My Experience at Salem Art Association

On the last week of my internship, I was finishing up some duties like the jury presentation for the future exhibition Radius 25. After loading the finishing touches and putting it on a disk to submit to the juror, I did other sorting tasks as well as helping James with random Art Fair things. My last couple days were finishing up my overall internship tasks that were goal objectives for my internship as a whole. Once I finished everything on Wednesday, I had a meeting with Catherine, my site supervisor about my overall success as SAA's art intern. We talked of my ending credentials as well as what my future holds and it made me very happy I chose the Bush Barn Art Center for my spring internship. I ended up meeting some very important and amazing people during my experience and I am sure I made friends and connections for life. Every staff member was very nice and supportive of me as I helped them through the busy art season in Salem. Not only did I gain experience for my future career, but I also gained great tips and information on working in an artistic profession. For me, this internship was sort of a spur of thought as the idea came to me and I was instantly intrigued. If any others out there either in the late high school age, in college, or still on the boat of what career path you should take, I would recommend an internship in any field of interest you have. Some people tell me that art is a hobby and not a realistic profession choice and I think that is false. I believe there is a career choice in every subject and if you love something enough, you can find a working profession you love in a similar realm. I would of never thought of art in this sense if it wasn't for my great experience at Salem Art Association. 

Get Your Art On!

This week is technically my last week being the intern at SAA through my school and while at the morning's meeting, I realized how wonderful the whole staff really is. Individually they are all fabulous and have all helped me in a way grow during my learning experience at the Bush Barn. After the meeting and routine laughs, I went back to attack the rest of the pile of submissions for the Radius 25 show. After a while I finished the stack and had almost 300 slides in the jury presentation along with about 74 artists who have entered. This isn't even finished! I made a small stack of ones that were missing certain details and problems with their image that would soon be emailed back to us and those I will finish up next week. I will also continue next week as I want to review my overall internship experience with my site supervisor Catherine as well as finishing the edits and last submissions on the juried Radius 25 show. It was great to wrap up my overall learning experience with helping set up and look through submissions of a up and coming show after learning the basics of the Bush Barn Art Gallery. I also got my "Get Your Art On" tee shirt as I have decided that I enjoy this organization so much that I will volunteer throughout the summer and help out with the Art Fair & Festival that I have been helping out with periodically. I thank anyone who has taken the time to read my blog about this internship and I hope to keep posting more about art and the opportunities for me to come. 

Radius 25 Submissions

Thank you all who have contributed your entries into the upcoming Radius 25 show we will have this summer at the Bush Barn Art Center! The due date for submissions ended with the month of May and I begin June with gathering and organizing every entry. I walked into the Barn on Monday to a GIANT pile of submissions. That was what I did all day. Manila envelopes on small packages on white envelopes on paper clipped papers on endless CD's created the vast pile I sorted through. I have been on the intern computer putting the art images on our computer's files as well as typing up the artist's process statements and information on the jury PowerPoint. About 40 artist submissions in, I still have a pile to go Wednesday as I continue filing every submission (even some of the SAA staff have entered). Seeing all of the artwork first, I am very excited to help curate this show as well as visualize the finished product. 

This week, I had Monday off from SAA as it was Memorial Day. I continued onto Wednesday with our weekly meeting. I talked a bit about my duties as well as everyone else sharing their progresses. After business and a few laughs, we all went into our separate work areas and duties. I grabbed a large stack of Radius 25 application submissions and headed upstairs to the intern work station computer and got busy away on plugging in their location and email info to the artist spread sheet. I also took all of their CD's full of images and loaded them onto our computer's file folder as well as putting them into the Jury PowerPoint. Every time I would finish a stack and take it downstairs to file, I would get another small stack of applications from Jennifer at the front desk to add in as well. The due date for submissions is May 30th in two days and more and more artists keep sending in their submissions. My Wednesday was pretty much full of Radius 25 applications and sorting as well as one David-Douglas entry I filed in as well. It rained hard outside today and so it did as well in the Bush Barn with Radius 25 application submissions. 

