Robyn Hill Hendrix

Elevator Paintings…

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This might sound really odd, but the original inspiration for these came from the see-through elevator in a West Bank parking ramp near the Rarig Center in Minneapolis. I was walking between Fringe Festival venues in August and was distracted and fascinated by the inner workings of the lift that could be seen through the glass. Those mechanisms started out more literal in the first painting and evolved a lot, unexpectedly turning into something that reminds me of lungs (a subconscious throwback to the Phantom Organs paintings I did three years ago?). That moment was also what spurred me to add the phrase “my curiosity about the similarities between the things we build, and the things we are built of” to my artist statement – long before I had actually made the paintings. Constantly trying to catch up to my brain.

 

I’ll be installing an assortment of my work at One Yoga studio in Minneapolis on Saturday. It will be up for two months and I’ll post more details and photos once the show is up.

My Unspoken (til now) Rules of Painting & Creativity

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Filtration 2, Watercolor on Paper, 2013. 8" x 10"

Filtration 2, Watercolor on Paper, 2013. 8″ x 10″

Always surprise yourself. Never do exactly what you are expecting yourself to do.

Make things go funky and weird, but go slowly enough that you know when to stop. (When you’ve reached the right amount of funk.)

Turn “mistakes” into another unexpected quirky thingamabob.

Talk to the funky, quirky things when necessary.

Watch the work unfold with eyes and heart wide open, kind of like watching a sunset.

Don’t cry too much while painting or it’ll start to smudge. Unless you want to fill the teardrops landing there with pigment…not really sure what the salt content will do to the surface but it could be a fun experiment.

The moment when you start to get bored of something is probably the point when you need to elaborate on it twice over rather than completely abandoning it.

Ask yourself if you can make some of the blobbies just a little bit bigger. Or just a little bit smaller.

Follow the rule of gravity. Or don’t.

Once in a while, do the thing that you think (or feel) is going to turn out really ugly. You’ll either get it out of your system, or discover something incredible.

Don’t finish a painting until you’ve already started another one. (Always have something in progress.)

Don’t drink the paint water by accident, and don’t dip your brush in your tea.

*Scientists, mathematicians, statisticians etc probably wouldn’t consider all of these to fall under the definition and functionality of a “rule”. Whatever.

I’m sure some of these could apply to other artistic disciplines. And non artistic disciplines, for that matter. Which one speaks to you? Do you have any weird, unspoken limitations you put on yourself as you write, dance, plan, organize, sculpt, sketch, brainstorm, or whatever it is you do?

 

Busy September!

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This semitransparent painting experiment I’ve had in progress for a while is taking shape, and I’m finally putting my foot down, applying for window display opportunities, and forcing myself to figure out how to actually hang it. Feeling optimistic. I ordered some earth magnets this week! Here’s the beginnings of a hypothetical installation arrangement, missing a few more blobby droplet thingies that have yet to be added (can you tell they’re painted on the BACK? So fun!), along with more painting segments (or a separate grouping maybe?).

hendrix1_installationlayout

It’s sounding likely that I’ll be doing a window display for Susan Hensel Gallery sometime next year, and some other exhibition ideas/opportunities are in the works. I also recently confirmed an exhibition at One Yoga in Uptown, Minneapolis next February and March. When I stopped by to check out the wall space Claudia Poser‘s work was there! I love her stuff and she and her husband own one of my paintings. Yay for good vibes. My little seedlings, podlings, bubbles and ladder thingies are ready to get their Namaste on. I’m considering titling the show Vrksasana (tree pose).

In the more immediate future though, The Land of Parcheesopoly will be back at Open Streets in Saint Paul at University Ave & Hamline with ARTIFY on September 15th AND in North Minneapolis on Lowry on September 21st! Come roll the dice with me and see what happens! Also, I need volunteers for both those days! Hit me up. It is seriously a kick in the pants watching & helping people play and make up rules.

 

New artwork 2012-2013

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I finally have a full series of new works photographed to share. I have been working on these over the past year, some at a quicker pace than others. The first one is on transparent Denril paper; the rest are watercolor on Yupo.

 

 

New artwork. It’s purple!

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We interrupt this regularly scheduled programming of CCLI lab logic model development, CDA child observation & behavior homework, and craigslist apartment hunting, to bring you…new artwork!

I had my scanner plugged in anyway, so hey! How about something for your eyeballs to look at that isn’t snow. Here’s a new little painting:

Untitled, Watercolor on Paper. 2013. 8" x 10"

Untitled, Watercolor on Paper. 2013. 8″ x 10″

Title suggestions welcome since “Purple Untitled #1” is…well…not very exciting.

The color palette is partly inspired by a clearance color discovery – “Purple Madder” at the Art Cellar.

New Paintings & Spring Events

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Untitled, Watercolor, 8" x 10"

Untitled, Watercolor, 8" x 10"

Phantom Uterus I, Watercolor, 24" x 30"

I’ve been playing around with abstract gear-like shapes lately…and finishing the latest addition to the Phantom Organs series.

Phantom Uterus I will make its debut this summer at Women and Water Rights: Concerning Water at the The Phipps Center for the Arts June 15 – July 22, 2012, a remount continuing the conversation from the original Women and Water Rights: Rivers of Regeneration exhibit at the Katherine E. Nash Gallery at the U of MN in 2010.

