Winter Hours

Just a quick blog post to remind everyone that we have switched to our Winter hours: Friday, Saturday and Sunday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Hope to see you this weekend. We have new work from Kenosha artist, Tom Clark and also have a new artist that has joined us, JW Kreiter. Photos of each of their work to be posted soon!

The New Work of Jill Verbick

Using personal life experiences as brush strokes in her paintings Jill Verbick focuses on enveloping the figure in carefully selected symbols, colors and forms to create an intimate conversation in each work of art. She works in a number of mediums, from pastel to oil to acrylics. Her love is in the figure and portraiture.

In the last few years, an illness has affected her eyesight, the world slowly becoming a blur. “As an artist, this affects me everyday. I demand that my work rise to a higher level just when my body is challenging my ability to live up to that ideal. I always believed that somewhere in me is “the painting”. As the clock ticks and lines fade, I paint with both joy and sadness. As I search for that illusive masterpiece, I cherish each and every precious moment I live as an artist. Never take for granted the artist’s gift of seeing the world as no other can.”

Even though her eye sight continues to fail in these last three paintings Verbick has captured minute details, sometimes using two pairs of glasses to help find her way through the brush strokes and color of each grid of the painting. Had I The Wisdom tells the story of her struggle with her eyesight. She writes, “I have had such a busy life. I put off my passion for painting many times for work, kids or companionship. I always thought there would be time when I was retired. When I stared losing my eyesight I wanted desperately to paint, but again, so many things got in the way. When I finally cleared my calendar it seemed to be too late. The paintings I want to paint are challenging, frustrating and I often fall short of my goal. The detail I long to see and capture is illusive. This painting tells that story. If I had only the wisdom to put my passion first.”

In Sacrifice Verbick uses strong symbolism to tell the story of how the economics of the past year have affected her family. “My family has been hit really hard by the recession. We are nearing ten months of a layoff in my household. I have two nephews looking for work. People aren't buying paintings like they used to. I have run out of ways to save a few bucks. It is hard and money is tight. It's hard to see corporations get help and then cheat their consumers. It doesn't make sense. I can't sacrifice anymore. It seems to be a shallow romantic notion.”


Jill began painting United We Stand during the second George W. Bush term. “His inequality for all men and women infuriated me. My sister and my friends who were gay were made to feel inferior. Their rights as citizens were ignored. The Conservative Right turned back Civil Rights decades. Now when the climate is improved, change is slow or non-existent. There are more people to hate, more Americans to confuse, more issues to cloud. Our country becomes more and more divisive. I hope that time brings the change we all need and hoped for.”

After a short hiatus from painting Verbick hopes to continue telling her stories, but in a much looser painting format, hoping that the time away from painting will help her find the way back to the style that encompassed most of her early work.

Jill has been a self-taught professional artist and illustrator for over 30 years. She is represented by Almont Gallery, The Flying Pig Gallery & Greenspace and and The Studio Gallery and Café in Thiensville. She is a member of League of Milwaukee Artists, Wisconsin Visual Artists and West End Artist Association. Her award winning works have been exhibited in over thirty Wisconsin museums, galleries and festivals. Jill also teaches workshops on art marketing and various painting techniques and processes. She is a full-time artist and arts advocate residing in the Milwaukee area.

Back Gallery To Feature the Work of Colleen LaBrosse

To Colleen LaBrosse it's all about shapes – well, shapes and creepy stuff. Random found objects juxtaposed with no underlying secret message. The shock value alone draws the viewer to search for hidden meaning behind the bizarre combination of items within each assemblage piece.

LaBrosse, a self-taught artist, was raised surrounded by traditional art methods. Colleen, Coolie to most, thought art was confining to strict rules within painting and sculpture. Then she discovered the assemblage work of Missoula, Montana artist, Micheal deMeng and all those rules flew out the window and art made sense to her.

