask questions. One man had an astute observation on how difficult it is to organize patterns that feel random, but not chaotic. One woman helped me finalize the arrangement of the small grid in the entry way. Once the changes were made, she had her baby clap for me.

tired at the end of a long day!

The experience was like having a completely objective critique all day - by mostly non-art seeming folks. It was kind of wonderful and terrifying at the same time. I think I might pay for short term parking and go hang out in the hallway to catch some more passing conversations in an airport.

Sideshow VI

2011-05-26T20:41:00.000-07:00

Some shots from Dayton Circus Collective's Sideshow VI. This is an installation called Backyard II constructed in the old Yellow Cab Company building in downtown Dayton.

Many thanks to Charmaine Griffith and Jeremy Dempe who helped clean fifty years worth of cigarette smoke and grease from our little annex and to Francis Schanberger who went through a few exatco blades carefully cutting out paper leaves. Don't let the pretty colors fool you, this piece is poison (ivy that is). The back wall is inspired by that particularly chalky color of pink called calamine.

Thanks as always to Francis for his photo assistance!

Cavort!

2011-05-14T20:23:00.000-07:00

The opening reception for Michelle and my show is this upcoming Friday, May 20th in Yellow Springs. Come out and say hello.

Ohio Art League 100th Annual Spring Juried Exhibition

2011-05-08T09:09:00.000-07:00

Frank and I have work at the Ohio Art League's Spring Juried Exhibition - at the Main Library in Columbus.

Okay two more...

2011-04-23T21:16:00.000-07:00

Francis Dance (Pink), 2011

water-soluble oil on canvas

20" x 20"

Francis Dance (Red), 2011

water-soluble oil on canvas

24" x 24"

Yellow Springs!

2011-04-23T20:48:00.000-07:00

Bricks, 2011

water-soluble oil on canvas

12" x 12"

Really looking forward to my two person exhibition with Michelle Blades (Michelle's work is delightfully disturbing) at the Yellow Springs Arts Council Gallery opening May 20th. The space is really interesting with a beautiful tucked away garden and a crazy rounded wall.

Here's a little sneak preview from me.

The Dinner Party

2011-03-29T17:19:00.000-07:00

Got to see Judy Chicago's Dinner Party at the Brooklyn Museum this past weekend. I've always considered it a little cheesy and overwrought. Vagina plates! Tapestries! Triangles! Oh my!

Seeing it in person, however, made me review my opinion. It was really impacting to think of all the hours of hand work involved in the creation of the piece. I also like that there was collaboration and a focus on female-associated crafts, weaving, ceramic painting, etc. The stories about the notable women were interesting to read and reflect on, although mostly the place settings focus on white women from the Western tradition.

I can see the validity of the critique that the work essentializes all these diverse and amazing women - boiling their contributions down to vaginal imagery... but I think it was an influence on my paint brush today.

NYC

2011-03-29T16:33:00.000-07:00

hotel, note the foxhunt

gallery dog! (he loved jill)

gin and i

jill, tim and anne posing at the aperture opening

34 street station ceiling, post brooklyn adventure

(all photos by francis)

Pink Corners (better color)

2011-03-20T14:50:00.000-07:00

Pink Corners, 2011

water-soluble oil on canvas

20" x 20"

Press!

2011-03-08T10:26:00.000-08:00

The New Members Invitational Exhibition at the Dayton Society of Painters and Sculptors has gotten some good press this weekend. Pam Dillon wrote a review of the show for the Dayton Daily News Life Section. The mood at High Street Gallery seemed more energized according to the gallery sitter this Sunday - let's hope the good vibes continue!

There's even a picture of me (leaning against WWWH, oops).

Birds (it's for the)

2011-03-06T13:05:00.000-08:00

Blue Birds, 2008 water-soluble oil on canvas 53" x 50"

We were at dinner the other night after an(other) opening for a group show that Francis is a part of. It was an extremely pleasant and chatty evening that culminated in a discussion of animal fears. Yes, this is what artists and curators talk about over their neo-Italian cuisine.

One of the members of the party brought up her extreme fear of birds, as in full-on heart pounding terror when confronted with one out in the world. I chimed in with my distaste for birds (sorry bird lovers). I certainly wouldn't consider my feelings towards birds to be a true fear or phobia, just a slight distrust perhaps owing to their reptilian heritage (sorry snake lovers) and to their tendency to peck and poop a lot indiscriminately.

