Art Curator Despina Tunberg had gone through all of my artwork and wrote a curatorial review.
I am very pleased and excited about what she wrote! She was able to verbally say in a short time what I have been feeling and going through, striving to express over many years.
Enjoy reading!
Certain times of the year the sun shines on the stained glass we have in our kitchen and the color and patterns show up on the shade I have in front of it. I never tire of seeing this, it excites me, calms me, mesmerizes me. I love the way the texture of the glass and other aspects show up on the window shade.
I had forgotten that I had submitted artwork to a huge international competition with multiple categories. I received an email today stating that I am a winner, Honorable Mention, in the Open Theme Category !
Considering there is a ton of entries for this competition globally, I am very grateful to have my painting "Spiritual Tuning" in this list of winners.
The link to the site is: http://www.bestartawards.com/
The first page is the Open Theme Category and I am in the Honorable Mention section.
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There is no financial award for this or many other awards I have been receiving, just the acknowledgment of placing in these international juried competitions and that my artwork is competitive among so many amazing artists.
I have a painting accepted into an online art show titled The Big Chill. It is an international show put on by ART FLUENT out of Boston, MA. 426 entries from 5 countries and I had my painting titled Winter Tree accepted into this! The acceptance letter with the link for the show is below the image.
Media Name: Winter Tree - - Accepted
Isaac Smith:
Congratulations!
We are thrilled to inform you that your artwork has been selected to be part of our online exhibit, THE BIG CHILL. Your submission stood out from 426 entries from five countries worldwide, and we are honored to have the opportunity to showcase your work.
We were blown away by the incredible quality and diversity of the submissions we received, your work truly spoke to us. We believe that your talent and creativity will inspire others and make a real impact in the art community.
Your work is now proudly displayed on our website, www.art-fluent.com/gallery/the-big-chill/
We encourage you to share this exciting news with your friends, family, and followers and to take advantage of this incredible opportunity to expand your reach and connect with new audiences.
If you have provided us with your website, thank you. You will see your website when you click on your image to view full size. It will be on the following page. If your site is not displayed, don't hesitate to contact us by email at hello@art-fluent.com. We would be happy to create a direct link to your site.
We are passionate about supporting the arts and giving back to the community. As a part of our culture, we have donated to various art organizations across the United States since our inception in 2020, and we are committed to continuing this important work.
Again, congratulations on being selected for our exhibition, and thank you for allowing us to feature your incredible art. We wish you all the best in your future artistic endeavors, and we hope this exhibition will be just the beginning of an exciting and successful journey.
Sincerely,
Amy Matteson Neill
Creative Director
ART FLUENT
1 Washington Mall #1218
Boston, MA 02108
www.instagram.com/art__fluent
www.art-fluent.com
The glass panel is now installed into the interior door frame.
I have 2 paintings accepted into a publication titled Masters of Art - 21st Century, published by World Wide Art Books . There are 55 artists from around the world who were juried and accepted into this book. The online version can be seen at https://wwab.us/moa-1/ My page is 111. The printed books come out next month.
I am grateful to be part of this collection and for my being acknowledged for being at this level.
Today is the Autumn Equinox and it was the perfect day to start bonding the beveled color glass pieces onto the clear bevels of the large glass panel I had been working on a few months ago. I am finally at a good point with all that has been happening to start this part of the project.
At the end of May I submitted 5 paintings for a Digital Art Show in New York City titled FLOW put on by ARTHOUSE.NYC. There were 6 curators and my painting "Pianist" was accepted into the show!
The show runs from June 8-22 with a reception that occurred on the 12th. At the reception the Best of FLOW is displayed on a large outdoor screen in the Big Screen Plaza. To my surprise, my painting was one of the pieces shown!
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This is absolutely amazing!
Following is a description and dates of the show:
I am excited to be in this show and honored that Pianist was selected as part of the Best of FLOW!
Very excited about all of the glass color pieces now polished, completed!
