Sand Painting DVD

The long-awaited documentary on the Art and History of Sand Painting with Victor DeGraff can be ordered through the Sands of Time web site.

The Sound of Sand

The sand painting documentary Art Lovers is co-producing with Victor DeGraff is nearly completed, now that he and editor Dylan D. (.jpg) have completed the section of American Indian sand painting. Running approximately 40 minutes long, with the addition of original music and sound by Shadi Frick (pictured here with Victor), the next step is for Art Lovers' own Dan Johnson to finalize the DVD's and burn a few for the premiere on February 2, the First Friday of the month.

High School art high quality

Students art in Marion:

"The artwork presently on display in the Little Egypt Arts Centre in downtown Marion is a mix of prints, drawings, paintings, photographs and sculptures. And although all of the pieces were created by high school students, the art is anything but juvenile."

Art shows art at Wal Mart

Yahoo! News: Painting of Jolie draws notice: "A North Carolina artist intrigued by the public obsession with celebrity has found herself feeding that obsession with a painting of actress Angelina Jolie as the Virgin Mary hovering over a Wal-Mart check-out line.

Kate Kretz has painted for 20 years but none of her previous work has garnered the attention given 'Blessed Art Thou,' showing ... at Art Miami, an annual exposition of modern and contemporary art."

The painting — acrylic and oil on linen — depicts an angelic Jolie in the clouds, holding her newborn daughter, Shiloh, with children Maddox and Zahara at her legs. Below them is a Wal-Mart checkout line. The painting is for sale for $50,000 through Chelsea Galleria in Miami, which represents Kretz.

On her blog, Kretz, 43, said the painting addresses "the celebrity worship cycle." She said she chose Jolie for the subject "because of her unavoidable presence in the media, the worldwide anticipation of her child, her 'unattainable' beauty and the good that she is doing in the world through her example, which adds another layer to the already complicated questions surrounding her status."

Art for Mart's sake

Beginning Jan. 2 Art Lovers will selling its fine art online exclusively through Boundless Gallery a Carbondale-based virtual art gallery that attracts thousands of online shoppers monthly, with convenient search features like choosing by color, and seeing how a painting will look in a room.

The Art Lovers gallery looks great. More paintings by local artists Kathleen Shaffner, Christa Barnell, Victor DeGraff, Deborah Brees, Steve Fessler and others weekly.