While I and the bird fearer were in the midst of reaffirming each others' anti-bird opinions, another member of the group spoke up and called me out. "Don't you use birds in your work?" she asked. Well, yes I do as a matter of fact. So I sat back and shut up feeling a little ashamed at having been caught in a hypocritical act.

Shame, even a light taste of it, brings out my obsessive tendencies like nothing else. So all the way home and even after that I turned the conversation over and over in the back of my mind. Why would a person who is no real fan of the feathered make paintings of birds?

On reflection, I don't think I care much for birds, at least the actual living, breathing, flying, pecking, pooping animals. My interest is in the popularity of the bird as motif in current consumer culture. My bird paintings were born out of my research for the Candy Store series. Bird as motif saw an upswing in the mid to latter part of this past decade. Fowl seemed to be everywhere: certainly appearing on the printed flannel VS pajamas that were the initial inspiration for the Candy Store work.

The blue bird of happiness has made it's way from tattoos to stationery and everything in between. This style of bird motif represents a certain vintage sweetness. As a symbol the swallow, robin or wren in flight can range from a more sassy rockabilly feel to a cuteness appropriate for a baby's blanket.

The bird motif that I use in my painting stays on the feminized side - those products being the ones I'm most interested in researching. My bird patterns are certainly not the aggressive male identified birds of prey like eagles or hawks. I'm interested in the things that are sold to women and the overwhelming diversity of choice that keeps us consuming. The bird motif in my work is part of a larger study of feminized motif.

My friend Jessica likes and respects birds and you can tell the difference in her paintings of the same subject. Even though stylized, her work retains specific colors and markings true to the actual birds being represented. You can distinguish between owls, hawks and wrens in her paintings - these are representations of birds from the actual observable world.

Both Jessica and I share an appreciation for boiling a subject down to its essence. In her paintings, however, she uses birds and animals themselves as an inspiration, while in my work, a stylized bird is analogous to a polka dot, a star or a stripe.

Candy Store Grid, detail
water-soluble oil on canvas
135- 12" x 12" canvases
installed at Dayton Visual Arts Center
2009

New work

2011-03-01T09:55:00.000-08:00

Stripe Flags, 2011
water-soluble oil on canvas
20" x 20"

Particle, 2011
water-soluble oil on canvas
30" x 30"

Pink Corners, 2011
water-soluble oil on canvas
20" x 20"

Been working on some new paintings recently...explosions, pinball, clouds, physics, and lots of stripes.

Studio Day

2011-01-25T17:02:00.000-08:00

Had some fun in the studio today - working on a piece that will be similar to Birthday, but with more candles!

DSPS New Member Invitational

2011-01-11T16:04:00.000-08:00

Prospectus and more information coming soon!

Birthday

2010-11-14T10:48:00.001-08:00

Birthday, 2010
water soluble oil, gesso and acrylic on panels, birthday candles
approximately 32" x 25"

Backyard

2010-11-14T10:09:00.000-08:00

New documentation of my faculty show piece, Backyard. This work provoked the only negative comment in the entire visitor notebook for the faculty show. I'm not sure if I should be proud or worried?

Backyard, 2010
gouache, colored pencil and gesso (wall drawings)
plaster, gouache and found objects (sculpture)
dimensions variable

Even kitty got in on the documentation!

Is it a phobia if you should be legitimately afraid?

2010-11-14T08:39:00.000-08:00

One of my drawing students this quarter is affiliated with the annual Phobia show that happens at Vex nightclub here in the big D. He asked me if I wanted to participate, and I said yes. We went to the exhibition last year, and it was fun, bringing together a range of artists from different walks of the art community.

One thing I love about Dayton is the way it's big enough to host a range of different art practices while also being small enough for artists to move outside of the typical stratification: academic artists with national pretensions, community and regional artists, people that make art as a hobby or therapy.

All this is a lead in to introduce the piece I've been working on for the show. It's based on my fear of poison ivy, a completely common-sense fear to my mind. Although not fully in the purview of "phobia" I wanted to work with the poison ivy motif I've been exploring this summer, due to the proliferation of it outside my studio window.

Poison Ivy, 2010
cut paper and water soluble oil on panel
approximately 72" x 30"

New Website

2010-11-10T13:12:00.000-08:00

Blue Cheetah, 2006
water soluble oil on canvas
12" x 12"

Hallelujah!