Assemblage is an artistic process in which a three-dimensional artistic composition is made from putting together found objects. Most often, the process is traced back to the early 1950's when Jean Dubuffet created a series of collages of butterfly wings, which he titled assemblages d'empreintes, but actually, well known artists Pable Picasso and Marcel Duchamp began working with found objects many years prior to Dubuffet.

LaBrosse attended a few workshops with Michael deMeng and was hooked...this being exactly the type of art she wanted to create. Already a fan of rusty things, found objects and recycling, assemblage was a natural process to make her collection of stuff into art.

“I like making things...assembling, gluing, drilling, painting, texturing...building with my own two hands a beautifully shaped shrine to display a treasure...the juxtaposition of new with old, funny with scary, good with bad, creepy with sweet. Sometimes when people ask me why I make what I make...I just tap the side of my head with a finger and say, the voices. But seriously, I just have fun making creepy things...trying to out-creep myself with the next one...I always get a chuckle.”

LaBrosse creates her artwork on a part-time basis. When not at home in her living room/studio creating, or on-line looking at art, she works at St. Vincent Hospital making it squeaky clean. She is an avid bicycle commuter, giving her the opportunity to find junk on her rides through city streets...”finding cool stuff, cleaning up the city and getting a bike ride in.....how much better could it get?”

LaBrosse has exhibited throughout Northeast Wisconsin with representation at The Flying Pig. She lives happily alone in Green Bay, WI with her cat Eddie. Her work will be on exhibit in the Back Gallery at The Flying Pig Gallery and Greenspace through the month of September.

Sad News....

(photo credit to Mary Louise Schumacher of the Journal Sentinel Sentinal)

George Ray McCormick, a self-taught artist and patriarch of the Milwaukee African American arts community, died suddenly Thursday of a brain aneurysm. He was 64.

George joined our gallery in April, 2009. His metalwork has been featured in The Flying Pig Gallery and Gardens since then. He will truly be missed, even though we knew him for such a short time. Here is a press release that I had written regarding George, his work and his guest artist appearance in the gardens for Pat's birthday celebration:

Eclectic work created with eclectic materials by a mind open to eclectic ideas. George Ray McCormick, Sr. of Milwaukee, WI, has always believed that “you’ve got to have a look of your own.” Over the years, McCormick, Sr. has done just that. His creativity has taken numerous forms, from porcelain dolls, wood carving and sculptures, low-relief carving, to his latest, metalworking.

“The welding came in 1999. I was asleep and a voice, which I say is God, spoke to me at four o’clock in the morning and told me to go study welding. And I answered that.” Although he had always been afraid of welding being all too familiar with the burns on his stepfather's skin when he would come home at night, George gathered his courage and took an introductory welding class. As soon as he held the torch burning at 6,000 degrees Fahrenheit, he knew he was meant to be a welder.

Typically using steel in his metalwork, George often uses discarded metals. One of the important parts of metalworking is his personal connection to the art form. The metal sculptures represent a part of him and his life. He comments, “...I used to be like the discarded metal—in the streets and not doing much good...but now, I make art. What I was given was worth more than money.”

A resident of Milwaukee since 1950, McCormick, Sr. was born in Vicksburg, Mississippi in 1944. His work is exhibited in galleries, museums and universities throughout the Midwest. He has been invited to participate as a guest artist in numerous folk art festivals, including the Wisconsin Sesquicentennial Folklife Festival, The National Folk Art Festival sponsored by the Smithsonian Institution, the Kentuck Festival of the Arts, and the Folk Life Festival Exchange Program exhibit in Chiba, Japan, sponsored by the Wisconsin Arts Board.


Rest in peace, George - you will be missed...

Water Color Harps CD Release Party

Sunday, August 30th, harpists Tammy Naze and Cheryl Murphy (http://watercolorharps.com) will be here from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. to celebrate the release of their latest CD called Yellow. They will be performing songs from the CD at 1:30 and then again at 3 p.m.

Tammy, Algoma, and Cheryl, Green Bay, have blended a fusion of Celtic, Classical, and Christian styles into Watercolor Harps. This labor of love and friendship has been inspired by the sights and sounds of living near the shores of Lake Michigan and Green Bay.

