2002
12-29-02 Whew! Just updated the ol' webpage with at least 50 new images, feedback is always welcome. I'm trying to make it easier for me to add images. At first I wasn't sure if I wanted to include images of almost everything I make. But then I decided, why not?
My mom and I are doing a project now inspired by an artist we read about in Art on Paper Magazine, Dec. 02. Jutta Koether did a seies of colored pencil drawings with just the pencils available in local hobby shops. She used chinese grid paper and simply colored in the squares differently. She did one a day for a year and a half. Was it Prince who said "there's joy in repetition"? Well, another joy to repetition (and simplicity) is it makes it easier to make art part of everyday life. OK. So Mom and I are making grid drawings too. We draw a 4x6 grid on 5" x 7" paper (vertical), and fill in the squares differently. We can use any medium: collage, markers, paint, fruit loops. Then we put our initials and date at the bottom. We are to make 25 each by April 1. That's all the rules we have given ourselves. Other people may take part in this also. It will be fun to exhibit them together.
I sent a proposal to a gallery in Portland to fill it with 1000 friendly machines. These would be cut out paper drawings and paintings assembled on the walls. I'm getting ready to send out some more slide packets.
11-9-02 I've been busy working on art, travelling to shows, and working part time at my new job doing graphic design at Alpha Omega Printing here in Roswell. Jamie and I had good trips to Seattle at the beginning of October for a show at Coca, and to Chicago for a show at Concordia University, River Forest. The Chicago show was great because I also got to visit my brother and sister-in-law who live in Evanston. Also had a fun time going to Denver in September for the grand opening of Studio Aiello, a really cool art space there. I'm presently getting ready for a solo show there in January. My studio is the garage and I am lucky that the weather here has been fairly mild, because it is drafty. Roswell continues to be an ok place to live. Low stress, I can walk to work, cheap rent... I have tons of new work that I need to scan in and place on the website. There are a bunch of new paintings on paper done with Sumi ink with text underneath about human-machine love.
8-20-02 OK! I'm all settled in the new house. Looking for some part-time work in layout, web design, and computer stuff to see me through monetarily. At least the cost of living is very LOW here in Roswell. Some new shows are in the works. Good Ol' Dino Martini of the Center on Contemporary Art in Seattle let me know I can have a solo exhibit there opening October 5th (photo of show and wall painting at Coca). Also, in Denver, there is a new artspace opening up called Studio Aiello, run by Tyler and Monica Aiello, and I will be exhibiting a couple of large paintings in their inaugural show which opens September 6th. Then in the end of October, I will be exhibiting in River Forest, Illinois at Concordia University. The other day I found this in my email "'Cute' robots could take over, warns ABC Nightline. ABC Nightline, August 19, 2002. With robots getting cuter, like MIT's Kismet and Sony's Aibo puppy, and people playing less with real people and more with fake ones, "one day, adorable robots could do us great harm and we are not ready," warned ABC science correspondent Robert Krowlich on Nightline tonight, August 19. " The article is here if you want to find out more about cute robots and the chances that they could take over. I do not believe that we should be worried so much about all the harm that adorable robots could wreak. I would rather conceptualize the fantastic and wonderful situations that could occur with a proliferation of cute and friendly electronics. In case you are wondering, I still need to upload the new art images. Hopefully soon.
7-20-02 I'm in the process of moving right now. I have a lot of art to upload to the website, but that probably won't happen til we're all moved in... I'm still making time to paint and create even in this busy time. I'm looking for a job now that the residency is almost over. Also, Jamie and I had a fantastic trip to Minneapolis a couple weeks ago. There was a wedding to attend and lots of family to visit.
7-1-02 We got the house, it's really cute. The new address will be 806 5th Street, Roswell, NM 88201. We'll be moving in a couple weeks. Our friends Brian and Sandra live right next door. Some other friends from the museum live a couple blocks away and we can walk to the gourmet coffee shop and to the library. We are really excited. Hopefully I'll get a picture soon. Also, need to post some pictures of the art I've been making lately, some larger paintings on paper for example.