I finally have a website that I can proudly direct folks to.

Stop by and check it out:

www.bridgettebogle.com

Whitewater Valley Annual Art Competition

2010-11-02T11:40:00.000-07:00

Kelly Joslin's cyanotype and van dyke brown print in the foreground and WWWH in the background. Whitewater Valley Annual Art Competition. Photo credit: Pat McClelland

Wuthering Wuthering, Wuthering Heights is holding down a spot at the Whitewater Valley Annual Art Competition, Indiana University East in Richmond, Indiana. I haven't gotten to check out the show, so thanks to Pat McClelland for making a visit to the wild border lands of Ohio / Indiana and for taking photos!

The exhibition runs until December 5th at Indiana University East, 2325 Chester Boulevard, Richmond, Indiana. The Gallery in Whitewater Hall is open between 10 a.m. and 5 p.m.

Mess!

2010-10-01T10:13:00.001-07:00

Mess, 2010
gouache, colored pencil, gesso on paper
14" x 18"

My students have been editorializing on their drawings quite a bit this quarter. I think they want to get the jump on any criticism coming their way and demonstrate an awareness that a certain piece isn't their best work - not what they'd be doing if they had a choice.

It can been annoying as a viewer - having the direct voice of the author telling you what to think. So I made them do a drawing that was comprised completely of writing (to get it out of their systems). It worked with mixed results; the most dedicated writers seemed most at a loss to compose their commentary into a cohesive composition.

This is the drawing that I did as an example - fitting as it describes the current state of my artist mind perfectly. It's hard for me to focus on making work when school starts up and all my creative energy is directed there.

Faculty Show

2010-09-14T09:00:00.001-07:00

Backyard, 2010
drawings: gouache, colored pencil, and gesso on paper

sculptures: plaster, gesso, gouache, found objects

Fall quarter has started at Sinclair, which means it's time for the art department faculty show.

Last year, the installation I constructed - an homage to Matisse's Pink Studio - was kind of a spectacular failure. I had construction issues, problems with working in the tight triangular space of the Hypotenuse Gallery, as well as the basic insanity of trying to use lots of new materials and processes within a short amount of time. It was a good reminder that failure is part of the process of art making - although usually I prefer to make my mistakes less publicly!

So this year, I wanted to tackle installation again, while streamlining my ideas.

The new bamboo floor in the Triangle Gallery shows off the sculptural elements of this work better than the old ratty carpet. I'm fairly pleased with how the drawings and sculptures relate considering I haven't done anything sculptural since undergrad. The drawings and sculptures are an outgrowth of the Convenient Landscape series - a response to artifacts of a consumer culture. Once I get some more detailed images I'll post them.

For those of you in the area, the opening reception for the show will be this Thursday, September 16th, from 5pm - 6:30pm.

Sinclair Community College's Burnell R. Roberts Triangle Gallery is on the 4th Floor of Building 13, at 444 W. Third Street, Dayton, OH.

2010-09-10T13:43:00.000-07:00

Ice Cream Series, Splash, 2010
gouache, colored pencil and gesso on paper
9" x 12"

Color Extend at Gallery 510 got some nice press! Here's a link to Pam Dillion's review of the show in the Dayton Daily News.

Artists inspired by daily travels and trash

Sangfroid

2010-09-10T13:27:00.000-07:00

Wetlands, 2010
gouache on clayboard
11" x 14"

Wetlands will be on display at the Sangfroid Invitational Exhibition, curated by Amy Kollar Anderson.

The show will be on view from September 11 – October 29, 2010, with an opening reception on September 11, from 4-7pm. The event will be held in the At Peace Massage and Wellness Center, 8605 North Dixie Drive – Suite D, in Dayton.

I'm looking forward to seeing the show, paticipating artists are: Erin Holscher Almazan, Pam Adams, Amy Kollar Anderson, Laine Bachman, Julie Beyer, Bridgette Bogle, Matt Burgy, Christina Dendy, Amy Dockum, Diane Dover, Peter Frederick, Joyce Genari, Scott Gibbs, Terry Glass, Cathy Jeffers, Rick Jurus, Jean Koeller, Richard Malogorski, Ryan Mccullough, Trish McKinney, Marsha Pippenger, Mike Puckett, Sarah Puckett, Loretta Puncer, Heather Lea Reid, Francis Schanberger, Rose Schultz, Andrea Starkey, Doug Taylor, Lesley Walton, Terry Welker

A pretty good line up!

