Upcoming Events

Becky Wilkes lives on Eagle Mountain Lake in Fort Worth and is the daughter of Mary Behrens.  She will be presenting a discussion of seeing the extraordinary in the ordinary. She requests that everyone bring a small camera to the meeting.  Any digital camera with a view back will work, Phone and iPad cameras are perfect.   

Becky has been a self avowed camera bug she was given a small Minolta camera as a wedding gift 40 years ago from her parents.  Many years, and several camera later, she took her first photography class at the local community college “just to learn how to take the camera off automatic.”  Thus an obsession was born.  She continues to study and critique with the local group of misfits at the college.

A year ago, as the shoreline receded with the persistent drought, Becky began to photograph items found on the beach.  At first the goal was to find and photograph some of the more interesting items that had deposited themselves on or near her dock.  Very quickly, she found many “fun things ” to photograph, but was overwhelmed by the number of bottles, cans, broken glass, rusty metal, fishing gear, and more.  A quest to photograph, catalogue, and cart away and store kept her busy over the last year. Thankfully, all good things must come to an end and with the spring rains, the lake level rose to abundance and the collection phase of her project was completed.  

Becky uses digital programs to collage the images together to produce seamless compositions.  Shown here are 3 of her pieces.  Beach Bums (bottles, right) is a compilation of bottles as they were originally found and photographed in the sand. Drinking Buddies (Cans, top left) and Sand Candy (Broken glass, lower left) are collages that were digitally produced by individual photographs shot in the studio.

We will meet at the usual time and place: Central Presbyterian Church, 9191 Woodway Drive on Sunday, November 8. Be there at 1:30 for refreshments and conversation. The meeting and demo will begin at 2. Bring some art for Show and Tell, and bring a friend to enjoy the demo with you. Visitors are welcome, and first time visits are free. Officers for 2016 will be elected at this meeting.

Becky Wilkes began her presentation with some background information about herself. Having an engineering degree, she stated that she didn't feel "artistic" in the sense of creating pictures with different media, but using a camera, a wedding present, she began to see a sense of order in the pictures she took.  When her family grew up, she began taking photography classes and soon found her niche.  As the drought in Texas grew, Becky discovered various forms of "trash" in the lake behind her home.  Broken bottles, tennis shoes, animal skeletons, and many other objects lay in the dried sand.  Her daily walks on this new form "beach" allowed her to bring home wheelbarrows full of these objects, some of which are shown in the photos at the right, displayed on a video monitor. 

She would photograph them in their original state in the sand and gently wash them off when she brought them home.  Experimenting with various lighting: above, below, sides, combinations, etc. she soon realized that lighting would be a major factor in showing these objects to their best advantage. She passed out white sheets of paper to everyone and a piece of broken glass.  We were asked to take pictures with the cameras we brought to discover the best way to eliminate shadows in our pictures.  Some found that by turning the glass in different ways, we were able to see a new view which Becky emphasized "art is in the eye of the beholder." Two of those by Karen Groman are shown here.

She finished her program by showing three of her works:  "Beach Bums" a collections of bottles, "Drinking Buddies" various discarded cans ,and "Sand Candy" which showed her techniques of manipulating individual pictures of broken glass to make a complete picture. This one, shown at the right, was a favorite of many members. She ended stating that she has many ideas yet to fulfill, and even though her teacher said, .."you keep the picture, not all the objects you shoot", most of this "trash" rests in her boat house in categorized buckets, baskets, and whatever else can hold it.  The members were not only amused to see trash as art, but they came away with a greater sense of beauty being in the eye of the beholder, and it how we can look at menial things in different ways.

Thanks to Becky for an interesting presentation, to those who brought refreshments, and to to those who brought art for show and Tell, some of which are shown below.

Show and Tell:

                   

  Tim Lowe       Christine Niekamp    

Please call Judy Franklin at 230-3539 or physicsnerd@yahoo.com by November 9 to let her know how many items you have available to enter. If you are coming to the November meeting, you can register there. When we know how many works people have available, we can set the limit on entries per member. Normally, we allow three, but if we have more or fewer entrants, then the number allowed my be raised or lowered.

 

Deliver your registered entries or have someone else deliver them to the Ball Performing Arts Center between 2:30 and 3:30 on November 16.

This MCC exhibit is one of our better ones. The 29 entries fill the space nicely, and the variety of styles makes a very interesting display. In addition to many fine paintings from those who have participated in the past, two first time exhibitors contributed a great deal to both quality and variety. Judi Simon provided a few of her exquisite porcelain works, and Chesley Smith added works with fresh originality and eye-popping color. The photos below give you some idea, but you need to see the exhibit up close to really appreciate it, preferably in the evening when the lighting is best. Particularly good evenings are those when there is an event going on. The musical events are all free, and the quality of all are very high. All events begin at 7:30.

Nov 23: Guitar Ensemble Concert

Nov 30: Vocal Techniques Concert

Dec 1: Country Ensemble Concert

Dec 4: Chorale Concert

Dec 7 Waco Jazz Concert

Dec 8: Waco Community Band Concert

The works below are as displayed in order left to right.

Kit Travis

Judi Simon

Tim Lowe

Chesley Smith

Pat Blackwell

Christine Niekamp

Judy Franklin

Bill Franklin

Charleen Isbell

We will have our usual booth. If you want to exhibit and tend the both, contact Charleen Isbell at 732-5927. Setup is Friday 9-11, and the exhibit is open 12-4 Friday and 8-3 Saturday. Pat Blackwell and Gloria Meadows will have their own booths. Tim Lowe is also sharing a booth with a friend.

The contest is only open to Texas residents, and there us only one prize - of $50,000! The chance of winning it may be small, but there is no predicting what might be chosen. It all depends upon the whims of the judges, and their picks have been all over the map. You could be the lucky one! Actually, if you are chosen to exhibit, you are a winner, since it includes an invitation to the gala, where there is fabulous food and floral decoration, and you have a chance to sell your entry to a crowd of collectors and dealers. If cosen, you need to take or ship your entry to Houston about April 1. The gala is about May 1, and you can take your entry with you at the end, or have it shipped back. Entry is by email at www.huntingartprize.com.