For more info on Radius 25 applications before the due date, visit SalemArt.org

~Slide Shows of Art~

Today at our usual meeting, we decided we sit in the same spots every time and we played musical chairs as we changed locations from our norm. With a dog sitting on my lap and us passing around childhood photos, it is comfortable as usual. Then after departure, I head up to the nest and fire up the intern computer as I start plugging away on uploading Art Fair images (artwork pictures I chose last week) onto an online database so the Statesman Journal can have access to showcase and advertise some of the works that we will display in the summer. Next, I started on working on the David-Douglas show that I got a feel for about a month ago with the nature walk. I sorted through the artist files and CD's of images for the botanical artists and created a similar Jury Presentation as I did for Radius 25 through PowerPoint. We as only have some of the submissions, I just got a head start for the September/October show before I worked a bit more on Radius 25. The artwork submission deadline is May 30th so by next week, I will have all of the materials to finish plugging in the artists as well as polishing up the jury's slide show. Then as James will always have tasks for me to do, (it is busy, busy marketing season as Art Fair approaches) I helped and shadowed him on Photoshop as he needed to extract and cut images for a different layering appearance to put art images up on ours and other websites. I then ended my day as I was going to help with an InDesign task, but then our program stopped working so it seemed like a good time to end my day. 

Last week, [since I am doing this internship as college credit for Chemeketa Community College,] my instructor for the class came to the Bush Barn to do an evaluation for a school grade. He met with Catherine and visited with me as I showed him the facility that I work in every week.  Here is a picture of me in the A. N Bush Gallery as I look towards my favorite painting in the Watercolor exhibit. 

This image was put up on Chemeketa's Cooperative Work Experience Facebook page!

t r a v e l S A L E M

This week, I finally started working on Radius 25 artist filing and PowerPoint documentation. Catherine started me on a stack of early submissions as they had their application and info sheets as well as discs with images of their artwork. Plugging away on the intern computer on the quiet Monday, I entered all of the artist information into a spreadsheet as well as saving all of their art images onto our computer in their own files. I then started making the Jury Presentation PowerPoint for the exhibition that included slides for each artist with their process statement as well as their art images along with the info and pricing with every submitted piece. There was separate stacks of filed and artists not filed and soon after a few hours of working and typing, I sorted through all of the submissions and organized the first steps towards the summer show. Being a curatorial assistant in the Radius 25 show, I will be in charge of creating the PowerPoint for the jury as well as helping out in every aspect of planning the future art show. After that, I watched and helped James for a while as he was sending out marketing emails and creating InDesign advertisements and show cards for Art Fair planning/advertising as well as helping out with renewal card designs. James and I then drove to Travel Salem downtown as there was going to be a marketing reception to advertise Salem Art Association to other organizations as well as hotels in the Salem area. As hotels are dealing with travelers and people foreign to Salem, we wanted to provide hotel staff and representatives with knowledge of Salem entertainment and local organizations to recommend to other exterior people of this capital town. We set up our half of a table in the friendly lobby of the Travel Salem business building as we were warmly greeted by the staff and friends of our non-profit organization. We displayed many stacks of the Bush Barn Art Center's current exhibition, Bush House Museum, and the CAE program show cards for others to see as well as a newsletter for SAA and a flier for our upcoming Color Run that will be a precursor to our annual Art Fair in July. Then along with snacks on the tables and booths with wine tastings and other organizations throughout Salem, hotel representatives flooded the lobby and listened to every table as we talked and glorified our individual organizations and event locations. Giving a similar introduction spiel to every curious citizen, we had the chance to introduce many people to what SAA does and I was interested that many Salem residents have never heard of/been to the Art Fair & Festival. I have been an attendance to the Art Fair ever since I was a little kid and it was great to spread the word of SAA to others as they would put our show cards in their hotel lobbies and hopefully influence Salem visitors to stop by the Bush Barn and support the arts with Salem Art Association. The long reception was great as there was food and interesting people to meet as I was curious on the Salem events as well as the guests of the Travel Salem reception. There was even a prize drawing for the guests of hotel stays, wine tastings, and even our SAA "swag bag" full of a membership, tee-shirt, bumper sticker, poster, and other great SAA goodies. Then after staying there for a few hours, my internship day was then ended as we packed up the remains of our flyers and unused pamphlets. Afterwards I felt glad to be helping out this organization I am now apart of and was proud to represent SAA in this event.

