"Looking Back, Moving Forward", at the Arvada Center

Opening September 15, 6 to 9 PM, is a celebratory exhibit for the 40th anniversary of the Arvada Center.

Please come to see my two current pieces in this show.

My association with this local treasure has been long. In 1991, I had a one person exhibit, "Land-Escapes", which included a catalogue. In 2001, a room was devoted to my 45 canvas piece, "Some Thoughts About the Weather", part of the exhibit, "Honoring The Sky". I also served on the Gallery and Museum Committee for a number of years, and was part of an Art Selection Committee during one major renovation.

Recent Paintings, Further Out in Space

"Green Gravity", Interference Acrylic on canvas, 36" x 54", © 2016

"Space Floaters", Interference Acrylic on canvas, 36" x 60", © 2016

"Blue Gravity", Acrylic & metallic powder on canvas, 36" x 72", © 2016

"Becoming Gemini", Interference Acrylic on canvas, 54" x 54", © 2016

"Io, Callisto, Europa & Ganymede", Interference Acrylic on canvas,  © 2016

Here are my recent paintings. They are less dependent on Hubble or other telescopic images, and more on my play with ideas about "what could be out there"; weather conditions, other planetary bodies and physical realities we may have not yet dreamed of. 

I must admit that the seductive qualities of paint are one of the factors that have encouraged  this magnetic trance-like direction. But then, learning that Jupiter has 67 moons, and that Galileo only saw 4, has helped me along my path as well.

Artist Talk at The Art Gym

"Moon, 1969", collage 16" x 32"

This Saturday, January 16, from 3 PM to 5 PM, 

at The Art Gym, 1460 Leyden St., Denver CO, 

80220, I will be giving an artist's talk about my 

approach to collage. Part of my talk will include 

the materials I often use. There is no charge.

Hope to see you there.

Visit My Updated Website

Finally, most of the pages on my website have been re-done.

Please visit www.sandrakaplan.com to see my latest work in the "Galactic Stories" and "Galactic Stories 2", and "Collage"gallery pages. Check out my latest commissions in the "In Addition" area.

My next Italian workshop is described under "Workshops". Watch my video interview and much more.

Please let me know what you think!

 "Musica Universalis",  acrylic on canvas, 54" x 54",  has found a new home.

Simon Zalkind and Sandra Kaplan Talk

Please come to hear Curator Simon Zalkind discuss this exhibit with me, 

7 PM, Thursday, December 17, 2015.

Come and see the real collages!

 

And view the rest of my joint exhibit with painter James Cook, 

"Heaven and Earth",

Singer Gallery, 

Mizel Arts and Cultural Center, JCC

350 S. Dahlia St., Denver

 

The exhibit continues through December 18, 2015

. 

Hours: 9 AM - 4 PM, Monday - Friday, 1 PM - 4 PM Sunday, closed Saturday

 

"Heaven and Earth" Exhibition Continues

Installation view of "Heaven and Earth"

Installation view of "Heaven and Earth"

Eleven Space Collages

In The Beginning

Installation view of "Heaven and Earth"

"Heaven and Earth", an two person exhibit of paintings by Sandra Kaplan and James Cook, curated by Simon Zalkind and installed in the Singer Gallery of the JCC/Mizel Center for Art and Culture, at 350 S. Dahlia Street in Denver, continues through December 18, 2015. Hours are Monday through Friday, 9 AM - 4 PM, Sunday, 1 PM - 4 PM, closed Saturday.

An artist's talk and closing party, with Sandra Kaplan and Simon Zalkind will be on Thursday, December 17. Please watch here for the details, to be announced later. 

Commission Installed

Here are two photos, the first an image of my newest commissioned piece, "Spinning Winds", created for the Great Plains Regional Medical Center in North Platte, Nebraska. In the second photo, the installed piece is shown. One can see cumulous clouds, an interpretive sunset, lightning and a tornado, all common occurrences in the skies over Nebraska.

New Paintings for "Heaven and Earth"

                                  "Musica Universalis". 54" x 54", acrylic on canvas, 2015

                              "Whirlpool Galaxy", 36" X 36", acrylic on canvas, 2015

My imagination continues to time travel into astronomical areas. Some paintings have been more scientifically based.

But here are my two most recent, both beginning where science has paused. The upper piece is an interpretation of the Pythagorean idea of Music of the Spheres, one explanation of how planets, the sun and the moon keep to their orbits. The second image is my color rendition of a small black and white photo found in an out of date astronomy textbook.

Come see these paintings and many more at the Singer Gallery, Mizel Arts and Culture Center, 350 S. Dahlia Street, Denver, Co 80246. The exhibit, "Heaven and Earth", opens on October 8, 2015.

