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Greetings!
Recently I embarked on a new series of charcoal drawings invoking the tiny miracles and milestones of a new life. Because my new daughter was so drawn to black and white images, I began capturing her in a way she could appreciate. The body of new works are charcoal and white conté on grey paper.
In the past few months, Sophie and I have been drawing on the interplay between art, music, poetry, and dance. The following new works reflect that ekphrastic dialogue, what Horace called " ut pictura poesis," meaning, as in painting, so in poetry.
Please join me for the Opening Receptions on April 14 and April 30 for the Art of Our Mothers exhibition at the Quinlan Visual Arts Center and the World of Art exhibition at the Mable House Arts Center, respectively. Each of the children of the artists accepted in the Quinlan exhibition is invited to write a letter on what it means to have a mother who is an artist. Sophie is busy on her first essay; so far she has scribbled in red on my drawing table.
Happy Spring!
As always, I welcome your feedback about the newsletter.
Your feedback is critical to my success.
-Jenny
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Ekphrastic Dialogues
 | | Baby Ballet, 18" x 24" |
Our first collaboration at 3 months: a dance and a drawing. Curve and counter - curve. Gesture and rendering. Her flex of foot, mine of hand.
 | | Autumn: Adagio, 6" x 6" |
As she makes her own first experiments with sound, Sophie and I have been working on a series loosely inspired by Vivaldi's Four Seasons. Autumn: Adagio (18 weeks) is our first effort. It captures her intense listening, curiosity, and concentration. Perhaps we are moved by something beyond the structure and emotion of the Venetian Baroque: an image of an orchestra of orphaned girls giving first breath to Vivaldi's compositions . Wouldn't it be something to go back in time and hear them?  | | Winter: Largo, 11" x 14" |
Winter: Largo (22 weeks), the second in the series, captures Sophie's pensive, delicate gaze as she listens to the second movement of "Winter" from Vivaldi's Four Seasons Op. 8/4, RV 297. She is a careful listener, particularly inspired by Yo-Yo Ma's cello rendition and Gabriela Montero's piano improvisation. There is a certain breathless slant of light and angle of head that I keep drawing as she grows. There is so much I want to record before she takes off and goes from largo to allegro, growing up prestissimo and running out of the studio!
 | | Ode (22 weeks), 11" x 11" |
Ode (22 weeks) is a quiet nod to Romantic poet John Keats's "Ode on a Grecian Urn." The delicacy of Sophie's gesture evokes Keats's "quietness" and soft murmurs of truth and beauty. Like her name, Sophie is wise, but I cannot yet understand her song.
 | | Hold Infinity in the Palm of Your Hand, 5" x 5" |
Hold Infinity in the Palm of Your Hand illustrates one of the stanzas in Romantic printer and poet William Blake's Auguries of Innocence:
To see the world in a grain of sand,
And heaven in a wildflower,
Hold infinity in the palm of your hand,
And eternity in an hour.
Suddenly the world, heaven, infinity, and eternity have been incarnated in the very small person who shares my studio. As contemporary poet Nicole Cooley also discovered with the birth of her daughter, having a child has slowed me and my artistic process down in a good way and made me pay better attention to detail. May these little miracles and evanescent moments punctuate your day, too.
- Jenny
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Current Exhibitions Featuring Jenny's Work
 | | Joy (22 weeks), 18" x 14" |
Joy (22 weeks) is included in "Art of Our Mothers, 2011"
April 14 - June 4, 2011
Opening Reception 5:30 - 7 PM
Thursday, April 14, 2011
Quinlan Visual Arts Center
514 Green Street, NE Gainesville, GA 30501 Quinlan Visual Arts Center Website
 | | Evolution of a Smile, Part I, 6" x 16.5" |
Joy (22 weeks) captures Sophie's ecstasy over a particular buoyant jump in pitch eight minutes into the third movement of Beethoven's String Quartet Op. 132 No. 15 in A Minor.
Evolution of a Smile, Part I is included in
"World of Art 2011."
South Cobb Arts Alliance
April 19 - May 27, 2011 Opening Reception |
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Recent Exhibitions Featuring Jenny's Work
 | | Self Portrait with Eight Week Old Daughter, 21" x 16" |
Self Portrait with Eight Week Old Daughter was included in "A Thing Called Love" at the Atlanta Artists Center in February.
Evolution of a Smile, Part I was included in "Spring is in the Air" at the Atlanta Artists Center in March.
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As always, I hope you enjoy this newsletter, and I look forward to working with you in the future. For more information and tips on commissioning a portrait or buying a painting, contact me at 404 - 380 - 1091 or Visit My Website to Learn More.
May Your Spring Be Full of Life.
In Joy,
Jenny
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Jenny Lyon
Jenny Lyon Studios
404 380 1091
Jenny@JennyLyonStudios.com
Visit Jenny's Website |
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