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Tag: Gracelee Lawrence

CALL for SUBMISSIONS: Virtual Studio Visit

Learn more about the Virtual Studio Visit Network!feed ME

Home is found in shared moments–meals, moments & community.  I spend more than 200 days a year on the road.  I eat in my car, in the bar, in restaurants large and small.  The where rarely matters; it is always about the who.  It is about connections.  I create my communities musically, politically, culturally & culinary.  The next Call is a way to help you create a larger artistic community that isn’t just an echo chamber of your local peers. Branch out. Create YOUR community…

Check out this Call for Submissions from Virtual Studio Visit Network, a new project of Gracelee Lawrence, a previously-featured AAAD artist.  This is a no cost opportunity to create a global artistic community for yourself.  I love this…

Learn more about the Virtual Studio Visit Network! CALL for SUBMISSIONS:
Virtual Studio Visit Network

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ELIGIBILITY:  Open to all artists. *Note: Although not indicated online, a bachelor’s degree, of some sort, is preferred.

MEDIA:  Open to all media.

DEADLINE:  December 31, 2016. *Note: the Call is ongoing; however, December 31st is a goal for having enough participants to get started.

NOTIFICATION:  Two weeks from submission date

ENTRY FEE:  None

JUROR/CURATOR:  Gracelee Lawrence recently completed her MFA in Sculpture + Extended Media at the University of Texas at Austin and is currently a visiting artist in the Multidisciplinary Art Department at Chiang Mai University on a Luce Scholars Fellowship. Lawrence graduated from Guilford College as a Principled Problem Solving Scholar with an honors degree in Sculpture and minors in Spanish and Art History. She is a Co-Founder/Director of Pig & Pony as well as a contributing writer for the International Sculpture Center Blog.

ABOUT VSVN:  The dialogue begins with the VSVN facilitating the connection between two artists to have a virtual visit. The VSVN will expand into a forum, online gallery, member directory & more in the coming months– to form meaningful connections & dialogue however possible. 

For complete details, Read the Full Call!

Learn more about the Virtual Studio Visit Network!

 

2011 FEATURED ARTIST: Last Day to Vote!

Click to Subscribe to www.ArtAndArtDeadlines.com by Email!PEACHES

Sometimes the best is clearly the best— the cream of the crop, the ripest peach, the perfect raspberry, the ooey-gooeyest of chocolate sauce.  This year I have had the privelege of choosing Featured artists that are definitely the sweetest peaches on the tree.  Here is your chance to pick the best of the bushel, so to speak.

Check out these 2011 Featured Artists brought to you by AAAD.  Each artist has a chance to be named the 2011 Featured Artist of the Year.  To cast your vote, leave a comment on their original post (links below).  The rules are simple: one comment per person per artist by midnight EST on December 31, 2011.  You have to actually say something; don’t just leave a smiley face.  Editor’s Note:  Don’t worry if your comment doesn’t show up immediately because I moderate every comment.  The contest has a clearly front runner at the moment, but it is still wide open.  So make your vote count…

2011 Featured Artists

Learn more about Featured Artist Denee Black!

Click to learn more about Featured Artist Deanna Bowdish!

Click to learn more about Daniel Embree!

Click to Learn More about Book Carver Julia Feld!

Click to learn more about Featured Artist Gracelee Lawrence!

Click to learn more about Artist Terri Lloyd!

Click to learn more about Featured Artist Meredith Martens!

Learn More about Featured Artist Penny Perkins!

Learn More about Featured Artist Pamela Zimmerman!

FEATURED ARTIST: Gracelee Lawrence

Click to Subscribe to www.ArtAndArtDeadlines.com by Email!OH, HONEY,
she held the sugar

The judging of this $2 Art Contest is really not getting anyeasier. I review lots of art both as a part of judging this contest and as a part of my passion for art.  But nothing makes writing rejection letters okay.  I get them myself, and let’s be honest… they suck, no matter how well-intentioned.  My letter-writing mission is simple.  I want to highlight what makes work good and offer suggestions or explanations for why it doesn’t work for this particular contest this particular month.

