Mighty Oak Accepted into Blanche Ames National Juried Exhibit

by

Mighty Oak has been accepted into the juried 2014 Blanche Ames National Art Exhibition. This inspiring botanical exhibit will return to Borderland in mid-September and will be open Tuesdays through Sundays, from 11am to 3pm, through October 4. The juror for this year’s exhibition is Mim Fawcett, Executive Director of the Attleboro Arts Museum.

MIGHTYOAK121x_m During the exhibition, on Sept. 21 from 11am to 3pm, members of the New England Society of Botanical Artists (NESBA) will be drawing and painting in the Ames Mansion. Visitors are invited to observe and interact with the artists.
NESBA works to promote public appreciation of the art and science of botanical art and illustration in New England. The Society educates individuals and organizations about botanical art and illustration through exhibits, lectures, workshops, and outreach programs. More information about NESBA is available at nesbaartists.blogspot.com. NESBA is a chapter of the American Society of Botanical Artists.

Patina News

by

patina-brushes

Recently I have begun working with a new team of “ghost artists” in Utah, USA. While challenging, this is also an invigorating and exciting transition!  What many fail to realize is the host of talented, highly skilled hands which are vital to the quality completion of every cast work of art. Without these wonderful, committed partners in the process, the work (and particularly the volume of it) would simply not be possible.  Each is highly skilled whether it be in mold creation, wax dressing, investing the shell, pouring the molten bronze, chasing the poured metal, patina techniques, and the myriad of “others” essential to keep the wheels turning with both excellence in quality and joy. While rarely recognized for their marvelous talent, they each hold equal talent to the one who created the vision alone.

Pivotal to this endeavor of beginning new artisans in my circle of work, is an exciting new partnership in working with master patineur, Nathan Bennett who will be creating my patinas. The patination process has always held deep passion for me, and I am both excited and honored about this new partnership with Carol-and-Nathan-finsihing-up-patina-workNathan. Excellence in patina detail and quality for my work are unique challenges (and essential) and Nathan is truly gifted and able to meet this challenge with both confidence and grand enthusiasm. I was thrilled to spend many days and long hours working  directly with him in the past several weeks as he becomes acquainted with my body of work.

 

Mighty Oak Earns Honorable Mention

by

The  Legacy at Governor Ames Estate awarded Mighty Oak an Honorable Mention in the 2014 Juried Legacy Art Exhibition. The one day exhibition was held June 29, 2014 in North Easton, MA.

 

Western Arts & Architecture Magazine

by

Carol is honored to have her work  featured in the upcoming August/September 2014 issue of Western Arts and Architecture Magazine. From cowboy to contemporary this high quality, beautiful bi-monthly publication is a feast for the eyes and senses. Carol’s work will be featured in the Illuminations Section. Trillium, Seeds of Harmony, The Garden of Promises, In Vino Veritas I and Serenity will be featured. Browse the latest issue here: http://westernartandarchitecture.com

Carol's work featured in the August/September 2014 issue of Western Arts and Architecture Magazine.Carol's work featured in the August/September 2014 issue of Western Arts and Architecture Magazine.Carol's work featured in the August/September 2014 issue of Western Arts and Architecture Magazine.

 

2014 National Pollination Week

by

June 16-22, 2014 is National Pollinator Week, and we are celebrating the beloved honeybee here at the studio. In conjunction with Gallery MAR in Park City, Utah Carol is offering an opportunity drawing for some lucky someone to give home to a Nature’s Bounty vessel. Place a recommended donation of $20 (or more), during the month of June 2014, to either Pollinator Partnership (www.pollinator.org) or Park City’s Swaner Eco Center (www.swanerecocenter.org) via Gallery MAR to be entered into this opportunity drawing.

Nature’s Bounty is an appeal for renewed appreciation and active conservation efforts regarding the miraculous honeybee.  Presented within twenty-five blooms of white clover this small jewel offers a radiant energy of divine, balanced Power in the repeated “3″ of the foliage (3 leafed clovers and one 4 leafed one too).  Three is a Divine Power number suggesting oneness and harmony. The honeybee population is declining at an alarming rate – these amazingly intelligent insects are responsible for pollinating nearly one-third of the fruits, vegetables and nuts we eat on a daily basis. Love almonds? Well, thank these little industrious workers for all of their miraculous pollination efforts.

