October 2008 Meeting Notes

As stated at the first meeting- “It is critical that the project is chronicled properly”.
The blog is a great way to move this project forward- we need to communicate more than once a month on this. Each person should check the blog at least weekly and post comments, thoughts and what you are working on!

At the October meeting:

• We discussed the panel and decided that any panel with the exact dimensions would be fine- also do what ever you want to do to finish the sides.
• Our invited artists did not make it, but maybe Tommy can make it next time- Meltem will check with Connie.

We showed our panels and here are several of the comments:

• We may want to consider bringing panels done from previous weeks at another time to review them and look at more together.
• Everyone followed the directions except Amy, with the red bird.
• Some people took the black and white literally and others used a greyed down palette.
• There are many cool/warm greys.
• Shar thought it is important for continuity in the work- something that holds the panels together. Her idea was journaled and stemmed from painting things that you do not look at everyday and go unnoticed.
• The paintings may, in the end, demonstrate the transition from greys to color over time.
• Brian- curating the show will pull it together- when there are more paintings we may pull out things that do not work with the group of paintings.
• Kathy-it is important to have a thread of commonality within the work- why the title “grey matters”?
• Meltem- does not want to paint in greys and chose a muted green to start her panel. Discussed the literal-emotional continuum of the grey matters idea and know that she will paint to the emotional side. She pointed out that some of the work seems like paintings, others more like a study.
• Narration present at the show may contribute to the common thread/continuity.
• We need to further investigate the subject and will do one more grey panel and see where it goes from there.
• It is all about the creative process and the journey and getting into it more.
• Should we rework any of the paintings? Some say no, it should reflect a process and if we rework it – may detract from this- others say, there should be no rules about this.

Thanks to everyone for their work and to Meltem for hosting!

The date for the next meeting is Tuesday, December 9th and will be at Meltem's house. Let the group know if this date does not work for you.

After Meeting Comments:
We need to have a better flow of our meetings:

Start by hanging the paintings and just looking.
Each artist will discuss their paintings one at a time without interruption.
Those ideas and processes that lead to their 10 x 10 are important to move forward to the next level of paintings and should be given the attention they deserve.

Comments and questions specific to the work can be held until you are finished but may be taken right after show and tell so people don't forget what they want to say before we move on to the next painting. Which again may add dimension to your work or inspire a painting for next time.

If you did not finsish your 10 x 10, for what ever reason, please give that person that has contributed a painting a chance to speak first. You may have ideas in the works for your next painting that would be interesting and helpful to discuss with the group, but too bad, now you're last!!

On question of new members:
It is important that we maintain an active group of members throughout this project. If anyone has an idea of an artist that may be interested in the project- please follow this procedure:
Present the idea of the new member to the group and find out if the group thinks that the person may be a good fit to the group.
If the majority thinks it may be a good fit, tell the artist about the group and ask them to come to a meeting.
Set up the date that they will attend and make sure that the artist can present their work to the group at this meeting. Tell the artist about the blog.

On the next panel and creating a common theme within the work:

We will be continuing with the grey palette.
It could be things that go unnoticed (Shar). I feel that the world is so overstimulating at this point due to computers and information- we forget what is really important.
Another idea is to produce a painting about each artist in the group.

Let''s get this part of the discussion moving before the next meeting!

On a previous note:
I talked to Brian and he had some input and ideas that I wanted to pass
along: We could use a 10 x 10 format to write down ideas gotten from the meeting,
comments from the meeting and/or notes to ourselves on what we plan to do
for the next panel. These notes could later become part of an exhibition.

All for now................................