To see information about SAA on the Travel Salem website, look here to see our organization along with other fun things to do in Salem if you are ever bored of a place you call your hometown. (like myself) :) 
http://www.travelsalem.com/Arts-and-Entertainment/Art-Galleries

-Documentation of Artwork-

This week I only technically came in once since Catherine was gone on Monday out looking at other galleries.  I came in for an hour mainly looking at the new exhibitions and helping James sort Fine Art Friday pictures. On Wednesday after our normal meeting, I went up to the Nest and created the Young Artists' Showcase poster with James as they will be printed and handed out to participants. I then started a long project of cataloging the artists participating in Salem's Art Fair & Festival 2014. They were already organized into a database online with more of their information but this time, their works needed to be projected onto the website for further promotion. I cataloged over 200 artists involved by their medium. I put their names, websites, and one of their best pictured artworks on a document and saved onto our computer. Then hours and many word document pages later, I finally finished. Next week I will be able to help put them on the website so people can click on a pictured image of someone's artwork then it will direct them to their name and website URL for further promotion before Art Fair. A mini break in between work, I helped assist in a photo shoot for a picture for the poster/advertisement of our "Hip to Be Square" barn dance pre-Art Fair celebration for helpers and volunteers. It included our normal photographer James and volunteer Tabitha dressed in simple button ups and plaid as they posed in a white paper backdrop. With lipstick and a red flower used as props, they posed in many silly ways laughing and being serious to help give us a wide variety of great pictures to choose from (after Photoshop of course). I can't wait to see the finished result of them advertised for people to see but here is a picture of the goofiness that they exhibited for only a few to see.

(James, our photographer, does not like his picture taken)

||Vertical Art||

When I got to the Barn in the morning, the fragrance of coffee filled the air of the break room as we all gathered for our usual meeting. At the conclusion of farewells, business, and conduct, we all departed to our own separate conversations and duties. I went to the gallery and hung up some amazing and personable animal head art. They were of many species and personalities as I arranged them vertically on the wall in the gift gallery. Afterwards, I assisted Catherine in going off site to Maps' Credit Union (our sponsor) as we hung up some remaining children's art from the previous show. They were Perrydale school's that I mounted earlier that week. The hanging system at the credit union was a corner with vertical wires and metal clips that made the mounting system slightly difficult and unusual. But the end result made the corner look delightful and angelic as it was filled with animal/nature art, paper collage, and still life drawings. Getting back to the Barn, I then proceeded to put stamps on around 300 envelopes to later get sent out to SAA's VIP members. After that long process, I went back to the gallery and hung up the new exhibition's vinyl lettering with volunteer Tabitha. Getting stunted up with a ladder, we evenly put up Jon Colburn's exhibition title on the wall with careful cutting, pressing, and tearing. The Bush Barn is was open but still in exhibit rotation as it should be done by the end of the week. I got to peek up at the Watercolor show and even though still unfinished, it will look beautiful especially with the added partitions to make more space for the art. I even got to chat with the artist Jon Colburn about his elephant art and how he wants to donate some proceeds to save the elephants in the wild, the growing endangered species. I then ended my day with one more art hanging project and even buying a gift for my mother in the gift gallery. There is an immense amount of jewelry in the Barn that will be great for Mother's Day and I was happy to help out SAA as well as doing an errand I probably would of procrastinated to until the last minute. 

Here is a picture that the gallery assistant, Robin took of me while I was hanging the vertical animal head art on the wall of the gift gallery. 

