This year's FIVE BY FIVE Celebration of Art

For the second year in a row, George and Duane participated as artists in the Five By Five art show held at the Tampa Museum of Art.  The proceedings from this show benefit the Arts Council of Hillsborough County’s individual artist programs.  To see where I blogged about this event last year, check here.  For more information about this event, check out their website with a list of all of the artists and pictures of each work entered here.  I noticed that there are already photos of the event posted on the site -- the show was last Friday night.

George and Duane -- our 2 'artistes'

This year we actually arrived before the show started.  George and Duane got their 'artist' stickers and were admitted for free.  Linda and I each paid $10.  All the art was priced at $25 and it was going fast by the time the line where we were standing got in the door.  A free-for-all!

Here are the 2 photographs that George entered:

George - photo no.1

George - photo no.2

Here's the piece Duane entered.  It's mixed media...

Duane's mixed media piece

We also managed to do a little shopping of our own.  Duane bought this painting:

Duane's purchase

Linda bought this work that is actually made from wax:

Linda's selection

Last year I bought two photographs but this year I purchased an acrylic and a watercolor:

Lee Ann's watercolor purchase

Lee Ann's acrylic purchase

This is a fun event to attend and it's for such a worthy cause.  I took a few pictures of the crowd but I'm still better with my digital camera than I am at taking pics with my smartphone.

Crowd during the show

Not much room to move around the art.

One of the performing artists.

Pic of the first row of art.  If you look closely, you can actually see both of George's photos in the center.

We had a great time despite stepping on other people's toes and having our own trod on.  I'll suspect we'll be back next year.

My latest art purchase

Linda, Duane, and I love to shop at the places near where Duane lives in Seminole Heights.  I've mentioned the shop A Modern Line here several times in the past.  It's a great place to find mid-century modern furniture, art, and decor.



We stopped in after one of our coffee/tea/treats/gab sessions recently and I saw a piece of art on the wall at the shop that I loved.  It's actually partially sculpted and some type of foil was used.  I knew I had several places I could use it in my house and I ended up hanging it in our dining room over a large window.

 These pictures don't do it justice since it's difficult to see the darker distressed areas.

The burnished silver actually plays off of our chandelier hanging over the dining room table.

Here are a few close-ups where you can get a better idea of the 3-D effect.

I not only loved the sculpted look but I thought this piece had just the right amount of funk.  The back of the piece is signed -- Vicki Valle Henry -- and dated -- 1986.  I looked up the artist and discovered that she died recently at the age of 88.  If anyone who knew her comes across this post, I hope they can see that one of her pieces went to a good home.    

FIVE BY FIVE Art Event at the Tampa Museum of Art

Last night, George, Linda, Duane, and I attended an art event to benefit the Arts Council of Hillsborough County’s individual artist programs.  This is the fourth year the event has been held but the first time any of us had attended.  George and Duane both donated art.  George sent two of his photographs and Duane donated a painting.  The rules for this event are basically that the art must by 5" x 5" in size and if it's three dimensional, the depth can't be over 5 inches.  There is no entry fee for the artists who donate and each artist may donate up to two pieces.  Each piece of art is priced at $25 and the artist is not known to the buyer until after it's been purchased.  Admittance is free to contributing artists and is $10 per person for everyone else. 

Duane and George -- our two artistes.

Since this was our first year of involvement in this event, we discovered the hard way that you need to get there early -- well before the 8pm opening -- and stand in line for the doors to open.  Because the art was available to view online, I'm sure many people had their hearts set on certain pieces.  I know I did but the place was literally packed by the time we got there -- at almost 9pm.  Duane's son had been there before it opened and he said the line was very long and you could barely get up close to see the art due to a crush of people craning their necks to see what they wanted to purchase.   Because I'm short and a bit claustrophobic in crowds, I'm not sure how I would handle that.  It was still very crowded when we went in despite many of the pieces having been sold.  Have to wait and see next year.

Happily, both of George's photos and Duane's painting sold.  Here are their entries:

UT by George Howlett

   

Wig by George Howlett

 

Gulls over choppy water by Duane K. Reigel

You can't tell from these pics but Duane's painting was a bit three dimensional.  It consisted of drywall with drywall mud, acrylic paint, and seagulls made of blank card catalog card stock.  (She just knew those cards would come in handy someday...)

Duane and I each purchased art, too.  I bought two photographs.  Here they are:

The Old Window by Neil Sperling

Optical Theatre by Stephanie Schulte

Duane's purchase was fairly thick and was described as 'felted eco print.'   Here are two pics to give you an idea of the size and texture:

Flirt of Fall by Barbara Kazanis

Duane holding Flirt of Fall -- a thick piece

We're really looking forward to next year's show.  It's such a great cause and a wonderful opportunity to purchase art at a very low price while benefiting working artists.  I don't know who purchased George's UT pic but I did speak with the woman who bought the Wig picture.  She's a gallery owner in Tampa so we know it's going to a nice place.  I should also mention that entries were welcome from all over the world, not just locally.  I think my favorite part was not knowing who the artist was and just selecting a piece because I liked it.  I tend to purchase art that way, anyway, and we found out after our purchases were made.  There was an alphabetical list of the artists and their locations on the FIVE BY FIVE homepage.  Also, all of the artists in attendance wore special stickers like Duane and George are wearing in the picture above. 

'Til next year!

New home office art -- including my finger-knitted wall hanging!

Well, I finished the finger-knitted wall hanging that I blogged about earlier here.  Overall, I'm really happy with it -- flaws and all.  It doesn't look as neat and pretty as Anne Weil's piece on her blog Flax and Twine but I know where I made my mistakes.  It now hangs over a shelving unit on the wall above my desk in my home office.  Actually I'm kind of excited about making another one in specific colors to hang in my guest room.  It's relaxing to finger-knit and I feel much more knowledgeable about making and using the hula hoop loom now.

However, I also just framed a signed print from an artist that I've admired for some time now.  Ray Ferrer, who states that he 'traded his MFA for a spray can' has some of the coolest art I've seen lately. His official website is called Emotion on Canvas and he has an Etsy shop, UrbanWallArt.   How Ray creates his art is one of the most interesting things to read about.   He only recently began offering signed prints for those of us with lighter wallets.  I purchased the print below -- signed by Ray -- and I love it.  People don't always realize who the subject is -- it's Cyndi Lauper.  So, please check out Ray and his sites.  You won't be disappointed.  Oh, and Ray does commissioned work, too.

Cyndi by Ray Ferrer on my office wall.