5 x 5 Art 4 Sale

On Friday 12/5, the Five by Five Small Works Exhibition opened at The Empty Spaces Project, a gallery in Putnam, CT. 

This show included more than 100 works, all 5x5 inches, created by a group of more than 65 international artists. This project began as an extension of my first book The Pulse of Mixed Media, morphed into an online event, became a magazine article, and is now a live exhibition. You can read more about the project here. 

All artwork from this show is for sale and is now available for purchase online here. Please have a look at the incredible array of artwork and if you are interested in making a purchasing, please email your choice(s) to me at shap97@gmail.com.

The two pieces below are my contribution to the exhibition:

Life...Love...Learn
SOLD - THANK YOU

Lies

SOLD - THANK YOU

I wanted to share some images of the gallery and the opening reception for those of you who were unable to attend.

 The strips of 5x5 artworks

 The view from my book

 Table and tableau

Browsing

 My (full size) artwork along with collaborative artwork I completed with Roxanne Evans Stout

 One of several display tables

 Gallery founders Paul Toissaint & Ann Monteiro and myself (right to left)

The exhibition continues through the end of December if you have a chance to visit!

Five by Five Exhibition

I am excited to announce Five by Five, a small works exhibition that will take place at The Empty Spaces Project, a gallery in Putnam, Connecticut, during the month of December. The opening reception will be held on Friday 12/5 from 6-9pm. Hope to see all of you locals there!

This collaborative art project began as an extension to my first book, The Pulse of Mixed Media, in which contributing artists responded to questions and prompts by creating art. As a way to involve additional artists, I placed an open call on my blog for contributors to submit work for an online exhibition. Artists were asked to create new work, in the form of a 5" x 5" square and in any medium, that answered one or more of the following questions:

1. If your artwork could talk, what would it say?

2. Who has had the most impact on your creative life?

3. What is one thing you have never shared with the creative community?

More than 75 artists contributed over 110 works. Submissions included works on paper, fabric, wood, canvas, metal and resin using a wide variety of techniques and materials including acrylics, watercolors, stitching, drawing, digital, assemblage, book arts, and more. Participating artists were international, living and working in the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and the UK. All works were published on my blog in a series of 9 posts that can be found here.

Subsequently, the 5 x 5 project was featured in an 8 page spread in the November/December 2012 issue of Somerset Studio in which 18 works were highlighted.

I am so very excited that a project that started out as a book, turned into an online feature, and morphed into a magazine spread has now become an art exhibition. Nearly 100 pieces of art, all 5 x 5 inches, will be featured at the show and available for purchase. They certainly would make perfect gifts for this holiday season.

You can see all the artwork that is included in the show in this series of posts on my blog. Please note though that not every piece posted online is part of the exhibition. The art will be presented and sold in small groupings. If you are unable to attend, but are interested in purchasing any of the artwork, do not hesitate to contact me for information via email at shap97@gmail.com. 

5x5: Chapter 9

I may be the author of The Pulse of Mixed Media but the true, creative force behind my book is the group of artists who generously shared their secrets and passions and, of course, their art. It was important to me that this book be representative of our entire artistic community, but the total number of contributors I could include was limited by the number of pages in the book. Not wanting to be contained by page numbers, I decided that the Internet was the perfect vehicle to extend the book and be able to include more of the community. With this in mind, the 5x5 Pulse Project was born.

The Pulse of Mixed Media presented the results of a survey in which contributing artists were asked questions that they had to answer with words or provided with prompts that they had to respond to by creating art. These ideas were combined in the 5x5 Pulse Project. I put out an open call for artists to submit artwork created in response to one or more of the following questions that were part of the original book:

1. If your artwork could talk, what would it say?

2. Who has had the most impact on your creative life?

3. What is one thing you have never shared with the creative community?

Submitting artists could chose 1, 2, or all 3 of the questions and respond to each by creating artwork in any medium in the form of a 5" x 5" square. They were asked to include words as a part of their artwork as well. There was a tremendous response to this call and I will be posting each submission every Sunday throughout the months of November and December. 

