Thanks to Lunch Ticket for the spotlight on
the “Do I know you?” series by R.L. Gibson.
•
Category: DIKY
IN THE PRESS: SavannahNow.com
HEARTBREAKER, not heart broken
Many thanks to SavannahNow for including my work in their coverage of “The Gift You Never Wanted” exhibit at the Non-Fiction Gallery in Savannah, GA, sponsored by ArtRise Savannah. Here’s a link to the article. (continues below)
The reception is Friday, December 18th from 6 to 9 pm (1522 Bull Street, Savannah), and the show runs through January 4th. Both “Heartbreaker” & “Cut Throat” are 11″ x 14″ digital-collaged mixed media, rendered as xerography on canvas and are available for sale through the Non-Fiction Gallery. Price available on inquiry.
Learn more about the #DIKY series!
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Gifts in Savannah.
inheritance. thanks, but no thanks
I am proud to have both “Heartbreaker” & “Cut Throat” including in “The Gift You Never Wanted” exhibit at the Non-Fiction Gallery in Savannah, GA, sponsored by ArtRise Savannah. Here’s a link to more info. (continues below)
The reception is December 18th from 6 to 9 pm (1522 Bull Street, Savannah), and the show runs through January 4th. Both “Heartbreaker” & “Cut Throat” are 11″ x 14″ digital-collaged mixed media, rendered as xerography on canvas and are available for sale through the Non-Fiction Gallery. Price available on inquiry.
Learn more about the #DIKY series!
• • • • •
RESULTS: Thankful
… a wonderful way to start
the “Thankful” holidays!
“Dear R.L. Gibson, It is with great pleasure and excitement that I welcome you into the Lunch Ticket Literary Family. We receive a number of strong submissions each viewing period and choose the works we feel strongly represent Lunch Ticket’s Mission, while showcasing great talent and skill. We are so very excited to reproduce your collection, ‘Do I Know You?‘ — A Xerography Series.”
Thanks for the love, Lunch Ticket –a literary & art journal from the MFA community at Antioch University Los Angeles. I am looking forward to seeing my work among these pages. As an English major with a concentration in Composition, this artist is particularly pleased to be included. Be sure to check out their current issue.
3…2…1… Three acceptance letters spanning two bodies of work in one week puts such a smile on my face. Thanks again.
Happy Holidays!
• • • • •
Experiments Continue.
MORE COLOR
I have spent a lot of years working with an absence of color. Black & white photography has and continues to be the cornerstone of my work. In 2014, I opened Do I Know You with every piece featuring hand-drawn background patterns to that same b&w photography. But, as I continue to move toward a new series, Better Than Figs, I can seem unable to avoid color. (continues below)
I’ve been experimenting with both color and b&w photography on both white and colored gesso (examples above). I’ve also been testing out other transfer mediums. In the end, colored gesso will likely find a place in my work.
Stay tuned!
Lessons continue.
vanished
On December 14, 2014, she finally got some peace. Emma Gibson had just 15 days to go until her 93rd birthday, but she just couldn’t go there. My intimate journey with her began 2 years ago today with a phone call.
When I answered that call that told me my father was in the ICU grappling with what would eventually be revealed as fatal injuries, my first thoughts were not for him but for my grandmother. She had been in nursing care with end-stage dementia for a couple of years at that point. And, while she could still recognize me, she was fading fast.
My journey with her through guardianship, conservatorship, and every imaginable health issue possible inspired me to share my passage from fear to resolution. It all ended in a fairly confident summation in artist-statement-format for my July 4th opening of “Do I Know You?” that ended with “The best we can hope for is a few good photos and a really good story about how we got to the end. Smile. Everyone dies.” I meant it at the moment, but…
Sometimes I am a pompous ass.
She’s dead.
She’s not smiling.
I’m not smiling.
She loved me.
I loved her.
I love her still.
I can’t believe she’s gone.
How shocking that I could be still shocked that her loss hurts this badly. It was expected; I thought I was prepared. I was not. Her lessons for me will continue–despite her absence.
Smile. At least you’re not dead.
_________________________________
Heart Breaker.
A CHANGE
in season
I’ve been busy testing a change in process–the addition of color and paint. I am closing in on a new direction for the next series of work that I’m calling “Better than Figs” at the moment.
The new series
examines what it means
to really live.
The series title, Better than Figs, is from Shakespeare’s Anthony & Cleopatra:“O excellent! I love long life better than figs.” Before diving headfirst into production, I sat down to edit the “Do I Know You?” exhibit. It seems that Heart Breaker (pictured left) might be the best way to say goodbye to #DIKY. Is it okay to mourn the loss of mourning? No longer mourning puts closure or finality to the loss of my father. I have guilt about that. My mourning for the loss of the personality I knew as my grandmother has become acceptance. I am grateful to at least have my memories of who she was–even if her memories don’t include me anymore. I finally learned to just “Smile. Because everyone dies.”