The world’s honeybee population has been in an alarming decline for the past decade; and continues to decline today. In the mid 2000’s a virus threatened the vibrancy of the life of the honeybee; and today Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD) presents the greatest challenge yet with its unique set of lethal symptoms; along with numerous other virus’. I hold a very deep and growing concern regarding the alarming rate of the honeybees continual disappearance (along with other bees and insects); and the yet inconclusive –or at least ineffective – results of the massive research completed surrounding CCD. One author, Michael Schacker, in A Spring Without Bees (2008), suggests we have the answers, for the most part, to their disappearance yet we have been unable, as a society, to accept the evidence which would strongly indicate a critical need to change many of our ways of living to insure their future with  us.  Schacker believes a major culprit to be our increased use of pesticides and our ever-increasing potency of them. His book presents an absolutely alarming, and very well documented collection of the history of their disappearance along with the research efforts and results. He also highlights the role of the EPA and its regulations and practices; as well as the role of major manufacturing companies of the many pesticides we use so freely today. It is clearly a book worthy of one’s time and deepest reflection.

The honeybee pollinates about one third of the food we eat today – including fruits, vegetables, and nuts.  Without these foods, our dietary intake would need to change dramatically leaving grave deficiencies.  The honeybee truly feeds us through its relentless work as an amazingly intelligent and organized colony.  I hope we are, collectively, able to wake up to the alarming cry of the honeybee and see in its disappearance the grandest of requests for us to re-evaluate, with very new eyes, our way of tending our natural world and our changing farming practices.  We can truly no longer afford to make decisions based primarily upon financial gain or ease of labor over the value of a healthy and sustainable source of nutrition and a balanced, non-toxic and sustainable ecosystem. In addition to the honeybee other bees, beetles, moths, butterflies and other insects also are responsible for pollinating our foods.

Join the focused efforts this year to dedicate your practices to exclusively organic, sustainable gardening including  many plants inviting our pollinators. Each of us can do our part and make an enormous difference – and, each of us will always needs healthy food for our bodies.

Read more here…. http://allemanstudios.com/bronze-works-companion-writings/vessels-by-size/6-inches-and-under/natures-bounty/.

Listen and watch Dave Hackenburg talk about bees and beekeeping and the weather on this short promo for the Weather Channel. Thanks weather folks for the opportunity. Thanks Dave for taking the time.

http://www.weather.com/video/weather-really-matters-to-bees-49164?collid=/news/staff-picks

Nature’s Bounty Opportunity Drawing in Park City UT

by

PARK CITY— Gallery MAR and artist Carol Alleman celebrate National Pollination Week this June, with an Opportunity Drawing to win a Nature’s Bounty bronze sculpture.

In celebration of National Pollination Week (June 16-22) Gallery MAR sculptor Carol Alleman is donating a sculptural bronze vessel entitled Nature’s Bounty.  A lucky participant who makes a recommended donation of $20 to either The Pollinator Partnership (www.pollinator.org) or Park City’s Swaner Eco Center (www.swanerecocenter.org will be entered into the Opportunity Drawing to take home the honeybee and white clover vessel.  Ms. Alleman writes an accompanying work of poetry for each sculpture she creates.

 

Who:                Carol Alleman with Gallery MAR

What:               “Pollination Week” celebration and Opportunity Drawing

When:              The month of June, 2014

Where:             436 Main Street, Park City, Utah

Read more about National Pollination Week in Carol’s June Blog.

Celebrating Mother’s Day within Each of Us

by

Womb Of Life

Womb of Life, shown here, is suggestive of the notion that absolutely every event of our lives is intended to perfectly nourish us, while holding us, as we grow toward the transition of life beyond this earth at this time.  It also reflects and honors the beautiful process of being Mothered – held – nourished – loved without condition in all circumstance.

