New Art Studio at Studio Unknown

There are a couple of  reasons I haven't posted lately.  The main one is that I now have a new art studio!  Yesterday, Szag and I booked our studios at Studio Unknown at 914 Easley Bridge Rd. (Hwy. 122) in Greenville, SC!  We are so excited.  It's a great place and easy location not far from the main drag at Pendleton in the Village of West Greenville, just a little bit further than Ryan Calloway's blacksmith shop and art gallery studios at Creative Artistry on Andrews St.
The other reason is that I've been insanely painting and framing to get submissions ready for three big juried shows in Anderson, SC, Pickens, SC and Artisphere in Greenville.  Today I deliver "Diana" and "Textile Mill Owner" to Anderson Arts Center. 
I moved in a few things yesterday for my studio, but Bruce Miller, the owner, is building me a new door and wall so I'm not going to bring the big things yet and get in his way.  The place is awesome with four studios and a public space with lots of walls to hang art, two separate seating areas, a dining table and four chairs, a TV, stove refrigerator, stove, sink, microwave, two crockpots, and a coffee maker!  So we can hold events and serve food and chill out with the other artists when we're not working!   There is also an outdoor area with a table, chairs, a fire pit and grill.  So we're all set to really interact with each other, other artists, patrons and visitors.
I'm so excited - it is the coolest place and Bruce, the owner, is an incredible person, a great artist with a background in art and music.  He  was an inker for Marvel Comics, even did Spiderman for years since he was a very young man and also has a lengthy career in the music interests, playing in a number of bands, touring and opening for the likes of Bad Company and Styx. He has lots of cool stories and we think alike about polytheism, synchronicity, loves Jim Morrison like I do.  His favorite artist is Dali, just like Szag. 
I did a thrift store run and found a cool chair for $20.00, a small shelf for $2.00, a wicker medicine cabinet for storing paints for $7.50 and a wastebasket for $1.00.  I painted them all turquoise sea blue to make a short of Jane Coslick look.  I'll be bringing my red futon and chair that I had in my studio at the Village Studios along with a funky styled metal high top chair in seagreen which I can sit on to paint from my table top easel, my two easels, a set of storage drawers, a large standing cabinet that someone was throwing out in my neighborhood so its free, and a crazy table with a lighted top that I found at the side of the road a year ago in my neighborhood. I'll also upcycle and paint these two pieces turquoise sea blue,  And then there are all the paints, frames, canvases, wood boxes and boards I've been hoarding since I recovered from cancer.

Textile Milltowns Oil painting and Encaustic

I grew up in a textile mill town in New England.  Lowell, Mass.  was known for its textiles and was

established to build the textile industry in the 1826 and was known as the cradle of the Industrial Revolution. because it had the Merrimack River flowing through its graceful flatlands, with canals branching off into different direction,. the site was chosen so the textile factories could be powered by waterwheels. The additional introduction of a complex railway system, allowed the raw materials to be shipped to the factories and the finished goods to be shipped all over the north.  The farm girls from what was once just farmlands of Chelmsford, Mass  moved into the mill row houses and worked in the mills.  By the 1860's, Lowell was the largest industrial complex in the United States.   Immigrants form all over the world camne to work in Lowell, over the years, starting with the Irish escaping the potato famine in the early 1800's who came and built the mills.
Everyone in my family worked in the mill, my mother, myself (at the age of fourteen, working in the summers during high school), my ex-husband, and I at Joann Fabrics in Lowell, my son, at J.P. Stevens in Greenville, SCall except for my daughter.  I worked in the office as did my mother of JoAnne Fabrics, enjoyed it and made a good salary for my age.
My then husband who had worked in the mill since 18 years of age, started off as a sweeper and worked his

