I am happy to announce after  two weeks of annoying facebook posts, text messages and emails – the votes are in on Art House Reveal -  I won!

Thank you so much to all who took the time to vote! Much love.

The brand new online competition was getting close in the end, but Reef was able to pull ahead with 97 votes. With so many good artists in the competition I was not sure who was going to take the win. Thanks to my friends and family supporting me by voting, I was able to snag first. I appreciate it so much!

 

I submitted two pieces for the competition, one old work and one more recent work. The older painting was Tuscany, done in 2007. The more recent painting was a triptych entitled Reef. Reef quickly jumped out ahead of poor Tuscany and went on to win. My friend Daniel Fleming was also in the competition. His piece, Now that I am older, took a close second. He is am up and coming artist and regularly shows his work around Milwaukee. I first met Daniel when we were both picked for a gallery night show for the Milwaukee Athletic Club last year. You can find out more about him and his work at his site: dflemingartdesign.com.

Art House Reveal is just starting out, but I encourage lots of other artists to enter. It was a great experience and it is worth getting you work out there. For anyone else who is thinking of applying, go arthousereveal.com to start and click on the call for submissions button.

In addition to helping you get your work out in the world, Art House Reveal also donates to to a local charities. For this competition, they were also donating to True Skool, a youth organization which uses dance to bring positive change to their lives. I loved this part of the competition and plan on continuing to promote the website and featured artist for such a great cause.

 I will be meeting with the head of Art House Reveal, Mike Pintar, at this Friday’s upcoming Art Milwaukee Jamboree.  I can’t wait to thank him and tell him how much I appreciate someone spending time to promote local artists! I will be doing an interview for the website soon and will definitely post when it is finalized. Thanks again to all who voted, I owe you one!

]]> http://denanord.com/art-house-reveal-winner/feed/ 1 http://denanord.com/upcoming-events/ http://denanord.com/upcoming-events/#comments Mon, 16 Jan 2012 22:27:14 +0000 dena nord http://denanord.com/?p=1279 This blog post is not only for you viewers, but also for myself to remember what the H is coming up in the spring. It is only day 16 of 2012 and I feel it is zooming past. I have added two shows to my spring schedule, made a new stop motion video and sold some original paintings for the first time in a while. I want to keep this speed for the rest of the year and really make the most of it. I am starting to really feel comfortable in my style of art and design and it feels great.

Here are some upcoming events to look out for:

March 15th – May 15th

The Waxing Shop in Shorewood

The Waxing is  new shop opening in shorewood.will feature local art & handmade gifts at affordable prices & whenever possible, made out of refurbished or recycled materials. I will be showing my work there for sixty days starting in March.

There will be a grand opening reception Friday March 16th from 6-9pm.
There will be art from many local artists including my friend Jenny Janecke. Jenny and I did a show back in November at the Buddha Lounge downtown and I love her art, check her website out Here.  Treats will be served and drinks will be flowing from local Brenner Brewing. It should be a great night and I am looking forward to showing my art for the first time in the Shorewood area.

April – June

Solo Show at Mercy Hill Church

located inside the Hide House Bayview
I have shown my work many times at the Hide House in. I love the space and it always makes for a grand gallery night. For the first time this April I will be the chance to be the solo artist in the larger space on the first floor, Mercy Hill Church. They are a great organization that supports the arts and always puts out a fantastic spread for gallery night. The night will include lots and lots of food, live music and the entire Hide House will be filled with art. I am patiently waiting for the chance to show most of my latest pieces and have the opportunity to curate a solo show. Click to find out more about MercyHill and the Hide House.

June 3rd

Bayview Gallery Night

Bayview is creating its own Gallery Night with the Help of Made in Milwaukee for the second time. I have done two shows with MIM so far and loved them both. I am looking forward to showing my work for a third time with them in my homebase of Bayview. I have not received a confirmation of where my work will be, but stay tuned for updates. You can go to the event’s website Here for up to date information.

That is all on my list for now for Spring 2012.
Can’t wait to see how all these events unfold and I hope to see you are a few.

I created this step by step video to show how it was done. I tried to pair it with a song that was just right, and as Billie Holiday just seemed the right kind of mood.

Here are some posters I created using the symbol library.

I felt such a rush of excitement. We had a four by seven foot board, our own little stage and spot lights. To make it seem that much unreal, we were right in the window looking over Water St. downtown Milwaukee. Basically – the best spot in the house. We set up right away and started getting some paint on the surface. We quickly came up with this idea that we were going to be merging colors and shapes from one side of the board to the other. It represents the old into the new year and mine and Bree’s energies colliding.

We were just getting started

The piece at the end of the night

We didn’t stop painting till past ten when we took out first break. From then on it was a balance between us painting, dancing and painting and just dancing. Art Milwaukee really knows how to put on a party and I was so happy to be attending. The night included free drinks all night, fashion show, live dancers, champagne, photo booth and if that wasn’t enough – a balloon drop at midnight. I had such a great time and met so many new interesting creatives in Milwaukee. Thank you Jason for pushing me to do it and thank you Art Milwaukee or letting me have the chance!

Thanks to Jonathan Canny and Jon Kline for taking such great photographs.
See more about the event at this link Here.