Not unlike the pregnant, glowing woman, every one of us is indeed expectant at this very moment. Each of us, both men and women alike, are carrying within our very being something miraculous – something to be nourished and carried into its exact moment of being born into our world. Our world at large quickly recognizes mother in the pure physical sense of honoring our physical mothers (which is surely a lovely and worthy sentiment) yet we honor our birth mothers without equal reflection upon the miraculous mothering process of which each of us consciously or subconsciously are always engaged.  We were born of our mothers into this world with rich and perfect purpose. Each person on this blessed earth holds, within him or her, some gift (large or small) waiting to be offered to our world – no one is exempt. It is when we honor these potent seeds within – these miraculous gifts  -that we are able to fully experience the essence of both belonging and contributing. Our gifts may feel hidden, not unlike the visual essence of the child still being nourished within the mothers’ womb, not yet visible or fully known to our world.  We need not see clearly the precise colors of our inner dreams and nudges; we need simply to acknowledge their presence with awe, expectancy and gratitude. Expectant mothers and mothers of children of all ages will do nearly anything to protect their children.  How lovely it is when we too offer this same unconditional love and protection to that which is uniquely being born from within each of us. Where we direct our grateful attention is where we will find the focus of that attention growing – in other words, what we place our focus upon is what will grow in our lives for better or for worse. My prayer for Mother’s Day is for each of us to offer moments of reflection, gratitude and deepest expectation of what might lie within us – waiting for its moment to be born. Expectant mothers feel the baby kicking in the womb from time to time, and we too feel quiet nudges from time to time that we often simply ignore or suppress.  May you allow yourself to truly feel these nudges and respond to them with utter trust and expectation.

Whether you have a living, physical mother to honor this day or not, may Mother’s Day, bring you an ever grateful and expectant heart, as you celebrate not only the many honorable mothers of the worldly sense, but more so, as you honor the mothering miracle within your soul everyday. Together, may we courageously bring birth to the diverse miracles within, and bless our world deeply and miraculously.

Seeds of Harmony on exhibit in American Women Artists Signature Member Show

by

SeedsOfHarmony_tbeaselMark your calendars now as the 2014 American Woman Artists (AWA) Show is happening earlier this year. AWA’s 17th Annual Member Show & National Juried Competition Exhibition will be held at the Addison Art Gallery, Orleans, MA August 15 – September 15, 2014. Carol will participate in the Signature Members Show exhibiting Seeds of Harmony. More information can be found by visiting americanwomanartists.com.  As best said by Robert Knight
, Chief Executive Officer
 Tucson Museum of Art, “ The Tucson Museum of Art initiated the first American Women Artists exhibit in 1990, following in the annual tradition of the Prima Vera, a city wide celebration of women in the arts.  In the subsequent years, AWA has reached audiences from California to Maryland to Italy and back.  Now in their third decade, the acclaimed American Women Artists celebrate their commitment to art with works of high quality, original viewpoints, and enduring inspirations.  Museums interested in significant 21st-century American art, how recurring themes crisscross in the lives of painters and sculptors, or the specific viewpoint of women, need look no further than an exhibition of the American Women Artists.”

 Don’t miss this extraordinary show while enjoying the calming, beautiful seascape of Massachusetts this summer.

Carol’s Work to Be Presented at Chicago International Art, Antique and Jewelry Show

by

Carol is honored to have an extensive representation of her work  presented at the upcoming CHICAGO INTERNATIONAL ART, ANTIQUE and JEWELRY SHOW by Oliver & Espig Gallery. Over 100 extraordinary galleries will exhibit at the show April 24-28. To purchase tickets and view additional information please visit: http://www.chicagospringshow.com/

 

Everyday Miracles

by

Today as I gaze through the window beyond my desk looking into my spring garden and watching the birds dance around the feeders, I am distracted by a glimpse of my large Christmas cactus just to the right of the window.  She bloomed beautifully the week after Christmas (close enough for me) and today she boasts one very pregnant bud!  A few weeks ago she did the same but the bud dropped before opening. I was distracted for several weeks and failed to water her as regularly as I should have and here she is once more graciously attempting to capture my attention.  I bought this cactus the day my beloved grandmother made her transition from this earth, in celebration of her and the many gifts she bestowed upon my life. She grew the most extraordinary plants, one of them regularly were  gorgeous Christmas cacti. She sent one to me years ago that accidentally was neglected on the porch when a frost visited during the night. I was deeply saddened to lose it. When I bought this one years ago on the day she transitioned, it was tiny. Today it looks just like one of her heroes in its grandeur.

What is she trying to convey I wonder?  Perhaps she is suggesting that we (I) can expect little miracles anywhere and anytime regardless of the assumed “rules of nature”.  Little miracles sprinkle our days, I believe, and we are often asleep to simply slow down enough to recognize them.  Something as simple as this lovely bud wanting to bloom in springtime is enough to bring a broad smile and warm reminder to me today (and a gentle, loving “hello” to grandma).  I believe we forget miracles are indeed for everyone and in every season. Today I hope you are open to welcome some unexpected miracle in your life – as small as an unexpected bud or bloom or as large you might dare to dream!