Just as an artist uses different elements when creating a masterpiece, Watercolor Harps has painted a musical odyssey using combinations of various harps, colorful chords, Lake Michigan waves, the earthy sounds of a cello, birds chirping at dawn, unique keyboard sounds...

So you are invited to escape into their impressions of the color palette with their 'watercolor' sounds - audible imagery - to match your mood or create a new one. The theme for the day will be Yellow. Your challenge will be to see if you can focus your attire, mood, etc. on Yellow, while we at TFP will be doing the same with bubbles, drinks, food, clothing, etc.

We would love to have you here celebrating the CD release with us.

Currently Showing the Zany New Work of Ric Stultz

The unconventional color combinations and imagery of Ric Stultz's work often hide a deep sense of humor that strays toward social commentary. Stultz, who is influenced by "crickets who are fed to other animals, a good pair of headphones, bumblebee hives, Rhodia notebooks and wine labels" is a Milwaukee-based painter and illustrator who works most often with gouache, gesso and ink on paper.

His daily routine? “Get up, make some coffee, check email, do computer work and run errands. Hopefully I'll have dinner or lunch with my gal. Maybe take my dog for a walk or ride my bike. I get in the studio as soon as possible, I'll always take tea or coffee with me. I paint and draw my best at night listening to records.”

Stultz attended the University of Wisconsin-Stout for graphic design, spending most of his time in the screen printing lab. “All my work comes from development and process, I’m always making something. I first started drawing the angular figures and spacemen about five years ago, in figure drawing class, I’ve developed it since then.” Currently known for his loose handed illustration work, his images have been used commercially for clients including MTV, Heavy Rotation, The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Gelaskins, Armada Skis and Graniph Japan.

“Most of my pictures start out as little scribbles and titles in sketchbooks. I'm a big time sketcher. If I put a movie on I'll sketch all the way throgh it. After I have a good idea scribbled, I'll draw in on a board and paint it. Or I'll scan it and use photoshop or something. Whatever the picture calls for.”

Stultz's paintings have visited galleries throughout the United States and international galleries including locations in Amsterdam, Copenhagen, London and Barcelona.

Hushed Tones

Time sometimes bends to the needs of the user. It has been one long day since Memorial weekend and now is my evening. I am catching up with you after a hectic day at the gallery.

We sprinted into the garden season, celebrated Pat's 60th Birthday Party and rotated new artwork all while answering the earnest question, always asked in hushed tones, "How are you doing?".

"How are you doing" is no longer a conventional greeting. 'How ya doing?' asked during a casual walking pace is is still a simple 'hello', but I am frequently stopped these days by seasonal visitors, weekly regulars and weekend day-trippers asking me how we, The Flying Pig, is fairing in this reckless, at times horribly deliberate, economy. I figured it was time to answer that question for all.

We are o.k. We are grateful for the six years of experience that nudged us towards changes last year. Changes that helped transition our business quickly into place for this year's political based financial debacle. Our fans and new visitors are facing hardships beyond our own experiences or understanding. The gardens have become a retreat, a respite from the next deluge of bad news. The much smaller outdoor staff keeps watering, planting and weeding to craft the botanical interest we enjoy sharing. Our plant selection remains interspersed with common and rare varieties. Plants continue to arrive in full blooming regalia.

The Flying Pig Gallery shifting interests a bit these last couple years in anticipation of business needs. Susan's passion for the folk and outsider styles remain intact, however, you will find many more local and regional artists and craftspeople on exhibit. Milwaukee, The Fox Cities and our own Lake Michigan shores are well represented throughout the gallery and gardens. Instead of our far reaching winter travels we spent time wandering our own creative state of Wisconsin.

While our business goals may have been hampered by the greed and irresponsibility of a few, we have responded quickly to continue bringing a fresh, spirited and creative experience to the many who support us.

We thank you all for asking. We are all here for each other.