way up the ladder to become the vice president of a textile company over the years, was offered a job at SACM in Mauldin in the Greenville, SC area.  We moved to the south when I was 29 and my son was 8 and my daughter 10 months old. When we arrived I discovered Greenville was another huge textile town, once again established because of the Reedy River and all its canals.  Greenville and Lowell are about the same size and have a similar historical feeling, although Lowell is a good bit older and has preserved much more of its history due to being on the National Register of Historical cities.
Whereas Lowell housed its workers in row houses, boarding houses and eventually three story Victorian homes where three generations of families lived, Greenville established its mill villages.  I now live in a 1920's mill village house.
So long intro - take a deep breath, when I paint somehow textile buildings, mills and water towers pop up in my backgrounds. 
This happened with textile mill owner, which started out as a figure painting of my ex-boyfriend, Danny Johns of Staines, England.  He came to visit my after two years of courting me in letters and poems for a year, then another year of weekly three hour phone calls.  We became engaged after he came for a visit.  I shot this photo of him wearing a foreign officer;s coat he found at the Army/Navy store.  He stood surveying the Reedy River and the city of Greenville at the time, unknown to me, he was considering whether to move to Greenville or not. Just before he left after we'd been all over Greenville, visited Atlanta and saw Ministry as guest of the band in the sound booth, had a large medieval costume party and fell in love, he asked me to marry him. Unfortunately a few months after he arrived home, he realized he couldn't leave England and he broke off the engagement.
When I painted him in oils, the face came out quite different and quirky, the head too large and too slim for real9ity, but I paint quirky figures, I like them distorted. In the past, artists often distorted features in art, especially of the gods. For example in India, temple sculptors would exaggerate the breasts and buttocks of the female gods to portray her sexuality. I like smart men with good minds, and Danny was one of those so I guess I subconsciously exaggerated the head. I painted this in a five hour session.  It's not finished but is too wet to make any more changes.The background ended up being more mills than stores and upscale hotels.  I thought he looked like a figure form the past and he seemed to be to be a little arrogant, serious and looking like someone from the 1700's-1800's.  So I decided he was a textile magnet who built mills around the city.
Another piece of art that turned into a textile theme a cityscape of mills created on an 11X14 piece of cradled wood in beeswax encaustic paint.  There are two paintings beneath it that didn't work, one that was a cityscape collage in Germany and the other a painting of an old man on a city street.  The texture is very thick and varied on this board since I painted wax over paper and many layers of wax. It has a very abstract effect but I like it because it reminds me of the mill yard on a hot day when we would walk away from the mill to downtown to get lunch in a little diner with the best french fries.    

Artisphere 2012 The Print Factory

On the Main St. Bridge, Mark had the patience to wait while I stood in line to make a free print at the

Print City Team, Wheelock left and Burnip right from Kansas, MO

Kansas, MO based Print City, part of  Creative Concepts an enterprising team which evolved from three founding members of C&C, Jesse McAfee, Zach Springer, and Will Burnip, who met while studying at the Kansas City Art Institute. Creative Concepts believes in traditions, building and practice and one way they put their money where their mouths are in the art intervention known as the Mobile Print Factory. Shown in this photo from the 2011 Maker Fair depicting a similar setup which we were lucky to have on hand in Greenville. The two artists in aprons in the foreground, Will Burnip and Cory Wheelock, were helping us use the press. All the presses and tools are handmade by the print shop techs, as well as the carts, crates and backpacks designed to use or transport to various cities around the country. .

Wow, they let us print out own piece of art!!!  Not completely our own, afterall the woodblocks were already carved by artists and donated to Print City. I chose a long horizontal city scape carved by Will Burnip, then another print shop tech/artist inked it with black ink. Wheelock placed it gingerly on the lovely heavy textured paper (already signed by Will on the back) and inserted it between two layers of foam. I was invited to turn the wheel to roll the paper and woodblock through a press made by a machinery student who built it for his senior project and voila out came my print!!  I want a roller press now!!  But I have to be practical with my arthritis, lack of carving talent or precision, I doubt I'd ever be able to carve wood blocks or maybe even lino blocks. But what fun it was for a person who is addicted to presses. Those who know me, are aware of how nuts I go - to the point I bought a 1920's flat press weighing 90 lbs and had it hand delivered by my friend Donna from the wilds of New Hampshire, to use when I published poetry chapbooks with Shadow Archer Press, which leads me to another story...
 

