Upcoming: Artists of Northwest Arkansas’ 21st Annual Regional Art Exhibition

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I've had a painting (Balancing Act) juried into the upcoming Artists of Northwest Arkansas’ 21st Annual Regional Art Exhibition.  If you happen to be in or around Fayetteville, Arkansas, when the show is scheduled to be up, do stop by and let me know how it looks!

Exhibition Opens: October 1st
Reception & Awards Presentation: Saturday, October 17th from 5 – 8 PM, Presentation at 7:00 PM
Exhibition Closes: October 31st
Exhibition Location: The Fayetteville Underground - 101 W. Mountain Street, Fayetteville, AR72701

Fungi Interconnectedness

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This is a fascinating article about the "internet of fungi."  I first learned about this concept through the BBC's documentary How Plants Communicate and Think.  It's a bit startling to consider that the "fiction" part of the science fiction blockbuster Avatar didn't extend to the networked plants.  

Tribeza Magazine's Article on Madroño Ranch's Artist Residency

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"Ranch Refuge" is an older article, but for some reason I couldn't find a link to it online until recently (maybe Tribeza Magazine only publishes its archives online?) so I'm sharing it now.  This piece is about the Madroño Ranch artist residency - I attended it twice and my series of bison paintings stems from those residencies.  Here's my spotlight within the essay:

Many visitors find the bison inspiring. Artist Shelby Prindaville says, “The Madroño Ranch residency provided a wonderful opportunity for me to begin a body of work focused on bison, one of the quintessential American icons.” 

Madroño Ranch isn't currently open to new residents anymore so I feel doubly lucky I learned about and was accepted into the residency when I did.

Another Greater Baton Rouge Business Report Article on 3P Quick Cure Clay

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I'm so pleased 3P Quick Cure Clay has been getting so much press lately!  This latest article titled "An LSU professor has invented a curious clay with a range of applications, from art to industry" from the Greater Baton Rouge Business Report highlights my work with the product here:

About two years before officially launching 3P QuickCure Clay, Pojman reached out to art students at LSU to get some insight on his products. Pojman started working with former LSU graduate student Shelby Prindaville to mold his mixture into something more useful to artists by perfecting the consistency. Then he began selling it online.

“He would send me test products, and I would tell him what needed to be tweaked,” Prindaville says. “At some point we reached the stage where I thought it was a really viable sculpting medium and I started making things with it. And he figured out how to make it cheaply enough that he launched the product out into the world.”

The final version of 3P QuickCure Clay allows artists to bypass much of the difficult and tricky parts of sculpting, eliminating the need for a kiln. Also, 3P Quick Cure Clay is strong enough to build sculptures without first creating wire and paper “skeletons” or armatures, Prindaville says.

Prindaville used the medium to create a series of small sculptures of lizards called Anoles. The whimsical figures depict the lizards in various positions, like one balancing straight up its thin tail, that are impossible to create using other types of clay without wire armatures.

Prindaville, now the art program director at the University of Saint Mary in Kansas, uses 3PQuickCure Clay in her classroom because students can cure their work with a heat gun before the class period ends. She says the college cancels classes for one week each spring and students work on projects outside the school’s curriculum.

“Last year, I invited John to come up; he shipped us a large amount of clay and sold us a large amount of the clay. The students did all sorts of stuff and they created a show at the end,” Prindaville says. Some of the student’s creations now mingle alongside the chemistry books and salamander tank in Pojman’s office at LSU.

Dig Baton Rouge "Breaking the Mold" Article on 3P Quick Cure Clay

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And here's Dig Baton Rouge with their new article "Breaking the Mold" on 3P Quick Cure Clay including some discussion of my work with it:

Working together with former LSU graduate student Shelby Prindaville, Pojman developed the clay from its original houseware repair model to a final product fit as an artist aid.

“So that’s how it evolved into art,” said Pojman.

[...]

Pojman’s website contains examples of several art projects using QuickCure from the University of Saint Mary in Kansas where Prindaville serves as the art program director. “It was really exciting just to work with the students, get their feedback on features they liked, and also help them use it, and then see where their creativity went,” said Pojman.

