Please join us for Downtown Helena's June First Friday, at 1+1=1 Gallery. We're hosting a sidewalk cafe´with chalk games, kid-friendly refreshments and some adult-friendly art inside the gallery. Currently we are showing our annual art jewelry and figurative art invitational exhibit. Gorgeous art -- and lots of choice of one-of-a-kind jewelry in a wide range of prices. Hope to see you!
Well, we are making our Hygge Open House a true Helena tradition. Every year we’ve offered this fun event, attendance has grown and folks are telling us they look forward to it! Our hope is that by next year, all of downtown Helena will take part in an annual mid-winter Hygge Festival.
This year, our 1+1=1 Gallery Hygge Open House is just one day — Saturday, Feb. 3rd from 10 to 5 — designed to get you out of your cabin (we know you have the fever) … safely over the ice and down to the gallery to enjoy some delicious homemade warm food, hot drinks, energetic live music, a special presentation by a special guest about Hygge and a coffee tasting, a fascinating wood carving demonstration and a peek at the brand new printmaking studio we’ve been working hard on all January. Don’t miss this event. We will be so happy to see you on the 3rd!
Warm your bellies
Warm your hands
Warm your heartsMaybe we’ll generate enough warmth with hygge, to melt our icy streets!
Drop in to the gallery anytime on Saturday and be surprised by what you find! Ask us about hygge. Experience it. Listen to a special guest talk about Denmark and hygge. Take in our current art exhibit. I’d say “chill out with us” but it will be anything but chilly at 1+1=1 that day. See you.
Please join us for an exceptionally wonderful event that supports blooming artists and local charities. Our 3rd Annual Young Voices exhibit opens Friday, February 2nd at 5:00pm. Grab a snack and beverage, listen to youngsters bravely deliver their artist talks, browse their original artwork and choose a piece of framed, funky, ready-to-hang art for your home. 40% of all sales go to local charities selected by the young artists themselves. This year the students have chosen Montana WILD and The Angel Fund to receive their donations. What’s not to love?!
During the summer and fall of 2017, these students have worked with artist and art educator, Maureen Shaughnessy, exploring different mediums and techniques. Now, the gallery walls are theirs for the duration of the show which runs from February 2nd-17th. Winter gallery hours are Tuesday through Friday 11 to 6pm and Saturday 10 to 5pm.
In preparation for this exhibit, the six students helped to mount the show with their own two hands; they chose, framed, signed and titled their pieces; helped to patch and paint the gallery walls and pedestals, wrote artist statements, bios and gallery talks and, in return, gain confidence as young artists and entrepreneurs.
Artists featured are: Scarlet Carpenter,Silas Fruge´Lilly Hamper,Adia Terry, Ema Terry and Rachel Kuntz. They range in age from 8 to 15 years old. Over the summer, the students learned to work in various mediums, focusing particularly on 3-D and “Teen Art Adventure” plein-aire art.
A few peeks at some of our art seshes from last summer:
Last year the students chose the Helena YWCA and The Friendship Center as recipients of their fundraising efforts. Here they are presenting checks and some of their art which was purchased by gallery patrons and donated to the two organizations to enliven their walls.
And here are some scenes from last year’s opening night reception and artist talks at 1+1=1 Gallery:
… because it makes everyone so happy and inspires us all to pay attention to the child-artist within. The third annual Young Voices art exhibit runs from February 2 through 19. Please join us for an opening reception with the artists on Friday, Feb 2 from 5 to 7pm.
Young Voices artists, ages 8 to 15, have taken art classes throughout the summer and many have continued with one-on-ones during the school year. Artists include Ema Terry, Adia Terry, Sophia Albright, Rachel Kuntz, Silas Fruge, Lilly Hamper and Scarlet Carpenter. (See photo albums below for some sneak peeks.)
Each young artist participates in the behind-the-scenes tasks of curating and mounting an art exhibit: from planning, promoting and mounting the exhibit to patching holes in the walls, writing artist statements, bios and short gallery talks – the lessons they learn are about life as well as art.
The student artists will be present during the opening reception to meet the public and give 1-minute gallery talks. This year we are showing sculptural works by the younger artists and plein-air paintings and drawings by the teens. You’ll be delighted and curious when you see the variety of techniques and creativity.
We encourage everyone to join us to support these young, brave creatives. Hope to see you Feb. 2nd, or if you can’t make it to the reception, please stop by the gallery to view the works between Feb 3rd and 19th.
Each year our Young Voices artists choose two or more local charities to receive donations from the sales of their artwork. In years past, they have donated to the Holter Museum of Art, Mountain Meadow Preschool and Green Arts Montessori School, The Friendship Center and the YWCA. 40% of all sales are given to these non-profits by the kids and the gallery. The rest goes to the kids and to pay the expenses of opening night.
Through your purchases of their art, you boost the young artists’ confidence and contribute much-needed funding to these charities. Watch for more details in our next “love letter” and on our social media posts. If you do not currently receive our email love letters (aka newsletters) and you want to, please subscribe/sign-up here.
Consider doing your gift shopping this holiday season at small locally owned businesses that support artists. Can you imagine your city without Art?