Upstate Steampunk Meetup

What a great time at the Upstate Steampunk Meetup at the Greenville Marriott Hotel The Hotel is Stunning! It is certainly a throwback in time with lots of gorgeous event and gathering rooms, indoor fountains, tiled walls, lots of atmosphere and antique looking accoutrements so it will feel like a total immersion con!
Many, many places for great photo ops.
The little details will amaze you, such as a piece of collage artwork with a letter in it dated in the late 1880's, real working antique telephones, brass antique bicycles, old clocks, trunks, globes, books, lots and lots

of hurricane style lamps. There are large amazing event rooms, very grand as well as smaller meeting rooms, a gorgeous bar, a wine bar, a claret room, a posh indoor courtyard, dark study like rooms with wing
chairs and fireplaces. I met really cool people, all different types and personas, some of the vendors and of course, organizer, Gypsey Teague and Marla.
Gypsey did an amazing job finding this hotel. It is a dream hotel for a steampunk con. The gaming room is gorgeous. One of the gentleman took lots of photos so hopefully you can find them online soon. I
suggest you go to the website of the hotel on the Upstate Con site and check out all their photos - although they can't do the place justice.

I only wish everyone had brought calling cards or business cards, so I could remember names and get email addresses. Also there were potential vendors and lots of creativity! I believe in buying direct from artisans and supporting the arts.
There were two people who made top hats, mini ones from Sarah from http://valentinewolfe.com/">Valentine Wolfe, and full scale ones from Soozy the scattered crafter, one who made dolls, and Bethany Williams who makes fused glass steampunk jewelry.
I had the opportunity to show off my latest projects too:  various steampunk journals and boxes which are themed toward the different personas, such as aeronaut, botanist, chrononaut, lady's dream journal, a lady's day journal, a travel journal which are all available on my Etsy page at Gail Gray Studios.  I'm revitalizing my old merchant business Black Swan Thieves Market as a steampunk and SCA (medieval) shop 
It was cool to meet the musicians from Valentine Wolfe, Very bright and fun too. Also very down to earth. I cant' wait to see them perform.
I'd like to have some persona discussions too so I know a more about the people when I see them at future meetups and cons. There were some awesome get ups, but I didn't get to talk to everyone.

Thanks, Gypsey for finding such a beautiful location for our first local con Upstate Steampunk Con.
The atmosphere will transport us in time that's for sure!

Add a reply

Indulging in the Arts

Another glorious weekend in South Carolina!  Mark and I discovered how far Greenville has come in broadening its outlook on the arts this weekend.  After the Saturday Downtown Farmers Market where I found my favorite barbecue sauce again, we headed to Artisphere, an annual arts event drawing both local and national artists.  They had unveiled the new Marriott Plaza and wow - it's stunning, with it's massive courtyard, Stone wall of water fountain but especially for the two new life size sculptures by Tuan, a Viet Namese sculptor brought to Greenville by Midtown Artery. 

The two sculptures involve three nude or semi-nude figures.  And they are gorgeous.  I'm so thrilled Greenville has opened up.  I remember the years when a nude was a no-no in this one-time conservative town. The art was great, we were exposed to all kinds of music, including the great Rumba drum circle. And since I'd gone to see Cindy's nephew and his band, sons of Iris, on Friday night at the Handlebar, it was a weekend full of the arts.  Songs of Iris were amazing! It was like hearing Jimmy Page and Pat Benatar on the same stage.  Very tight  originals with awesome lyrics and boy can their 18-year old female sing belt one out.  They had the audience mesmerized.
So I went home, let all the sensory input wash over me and not only finished my now close to 5,000 word streampunk, short story, The "Foxglove Broadsides" but also started designing and creating the Victorian corseted bustle dress in green satin and faux duponi copper-colored silk that I'll be wearing for the daytime part of the Upstate Steampunk Con.  I have another outfit chosen for the ball in the evening that's more appropriate for dancing. 
Becky and I had our writers group sitting out in the garden which has never looked so lovely. One of my foxgloves is five feet tall!  I'm only an a few inches taller!  And you wonder why I wrote about foxgloves.  Well, there's much more to that story, my dears!  Much much more!