Tasks and Flights of Stairs

Tasks upon tasks, the whole upstairs gallery was undergoing a massive change. Blank walls, fresh paint, dusty floors, and the constant aroma of paint fumes, I walked into the gallery about to help the transition from children's artworks to the Watercolor Society of Oregon's traveling award winning show. I started the morning with fresh pearl paint as I painted the beams of the gallery. James then needed me to help measure the gallery's length and width for a future exhibit. I then was going through the plastic tubs of remaining children's art and calling the parents of them to see if the framed pieces can be displayed at Salem Electric in West Salem. They are one of our sponsors and we have been piling the artworks of the parents that agreed to the further exhibition. After making a massive amounts of voice mails and dial tones, the paintings were delivered and we all carried around 80 watercolor paintings upstairs to the gallery. We took them all out of their protective cardboard carriers and laid them all against the wall. Then the tricky part was sorting every piece to where it should go on the wall, what painting it is near, and the orientation of its hanging. With multiple minds and at times different opinions, we took a while placing and arranging the many art pieces. Soon before our minds exploded from over analyzing the paintings, I went on to my next project of mounting some children's art to poster boards for display at Maps' Credit Union. I then finished parent phone calls (feeling like a teacher) and realized I finished all of my duties for the day. The day was a frantic one that involved many tasks and many flights of stairs. Solid day at SAA. 

To learn more about our new exhibitions to be on display throughout May and June, check out our website for more info!

salemart.org

Busy Weeks for Busy Bees

This week consisted of the present transition from our old exhibitions to the new ones for our Spring/Summer display. We will be featuring pastel works by Debbie Robinson and direct our Focus gallery now onto the new prints by Jon Colburn called Endangered Species. We will also include many works from the Watercolor Society of Oregon in the Bush Barn during this sunny season. 

On my arrival on Monday, parents and teachers were coming in and out picking up their child's artwork from the previous showcase. Catherine just got back in time for the chaotic atmosphere of exhibition transition and I helped her prepare her slideshow for her upcoming lecture on the History of Watercolor. I set up a Power Point presentation and gathered informational text and beautiful examples of watercolor works throughout time. After preparing the start of her lecture slides, I then looked at the templates on the InDesign program for the vinyl lettering I once stuck to the wall in the last focus show. Changing the lettering, I then got to browse around on dafonts.com and explore the world of many creative fonts. I had fun trying to match fonts with the styles of the upcoming art shows and playing with fonts in general. I then finished up the day wandering around Willamette University's campus on the sunny day finishing my distribution route for Radius 25 posters. I took five more and walked to a few popular buildings and hung them up hoping they reach out to the aspiring college students like myself.

Combining my usual two posts of the week, I was only at the Barn for a little over an hour on Wednesday due to busy future planning with PSU representatives as I was setting up my future degree in Art History. 
I then walked in and smelled the heavy paint fumes from upstairs as some helpful volunteers were re painting the upstairs a new shade of white up overlap the prior marks from the last display. I did some simple tasks with the gallery walk through with cleaning as well as changing burnt out light bulbs and re tagging some jewelry in our gift gallery. I then shadowed Catherine on editing a member donation card with picture editing, text aligning, and the many parts of complicated computer programming. We looked at that as well as letter editing as it is important that everything SAA does is clean, unified, and neat as it represents our organization and promotes more money flow in this amazing non-profit organization. 

Here is a picture of my intern computer at the front desk of the Bush Barn.

Visit Before it is too Late!

This weekend our current exhibition is going down and it is a fabulous display. But like always, something great goes up in its place never leaving the gallery to look dull in comparison. 

Here is a link to the Statesman Journal article that SAA's James O'Shea wrote as well as a  picture of his current photography exhibition show (The American Dream) that is on display along with the Young Artists' Showcase that will go down soon. Check it our at the Bush Barn Art Center while you can! 

http://www.statesmanjournal.com/story/life/2014/04/06/large-drawings-created-for-sake-of-art/7316315/

quiet mornings, quiet days

This week has been very quiet and calm with working at the Salem Art Association. My site supervisor Catherine is gone on vacation and without constant projects and duties to work on with her here, I am working on things I already know and have learned. I am helping Jennifer the gallery coordinator with doing random things around the Bush Barn. Once Catherine gets back sometime next week, I will be back doing loads of busy work and preparation for my participation in the Radius 25 showcase as the submissions for the call for artists is due by the end of May. I will most likely help with sorting of the artist submissions once they start coming in around that time. I also added more to the Young Artists' Showcase exhibition catalog as I am adding pictures from the Hillcrest submissions since they were highlighted in a Statesman Journal article recently.I added pictures of their artwork to correspond with the article and poems they wrote and submitted. Knowing I have a lot ahead of me, I am doing lots of quiet prep work and little tasks this week within the gallery.

