Gratitude, Thanksgivings, & Plans for the New Year

I love the New Year.

I love New Beginnings.

I love the anticipation of something marvelous just around the corner, and I love setting goals for the new year.

In 2017, my goals include entering a number of juried shows, both here and abroad. I plan to contact art galleries with the intention of finding one to represent my art. I intend to make art all year long, while keeping a schedule and finding a work/life balance that allows me to do what I love and minimize stress. And I intend to become financially stable as an artist, selling enough art to keep buying supplies for my new work – and to fund travel, of course.

As much as I love looking ahead, I also love looking back: reflecting on the year that has ended and taking stock of what worked, what didn’t, and what happened in my family, my art, and my relationship to the world. Reflecting allows me to express gratitude for all that I have: my family, my friends, my health, and the ability to share my art with the world. I am grateful for my team, those who support me and help me pull together the many strands of the life and career I am trying to create. I am grateful to live in a beautiful house in a beautiful place, and to call the woods my home. And I am grateful and excited to have purchased a modest house in rural France that will become a satellite home and studio for Harvey and I. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - >

So, you may ask: 
 What HAVE I been doing all year? 

This, my dear reader, is my artistic year in review:

MUSEUM PERMANENT COLLECTION

1a+b. My art is now in the permanent collection of the Columbus Museum, Columbus, GA

EXHIBITS, AUCTIONS, FUNDRAISERS, & RECEPTIONS

Clockwise L-R 2. The year-long exhibit of Discovering the Chattahoochee Valley: Silk Paintings by René Shoemaker continued through July 2017 at the Columbus Museum, Columbus, GA 3. Columbus Museum Discovering the Chattahoochee Valley closing party
4. Unveiling party at a collector’s home celebrating her acquisition of work from the Columbus Museum exhibit
5. Exhibited prints on paper in New York City at Grand Central Terminal, NYC, and Park Slope, Brooklyn, NY
6. Invited to exhibit at the 10x10 Art for Education exhibit and fundraiser at the Columbus Museum, Columbus, GA 7. Exhibited in the Portrait exhibit at KA Artist Shop Gallery, Athens, GA
8. Invited to exhibit at The Cultural Landscape Foundation annual fundraiser in New Orleans, LA
9. Invited to exhibit at the All About Art fundraiser for the Georgia Museum of Art, Athens, GA

SALES, COMMISSIONS, & SPECIAL ORDERS

Clockwise L-R
10. Large Columbus silk paintings purchased by collector and patron
11. Holiday cards commissioned by Columbus resident
12. Nano, a bird portrait commissioned by his human "grandmum"
13. A Double Bass instrument portrait created for a Professor of Double Bass and his special family

RETAIL LOCATIONS

Clockwise L-R
14. Columbus Museum gift shop, Columbus, GA
15. Aurum Studios, Athens, GA
16. Avid Bookstore, Athens, GA
17. KA Artist Shop, Athens, GA
18. Jittery Joe’s Coffeeshop in 5 Points, Athens, GA
19. Jittery Joe’s Roasters, Athens, GA
20. Treehouse Kid & Craft Handmade Artist Market, Athens, GA
and always: reneshoemaker.com/shop

PUBLICATIONS

Clockwise L-R 21. Compendium of Craft & Creativity included my artwork with an interview, Uppercase Publishers, Calgary, Canada
22a+b. Published art review of Scott Pope exhibit, Flagpole Magazine, Athens, GA; with the artist Scott Pope
23. Published blog posts all year, the most popular being about travel and adventures, i.e. Brooklyn Bound!, Bonjour de France!, Why I Love France, Part II, and A Sense of Place: The Completions of a Museum Exhibition

TEACHING, ARTIST TALKS, AND PRESENTATIONS

Clockwise L-R
24. Featured artist at Southeast Fiber Arts Alliance for High Museum members, Atlanta, GA
25. Reading at Avid Bookshop from Compendium of Craft & Creativity, Athens, GA
26a. Professor Spooner, host of my visiting artist lecture at the University of Georgia’s College of Environment & Design: “Ways of Seeing”
26b+c. Me lecturing and an image from the presentation
27. Taught Silk-Painting Workshops at the Columbus Museum, GA
28. Taught quarterly Silk-Painting Workshops at the KA Artist Shop
29. Taught private Silk-Painting classes
30 (left). Taught Silk-Painting at the University of Georgia Lamar Dodd School of Art, Athens, GA

