Last Sunday, Jim and I made the 3 3/4 hour drive to Yuma, southwest of Oracle to see the exhibition I’m a part of at the Yuma Art Center.

Artists get involved in a variety of ways, too. Applying and being juried in is one common way. This involves doing research to find exhibitions, determining whether your work fits the proposed theme of the show, filling out forms, and usually, paying a fee. Then there is the wait to find out if you’ve been accepted or not, getting the artwork to the venue, going to the opening, picking up the work at the end of the exhibit. Occasionally artists get into shows by invitation. That’s how I got involved in this exhibit.

Putting together an art show can be convoluted, planned for years, a matter of chance or all kinds of other combinations of planning and serendipity. My inclusion in this show probably falls under the category of serendipity. A description of how I ended up in the show was explained in a previous blog post. You can click on the link or just scroll down a ways to read the post.

At any rate, a group of the artists in the show weren’t able to make it to the opening a few weeks ago, so Patricia Sahertian and Christine Cassano, who will be having their own show at the Yuma Art Center in 2014, organized a trip to Yuma and made the arrangements to have the Art Center opened especially for us to see the show. Many thanks to Pat and Christine. They also recommended a number of the artists who are in the exhibit. Which is how I got invited. Thanks also to Renee Smith, president of the Yuma Fine Arts Association  and Catherine Rone, Gift Shop Manager for doing such a great job of installing the artwork and for taking time out of their Sunday off to open the Art Center for us.

I enlisted Jim to take photographs. And here are a few:

Yuma Art Center–Nooks & Crannies

Nooks & Crannies, my work on the walls!

Yuma Art Center-Nooks & Crannies
More Nooks & Crannies paintings

Rebecca Bergman in front of several of her amazingly detailed, fanciful and beautiful pieces

You can view more of Rebecca’s work on her website.

Yuma Art Center-Kristine Kollasch

Kristine Kollasch in front of several of her paintings.

Kristine is a master at using acrylic paint, getting magical effects through layering images and using various gels and mediums to add depth to her work. You can see more of her work on her website– here.

Yuma Art Center

Talking about art, Catherine Rone, me, Patricia Sahertian

Yuma Art Center

From left to right, Renee, Christine, Rebecca, me, Kris, Patricia and Catherine in the Central Gallery.

Yuma Art Center

Group photo in front of Kris Kollasch’s paintings.