Three Minute Egg Interview- Art-a-Whirl

I had a great weekend at Art-a-Whirl in Minneapolis. It was great fun to talk with people and entertain lots of random questions about my work. I also managed to sell a few pieces which was great. Because of the big solo show I'm working on for December, I only put up older work- all of it from 2008 or earlier. It was a little bit of a bummer to have people inquire about it, because in 2 years of grad school I have grown by leaps and bounds as a painter... I managed to give a lot of people my website and talked a lot about the new work, even though it wasn't there for them to see.

One of the unique things that happened was an interview with 3-Minute Egg (threeminuteegg.org), a local arts website run by Matt Peiken. You should check it out and subscribe to it- it's free and it supports the local arts scene. He interviewed me and we had a great chat. Check out his posting from May 17th for our interview. I'm the 3rd of 3 artists here-

EVERYTHING MUST GO!!!! Minneapolis Art-a-Whirl

Hey there- New updates...

This weekend I've secured a partial gallery space for the Minneapolis Art-a-whirl... I'll be in studio #214 right above Diamond Coffee in the Thorp Building in Northeast Minneapolis- (1620 Central Ave just north of Broadway). Follow the link here for a map and all other info.

All studios in the building and in a lot of other buildings around town will be open, plus there's free food and music in the Thorp building. Come check it out. I am bringing a lot of older stuff (all the stuff I can't find room for anymore) to the studio and am looking to move it. There's paintings, drawings and prints.... all for in-SANEly low prices! Drop me an email if you have questions. Hours are 5-8 on Friday, 12-8 on Saturday and Sunday. I may be there in a checkered blazer doing my best used-car salesman impression.

Solo Show and other news

Fun news this week- I just learned that I'll be having a solo show at the Hopkins Center for the Arts in Hopkins, MN from Dec. 9 to Jan.9 2011. I submitted a proposal for this venue a few months back. I'll be showing on both floors of the lobby gallery, which is outside of their theater area. I went over there this week to get some measurements and take a few pictures. It's a really great space with wonderful light and my pieces will look great. Only one problem...

The space is aprox. 130 linear ft, or about 100-110 linear feet of actual art space. Much of my graduate work is small, and I figure with new pieces I'm working on I probably have about 50-60 linear feet. In other words, I have 8 months to more or less double the amount of work that I have. Wait for a second while I take a breath...

The good news in all of this is that I thrive when there are deadlines- it really helps me to get working, and I've been feeling much more antsy to paint even in the last few days since learning about the show. It will get done, that's not something to worry about- One thing is certain, it will be a busy summer. Lots of time to paint and lots of time to get better at painting. What could be better than that? The Hopkins Center will be printing up schedules and other assorted promotional materials for the 2010-11 season in the next month or so. I will be sure to relay that info.

I've been busy the last 3 months designing and constructing the sets for a high school production of "Into the Woods", which is a wonderful show. It's just the sort of high-creativity problem that I love, turning the stage into a forest glade with 30' tall trees on a limited budget. I'm pretty proud of it, and assuming the actors and musicians can get everything pulled together its going to be great. It plays April 15-17 and 22-24 at Minnehaha Academy in Minneapolis.

I do have 2-3 new larger paintings completed in the last few weeks as well, so I will post pictures here shortly. I'm still gradually updating the portfolio page on my new website, so click through and you'll see all the images I currently have shot and color corrected. More to come-

re-design and website

It's been a few weeks of readjusting and I have finally gotten around to cleaning up the blog here. Hope you like the sleek sophisticated artsy new look. The last month has been busy- I have been painting quite a bit, trying to finish up a few incomplete paintings from last fall in order to pull together a whole body of work for gallery submission. I also started 2 large canvases, which is something I've wanted to try for a while now. One is complete, the other at about 75%, so hopefully I will have some new images to post here soon.

The biggest news is that I finally went live with a website, so check it out:

www.nathanstromberg.com

So far, it's fairly simple and I need to upload a lot more work to the portfolio section, but it's a great start. A million thanks to my friend Jeff at Holmberg Design who put this whole thing together. Shameless plug for him here... he makes a mean website.

www.holmbergdesign.com

Done and Done.

I'm back from Boston and all is well, and I officially have my MFA- needless to say, it feels great.

My artist talk went very well (I've posted a small low-resolution version I made to practice from here- it's tough to read all the captions but the audio will give you a good idea of the presentation). My Thesis defense also went great, not so much a defense as a very cordial talk about my work. After a long week of conducting critiques with other MFA students, I had a big show opening with my work in Cambridge last Friday night. It was lots of fun, and my extended family made the trip which made it even more fun.

Now I am back to normal life and it all seems pretty surreal. I have lots of ideas for painting and more than a few leads for situations to show, so I will be working hard (though not as hard) in the coming months to advance my artistic career. For the sake of friends and family who keep up with this, I'll continue to post here. I'm also working on creating a personal website and will redesign this blog at some point.

To all those who supported me these last 2 years with your time and your words of encouragement, thanks so much.

-Crunch Time-

This last month has been pretty crazy, but it's all starting to wind down- I go to Boston in 6 days, and then the madness begins. The thesis? Done. The artwork? Made, packaged with 50 miles of bubble wrap and UPS'd to Boston. The Artist Talk? Written and coming along- with much practicing left to do, and it gets delivered a week from tonight. I am scared and really excited- it will be great. When I have the time I'll post a video of the presentation here for viewing enjoyment. I'll also pass on details of the final residency...

New Image Diptychs/ "Fossils" and "Prize"

Here are 2 new diptychs (or 4 new paintings) made in the last 4 weeks... These will probably be the last new ones in this 50s series, at least during my MFA studies. They need a few weeks to dry and should be good for January, but we'll see. These are larger paintings- "Fossils" is 42" x 18" and "Prize" is 16" x 28". I've been having a difficult time capturing the accurate color of my paintings with the camera, which is making things tough now that I'm preparing an artist presentation and those images will be projected large for all to see... I may have to reshoot pretty much everything. We'll see and if I can get good color I'll post them. These are close but still pretty off... about as close as I can get them with the little color adjustment feature on iPhoto.