Blurred Lines and Galactic Stories Interview

"Edge of the Cosmos", 36" X 36", acrylic on canvas

"Big Band And The Trifid", 36" x 84", acrylic and oil on 4 canvases

During my recent exhibit in the Art Gallery of the Fulginiti Center For Bioethics and Humanities on the Anschutz University of Colorado Medical Campus, I was interviewed by the Comcast/Aurora News Weekly.

My tech wiz, Keith West, with permission from the TV station Aurora News Weekly, was able to extract my interview from the balance of the newscast, put it on my Website, and also on YouTube. So click on one of these links and travel with me to the Outer Limits. You might also find out a bit about my new paintings and collages.

And if you unfortunately missed my show, you have a bit of a second chance. I am now represented in Colorado by the Sandra Phillips Gallery. Several of my Galactic paintings will be in a show, "Blurred Lines", which opens at the Gallery, 420 W. 12th Ave., Denver, on Friday, November 7, from 6-8 PM. Come visit!

Galactic Stories Extended

Good news today. 

My exhibition, "Galactic Stories", in the art gallery of the Fulginiti Center for Bioethics and Humanities on the Anschutz/U of CO Medical campus has been extended through next Thursdayj. So if you haven't seen it yet, here is another chance. The gallery is normally open 9 to 5, Monday through Friday, but this Monday will be closed for Labor Day.

Wallace Stevens and Galactic Stories

"At The Edge Of The Universe"

My dear friend, Alita Pirkopf, wrote me this email after seeing my show, "Galactic Stories", and I wanted, with her permission, to share it with you.

Subject: Everything and Nothing

Sandra, What a pleasure.

I went to see your work three other times with three different friends. All of us were delighted and involved! I learned all sorts of things from hearing them express what they saw and thought! The talk you and the marvelous curator, Simon Zalkind, was deeply interesting! Such an honor for you to be asked to exhibit in such a meaningful setting. I am rereading your invitation which is absolutely beautiful and thought provoking.

I had been reading the last part of a biography about the later years of the poet Wallace Stevens. Online I read some critic's comment on Steven's Collected Poems which said, "In this work Stevens explored inside a profound philosophical framework the dualism between concrete reality and the human imagination. I am working on what the framework part means but I think that, similarly, you deal with the concrete reality of science and also with the human imagination.

"At the Edge of the Universe," reminds me of Stevens' words in The Snow Man, which, with your help, I just now think I understand. Though you seem more positive than Stevens when he wrote that poem, you too deal with whatever might or might not be.

Maybe you know the poem. The lines I am thinking of are:

And, nothing himself, beholds Nothing that is not there and the nothing that is

I don't think the "And, nothing himself," bit applies to you with your magic, and apparently, later, things didn't seem so grim to Stevens.

Thank you so much!!!

Alita

Colorado Public Radio Story

Listen to Colorado Public Radio this Thursday during the 10 AM hour. My Show, "Galactic Stories", will be featured.
Painting

above is "The Moon and the Milky Way", 36" X 36".

Please join me at the opening reception of "Galactic Stories", an exhibition of my past several years of work, to be held in the Art Gallery of the Fulginiti Center for Bioethics and Humanities, address below. If you can't make the reception, the show will continue until August 28.

"Sam and Streilka", mixed media painting on 5 canvases, 2013

Galactic Stories
curated by Simon Zalkind
June 26, 2014 - August 28, 2014
Opening Reception - July 10, 2014, 5-7 PM
Conversation with the artist and curator – 6 PM 

The Art Gallery
Fulginiti Pavilion for Bioethics and Humanities 
University of Colorado, Anschutz Medical Campus 
13080 East 19th Avenue, (at Uvalda St.)
Aurora, Colorado 80045 
303.724.3994
Map and directions at: www.coloradobioethics.org
Gallery Hours
9:00am - 5:00pm, Monday - Friday
free and open to the public

My “Galactic Stories’’ began when my daughter, an electrical engineer, sent me several photographs taken by the Hubble telescope. Intrigued, I began combing through as many astronomy books as I could find, collecting historical astronomical images and scientific charts and maps.

As friends learned about my interest, they began sending me additional books and drawings. I started using their material in collages. Not only were images and ideas juxtaposed in those collages, so were the contributions of the different people who had provided me a trove of astronomical bric-a-brac.

These “Galactic Stories” are about the interaction of ideas and materials with no clear way to separate one from the other.  I might begin with a “big” idea gleaned from whatever I understand about the amazing Hubble images and other “scientific’’ matters. 

