julie metz: island sketchbook
December 30, 2008—January 24, 2009
Opening: Saturday, January 3, 2009 , 3-7PM
The BLUE MOUNTAIN GALLERY is pleased to announce a solo exhibition by JULIE METZ. Metz is a landscape artist whose connection with the Maine coast has been an inspiration since her childhood summers on Monhegan Island, where she learned to handle paint and paper as a student of her artist father. On Swan’s Island, where she has worked for the last fourteen summers, Metz creates works on paper inspired by the rough and moody shoreline of rocks and waves. While perched in precarious locations at water’s edge, she captures the changing light and tides. Her fascination and focus is the challenge of capturing the fleeting moment as light plays over water and immovable granite.
The final works on paper are presented as diptychs, the facing pages of sketchbooks. The media is a combination of wax crayon, pencil and watercolor on archival rag paper. Metz creates larger oils in the studio, inspired by drawings and supplemental photographs.
In addition to this exhibition at Blue Mountain, Metz will participate in a two-person show with her father, Frank Metz, in June 2009 at the Minor Memorial Gallery in Roxbury, Connecticut. She will also show at The Leighton Gallery in Blue Hill, Maine during the summer of 2009. Julie Metz will publish her first book in June 2009, a memoir titled Perfection with Voice/Hyperion.
Blue Mountain Gallery
530 West 25th Street
4th Floor (Chelsea)
New York, NY 10001 United States
Tel. +1 (646) 486-4730
Fax . +1 (646) 486-4345
http://www.bluemountaingallery.org
bluemountaingallery@verizon.net
Hours: Tuesday to Saturday 11AM to 6PM
Featured Image: Three Rocks Number 5 (2007), Julie Metz, wax crayon, watercolor, gouache, pencil on paper, 8.5 x 25″.
decoupaging in 09
Decoupage has been around in one form or another for centuries. Fortunately for modern-day crafters, the materials that are used now are much easier to handle than those commonly used just a few years ago. These new products make it easier to achieve professional results with fewer steps, so the process goes much quicker.
In 1998, decoupage artist Durwin Rice published a wonderful reference. His book, “New Decoupage: Transforming Your Home With Paper, Glue and Scissors” (Clarkson Potter, $19.95, 144 pages), was published in paperback last February. It is filled with projects, detailed instructions and advice for beginning and advanced artists.
Here are some tips based on information in Rice’s book.
• You can decoupage over a painted surface, but make sure the paint is not peeling or chipping. If it is, sand the surface. If you use a metal object, make sure to remove any rust by sanding or polishing with steel wool.
You can paint or stain the background item if you want to change its color; just make sure it is dry before you decoupage.
• Nearly any paper image can be used including magazine pages, wrapping paper, wallpaper, catalogs, pages from a book, sheet music, scrap book paper, photographs and art prints.
• If you have just one image but would like to use it more than once, or if you don’t want to permanently attach your original, you can have color laser copies made for about 50 cents at most office supply stores. Just make sure it’s laser and not inkjet, which isn’t colorfast when it gets wet.
• Don’t rule out an image because it is not the right size. Adjust the size when you have your laser copy made.
• For most projects, white craft glue like Elmer’s Glue-All works just fine. Wallpaper paste and wheat paste are also good because they allow the paper image to be moved without tearing. If you have problems working with the craft glue, try diluting it with a little water.
• If you layer images, you should allow them to dry between layers.
• After you have glued the image to the background, use your fingers to gently coax any air bubbles to the edge of the image. Don’t push the wet paper image with fingernails or a hard object like a spatula because the wet paper will tear.
• After the glue has dried, seal the image with several coats of polyurethane, varnish or lacquer, allowing the project to dry fully between coats. It comes in high-gloss, semi-gloss and matte finish. Craft stores also sell decoupage finish such as Triple-Thick.
• After you have applied two or three coats of sealer, if the surface looks bumpy, lightly sand it with 400-grit sandpaper, then add more layers of sealer until the surface is smooth and you can no longer see a ridge where the paper is glued.
Note: This article copied from the Sacramento Bee at http://www.journalgazette.net/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20081230/FEAT/812300344. Also, I noticed the other day that Michael’s Craft Store is now selling Martha Stewart Decoupage Glue - we haven’t yet tried it.
a DC art advisor’s new year’s resolutions
1. I will embrace all the natural curiosities in the world, particularly botanical art and seashore art with a distinct goal of incorporating more natural materials in my home, life, thoughts, and personal artworks. As artists, we must stay in tune with the natural world around us and influencing our daily lives – especially if we live in the city.
