GIVE LOVE: AUTOPOIESES RECEPTION AND BENIFIT FOR CASA LIBRE $5 VIRTUAL OR IN PERSON WINNERS’ CHOICE RAFFLE TICKETS

Please join me SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 21 at 8pm for a RECEPTION and WINNERS’ CHOICE RAFFLE At CHE’S LOUNGE
350 N 4th Ave, Tucson, Arizona 85705. 100% of the proceeds go to benefit CASA LIBRE; raffle tickets are $5 AND ARE AVAILABLE IN PERSON AND AT CASA EVENTS IN FEBRUARY OR ON LINE AT casalibre.org. Winners need not be present or may choose a work on display to take home that night. There will be no charge to mail prizes to locations outside of Tucson.

The mission of Casa Libre en la Solana is to cultivate and enrich a vibrant community of writers and artists through the invention, presentation, and appreciation of creative work.
Casa Libre provides- a venue for classes, residencies, readings and workshops, opportunities to artists by offering the resources and support they need to make their artistic dreams a reality and offers space for other community events related to arts and letters.

Casa Libre has these previous works in my Autopoiesis series on display.

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A generous portion of the sale of any of these works will be donated to Casa as well.

Raffle Prizes
One intaglio print
One 3″x3″ acrylic or mixed media on canvas
One 3″x3″ or 6″x6″ acrylic or mixed media on canvas or pine
One encaustic or acrylic or mixed medium of any size

Please see the slideshow below or visit valyntinagrenier.com to view potential prizes.

Work will be on display through February
Cafe Passe is at 415 N. Fourth Ave. Tucson, AZ 85705
Su-W 8 am – 8 pm
Th-Sa 8 am – 10 pm

Casa Libre is at 228 N. 4th Ave.
Tucson, AZ 85705

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AUTOPOIESES at Cafe Passe January|February 2015

Please join me SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 21 at 8pm for a RECEPTION and WINNERS’ CHOICE RAFFLE. 100% of the proceeds go to benefit CASA LIBRE; raffle tickets are $5. Winners need not be present or may choose a work on display to take home that night.

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Interview by Jane Miller

JM: What is autopoiesis?

VG: Autopoiesis is a scientific term that describes the paradox that, in order for beings to be autonomous, they need to obtain resources from their environment. It plays out in these works metaphorically in the relationship of the pieces to each other, and in the way the viewer interacts with the pieces.

JM: What are the advantages to working in a small format?

VG: I can produce a lot of pieces that I can sell affordably.

The size gives me an opportunity to move back and forth, which inspires new combinations of forms and methods. In this case, I worked with oil paint in the encaustics, and I painted with acrylic, water, polyurethane, and some special mineral pigments from Peru; the look of the pigments, when sprinkled as dust and then wetted, inspired me to use oil paint over the encaustics to create some similar effects.

JM: Do you encourage your encaustic pieces to imitate sculpture?

VG: Definitely. I use sculpting tools when I make them. Pottery tools, dentistry tools, too. Also, many of the encaustic techniques imitate intaglio printmaking – similar to the way one etches lines in a metal plate, I start with a well of encaustic medium and carve the figures into it. Instead of using ink, I use medium in different colors to create an image or story.

JM: Your work seems to use both figurative and abstract elements. Do you see a relationship there, or do you experience those forms separately?

VG: I would call this series abstract symbolism, meaning my figures are less literal and more symbolic – some viewers experience the shapes as human, others as plants, etc.

JM: Your themes are often dark but your color palette is bright. Do you care to comment on that seeming disparity?

VG: I have seen that in other series I’ve done, but in this current body of work even the black, while literally “dark,” has bright, airy figures who are doing things, lively things, together at night. So I would say it is simply night, rather than describe the black backgrounds as emotionally heavy. No one’s alone, everyone’s with someone having a good time.

Café Passé is at 415 N. Fourth Ave. Tucson, AZ 85705

Su-W 8 am – 8 pm
Th-Sa 8 am – 10 pm

AUTOPOIESIS

Art in progress for show at CAFE PASSE January-February 2014

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Join me at the reception- I’ll be raffling of four pieces to benefit CASA LIBRE! Details to come…

A reception for GIVE LOVE and a raffle to benefit Casa Libre March 9th 6:30-8:30 pm

I’ll be holding a raffle to benefit Casa Libre en la Solana at the reception for GIVE LOVE at Cafe Passe.  The mission of Casa Libre is to cultivate and enrich a vibrant community of writers and artists through the invention, presentation, and appreciation of creative work.  A $5 ticket will put your name in the hat for one of several items: stickers, intaglio prints, and a grand prize winner’s choice of one of the artworks on display. Be on the lookout for tickets at Casa’s upcoming events, or buy one at valyntinagrenier.com.  Hope to see you at the party!  I will mail any remote winners their prize.