Of the works the students created using QuickCure, Pojman notes his favorite are the lizards as they demonstrate the strength of the clay.  “That’s not something you can do with regular ceramics,” said Pojman.

University of Saint Mary News Release

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My university, the University of Saint Mary, recently issued this news release on several of my accomplishments this summer:

USM Art Program Director Honored for Her Impressive Work

8/17/2015 12:00:00 AM
(Leavenworth, Kan.)—The University of Saint Mary Art Program Director Shelby Prindaville was recently chosen by the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) to be one of only three featured tour artists within Art Works for Change’s new exhibition, “Footing the Bill: Art and Our Ecological Footprint,” for her extraordinary work capturing the beauty and frailty of the natural world. The subjects of both her painting and sculpture work encourage humanity to appreciate all creatures in nature—large and small—and reflect on our connection to them. The WWF is the world’s leading conservation organization, dedicated to conserving nature and addressing its most pressing threats.  

Art Works for Change’s “Footing the Bill: Art and Our Ecological Footprint” exhibition highlights our urgent need to live sustainably—choosing wisely how and where to use Earth’s finite resources. Prindaville was one of only 28 artists selected for the curated international exhibition. The exhibit is accessible online at artworksforchange.org. Art Works for Change is a nonprofit organization creating contemporary art exhibitions that highlight critical social and environmental issues.

“I am beyond honored to have my works recognized by both the WWF and Art Works for Change,” said Prindaville. “I whole-heartedly support the mission of both charitable organizations, and these honors reinforce why I do what I do—to call on human reflection and influence change.”

On top of both of these impressive accomplishments, Prindaville also recently won the Arts Council of Southeast Missouri “Best in Show” for her bison painting “Confrontation.” The painting was selected by juror Ruth Ann Reese in the “Wild Things” national exhibition at the Council.  

To see her work, visit shelbyprindaville.com.

Armadillos Birth Genetically Identical Quadruplets

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From a Wikipedia research spiral:

Armadillos possess the unique reproductive trait of monozygotic polyembryony, meaning their offspring are genetically identical due to the division of a single fertilized egg into four matching embryos. This development of identical quadruplets has been utilized as a tool for genetic research. It is possible that the monozygotic polyembryony was an adaptation to accommodate for the female’s inability to carry more than one egg during this pre-implantation stage. Delaying the implantation further has no effect on the number of offspring produced.

Armadillos are also carriers of leprosy, as I learned in my Infectious Diseases course in undergrad.  And they have the now unfortunate fear response of jumping, which means they often kill themselves on car bumpers when the vehicle would have otherwise safely passed over the animal.  They are a fascinating creature.

Art Works for Change's Footing the Bill: Art and Our Ecological Footprint Exhibition

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Some very exciting news!  I was selected to participate in Art Works for Change's Footing the Bill: Art and Our Ecological Footprint exhibition, which is itself an honor, but was also selected as a World Wildlife Fund featured tour artist within the exhibition!  This is doubly exciting because I charitably support the WWF and am very happy to be professionally associated with such an estimable organization.

This online exhibition just went live today - check out both my artist page and the WWF featured tour page!

Newspaper Articles in Catalan about Bòlit Artist Presentation

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Somewhat belatedly, I thought I'd share two newspaper articles published in the Diari de Girona in Catalan about the artist presentation I took part in at the Bòlit Centre d'Art Contemporani in Girona, Spain.  

Els quatre artistes becats pel Bòlit amb residència presenten els projectes

Un becat pel Bòlit «reviurà» cinc edificis desapareguts de Girona

Studies Confirm Nature Is Soothing

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Research coming out of Stanford University's Emmett Interdisciplinary Program in Environment and Resources is unsurprisingly showing that:

A walk in the park may soothe the mind and, in the process, change the workings of our brains in ways that improve our mental health, according to an interesting new study of the physical effects on the brain of visiting nature.