Heathcliff it's me, Cathy

2010-09-03T13:48:00.000-07:00

Wuthering, Wuthering, Wuthering Heights
water-soluble oil on canvas, 2010
40" x 40"

Wuthering, Wuthering, Wuthering Heights got a shout out on an all things Brontë blog. They are correct in the assumption that the piece is inspired by the incomparable Kate Bush. She would be amazing even without the mime-dancing.

Of course I love the gothic novel by Emily Bronte as well. Tragic romance is always good. Wuthering is a Yorkshire term for bad weather - fitting for the painting I think.

Ice Cream Series

2010-08-09T00:52:00.001-07:00

Ice Cream Series, 2010
gouache, colored pencil and gesso on paper
9 - 9" x 12" drawings

Dayton City Paper Review

2010-08-08T14:35:00.000-07:00

Sunglasses, Convenient Landscape Series, 2010, gouache, colored pencil, graphite and gesso on paper

Jane Black, artist and the executive director of Dayton Visual Arts Center profiled Amy Kollar Anderson's and my show at Gallery 510 for her Looking About column in the Dayton City Paper. Instead of reading like an advertisement for the exhibition, Jane's writing actually tackles our two bodies of work in a more substantive manner.

As an artist I appreciate any attention to my work (it's terrible to be ignored!) and a press clipping is something tangible to send to my parents. It's proof that all those hours spent mulling over the beauty of my neon sunglasses does have an impact eventually. It's even more amazing, though, when it's obvious that the writer has thoughtfully considered your work.

You can read the piece online here.

Color Extend

2010-07-30T16:10:00.000-07:00

Hi Folks!

If you're in the Daytonian area for First Friday in August, stop by the Gallery 510 to see some of my most recent drawings and paintings. Fluorescent yellow, melting ice cream, and nefarious clouds will be heavily featured. I'll also be sharing the space with wunderpainter Amy Kollar Anderson. It's sure to be a good time!

www.lorettapuncer.com/gallery.html

Hope to see you there,

-Bridgette

Still-Life

2010-07-22T14:14:00.000-07:00

Still-Life (with beer bottles and cigarette pack), 2010

acrylic, gouache, colored pencil and gesso on paper

20" x 26"

Butter not miss this!

2010-07-22T13:55:00.000-07:00

My two Convenient Landscape grids as well as one version of The Fog are currently on view at the Ohio State Fair. The show is up Jun 28 - Aug 8 - 9am-9pm daily (Aug 8th 9am-8pm) in the Fine Arts Pavilion. Francis has work on display as well - folks you don't wanna miss it!

There are also corndogs, butter sculptures, bizarre chickens, dogs doing tricks and bags of kettle corn as big as a couch (okay maybe not that big). The state fair is a wonderful place.

How to make a butter sculpture from Adrian Stucker on Vimeo.

In honor of Lost tomorrow night

2010-05-03T21:14:00.001-07:00

Convenient Landscape, Smoke Monster, 2010
gouache, colored pencil and gesso on paper
9" x 12"

Inspired by Charlie Brown

2010-05-03T21:07:00.001-07:00

Convenient Landscape, Zigzag, 2010
gouache, colored pencil and gesso on paper
14" x 20"

Space Invaders

2010-05-02T21:17:00.000-07:00

Convenient Landscape, Space Invaders, 2010
gouache, colored pencil and gesso on paper
9" x 12"

Borrowed Words

2010-05-02T21:06:00.000-07:00

I have two drawings in this show - go check it out!

Convenient Landscape Statement

2010-05-02T20:55:00.000-07:00

Ice Cream, 2010, gouache, colored pencil and gesso on paper

Convenient Landscape

My eyes are like magpies swirling and dipping as they take in the world. They alight on various fancies: a phrase, an object, a pattern. In turn, I feel the need to recognize these small delights. This acquisitive impulse is the underpinning of this series of drawings.

Keeping my responses open to what my visual reality provides; I make a decision through indecision. These drawings are done with no boundaries in style and subject matter beyond size and media: sheets of 9” x 12” watercolor paper, gouache, colored pencil and gesso. Light and immediate materials allow for an unlabored response.

