Under the Juniper Tree

"Under the Juniper Tree" and "Red's Little Black Heart" will be showing at 317 Gallery & Studio on Friday the 7th of November for First Friday and the whole month of November. Come down, have a cookie and a glass of wine, hear a gruesome fairy tail "The Juniper Tree" and buy some art!

UPDATE: You can also hear the Soundcloud version of "The Juniper Tree" by the Brothers Grimm and read by Me at the bottom of this post. 





Under the Juniper Tree

Under the Juniper Tree - detail

Red's Little Black Heart & Under the Juniper Tree


 






Sugar Skulls for Teenage Girls

"Betsy 9.16.85" 9"x12" Acrylic
"Rebecca 5.26.88" 9"x12" Acrylic

"Christine 9.16.90" 9"x12" Acrylic

RHHC 6th Annual Dia De Los Muertos art gallery will consist of 30 plus local artists and artists from the Chicago area. This one of a kind gallery will consist of artists creating various works that will pay homage to the Day of the Dead celebration which is celebrated in various Latin countries and some places in the States. 

Please join us
at our community Ofrenda Saturday November 1st, as we all light a candle of our own in remembrance for our loved ones whom have passed. This lighting will call to them as we celebrate the life they have lived and the memories we have shared. 
So join us...and so will they.

**For safety purposes, ONLY glass candles will be allowed to be places at the Ofrenda.

Artist's:

Sean Backus // Laura Becerra // Allison Blake // Bob Blosser // Kyle Brechon // Sara Briseno // Sarah Danielle Stewart // Jon Candiotta // Ritchie Hugo Cepeda // Jesus Correa // FoodStamp Davis // Kirk Dyreson // Katrina Brook Flores // Eric Fuertes // Ben Gifford // Joseph Goral // Peter Goral // Lisa Grey // Vyto Grybauskas // Javier Jimenez // Jeremy Klonicki // Pablo Korona // Greg Lang // Ryan Lape // Oscar Luna // Sara Margaret // Michelle Dorr Markunas // Mario Kayo Martinez // Rodrigo D Martinez // Jenny Mathews // Sarah McNamara // Dan Moorman // Peter Nguyen // Lisa Pauline // Dennis Quijano // Swek // Manny Tang // Emmanuel L White Eagle

This is a ONE day art gallery showing and is also the LAST one RHHC member Mario Kayo Martinez is organizing and curating.

The Gallery will be held at:
Threetwofive Studio
6pm-11pm

Saturday November 1st.

RHHC will be selling their limited Dia de los Muertos shirts for $15. All proceeds go to the RHHC. Your support is needed and appreciated.

Three new paintings for Fall Art Scene

Three new paintings for Fall Art Scene. They started with "Riding Hood's Heart" which went on the window outside of Bennie's Cleaners for Art Attack. It's just temporary and I loved it so much, having just laid my dear dog to rest after seventeen years of companionship, I repainted it only much smaller this time.



A tiny excerpt of "Riding Hood's Heart"


I wanted to do more, using the same palate I am in love with from Riding Hood's Heart, the very same paints I scavenged from the bucket of left overs at 317, when I was worried about covering all that large glass.  The paints that the late Tom Littrell left behind and that we in the 317 Artist Collective utilize when an emergency of scarce color arises.  I wanted to keep using Tom's paints. It felt sacred to me.
























I wanted to paint more strength, and in my search for strong characters I remembered Valkyries. The name Valkyrie translates to choosers of the slain. They ride into war and choose who will be whisked off to Valhalla.  They are feared and revered, they are the companions of heros, it felt right.  So  - I painted the "Ride of the Valkyrie"

A tiny excerpt of "Ride of the Valkyrie"


















At this point, I didn't mean to be reusing the word "Ride" but then it seemed like I needed a third.  "Rider on the Storm" was the title that came before the painting. A lone captain in her boat, she's tiny among the landscape and steadfast in her resolve in her travels and adventures.

A tiny excerpt of "Rider on the Storm"
I love each of these paintings very much.  They ended up on the canvas exactly as they were in my head and I'm thrilled to show them this Fall at Art Scene.

