First Friday fun

First Fridays are always packed in Portland, and tonight’s will be even more so, thanks to daffodils, sunshine, and Mainers crawling out from under their rocks.

I was invited by Pinecone & Chickadee to be in their Matryoshka Art Show. Of course I said, yes: love that place!

But actually, it was a stretch for me to paint, and to paint on something curved. Egads. I lined up the blanks and looked at them for way too long, 5 in all and some pretty tiny.

I knew right away I wanted to do a series of female superheroes. Had to narrow down my list, but then I drew over the photo for starters.

Wonder Woman, a member of Pussy Riot, Cat Woman, Violet Incredible, and Buttercup. She Power!

I painted Wonder Woman first, and found that getting smaller and smaller was harder and harder.

They make a bitchin’ set.

One of my early ideas was to paint pinecones and chickadees, but it didn’t get farther than this. Stop in tonight and say hello.

Besides the Matryoshka Art opening, we’ll be stopping at City Hall, where our own Incredible has something in the Portland Schools art show. We don’t know what, but this is something Daisy, not to be confused with Violet, has been working on in her art class.

Right nearby we’ll see MECA colleague Daniel Minter at the Portland Public Library, “Exchange: Art by Daniel Minter and Flavio Freitas. Oh, and please go see the Index show at Maine College of Art! The senior thesis work of the class of 2013 is opening, featuring Illustrator Daelyne Bell, below, with a power wall of her own, along with all my students in IL 423. Check it out!