Received a Merit Award at the ANA 21st Annual Regional Juried Art Exhibition

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The Artists of Northwest Arkansas's 21st Annual Regional Juried Art Exhibition recently let me know that my painting Balancing Act won a Merit Award!  In addition to the honor and prestige, winning awards helps offset the expense of applications and shipping costs so they are much appreciated on multiple fronts.

Octopodes

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I learned about the existence of the word "octopodes" yesterday and had to go on a research spree.  Here is what I've gathered: octopuses, octopi, and octopodes are all acceptable pluralizations of octopus.

  • Octopuses is the English pluralization.
  • Octopi stems from a popular misconception that octopus was originally a Latin word - it's actually Greek - and used to be considered grammatically incorrect but has since been used enough to become a viable option.
  • Octopodes comes from the original ancient Greek pluralization.

I have also just learned that despite the accuracy of the above statements, my spell check firmly denies the existence of both octopi and octopodes (and, in fact, pluralizations).  Nevertheless, I'm going to be testing out octopodes as my preferred pluralization for a while.  It has a nice sound. 

Halloween Makeup: Double Features

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A video demonstrating how to do a "double vision" makeup went viral a few weeks ago, and I agreed that it'd be a good look for Halloween!  Here's my version:

This took about an hour and a half to do, but I could've used another fifteen minutes to touch it up - I had to go to work* though, so this was the finished product!  The only items I had to buy for this project were the false lashes and lash glue; for the rest of the makeup I just made do with what I already had even if it wasn't absolutely ideal.

*I'm publishing this post on Halloween proper, but I actually dressed up yesterday (Friday, October 30th) to celebrate Halloween with my fellow professors and students at USM.

Employment Options in the Arts

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I have a number of students ask me what careers they can pursue in the arts.  This list is by no means exhaustive and includes some careers best served by dual majors, but here are some of the possible employers/roles in no particular order:

  • technical/medical illustration with the military, medical publishing, engineering firms
  • commercial illustration
  • graphic design/web design/user interface design
  • game development
  • animation
  • 3D animation
  • running CAD systems
  • film
  • concept artist
  • product design
  • advertising/marketing
  • printmaking studios
  • photography studios
  • ceramics studios
  • jewelry studios
  • metalsmithing
  • furniture restoration/design
  • textile studios
  • personal studio practice
  • portrait artist
  • caricature artist
  • art festival circuit
  • Etsy/Amazon Handmade/online vendor
  • tattoo parlors
  • sign companies
  • galleries/museums
  • art theory/writing
  • scene design
  • interior design
  • faux-finishing/mural work in collaboration with interior designers
  • staging store window displays
  • cake decorator
  • special effects/makeup artist
  • art teaching positions at K-12 private schools (public typically requires additional certification beyond a BA in art)
  • community arts center/camp/craft instructors
  • teaching adults at those "Painting and Pinot" type night/weekend classes
  • private art lessons

With graduate school, additional options open up like art therapy, higher education, and more.

Discouraging News on the Conservation Front

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The World Wildlife Fund (WWF) and Zoological Society of London (ZSL) just released a new report detailing a 49% decline "in the size of marine populations between 1970 and 2012."

This follows their 2014 report which states in part that over the past 40 years:

Populations of mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians and fish have declined by an average of 52%.  Freshwater species populations have suffered a 76% decline, an average loss almost double that of land and marine species."

Autumnal Porch Guest Lorraine the Spotted Orbweaver

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Meet Lorraine! 

Lorraine is an adult female Neoscona crucifera spider who has made a number of webs on my front porch this fall.  I had noticed her presence a few times in the evenings as she hunted around the outside of my living room window, but we really made each other's acquaintance when she tested out a new web location a few days ago strung up between a potted plant and my front storm door; after I damaged it going out of my door in the morning and then again a second time coming back in later that evening, she took stock of her options and has since restrung her web off my porch railing and my hanging sweet potato vine.  I'm interested to see if I'll be able to spot Lorraine's egg sac if/when she lays it since I'm looking forward to trying to witness her offspring hatch next spring.

New Business Cards!

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I just redesigned my business cards and ordered a new set from Moo.  Since Moo allows printing of multiple back designs with a fixed front, I printed two different options.  I was concerned that the one with the Balancing Act snails detail might be too much, as it can look it when you see both sides at once, but in person it works quite well.  I'm liking both types enough that I may continue to order the mix... until I decide to redesign the card all over again, of course!

Eastern Comma Butterfly

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I've been walking around more than usual lately due to the beautiful fall weather, and I happened across this gorgeous Polygonia comma basking on some dead grass on the edge of my neighbor's lawn.  Leavenworth is in the western part of their habitat, which covers most of central to eastern United States.  Its coloration seems very seasonally appropriate.

Polygonia comma Eastern Comma Butterfly

Aspire Magazine Coverage on Summer Achievements

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The University of Saint Mary not only issued a press release a little over a month ago on my summer exhibitions and awards, but also just published an article about it in the Fall 2015 issue of Aspire Magazine.

My Artwork and Reproductions for Sale at Rusty Elegants

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A new hybrid store has opened up in downtown Leavenworth, KS - it's a composite vintage-inspired clothing retailer and antiques shop that also has a section devoted to gallery space and home decor.  The clothing part is called Lavender Moon, and the rest of the business is run under the name Rusty Elegants.  They will be selling my artwork and reproductions of my artwork (currently greeting cards and postcards but likely prints and other reproductions), so if you happen to be in Leavenworth you should stop by!  

The address is 700 Cherokee Street, Leavenworth, KS 66048.  Store hours are as follows:

Mon-Thurs: 9:30 am-6:00 pm
Fri: 9:30 am-8:00 pm (Sangria and snacks are provided on Friday evenings)
Sat: 6:00 am - 8:00 pm (during Farmer's Market season, otherwise 9:30 am-8:00 pm)
Sun: 12:00 pm-4:00 pm

Shelby Prindaville greeting cards

Upcoming: Stone House Gallery Annual Area Artist Exhibit

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Another exhibition is coming up!  I have a couple pieces (Confident Lamb and Ring of Lambs) in the Fredonia Arts Council's Annual Area Artist Exhibit at Stone House Gallery.

Exhibit: October 1st - October 27th, 10:00am - 2:00pm M-F
Special Opening: Saturday, October 3rd
Location: Stone House Gallery, 320 N 7th St, Fredonia, KS 66736
Contact Number for Appointments: (620) 378-2052

KNCK Radio 1390 AM / 94.9 FM Interview

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I just recently completed a radio interview about my career thus far with host Loren Swenson on KNCK Radio 1390 AM / 94.9 FM for the CHS Alumni Moment series.  (I attended Concordia High School from 2000-2004.)

I can't directly link to the piece, but if you're interested, visit KNCK Radio's website and then in the black header in the upper center of the page there's a button titled Alumni Moment.  If you click on that, you can find my interview!

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.