Ready to start...

Where we meet © 2011 Megan Chapman

This is where one story ends and another begins... I thought I would be writing my year in review blog today, but I was reminded that I still have until next week to do that. So today I will take the time to mention the future.

Soon I will take my first solo trip in a plane and I will take my first trip overseas. I will be going to Scotland on January 10th- May 3rd. I am very excited! I am looking forward to leaving my town and getting some perspective on the world and my place in it. I am looking forward to seeing new things and meeting new people. I am looking forward to the inspiration and the freedom that shooting through the sky will allow. Like time travel, landing in a new place where everything is similar yet different and where I can regroup and become whole again. This has been an exceptional year but it has also been extremely taxing and exhausting. I am hoping to slip through this portal to a kind of renewal.

 I don't think I will return the same person. In fact I know I won't. I am not the same person I was a year ago. I have grown a lot as a person and as an artist through taking calculated risks and by being vulnerable and surrounded by love. I am sure this trip will provide me many opportunities to continue on this path.

Once in Scotland, I am really looking forward to seeing my work on the UNION gallery walls, in their current exhibition Winter Wonderland. As many of you know, I have four pieces from my "Sometimes I love you and other stories" series currently at the gallery in Edinburgh and I have only seen pictures of them. It will be surreal to walk into the gallery and stand before them, there on the wall. I was thrilled when my work was recently mentioned in a review of the exhibition. You can read it here. I was already so pleased to be showing at the gallery but to have my work chosen and written about is an extra special thrill. Validation from an objective source and from someone in another country feels important. I want to remember this moment.

In other happy news,  I just found out that I will have an exhibition of some of my new small works on paper in Edinburgh in February and/or March at a local popular cafe. I am grateful to have this opportunity as it will help me have a focus for my work while I am there. This was one reason for my recent collection of small etsy paintings, I wanted to imagine working in a small space and with simplified materials. I will of course let folks know about the work and the exhibition as it happens. Just stay tuned to my blog to stay in the know.

My exhibition schedule is shaping up for 2012.

February/March: I thought I would find you here, a joint exhibition by Megan Chapman and Stewart Bremner,  Northwest Arkansas Community College, Bentonville, Arkansas.  This exhibition will showcase several of Stewart's individual paintings and mine, teamed with the remaining Question of Chemistry series paintings that we created last May.

February/March: Selected small works on paper by Megan Chapman, Embo, Edinburgh. These will be all new paper works created in Scotland.

July: All new combined paintings by Megan Chapman and Stewart Bremner, Art Center of the Ozarks, Springdale Arkansas. We are very excited to pick up where we left off and create all new works for this exhibition. When we return to Arkansas in May we will get busy painting in the heat of the summer.

I have also submitted my work to a couple of juried exhibitions, I will let you know if I get in any of them and how they impact my schedule in the coming months.

So the future seems bright with travel, love, culture, art and exhibitions. I am also hoping for renewal, big ideas and of course lots of music.

I just want to say thank you again to all my friends, family, art supporters and patrons. I love sharing this journey with you and the support and validation you give me and my work is unparalleled. You have helped me discover my truth, face my fears and live this live. You have been the smiles, the helping hands, the financial support, and the open hearts that I needed this year. You have been the ones I have worked for.  

Thank you.

A place to drown...

© 2010 institute du loop

So... I worked this week. I actually managed to paint! Nothing amazing or earth shattering, but there were marks made, there were grounds laid, there were things to explore, paint dripping, water splattering and hitting the floor.

If you have been reading my blog lately, you know I have been stuck on three new works in progress for the past several weeks. However, I do have my reasons for not painting that much this month...

I am excited to share that I have been working hard to bring something to the Fayetteville Underground from Taipei Taiwan. I have been working closely with the artist of the institute du loop over many months to bring their premier international exhibition to the light of day. This has been thrilling, exasperating, surprising, funny and hard work. The institute du loop's A Place to Drown will debut on Thursday July 1st at the Hive Gallery in the Fayetteville Underground, in Fayetteville, Arkansas as part of our monthly first Thursday art events from 5-8pm. So, while I have been a bit creatively blocked with my own paintings, I have been busy curating this exciting and challenging international exhibition. I am hesitant to use the word curating, as I am an artist by trade, but I can't think of a better word. If you are a curator please don't send me hate mail.

There have been countless emails, chats, diagrams, photographs, writings, ideas, and questions sent back and forth from Taipei to Fayetteville and vice-versa in preparation for this exhibition. It has been a very interesting experience to work with another artist in such a way. This is clear evidence of how our world has changed, how much technology allows such amazing and inspiring things to happen. I received the exhibition via Fed Ex on two thumb drives with a Chinese stamp in order to sign the work. I will receive the artist composed soundtrack for the exhibition electronically as well. I will be reimbursed for my printing and other in house supplies via paypal by the artist and then when work sells the artist will be paid that way in return. It is just so wonderful that all of this technology can be used in such a creative way. I am especially proud to be able to bring this emotional and wonderful body of photographic works and music to our community. I am also humbled by the trust given to me by the artist.

Press Release:
Institute du Loop will present its premier international exhibition, A Place to Drown, in the Hive Gallery within the Fayetteville Underground during the month of July. This exhibition, curated by artist Megan Chapman, comes to the Fayetteville Underground from Taipei, Taiwan. The Institute du Loop is the brain child of English born visual and sound artist, "Mr. Loop." Mr. Loop has lived in Taipei for two years, and this body of work reflects his sense of being lost in the city, drowning in emotions, submerged and dreaming on the strange island he now calls home.

The photographic works presented capture what the artist's eye misses, he is using his camera to “see” what he cannot. The camera gives the artist a chance to lose himself in fleeting moments again and again. Mr. Loop sees his work as a form of emotional documentation: through these images he is finding his eyes and his heart. The Institute du Loop's exhibition presents the viewer with an archive of images, words, and sounds, or as the title suggests, A Place to Drown.

Latest tracks by institute

"now I feel like an individual, like myself. My heart is feeling and my brain is thinking and I am dreaming with my eyes wide open..." -institute du loop

I am ready to drown. Are you?

Thanks for stopping by, more about the exhibition next week.

The exhibition will remain up through July 31st.
The Fayetteville Underground
Basement of One East Square Plaza
East side of the Historic Fayetteville Square.
Fayetteville, Arkansas
Gallery Hours W-F 12-7pm
Saturday 10-5pm
4 galleries: Open Studios
www.fayettevilleunderground.com
www.fayettevilleunderground.blogspot.com