If you'd like to come see (or BUY!) the whole of these paintings, not just a tiny excerpt come down to, 317 Studio & Gallery at 317 Market St. Rockford, IL, tomorrow or Saturday Night and then wander around the corner to see the temporary window mural that inspired the paintings.

***

FRESHWATER MERMAIDS of NORTH AMERICA (22"x28" framed print) will also be at 317 Studio & Gallery for Fall Art Scene.  There are only 3 unframed signed and numbered prints left ($40.00) and there will be 11 posters ($18.00) for sale of the same.  So if you need a thing for the wall of your ice fishing shack... come get your poster this weekend.  




Long-locked Channel Cat



"Long-locked Channel Cat" is not on the poster but part of the series Freshwater Mermaids of North America

Want to be a freshwater mermaid? Contact me at Jenny1386 at gmail.com to inquire. 

Fresh Water Mermaids of North America Poster

Fresh Water Mermaids of North America is a 22" x 28", full color, signed and numbered, unframed, gloss poster by Jenny Mathews. Done in the style of classic fish posters this fun psudo-scientific field study depicts seventeen freshwater mermaids such as the "Lass Perch", the "Maiden Bluegill" and the gregarious "Mississippi Queen Catfish". Great for any mermaid lover or fisherman.

Original prints 11/20 available at 317 Studio & Gallery.  e-mail Jenny1386atGmail.com to inquire.




ABOUT FRESHWATER MERMAIDS OF NORTH AMERICA


Freshwater Mermaids are something I started working on when doing a public art project for the city of Beloit, WI, when I painted my first river mermaid. 

In thinking about our local waterways, it occurred to me the mermaids we are accustomed to seeing are ocean mermaids.  We see them starring in movies, advertisements and in popular culture all around us.  This same pop-culture has taught us mermaids have long flowing locks complimented by beautiful sparkly and graceful bodies, but I looked again at the river I grew up near, the Rock River of Northern Illinois. Some of the largest and deepest fresh water collectives are right here in North America.  I began to wonder what might be lurking right beneath our noses in the heartland, perhaps something a little different from what we have come to expect of a mermaid.

I surmised, if freshwater mermaids live far north in the Great Lakes and the areas deep rivers that obviously, as proven by their illusive nature and given the intrinsic feature of a lake being all enclosed, fresh water mermaids do not migrate in the winter.  Smaller, cold-blooded swimmers, with gills, best tolerate staying in their same habitat during cold and icy months by moving towards the bottom of lakes and rivers.  Therefore, while the famed oceanic mermaids have lungs and tails that move up and down like other warm-blooded swimmers, freshwater mermaids have gills, a smaller stature and vertical tails that propel with a side-to-side movement like most cold-blooded swimmers.  In response to the utterly contained habitats that these freshwater mermaids experience, generation after generation in the same lakes, they have become extremely specialized with unique adaptations, spines and extra fins abound much like the evolution of animals on an island.  Some of the smaller lakes are constrictive and the food supply limited causing the species residing there to be surprisingly small as seen in the few specimens we have in museums referred to as Fiji Mermaids. 

Once I realized what I was looking for, it was easy to document what Freshwater Mermaids look like.  Their once illusive figures and faces revealed themselves to me every day and I could hardly sketch fast enough.  Unlike their glamorous saltwater sisters, they are as varied in shape, size, and character as the women you see all around you. 

-Jenny Mathews

08.13.14



Temporary Public Art outside of Bennie's Cleaners in Rockford, IL.  This is part of Rockford's ART ATTACK series going on all summer.  This is one of three I've done down-town. The unofficial title is "Red's Little Black Heart", it's acrylic paint on glass.  



Freshwater Mermaids of North America

"Freshwater Mermaids of North America"  It's what I'm spending my summer working on and the show is Friday, August 1st, 2014.  These are sneak peak sketches of something I'm so obsessed with and it's so huge and awesome I'm dreaming about it.  The show is at 317 Market St. Rockford, IL and some of the prints will be available online later in the month.