Greater Baton Rouge Business Report Article on 3P Quick Cure Clay

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I was interviewed for this article on Dr. John Pojman's innovative 3P Quick Cure Clay.  Here's an excerpt:

About four years ago, Pojman started working with former LSU graduate student Shelby Prindaville to mold his mixture into something useful to artists, and began selling it online. Now 3P QuickCure Clay can be found in art stores in New Orleans and New Mexico.

The clay they developed allows artists to bypass much of the difficult and tricky parts of sculpting, eliminating the need for a kiln. Also, 3P QuickCure Clay is strong enough to build sculptures without first creating wire and paper “skeletons” or armatures.

Prindaville is now art program director at the University of Saint Mary in Kansas, and uses 3PQuickCure Clay in her classroom because students can use a heat gun to cure their work before the class period ends. She orders it by the pound from Pojman, who produces it from his office space at the Louisiana Business and Technology Center at LSU—a step up from his garage where he used to mix it on weekends.

“I think it’s a really interesting and innovative medium,” Prindaville says. “The great things is, it gives instant results. With regular clay you have to be careful about the moisture, and you can’t apply wet clay to a finished product, but with 3P you can apply wet to dry.”

Oranges Are Hybridized Fruits

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Many people think of oranges as a primary, pure, primitive fruit.  In fact, they're a hybrid of pomelos and mandarins!  From "The draft genome of sweet orange (Citrus sinensis)":

"The remarkably high degree of heterozygosity in the genome of cultivar Valencia sweet orange (C. sinensis cv. Valencia), as evidenced in our genomic and cytological analyses, hinted that sweet orange is an interspecific hybrid between pummelo and mandarin. On the basis of the collective evidence, we reconstructed the scenario regarding the ancient primary events of the origin of sweet orange: female pummelo crossed with male mandarin to create the initial interspecific hybrid that was further crossed again with male mandarin to produce sweet orange. This event might have happened at least 2,300 years ago, or much earlier, as sweet orange was recorded in Chinese literature as long ago as 314 BC (3, 38). Although additional genetic changes might have occurred afterward, it is still remarkable that this ancient hybrid genotype seems to be preserved in today's sweet orange, probably because of its strict nature of asexual reproduction (apomixis through nucellar embryo) and manmade selection and propagation by grafting. This scenario explains why most of today's sweet orange cultivars are genetically one biotype and highly heterozygous, with diversification occurring mostly through somatic mutations (7, 39, 40)."

From the Lab Bench Interview

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Dr. Paige Jarreau has just published an interview with me on From the Lab Bench!  

Paige is herself an extremely impressive and multi-talented science journalist and photographer, so I'm very pleased to count her as a friend, as well.  When you're done reading that fantastic write-up, make sure to dig around the site a while as it has loads of other interesting features including a page devoted to her beautiful photography.

Swiss Cheese Holes Caused By Hay Dust

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Have you noticed fewer holes in your Swiss cheese over the years?  Apparently this cheese (also known as Emmental cheese overseas - something I accidentally discovered for myself on residency in Iceland) had a lot of holes because small particles of hay dust used to regularly drift their way into the milk in the normal course of farming.  Our increasingly industrialized processes sterilized the cheesemaking environment so much that the holes have been mysteriously disappearing.  Now that the cause has been discovered, though, cheesemakers can judiciously add hay dust back into the milk.

Nau Côclea Residency - Log 10

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I spent my final day packing and trying to finish up Darker Side.  I cut it really close - the painting was wet most of the evening but finally around 9:00pm I was able to wrap it up to put in my suitcase.  That last night I woke up a number of times to blow my nose.

The next morning I took the train back into Barcelona and then switched to another train that took me to the airport, where I then had to find the bus to take me to Terminal 1 - the international departures terminal.  Due to the infrequent train schedule and my therefore early start, I thought I was going to have to wait at my gate for about two to three hours, but actually by the time I got through security and customs to my gate it was only about half an hour before boarding (though boarding was over an hour ahead of departure). 