I want to start doing stop motion paintings more regularly to gain content on this blog. This painting was done in only one night and one morning with 230 photos. Most of my paintings are about the process, taking photos and creating these stop motion films are a great way to show the steps taken in the work. They show just how much the paintings have changed and some have even been rotated. This one seems a little unfinished, but I plan to keep trying and keep postings. I think good things will be coming, so stay tuned.

Look back for more progress and more videos soon!

I did this one before if you want to see one created almost three years ago!

{Verb} Add new material to or regularly update a blog
{Noun} A Web site on which an individual or group of users record opinions, information, etc. on a regular basis.

That is it. I have had enough. I need to start with more regular posts.

I hear again and again how someone my age is out in the design or fine art world and making national recognition due to the content and idea for their blog. Meaning, illustrious people like Andrew Gibbs with his daily package design blog called The DieLine, Jessica Hische with her Daily DropCap or the oh-so popular Daily Monster illustration blog by Stefan G. Bucher. All of these young designers picked an idea they were drawn to and made it into a blog empire. They have grown throughout the course of making their blogs. You can see if literally over time, and I want so badly to learn from them and follow in their footsteps.

Stefan used his passion for illustration as a way to generate content for his blog and have fun. He starts by spilling liquid ink on to his drawing surface. Then he manipulates the ink by blowing on it through a straw. He forms these awesome abstract shapes that he then uses to build his drawing of a monster.
You can see more of his process in videos on his YouTube page at YouTube.com/user/StefanGBucher

So I am going to do the same and start blogging more often and pick a focus for a daily or weekly post. (For better or for worse). Picking the idea is going to be the hard part but physically posting should not be that hard with a camera, spell check and the wordpress app on my phone right? (Hopefully). I plan to pick a subject I like and run with it.

Here are the ideas I have had so far :

• Expanding my feet photography series: that you can see here, to a daily photograph
• Doing a weekly redesign project: Showing a before and after of a design refresh
• Daily Student highlight – Highlight student’s work each day I find online or in person
• Daily art history / modern comparison – Try to compare a classic with a modern piece
• Weekly Painting Vector Make Over – I live on InDesign and Photoshop most days. I do not get to play in Illustrator as much as I would like. I would love to use this opportunity to convert my paintings into vectored illustrative prints. It would not give you a live-traced look, but a new spin on my older paintings.

I like all of these concepts and I wonder if there is even a need to narrow it down.
Either way look forward for more content and more fun to be happening at denanord.com/blog.

Take a look at how it turned out:

I also showed my work at Turner Hall the night before Thanksgiving for their Made In Milwaukee Rain Date show. I was there with a handful or artist who also showed their work at the Made in Milwaukee festival. I really appreciated the thought from Made in Milwaukee and give them much thanks for the extra show. It was held at Turner Hall Ballroom and included live music, live painting and vendor and artist booths. It was fun to listen to some good tunes while hanging out with some regulars. Traffic was not too steady, which makes me get into the giving mood. DJ for Radio Milwaukee, Jordan Lee, really took a liking to my replica of Starry Night. I knew earlier in the day they were nice enough to give me a shout out for that show so I thought I could not let him walk away empty handed. I ended up just giving him the painting.

October Gallery Night at the Italian community center was a great experience. It was my first time doing the Friday and Saturday event and also first time having my name in the program book.

There was three events in the community center on Friday which made for a mixed crowd, which I loved. I talked with all different people about art in general and how the responded to my art. It is always a highlight to having these shows, everyone sees something different in each piece.  I love listening to the variety of things people are pulling out of the shapes and colors, when I know I didn’t purposely push for any imagery to be recognizable. I plan to launch a new website soon. And hopefully with the new features, I would like to have an on-going list of things people are seeing in each piece. It would be a great conversation starter and really rewarding for me. Look for updates on the site soon!

Friday Night around 7:30 pm

I was not in the community center alone, I was there along with my new dear friend Albin Erhart. He was showing his photography series taken while sailing through the Mediterranean sea. He photos had such an editorial story book feel, I felt like I wanted to know each person in the photos.

On Saturday the day was not as crowded but I still met some great art lovers. Saturday night however, turned out to be a string of unexpected events leading to a house full of good friends. Quick Big Gigantic concert at the Rave and then a full house of sleeping bags.

This Friday and Saturday I will have my work at the Italian Community Center for October’s gallery night. I will be showing new and old paintings in a variety of sizes. Show features another artist/photographer, Albin Erhart. He will be exhibiting  a photography series called Exploring the Mediterranean, based off his two weeks exploring Sicily, Greece, Turkey and Cyprus. I will have some original paintings for sale and prints in 8″ x 10″ or 12″ x 18″ sizes.

Check an article about the event in the Italian Times.

Other events
coming up:

Since the Made in Milwaukee event was a little rainy to say the least the organization has offered a rain date for a few of the artist. I will be participating in the rain date show at Turner Hall Ballroom November 23rd from 7pm – 12am. The night will be made up of many artists showing their work with live painters and entertainment. Even though it will be Wednesday, we will be having a great time. Go to the Made in Milwaukee website for more details on the event.

Stay tuned for updates!

The day started at 7 am and lasted well past 11 pm. We set up and had everything ready to go at 9am and the crowd rolled in. It was busy and fast-paced the whole morning. Then things changed around noon, the rain came and kept coming till 4. We had some casualties in the form of water logged framed prints, but it was worth it for such a great day we had. Didn’t sell any of the painting, but sold a good amount of prints and came out positive for the day.

View from the back of the tent