Thank you for visiting my website and my blog. If there is something that you would like to comment on or ask me about, go for it. I like to discuss my work and hear reactions and thoughts it might provoke. It’s wonderful how we all see things differently and how art affects our lives. Everything around us is art…take time to notice it!
Sincerely,
Missy Simnacher
A friend of mine purchased one of my giclees at the recent Go! Arts Festival that I participated in. I wasn’t quite sure of the reason she chose this print done in a Byzantine icon style, when most of the art in her home is very Southwestern with retablos, bultos, and other original works with New Mexican themes. This icon is of St. Michael Archangel holding a scroll. The writing on the scroll is this — “Fear not, Beloved. You are Safe, Take Courage and Be Strong.” Today, while we were hiking in the Sandias she told me why she chose to buy this one. She has very recently made a decision to have major surgery and when she saw the “FEAR NOT…” it was a sign to her that everything would be alright. You just never know what will draw someone to a particular piece of art, or that some small act, as simple as a smile, will be just what a stranger needs to give him hope for the day.
The show was a great adventure for me. I had good sales, made great contacts, and have future sales from orders that I took. I think my booth looked good, and it was great hearing sincere compliments on my work even if people didn’t buy something. The stress of being there wasn’t as bad as I had expected. Dealing with all the wind on Fri. and Sat. was another thing though. But, those are the challenges of an outdoor show. I’m not deterred!
I will show next at the Aquinas Newman Center on the UNM campus on Sunday, Nov. 11. I will also have items in 2 silent auctions this fall. The first will be the “Festival of Trees” benefitting Catholic Charities on Nov. 7 at the Eldorado Hotel in Santa Fe. The second is the “Dismas House Brunch” fundraiser on Dec. 2 at the Embassy Suites in Albuquerque.
I’m committed to doing art shows for at least 3 years and hopefully many more. So, watch out for me at NM Arts and Crafts Show 2008 in June and at Weems Artfest 2008 next fall, both in Albuquerque.
I also included two new pieces at the show, here’s one of them: St. George
Kathryn “Missy” Simnacher has produced incredible artwork hanging in the Aquinas Newman Center on the University of New Mexico campus in Albuquerque. The image of Our Lady of Guadalupe is larger than life at 4′x8′. Sts. Thomas Aquinas and Dominic are represented in unique ‘house’ frames that give a since of humor to the pieces. The sculptural processional cross with it’s ‘naive’ painting of the body of Christ is very ‘retablo’ style. And finally, the ‘Symbols of the Evangelists’ from the Book of Kells are her most dynamic project ever. They represent almost a year of work, but feel like a whole life’s work to her. She collaborates with her husband, Gerald, to design the incredibly unique frames for all her work.
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Well, it’s now two weeks before the GO! Arts Festival…Sept. 28, 29, 30…downtown Albuquerque. I’ve been very productive with my retablo painting and I now have note cards of my “Book of Kells” series paintings to offer. Last week I hosted the quarterly luncheon for my hiking group and received tons of compliments when everyone went into my studio to see what’s been keeping me off the trails. Three people wanted to buy things they saw, so that will get me off to a good start. I’ll take those pieces to the show with SOLD tags on them and hopefully be able to book some orders from them. I’m getting excited about the show and have confidence things will go well.
Gotta get back to work.
Missy
This is a really big year for me. I have made a conscious decision to treat my art as a business rather than a hobby. The first step was this wonderful website that Bruce Shortz designed for me. His reactions to my art completely surprised me and filled me with confidence…(of course it’s to his interests that I pursue this line of thinking.) His design work and wonderful job of printing my giclees has brought compliments from everyone.
At this time, I’m preparing for my first 3-day art festival to be held at the end of Sept. I’m trying to paint almost every day and am committed to producing another icon or two and not just retablos. Everything is coming along pretty well, even though every month or so we’ve had to take off for scheduled vacations and family visits which of course mean almost a week of no procuctivity each occurence. Somehow I’m dealing with it, though and have decided to take everything as it comes and I’ll have what I have when it’s time for the show.
I’m changing my style a little too…hadn’t really expected that, but it seems to make me look forward to each new project and how to make it different from anything other similar artists are doing. I’m very interested in refining my icon painting techniques, so in the future I hope I can offer more Byzantine style images.