Outside of SAA I have looked in-depth to drawings and wall drawings. Artists of particular interest would be Jim Dine and local artist Andrew Myers. Here is a drawing by Jim Dine that I especially enjoy as the muted monochromatic colors match the mood of these quiet and rainy days. 

Gallery Life

Starting with the usual meeting, we talked about weekly updates, shared exciting tidbits, and everyone's vital roles to Salem Art Association. Getting advice to add more to the exhibition catalog I finished, I added a page or so and completed the never ending showcase book. I then shadowed Jennifer, our Gallery Coordinator and brilliant artist as we performed little necessary duties for the gallery and gift shop. I changed light bulbs, checked in and out inventory artworks, talked to a new artist, packaged away artworks, labeled pieces, and printed/documented the many items and artists that are dealt with. These small task are absolutely important to the Bush Barn Art Gallery as it keeps us organized. Without the neat filing and POS inventory systems used, we would be without the ability to accurately keep track of the thousands of artworks and artists associated with them and our gallery. These will continue to be important skills as I was able to work on my own and confidently work my way around the art gallery. 

*simple days*

This week, a few SAA members are gone especially my supervisor Catherine who always has interesting things for me to do. Entering the Barn on the cloudy Monday, it seemed very quite as only a couple people were on the premises. Unsure of what I was to do, I wandered up to the Nest and visited James as he could easily have a random task for me to accomplish. Not having many things off the top of his head, I looked through old photos of the Curios & Curiosities Showcase in January/February 2014. Making sure they were all rotated and aligned, I went through and picked the ones I thought were the best. I then trekked to the downstairs intern computer and edited all of those pictures on PhotoShop. Then feeling like I have bugged James enough, I headed off early for the day. This week and maybe next will be small in task load but I have the ability to help anybody in need and do some things on my own.  
For how simple it was, I decided to include a simple Picasso drawing that I really like:
Head of a Woman, 1905 

Saturday Adventure to Find Free Art

Today, my friend and I decided to take a walk through Bush Park as it was joyfully sunny out. Enjoying each others company while walking along the trails of flowers and oak trees, we stumbled upon a hollow tree. In it we noticed paper and pulled out a small hand made book with a note attached. It is from Free Art Friday in Salem where any artist of Salem can hide self-made works around town and post about it online with a hint to where it is hidden. Along with pictures on the site we felt obligated to look up, we felt this secret project around town is a brilliant good deed and artistically amazing. We ventured next to Engelbrect Antiks, an antique shop in downtown Salem where we bought old postcards from the early 20th and late 19th century. We attached a similar note about Free Art Fridays and hope to find more artistic acts of good deeds around town in the future. Here are some pictures from our finds and Saturday adventure:

Here is also more info on this local art project:
http://diystudio.net/free-art-friday-salem/

Files and Coffee

In the early morning, it was time for Wednesday's usual meeting for the staff of SAA. We gathered and shared information of how everything is going with each person(work wise) and even celebrated the birthdays of a gallery assistant and for a dog (Buster) of our staff member Debbie. We discussed marketing, the past Saturday's children art day, and future plans for Art Fair. We concluded our meeting (full of coffee and snacks) with a laugh and all proceeded to our own individual duties. I was then able to shadow Jennifer through random office tasks. I entered information into our inventory system, take items out of POS, and file artists away in our cabinets. I repeated knowledge I already knew about our POS system and learned new things about how to keep the system organized in the Bush Barn Gallery. It was a simple, low key day today but I was able to learn new things and visit with the staff to make it a rewarding seven hour day at the Barn. 