6-27-02 Roswell life: Jamie and I are looking for a place to rent here. The other day, I was told by a landlord that she does not rent to unmarried couples. I assured her that we have excellent references, etc. She said, fill out the application and she would pray on it! Actually, it is the cutest house we've seen so far and a friend of ours at the museum is living there now but she's moving in a couple weeks. That's how we found out about it. Jamie and I are planning a trip to Minneapolis in July. I am really looking forward to going to visit a real city again and just getting a break from this place. I have started to make the new web page for Jamie's flight school, it's an FBO out here in Roswell that rents planes and everything (http://www.greatsouthwestaviation.com). There have been some fun poker parties out here on the compound. Also,for father's day I visited dad in Rio Rancho and he wanted a mural for his shed. He picked out the design and everything. Here it is with Jamie and Jeff in front of it. Photo of shed.
6-10-02 I've been working on some more medium sized colorful oil paintings of satellites. I've been talking with Dino Martini who had to vacate his gallery space in Seattle just as my show was about to open this January. He is working on opening a new larger gallery in Seattle, and he is showing my work up there as a private dealer. I have a date for my show in River Forest, IL at Concordia College, October 28 - November 15, 2002. I also will be showing at my Ex's space, The Museum of Unfine Art, in Eugene, OR April 1-14, 2003. Hopefully I will set up some more shows. I have been working on my slides and I'm mailing out slide packets now to various places. My friend Martin Ontiveros who is also an artist, sent me a Domo-Kun stuffed animal. It is really cute, but has a big mouth with pointy teeth. Last night we had a birthday party on the patio for Rosemarie, another artist here. Some new artists have arrived, Luis and Anna Serrano from L.A. I now know that I have to move out of the compound by August 1. Jamie and I are keeping our eyes open for a rental here.
6-7-02 My boyfriend Jamie Ronnei moved to Roswell to be with me and I helped. It was a lot of work! We moved him here from Phoenix. He is a flight instructor now at Great Southwest Aviation and we are planning to live here in Roswell after the residency ends. I've been working on researching the theorists who predict that machines will evolve and ultimately replace humans. Some of the authors I'm reading are Ray Kurzweil, Vernor Vinge, and Hans Moravec.
5-20-02 I have a new friend called My Robot Friend. He is a musician and has some nice music. This is his website http://www.myrobotfriend.com.
5-13-02 I just posted some more daily paintings. Right now I'm listening to my new CD, Meco "Galactic Funk", the disco version of Star Wars. I'm experimenting with Flash (animations for the web) so I'll hopefully post something soon. This residency is a good opportunity to learn a new computer program and Flash is definitely hard for me to learn. (June note: It was so hard to learn, I didn't make anything yet worth posting).
5-8-02 Roswell Artist-in-Residence Program: For all of you who want to know, here's the link. They have been updating the website and it's got the new application up for next year, plus information about the current artists and links to other residencies and much more. http://www.rair.org
5-6-02 Boyfriend Jamie is visiting and he's getting ready to move here at the end of the month. He'll be a flight instructor at Great Southwest Aviation and he already has 3 interested students. Yay! Last night we got to eat over at another artist's house here on the residency. Eddie and Diane made a traditional New Mexico meal of pinto beans, spanish rice and pork chili with corn tortillas and avocados on the side. Diane said they eat beans almost every day. It was real good. Diane also said that the person who used to live in my house found a whip tailed scorpion in her bed. This is moth season and every night there are about 50-75 moths in the house. We kill them by turning all the lights out and shining a desk lamp into a bowl of sudsy water. They get caught and die. It is kinda sad. They say this moth infestation will be over in 2 weeks. I cannot wait. It is so gross.
5-4-02 We had a great time last night at the Roswell Museum reception. The show received coverage by the local news also! Yay. There was a catered dinner after the reception and the cake at the end of the meal was decorated with the baker's rendition of one of my satellite paintings with eyeballs (#93). Dad was here from Rio Rancho and he videotaped my talk, the highlight of which was the discussion with some members of the audience of Arthur C. Clarke's novel/screenplay "2001" about whether humans will become one with their technology in the future. Everyone's favorite part of the show was the collaborative piece, "Constellations" by Edie Tsong and myself: 5 mobiles hanging from the ceiling, with 29 little satellite constructions. Their playful, spontaneous spirit was contagious. These were lit up and glinting and reflecting shadows on the blank wall with my name and the title of the show, "All Watched Over by Machines of Loving Grace". Pretty cool. We'll have some pictures soon.
