Welcome to Blendini City

If your plans aren’t firmed up for the weekend and you’re still Googling a getaway, why not consider Blendini City? Never heard of it?!? Well, MASON CARTER, mayor, founder, visionary, ambassador, tourism director and chief architect, is here to bring you up to speed. The city springs from a rich vein of the artist’s imagination. “City” isn’t even an apt word. Blendini is really a WORLD all its own, which came into being during the pandemic and, because of it, has taken on even greater meaning. “These Blendini City neighborhoods were created thanks to drawing skills I acquired during the pandemic,” says Mason. “They represent my isolation-induced emotions and a longing for community, togetherness and thriving local commerce that is relationship-driven, not transactional.” Our REEMERGE jury got lost in the wonder of these meticulously wrought cityscapes (please zoom in!) and accorded this work — which has a companion piece, “The Hat District,” in our show — a citation for BEST DYSTOPIAN UTOPIA.

MASON CARTER
“The Sunrise-Sunset Theatre”
pen and pastel on paper
600.

Once We Were Lost

We are getting our bearings again as a community dealing with COVID and now the BA.5 surge (and needless to say, you still have to bring in vax cards to visit our Gallery). But this was not always the case. We were adrift for quite some time — our audiences forced to view art only through plexiglass, from the sidewalk. EMMA VAN DEN AKKER reminds us of just how far we’ve come. Opines the artist, “This piece represents the grandiose feeling of isolation during the pandemic—simultaneously separated from everyone else in isolation and also thrust into a global community as the world experienced the pandemic collectively.” The REEMERGE jury found the metaphor captivating and awarded Emma appropriate worded citation: WHAT A STRANGE TRIP IT’S BEEN!

EMMA VAN DEN AKKER
“In Pursuit of Something Greater”
oil on canvas
300.

A Month More of Fireworks

We’ve been uncharacteristically incommunicado these past 30 days, since our amazing summer juried show, REEMERGE, went up on our Wall. But it is high time to, well...reemerge! The show’s gathering momentum, which has won over audiences and tallied 25 sales to date (!), deserves even greater visibility. We'll make every effort to make sure this happens during the second half of our run, which may also include a special event. (Please stay tuned!) Let’s begin by featuring one of 11 award-winning works, from POLLY DAVIS CHALFANT, one of 19 artists brand-new to our space, interpreting our theme of how the pandemic impacted their creative process. “Isolated and shut down, I watched a fractured nation struggle with managing a massive human crisis, exacerbated by shocking political theater...surrounded by intense social uprising and unrest...and ending with a violent insurrection at the Capitol,” says the artist. “All of this fueled a personal #artisticresponse to all the events of a yearlong nightmare.” She came away with a deeply empathetic answer, and our jury singled this work out with the citation SEVEN STAGES OF COVID: ANY CHANCE OF ESCAPE? We’ve all been there, right?! And hopefully, this also mirrors our feelings of humanity, which do not vary with the vicissitudes of public health policy — for example, the almost arbitrary changes in masking policy.

POLLY DAVIS CHALFANT
“Get me out”
acrylic on canvas
675.

In This Together

Even as it has forced us apart, the pandemic has ironically brought us closer together. We have all been affected, our lives indelibly marked, our livelihoods perhaps endangered, our social circles surely constrained. The power of this shared experience takes center stage TOMORROW, THURSDAY, JUNE 9, as our 7-10 PM OPENING RECEPTION lifts the curtain on our first summer juried show in three years: REEMERGE. Our 42 artists, who hail from across our community and as far away as South Carolina and Kansas, and their 71 singular works speak to the impact of the pandemic on their art and art-making. For some, it has shifted perspectives and awakened new themes. Others chose to document the borders and limitations of their altered existence and possibly to dream of a different tomorrow. Still others use art as therapy, for themselves and for the viewer. We cordially invite you to join us to take in these inspirations and aspirations, manifestos and reflections, light-hearted takes and catharses on our Wall and in our 3D case, chosen by a jury of peers who constructed this exceptional show from some 250 entries. Plus, you will have a chance to meet and spend time with more than half of our artists — and find out which artwork, across a range of media, the jury has named as most outstanding and insightful. See you Thursday evening...and please bring your vax card to be inside!