Gallery Night Oh What a Night
April 20th Marked the Opening Night of a
Show That Will Run Three Months in Mercy Hill.Another wonderful evening for Milwaukee and it’s local artists. My only regrets about this past April Gallery Night, is that it went too fast and I did not get to see much of any other artist’s work. People were out and about and willing to participate in the arts. I was showing around fifteen pieces both new and old at Mercy Hill Church. It is located inside the Bay View Hide House where I have shown my work before. I have always admired the beautiful and large space and I was honored to be working with them. For the show, I had a large four by five foot canvas for group painting and I set up my own canvas to also live paint for the night of the event. We also were lucky to have a local singer songwriter from Madison perform. Hannah Luree rocked all night, find out more about her Here.
The goal of this show was to create an environment free of judgment about art and just create a space that emits positive energy for people to participate in creativity. All my recent works are about making you feel calm and uplifted when viewing. I work when I feel inspired by the things around me and turn it into something beautiful and approachable. Working as a graphic designer all day, I constantly see images, colors and textures that move me. Then, when I am back in my studio, I recall it all as inspiration. This is not an ordinary way to paint and I did not want it to be an ordinary show. I wanted the night to be about involving the public, showing them art is not intimidating and that my shows are not going to be like a regular gallery show – I think we succeeded.
There were many firsts at this show. One of which was called Duo. My boyfriend Jason and I created an interactive art piece called Duo that actually rotates right on the wall. It is a geometric diptych that uses magnets and a mechanism on the back frame of the work to lock in place either vertical or horizontal. The piece didn’t stop moving all night and people were creating different combinations with the two canvases that I never even thought of. Every time I looked, the canvases we aligned a different way–fourty-five degrees, one vertical and one horizontal, at one point both canvases making a triangle–it was awesome. I want to pursue this since most of my paintings can be hung in any direction. I really like this idea of flipping a regular gallery show on it’s head. Getting people to really change their minds about galleries and art starts with inviting them to interact and be part of the discussion.
Another first was the documentation of the event. I was able to have my friend Bruce Anttila van Hoover photographing the event, Thanks Bruce! You can find out more about him at thisisbruce.com. All photos are courtesy of him. I was also lucky enough to have a friend video record the live painting sessions in time-lapse video. Through the Milwaukee Makerspace, I was connected to David R. Overbeck. He volunteered his services as a videographer and recorded both my individual painting and a larger group painting that was open to the public. You can see more about David at his site korporate-media.com. Check out the time-lapse below that David created after the event below.
I was so happy this video captured not only my canvas, but also the group canvas. I lost count at how many people were on the group canvas! Live painting, group painting and interactive art is a way to get people talking about art without secluding people who are new to the art scene. I am always telling viewers to just tell me how they feel in front of my art or to just jump on the group canvas without thinking. There are no judgments, I believe everyone is creative in their own way but it just takes some coercing to reveal it sometimes.
Below are some more pictures that Bruce took during the night. They can also be found on my facebook page facebook.com/DenaNordArtist. Always remember to “like” my artist page if you want me to keep posting! There will also be an additional video to come from David. We did an preliminary interview in my studio and some interviews at the event and will be in a video to come. David is working on putting it all together as a promotional material for me to use to show people what my style and idea of an event is. – Thank you thank you David!
Stay tuned for another upcoming video and enjoy the gallery below!