Sunny Daze Mondays

As Spring is starting to actually form within the departure of clouds, I luckily got to spend part of my day outside. With a new exhibition coming near, the word needed to be spread on a call for artists. Radius 25 will be an exhibition display in the summer and we are looking for artists within the 25 mile radius to participate in the themed exhibition. Posters were made as we need to advertise our need for artist submissions within the next month. I took a stack of freshly printed posters and headed out into the sunshine to distribute them around town. I drove downtown and walked around to busy coffee shops, restaurants, and small businesses to get the word out. I went to a little over ten places in the downtown area and enjoyed the sunny stroll I took to hang up the glossy prints. Then I headed back to the Barn where I continued to work on the Young Artists' Showcase exhibition catalog. Adding finishing touches, captions, and picture edits, I was able to lock in a 95% finished rate on the catalog as it awaits final editing and approval before it gets printed and distributed to others involved with the showcase. There was a couple people who loved the Young Artists' Showcase so much, that they are actually interested on purchasing some of the kid's artworks. I then had a chance alone in the gallery to look again at the beautiful works as I put sticky notes on the few pieces curiously selected. We then will call the teachers/parents for permission on selling the pieces as every artwork will normally be returned to the children after its display time. The quiet Monday was great overall besides the constant nagging of the beautiful sunshine.  

The Art of Nature

On this day, we dedicated it to nature and the surrounding beauty of Bush Pasture Park and the history it contains within the nature of the new season of Spring. Along with Oregon Botanical Artists, Salem's nature expert and fellow Bush House historians, I ventured on a mini hike through the park in mid morning/afternoon to see the sights of the new season. I like nature and the true beauty it brings Oregon but I seriously do not know much about plants and its specific qualities. Everyone had so much particular knowledge about every species and it fascinated me that there was so much interesting facts about the plants and flowers that cover Bush Park in Salem. I would not be able to duplicate the facts and information everyone spout out during the hike but with the love of art I have and the knowledge I have, it mimics the same interest and knowledge these ladies (and men!) have on the subject of nature and botany.  I followed everyone on the sunny walk and was mostly a silent listener. Ending up slightly hungry, tired and muddy, everyone else still had fired spirits and wanted to continue on in constant amazement. We then all ended the walking tour with a lovely lunch at Bentley's where we all continued to socialize but more about our pasts, interests, art and the many other things that brought us together. 

Learning more about nature illustration was very interesting to me as it was a way to document every species with extreme characteristics and qualities to be demonstrated before the process of photography. Especially with Oregon being a grand place for the story of Lewis and Clark, documentation of the Pacific Northwest's native species is important compared to the illustrations of today's botanical artists. We will be premiering the art of these artists with a coming up exhibition: In the Footsteps of David Douglas.

Exhibit Dates: September 12 – October 18, 2014 

For more information on this upcoming show:

http://salemart.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/Prospectus-In-the-Footsteps-of-David-Douglas-032014.pdf 

SalemArt.org

For more information on these premiere nature illustrators: 

http://www.oba-artists.com/

Here are some pictures of the park and it's beauty: (I did not take these)

On the cloudy Monday morning, I started my work day with Catherine Alexander as we discussed future exhibitions to come. As I will soon be able to have a special project, we talked about which showcase would be of great interest to me as there are many to choose from. I looked over Artist Callings on the SAA website and am curious about my future responsibilities as a curatorial assistant. Then as a normal intern, I licked and stamped envelopes as every day I have at least one small duty to help out with. I then took a project in my own hands and edited the exhibition catalog for the Young Artists' Showcase that I previously worked on with James O'Shea. Transferring the book to a Blurb Bookify version compared to InDesign, I transferred more of the edited images and turned it into a real book (but not totally completed yet). Here are some of the pictures from the showcase so you can get a taste of what the Young Artists' Showcase looked like as well as the photos I ended up PhotoShopping last week. 

Paintbrushes and Photo Shoots

Today, instead of the normal Wednesday meeting, I was able to paint and reorganize the arts & crafts gallery. Apron, paintbrush, and a lot of pink Spackle helped me go over nasty hanger holes and dents to perfect the walls of the gallery. Using a step ladder around the fragile art pieces helped me gain access to the whole area and finish with nice and clean walls. I then was able to exchange some wall paintings for others, and re-organize the layout of the gallery walls. After the paint dried, I was able to add more to the gallery and style the layout of the gallery. Catherine Alexander, the SAA gallery director, guided me through my little jobs and activities. It was fun to be able to paint early in the morning as well as style the parts of the gallery to my taste and overall look. 
Then at the ending parts of my interning shift, I head upstairs to the "nest" and help James O'Shea, the marketing/program supporter with duties like editing books, photos, and even postcards through the Salem Art Association. I get to learn programs like InDesign and PhotoShop as we create cool visuals on the computer. 
Today I also had a miniature photo shoot where James (also the photographer of SAA) was able to take a few photographs of me in the gallery. Here is a picture of myself in the morning at the downstairs gallery. I also learned more of the skills of PhotoShop by editing my own picture for the purposes of displaying it here.