If you didn’t get a chance to visit the #DIKY opening in July,
you can see the series by visiting the Do I Know You? page.
♦ ♦ ♦
Thanks AAME!
#DIKY in the PRESS
Thanks to Arts Alliance Mountain Empire for covering “Do I Know You?”, my exhibit currently up at The Balcony Gallery at The Emporium Center, home of the Arts & Culture Alliance of Greater Knoxville. Click on the screen shot to read the coverage on A! Magazine! (continues below)
Be sure to Follow me on Facebook!
#DIKY opens
Do I…
Know You?
Apparently, I do…know you. Thanks to all of you that came out to the opening of my show “Do I Know You?” at The Balcony Gallery at The Emporium Center on July 4th.
The breadth of common experience will simply take your breath away–or mine, as the case may be. I met artists and critics. I met those who appreciated the work and those that took issue with the unofficial tagline…
“Smile. Everybody dies.”
Conversations about life, and death, and all of the muddy stuff in the middle. I was moved by all of the personal stories you shared and questions that you asked.
I was amazed by all of the thoughtful conversation.
I’ve opened a lot of shows, both as a gallery director and as an artist, but this one was definitely unique. I was amazed at the level of personal sharing and inquiry (vs. pseudo-academic yammering). Thank you.
Changes are on the horizon & my newest series…is already incubating.
Stay tuned!
PRESS RELEASE: Arts & Culture Alliance Presents “Do I Know You?” by R.L. Gibson
(06/18/2014-Knoxville) – The Arts & Culture Alliance is pleased to present “Do I Know You?”, a new series of Xerography on canvas with hand-drawn patterns by local artist R.L. Gibson. “Do I Know You?” uses the body as the ultimate betrayer by appropriating historical, formal portraiture of children and adults in the prime of their lives and juxtaposing those images with a forced consciousness of life-altering and/or terminal illness via layering of historical anatomical drawings. “In the span of one year, my father died in a tragic car accident due to a complication from diabetes, I had a surgery often reserved for women 20 years my senior, and I became the guardian for my 91 year-old grandmother in the end stages of dementia,” says Gibson. “My grandmother always asks, ‘Do I know you?’, and I began to realize this is what we all ask of ourselves throughout life and of our bodies when they inevitably fail us.” Gibson’s retro-influenced works with a tinge of humor will be displayed in the Balcony at the Emporium Center in downtown Knoxville from July 4-26, 2014, and an opening reception will take place as part of First Friday activities on July 4 from 5:00-9:00 PM.
R.L. Gibson is a nationally-shown artist, juror and editor that calls Gatlinburg, TN home along with her husband, photographer Jon Ives, and son Oscar. Gibson works almost exclusively as a Xerographist, producing complicated layered compositions and then hand-transferring these images to a variety of substrates resulting in a unique monotype. Xerography, as a medium, has neither a standard place in institutional art instruction nor a documented history. Gibson has spent years refining her hand-palated technique. The “skips” are not flaws but the unique result of the process.
In addition to producing her own work and work in collaboration with other artists, Gibson and her husband also perform as the Appalachian singing duo the Pea Pickin’ Hearts. Gibson also serves as the Editor for ArtAndArtDeadlines.com, a fun and quirky, food-themed art blog that offers reviews of emerging artists, shows from great galleries, and FREE Art Deadlines and Calls for Entry as an artist’s resource.
The Emporium is free and open to the public. The exhibition hours for “Do I Know You?” are: Monday-Friday, 9:00 AM – 5:00 PM; Saturday, 11:00 AM – 3:00 PM; and (NEW!) Sundays, July 6 and July 20, 3:30-6:30 PM. Please note, the Emporium will be closed on Saturday, July 5.For more information, please contact the Arts & Culture Alliance at (865) 523-7543, or visit the Web site at www.knoxalliance.com.
Also on display in the Emporium during the same time frame:
Then & Now – A celebration of the ten-year anniversary of the Emporium Center’s reopening
Works by Jim Parris & Gwendolyn Kerney
Knox Heritage – 2014 Art & Architecture Tour Photographs
About the Arts & Culture Alliance
The Arts & Culture Alliance serves and supports a diverse community of artists, arts organizations, and cultural institutions. The Alliance receives financial support from the Tennessee Arts Commission (www.tn.gov/arts), the City of Knoxville (www.cityofknoxville.org), and First Tennessee Foundation (www.firsttennesseefoundation.com).
Contact: Suzanne Cada
PO Box 2506
Knoxville, TN 37901
(865) 523-7543
sc@knoxalliance.com