I struggled a lot with this one and am still not entirely satisfied with it.  I couldn’t seem to get the uterus to fit correctly in the well of stones/bubbles/whatever you think they are.  Until it dawned on me it could be upside down.  But it still doesn’t quite match the imagined painting that was floating in front of my vision waiting to be realized on paper, so I have a feeling there’s a Phantom Uterus II in my future.

Incubators will also be showing at the WARM 2012 Juried Members Exhibit at the Grain Belt Bottling House April 13-May 4, 2012.  I am busy with my exhibitions committee hat on getting the final details set for the show, which has an opening reception Friday, April 20th from 6-9pm and a Juror’s Talk and Discussion with local arts writer and critic Mason Riddle on Wednesday, April 25th at 7:00 pm.  We have 76 artworks from 54 WARM artists in the show this year.

And in between those two shows?  Art a Whirl.  Lower level of the Keg House will be my spot.  AKA Map Location F8.  See look, I have a NEMAA profile.

celebrationizms, gratitudizms.

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Thanks to everyone who came to our opening reception for “Resurfacing” at the Women’s Building, and also thanks to those who were there in spirit but didn’t make it in person.  If you didn’t make it, you missed cupcakes:

and art:

“Phantom Brain” and “Phantom Heart,” Watercolor on Paper, 2011.

These are the first two in what I hope will be a new series that I am calling my “phantom organ” series.  They are my tweak on the general concept of phantom limb syndrome, and address the way large, life changing decisions can sometimes feel like cutting away or giving up a part of oneself in order to preserve the whole.  I am considering making phantom ears, lungs, and bones; additional body part suggestions are welcome and encouraged!  Hoping to have two or three more body parts done before my solo show in November at the Baroque Room (opening reception Friday, Nov. 4th as a part of Lowertown First Fridays).

We had a lovely reception and I got all kinds of great comments on impressions people get from my artwork.  I love hearing all the different things people “see” in my paintings.  DNA unzipping itself was a particularly good one.  Thanks again to the Women’s Art Registry of Minnesota for this exhibition opportunity and all my fellow exhibition committee members for their help to pull it off.  The exhibition is on display until October 21st and open building hours are 9am-4pm (actually I was told the doors auto-lock at 4:30, but the official hours on the postcards say 4:00 so…yeah).  Artwork is on all three floors and in the conference room, so if you go, make sure you wander around to see all of it.  The address for the Women’s Building is 550 Rice Street in St. Paul (just a couple blocks north of University).

Keep in touch!  I’ll be posting some of the newest artwork in the show on my website portfolio very soon and also revealing some new professional artist portraits taken with Suzanne of Suzanne Shaff Photography.  Like my facebook page too, if you haven’t already.

Speaking of exciting things in the works, but jumping way out of my league, the wonderful people over at Springboard for the Arts shared some huge, fantastic news this past week about new funding for arts placemaking along the central corridor in St. Paul.  Check out Irrigate to learn more, and/or watch this video of the exciting launch on Thursday.  I am so proud of Springboard and the other partners involved in this massive, inspiring undertaking, and feel very lucky to consider several of those Springboard peeps my friends and colleagues.

inviting, framing, bubble wrapping…

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Resurfacing

Artwork by Robyn Hendrix and Deborah Splain
September 12th-October 21st, 2011

The Minnesota Women’s Building
550 Rice Street, St. Paul, MN
(Just a couple blocks north of University Ave and the state capitol)

Opening Reception Friday, September 16th 5-8pm
Regular building hours 9am-4pm Monday-Friday
Free and open to the public

Part of the Women’s Art Registry of Minnesota exhibition series.  Please RSVP here.

Installation happens tomorrow.  On my birthday.  🙂  Framing is now finished!  Time to wrap them all up, print up some artist statements, and get some rest.

Matted and ready for frames

"the big kahuna." this is not the real title. it's just really big (30" x 36")

happy little paintings

painting some brains

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Brains!

Work in progress:

brain painting, work in progress

brain painting, work in progress

Deborah and I are getting all the details set for our September WARM show.  We are titling it Resurfacing and the opening will be Friday, Sept. 16th, 5-8pm.  More details coming soon!  I will also be showing at the Baroque Room in Lowertown in St. Paul, November through January.

We had our final Placemaking Block Party with Friendly Streets on Friday at the Greater Frogtown Community Development Corporation garden.  I posted some photos on my facebook page here.  With both Fringe Festival and Placemaking over, I am having a major case of end-of-summer blues.  Good thing I have lots of exciting things coming up to distract me.  Still in denial about this thing called “fall” though.  I went to the lake today to soak up some sun while I still can.

Flowers are Red

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I’m having a lot of walk-down-memory-lane moments lately.  I decided to listen to a really old mix cd that I have in my car, that’s loosely based on a mixtape my 8th grade english and civics teacher made for my class (the cassette eventually broke, and I was devastated, and tried to recreate it).  The cd is just labeled “The Really Really Awesome CD” and the last few songs skip a bit since I made it about 9 years ago.  It has this song by Harry Chapin on it, along with Buffalo Springfield, Neil Young, Jimi Hendrix, and Pearl Jam to name a few.  How excited was I to discover this lovely “animation video” made with the Paint program on Youtube?  Oh, very excited.  However, if you have never heard the song before I encourage you to listen to it once first without watching the animation.  Kinda like, read the book before you watch the movie, not after, ok?

I probably have at least one more childhood nostalgia blog post up my sleeve, so…get used to it.

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