Life In The Analog Age by Gabe Swarr

Be sure to check out my friend Gabe Swarr's weekly cartoon/webcomic Life In The Analog Age. This is an all ages cartoon/webcomic all about the world that extisted before the Internet (gasp!) and life in general. Gabe is an old friend of mine and 14 year veteran in the animation industry. He is currently the Supervising Director of Kung Fu Panda:The Legends of Awesomeness tv show for Nickelodeon and co-founder of Dumm Comics and iam8bit Productions.

So don't let 2010 end without checking out Life In The Analog Age at http://www.lifeintheanalogage.com/

HAPPY HOLIDAYS

This week's blog will be rather short because we'll be away for the holidays but I'd just like to wish everyone a happy holiday season and the very best in 2011. Peace out.

Synapse Selected for the 2011 Paper in Particular National Exhibition

The piece Synapse was of the 93 works recently selected out of 600 entries for the 32nd Annual Paper in Particular National Exhibition at the Larson Gallery at Columbia College in Columbia, MO. The exhibit will run from February 1 to March 4. The reception will be on Friday, February 4.

Synapse is a 26x42 acrylic on illustration board. The work depicts the organic forms of neurons found in the human brain and is juxtaposed with geometric, modern architectural forms of a university parking deck and a botany greenhouse. While teaching university classes one summer, my daily commute involved walking through these structures. These spaces eventually worked their way into my art. One of the projects my 2-d design students were assigned that summer involved working with both geometric and organic forms and bringing them together into a single image. That project inspired this work as well.

Exhibition Reception

Last Friday's exhibit reception at Good Girl Gallery had a great turnout. Many thanks to everyone who made it out as well as Lil Olive and the rest of the Good Girl Gallery family. The exhibit is showing back in my home state of Missouri, so I was able to see some old friends I haven't seen in a quite a while and make a few new ones as well. If you missed the show, it will be up until the end of this month. Good Girl Gallery is located at 325 East Walnut Street, Springfield, MO. They can be reached at 417.865.7055.

New Exhibition Begins Tomorrow

Just a quick reminder that my recent exhibit will begin tomorrow, Friday December 3rd at Good Girl Gallery in Springfield, MO. The reception will run from 6pm-10pm tomorrow night. If you can't make the reception, the work will be up thru December. The image on the invitation is a detail from a new piece that will be included in this exhibition that was inspired from a recent visit to the National Gallery of Art in Washington DC. This detail is from a 14x10.5 acrylic painting on paper and masonite set in a hand made box-style wood frame. This work is entitled Interval. My work often deals with time and this piece is no exception. The word interval is simply defined as the time between two specified instants, events, or states. Hope to see you Friday!

Box Frame Format

Here is an example of my newest box style frame format. I played with this technique of framing with works from a previous series although now they are much more refined. These box style frames are hand made out of poplar wood with a black satin finish. These 2 inch deep frames can hang from a wall or sit on a shelf, desk, end table or any flat surface. I'll have new works in this style frame available this December at Ellis-Nicholson Gallery in Charleston, SC and Good Girl Gallery in Springfield, MO.

Recent Works

I've been exploring insect forms lately, primarily butterflies and moths. Having poked around in the local universities entomology department has yielded some interesting results with some of these recent images. The patterns, color and symmetry found in many insects fascinate me.

These 14x10.5 acrylic and torn paper works on masonite and wood will be on display in December at the Ellis-Nicholson Gallery in Charleston, SC and Good Girl Gallery in Springfield, MO. For more information please check out http://www.ellis-nicholsongallery.com/ or http://www.goodgirlartgallery.com/.

Good Girl Gallery Exhibition

I will be exhibiting new work at Good Girl Gallery thru December. The reception will be Friday, December 3rd from 6-10 pm. Hope you can make it out. Good Girl Gallery is located at 325 East Walnut Street, Springfield, MO 417.865.7055. For more information please check out www.goodgirlgallery.com.

New Works

I've been getting together all new works for an upcoming exhibit this December. Information for that show will be posted next week. Here is a surreal image I'm just finishing. Although it is difficult to see in this photo, this piece I'm working on started out as an old map of London pieced together and mounted to masonite. I then built up using acrylic. The church steeple is from St. Michael's in Charleston, SC. The bells for this church tower were cast in London in 1751 and were stolen by the British at the end of the revolution and returned to England. It finally found its way back to Charleston.

The crows are massive in this image. A bird this size could probably lift a compact car and if you notice there are a bunch of them flying to rejoin the one perched atop the steeple. I've always been a huge fan of films by Alfred Hitchcock so maybe in the back of my mind I was paying an homage to his 1963 film The Birds staring Tippi Hedren.

