Provided by Karen Weiner of The Reading Room. Here’s another ornament that I managed to wrangle from the The MAC’s Blue Yule ten plus years ago. It has remained charming and timeless despite being moved around during my home’s seven year restoration process and has now found a permanent home in my office.
Originally a Christmas ornament, this red head has been part of my office decor for twelve years, and is one of the many creative ornaments that I have purchased at The McKinney Avenue’s annual Blue Yule. What’s different about The MAC’s ornaments is that they can be used all year round. I couldn’t resist not taking a photograph of this one as the afternoon sun was lighting up the reflective paint. Over the next couple of weeks, I’ll be doing a series of posts showcasing my strange collection.
Blue Yule 2011 at The MAC. This Saturday The MAC will be having their sixteenth annual fundraiser selling hand-crafted-one-of-a-kind ornaments. Come support your favorite blue building and savor the infamous Blue Mystery Punch! Make this your first stop of the evening, and then mosey on over to The Reading Room for more artistic fun.
The McKinney Avenue Contemporary
3120 McKinney Avenue
Saturday, December 3
5:30 pm to 7:30 pm
Ohhhh, I wanted to possess The Furies in a bad way, but was too late. Some lucky individual beat me to it, and as I write this, has probably taken possession of them and is in the process of mounting them in their new home. This makes me unhappy.
I first met Celia Eberle at Karen Weiner’s The Reading Room, but my first encounter with her work was at the Beasts and Bunnies show at The MAC. While The MAC’s show was a collection of her past and some present work along with the works of three other artists, this show at Plush Gallery was her most recent creations.
First there will be readings from Douglas MacWithey’s notebooks at The MAC, September 21, from 6 to 7 pm by Charles Dee Mitchell, and the novelists David Searcy and Ben Fountain. The evening is a presentation of WordSpace.
Immediately following the reading there will be a reception from 7 to 9 pm at The Reading Room. “How it is the dead man suffers the loss of his loved ones,” MacWithey’s large three panel drawing from which the reading is taken, will be on view. This drawing, dating from the 1980s, has never been shown before.
MacWithey’s practice included drawing, sculpture and performance and almost always incorporated dense, handwritten text. His work was shown in a 1993 Concentrations exhibition with Cady Noland at the Dallas Museum of Art and at Carol Taylor Gallery and Barry Whistler Gallery. Selections from Seals of the Philosophers was shown in 2009 at testsite in Austin and is currently being exhibited at The McKinney Avenue Contemporary.
Isabelle Scurry Chapman in the lobby. Birds of Lint adorn a corner of the lobby. Displayed against bright red walls, they have a lot to compete with. But they manage to hold their own as part of the Beasts and Bunnies exhibit at The McKinney Avenue Contemporary (The MAC).
Chapman’s artist statement. These birds are made from recycled materials and things I find in living. This project is about being present… to my life, the birds that I see, the materials that float through my visual field, and my response to them. Birds in my work represent spirit, soul, a part of me that is connected to all living things. “Hope is the thing with feathers that perches in the soul” (Emily Dickinson) are words that seem to fit what I am looking for as I weave laundry lint, sticks, seeds, bits of nature, thread, buttons, and other found objects into whimsical birds.
Beasts and Bunnies in the main galleries. I couldn’t help but start my visit backwards and clockwise. The suggested path was to start in the large gallery and work my way around counter clockwise. But with all the tick-tocks, whirling, shadows, and landscape features, the collaborative installation in the square gallery was begging me to wander through it first before moving on to the larger gallery. This installation is an indoor winter wonderland, but with spots of bright yellow, and the sound of creature activity, I could feel that spring was being promised. Since it’s impossible for me to capture the complete experience with photos and words, I strongly suggest you visit the show physically at The MAC. But first, read on. I have more to offer about this show.
At The MAC (The McKinney Avenue Contemporary)
January 8 through February 12, 2011
Opening Reception with the Artists:
Saturday, January 8, 5:30–7:30 pm
Helen Altman, Frances Bagley, Celia Eberle, and Margaret Meehan in the large and square galleries. This group exhibition brings together these four artists to investigate “the animal” both literally and metaphorically. Helen Altman, Frances Bagley, Celia Eberle, and Margaret Meehan have all worked using animal imagery and share a similar sensibility. Through sculpture, painting, photography, works on paper, and video these artists each push and prod at the boundaries between nature and culture as well as the assumed distance between animal and human behavior. In addition to individual works by each artist, the exhibition will feature a collective installation titled Call and Response.
The McKinney Avenue Contemporary (The MAC). If I hadn’t known better, I would have thought I had stepped into a church. And there was Leslie Connally and Judy Niven constantly reminding me to tone it down while Kitchen Dog‘s play was performing in the black box theater next to the galleries. Normally, all three galleries would have had festive Mexican music shaking the place up for this show, but not on Kitchen Dog’s nights. And then there was the church smell, aging flowers and burning candles.