Betsy Siegel's Holiday Show

A beautiful concept. One that is exclusive and still has the aura of warmth and welcome. House to 16 artists this year for three days, Betsy Siegel's Holiday Show is like an evening with friends, only very talented and extremely creative friends:) The show is held in Ms.Siegel's house. The artists come, clear out the furniture, take over the first floor and voila! All through this post, I will be jumping in tangents talking about the artists and their works here and elsewhere, so forgive my ADD:)

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The earthy clay and porcelain works had me in awe. No stone unturned, no wheel unchurned.

I have to mention a couple of artists here, Pat Johnson, Gary Huntoon and Lebeth Lammers. Lebeth is also represented by the 18 Hands Gallery and is their featured artists for the month of December.

Have you seen Origami jewelery?????? This was such a revelation that paper could be classy! Joan Son is one such artist who is not only a fun person to be with, her take on this discipline is intriguing. I had to buy this pair of earrings from her 'cause ahem,...god told me to :O Talking of paper, Nanci Engle is another paper artist whose meticulous creations are a gifter's delight! 

And of course there is my favorite Kiki Neumann who works with Recycled Garden Items and does she work it! Her current creation is dustpans made of license plates! How cool is that! And she takes custom orders too! (Unfortunately, photography is not my specialty as you can probably tell,sorry kiki!)

All in all, it was a fun evening that left me feeling all gooey and elated at the same time. Thank you Ms.Siegel, it is artists like you who are generous enough to open up to others that leaves us spellbound:)

Process

The Village Firefly

There is a certain truth to folk art that is hard to parallel in fine art. Folk Art originates from a culture's untrained artists who want to depict day to day activities or events in a style that is meant only to explain and record.

The Village Firefly in Houston is a gallery that has an interesting mix of various folk and mixed media artists. They range from jewelers to potters to painters to sculptors. Tucked in a little shoe box, this gallery is a little haven that has Alice and her wonders written all over it:)

The Village Firefly is located at 2422 Rice Blvd, Houston TX 77005.

Cholamandalam Artists Village, Chennai

Yea, what a let down! Such a disservice to artists! I am amazed by the callousness of this place. The only thing that appealed to me was the sculpture garden. Cholamandalam is a collection of galleries in Chennai, India and believe me its a waste of good space. It was blatantly obvious that the politics of the place has completely killed the essence that the founders meant to instill.

I walked into the main gallery in the ground floor and was greeted by a most unhappy lady at the reception who was busy signing papers of some kind, professor style. Anyway, when I picked up the artists information, I was told by the cleaning lady(!) that this information was confidential and I was not allowed to take it with me. And from then on, she followed me everywhere to make sure I didn't STEAL the artists info. I don't have a photographic memory and the inflated prices there definitely meant I wasn't going to pick anything during my first visit. So, how was I going to research on the artist???? I started writing down all the artists names.

Anyway, the best part about the galleries were the sculptures. Barring a select few, the paintings were mediocre and the concept of 'Indian Contemporary Abstract' seemed like a lost cause. The artists could not leave abstract to its true nature, it did not seem effortless. And too much of an overdose of mythological figures. They have been done to malnutrition, please find something else.

I had the opportunity to talk to a few Chola Artists and they were all disgruntled and none of them show there any more. And they are established artists who constantly show at galleries around town, just not here.
Says much doesn't it....