InsTagRAm

If you want to follow me on Instagram, I go by melimoe :) 
http://instagram.com/melimoe

The Monet of Reality

Today was a beautiful day. At SAA, we even held a marketing meeting out in the sunshine. If the sun didn't make you or your cloudy pores smile, here is a Monet to remind you that SPRING IS HERE!
(Three pots of Tulips, 1883)

We All Like Pinterest. . . . Don't We?

Along with my daily/weekly posts about my art internship, I will occasionally add photos, quotes and ideas that thread together my inspiration for life outside of working at the Bush Barn Gallery. Professionally and personally, art is a major part of my life through learning, experience and knowledge. 
Confession: along with many other girls my age, I am slightly addicted to Pinterest (but not as much as coffee). Attached is my "must.love.art" board where I have pinned pictures I have already loved, things I wanna create someday and artistic ideas I admire. If you are bored and want to learn pieces of art and even styles I enjoy, I hope you get as lost as I do in the beauty of the artistic image
http://www.pinterest.com/melmelmeows/must-love-art/

Young Artists' Showcase//The American Dream

salemart.org

After the Clay Ball, the Bush Barn turned to a new project less extravagant but equally as exciting. Heads turned from the flapper gala to the Young Artists' Showcase. The upstairs walls of the Bush Barn soon got littered with artworks in all shapes and sizes. Local children created masterpieces of paintings, drawings, collages, and brilliant sculptures. In opposition to the colorful children's art, downstairs I helped set up an installation of classic photography. Learning the art of installing an exhibit with the artist himself, we used mathematics and symmetry in creating the look of The American Dream. The film series by James Brandon O'Shea creates a modern environment of black and white blended with splashes of sunset bursts within the solid frames.The experience was interesting and still presently is at the Bush Barn if you want to visually visit both amazing exhibitions. 

Clay Ball 2014

 

When starting out at the SAA, I was able to help out with their annual Clay Ball 2014. My first days on the job was moving paintings for auction, center pieces and pretty much any decoration for the amazing event. It's funny how everyone spent so many months planning this spectacle and I merely jumped in and got to dance with the rest (badly and barely). We moved items to the Salem Convention Center where the ball was hosted and even then I was excited. I then dove straight into the main event as a volunteer and a mingler for the many people to meet on this opportunity. Art, wine and live music made the event one for the books. My favorite part was the theme of choice. The 1920's have always been my favorite era. I still remember years ago when my dream was to be a fashion designer, I fantasized and drew a complete 1920's inspired fashion line for a school project. I'm sure Coco Chanel would be so proud. I'm also sure she would of loved the outfits and suits worn by all of the fabulous guests. Long strings of pearls, feathered top hats, sequined dresses, pinstripe blazers and fierce faces around the halls made everyone a sight for sore eyes. Being able to wear heels for the first time in a while, I walked around the ball feeling like Cinderella but with no prince, pumpkin, clock, or shoe, but mostly filled with the feeling of wonder as I curiously walked around and gazed. No evening was quite as glamorous as that one and instantly, I was draw to the people, art and life within this field. Some people hum and ha over my career decision wondering if it is a real career and if I'll actually make money. I envisioned myself that night as a part of something. Something special. Art really made things happen. And this learning experience at the SAA will help me get there and make things happen in the future. 

*newbie alert*

Hello Everyone!

Thank you for visiting my new blog. The last time I wrote on an internet blog was in middle school where for a school project. . . I made a website about peaches. Yes, I made a blog about peaches. It was ridiculous. But here, I plan to talk about art and how it affects our lives. I got an internship at the Salem Art Association that I wish to document here not only for record purposes, but also my memory purposes. The world we live in is all about constant documentation. With social media today, it affects art as well. Art was the documentation of the past and now, it seems the internet has taken its place. For me, art documents more from the heart. Here you will find my progress at the internship as well as my inspirations. Enjoy!