Tag Archives: slow art day

Michelle Fracaro: Matisse & More for Slow Art Day

Posted on by

Take a short walkabout to meet a Slow Art Day volunteer host from Down Under: Michelle Fracaro, the Program Coordinator in the Learning and Access section of the National Gallery of Australia.

Slow Art Day: Why are you hosting Slow Art Day?
Michelle: This is the National Gallery of Australia’s 3rd Slow Art Day event. We really feel that it is a fantastic program—it gives the public an opportunity to really look at art and then talk about it in their own words.

Slow Art Day: Have you selected your artwork for Slow Art Day yet?
Michelle: Yes! We’re looking at several pieces from artists of many nationalities from different periods. Read the full list on our website.

Jackson Pollack’s Blue poles (1952) is one of 7 pieces selectedfor the Slow Art Day 2012 event at the National Gallery of Australia

Slow Art Day: What is your favourite piece of art or one piece that has had a great affect on you?
Michelle: In the permanent collection here at the National Gallery of Australia, my favourite work is Mark Rothko’s 1957 # 20. I just find it so amazingly beautiful, calm, and  a bit sad all at once.

Mark Rothko’s 1957 #20

Slow Art Day: Tell us more about your Slow Art Day event.

Michelle:  Many of the programs we do centre on other people—academics, curators or other experts—in their respective fields discussing particular aspects of art. But Slow Art Day allows for everyone to have their own thoughts and ideas on art and to share them with others. We have selected 7 works for participants to look at this year. It’s up to the individual to decide on how many they want to look at in the time allocated, though we do have some common pieces we ask participants to view in order to have common pieces to discuss at lunch.

If you’re in the Canberra area, join Michelle and fellow art appreciators at the National Gallery of Australia on Slow Art Day, this April 28, 2012.

Hedy Buzan: Focused on Diebenkorn for Slow Art Day

Posted on by

Hedy Buzan is the 2012 Slow Art Day host at the Orange County Museum of Art in Newport Beach, California. A veteran Slow Art Day host and advisory board member, Hedy is a painter, printmaker, and adjunct instructor at Saddleback Community College.

Slow Art Day: Why are you hosting Slow Art Day?

Hedy: Slow Art Day is all about the artwork and the viewer’s reaction to it. Being an artist myself, I like to bring an artist’s perspective to the process.

Slow Art Day: Have you selected your artwork for Slow Art Day yet?
Hedy: We will be visiting the Richard Diebenkorn show at Orange County Museum of Art in Newport Beach, California. The plan is to look at five pieces—two large Ocean Park paintings, a miniature painting on a cigar box lid, an etching, and a collage—to discover how Diebenkorn explored similar formal interests in different media.

Slow Art Day: What is your favorite piece of art or one piece that has had a great affect on you?
Hedy: My favorite piece of art is Bathers by the River by Matisse. This is a painting he worked on over an eight-year span from 1909-1917.  I love how he integrated the languages of Cubism, Abstraction, and non-Western art traditions with his unique sensibility.

Slow Art Day: Tell us more about your Slow Art Day event.
Hedy:  Our Slow Art Day event will be late in the day and a bit truncated (3-5 PM) as I teach that day; however, I didn’t want to skip it. This will be my fourth Slow Art Day and my third time hosting. Each time participants leave raving about the great time they had, saying that they can’t wait until next year!

If you can, join Hedy at the Orange County Museum of Art this April 28, 2012.

Slow Art Day – A Valentine for Art

Posted on by

Slow Art Day officially takes place this year on April 28th. But perhaps it should be held on Valentine’s Day each year, because Slow Art is really about loving art in a way we often share with loved ones.

Spending slow time gazing into a loved one’s face,  seeing all the detail and finding surprises and insights is how we get to know another person.  It is the same with art. Spending time and slowly looking gives us insight, surprise, joy, wonder, understanding, perhaps bewilderment, and most important our own experience that effects mind, body and something deeper.

Slow Art Day is a worldwide shared experience where on the same day every year small groups of  people gather to visit an art museum or gallery in their city or town. Instead of the usual few seconds of looking at a piece of art, Slow Art Day participants spend 10 to 15 minutes or longer viewing each piece of five or more art works that were chosen by volunteer hosts.  The participants simply view art on their own, without a docent or art historian to fill them in, thereby experiencing their own thoughts, feelings and insights.  Participants can look at the art, sketch, journal, meditate, or what ever works for them (as allowed) to get to know the art.  Then after viewing everyone gathers for an informal lunch and discusses their experiences of slow art.

Right now there are  47 sites around the world that will have a Slow Art Day experience in 2012. More cities will join before April 28th.  Slow Art Day started in 2009 with four people  at the Museum of Modern Art in NYC.  Last year hundreds took part at 90 locations, on all continents, even Antartica. All the hosts are volunteers, there is no cost beyond admission and lunch. Go to the Slow Art Day website, look for your city and sign up.  If there is no Slow Art Day listed where you are, volunteer to be a host.  I have been a host, along with my friend Kelly Larson, for the last two years.  We again will host the 2012 Slow Art Day in St. Louis at the Pulitzer Foundation for the Arts.  Hosting is very little work, and lots of fun.

Here are some photos from previous Slow Art Day events, from around the world.

And perhaps the best for last is the three year old painting.  Here’s what was said by the Slow Art Day host: “Best Slow Art Day picture EVER. One of the participants of Slow Art Day sent me this picture of his 3 year old daughter after they both attended yesterday. She had never painted before, but immediately after they left she wanted to paint so he bought her paints, a canvas and an easel. Slow Art Day just inspired someone to start painting at 3 years old. It doesn’t get any cooler than that.”

—————–

This blog post was published originally on Valentine’s Day 2012 at Creativity For The Soul blog, by Linda Wiggen Kraft