Centerville Studio is featured in the Spiritedtable.com

Centerville Studio had the fun opportunity to be featured on Memorial Day in the lifestyle website called the Spirited Table.  Cindi, the founder, asked if she could do a feature on my art.  She did such a lovely job I thought it would be fun to share it with you.  Thanks Cindi and what a fun site you have.  Have fun checking out her site too!     link

Cheers!

                                                           Golden Fireworks   36x48

The Best Part is Giving it Away!

Happy Birthday to this young man! It was fun to surprise him with this gift especially being he is a Johnny! Life is good when you are blessed with lifelong friendships! 

 

This fine young man may someday be the Prime Minister of the Bahamas! We're hoping we can come visit him when he is! Congratulations on an excellent college career at SJU and Godspeed as you graduate and go off onto your next adventure! See you in Rome this fall!

 

Congratulations to the Mayo Scholars! What an excellent group of fine young adults. It was super fun to surprise them today with this gift! Two are  also graduating, so a big congratulations to them! May you hold CSB/SJU in your hearts! Cheers guys, you all did a great job!!

Lots of tears and laughter today! 

Cheers!

"Anno Domini"- Saint John's Abbey Church Painting Installed

I'm happy to share that "Anno Domini"- Saint John's Abbey Church  was installed in the  newly remodled Alcuin Library recently! My family and I headed up to check out it's new home a few weeks ago. It's an understatement to say that my painting will be VERY happy there! They did just a tremendous job on the remodel, it's so beautiful and so well designed.( I'm  also anxious to see the new Learning Center that will open in the near future next to it!) Below I've included photos of the exterior of the library and the entrance, along with a photo of the Abbey church for those of you who have never seen it. Both structures were designed by famed architect Marcel Breuer and the bench below my painting is also designed by him. I am a lover of mid century architecture and to have a painting, (especially the first painting to leave my studio), hang in such an iconic building is really beyond my wildest dreams.  I've included some interior photos of the library also, isn't it amazing!  I was so overwhelmed when we visited it, from the new big windows that look out to the Abbey church, to the lighting, the ceiling heights, the cool red furniture, the beautiful columns, when I finally got to the Saarinen white side tables I broke down in tears. I had two rounds of  sobbing tears and I'm tearing up as I'm writing this. I am so humbled and so thrilled to be able to share my painting in such an amazing structure and to even more amazing people who are connected to SJU.  Thank you to Saint John's for giving "Anno Domini" such a terrific new home!  I hope if you get up to SJU you will check it out and wave hi for me!

 

Cheers!!

Funny how I see art wherever I go

Over the holidays we had a chance to go to Hawaii. It'a a place we have always been curious about and have always wanted to check out. (and it did not disappoint!) For me, as an artist, I'm always stopping to look at shapes, colors, textures...and on and on. (just ask my family and hear them groan, lol) I fell in love with things like these surf boards all lined up on Waikiki Beach. And I'm sure I will find them in my paintings again and again, using different colors and techniques. A gal could have a lot of fun painting these! Below is my first interpretation, the  photo is a bit wonky but it was fun to pain!

White Bear Center for the Arts

I had the good fortune of being accepted into the White Bear Center for the Arts annual Northern Lights  show.  A lithograph print of my painting "Anno Domini"- Saint John's Abbey Church was accepted into this juried show.  I have to say, living in Minnesota, we have some of the best art venues! I'm so thankful to have this place as my home.  It was a lovely opening with live music, food, beverages, a really informative presentation about the show and it's judges to name a few of it's highlights.  It was beautifully curated and beautifully displayed.  It was a true joy and honor to be able to share my art at this show.  And a huge thank you to my family and friends who came out to support me!  It meant so much to me to have you there! 

 

Cheers! 

April Showers

HMcKeownSR-17.jpg

 It's funny how my painting is so affected by the weather! Since it's currently raining out, and it's April, seems like a good time to post this painting. I named it "April in St. Paul".  I think this is the most I've ever struggled wth a painting so far. We struggled for two days where at one point I even was scrubbing off the paint over my work sink with a huge scrub brush that you'd scrub a floor with.  Lordy how we struggled! I had only been painting 6 months when I did this one and I was still learning (and I still am and always will be) how to listen to my paint and how to just really learn to let go.  Once I let go and shut my mind out of it, it solved it's self.  I can't tell you the joy I felt when I knew I "got" it. My painting and I had made peace and I was finally satisfied that I could quit and we both could rest. Whew. This one is very near and dear to my heart!

