Robyn Hill Hendrix

!Women Art Revolution Screenings

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!Women Art Revolution Trailer

Premiering in Minnesota tonight at the Walker, 7:30pm with an intro and Q&A with director Lynn Hershman Leeson, and several more screenings this weekend.

The Walker Art Center is Screening !WAR: Women Art Revolution this weekend.  At the same time, the Katherine G. Nash Gallery at the University of Minnesota Regis Center for the Arts is holding an exhibition featuring work by the film’s director, Lynn Hershman Leeson.  I’ve been waiting eagerly for this ever since the film’s trailer came out last spring.  Hershman is speaking both at the opening reception at the Nash on Thursday and at the Friday night screening at the Walker.  The film is 40 years in the making, detailing the evolution of the feminist art movement in the United States since 1968.  More info on both these events with a much better description than I could write can be found here. There is also a free event for women artists in Minnesota at the Walker on Saturday from noon-5pm called MN Women Artists Talk Back which includes assistance with digitizing artwork and setting up an mnartists.org online artist portfolio.

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.

A Heart and a Yam

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New painting started and finished all in one day yesterday.  The idea popped up a couple weeks ago and has been living inside me aching to get out.  I think it’s the beginning of a new series, and I’m a little hesitant to throw it out to the world immediately.  Almost as if it will jinx it somehow.  Here’s a small sneak peak though of only part of it:

Detail of Phantom Heart 1, Watercolor on Paper, 2011

Comes from the idea of phantom limb syndrome, except for organs instead.  I have visions of phantom ears and phantom livers floating around inside my brain; it’ll be interesting to see where it takes me.  Oooh, a phantom brain would be freakydeaky amazing…

I also brought more food inspiration home from work the other day:

Yammmmm (or sweet potato?)

Would it be possible to paint a heart that looks like a yam?  Or a yam that looks like a heart?  The really long tip on the end reminds me of a blood vessel.

Placemaking block parties are going well so far; for more news about that and pictures come on over to my facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/robynhendrixart and also check out the Hamline Midway Coalition’s Friendly Streets Page for block party dates & locations!

Plus we have our next feminist art chat on Open Field this Wednesday evening coordinated by yours truly, and hosted by WARM, more details here.

Okay, off I go to do a google image search on brains.  Mmmm brains.

new art full of questions

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This one insisted on being finished tonight.  Would not let me go to bed.  I was so enthralled with it I actually caught myself making weird little sound effects for it while painting.  Apparently my tendency to talk to them is evolving…oh dear.

However, now that it’s “done” I’m wondering if it needs more brown “seeds” in the brown “scoops” that are surrounding the green “scoop.”  (I’m trying to come up with new descriptors so that I don’t pigeonhole how one might interpret it.  The seeds could also be eggs, or rocks, or eyeballs…or something else I haven’t even thought of yet.)

Untitled, Watercolor on Paper, 8" x 10"

Are the brown ones cradling the green one protectively, or are they getting ready to crush it?  This one seems a bit dark and threatening to me (ok I’ll admit, I intended it to be kind of ominous), but I think you could also read it the opposite way.  “Crowding” could also be “protecting.”  But what if Greenie doesn’t WANT their protection? What if she wants her independence, wants to feel the fresh breath of freedom in the wind?

Hmm, did I mention I’ve begun reading a lot of feminist art lit in the past couple of weeks? Think there’s a connection?  And do I need more eggs?  😉  IN THE PAINTING.

Recent purchases from Powell's Books in Portland

I’m working on organizing a feminist art reading discussion group hosted by WARM this summer, last Wednesday of each month at the Walker’s Open Field.  Currently taking suggestions for articles or short books that would be good discussion material (and would be fairly likely to be accessible via the library etc); help me out if you’ve got any!

opening reception recap

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Big huge mega thanks to all the awesome peeps who came out to the opening reception for the SMARTS Arts of the Community II exhibit at Intermedia Arts last night.  I am so grateful and humbled by the sweet compliments on my artwork from many people.  Was told that the curating committee loved my stuff instantly and even checked out my website to see what else I had, so sweet!  David Luke who hung the show (and to whom I owe deep gratitude for giving me prime real estate) said to me “I hope you don’t mind if I describe your work as delicate, funky, weird and science-y.”  My answer: of course not!  That’s exactly how I describe it myself.  Actually haven’t specifically used the word science-y before but two different people said it to me last night and I think it fits.  Too bad it’s not actually a real word.

Me with my artwork at Intermedia Arts

I got to chat a lot with Susan Hensel and we mutually discovered that the two exquisitely drawn graphite male nudes by Donna Dralle are actually of composers Haydn & Handel, which makes me giggle.  Also saw fellow WARM members Jeanne Souldern, Debra Roinestad, Angela Sprunger, and Loretta Bebeau.  Chatted with Eyenga Bokamba a bit, and also reconnected with Leann Johnson when I recognized her across the room and remembered we did the Labor Room project together at Center 4 Independent Artists several years back.  She has a really nice monoprint homage to her father in the show.  And at the end of the evening I met Jeremy Smith and Steven Berg, who run the StevenBe Yarn Garage Workshop which is literally right up the street from where I live and I can’t believe I haven’t been there yet.  Jeremy got me all excited to stop in and find some new yarn and rekindle my knitting projects.  (Who wants me to knit them something?)  I ended up hanging out with them at Moto-i for drinks after and heard about their MN fashion week show April 14th, the proceeds of which will go to aid south minneapolis teen Guadalupe Galeno-Hernandez who was shot and paralyzed last year.  Plus they have a fair trade yarn spinning project in South Africa in the works.  And of course they have a fantastic collaboration fiber installation piece in the SMARTS show, which you should go see if you haven’t already, hint hint.  It’s up through March 30th.