Special Thanks

To Jim Miller, Dan Anderson and all the fine folks at the 19th annual Hot Springs Documentary Film Festival for hosting such an excellent event. I'd also like to thank everyone that made it out to my presentation. It was a fantastic weekend and a great turnout. Can't wait until next year.

Documentary Film Festival Presentation Reminder

Just a quick reminder: I will be speaking at the Hot Springs Documentary Film Festival this Sunday at 1:00 pm - 823 Central Ave. For more information please visit http://www.hsdfi.org/festival/.

The Hot Springs Documentary Film Festival is one of the first and oldest documentary film festivals in the world (second only to Amsterdam). In 2008, they had over 1,000 film entries, 400 of them representing 90 foreign countries. So come on out and enjoy some of the most renowned, award winning documentary films available in the world today and check out my presentation/workshop in beautiful, historic Hot Springs. I hope to see you at the festival.

Many Thanks

To everyone who helped support the arts Saturday evening at the NWACCC scholarship benefit which provides the gift of art education to those children who could not otherwise participate.

An Evening of Art, Food & Wine at Dromberg Castle, benefiting the NWACCC Scholarship Fund

Join us at Art D'Vine, an evening of art, Food an Wine at beautiful Dromberg Castle located in the Boston Mountains on Saturday, October 16th from 5 to 8 pm. This event will benefit the NWACCC scholarship fund, providing the gift of art and art education to those children who could not otherwise participate.

The evening will include a live and silent auction, featuring original art and live music at the masonry award-winning replica of a Scottish castle. I will be donating my mixed media piece entitled Facade.

For more information, please visit http://www.nwaccc.org/home.

Graphic Content

I hope to see you at my visual presentation at the Hot Springs Documentary Film Festival October 24th at 1pm. Follow the process of creating a documentary graphic novel from research, story development, panel layout/storyboarding, media choice, and isolating key moments to result in an interesting visual narrative. We will also discuss other documentary graphic novels and their relationship to film.

I will feature progress on my recent documentary graphic novel What Follows is True that chronicles the darkest years of the Crescent Hotel in Eureka Springs, AR and believe me, they are dark. Not a bad way to spend the week before Halloween. So come on out and enjoy some of the most renowned, award winning documentary films available in the world today and check out my presentation at the historic Malco Theater Complex in historic downtown Hot Springs.

Presentation

I've been asked to give a presentation at a documentary film festival on my recent documentary graphic novel I'm illustrating as well as documentary graphic novels in general. I'll be explaining technique and the amount of work and research that goes into this type of book. I'll also be discussing other documentary graphic novels as well as comics and graphic novels and their relationship to film. A great deal of planning has gone into this PowerPoint presentation and talk. I'll have more information detailing specifics on the event soon.

Documentary Graphic Novel In Development

Here are a few of my sample drawings and under paintings for this recent documentary style graphic novel. The book chronicles the Norman Baker years of the Crescent Hotel in Eureka Springs, Arkansas. A great deal of research has gone into the production of this book.

The Crescent Hotel first opened its doors in 1886. The hotel closed due to financial difficulties. After reopening as a school and shutting down, it was purchased in 1937 by Dr. Norman Baker and opened as a cancer hospital and health resort.

Dr. Baker had the cure for cancer, but after a short time it became evident that only the new patients were seen walking the hospital grounds. Little did the patients know, their savior Dr. Norman Baker was not a doctor at all.

Though the Crescent Hotel is known to harbor ghosts of nurses pushing wheel chairs and sickly patients walking the halls at night, nothing in its 123-year history is more eerie and bizarre than the events that took place between the years 1938 and 1939.

Chronology

I recently spent time in the local university entomology department doing research for a book, and I was intrigued by the shapes and patterns found in butterflies and moths. These elements have been working their way into some of my recent work. The passage of time is once again a theme found throughout these images.

M2 Gallery Exhibition Opening

I would like to thank everyone who showed up to the M2 Gallery exhibition opening last Thursday evening. It was a great turnout and I appreciate your support! If you didn't get a chance to make it to the show, the art will be on display until October 4th. Thanks again!!

To see more pics from the opening, please visit http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=222026&id=130815926016&ref=mf

Gods Of Angkor

I'm posting a day early this week. I'll be busy with my latest exhibit at M2 Gallery. I hope you all can make it out.

I came across this Cambodian bronze sculpture from the 13th century at the Freer Gallery of Art in Washington DC. It was on loan from the National Museum of Cambodia. The pattern to the left and just behind the sculpture was taken from a window in Charleston, SC.

This is one of my many new paintings now available at M2 Gallery. For more information, please call (501)225-6257.