Cheers!

Phipps Center for the Arts October 2016

I had the good fortune of being selected to show my art at the Phipps Center for the Arts in Hudson, WI  at their show celebrating the 100th Anniversary of the national parks this past fall. It was a national call (meaning anyone in the US could enter) and it was also a juried show (meaning a panel of judges selected who was accepted). My flag titled "National Greeter" - National Park Ranger Station was accepted.   It was the first time I had ever submitted work for a show so I really didn't know what to expect.  I was gobsmacked when I received an acceptance letter!  Ends up they had just finished renovating their galleries and they were also having a grand opening of the galleries in combination with the show. If a girl was going to get into a show for the first time, I have to say, I hit the jackpot. What an amazing evening it was! They had live music and dancing, themed food to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the national parks, actors were roaming the show dressed as various characters and on and on. And it was PACKED! (unlike the photo above) I was thrilled to see how they displayed my flag on a suspended partition. It's a funny feeling going to a show and searching for your work and discovering how it is displayed. It's like your looking for your child and they are hiding.  The big takeaway for me from the night is how much I love my family and friends and how I felt so loved that so many of them came out to support me. It was so crowded I'm sorry to say I didn't even get to greet all of them as it was just that packed!  I joked I felt I was at my wedding as I never moved from a few feet from my painting for about five hours.  So, thank you again to all those who came out that night! It was simply magical and you all really made a girl feel loved!

 

Cheers! 

WHY PAINT FLAGS YOU ASK?

Well, that's a very good question!  I didn't really realize I was even painting flags until they just seemed to happen without my planning or forethought.  I found I LOVE to paint them. I love to experiment with them and the possibilities are endless. They just seem to keep popping out of me much to my surprise!  

I didn't really connect the dots until I realized that my personal FB page has this photo of me as a child on the 4th of July as my profile photo for years now.  This photo sums me up as a little girl! I have always LOVED the 4th of July! It's my favorite holiday to this day. When I was a child we had this HUGE flag that we hooked to our front porch vertically and it would billow in the breeze and I loved to look at my neighborhood from behind it's colors. Being part of the community parade was a highlight for me as you can see that  in the photo dressing up was a priority! There were three legged races, Igor the neighbor had an OmPapa band that people danced too near the band shell in the park where everyone was having picnics of bbq chicken, corn, and fun blueberry and strawberry cakes. And if this wasn't enough, there would be awesome fireworks to stay up late to watch. Life could not get any better! If we were not in town for the 4th we spent it in northern Minnesota on the iron range with my father's family and that had an even larger parade and more fun!

Speed ahead, and my family owns a big red barn that every year we have a 4th of July party and I hang big buntings on my home's front porch from mid June to the end of July. (why save it all for one day!)  I still love how they billow in the wind and shade my porch andI love looking thru them just as I did as a child. 

And now here I paint flags...I love how people react to them. I love sharing them. I love when I paint them how they show themselves to me.  I love the deep connection we have to our flag, that I have to it.  I love expressing it in unexpected ways.  I even love hearing a lot about Jasper John's  over and over again.  One of these days I think I'll paint a flag and name it "Ode to Jasper". 

Painting our flag is truly becoming a spiritual journey for me.  I look forward to where they will take me next and what colors they will be and who I will get to share them with.  We live in a glorious land of freedom and much sacrifice to get us here and I am so grateful. 

So, glad you asked! I hope you will enjoy my flags! If you get tired of them, there is always some wild next painting around the corner that is usually a good departure for me, but know the red white and blue runs deep in my blood.

Cheers!

 

Printing "Anno Domini"

Last November 2016  I had the very fun privilege of having my painting made into  Lithograph prints. It was printed on the same press and by the same team that printed the Saint John's Bible.  It took us about nine hours to get it where we wanted it. It was a marvel to watch this huge Heidelberg press and the team of experts working so dilagently with me to get the color matches just right. 

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