Tom Reynolds Trio

We dropped in at this month's Kimbell After Hours (2nd Saturday of every month) to hear the Tom Reynolds Trio. They were amazingly (but not surprisingly) good! I missed their first set but the set we heard was brilliant - composed primarily of swing and other jazz, performed by Tom (on guitar), with Andy Crisanti on clarinet and an outstanding bass player (whose name I did not catch).

I've known Tom since our sons were in Boy Scouts together years ago, and he's a prince of a fellow, in addition to being a phenomenal guitar player. Andy Crisanti was once principal clarinetist with the Ft Worth Symphony before retiring. He said he'd gone full circle, since he started out playing swing back in the 1940's.

A thoroughly enjoyable time. Tom plays frequently at the Scat Lounge in Fort Worth, as well as putting in appearances elsewhere in the DFW area.

Thank, Tom!

The Portrait Project

A few years (quite a few, actually) I decided to start a project that I referred to (in my mind) as "One Hundred Portraits." After the first dozen or so, I decided it was just "the Portrait Project."

The goal was, loosely stated, to do a portrait of everyone I knew. Talk about a never-ending task. Regardless, I've completed around 50 (give or take).


Last fall my good friend Leo Wesson, who I've known and worked with for over 30 years, came over and shot a massive number of works on paper for me on his digital camera. Among the stuff he shot were most of the portraits. After much screwing around, I've finally posted my favorites on the Ralph Art website.

The pieces that comprise the project follow a fairly standard format: all are more or less mug-shots, and are on 22 x 30 rag paper. Not all are paintings; quite a few were done as drawings.

It's been fun, and I'm certainly not finished (I meet new people every day), but only a few people have seen them, and usually only a handful of the pieces at that. If you know me, you probably know quite a few of the people in these works.

A big thanks (again) to Leo, who made this possible.

Enjoy!

New: John on the Ice blog

Rather than posting stuff on this site, I decided to set up another blog for updates about John's Antarctica adventure. It's called John on the Ice (clever, I know). This way folks won't have to wade through my ponderous pontifications about Art and the like, when all they really wanted to know was how John is doing.

By the way, by my clock, he's enroute to Los Angeles now from Denver, where he had his company orientation. He departs from Los Angeles later this evening for Auckland, New Zealand.

The Penguin has departed

A quick note: oldest son John departed this afternoon for Antarctica, where he'll be working for six months (doing food service for the inhabitants of McMurdo Station).

His first stop is Denver, where he'll do a couple of days of training in Denver. From there, after a brief layover, he'll fly to New Zealand. The final leg of his journey, from Christchurch, NZ, to McMurdo, Antarctica, will be aboard a military transport plane.



McMurdo Station, on Ross Island (on the southwest corner of Ross Sea), is the operational hub and logistics center for the United States Antarctic Program, which in turn is part of the National Science Foundation. McMurdo is the largest installation on the continent and is the gateway to all other US bases.

During the active (summer) season, around 1,200 people are based there. They are just entering the spring season down there; average highs for September are -5 F, and average lows are -20 F. December is the warmest time of the year - average highs are around 30 F, with lows down to 21 F.

Curious about the weather? Check the McMurdo webcam.

He'll be there until March of 2012. It should be a great adventure.

New 4th of July painting

Well, I finished this on the weekend of the 4th. I started it about
nine months ago. Also: I'm not so much finished as I am tired of
screwing with it. Maybe it will grow on me. I don't dislike it as much
as I did 3 weeks ago so there's hope.



(Photo taken with my iPhone, which is why it looks so crappy.)

Saturday May 14 is Spring Arts Goggle

Don't forget, Saturday May 14 is the spring edition of the twice yearly Arts Goggle on Fort Worth's Near (or is it Mid) South Side. In years past most of the action was concentrated along Magnolia Avenue between 8th Ave and Hemphill but it's slowly spread in all directions.

Lots of art and music, lots of fun. Printed handouts are available at most venues and locations of events can be found on the web. DFW.com has musical lineups, and Fort Worth South has a printable PDF of both art and music programs. Facebook has a page as well.

My old friend John Moore has a closing reception at Arts 5th Ave which I will be attending, and I'm told a friend will be playing at Shaws's, so chances are I'll be there at some point. In addition to the art and music, this is a great opportunity to see some of the redeveloped spaces in the area.

Be there or be square!

29th Annual Art in the Metroplex Competition

Received in the mail:

The 29^th Annual Art in the Metroplex Visual Arts Competition "Call for Entries" are now being mailed out to Dallas, Tarrant and surrounding counties. The non-profit Art in the Metroplex is held in the Moudy Gallery at Texas Christian University. Over $2,000 in prize money will be awarded at a reception and award ceremony September 10, 2011 at 2:30 p.m. by the juror.

This year's juror, Toby Kamps, is the Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art at the renowned Menil Collection in Houston. During his last post as the Senior Curator of the Contemporary Arts Museum in Houston, Mr. Kamps' exhibition "The Old, Weird America" won the award for "Best Thematic Show Nationally" from the U.S. chapter of the International Association of Art Critics. His previous posts also include the senior curator of the Contemporary Arts Center in Cincinnati and Director of the Institute of Contemporary Art and assistant professor at Maine College of Art. As curator and department head at the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego, he led the collections committee and was active in identifying and presenting works of art for acquisition.

If you are not on the TCU Art in the Metroplex mailing list, call 817-257-7643, or check the TCU website for links to Slideroom.com:

www.artandarthistory.tcu.e du/events_art_inthe_metroplex.asp

The entry fee is $35 and allows up to three pieces of work.  Work and fee must be submitted online by Wednesday, July 20, 2010.

Contacts:       Christina Rees
                        Curator, The Art Galleries at TCU
                        817-257-7638

                        Kerry Pacillio
                        Gallery Assistant, The Art Galleries at TCU
                        817-257-2588
                        kerry.mathis@tcu.edu

John Moore at Arts Fifth Avenue

My old friend John C. Moore has a new show over at Arts Fifth Avenue here in Fort Worth, which opened last night. It is, not surprisingly, wonderful.

He's pulled in some themes he worked with in his Hip Pocket production, On The Origins of the Specifics (look for fossils and the HMS Beagle), as well as some other classically Moorian imagery. Dorothy and I showed up at around 8 PM last night and already 7 pieces had been sold.

Along with John, there were some great work by Dale Connor and Wally Night.

In addition to seeing John, I also ran into old friend Beth F. and Robert E, who I'd not seen in a long time. A great event. Catch it while you can. There is a closing event scheduled for Spring Arts Google on Saturday, May 14.

PS: here's my own John Moore painting.

New drawings from the sketchbook series now online

I just updated the Sketchbook page on the Ralph Art website. New images are under the Cats, Children and Interior tabs. Most of these images date back to when John and Edward were very young (1986-1992).

Next: I've got a bunch of new digital photos of works on paper (thanks, Leo!) which I'll be processing over the next month or so. Includes lots of pieces from my ongoing portrait project.

A new acquisition for the collection

As of Sunday, I became the proud owner of a painting by my old friend, John C. Moore, who is a fabulous artist. You can see more of his art on his Facebook page.

Here's my treasure. I'm currently trying to find a decent place to hang it in my house.


Please note I shot this with my iPhone so I could post this quickly. The actual painting is a far better thing than my crappy photo.

Thank you so much John for sharing this with me!