DomestiCATed: Paths Once Crossed

I recently illustrated a new cover for my graphic novel DomestiCATed: Paths Once Crossed. I also added and slightly enhanced some pages originally omitted from the original print run. I will post when the revised edition of this book is available.

DomestiCATed is made up of three dark short stories that follow a black cat as it ventures into the nefarious underbelly of human existence.

M2 Gallery Exhibition Reminder

Just a reminder. I'll be exhibiting new work at M2 Gallery from September 1 - October 4 with the reception on Thursday, September 2 from 6-10. For more information please call 501-225-6271.

This is one of the new pieces that will be featured in the M2 Gallery exhibition. The butterflies in this acrylic image were painted from sketchbook drawings and negative and positive photos I shot at the University of Arkansas’s entomology department. A friend of mine owned the old 1930’s wheel chair that I painted from a negative.

ellis-nicholson gallery

I'm now represented by Ellis-Nicholson Gallery in Charleston, SC. They represent contemporary art by national and international renowned artists. The gallery is located in historic downtown Charleston at 11/2 Broad Street. Many thanks to Jeannette Nicholson and Victoria Ellis.

For more information, please visit http://www.ellis-nicholsongallery.com/.

Small Works Available

I have now small works available at Rose Gallery. Here are a couple of examples and descriptions of the works. For more information contact 417-782-7177.

Villa Pamphilli
This piece was completed in 2005 while studying in Rome. The lower half of this image was rendered while exploring the Villa Doria Pamphili, which is a seventeenth century villa located in the quarter of Monteverde in Rome, Italy. Today Villa Pamphilli is the largest landscaped public park in Rome. The upper half is a depiction of Caravaggio’s 1602-03 painting entitled The Entombment of Christ. I drew this while visiting the Pinacoteca Vaticana in Vatican City. Notes from my travels can be seen scribed across the image as well.

Florence
This piece depicts Basilica di Santa Maria del Fiore of Florence, Italy in pen and ink. The basilica is one of Italy's largest churches. Its brick dome remains the largest ever constructed. The ink drawing is layered over a Prismacolor rendering of a statue found in a nearby cemetery. Drawings of byzantine religious icons can be seen faded back in the bottom right corner. The partial skeletal study on the far was created using a solvent transfer process.

M2 Gallery Exhibition Rescheduled

The dates for my exhibition at M2 Gallery has changed.

The exhibit will run from September1 - October 4 and the Reception will be on Thursday, September 2 from 6-10. For more information please call 501-225-6271.

Here are a couple of pieces that will be featured in this exhibit entitled Reverie and Passages. Both pieces were inspired by trips throughout Europe.

The piece Reverie contains a melding of neo-classical architectural elements. In the upper left corner of the image is the dome of the majestic Chiesa Della Gran Madre di Dio of Rome, Italy crowned by a cupola. The dome of this church is flanked by two bell-towers although only one is visible in this composition. The baby was seen on a billboard in Rome near the Spanish Steps. The bottom half depicts a woman I saw seated at a pew in a cathedral in Rome. The upper right image was from my travels on the Mediterranean Sea in Nice, France.

The work Passages contains a statue at the right rendered in Prismacolor and acrylic and is one of the many cemetery statues I’ve drawn while traveling in Europe. The image of the structure in the center is a solvent transfer rendering of the Vatican’s St. Peters Basilica. The figures to the right of the basilica are statues found along the northern transepts of Chartres Cathedral in France. The lion to the right of the statues is actually rendered from a photo I shot about 20 years earlier of a lion sculpture found near the fine arts building on the campus of MSSU in Joplin, MO. Just beneath the lion is another solvent transfer of St. Peters Basilica in Vatican City.

Mixed Media, Collage, and Altered Book Classes

I'll be posting dates for mixed media, collage, and altered book classes I'll be teaching in the near future. These classes will cover basic design elements and principles. Students will learn how to layer various media and work with different techniques. Final pieces may be based on personal experiences, dreams, or fantasy.

In my altered book classes, students will alter an old book with text and pictures and make it their own by blending collage and text to create their own striking and colorful collage journal. They will learn about layering and working with various media and type as a graphic element.

Art Central Classes and 25th Anniversary

This week I traveled to Missouri to teach art classes at Art Central in Carthage. I'd like to thank Art Central director Sally Armstrong for providing both students and teachers with a creative environment and artistic support. Its truly a pleasure to teach classes with such fine teachers and students. To learn more, please read Kevin McClintock's Joplin Globe article.

It was a great week. Congratulations on 25 successful years of supporting the arts.

M2 Gallery Exhibit

I'll be exhibiting new work from September 6 - October 11 at the M2 Gallery in Little Rock. The reception will be on September 10 from 6-9.

