Button Artwork at Anastasia & Friends Gallery

(Above:  Anastasia & Friends Gallery hung with some of my recent button artwork.  Click on any image to enlarge.)

Last Thursday was a wonderful evening showing Saint Anastasia, a fiber triptych, in the space that Anastasia loved best and to her many friends.  But, it was a one-night-only event!  Before midnight, Steve and I had everything packed, loaded into our car, and put back into the house.  The gallery was bare!

 (Above:  Touché the Button, far left; His Secrets and Her Secrets; and Typewriter Ads I, II, and III plus the exhibit sign.)

There had been another plan involving another artist, but things didn't quite work out.  I asked Bohumila, the gallery manager, if she needed artwork for the rest of the month.  She did.  This afternoon I hung a small show featuring some of my recent button artwork.

 (Above:  Ready, Aim, Fire! on the left; a piece from The Button as Art series; and Silence is Golden II over the water fountain.)

I really like this alternative art space.  It is the front of the Free-Times newspaper office.  The Free-Times is Columbia's weekly print publication, covering news, politics, arts and entertainment since 1987 (which is when Steve and I moved here.)  The walls are rich in the texture and colors of the building's past life.  The ceilings are beautifully high.  There are always lots of people going in and out.  I've shown quite a bit of artwork here over the years, in group shows and as a solo artist.

 (Above:  His Secrets and Her Secrets, a diptych.)

Because I know the space well, it was easy to put together a small sampling of my recent work.  I was especially happy to hang His Secrets and Her Secrets ... because many of the original snapshots were actually taken with feet of the wall.  Although lots of people sent images via the Internet, I took dozens while standing in the gallery for "First Thursday" in June.  Others were snapped at the weekly, Saturday Farmer's Market ... just outside the door!

(Above:  His Secrets and Her Secrets, a diptych.)

The same photos were used to create Silence is Golden I and II ... which are also on display until the end of the month.  At the end of the week, I travel to Homestead National Monument in Nebraska for my National Park art residency.  The proposal called for "using buttons".  Who knows other creative way I'll come up with for these otherwise ordinary objects!