Robyn Hill Hendrix

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2011. Things Happened!

January 25, 2012 By Administrator

I shared a little look-back at the past year in my most recent email newsletter:

I feel like I’ve come a long way in the past year.  Here’s a few highlights and things I’m grateful for:

  • Became a third Co-Chair of the Women’s Art Resources of Minnesota exhibition committee in the spring to assist Alis Olsen and Joan Seifert, and was elected as a WARM Board Member in December.  Look, I even have a fancy bio.
  • Poured a lot of energy into coordinating WARM’s annual member show “Temporality” in March, and was blown away by the quality of work our members exhibited and the great turnout at the reception.
  • Channeled a bit of my inner sillypants while writing about my “art babies” and won a 2012 NEMAA Membership for my Local Artist Interview
  • Coordinated a feminist art discussion group on Open Field hosted by WARM
  • Selected as a Placemaking Artist for Springboard for the Arts‘ Friendly Streets Project.  I collaborated with some amazing theater & drama therapist artists Talia & Jen to create the pLaYMaGinAtiON sPaCE.  Photos from our block party events are here (warning: may cause you to wish it was summer, as if you weren’t doing that anyway).  Talia & Jen have recently started a great new art org called Arts in Action; check them out.
  • Got a great new side-gig managing social media for the Irrigate project – Springboard’s much, much larger next step into the world of creative placemaking funded by ArtPlace.  Interested in public art, creative placemaking, urban planning, news from the Central Corridor, neighborhood & community organizing, or just want to check and make sure I’m doing a good job?  Like our Facebook Page or follow Irrigate on twitter.  I also highly recommend attending one of their free placemaking workshops for artists.
  • Developed an excellent professional skills trade with Suzanne of Suzanne Shaff Photography, who not only created amazing professional artist portraits for me but also acted as my own personal paparazzi at my solo show opening in November.  Suzanne is having a special pet portrait deal this weekend only, in case you have a photogenic furry friend (and from what I can tell, all animals are photogenic once they get in front of Suzanne’s camera).
  • Was touched by incredible support from friends, family, and colleagues through the good parts, and the rough stuff.  I really dug my heels into the Twin Cities community this year, decided to jump into the life I wanted to live, still feel like most of the time I have no idea what I’m really doing, but know that it’s worth it.

In addition to all these wonderful things, I had two major exhibitions of the largest body of work I’ve put together so far, first at the Minnesota Women’s Building with Deb Splain followed by the current solo show at the Baroque Room.

So, what’s next? Lots is in the works for 2012.  Not much of it is ready to be talked about quite yet.  I am planning to park myself somewhere at Art-a-Whirl for the first time this year.  Feedback from several people about the science-y, biological nature of my work seems to be nudging new works in progress even further in that direction.  Also contemplating a strange new fascination with the artistic potential of zippers, but that’s all I’ll say about that for now.

Filed Under: art Tagged With: 2011, art, minnesota, year in review

celebrationizms, gratitudizms.

September 19, 2011 By Administrator

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.

Filed Under: art Tagged With: art, events, mnarts, painting, placemaking, women's art registry of minnesota

inviting, framing, bubble wrapping…

September 6, 2011 By Administrator

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

Filed Under: art Tagged With: art, events, exhibitions, minnesota visual arts, mnarts, painting, resurfacing, watercolor, women's art registry of minnesota

new art full of questions

May 17, 2011 By Administrator

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!

Filed Under: art Tagged With: art, book club, books, feminism, feminist art, painting, questions, watercolor, women artists, women's art registry of minnesota, work in progress

fungi, bones, and dead animals

April 1, 2011 By Administrator

Sometimes, I take pictures of gross things that inspire me.  Like these mushrooms that came with a food donation this week:

Mmmm they are so intriguing and gooey and mysterious.  And floppy.  I love fungi.

A couple of weeks ago I conquered my fear of cutting up a whole raw chicken.  Although it wasn’t as tough as I’d imagined, I still never want to be a butcher (well, maybe if it involved wearing this and marrying mike myers).  After I was done cooking & shredding the chicken I had an inescapable urge to take the perfectly intact wishbones home with me.  So, I did.

wishbones

What shall I do with them?  Draw them, perhaps?  Wait for a friend to come visit so we can make wishes and break them?  What is it about bones that makes them so fascinating?  This instinctual curiosity with and collecting of dead things is reminding me of the dead bats story.  I could have sworn I had blogged about the dead bats, and intended to just link to an old post here, but a search for “dead bat” in my old wordpress blog comes up with nada.  Plus while paging through really old blog posts I realized that I’m not sure I feel like encouraging my readership to go back and read my bizarre ramblings from 2 yrs ago.  So hey!  Here’s a weird story about the strangest thing I ever did for art.  I told a couple friends about it at the St. Paul Bureau of Arts & Beverages last month, so I guess it was on my mind when I brought home my chicken bones.  (Psst click on the link!  Art happy hour with Springboard peeps is awesome!  And it’s happening again this Monday.)