Missy
Yesterday I decided to google the name of some old friends. The internet led me to a website of beautiful art glass that our friends produce. Of course, an email address was available to contact them, too. The response to my email was almost immediate and contained the news that their beautiful daughter took her own life about 2 years ago. I was devastated and still find it so hard to believe. I can’t begin to know the pain our friends are going through and will always have haunting them. Suicide is the permanent answer to a temporary problem…why didn’t Nia know this? The utter hopelessness that Nia must have felt to even think of doing this deed, has now become utter sadness at the loss of their beautiful daughter and all the potential for her life that her parents are now going through. I grieve because I knew Nia, and now will never be able to see mature into a strong woman like her mother. I grieve because I have two beautiful daughters and I can’t begin to imagine my world without them in it.
Thank you God for all the ways Nia touched our lives, never let us forget her. Thank you, God, for all the gifts, talents and blessings that you have given each of us…help us to use them to our highest potential, which in the end will glorify you.
Humbly
Missy
While in Phoenix recently for the 100 year birthday party for my husband’s aunt Minnie, we visited the Arizona Science Center to view the Body Worlds 3 exhibit. A German anatomists has come up with a way to preserve bodies after death so that they will not decay. He uses these bodies to illustrate to medical students (and now to the world) everything about the human body you could ever want to know, in living color. I’m not sure I’d want my body used in that way, but these people evidently believed in what he is doing and donated their bodies to him after death. Nearly everyone was talking about their own joint, ligament, or organ problems and pointing out things to the people they were with. You could really see the toll that disease and lifestyle choices have on the body.
About the Book of Kells
The Symbols of the Evangelists
from the Book of Kells
and the Prophets
The four panels are renditions of the symbols of the Evangelists from the
Book of Kells. The Book of Kells is an illuminated manuscript of the Gospels
written c.800, and now in Trinity College, Dublin. It is, perhaps, the richest of
all illuminated manuscripts. A portrait of the Evangelist and his symbol are
at the beginning of each Gospel. The artwork features also the prophet that
parallels the Evangelist.
Matthew was symbolized by an angel, because his Gospel begins with the human
ancestry of Christ. The Prophet Isaiah is shown the heavenly court of myriads
of angels chanting Holy, Holy, Holy. He is humbled by this vision—and is still
alive—and shrinks due to his uncleanliness, but an angel purifies him by
touching his mouth with a lit charcoal.
Mark is symbolized by a lion, because the lion is a creature of the desert,
and his Gospel begins with John the Baptist ’the voice of one crying in the
wilderness’. The Prophet Daniel was thrown into the lion’s den and, of course,
was saved by God from these animals.
Luke is symbolized by an ox, a sacrificial animal, because his Gospel begins with
the story of Zachariah entering the Holy of Holies to sacrifice. The Prophet
Jeremiah portrayed various metaphors of God’s relationship with his people
Israel. One of those metaphors is the yoke; God is yoked to his people. The yoke
is a tool of the ox.
John is symbolized by an eagle, a bird that soars high into the heavens, because
his Gospel begins with the words, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word
was with God,” words which carry the reader into the heavens. The Prophet
Ezekiel is noted for his celestial image of God on a fiery throne in the heavens.
Although there is not a direct symbolic connection of these two, the heavenly
chariot/throne and the eagle share the same “zone” of the sky.
The symbols in the Book of Kells have always spoken to me because of their
Irish origin, their folk-art and iconographic qualities and the challenge
to paint something so intricate. Not only do we have the symbols in their
glorious magnificence, but we also have the prophets in the retablo style
that speaks to New Mexico. I hope that they are as intriguing to you as they are
to me.
Missy
Don’t you love the intrigue and inticateness of the Celtic knot? I think it emphasizes the complicated connectedness of all things to each other in this world. Even if it’s a chain or many layered knotwork, it’s all very compelling to follow and try to see where it will end or begin again.
I named my first daughter Erinn because of the pride I feel in having Irish blood. I think the ancient artwork of the Celts has somehow come through in that blood connection. The images from the Book of Kells have been in my mind since 1997. When I finally painted them in 2005, it seemed that I had accomplished a lifelong dream. I’ll write more about them soon.
Missy