Reminder for April Meeting

April
Distractionists Abstract Artist Group
Begun in the Spring of 2007, we (Betsy Greenlee, Fred Yost, Jaci Fischer, Leila Hall, Elaine Scott, Jeff Potter and in 2008 Rod Groves joined) were inspired by previous artist/ writer collaborations, most notably the "Scribes Eight" and strive to explore artistic genres we generally have not thought about attempting. Abstract art came to mind and we chose to meet every six weeks and share our individual efforts at "making" abstract art from a commonly agreed "project" scope discussed at the previous meeting.


Distractionists Abstract Artist Group
Statement for May 2009 Group Show at ArtHaus66 Gallery:It is hard to find anyone engaged in creative activity who hasn’t experienced burnout—
Those discouraging periods when nothing works and you wonder why you didn’t take your father’s advice and go to law school. Our group was brought together by a mutual acknowledgment of this debilitating feeling. As we discussed possible solutions to the burnout problem, we discovered that we also shared an interest in exploring ways to push
ourselves beyond our usual representational work toward greater abstraction. We decided
to meet every six weeks to share the outcome of our independent efforts on an agreed-
upon project and to decide what the next project will be.
In the beginning we had no intention of exhibiting this work publicly, but we have found our collaboration so productive and rewarding that we decided other artists might enjoy seeing the results of our efforts. This is intended to show examples of each person’s interpretation of various projects as we continue to expand our creative boundaries.

I'm delighted to be a new member of the Rio Rancho Art Association and invite you to visit my website at http://www.mmahon.com. I teach several workshops each year and my first workshop for 2010 will be held this May in Rio Rancho. We'll be painting plein air along the Rio Grande River. You can check out more information about it on my events calendar at http://mmahon.com/events_calendar.html.

I practically grew up in Red River, NM, and my grandfather was the pharmacist in Taos in the early 1900's when the Taos Society of artists was forming. I have a cousin who was one of the casualties from Taos in the Bataan Death March. So, you see, that even though I moved here from Texas, I have a lot of Northern New Mexico in my history.

I recently posted a YouTube movie sample of a PowerPoint presentation I use in some of my workshops. You can view it below or on Youtube at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OfMAgdS2SPk

Published finally?

Just a short note. I was contacted a couple of weeks ago by "Trains" magazine about a photography that I took of the Santa Fe Southern Railway (SFS) on New Year's Eve with the blue moon in the background. The pub is doing a feature on that particular railroad and wanted my photography for consideration for the July issue of Trains. They will pay a one time useage fee and give a credit line to me. Hopefully it doesn't wind up on the cutting room floor. This will be my first "published" work if it makes the cut.