But once I begin working with paint and materials, my process takes on a life of its own as I explore the nature of paint and materials and how they interact with one another. What began as idea-oriented work becomes a process-oriented exploration.

In “Galactic Stories,’’ history, science, philosophy and art collide. Tales of gods and goddesses merge with images of nebulae many light years away. The images may not always seem like they belong together, but they’re part of an encompassing continuum.

In “Sam and Streilka,” for example, a Russian dog who traveled in space is only brush strokes away from The Big Bang. It is my hope that the painting is thematically expansive — as well as visually unified.

These paintings and their use of mixed media are not an attempt to illustrate scientific ideas and theories, but to use those ideas and theories as a springboard from which to launch my paintings and collages.

Maps and charts figure into these works, as well.  

Maps chart what we think we know, yet, to me, they always suggest that there’s more to discover. In this case, that discovery involves removing what is linear and time-specific in a chart (the information) and exposing its underlying skeleton (the structure), which can become a kind of abstract expression.

The paintings and collages also may be a metaphor for the always tenuous state of what we know, the way knowledge begins, morphs and transforms into something else as we learn more.

Sometimes, a mistake can be fruitful. One day in my studio, I decided to try an experiment. I would make a painting of a black hole. I later found an image in an astronomy book that looked as if I’d copied my experimental painting from it. I’d never seen the image in that book before nor was it an image of a black hole. It was the debris disk that’s now a part of “Sam and Streilka.”

I’m not entirely sure where the line between reality and imagination begins and ends. The best I can say is that the skies are full of astonishments that can expand the field of artistic play, and those are the fields in which I’m currently working.

Summer Creativity Workshops

Summer is a great time to expand your creative potential! 

Here are three new workshops to enjoy. 

Collage works well for those of you who haven't drawn or painted, but want to dip your fingers into the image-creation arena. And it's fun. This is where I go when I'm stuck, creatively speaking.  

I have discovered a hidden gem of a location for a one-day Plein Air workshop just an hour and a half south of Denver, guaranteed to inspire.

And excited by the Denver Art Museum's "Modern Masters" exhibition of paintings and sculpture from the Albright Knox Gallery, I'm offering a one day class titled,"Abstraction For (Mostly) Realists", a bit of history, discussion, and painting. 

There are still a few remaining spots left in my North Fork Valley Plein Air workshop, September 18 to 23, 2014. We will visit numerous locations in which any Plein Air painter should want to paint, including the Black Canyon of the Gunnison River. 

And don't forget that I do private critique and artistic coaching sessions by appointment.

Collage Workshop 

Wednesday, June 11, 2014, 9:30 AM to 3:30 PM

In Sandra's studio

We will discuss the history of collage, explore some techniques, and consider how a collage becomes a complete artistic statement.

Most of our materials will be pictures from old magazines, photos, packing materials, and any other 2-D images you can find. We will use stencils, acrylic transfers, positive and negative forms, and many other methods to create our personal statements.

  

Location: Directions will be sent when you register.

Tuition: $75.  This class is limited to only 10 participants. Your place will be held only after your tuition is received.

Registration: Please contact Sandra at: sandrakaplanart@gmail.com

Plein Air Workshop

Wednesday, June 4, 2014, 9 AM to 3:30 PM

Paint Mines Interpretive Park, Calhan, Colorado

 Spend the day exploring this visually exciting area about a 40 minute drive east of Colorado Springs, (or a 1 1/2 hour drive from Denver), and be astounded by it's amazing, other-worldly rock formations.

  Develop a personal style to express the landscape in your own unique way. Work in the medium of your choice, but plan to do a bit of walking, so make your supplies as light and portable as possible.

 We will discuss different methods for approaching the landscape in the limited time available. Each student will receive ample individual attention, and we will have a group critique at the end of our painting day.

Please bring a sack lunch, and plenty of drinking water. Either drive down in the morning, or plan to enjoy the previous night in one of Colorado Springs' B & Bs.

Location: Directions will be sent when you register

Tuition: $95. This class is limited to only 10 participants. Your place in the workshop will be held only after your tuition is received.

Registration: Please contact Sandra at: sandrakaplanart@gmail.com

Abstraction For (Mostly) Realists

Wednesday, July 9, 2014, 9:30 AM to 3:30 PM

Sandra's Studio

What exactly does "abstraction" mean in an artistic context? Is there any reason for realists to care? Why did so many artists begin to paint this way, and during what time period? Who are the important abstractionists? Is it true that "Any child could do that"?

These are a few of the questions we will discuss in this workshop. We will see examples of important paintings in the abstract tradition, then do some exercises, using both cut paper and paint, to help understand how we might incorporate these ideas into our work.

