Enjoy the artwork and the space.  RED DOT Project artist member, Lori Diemer, graciously photographed this project for us. I love the picture at the end that I took of her working.

Andrew Morrell, Carnegie Bridge 1 and Cleveland USA-6

Michel Ina, Untitled 81

side note: Roetzel & Andress was awarded the Sustainability award in 2011 from Cleveland Municipal Bar Association.  RED DOT Project  artist member, Chris Zielski, designed the copper award on the center of the table. After working on the award with Chris, it was nice to see it in situ.

Paul Duda, Four Guardians

Jessica Maloney, All Things in Perspective and On the Surface

Hector Vega, Tremont

Lori Diemer, Cleveland Montage

This was an interesting project to work on. From finding appropriate artwork to appropriately scaled imagery, how to work around building infrastructure such as fire alarms (I ignored them.) to finding the right range of Cleveland imagery that kept the space fresh.

Are you looking for artwork that tells your story?  Let us know.

Won’t you stop by and say Hi, shop for art and enjoy the cultural richness that Cleveland has to offer?

Conceived and created by artist Jim Gundlach, SHARKS: Draw the Line! invites the public to a vibrant, temporary art space in the parking lot adjacent to the Greater Cleveland Aquarium on Saturday July 28 and Sunday July 29.

On Saturday, July 28, participants will help fill an area larger than a football field with chalk outlines of 2,500 sharks — the number that disappear from our oceans every 30 minutes. Volunteers will use plywood templates to draw silhouettes of various shark species, ranging from about 3 feet to 6 feet in length. Too few people understand the plight of sharks, but the collection of silhouettes on pavement will make clear the epic ecological loss taking place with each passing hour.
On Sunday, July 29, Chalk artist and educator Anna Arnold will enlists visitors to pick up colored chalk and fill in the line-drawn sharks, help her transform Sharks:Draw the Line! into a brightly colored chalk painting mosaic to help turn the tide in public awareness.
Humans kill about of three sharks every second, thanks in large part to the trade in shark fins for food. Scientists estimate that more than 90 percent of the worldwide shark population has been wiped out in recent decades.
SHARKS: Draw the Line! harnesses the power of art and activism. Participants can’t help but begin to consider the problem at hand. And the art, as fleeting as its medium, will prompt observers to reconsider definitions of beauty in the natural world.
Punctuating the space will be a series of sculptures, created by Gundlach, that represent various shark species. Mounted on poles and designed to move in the breeze, the sculptures will be an eye-catching counterpoint to the chalk drawing.

Related Activities

To facilitate the dual goals of educating the public and having fun, SHARKS: Draw the Line! includes a variety of activities over the two-day event.
*Urban artist Bob Peck will create a 16-by-16-foot oceanographic scene underscoring the importance of sharks
*A time-lapse video will record the evolution of the pavement drawing from first line to last
*Interpretive “sharktivities” will include interactive lessons that demonstrate the size of a whale shark as well as the length of lines used to snare sharks.
SHARK WEEKEND – DRAW THE LINE!

SATURDAY JULY 28 & SUNDAY JULY 29 – EVENT IS FREE TO THE PUBLIC

WHERE: GREATER CLEVELAND AQUARIUM

DATE: SATURDAY JULY 28 & SUNDAY JULY 29

EVENT TIME: 10AM – 4PM

FREE FOR GUESTS TO PARTICIPATE AND PARTICIPANTS RECEIVE 20% OFF AQUARIUM ADMISSION *GCA PASS HOLDERS CAN BRING ONE FREE GUEST TO BE ADMITTED TO THE AQUARIUM (ONLY VALID ON JULY 28 & 29)

SHARKS: Draw the Line! was created by Jim Gundlach, a Northeast Ohio sculptor and graphic designer. Gundlach runs a successful graphic design firm specializing in high-end marketing designs, print materials and books. As a sculptor, he has won commissions around the country. Jim has been involved with a number of student-art projects over the years and is a member of RED DOT Project. He recently created two bald eagle sculptures for installation on Army Air Bases in Afghanistan. He and his wife, Lori, have two children in college.
RED DOT Project, a collaborator for the SHARKS: Draw the Line!
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Not all expressions of ceramic art are vessels, of course, but that’s a good place to start if you’re inclined to stop in at River Gallery in Rocky River, which celebrates its 6th Annual Cermamics Invitational through May 25. The gallery is 19046 Old Detroit Road, Rocky River.

