For Sophie

I did this commission for a dear friend in North Carolina. Her husband ordered it for her birthday, sent me the dress of their daughter, Sophie, and surprised her. Maybe the award for the best husband of the year goes to Joe. I am flattered he entrusted me with the job of immortalizing little Sophie. I hope they love it forever.

The process of this painting also made me think about how fast time flies, and how fast our little babies grow into tweens and beyond....yikes. I miss the babies, but am loving the conversations and different relationships that grow as my kids grow. I have changed so much since I was pregnant with my first little girl 12 years ago. I almost feel like a different person. I am less judgemental of myself and others, I am more laid back and have so much more perspective about what is important to me, I like parts of my personality that I didn't know existed,, that can only come out through being a mother. I am grateful for my life and all the experiences we have had in the last 12 years.

Two Articles

Two articles came out this past week about my work. The first is an artist of the month feature for an online art magazine.

The second is an article about mothers who create art about motherhood.

Happy Mother's Day to all of you mama's!

http://www.artistsnetwork.com/article/angela-bentley-fife/

http://utah.todaysmama.com/2010/05/03/the-mother-artists/

300 Plates Show

Art Access

230 S 500 W #125

SLC Utah

801.328.0703

May 17th - July ?

This is my first time being a part of the 300 Plates show. It is a fundraiser for 'Art Access' who provides art programs for the disabled. It is a great organization and a very well known show. So each of 99 Utah artists paints on 10 x 10 metal printer plates. Then they are numbered starting at 75 and going up in $1 increments. The number your plate is, is the cost of your painting. So theoretically you could get a Brian Kershisnik painting for less than his usual $10K.

I went several years ago to the event and it was first come first serve and when they opened the doors it was like black friday but art gallery, wine drinking style and not that different from the fights at walmart the day after Thanksgiving. I literally saw someone push an old lady out of the way with her elbow to put her sticker on one of the plates so she could buy it.

I was so turned off, I left with my 3 purchased plates and vowed to never come back.

Well, they have changed the purchasing process now and have promised it to be much more civilized. Who knew that little metal disks could attract the animal instinct. Cheap paintings = crazy people. The list of artists is humbling and now that I am one of the artists, I would be honored if someone would push old people to buy one of mine....not probable. Let's hope there is interest in my work and I cannot wait to expand my own 'plate' collection!

300 Plates Show

These 4 (sorry I forgot to photo the upper left one before I delivered it...duh...lost forever) fit together to form a larger painting but they also stand alone as singular works. I thought it would be challenging to make it work both ways. I am not tech savvy enough to figure out how to put them together right, so you will just have to imagine. Or you could take a look at the plate show, they are going to try to hang them together.

Whenever I am pushed to do something different with either color or format or subject matter, it changes my direction a bit. I haven't done paintings with cropped views of the dresses. But I like the finished product of these where the dress isn't necessarily the main focus...so I think I will do more of this. We'll see if anyone buys them. If not, than forget all of that excitement about a new direction.