The Buddha knows

I admit, I was nervous to share the "Face of Buddha" series of paintings at my first summer art festival, although I was sure I wanted to display these paintings as a single grouping, similar to an installation.

First installation at the Wells Street Festival of Arts -

Second installation at the Art in the Village festival -

Panoramic photo of all 3 tent walls, I also incorporated landscape paintings when the buddha installation shrunk down in size - 

My biggest concern was that patrons would view these paintings as trendy and not understand the simple message behind each of them, that even though we are all physically, intellectually, spiritually different, in essence we are the same. My vision for this series has been to create variety using color, texture, shapes, to impress an idea without having to say a single word. The entire series can be viewed on my website here Face of Buddha      

I exceeded my expectations at these two shows and have spent time trying to replenish the practically sold out series! Here is one of my newest groupings designed for a specific patron after the shows ended -

And all that remains in the series (for now) - 

It's been a hard working, exhausting summer so far and I am looking forward to a much needed break (on vacation) for the coming week. When I return, I need to shift gears and continue developing new work for my upcoming solo exhibition at the Copley Society of Art this October. The theme of the show is "small packages" and I plan to feature small works inspired by my time living in New England as well as life back in Chicago.

I also resume teaching fall sessions at both the Evanston Art Center and North Shore Art league, class information and registration will be posted in August.