The 5x5 project is also being featured in a ten-page spread in the November/December 2012 issue of Somerset Studio, now available in stores and online here.

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Who has had the most impact on your creative life?

Stephanie Hilvitz

"The women in my life. My artists tribe. My grandmothers. My mother."

Paula Bogdan

"Thank you dad for constantly reminding me that I have a brain in my head and that I can do anything I want to do. Thank you for putting that first camera in my hands and for showing me life's beauty."

Amy Duncan

"I owe my creative spirit to my mom...fostered at an early age"

Sarah Fishburn

"A child of the 1930s, she played with her sisters, the neighborhood children, and all the other little things that comprised her world. She grew up to be dizzyingly clever and dazzingly beautiful. She is never far from my thoughts."

Lelainia Lloyd

"For the last 15 months I've been taking online photography classes with the fabulous Vivienne McMaster. Taking on photography was a huge leap for me. Picking up a camera & learning to use it to make art was way outside my comfort zone. Vivienne has informed my creative practice & forever changed my artistic life."

Maggie Crawford

"Since discovering rubber stamping in 1996 I have taken many classes from a number of very talented teachers on the art retreat circuit - all of whom have influenced me and helped me to grow along the way. I have tried lots of different mixed media art forms but am happiest with art journaling, book making and collage. I create art just for myself, for my own enjoyment and fulfillment. I don't have a blog as I would rather be making art than writing about it, but I do get an incredible amount of inspiration from checking out other people's blogs. I cannot chose just one person. Everyone I have encountered has had some impact; large or small. I thank everyone who has inspired me on this incredible journey but most of all me. I discovered a passion and nurtured this creative life for myself."

What is the one thing you have never shared with the creative community?

Barbara Kleinhans

"I feel stuck in this repetitive landscape"

Chris Meissner

"Broken, disheartened, isolated, alone, outsider, misfit, disenchanted, disappointed, left out, forgotten, wounded, regret, broken."

Deborah Guthrie

"Meltdowns. Good old I'm a loser meltdowns. I can rage as hard as I delight. Thank goodness I delight most of the time as the rages steal so much. I work hard at walking the walk and talking the talk as an artist/instructor but sometimes the ground gives out and a storm blows in and rages. It passes and I believe once again."

Trudi Sissons

"I know all the words to Tiny Tim's Tip Toe Through the Tulips"

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This is the last edition of 5x5. Join me for a new Pulse question - the last in the 5th series of The Pulse - in the new year on Sunday, January 6th.

5x5: Chapter 8

I may be the author of The Pulse of Mixed Media but the true, creative force behind my book is the group of artists who generously shared their secrets and passions and, of course, their art. It was important to me that this book be representative of our entire artistic community, but the total number of contributors I could include was limited by the number of pages in the book. Not wanting to be contained by page numbers, I decided that the Internet was the perfect vehicle to extend the book and be able to include more of the community. With this in mind, the 5x5 Pulse Project was born.

The Pulse of Mixed Media presented the results of a survey in which contributing artists were asked questions that they had to answer with words or provided with prompts that they had to respond to by creating art. These ideas were combined in the 5x5 Pulse Project. I put out an open call for artists to submit artwork created in response to one or more of the following questions that were part of the original book:

1. If your artwork could talk, what would it say?

2. Who has had the most impact on your creative life?

3. What is one thing you have never shared with the creative community?

Submitting artists could chose 1, 2, or all 3 of the questions and respond to each by creating artwork in any medium in the form of a 5" x 5" square. They were asked to include words as a part of their artwork as well. There was a tremendous response to this call and I will be posting each submission every Sunday throughout the months of November and December. 

The 5x5 project is also being featured in a ten-page spread in the November/December 2012 issue of Somerset Studio, now available in stores and online here.

---------------------------------

If your artwork could talk, what would it say?

