Bruce & His painting
Originally uploaded by Artistruth
Last night I attended the opening reception for Salem’s Mayor’s Art Show. This is the second annual exhibit. The show was the idea of friend and gallery owner, Mary Lou Zeek. She wanted a way to acquire and exhibit public art in Salem, Oregon. The venue is the beautiful new Convention Center in Salem, and each year a work by an Oregon artist is purchased for the permanent collection. This year, the board announced their decision to implement a Percent for Arts program, which will bring more public art to our capital city.
This year over 200 Oregon artists submitted works and 50 were chosen for the exhbit, which will continue for the entire year. Unfortunately, I was not one of the accepted artists, but my friend Bruce Ulrich was! On the way to Salem Bruce gave me some valuable feedback for this blog… thanks Bruce! I’ve rearranged the links this morning. Here’s a photo of Bruce with his accepted painting!
Another neat part of the evening was seeing a beautiful photograph of my Grandmother’s barn in the show. Grandma has been gone now for more than 10 years, but I immediately had a strong gut reaction when I saw the image. I met the artist, Ellen Hamill, and had a nice chat with her. So interesting how we connect with each other.
We also saw art buddy Kathy Tiger and her wonderful painting “Mary” from the Elder Series. Kathy & her husband Joe drove up from Eugene. I need to get more in the habit of snapping photos… wish I’d gotten one of them. The only one I got of Bruce is because he reminded me right before I left.
It was great to see my mentor James Kirk at the reception along with his terrific wife Alice. He had a stunning work on display also. I visited with many friends over the evening and came home energized to work harder so I can be included next year.