I ended up getting stuck in a middle seat, which is particularly unpleasant on a ten hour flight.  Luckily, the woman next to me started trying to figure out how to sit next to her partner who was two rows back and after they asked some other guy who weirdly preferred his middle seat, I volunteered myself to switch with her partner who luckily was on an aisle.  Then the flight attendant saw me and since I was clearly willing to move, asked if I could move again to bring another family together.  She offered a window seat (no thanks - I like to be able to get up without asking someone else to move) but I countered with aisle and she made it happen.  As the flight started taking off, I realized that the stuffiness last night was because I was, in fact, getting a cold.  Honestly, while I'd have preferred no cold at all, it was better that it happened on a travel day and not during my last few days in Spain.  Getting the aisle seat was super helpful, though, as I made at least ten different visits to the bathroom for tissues.

That flight also had some of the most abundant food services I've ever encountered.  They had more than twice the amount of services that the initial flight had - we had a full pasta meal, then later they offered ice cream, then they offered pretzels, and then they brought another slightly smaller meal around.  This was all quite nice since the rest of my travel was uneventfully but tightly sequenced such that as soon as I landed in Charlotte and found my next gate I had less than ten minutes before boarding it so I wouldn't have had time to get more food if I had wanted any.

Finally I arrived in Kansas City, and though my bags were really slow to come out on the carousel, they appeared eventually and my wonderful colleague Susan was waiting to take me home.  It is so nice to have a trustworthy, friendly face to welcome you back after some time away.

Nau Côclea Residency - Log 9

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The next day I went into Figueres, the birthplace of Salvador Dalí, to check out the Dalí Museum and the Sant Ferran Castle.  The town itself was a little smaller than Girona but was quite nice.  After wandering around and eating lunch, I ascertained when my tickets could be picked up and found I had a couple hours, so I walked up to the castle.  It was a very long and mildly perplexing walk, as various signs to the castle pointed in completely different directions and the roads were very unpopulated.  I split the difference in the signs and it turned out well for me.  The "castle" is really an old fortress.  It was pretty interesting to walk around, but my feet started to disagree with me.  I persevered, though, and then went back down to the Dalí Museum.  There's an associated Dalí Jewelry that I actually went to first; it was really interesting to see his sketches turned into precious metals and stones as some pieces transcended the drawings while others were lackluster in comparison.  I thought it was interesting that he aspired to create great value apart from the intrinsic value of the materials and viewed making jewelry as another media within his studio practice.

Then I went into the Dalí Museum.  It was a really good museum - just the right size where you're able to spend several hours there but you leave having seen everything and feeling accomplished.  I didn't know that he was so interested in stereoscopic imagery and other optical tricks until coming here.

After the museum I made my way back home.  I'm not sure my feet have ever been that sore before (and the rest of me was fine!); I had worn a different pair of shoes that day and think that may have been part of the problem.  So the following day was a studio and foot recuperation day.

Then I went back to Figueres as I wanted to look around the downtown area more - I had planned to do it after the Dalí Museum, but due to my sore feet that day I didn't.  Plus the town is really fairly close by train from Camallera so it didn't burn too much time doing so.  While I was wandering around I saw they were constructing something in the center plaza (la rambla).  I asked what was happening and they said there was going to be a beach installed there the next day as a Saturday event.  I asked two or three more times as I thought I must not have heard right.  Why install a beach in the rambla when there are beaches everywhere by the sea in each town including Figueres?  When I went back to Camallera that afternoon I asked Clara what this was all about and she had no idea but we looked it up and sure enough, it was a small festival.  I decided to go back to see it and painted the rest of the day.

The "beach" ended up being two small piles of sand and then a lot of little tent shops selling mostly stuff that I wasn't interested in - books in Catalan, baby bibs, leather goods, seafood paella, and so on.  I don't mind checking things like this out though because if you don't go then you always wonder what it would have been like.

I painted again that evening and the following day.

Nau Côclea Residency - Artwork #4

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This is acrylic on pastelbord which is a clay ground textured with marble dust granules.  Due to the high heat here, most of the time the snails spend sealed inside their shells to conserve moisture, but on the summer solstice the rain brought several of them out and one explored my left thumb for quite some time.

Titling this one Balancing Act.