Artists featured in our Small Works show include: Tina Albro, John Andrew, Elizabeth Hughes BAss, Lori Blaylock, Tim Carney, Patty Ceglio, Maureen Cole, April Coppini, Gregg Edelen, Nancy Goughnour, Paul Guillemette, Betsey Hurd, Judy Kline, Kris Kramer, Bonnie Lambert, Robin Leenhouts, Sarah Magar, Cristina Simona Marion, Susan Mattson, Dan McArdle, George McCauley, Carol Montgomery, Darla Myers, Page Kelly Piccolo, Poo Putsch, Laurie Shaman, Maureen Shaughnessy, Gabe Shaughnessy, Trudy Skari and Ouida Touchon
Extended Saturday hours: our usual winter gallery hours are Tuesday through Friday 11 to 6pm and Saturdays 10 to 5pm. We will be open on Saturdays from November 18th through December 23rd from 10 to 7, for your shopping convenience.
Kids Ornament-Making Sesh: From 1 to 4pm on December 16th, drop off your kids (ages 6 to 9) at the studio in the back of 1+1=1 Gallery, to make their own creative unusual ornaments. Gives you a little time to do some downtown shopping. Younger kids must have a parent with them. Donations gladly accepted to pay for supplies.
Festive Winter Concert by Three Form, jazz trio comprised of Ann Tappan, Rob Kohler and Mj Williams. December 10th. Refreshments and socializing from 7 to 7:30. Music starts at 7:30 til 9pm. Come early to get a seat. Limited seating. Free will donations to pay the musicians are encouraged.
By request of some of my older art students, I am trying something new this summer. It’s a series of plein-air drawing and painting classes for teens on eight Mondays. We’ll focus on learning to draw from life and nature, by observing carefully and practicing basic and more advanced skills.
Sketching, painting and a bit of photography
Landscapes and close-ups; rivers, mountains, trees and grass; people, bugs and birds; natural scenes and city scenes; wildflowers and seedpods
Watercolors, water-soluble pencils, pastels, graphite and pencils, ink pens, mixed-media, acrylic paint, charcoal and collage.
This year will be our Third Annual Young Voices Art Exhibit at 1+1=1 Gallery (sometime during the school year.) All four of my teen adventurer-artists will be able to participate in the preparation for the exhibit, at no charge. (Students’ families pay for inexpensive frames.)
Self portraits are a form of creative, artistic expression that dates back to the first mud-paintings on cave walls, and from classical painters and sculptors to contemporary artists. Most artists don’t create self portraits to sell. But it is an incredibly useful way to practice the arts of introspection, observance, self-knowledge and self-expression. For kids ages 9 to 13, introspection isn’t something they admit to doing regularly. I expected my students to be challenged, maybe uncomfortable, certainly pushed outside their comfort zones. They did some beautiful expressive work and I am sooo proud of them. Two students who could not attend today’s sesh will do this same project in one on ones with me later.
Watch for announcements and invitations to the 2nd Annual Young Voices exhibit opening November 8th where you will be able to see their artwork in person and meet the artists.
Today in our Kds Creativity Sesh we learned about self portraits and created two types of portraits.
First we watched a slideshow/collection of self portraits by artists both well known and unknown, including some by other students. Then we looked at some of the more unusual or creative self portraits and talked about why artists make self portraits and what they might be trying to express about themselves.
I gave my students an assignment to take lots of photos of themselves ( using a digital remote and an iPad on a stand) with the end result of 8 different emotional portraits. They chose their favorites to work with.
Next, the kids used either Photoshop or a mobile app to distill the color portraits to a black and white, posterized, sketch-ized or comic-ized image. We printed those on Bristol paper, glued them to very large sketch Bristol and they added paint and papers to create self portraits.
The students used some of the remaining expressive self-portrait photos to learn about enhancing the emotion of an image by the way one chooses to process the photo. Some of their photographic results are above.
Also, please check out some of their mixed-media self portraits below and let them know through comments, how you respond to their endeavors. Thank you!
Some of the photo-enhanced selfies:
Thank you to everyone who came out last night for our opening night of B&W+1. We were pleasantly surprised to have such a large crowd for the talks and throughout the evening. Really appreciate the support of our community –and for our artists! It was a wonderful evening.
Patty Ceglio and Maureen Cole gave interesting talks about their processes, backgrounds and inspiration. They were interviewed and filmed earlier on Friday, by Jeanie MacLean of HCTV and will be featured in one of Jeanie’s documentary-style programs on Studio Tour. I’ll make a blog post when I have times and dates for the broadcasts.
If you missed the opening, not to worry — the exhibit will be up until July 19th. We welcome you to browse and enjoy the art anytime we’re open. Monday through Saturday 10 to 6.
Well, 2016 is well under way. Tim and I are busy getting ready for another year of exhibits, classes, concerts and events at 1+1=1 Gallery. We are stretching our physical space by adding some functions to the basement. We are growing our group of artists by adding new artists to our roster. And we are evolving what we offer at the gallery by holding more classes, performances and different types of educational events.
We learned some stuff in our first couple of years of running the gallery. We are still tweaking things like how long to run an exhibit and which times of month are best for opening nights.
We are figuring out how to:
We invite you to an opening reception of our upcoming exhibit, “Young Voices” on the evening of Oct. 30th, at 1+1=1 Gallery. Please come support these young artists, ages 9 to 13, in their first group exhibit in Helena.
