May Program Presentation: Donna Barnitz

Donna Barnitz had been dyeing and painting one of a kind fabrics for 15 years.  She has pursued a variety of fabric altering techniques including batik, silk screening, and embellishing cotton, rayon and silk.  She also produces a limited number of indigo and rust infused cloth.

  

This past year Donna was Artist-in-Residence at Petrified Forest National Park where she concentrated on rust dyeing fabrics that imitate the look of petrified logs.  In addition to fabric dyeing she enjoys making vivid art quilts from her own fabrics.  Her quilt "My Sister's Truck" was recently selected for exhibition in the New Mexico Capitol Rotunda.

Donna's presentation at our May membership meeting will focus on her Artist-in-Residence as well as the process she used of dyeing fabric with rust.

The meeting is held at Destiny Center Church on Northern Blvd. and will begin at 6:30 PM. Admission is free and you need not be a member to attend the program.

Art on the Rio!

Rio Rancho Art Association's 2nd annual
all-media juried show
Sponsored by
the Inn at Rio Rancho

Held at the Inn in Rio Rancho

from May 1 - May 27, 2010

May 1st from 5 pm - 8 pm: Opening Reception and art raffle sale to benefit Haven House of Rio Rancho

Music by harpist Sophie Sorenson. Refreshments will be served.
Artist awards will be presented at the reception.
Raffle ticket sales begin at 5:00 pm and will end at 7:30 pm. Raffle sales of original art to benefit Haven House*

May 9: 11 am - 2 pm: Artist Demos: Come and have a Mother's Day Brunch at the Inn and enjoy the art exhibit and live artist demonstrations. The artist demos is a free event.
May 15: 2 pm - 4 pm: Paint With an Artist: Free and open to all ages 8 and above. Supplies will be provided. Make your reservation and sign up via email (by May 13th) at: RioRanchoArt@gmail.com

There are approximately 19 pieces of original art donated towards the raffle tickets sales by artists of RRAA. The odds of someone going home with a prize from a raffle ticket purchase is quite good! If you see a piece you have to have and would rather not leave it to 'fate', there will be a "buy it now" option. All proceeds from the raffle tickets sales will benefit Haven House. The art raffle will only take place during the reception on May 1st.

*Haven House, Inc. is the only agency in all of Sandoval County that is dedicated to serving domestic violence victims. Haven House provides 24/7 crisis intervention, safety planning, shelter for women and their children, legal advocacy (orders of protection, information about judicial processes, accompaniment to court), individual therapeutic counseling for women and children, support/education groups in the shelter and community, life skills education, children's services, community education and outreach, and a Batterers Intervention Program for men who batter, provided on behalf of the victims.

Haven House's number of clients has grown steadily. This year, Haven House will serve more than 1,000 individuals, many for up to 90 days or more.

Haven House was founded by a small group of community volunteers in 1994 as Project Sandoval County, to provide mainly legal advocacy for domestic violence victims. The shelter facility, located in Rio Rancho, opened in January 2002 and since then, programs and services have expanded.

VOTE FOR THESE VANS SHOES!

Imagine kids all over the world wearing these Van shoes designed by our students here at Rio Rancho High.

I can see kids wearing them while skate boarding, going to the movies, hanging out, going to school, etc.

Rio Rancho High School art teacher, Matthew Lutz worked with his students to participate and submit these designs to the Vans Sneaker Company.

For the past month, 19 of his students custom painted four pairs of Vans shoes for a national design contest. Up to ten schools per state participated. Today, they found out that they made the Top 20. Now, the public will choose four winners from those.

Starting Friday, April 16, go to http://vans.com/customculture/vote.html to cast your vote for Rio Rancho High School in the southwest region. If they are the most popular school in the region, their team gets to fly to LA for a five day trip. If they are selected as the winner from the Final Four, their art department will win $10,000.

Please vote for them this Friday-Sunday, April 16-18. Go to http://vans.com/customculture/vote.html and choose Rio Rancho High School. You can vote once from each computer.

Thanks!

The Invisibility Factor

“My goal in life is to be invisible...and I am very good at it” (Princess Mia, “The Princess Diaries”) My favorite movie quote of all time. This is what I have aspired to in my life. But all good things must come to an end. *grin*

Most artists want to be known to art patrons around the world. They work hard and market themselves and they join associations and groups, and take classes and get degrees, and teach and...well, you get the picture. They want to be “known”.

Me, not so much. I have lived my life to be invisible to the outside world. Marketing myself has come really hard, because of this attitude.

I love making art, and sometimes what I do astounds me because I don’t get tired of looking at it. When I get tired of looking at a piece of art it makes me want to toss it out or put it in a yard sale. Or just gesso over it and do something else.

I have more art in my head than I have produced. Often, I lie awake at night and piece together the parts that I know I have stored. And on waking up and sorting through the parts I am always surprised by something I’ve forgotten I have. It’s an adventure. My tag line is “Where every day meets surprise”.

But the putting myself “out there” is the hardest part. I want people to see my art, but not me. I love when someone sees something I did and gushes over it or stands there with the chin in hand studying it. I like the way they see it.

I am learning that it’s not a bad thing for people to notice me. The artist. The one who comes with the art. It’s all a part of the whole. Acceptance of this fact is slowly (but surely) dawning on my psyche. People will see me.

I find many artists have this problem. It’s not just me. Rio Rancho Art Association and all the people in it have shown me over and over that it’s ok to be noticed. Thanks for that.

Sue Hanauer

Plein Air Workshop in Rio Rancho May 12-14-Mike Mahon

I will be teaching a Plein Air Workshop this May 12-14 in Rio Rancho. We will be meeting at a location on Hwy. 528 & Sundt but the actual painting will be done at convenient locations along the Rio Grande River. Members of RRAA will receive a $50 discount on the workshop fee. You can see more about this workshop and others at the following link:


http://www.mmahon.com/Newsletter_April_2010_Workshop.html

At this link you can download pdf files about any of the workshops for descriptions and prices.

If you have any problems with the above link, just go to my events calendar page at:

http://mmahon.com/events_calendar.html

I will also be doing a pastel demonstration for the Pastel Society of New Mexico, May 8, from 10am to noon. The demo will be mainly about plein air painting. The PSNM meeting will be in the auditorium of the Albuquerque Museum of Art and History, which is located at Mountain Road and 19th Street NW, just a block east of the Old Town Plaza. It is open to the public, so you are all welcome.

Below is a short video discussion of a plein air painting I did in front of the gallery in Santa Fe that represents me there.