These small, quick works teach me about what my eyes seek out: the end credits of a John Carpenter film, elements of atmospheric perspective and relative scale that I’m teaching my students, snowflakes and cloud forms reflecting my non-native’s fascination with Ohio’s winter weather, all the romantic facets of my everyday landscape. Here, through drawing, I allow myself to reflect on the bright churning pleasures of a full world.

The FOG

2010-05-02T16:51:00.000-07:00

Convenient Landscape, The Fog, 2010
gouache, colored pencil and graphite on paper
9" x 12"

Convenient Landscapes Grid #2

2010-05-02T16:47:00.000-07:00

Convenient Landscape 2, 2010
gouache, colored pencil, graphite and gesso on paper
grid of 9, 9" x 12" each

Convenient Landscapes Grid #1

2010-05-02T16:42:00.000-07:00

Convenient Landscape 1, 2010
gouache, colored pencil, graphite and gesso on paper
grid of 9, 9" x 12"

60 Wrd / Min. Art Critic

2010-03-14T21:00:00.000-07:00

Couch Pattern, 2010, gouache, colored pencil, gesso on paper, 9"x 12"

Both Francis and I participated in Lori Waxman's performance at ROY G BIV last week in Columbus. Ms. Waxman is a traveling art critic working to make art criticism a more transparent process.

It was an amazing experience - thanks ROY for playing host to such an interesting critic.

Here is my review reprinted for your edification:

3/7/10 4:08 PM
Bridgette Bogle
Eyeglasses, snowflakes, chopstick wrappers, couch patterns, and overpasses - hardly the stuff of visual delight and wondrous attention, snowflakes excepted. And yet, in her drawings of these everyday subjects, Bridgette Bogle manages to make many of them unexpectedly sparkly and light, playful and pleasing. How she does this has something to do with a casual isolation of subject matter and a pairing of it with simple, decorative painterliness. More than anything, however, there's Bogle's choice of day-glo gouache as a colorful accent, throwing hot pink and chartreuse where none occur naturally. (As if they ever occur naturally!) Thus a heart-shaped box of chocolates which should read as cheap and common doesn't. Instead it's a jazzy, jubilant thing bursting with strange tastes and sparkling centers. The flowery pattern of a couch comes across not as an unfortunate decorative afterthought, better left in the 1980s, but rather as a quirky play of exotic and unnatural silhouettes colored by a decidedly vanguard mother nature. In some cases Bogle's light, quirky touch fails to defamiliarize the familiar enough to make it interesting - witness a pair of chunky, clunky spectacles and a bouquet of not-so-fresh roses. Rather than fail, though, these exceptions seem to testify to the artistic effort it takes to render the stuff of daily life as if it were in fact the stuff of some magical existence, a Midas touch not to be taken for granted.
-Lori Waxman

So cool!

Here's the link to the Columbus Alive article if you would like to read the rest of the reviews.

http://www.columbusalive.com/live/content/features/stories/2010/03/11/ca_ar_waxman-works.html

Fences

2009-10-29T13:05:00.000-07:00

I've been looking at fences on my walks to and from work. Chain link is interesting to me since it works as both a pattern and a volume. I've been doing some drawing / paintings about it on yupo. Here's an example.

New Cloud Painting

2009-10-28T21:17:00.000-07:00

This is a painting of a cloud in front of stripes.

Barrettes!

2009-10-18T10:13:00.000-07:00

Creative Soul of Dayton

2009-10-02T21:17:00.000-07:00

The Creative Soul of Dayton show opened this weekend and will run through November. I'm pretty impressed by the synthesis of such diverse works. The show is housed in the Armory building in the Oregon District and it's a great space - full of coal dust! Check the Creative Soul website for more info...

One thing I'm liking

2009-10-02T14:07:00.000-07:00

Although she received criticism from the Fug Girls as well as from Fashion Police in US for this, I like this look that Cate Blanchett is sporting.

It takes comfort clothes to the next level! The colors of course are awesome and it totally reminds me of the skirt I had my mom sew me out of a rag rug in fourth grade.

First Post

2009-10-02T13:59:00.000-07:00

I guess I'll give this blogging thing a try - it seems like an easy way to keep people updated about my work. This process also seems like a way to create a receptacle of thoughts and interests that I pass through - like a journal in way, albeit one that is shared with whomever is willing to look!