2. I will do the ONE thing I have been postponing for 5 years and which I swore I would never allow myself to do – fall into the trap. I WILL, no, i MUST reposition myself personally. I will try to understand how I could have let this certain circumstance continue for as long as I have, how I could have dealt with the distinctly negative influences and unhappiness it has caused, and I will challenge myself to re-create a new reality. As artists, we all fall into ruts and we must be willing and able to re-examine our choices.
3. I will continue my abandonment of Starbucks Coffee and Coca Cola (successful on the later since 11/21/08 – I broke down on the former this morning and has my “last” peppermint mocha) and I will “think” about food origins, food source, food quality, food intake, food sustainability,and food in my life. I will support local farms and farmers markets. As artists, we must care for and love ourselves and our bodies – our intellectual and artistic lives have a way of morphing the physical. Beware!
4. I will try to attend at least two new and major art shows in different realms this year, one being the Ephemera Society’s show in March and the other a new major coastal show. I will examine the Vegas art market in late April. As artists, we need new influences, new social groups, and new contacts. Your success may very well depend on the NEXT new person you meet or direction you take.
5. I will give the Philadelphia Museum of Art and the Walters Museum of Art the attention they deserve and I will participate in the National Portrait Gallery’s wonderful media/educational opportunities. Artists tend toward isolation, introspection, and immediate surroundings. History and the art community at large can immensely help us expand our vision. I will use these experiences in developing the commercial and residential art programs our advisory supports.
6. Not only will I show more of my own work, even though I am (fearfully and with trepidation) exploring very new and different realms, but our advisory will function as a community catalyst for artists, particularly those who are in the Eisenhower Valley of Alexandria, VA or those who or otherwise overlooked in the greater DC market. As artists, we must have an eye to the arts community – and we can start right where we are! We must also feel the fear and do it anyway – it takes courage to put yourself out there, but you and I can believe in ourselves.
7. I will expand my Philadelphia, New Jersey, and New York art connections to be of more value to gallerists and museum curators. As artists, we must understand that regionalism does play a role in the greater art market and we must look to centers of art commerce even if we’d rather … not.
8. I will write less about upcoming shows & exhibitions, unless they are of real and immediate value to the DC art scene. I will unsubscribe to every email list that is of no value and only eats up my limited time and I will dedicate this saved time to my own artistic vision and encouraging the vision of others. Technology can overcome the artist. I recently went to a wonderful book making/ printers organization only to find two students diligently surfing the net. YOUR art is not on the Internet. So make it already.
9. I will continue to develop instructional art classes and workshops and our own Lange Art Gallery, thus carving a niche market within the metropolitan DC arts area and showing works which might not otherwise have a venue. I’ve been very inspired this year by a local gallery who’s made a personal commitment to art they love, and the magical thing is they’re responding to a whole new customer base. Art is like cars, everyone has their favorite model – this year, let mine be the SMART (car).
10. In 2008, I’m happy to report that I paid a LOT of attention to our own personal studio, organization, tools, techniques, equipment, files, and supplies. I made many changes in this area which really have catipulted my ability to work. I read much about other creatives studios – what works for them and what does not and I would like to try to keep an eye on this corner of our art advisory – the studio development, organization, and utility. Form follows function, don’t you know? Ha.
11. I will co-source, co-create, and collaborate with the DC art power brokers to gain a deeper understanding of how, why, where, and when our arts advisory can help the underground arts market – DC resurgent color school. And, if time allows, without feeling overwhelmed, I will think about writing an arts book this year. As artists, there’s NEVER enough time. So slow down, do it right the first time, and think and live and love and breathe and DO what’s going to be of value.
12. Lastly, I will continue to keep and eye and ear to the ground especially as it relates to artists relocation programs – many of us are having to make new choices in where and how we live and these very valuable programs bolster the artist, the community, and our world at large. Paducah, KY has much to be proud of.
artist’s coach – taking inventory
Alyson Stanfield’s newsletter inventory list. (Alyson writes at Artbizcoach.com – do yourself another favor – sign up for her newsletter and podcasts for 2009. You won’t be sorry!) Review your 2008.
How did you promote your art? (Check out I’d Rather Be in The Studio! for ideas.
What did you do to enhance your online presence?
What technological skills did you learn or improve?
How many people did you add to your mailing list?
Who were the top ten cool or influential people you met?
Whom did you mentor or help out?
Did you create a new business card, portfolio, or other marketing piece?
What medium or skill did you attempt or master?
What did you try that was completely new?
What did you try that was uncomfortable, but helped you grow?
What worthy cause did you support in some way?
What new art events, galleries, and museums did you visit?
What resources did you discover?
How did you improve your studio habits?
What books did you read to help your career? What videos or films were useful?