5-3-02 Opening Reception, Roswell Museum Exhibit, "All Watched Over By Machines of Loving Grace"*, Friday May 3rd, 5-7 pm. Artist talk at 4pm that same day. (*Title of exhibit from the Richard Brautigan poem)
5-1-02 Almost done getting ready for the show. The paintings are hung. The collaborative piece "Constellation" of satellite mobiles by Edie Tsong and I is just about installed. Finishing up the satellite booklet now. Made a change of 4-23 entry regarding a thank you to the Roswell Museum and Art Center for paying for the brochures. (The Roswell Artist in Residence Program doesn't pay for the brochures, but thanks are in order to them too for helping to design the brochure and just for everything they do for us artists in residence). Getting ready for Dad and Jamie who are arriving today to help with the opening. Sad news: Kumi leaves today. A reminder that this year only lasts a year, and I will have to pack up too to leave sometime in August.
4-24-02 Here is a page with the artworks that will be in the Roswell show.
4-23-02 The big 8" x 15" folded brochure is out. Thanks to the Roswell Museum and Art Center which covered the printing of them. And thanks to them also for the press releases, postcard, reception, honorarium, and signage! Whew, a lot of work goes into these exhibits! (If you want a brochure, drop me a line and I'll mail you one.) Thanks also to everyone for the feedback and interest on this site. I've heard from some old friends since the brochure went out. Here in the day to day Roswell existence, I've been painting pretty much every day and also I've been working with my artist neighbor Edie on the paper board satellite-mobiles. We now have about 50. Also, still going to ceramics and making mugs bowls and plates for fun. Yesterday my friend Kumi gave me a present of getting my "aura photo" done. I was surrounded by red light which means I am working with the energy of the root chakra! Well, the man who gave the interpretation was a flake-zoid who kept going on about the mayan calendar and the importance of the year 2013 and how he was beaten by his parents til he was 16. Really this guy confirmed all my worst expectations about dabbling in the "psychic" phenonmenon. But it was a funny and interesting experience.
3-30-02 Edie Tsong (my neighbor on the residency) and I are making a lot of little satellite and spaceship "sculptures" out of colored paper board from packaging like cookie and film boxes. We started this a couple weeks ago. I will post a photo as soon as I have something. We have 15 so far and we are making them into mobiles as a collaborative project. We're all going to the Jimenez ranch in Hondo, New Mexico for Easter. Tonight, Rosemarie and I (another neighbor-artist) will be decorating the confetti eggs. These are eggs, with the insides blown out, into which you stuff confetti. Then you close up the hole, decorate them and throw them at each other on easter. Today I read an article from the New York Times about artist Paul Klee. Here is a quote, "A line comes into being. It goes out for a walk, so to speak, aimlessly, for the sake of the walk." I like to go for aimless walks. I also like to make drawings by going for a walk with a line.
3/28/02 Tonight I helped make the robot pinata for easter. I just made a webpage for Edie who is on the residency with me. Here is the address: http://www.kellynewcomer.com/tsong.htm. What else is new? I have a press release for my May show. There is a poem by Richard Brautigan that we're using on the brochure. Here is a link to that poem. All Watched Over By Machines of Loving Grace. Here is the press release for my May exhibit.
3/10/02 Just getting ready for a studio and open house this coming weekend. Doing slides. Making new paintings. Getting more interested in making 3-D satellites out of board and also ceramics. Making mugs and bowls in ceramics decorated with satellite designs and happy faces. Went to a writing workshop last week and was inspired to write more. Jamie coming out to visit and look for a job flying out here.
ON HOLD: Feb. exhibit at Nico Gallery, Seattle. They are probably going to postpone the show. More as I find out. (1/10/01)
1/16/02 Just updated the daily paintings pages with 18 more pieces. Kumi is having her art show at the museum opening this Friday. She is another artist on the residency.
1/10/01 The show is on hold until further notice so I won't be planning a trip to the Northwest for the beginning of February. What else is new? I just posted more daily paintings, and a few more available artworks.
1/6/02 Found out about miniature satellites today. Also found out there are over 9500 satellites going around the earth.
1/5/02 Getting ready for the show next month (Dino's Gallery). I'm planning on driving and stopping in Portland and Eugene also to see old friends.