GIVE LOVE SHOWING NOW THROUGH MARCH 31ST

Please join me for the reception Saturday March 9th 6:30-8:30 IN THE SPIRIT OF GIVING I’LL BE RAFFLING OFF A PIECE OF ARTWORK TO BENEFIT CASA LIBRE! Details to come but tickets will be available online March 1st or at the reception…

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GIVE LOVE
In Plato’s Symposium, Sophocles posits that to love is to desire love. The figures in GIVE LOVE represent various romantic couples. These couples explore Sophocles’ convention, and its opposite, to love without expectation. The subtle gestures of the figures depict natural, iconic moments that occur between two women, two men, and between woman and man.The pieces are snapshots of lovers engaged.

As the titles indicate, the figures are out in the world, perhaps having a picnic or preparing to dance. Or they are alone together, naked, happy or quarreling. Their love is insecure, inquiring, “Are You Mine?” or confident, declaring, “My Love is Yours.” The minimalism of these pieces, as well as Sophocles’ notion of love, leave room for interpretation and conversation. What do you see? How is your love?Any of these artworks can be made available for Valentine’s Day, go to valyntinagrenier.com. Online prices include USPS flat rate shipping w/in the US.

Cafe Passe  415 N 4th Ave. Tucson Arizona is open Sunday thru Tuesday 8am-8pm Wednesday thru Saturday 8am-10pm 520.624.4411

GIVE LOVE WIPs

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GIVE LOVE new acrylics and encaustics showing at Cafe Passe February and March 2013

Sunday thru Tuesday 8am-8pm Wednesday thru Saturday 8am-10pm 415 N 4th Ave. Tucson Arizona 520.624.4411

NINE CIRCLES MAKE A RAINBOW AND A TARGET and CANTO XXVI

NINE CIRCLES MAKE A RAINBOW AND A TARGET
36″ x 36″ acrylic and graphite on canvas

“Nine Circles” refers to Dante’s description of Hell. The structure and orientation of the circles in this painting are based on Michael Mazur’s monotype for Canto XI, which appears in Pinsky’s translation of the Inferno. It is not a coincidence that Dante’s circles appear in my painting both as a target and as a rainbow, a symbol for gay pride. Gays are often targets of brutality. The pink arc with red road markers represents the seventh circle, in which Dante houses those who commit sins of violence. The absent road markers in the upper right symbolize a break in the cycle of violence.

CANTO XXVI                                                                                                                               30″ x 30″ acrylic on canvas

 

 

 

EKPHRASIS – at Bentley’s House of Coffee and Tea

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SHOWING July 17 – AUGUST 14  At 1730 East Speedway Blvd. Tucson M – SA 7AM to 4PM SU 8AM to 4PM 520.795.0338

The primary iconography for this show, single-line figures, comes from Autopoiesis, a series I began in 1997. Elements in an autopoietic system are producer and product simultaneously. To live in an autonomous way, living systems need to obtain resources from their environment. Forms in art, because of their symbolic nature, are dependent upon a relationship with viewers, who are themselves producers and consumers. Ekphrasis, the use of one work of art to tell the story of another, is also an example of autopoiesis. In this exhibit, the figures represent spirits and living beings.

I began painting Divine Comedy a few years ago. In the process of finishing it for this show, the painting began to look religious to me as I built up the fore- and background colors and the black figures primarily with triangulation. I thought, I’m an atheist, what am I making here? Dante’s epic poem the Divine Comedy came to mind; I recalled how much I enjoyed reading parts of Mandelbaum’s Commedia and Pinsky’s translation of the Inferno. Dante’s form and subject matter, especially the humor and humanity with which he depicts both sinners and saints, became the guiding principle for the show.

I painted Francesca and Paolo, Dante’s adulterers, swaying in a sea of flames. Francesca and Paolo’s story is a precursor to the gothic novel, which combines elements of horror, supernatural evil, and romance. Gothic architecture offers another context in which to consider these works, with its castles and cathedrals, especially the statues and decorative schemes that address peoples’ fascination with, and fear of, supernatural power. My use of a pitchfork symbol is inspired by Grant Wood’s American Gothic.

Sympathy for the Devil (also the title of a Rolling Stones’ song) recalls for me the most stirring moment in Mandelbaum’s translation, his depiction of a devil weeping as he is forced to gnash an infinity of sinners. It hadn’t occurred to me that a devil might be anything but malevolent.

I love terza rima, a rhyme scheme invented by Dante. Composed of tercets, each stanza’s first and third lines rhyme, while the center line ignites the rhyme of the following tercet. My triptych Terza Rima represents types of couples (in the past, I have titled similar triptychs American Marriage, No On Prop 8 and Date Night). By placing the heteros in the middle, I’m attempting a metonym for Dante’s rhyme scheme.

As one element of an autopoietic system, I continue to reference and reuse my own art. The intaglio print My Pager is in My Other Pants mimics an early sketch I made for Autopoiesis. I etched the plate Kandinsky Coffin in 2010, using non-toxic methods. Working the print in encaustic with the Divine Comedy on my mind, it occurred to me that a coffin, paradise, and purgatory are three inventions created to accommodate the same event — the cessation of life.

To view these and other works online go to valyntinagrenier.com.

WIP2 BENTLEY’S JULY 15 – AUGUST 14

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WIP BENTLEY’S JULY 15TH 2012

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