"Siblings & Pets" Show A Success!

Lots of catching up to do - it'll take a couple of posts!

In this post, I'll report about "Siblings & Pets", the art show my brother and I had back in May. This show was a long time in coming and unfortunately did not happen at the best time (more later), but we still had a great show and a blast at the opening reception.

My brother (PY Simpson) and I have wanted to show our artwork together for many, many years. But it wasn't until a couple of years ago, when I started creating my "Paintings with Petzazz" pieces, that I felt I had art that would complement his. My work prior to that (which I still continue to do) was very realistic, black & white and not "fun" enough to show alongside his whimsical sculptural ceramic pieces. And then, after I had a style that I thought suitable, it took some time for us to coordinate our schedules so that we could show together.

PY is represented by the Phoenix gallery in Sacramento CA, so we worked with the wonderful owner to figure out a time for our show. Downtown/midtown Sacramento has a monthly event, "Second Saturday", where galleries are open from 6 - 9 to showcase new art and host artists' receptions, so our reception was set for the second Saturday evening in May. The show ran through the end of May.

We chose to limit our art to dogs and cats - mine being paintings and his being ceramic sculptures. PY began working on his art in December - I didn't even want to think about it back then! But his ceramic sculptures take much longer for him to do than my paintings do for me, so it was smart of him to get started early. He created 10 sculptures and I had 12 paintings.

Then a horrible thing happened in April, PY's beloved cat, Kotex (yes, you read that right) became ill and had to be euthanized due to kidney failure caused by the tainted pet food. This was one of the earliest cases in our area - the day the news was breaking about the tainted food was the day she was put down. This was extremely traumatic for my brother and made it especially difficult for him to continue getting his work ready for the show, but it also made him realize how much our pets mean to us. We dedicated the show to Kotex and the other pets who had been lost due to the pet food.

I had already planned on doing a couple of paintings of Kotex, so they were even more meaningful after she had passed.

Even though we were saddened by Ko's loss, we managed to have a great time at the opening reception, which was attended by over 400 people. Second Saturdays always draw a big crowd and Phoenix is one of the hot spots.

None of my art sold that night, but 4 pieces sold later and PY sold at least 5 of his sculptures (4 of them that night). He had created 5 pieces of a sphynx cat whose photos I had shown him some time ago. That naked, pink cat became his muse for this show and I made sure to invite the cat's owner. She attended the reception and was able to meet PY and discuss his art of her cat at length. She was quite touched and proud that her cat meant so much to him and even bought one of the sculptures.

We included some of the same breeds in the show: Boston terrier (PY's was wearing a blue sweater), dachshund, pug, chihuahua and of course, the sphynx cat.

Well, that takes care of this report - check back soon to find out what else I've been doing to keep busy and stay out of trouble!