This month’s artist is a perfect example of how a rejection letter CAN work.  She submitted work.  I didn’t choose her.  It had nothing to do with her work and everything to do with the accessibility and presentation of the work.

Now normally, when I write a rejection letter, I get one of a handful of responses: a simple thank you, excuses, or objections.  But, every once in a while, I get a response that makes it all worth it: “Thank you.  I fixed the issues.  Please take another look.”

Learn more about Gracelee Lawrence!I took another look.
And the view is spectacular.

 

I am so proud to announce the Featured Artist chosen from the November entries is Gracelee Lawrence. Her artwork speaks to what it means to be feminine without indulging stereotypes.

Sweet as honey, not sugar,
if you will.

 

These sculptures are a beautiful aesthetic combined with the marvel of hand-crafted workmanship that both speak to how powerful the feminine dynamic can be.  It isn’t as if I had forgotten that I AM WOMAN, but is wonderful to see someone scream it.

Endometrium by Sculptor Gracelee LawrenceFEATURED ARTIST:
Gracelee Lawrence

Gracelee graduated from Guilford College with a degree in Sculpture, minors in Spanish and Art History and plans to pursue her Master’s Degree in the future. She comes from a family of artists- her mother, father, and grandmothers introducing her to many different kinds of art from an early age. Gracelee is a sculptress and horsewoman.

What do you consider your media?  Do you primarily consider yourself a sculptor or an installation artist? Something else?  “I am a sculptor all the way, tried and true. In a few weeks I’ll be doing my first large installation, who knows where that will lead. My sculptures and installations are completely linked and related, in my mind it is all about using and changing how we perceive space.  As Pablo Gargallo once said, ‘Sculpture is air…’ ” 

Clearly, there is an aesthetic voice to your work.  How does color choice play a role in expressing your point of view?  “I think of color as an object.  This is a thought that I first heard when Orly Genger described her work.  How great is that?  Color both incites emotion and creates a particular aesthetic.  I am usually drawn to warm colors… hard to verbalize exactly why that is.”

Lustrum by Sculptor Gracelee LawrenceDo you do your own builds–mechanics,  welding and  powder coating?  “Hard and soft is my deal, I’m all about that contrast.  I’ve been sewing since I was 4 years old (taught by my mother and grandmother) and have done several sculptural dresses.  When I got my hands on steel and learned how to weld it was time for me to combine these two passions.  I do all of my own steel work and painting.  I prep the steel, mix my own custom colors, and everything else except the coating itself.  I don’t do the powder coating but if I had the facilities I certainly would.  I create creatures (big steel forms) by using a series of templates that I have created. These templates range from 1 foot to 5 feet and are triangles, pentagons, and squares. Perhaps there are some hexagons emerging in the near future…”

The use of natural materials like eggs and crab claws and  horse hair alongside industrial, powder-coated steel really captured my heart.  Is this a less  literal hard and soft…ie, natural and manufactured? “Definitely, natural and manufactured is one of the other contrasts that I enjoy.  Even the synthetic orange baling twine takes on a more organic feel when paired with the steel.

Fledge by Sculptor Gracelee LawrenceYou know we have to talk about food.  What are your favorites? “Scones are most certainly my favorite baked good… if I could I’d make a batch every day.  I love when the whole house smells like tasty baking scones.  Toast with honey is a clear snack-food winner. Especially if accompanied with a large mug of earl grey tea.”  Just as a side-note, Gracelee, these foods are far more Zen than I would have expected from an in-your-face sculptor.

So, what’s coming up next for you?  “I’m exhibiting up and down the east coast, my first solo show is in February of 2012!  Very exciting.  Going for my MFA starting next fall.  And of course, continuing to ride my lovely horse.”

Thank you, Gracelee Lawrence for making me want to sing “I Am Woman” at the top of my lungs.  I’m not certain that you will take conjuring Helen Reddy as a compliment, so trust me…it IS meant that way.  I am reminded of my own power by the power in your work. You’re are an inspiration!

Learn more about Gracelee Lawrence online!

Learn more about Featured Artist Gracelee Lawrence!

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Check out the
$2 Art Contest!