After returning from The Netherlands I have been entering various juried shows. As of the last week in April 2012 I have been accepted into two shows.
The first is The International Juried Printmaking and Photography Exhibition 2012, at artspacegallery in Richmond VA. The show opens May 25th with the awards presentation and runs until July 22nd. The Juror was James Stroud, master printmaker and Director of Center Street Studio. For more information: www.artspacegallery.org/
The second show is the 55th Annual Beloit and Vicinity Exhibition at the Wright Museum of Art at Beloit College, Wisconsin. The show opens June 9th and runs until July 20th. The jurors for the show were Jessica Caddell, Curator of Art at the Rockford Art Museum and Jennifer Draffen, Director of Collection and Exhibition Service at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago. For more information see: www.beloit.edu/wright/

Last December I went to The Netherlands with friend and artist Christopher Cannon. We spent the time visiting all the major museum in Amsterdam: The Van Gogh Museum, The Rijksmuseum, The Anne Frank House, The Rembrandt House, and The Hermitage, as well as others. The museums were spectacular and well worth the visit to the city alone. As an artist working in prints currently the visit to The Rembrandt House was fascinating as his print shop is intact and master printers, come in to pull prints from the plates that Rembrandt himself created. Also the number art galleries around the city were quite a treat. But a true highlight was stopping into Galerie Clement located in Amsterdam on Prinsengracht 843-845. The Gallery and the work for sale and on exhibition was great. We met Mr. Piet Clement and spent some time listening and talking with him about his work as a master printer and his art gallery.

We also visited the very nice cities of Haarlem and The Hague. The large public square was filled with many different kinds of stands, many of them providing great food. But we came for the Frans Hals Museum. The large gallery held an impressive collection of the master's militia portraits. This is a museum well worth the trip from the larger tourist city of Amsterdam, it takes maybe 15 minutes by train. In The Hague, which was about an hour from Amsterdam, we went to The Mauritshuis which contains a collection of paintings from the Dutch Golden Age. There are works by Hans Holbien, Rembrandt, Hals, but the three Vermeer paintings are incredible, especially The Girl with the Pearl Earring, and his View of Delft.

A Special Thank You to: My Parents: Jerry and Carol; my great advisors and professors: Michael Barnes, Ashley Nason, Dr. Doug Boughton, David Parker; and friends and artists: Christopher Cannon and Kyle Turner. Without all of your help and support and guidance I would not have made it through the MFA program at NIU.

After several years of work and study I am mounting my MFA show. It is up the Oct 10 - 14. The closing reception is being held on Friday Oct 14, 5:30 to 8:30. The School of Visual Arts Jack Arends Hall Gallery 214.