GATHERING OPPORTUNITIES

31. Co-founded a new hand-sewing club
32. Joined a new artist studio round-robin information exchanging club

OTHER CREATIVE ENDEAVORS

33. Designed and hand-painted a silk dress, delivered to a patron in Paris
34. Created a beautiful hardcopy portfolio in French (with help from my friends)

Opportunities for Which I Applied But Was Not Selected

35. Cité Internationale des Arts Residency in Paris, France

36. Lyndon House 41st Annual Juried Exhibit, Athens, GA

37. World of Threads Festival, Toronto, Canada

TRAVEL

Clockwise L-R
38. New York City, NY
39. Asheville, NC
40. Paris, France
41. Felletin, Limousin, France

UPCOMING EXHIBITS

42. Scheduled exhibit in Felletin, France - Summer 2017 43. Scheduled exhibit at a museum in Mississippi, USA - Summer 2019

It’s been a great year, but this was only the beginning! Stay tuned for more events and news.

Wishing you a prosperous, creative, and healthy New Year,

Beyond Excited!

I am beyond excited

about my upcoming art show

in Paris!

I've been trying to remain calm and stay focused on my work, but now that the time for departure is near (October 14th), I find myself dancing in my shoes without moving my feet. (Did I really just make up that saying? - But, it's the way I feel!)

There is a Facebook Page for the exhibit & reception created by the venue; the reception will be held November 12, 2014, at 6:30 p.m. Please share the news with your friends who might be able to attend; I'm sad that my U.S. friends won't be able to be there with me, but I am certainly intending to make new friends while I am in Paris. I love art receptions!

I've been working hard printing all new beautifully colored prints for this exhibit, and I'm very happy with the results. I will have all the new café prints uploaded to my website before I leave, so you can see the results of this labor of love.

The image, above, is of the café table at La Caféothèque in Paris. Their coffee is superb! You can see the bag of coffee beans I bought and the delicious latte I was drinking when I made this sketch. Très fantastique!

Un café, s'il vous plaît

Lino prints of the café experience by René Shoemaker La Caféothèque de Paris 52, Rue de l'Hotel de Ville Paris, France November 12, 2014 - January 7, 2015 Reception: Tuesday, Nov 12, 6:30 pm

Accepted into a Juried exhibit!

Two silk paintings of mine have been chosen to be in the OCAF 17th Juried Exhibition this year! You may recognize this design of Port Vendres - I’ve done two versions of this location.

This one is on silk broadcloth which is about the weight of painter’s canvas. The silk broadcloth gets smooth and soft with washing, and the dyes lay down on the silk like some watercolors do on heavy paper - you can see the brush strokes, and the way the dye is taken up by the silk quite nicely. The painterly effect here is much different than what happens when dyeing lighter silks.

The church was a wonderful discovery in a French town, Port Vendres, on the Mediterranean coast near the border with Spain. Notre Dame de Bonne Nouvelle -”Our Lady of Good News” is a fitting name for a late 19th century church whose town is a fishing and cargo port. I can imagine the women of the village awaiting the return of their loved ones from the sea and being so glad of their safe return that they prayed to Notre Dame de Bonne Nouvelle. The church faces the harbor, and I loved the idea of this amazing building inviting people to come in - whether it be by foot, by bike, by auto, or by boat.

Teal City, the second piece that was juried in, is a fanciful place where color rules over order. I see this city bordering, again, on the waterfront, as Manhattan, NY or Sydney, Australia does. The colors are absolutely fantastic together, the material is the same heavy silk broadcloth. While Port Vendres is on the large size, at 29”x 26”, Teal City is smaller and intimate, at 4” x 9”. Both pieces are framed in a beautiful blonde wood frame, and with Teal City, the placement of the silk painting on the mat board within the frame is what inspired me to call it a ‘city’. It floats a little higher than the horizon line, giving me the impression that it is bordering on a body of water. It is an abstract design, totally about the relationship of the colors and shapes, but isn’t it true that all abstract art, when seen, is “read” by the viewer into their own understanding of what it is?

What do you see in “Teal City?”

Come by the OCAF gallery anytime to see the exhibit. The gallery is open 10-4 Tuesday-Saturday. The reception is this Friday night, April 6th, from 6-8 pm! I would love to see you there, and the collection of work displayed by all the artists will be very strong, I am sure. OCAF consistently attracts a great variety of local and national artists.

What a fun evening event it would be to go to with a friend!

Southworks: 17th Annual National Juried Art Exhibition April 6 through May 11, 2012 Oconee Cutlural Arts Foundation Reception: April 6, 6-8 pm Watkinsville, Ga Free & open to the public 706.769.4565

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