Nigel Fox Artworks

I am putting on an amazing, super, great, stupendous, all out, no holds barred, free artwork draw! My last draw went to Katherine Clayton, who won a $200 serigraph, Butterflies. The next one will go to whoever enters the draw before my page reaches 500 likes!!!

This draw, I am giving away a superb quality pigmented ink work titled “Bears”.

To enter, simply (1) “like” my facebook page, and (2) post on my wall that you would like to be part of the contest. If you would like to be added to the draw a second time, then share on your Facebook profile about this draw. that’s it, that’s all. Hope to see your name!

Also, I am exhibiting as the Lakes Artisan Centre’s first guest exhibitor. This exhibit goes on for the month of February. Opening night is Friday, Feb 3rd, from 6pm to 8pm at the Lakes Artisan Centre in Burns Lake. I am displaying one of my newest pieces there and it should be a good show.

I am currently exhibiting at the first ever Smithers Art Gallery first nations group exhibit. This is a photo of me with my print “Butterflies” which is a print about respect. Check out the prints section of my website for more info. The show will be on until the end of January.  Below is a map to where the Smithers Art Gallery is.

[mappress mapid=”9″]

New years is a time for new beginnings.  The hummingbird is a sign of spring, of dramatic change, of new beginnings.

Looking back on the last year, a lot happened.  I graduated from my first year at Freda Diesing School, had a solo exhibit at the Museum of Northern BC, released my first edition of silkscreen prints, and made all sorts of new friends and contacts.  It was a good year.

Although I can’t promise to trump last year, I can say that this year will probably be a bit different.  I am working on a series of new prints, the latest of which is my “Bears” print detailed in a previous post.  These will be smaller editions than my first edition and so they will go faster.  Make sure to put in your orders, and I look forward to hearing from you in the new year.

Merry Christmas everyone.  Thank you for making this such a good year.  I am looking forward to new art and adventure in the new year.

Here’s a thought to leave you with.

“For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.”  Isaiah 9:6

Peace!

I have a new design.  The design is entitled “Bears”.

I hope to make this a pretty limited edition of about 30 prints.  Prints will be on 8.5″x11″ paper, so they will be pretty small and easy to transport.  Let me know if you would like to purchase a print.

$56 each with tax included.

nigel@nigelfoxartworks.com

I was talking with a family member this morning about dreams and the thought came to me about surrealism. Surrealism was a movement in art where the artists placed contrasting subjects into a realistic setting. An example of this is Salvadore Dali’s famous work “The Persistence of Memory”, also known by many as “melting clocks” (http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/d/dd/The_Persistence_of_Memory.jpg). Surrealist painters often used inspiration from the subconscious, mainly dreams.

Anyways, I was surprised to find out that another family member had a dream with strikingly similar details later on in the week–before she even knew about the former’s dream. I had a similar dream where a friend had the exact same dream from a different point of view. I dreamed that I was trying to get my friend to press the escape key on a computer, but he couldn’t find it; my friend dreamed that he was in front of a computer and I was excitedly telling him to do something, but it was over his head. Neither of us collaborated on this dream; we were in separate cities, three hours apart; and we both had the dream over the same period of a week.

This anecdotal observation confirms my belief that there is much more to dreams than simply the subconscious blowing off steam and that there is perhaps something more tangible at play; at least something observable at some level.

So, back to the surrealists. I was down in Vancouver this summer on a business trip and I had the opportunity to take in a show at the Vancouver Art Gallery and I was sort of surprised to see a collection of west coast native art in the exhibit. Upon reading the subtitles to the pieces, I learned that the west coast art was taken from the collections of the surrealist artists. My native art teacher, master carver, Dempsey Bob said that many of the famous euro-american artists took their ideas from west coast art. Seeing this exhibit was evidence of this to me; though I get the feeling that the most wise first nations elders and people already know this.

Anyways, if I can make a conclusion, it would be that what is called art is much more than a pretty picture and that there is actually something more important at work, perhaps something that is as deep as the foundations of creation, or deeper. And that it is not even about the creation, but rather a reflection of who we are.

That’s my deep thought for the day. If you have the time, send me an email at nigel@nigelfoxartworks.com, I’d like to hear similar stories or even if you had a significant dream or experience or anything that you want to comment about.

I have been teaching a basic drawing workshop over the past four weeks at the Houston (BC) public library using the concepts taught in Betty Edwards’ book Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain. In this book, Betty explains that sometimes seeing and talking are two totally different things. As an example of this, try naming out loud the actual colors from the list below without saying the names of the colors.

If you are like most people, you probably had difficulty naming the actual color. The reason for this is because the part of your brain that gives names to colors is different than the part of your brain that perceives colors, and the part of your brain that gives names is usually more dominant.

Anyways, going on the theory that drawing is mostly a right-brained activity, students can more effectively learn how to discern and improve their drawing ability. It has been a fun course, with a good set of students and I have learned a lot.