It’s exciting to learn more about the fantastic things going on right in my own neighborhood, some of which I didn’t even know existed.  So much more to explore.  In fact I met two people who live only a few blocks away from me (in addition to the yarn shop).  So to conclude: community, connection, art, energy, neighborhood, yay.  Happy dance.  Feels like it’s gonna be a good year.  I think I’ll go peruse the tweets from the Solutions Twin Cities 4 event, see what I missed.  Hope they post some video for us poor souls who had to miss out.  Also need to make something to submit to the Art 4 Shelter fundraiser coming up at Circa Gallery in May which Eyenga convinced me to get involved in; deadline is April 20th.

A sneak preview of what I’ve got in progress:

working on several small pieces at once

all my March event info in one place

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My mom asked me to post exactly which of my paintings are in which shows in March, since she can’t be here to see them.  And since yesterday was her birthday, I better do what she says (Happy Bday Mom!).  So here it is, all the event info for March all in one place:

Climb, Watercolor on Paper, 16" x 20". Sold.

Climb is on view in the Grain Belt Bottling House as a part of the Women’s Art Registry of Minnesota (WARM) member show Temporality, showing through March 31st. The building is open Mon-Fri 8am-6pm, and is located at 79 13th Ave NE, Minneapolis, MN

Thirst, Watercolor on Paper, 16" x 20"

Seedlings 2, Watercolor on paper, 10" x 13"

Incubators, Watercolor on Paper, 16″ x 20″

Thirst, Seedlings 2 and Incubators will all be showing in the SMARTS Arts of the Community II exhibit at Intermedia Arts March 11th-30th with an opening reception March 18th from 7-10pm.  Intermedia is open Mon-Fri 10am-6pm and Sat 12-5pm.

We had a great turnout on Friday night for the WARM members show Temporality.  Click here to see photos!  I had a great time meeting lots of artists whose names I knew from emails and statements but hadn’t met in person yet.  It’s great to see the excitement & potential of the organization growing.  I have been really impressed with the excellent quality of our members’ work.  We are, for the most part, a very professional and yet very unpretentious group.  In short, we take our art seriously, but don’t take ourselves too seriously.

Now I’m getting ready for the SMARTS show at Intermedia.  Framing in progress:

[portfolio_slideshow]

Unfortunately I made a dumb move yesterday and broke the glass in one of my frames.  The paint on the frame was kind of banged up anyway so I don’t feel too bad about having to replace it (especially since my piece in the WARM show was bought by fellow artist Claudia Poser!  She and her hubby are so adorable, and I really love her artwork, so it makes my heart smile that she’s buying my painting).  So I have two out of three done.  Plus I was reminded why it’s important to know what you really need BEFORE you get the framing supplies.  I ended up with some foam core backing that’s way too thick for the frames.  Oops.  Framing is such a pain, but it’s so exciting to see them all done.  They are like my little babies, and now they are all dressed up and ready to catch the bus to go off to kindergARTen!  Aww.

march madness

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The website’s been updated!  Check it. Home page info, resume, portfolio and artist’s statement were all tweaked or added to.

I have had probably the most productive 4-day weekend ever.  And I still have one more day to go.  We got the arranging of things pretty much done today for the Temporality show so tomorrow we have to do a little bit of painting and start hanging things up on the walls.  It’s gonna be a really nice show.  Come see it Friday night!  5-8pm.  I’ve been tweeting and facebooking up a storm for WARM, possibly going slightly mad with multiple personality disorder.  Fun stuff.

I also found out last week that three more of my watercolors were accepted into the SMARTS Arts of the Community II exhibition at Intermedia Arts, which will be up March 11th-30th with an opening reception March 18th from 7-10pm.  So it’s another busy busy March for me, similar to last year.  Love this time of year though, so much going on.  And I’m excited to be showing all new work that’s never been exhibited before.  I so completely adore the three pieces that were chosen for the Intermedia show and can’t wait to see them framed and up on the wall.

what I’ve been up to…

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art and tea

The painting on the table is a new one inspired by the mountain ash berries I used to play with when I was a kid.

taking inventory of my stash

enjoying autumn colors

and watching the snow

Trying to find room for contemplation in the midst of life’s chaos.  Feeling saddened by the sudden loss of Alex’s mother and wishing I could have had the chance to meet her.

This poem has been on my mind.

i carry your heart with me by E. E. Cummings

i carry your heart with me (i carry it in
my heart)i am never without it(anywhere
i go you go,my dear; and whatever is done
by only me is your doing,my darling)
i fear
no fate(for you are my fate,my sweet)i want
no world(for beautiful you are my world,my true)
and it’s you are whatever a moon has always meant
and whatever a sun will always sing is you

here is the deepest secret nobody knows
(here is the root of the root and the bud of the bud
and the sky of the sky of a tree called life;which grows
higher than the soul can hope or mind can hide)
and this is the wonder that’s keeping the stars apart

i carry your heart(i carry it in my heart)

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