I have been called a lot of things in my life, but art connoisseur is not one of them. This being I said, I recently purchased my first piece of art at an auction. I was so thrilled to buy art! Original Art! Now granted, I had enjoyed two complimentary glasses of champagne, but that’s not what loosened my wallet. I simply saw something I liked, it was going for a reasonable price, and I wanted to have it on my wall. My wife definitely wanted it on the wall. Anything to replace my prized Homer Simpson mirror (She hates that thing…can’t imagine why).
Youth Art Month is an annual observance each March to emphasize the value of Art education for all children and to encourage support for quality school art programs.
Youth Art Month was created in 1961 by the ACML, a non-profit association of art and craft materials manufactures, in cooperation with the NAEA.
As many of you already know, we’ve been revamping our teen area! If you haven’t seen it lately, we now have a chalkboard table that you can write/draw on, board games, card games, and a big bulletin board in the teen corner! To fill the big bulletin board in the teen section, I asked the Excelsior Springs High School Art Teacher, Jeri Bowen, if we could display some of the artwork done by students in her classes. We are now pleased to have a beautiful collage of student artwork from the Advanced 2-D Art Class (Two-dimensional art).
Come check out the awesome art of Gary Mowry at the Smithville Branch. His current work features stylized stones, leaves, and nature scenes primarily in water based media. Many of the paintings are detailed with exquisite shading and sketching in sumptuous colors from sage to silver. After attending the University of Kansas, where he studied illustration, painting and played basketball, Mowry became an art director for one of the largest advertising agencies in the country. Now in his retirement, he concentrates on water based paintings.
Last year, over 100 works of art were submitted to our Young Artist Exhibition. This year, we are hoping for even more!
Artists between ages 7 - 18 may submit art in categories ranging from drawing, painting, photography, graphic art, and mixed media. Submissions will be accepted from May 14th through July 23rd. Local teachers, artists, and professionals will judge the submissions. Prizes will be awarded.
How about taking a stroll through downtown Blue Springs, listening to live music while sipping some delicious wine, and viewing an eclectic mix of art from local artists?
As a young art student, I became familiar with paintings, prints, sculpture, and architecture through books and slides. (Guess how old I am?) I was fortunate to see many of those pieces at the Nelson Atkins Museum of Art and Truman Library.
We have all seen it around the streets and trains in Kansas City. Passersby may find those scribbles, throw-ups (the term for a quick letterform "thrown up" on a wall, usually consisting of bubble letters), and drippy tags as an eyesore; but for a beginning writer (the term for a graffiti artist), it’s a chance for him (or her) to dip their toes into an art that may be painted over (or buffed as writers call it) the very next day.
Thanks to nearby Northgate Middle School of the North Kansas City School District, a large barren wall in the children’s area has turned into a beautiful art gallery. There are varied styles and mediums represented, including fingerprints using ink pad, half-face portraits in pencil, and frottage in oil pastels. Among the most striking pieces, however, are the Van Gogh inspired flowers in chalk and glue. The colors are vibrant and intense, drawing the viewer in to appreciate this world of color on a gray winter’s day.