What seminars/workshops/lectures did you attend or teach?
How did you enhance your office or studio environment?
What organizations were you involved with?
What grants/honors/awards did you receive?
What articles were written about your work?
What exhibits, grants, contest, etc. did you submit your art to?
Where did you save a wad of money?
What was the single best thing that happened to your art career in 2008?
about us
Shauna Lee Lange creates life effectiveness strategies for global women and girls through relentless work in achieving equality for women in the digital divide. Digital literacy, women and the Internet, and how the lack of women’s technological advances creates economic and political disparity are all pillars of how information and communication technologies MUST act as catalysts for global feminism and equal rights.
I believe the single most growing threat to the physical, emotional and financial health of women worldwide is information systems illiteracy and when left unaddressed, will eventually lead to women’s complete exclusion and invisibility to the extent that it will ultimately trump and surpass existing or historic strongholds!
I have many experienced years in management consulting, leadership training, and serving the public in advisory information brokering. What that means is that I am qualified to work towards empowering women and communities to envision, enlarge, and exemplify their best based on sound practice, research & analytics, and contemporary techniques.
I also teach, write, lecture, exhibit, jury, curate, build teams, assess performances, motivate, research, promote, counsel, conceptualize, market, facilitate and measure. Recent subjects include access to technology issues, social hierarchies, cultural elite, art as economic leverage, technology literacy as anti-poverty, information societies, net neutrality, and the absence of women in technology developing professions.
Previously, I was the very first woman-veteran founder of a full-service arts advisory, design studio, and organized creativity expertise providers in the Commonwealth of Virgina (founded in 2006) with a motto: “progressive art, global women, and creative empowerment” or “more art is more love”. I also served 6 years with the U.S. Navy on Italy’s island of Sicily and over 15 years nationally with the U.S. Federal Civil Service as a management, program, and transportation analyst.
Fully believing in the therapeutic impact and applicability of the arts, education, technology and creativity in one’s life, I work to encourage people to embrace full expression aided by education, free speech and free expression. My own inspired, self-taught, late-emergent, exhibiting artist art work concentrates on these themes in vintage and contemporary thematic collage, art journals, visual diaries, sketchbooks, and paper & book arts in the exploration of personal geographies.
Social equity requires a commitment to women’s equality. Women’s participation in the information economy carries enormous value to all girls and women. Technology literacy for women is a strategy I intend to tirelessly illuminate, use and promote for true liberation, global connectedness, and leveraging tools in societal struggles.
Conquering the digital divide means a focus on: 1) infrastructure; 2) limited telecommunications networks; 3) bandwidth capacity issues; 4) non-availability of hardware & software; 5) poor transportation networks; 6) uninterrupted power supplies; 7) non-availability of financial resources; 
non-availability of trained technicians; 9) lack of technical maintenance staff; and most powerfully, 10) prevalence of negative attitudes.
If those challenges weren’t enough, women in China, Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, Egypt, Mexico, Brazil AND fully developed countries like the United States most often face difficulties in technology access with: a) male attitudes; b) lack of family support; c) institutional barriers; d) facilities issues (such as transportation or child care availability); and e) insensitive aid workers or instructors. These obstacles create an often unexplored gender dynamic in the world of technology where there is now limited effort to fully address issues of access, content and the positive impact of technology where women’s lives are concerned – not a women’s agenda, but one of ultimate human and civil rights. Civil rights in a technological age – a multidisciplinary, fascinating journey that I fully invite you to accompany.
703.960.0616
shaunaleelange@gmail.com
All rights to this site and its contents are retained and all original artwork is copyrighted. Click here to learn more about our licensing and permissions for text and artwork through Creative Commons. The firm of Shauna Lee Lange is comprised of professional service providers and administrators. Proud 2010 members of the National Association of Professional Organizers (NAPO) and the National Association of Investigative Specialists (NAIS). Life Coaching Certification was achieved in 2010 through the Advanced Life Coaching Institute (ALCI). Shauna Lee Lange is also member in good standing with the International Coach Federation (ICF) through March 2011. It’s important that coaches stay in the know about field developments and that they network with other coaches. We participate through Coach U and the ICF in the Career Coaches Special Interest Group which helps us give to the profession on an ongoing basis. We also hold Certifications in Civilian Leadership Development as a Trainer for Mentor/Assessment Training; Management Development Certifications for Leading People; High Performance Development Model; Ethics Training; Mastery in Alternative Dispute Resolution; Team Skills; and multiple other skills proficiencies in quantitative and qualitative analysis. Shauna Lee Lange is an advocate of 1st Amendment Free Speech, Net Neutrality, Open Internet, and Social Media.
