Call & Response - My "Call"

Here is the first piece I completed for our 2013 Call & Response exhibition.  I'll be adding pieces as time allows for the next few weeks, along with the artist statements. 

Thirsty Bees

I painted this during one of my plein air painting classes at a private garden.  The lily pads were abuzz with thirsty bees and wasps.  Copyright 2013 all rights reserved.



"Thirsty Bees" mixed media on Arches paper, 9.5" x 13", $125

"Festival Flyover" by Kerry McFall

 





This was my submission last year for the Corvallis Fall Festival poster contest, a bit of a stretch from my usual style.  The original is still available:
15”w x 19”h
Media: mixed media – ink, watercolor, colored pencil on Arches paper
Price: $300
Limited Edition prints also available in several sizes, please inquire via email
kmcfall@gallerynouveau.biz

"And Then Some" Call & Response Group Featured at OSU

"No Matter How You Slice It" mixed media textile by Kerry McFall

This and some of my other works are on display as part of the Call & Response exhibit June 20 – July 31st, 2013 at the Memorial Union Concourse Gallery, Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR.
Only open during regular MU hours, check their website for open hours before you go! Campus is beautiful this time of year, and most of the restaurants are open so you can go for lunch!

This work combines digital imagery I created about the water wars that are brewing in Klamath County, Oregon.  I grew up playing with toads in Klamath Falls, now I watch in dismay as the fight begins over who gets the scarce water... and toads are pretty much at the bottom of the list.  Where have all the puddles gone?  And as the climate continues to change, it can only get more complicated...

May Rhodies

 

We visited friends and family last May up near Seattle, where I sketched the rhododendrons outside the window. 

 

They seemed to be illuminated from inside, a trick of nature that I assume comes from the deep fir forest background.  Later I was commissioned to do this painting, a combination of acrylic and inks.

Call and Response Explained

A few years back, my friend Alice Ann suggested a unique kind of "round robin" for a group of eight artists in various media.  She dubbed it "Call and Response", like a jazz music exchange - you play one note, I respond with the next.  Each artist created a "Call piece", based on an agreed-upon theme.  The first one I participated in was color - we each pulled a color out of a hat, and made our piece around that as a starting point.  Then each Call piece was passed to each artist in turn, one a month, until at the end of eight months, I had seen all of the other calls, and made a piece in response.  A picture helps - these are the "responses" to my "call":

The theme was shapes, and I was lucky enough to pick "spiral" out of the hat (see the previous post for a closeup).  There were seven other clusters, one for each call and the associated responses.  Media includes photography, textiles, weaving, ceramics, glass, paintings, lino cuts... you name it.  This format makes for a great exhibition (we've been invited back every year to exhibit at the Giustina Gallery of the LaSells Stewart Center), and the time constraints keep us very productive.

Getting Ready for C & R 2013: Looking Back at Call and Response 2012

I am just finishing up my paintings for the 2013 Exhibition of "Call and Response"... but we have a pact not to let anyone see them until our "reveal", which isn't scheduled for a couple of months - so as a "placeholder" for my new blog, here is my Call from 2012.