Location: Directions will be sent when you register

Tuition: $75. This class is limited to only 10 participants. Your place in the workshop will be held only after your tuition is received.

Registration: Please contact Sandra at: sandrakaplanart@gmail.com

Bluebird Bird Mansion

A number of years ago, I met Toni Saiber, the now director of The Eating Disorder Foundation (EDF). She had recently been through a life and death struggle with her eating disorer, and  on her road to recovery, had enrolled in a class I taught at the Art Students League of Denver. 

 We became friends, and I have been a supporter of the foundation she started (with several others). I have remained committed to helping the Foundation in its efforts to educate the public about the ravages of eating disorders and the many pathways to recovery.




As a symbol of EDF's mission to become a stop on each individual's journey of recovery, EDF members and volunteers paint birdhouses to be given in exchange for specified contributions. The birdhouses are  small replicas of the EDF center.

This year, a larger version of the birdhouse was built by architect Jonathan Saiber, and I was asked to paint it. It was then auctioned at the foundation's fund-raising Gala.

Above is my finished, multi media  piece.

Below, I am pictured with the birdhouse, mid way to completion.

Star Gazing and My Totally Updated Web Site

                        "Star Gazing", 18" X 18"on canvas, mixed media

"R = 15 KPC", 18" X 18" on panel, acrylic

Please check out  my totally up-dated and re-organized web site at www.sandrakaplan.com. 

There are seven galleries of my work, plus listings of my future workshops and other services. 

The two images above, "Star Gazing" and "R = KPC" are from my latest project, "Space Stories", which was initially inspired by some Hubble images that my daughter, Sacha Wolff sent. Sacha is an aerospace engineer, and our discussions, which often consist of her trying to explain some aspect of her interests to me, or telling me that she can't, have pointed my work in unexpected directions a number of times.

I found historical astronomical images, and many intriguing scientific charts in astronomy books. My initial plan was to playfully do a chronological survey of cosmological  concepts. But as I became more immersed in Egyptian, Sumerian, Chinese, Arabic and European images of day and night, or our cosmos, constellations, and comets, I began to think that chronology should have nothing to do with my plans. Yesterday's "proven" scientific ideas about the nature of our world constantly are replaced by new discoveries, and become today's folklore. 

In my extremely liberal misinterpretation of Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle, I would  almost randomly organize my multi-panel paintings. And give myself the liberty to come up with my own "Space Stories".

                    "Space Stories", 54" X 54" on 6 canvases, multi media

Regeneration: Aspen (this painting completes the series)

After doing a line drawing of my Aspen Tree, the background
was painted in gradations of blue. Shadow areas were painted in purple, and I experimented with color.

The lower right leaves were defined by color. I decided that
because the sapling was painted in spring greens, the cycle
would be more complete by making this a fall tree.

Leaves were developed further, and some definition added.

Another step.

The leaves are now filled in, but the composition looks too
chaotic, with very little massing of color. 

More orange and yellow-green is added to the upper left,
and the lower left is darkened.

I continued to add orange to warm up the bottom of the
painting, and to visually connect it to the top.

To complete this painting, I wanted a feeling of leaf canopy
above. I feel that this gives a secure and protective  quality
 to the tree. I needed to eliminate some bits of sky on the
upper left to accomplish this.

These four oil paintings, each 32" X 32", (please read my past three posts) will be permanently displayed outside the chapel at the Castle Rock Adventist Hospital in Castle Rock, Colorado. I appreciate the opportunity to paint this Regeneration Cycle, and to have it presented in such a meaningful location.

Regeneration: Sapling, The Third Painting

My drawing for "Regeneration:Sapling", with a grid used
to enlarge my small sketch.

This canvas was first painted a light blue-purple. The overall
tone of the rocks was close to that color. Once the drawing
was traced onto this colored canvas, I  re-painted the foliage
with white. This clarified my composition, and made my
color choices for the greens easier.

I painted a line image of the rock details, and began to choose
 some variations of rock colors.

Dark areas were defined, establishing depth in the com-
position's shallow space.

Basic color of the foliage is established.

Rocks are modeled and defined, and detail is added to the
 leaves.

Minor tweaks in the rocks. Most importantly, the orange leaves,
which I had really liked for the color contrast they added, were
distracting, so I eliminated them. I did leave a bit of the orange
behind the green leaves as a compliment to the blue.

This new tree represents the regeneration after the fire, my symbol of hope.

This painting is an oil on canvas, 32" X 32", the third painting of "Regeneration", a four part painting commissioned by Noyes Art Designs for a new hospital.