Kim Henkel

"I have brought joy, peace and comfort
I have brought silence, beauty. strength
to the very heart of my creator.
I have let in the light."

Cat Storey

"grow"

Robert Stockton

"I exist as a fragment of the everyday details of a life lived in another place or time."

Olivia King

"She often does not know the way. She stands alone in front of me waiting, sifting through memories looking for the still point of a fragment, a whisper, a color. Then she begins with her brush. because she must show you what lies beneath her soul."

Karen Isaacson

"What will she do next?"

Lindi Stevenson

"Art...in real life. Where have you been?"

Carrie Siems

"My artwork did have something to say... until I took the words right out of its mouth. Seriously, have you looked inside?"

Sandy Babb

"I extol the warmth of I the shimmering summer sun.... I express the purity of the atmosphere on full moonlit star studded nights... I express the verdure of the forests that cover the hills and hollows of her home both through color and symbol... I express the intricacy and detail with which she likes to create... I express creative freedom and artistic adventure where the inception of new ideas are formed and begin being worked out... I express the emerging artist who is slowly working her way out of  her insulated cocoon and testing her new found wings..."

Who has had the most impact on your creative life? 

Carol Henley

"Find A Project was the standard cure for almost everything... So... I learned to be very creative! Thanks Mom!"

Elizabeth Bunsen

"shadowlady"

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The next and last edition of 5x5 will be posted on Sunday, December 30th.

5x5: Chapter 7

I may be the author of The Pulse of Mixed Media but the true, creative force behind my book is the group of artists who generously shared their secrets and passions and, of course, their art. It was important to me that this book be representative of our entire artistic community, but the total number of contributors I could include was limited by the number of pages in the book. Not wanting to be contained by page numbers, I decided that the Internet was the perfect vehicle to extend the book and be able to include more of the community. With this in mind, the 5x5 Pulse Project was born.

The Pulse of Mixed Media presented the results of a survey in which contributing artists were asked questions that they had to answer with words or provided with prompts that they had to respond to by creating art. These ideas were combined in the 5x5 Pulse Project. I put out an open call for artists to submit artwork created in response to one or more of the following questions that were part of the original book:

1. If your artwork could talk, what would it say?

2. Who has had the most impact on your creative life?

3. What is one thing you have never shared with the creative community?

Submitting artists could chose 1, 2, or all 3 of the questions and respond to each by creating artwork in any medium in the form of a 5" x 5" square. They were asked to include words as a part of their artwork as well. There was a tremendous response to this call and I will be posting each submission every Sunday throughout the months of November and December. 

The 5x5 project is also being featured in a ten-page spread in the November/December 2012 issue of Somerset Studio, now available in stores and online here.

---------------------------------

If your artwork could talk, what would it say?

Amy Duncan

"The most ordinary of objects can tell a story. you just have to be listening."

Teri Mahl

"I am living on the west coast. Torn in many directions. Conflicted, fearful, anxious, unsure of myself. Searching new directions. Searching new paths."

Elizabeth Bunsen

"Gather the light"

Frances Peets

"Until you came into my heart, I did not feel. Until you touched my soul, I did not dance. Until you took my hand, I did not trust. Until you looked into my eyes, I was lost. Until you held me, love was not."

Shari Adkisson

"Silky, subdued, handmade and gorgeous colors. They just about sum up my take on art - fibre related!"

Carol Henley

"Your art is a reflection of you"

Erika Husselmann

"Love inspires"

Pat McNally

"Appreciate me"
(this 5x5 also answers the other two questions)

What is the one thing you have never shared with the creative community?

Artist at large

"I haven't shared my bank details with the creative community because they will hack into my account and spend it all on charcoal."

Who has had the most impact on your creative life?

Darlene Wilkinson

"Me! and my higher self. I go thru life seeing, experiencing so many different facets and moods, colors and experiences. Then I go to my studio and intuitively create art via life experiences."

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The next edition of 5x5 will be posted on Sunday, December 23rd.