May Art Events

 

With spring and summer comes the second half of my art year. Each year I sit down and plan out all of the art shows that I want to enter. Local galleries, state and county fairs, and outdoor art events provide ample opportunities. This gives me a progressive way to accomplish more art and pick up good challenges that are available. I always have a ton of ideas floating around in my head and hanging out on scraps of paper, but these challenges really push me to explore new ideas and methods. 

The Cottonwood Center for the Arts had a challenge I accepted and for which three pieces were juried in and will be showing throughout the month of June.  

SELF STARTER

OPENING reception | JUNE 6 | 5PM - 8PM

 

The selfie has become a part of our culture that means different things for different living generations in our society. It can be an exercise in narcissism, ironically indifferent, politically poignant, or even just plain candid. For this call, we ask artists to start with a smart-phone-generated self portrait. This digital image will be the launching point for a work of art that expresses their relationship with the world, however they define that real or virtual space.

  

The three pieces that were accepted are based on a Lyft selfie I took recently and printed on my copy machine: Lyft #1 Animal Head surrounded by several wild animals (which I love to represent in art), Lyft #2 Color Head done entirely with neon crayons, and Lyft #3 Book Head completed with a black Sharpie. It was very engaging to explore these specific world-relationships. 

 

 

© M.R.Hyde 2025 

 

I think I've done three self-portraits in my life, the first being a college assignment to represent myself with an inanimate object ("She's a Good Egg" was also my first oil painting that still hangs in my home), the second a pen & ink and watercolor that was destroyed, and the third "Wild Horse Dreams" completed in 2022 based off of a non-selfie photograph of me as a child on vacation. These have not been the unflinching life-time self portraits like Rembrandt's, but it's been fun. Perhaps I'll do more.

 

© M.R.Hyde 2022

Artwork from my Gnarled series of drawings with acrylic ink can be viewed at Manitou Art Center as well.

Thanks for enjoying and supporting the arts!