Life has been a little hectic lately resulting in being a little behind schedule in beveling the color pieces for the Interior Door stained glass panel. I did start and completed the first phase of beveling (Roughing):
22 of these to bevel, 3 more stages to go. The goal is to have these completed by the end of the week and then clean the panel followed by bonding the color pieces on top of the clear bevels throughout the design.
I have been working on puttying the panel and just completed the back side. This is a traditional process in using either lead came, zinc came, or other type of came that the glass fits into. There is a space that the putty/cement fills in that used to be for weather proofing a stained glass panel as well as making the panel more secure, stronger.
I am now cutting the colored glass to the shape of the center portion of the clear bevels. They will be hand beveled after I putty the whole panel, both sides. After the cleaning of the panel, the color pieces will be bonded on top of the clear bevel.
Finally completed piecing together the stained glass panel for the Interior Door!
Far from being completed, next up is soldering all the joints front and back then putty both sides, followed by cutting color glass the size of the middle section of each clear beveled piece. While the putty sets for a couple of weeks I will bevel each color piece, then clean the panel and lastly bond the color pieces on top of the clear bevels. Once that is all completed the installation will happen soon after.
I was in the garage with only certain areas lit up and glanced at the glass on the table, the bevels caught my eye. Interesting the different lighting creating different effects with the glass even while on the worktable.
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The online version of the book Current Masters 7 is now available! Following is the link:
The printed books come out in a couple of months.
Recently, my work was juried and accepted into a book titled Current Masters 7. I just approved the proof for the 2 pages that I will have in this book:
The book will be released online sometime this month with the printed version in March.
I've been looking at Spiritual Tuning quite often since completing the varnishing and am now at a point where I can verbalize different aspects of this painting, what was going on while painting it and where the imagery originated from.
This was created over a two year period from 2021-2023 as indicated from earlier posts. The pose of the figure really captivated me- don't think I understood why fully at the time, definitely the overall shape and form of the pose as well as the light/dark aspects of it. After reflection I feel the pose has an introspective quality which I was going through at the time- healing from the past from religion, relationships, hurts, etc. Throughout the 2 year period I listened to a lot of music which allowed me to see so many colors, shapes, movement which all came out in this figure. The background has a yin yang feel which came from a lot of reading, learning and understanding dynamics of relationships/marriage and my own marriage. Learning about the dynamics of security and sexuality in a a marriage/relationship and how they are opposites. Once I really understood what was happening internally such as emotional healing, learning, introspection, changing- along with the musical aspects creating the color, movement, etc, the title Spiritual Tuning was quite vivid in my mind- an adjustment to become more of who I am.
Here is the progress so far on the Interior Door glass panel:
I am now at a point where I need to create more beveled pieces to continue the process. This will take quite awhile to complete as there are more of them than the first set of bevels that were completed earlier.
I was told that I needed a catchy title and this is what I came up with.
Following are close up images of the 1st stage of the beveling which will be easier to see each bevel. I am showing these to explain how the bevels that I create are different from anything you have seen. Typically when you see bevels in glasswork such as in entryways, mirrors, bevel clusters that stained glass artists can purchase, etc. each bevel is a particular width and remains that width all around the shape.
Quite a few years ago I was taught how to hand bevel and the width had to be the same all around the shape. In the mid 1990s I was piecing together a panel with bevels that I had created and the design was flat due to each bevel being the same width all around the shapes and each one next to each other. I wanted more movement and depth to the design so I started playing with the idea of changing the width of the bevel from one side to the other and different widths from opposite sides of the shape. This created much more movement and depth throughout the design. This can be seen in many of the images I have throughout this blog as well as in my web sites isaacdsmith.com and stained-glass-creations.com
This additional light play as well as increased depth and movement adds to my purpose to Nourish Your Soul Through a Symphony of Light and Colour!
The full scale stained glass design for the interior door is now completed:
