Mundane Magic
My exhibit exists
My exhibit Mundane Magic opens First Friday June 5 (tonight!) at Burnt Bridge Cellars - Please come for the art, music and wine! Reservations are only requested for dinner
https://www.burntbridgecellars.com/upcomingevents/2026/6/5/first-friday-dinner-live-music
Amy, my Caplan Art Designs gallery representative, is going to attend the opening for me - thank heavens…
It’s a weird feeling to simultaneously feel so very yucky physically that I can’t imagine having the energy needed to attend the opening … (I still get short of breath when talking and doing too much) … and yet also, mentally, I’m wanting very much to be there at the opening and see everyone and hear the music….
Sigh.
But let me focus on enjoying what I can…
I love and appreciate Mark Mahan's sense of humor! Judy and I met Mark and Kim and Burnt Bridge Cellars, in a roundabout way because of a painting I'd done that had been banned in Oklahoma. For my current exhibit opening June 5, 2026 at Burnt Bridge Cellars - Mark requested that the banned painting be in my exhibit and that I write the full details (in all of the mundanity!) of the history of it ... so... my painting moved from the Caplan Art Designs gallery to Burnt Bridge Cellars... where Mark cleverly, cheekily and appropriately, put caution tape around it in a nod to what Joe Gierek had done in his Oklahoma gallery, Joseph Gierek Fine Art https://gierek.com/, at the time of the initial banning!
The story I wrote is now on the winery wall beside the artwork. And you can also read the story via this link here.
If you have questions about my art please contact Amy at the Caplan Art Designs gallery https://caplanartdesigns.com/ They'll ship art anywhere.
As I've been recovering from having had covid (despite being vaccinated, and thank goodness for vaccines or this could have been worse) and breathing complications from it... here's an extra big THANK YOU to Mark Mahan for doing the installation of my art and sharing these photos of my Mundane Magic exhibit at the winery!! Doesn't it look good??
I also put all of my new artworks on my website so you can click on and enlarge the images (link here)
Here's an example of the music for opening night by Jesse Schafer and the Flywheel Trio
Wasn't that music fun?!
Just imagine hearing that live!!!!
Sigh…
Back to the things I can enjoy…
I'd asked the Aurora Gallery to make a banner tapestry style display for most of my artworks as a deliberate nod to old Medieval wall hangings. The purpose of the Medieval wall hangings was to add warmth and color to ordinary life. Generally speaking, the Medieval times saw efforts at making mundane life as pleasant as possible. They made "new" things like hooks and rotating spits for use in cooking, plates, spoons, pots and facilities for washing. They crafted beds, other furniture, decorative pottery and tapestries as well as many other things that were both functional and beautiful. This effort at making ordinary life more pleasant came despite the very hard circumstances of life in Medieval times.
This that Elizabeth and the Aurora Gallery created is exactly the tapestry look I was hoping for, what I thought would fit well with the theme of my exhibit -Mundane Magic! 1
The one exception to the tapestry display format is my painting “Things I Like”. It got a traditional frame. Here's a photo Elizabeth at the Aurora Gallery sent of the framing when it was in the process of getting framed …
… because this painting is on paper it got put behind glass for safety sake.
Things I Like
By Clancy
26 inches tall, 10 inches wide
Ink, gouache and acrylic on paper
(Framed)
My inspiration for Things I Like was my memory of a cat who just loved knocking over coffee cups and wine glasses with her tail. I merged that memory with my own mental health practice of noticing, focusing on and making notes in a notebook of the things I do like and enjoy.
It takes no skill at all to notice unpleasant things … but to be aware of unpleasant things and still find something to love - that's a skill that takes practice! So in merging the cat memories and my notebook practice I thought about the practice of enjoying things from a cat’s point of view and chose to list items a cat might list as “Things I Like”.
My exhibit at Burnt Bridge Cellars continues through the end of July so I hope to write more details, in future Friday A.M. Sketching posts, about what I was thinking when I created the other paintings.
I like to write more about “why” I make art than the “how” I made it (though I do now and then talk about my materials and methods). I talk about “why” so much because when I was a young artist I wanted to know more about the creative thinking processes. Back then as a young artist I saw more demonstrations of how to use art supplies than explanations of why it was done that way and why the idea occurred a particular way. Our most common creative tool is our brain - so I like to think about how it works!!
Thank you again for being here! If you're able to go in person to my exhibit thank you! If you let me know in the comments what you enjoyed thank you for that too!!
But no matter what I hope you're finding something to enjoy within mundane life!
Here's more music by the Fly Wheel Trio to enjoy!!!
A note further describing my thinking behind my new artworks and why the mundane is so important to me…
Not saying you should lean into it but "Banned in Oklahoma" is lyrically & emotionally catchy. 🤷♂️
“Things I Like”! ❤️💚💙🦋