The passage of time is a major theme in my work. Layering of images is used to help illustrate the ever-changing landscape of life, the planet, and the mind. My images are rendered in various levels of clarity to illustrate haziness and lucidity. Blurriness in my work is used to illustrate faded memory, foggy clairvoyance, and obscure thought. The indication of diagrams, letterforms, and shapes helps bring about the impression of discombobulated images of the past or predictions of the future. Images sometimes repeat throughout the work as reflections or echoes, and horizontal formats encourage the viewer’s eyes to move from left to right, much like a narrative or a time-line.

Website Update

I just updated my website with some new work. Here is an example of a new piece I added to the site from concept sketch to final 20x24 acrylic painting entitled Visage. The old photo in the sketch ended up being painted into another piece called Transition. I'll post more work and new exhibition dates soon. Be sure to visit http://www.seanfitzgibbonart.com/.

More Summer Comic and Manga Classes at NWACCC

Ages: 10+

Class time: July 12-16, 9-11:30am

Instructor: Sean Fitzgibbon

Description: Manga and Anime enthusiasts, this is the class for you. Intense week of drawing techniques, creating figures with movement,developing space through perspective, and developing a story line.

For more information please visit http://www.nwaccc.org/home

M2 Gallery

I've been represented by M2 Gallery for about two years now. They represent an

array of fine contemporary national and international artists. For more information, be sure to check out their website at http://m2lr.com/Home_Page.html. I'll be showing at the M2 Gallery later this summer with a reception in September. These dates will be posted soon.

ACO Exhibit Explores Juxtapositions

I'd like to thank Sara Sullivan and the NWA Times for the great write up covering the Altered Perceptions exhibition at ACO. The exhibit will be up until Friday, July 2.

http://www.nwaonline.com/news/2010/jun/18/art-altered-perceptions-20100618/

Kids Exhibition at NWACCC (Nadine Baum Studios)

I've been teaching summer classes for kids ages 10+ at NWACCC (Nadine Baum Studios) as well as Friday classes ACO. I'll also be teaching a week long course at Art Central in Carthage, Missouri in July. These classes are a great opportunity for kids to stretch their imaginations and tell fantastic stories utilizing various media. The class at NWACCC displays their work in the gallery space. The children experience the fun of exhibiting their work and having it seen by the public at the end of each summer session.

Sean Fitzgibbon Art is now on Twitter, Facebook and Blogger

You can now keep up with gallery exhibition dates, available books, community based projects, as well as workshops and classes I'm teaching, along with other projects on Twitter, Facebook and Blogger.

Many Thanks

I would like to thank everyone who showed up to the Altered Perceptions exhibition at ACO last night. It was a great turnout and I appreciate your support! If you didn't get a chance to make it to the show, the art will be on display until July 2. Thanks again!!

Arts in Education, Arts Curriculum Project Grant

Back in January I was given the opportunity to direct the students of Central Junior High in the creation of a “diversity” themed mosaic mural, funded by an Arts in Education curriculum project grant. The mural was installed in May and is prominently displayed at the front of the school at 2811 West Huntsville Avenue in Springdale, AR.

I would like thank Susan Hutchcroft and fine folks at NWACCC for allowing me the opportunity to direct the mural design and to work with art instructor Laurie Foster and the talented and hard working students from Central Jr High.

Summer Comics Class At NWACCC

I'll be teaching a comics class for kids ages 10+ at NWA Community Creative Center from June 14-18, 9-11:30 am. Comics and Manga enthusiasts: this class is for you. This will be an intense week of drawing techniques, creating dynamic figures, developing space through perspective and developing a story line utilizing your created characters.

The NWA Community Creative Center is located at 505 W Spring St, Fayetteville, AR 72701. For more information please visit http://www.nwaccc.org/.

Altered Perceptions Exhibition: The Smith-Kelly Gallery at ACO

Just a reminder, I will be showing my new series Altered Perceptions in the Smith-Kelly Gallery at ACO from June 4 thru July 2 and the reception will be on Thursday, June 10 from 6:00 to 8:00 pm. Also, be sure to check out the work of Gary Holstein in the McQuistion-Matthews Gallery.

Altered Perceptions explores concepts of mystery, perception, and random consciousness while incorporating many visuals observed through my travels. Through the meshing of various environments, eras, imagery, and media I explore the interconnectivity of the world, and I hope the viewer experiences the same admiration for our diverse yet kindred existences.

Exhibition of New Works

June 4th - July 2nd

Reception: Thursday

June 10th 6-8 pm

Art Center of the Ozarks

214 South Main Street

Springdale, AR 72764

(479)751.5441