It was Valentine’s Day of 2006.  I was living in Northfield, MN and on my morning walk to campus I found two dead bats lying in the snow on the sidewalk next to the old middle school building (soon to be Carleton’s new arts center).  The fact that I found them on Valentine’s Day has always seemed sort of…appropriate somehow.  Maybe because I had recently broken up with someone at the time.  The poor little guys looked so pitiful, belly-up & frozen, so I scooted them off to a hidden corner, thinking I didn’t want a dog to come find them and tear them apart.  I walked on to work, but their memory sort of haunted me and they were still there when I walked home later that day.  So the next time I put them in a shoebox and brought them to Boliou with me.  I decided I simply had to draw them.  It was fated to be so.  I taped them to the outside of the print studio windows (that way they stayed cold and didn’t stink up the studio), and I made a lithograph of them.

Chiroptera, Lithograph, 2006

Funny, I don’t remember getting very much flack from other Carleton staff & students about being the weird Studio Art 5th year who tapes dead animals to windows.  You’d think I would have, but hey, it’s Carleton.  And my fellow 5th year Peter Sowinski made a sculpture that same year that included a dead mouse, so…dead animals were a common theme for us.  Anyhoo, after I was done, the batties lived in a ziplog bag inside a box for a while until spring, and then I buried them in my backyard.  RIP.

So, that’s the dead bat story.  Weirdest thing I have ever done, and perhaps will ever do, for art’s sake.

Filed Under: art Tagged With: art, bats, bones, carleton college, chicken, dead animals, fungi, inspiration, printmaking, valentine's day, wishbones

drawings you can see through

December 11, 2010 By Administrator

I am loving playing with the transparency of the pages in my sketchbook project.  I discovered the delightful possibilities of this right after my last blog update.  It’s working really well for my style of line drawing.  Unfortunately my scanner does not capture the subtle interaction between drawings on adjacent pages at all so I’ve resorted to taking not-so-great photos of it from the camera on my phone (my rechargeable batteries for my slightly higher quality digital camera don’t work anymore).

I suppose taking a video in a really well lit environment might work better, but I don’t have that capability right now.  Not sure whether to feel frustrated that none of my available technology can accurately document my sketchbook project, or proud that I’ve made artwork that defies digitization.

Hope you also enjoy the close up view of my thumbs.  The transparency doesn’t work unless you hold the pages flat against each other.

[portfolio_slideshow]

Although I hate to dictate to the viewer what those little circles might represent on the last two pages, you can probably tell that snow is on my mind as I am snowed in here in Minneapolis, Minnesnowda.  We’ve gotten almost a foot and a half officially I guess, though the drifts outside the back door are more like two feet.  Staying home all day has been a bit lonely since Alex is in Cameroon now for his mother’s funeral, but I kept myself busy putting up my Xmas decorations and trying to start cleaning the kitchen.  My graphics design class was canceled, giving me at least another week to procrastinate on preparing the “personal logo” project that I don’t really want to do.  It might morph into designing a better header for this blog & website, even though I’m pretty happy with the one I have right now and don’t think that would actually help me practice any of the new skills I’ve learned over the semester.  Can you use the term “semester” for a continuing ed class anyway?  Sounds weird…

Anyway stay warm out there fellow MN blizzard people!

Update: after a lot of shoveling and gracious help from various neighbors I was able to get my car out of the lot, out of the alley, and onto nicely plowed chicago ave.  My thumbs, arms and back are aching from all the shoveling!

Filed Under: art Tagged With: art, art house coop, blizzardpeople, drawing, ladders, minnesota, mnarts, sketchbook, sketchbook project, sketchbookproject, snow art, transparency

Sketchbook Project beginnings

December 3, 2010 By Administrator

Here’s the first few pages from my sketchbook project.  My theme is “and then there was none.”  I’m feeling less than confident about finishing it in time to send it in with everything else that’s been going on, but I’m going to try to keep plugging along and see how it goes.  At least it’s something that keeps me motivated to draw.  I’m enjoying returning to line drawings after I’ve focused mostly on watercolor work lately.  Kind of wish I had enough gusto and technical expertise to rebind it with yupo and other watercolor paper, but oh well.  Yupo isn’t good for lots of handling anyway, and the paint probably wouldn’t hold up as well.

page one

page two

page three

page four

Filed Under: art Tagged With: art, art house co-op, arthouse, drawing, sketchbookproject, sketching

what I’ve been up to…

November 29, 2010 By Administrator

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)

Filed Under: art, crafts, random thoughts Tagged With: art, autumn, poetry, snow, springboard for the arts, tea, women's art registry of minnesota

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