More than 30 of the region’s finest ceramics artists parade their talent with form, glaze and surface decoration. Check out Bonnie Gordon’s electric sense of color, Brian Sarama’s mysterious, story-infused plates, and  sense of narrative and Diane Bjel’s nodule-covered “Bird Jar.” You’ll fine nods to nature, odes to architecture and — if you’ve got the vessel lust — plenty to love.

Gallery hours are 11 a.m. to 6 pm. Tuesday through Friday and 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday.

The works are part of “The Missing Piece,” an interactive exhibition that began in March 2006, when Schneider came upon a strange little particleboard puzzle piece during a walk in the woods.

“I had no idea how long it had been in the desert, who had placed it there or if it had fallen from the sky,” writes Schneider. “It was definitely a profound, Eureka moment for me. I flipped it over to make sure nothing was living underneath it, picked it up, and carried it back down to the car and I’ve been obsessed with it ever since.”

This is the essence of the artist, no? To consider the stuff that drops in from nowhere and try to find meaning? Schneider has perpetuated the meaning-making by replicating the piece and hiding the replications throughout  Ohio. Schneider has linked her prints to maps that indicate the location of the replicated pieces. Maps will be distributed at the gallery from 5 to 9 p.m. May 18th.

In the meantime, gallery visitors can experience the “Missing Piece” exhibit at Legation, 1300 W. 78th St., Cleveland. Call 216-650-4201. Check them out online at www.legationagallery.com.

Each week we point you to happenings in galleries, artist studios, and museums that make Greater Cleveland a robust place for art lovers. We always make sure to let you know what Red Dot Project member artists are up to. And because a passionate, art-going audience is a key to the success of our artists and the cultural health of the region, we also shine a light on anything else we think you should know about.

So if you’re an artist, let us know if you have news to share.
If you’re a reader — thanks for visiting. Stop and scroll the events here often!

Carol Barton's "Small Gardens" is a carousel book

One of the great, under-acknowledged treasures of the Cleveland art scene is the Morgan Conservatory, a non-profit center dedicated to handmade paper and the book arts.And what greater way to get to know the Morgan than to take a workshop on constructing a three-dimensional carousel or “star” book? This engaging form has a beloved place in the history of the book, and lends itself to endless contemporary interpretations.Paper engineer extraordinaire Carol Barton visits the Morgan May 19 and 20 for two info-packed days of instruction on the form. For a better look at Barton’s work, or to see a gallery of carousel books, check out www.popularkinetics.com. For more info on the workshop at the Morgan, visit www.morganconservatory.org. The Morgan is located at 1754 E. 47th Street Cleveland. Gallery Hours are 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday.

Drawn And Quartered started four years ago when a handful of local drawing groups assembled to compete, Olympic style (well, almost) in figure drawing events. Competitors choose long-pose or fast-pose contests, trying to capture the best representation of models from the art and fashion world. The audience votes, and artwork will be sold after the competition.

The teams:

The Murray Hill Drawing Group
Dr. Sketchy Cleveland
Pretentious Tremont Artists of the Literary Care
N.O.I.S. (The Northern Ohio Illustrators Society)

It all starts at 7 p.m. Saturday, May 19, at the Loren Naji Studio Gallery, 2138 West 25th Street, Cleveland, OH 44113

The artists featured will have artwork perfect for gifts.  While you are in the building, check out the studios of RED DOT Project artists, Michael Greenwald, Laurel Herbold and Susie Frazier.

W78th Street Studios is located at 1300 W78th Street, Cleveland.  The exhibition is part of Third Fridays running from 5 – 9.

“My observation of the natural world as a basis for making my art has led to my increasing concern for maintaining our planet,” says Nancy Richards-Davis, who makes abstract paintings using encaustic, a beeswax-based medium.

“I am very concerned with the problem of hive abandonment among bee populations,” she says. But the issue isn’t just that a dwindling bee population makes beeswax more expensive for her. It’s that thriving hives feed a healthy planet.

Richards-Davis is one of the 15 artists whose work has adorned the PNC SmartHome, a model home in University Circle that demonstrates sustainable building technologies. RED DOT Project and the Cleveland Museum of Natural History collaborated in finding Northeast Ohio artists whose methods, materials or subject matter echoed the theme of sensitivity to the environment.

Richards-Davis easily met the criteria.

“I spent two years working on a show in collaboration with artist/photographer Bradley Hart on a project titled ’1 Degree of Change. ‘ Part of my concept in that work was the metaphor of the fusing of encaustic (in beeswax painting, each layer of wax must be heated and fused to the previous layer) to the warming of the planet.”

Hart, who is also a SmartHome artist, created six black and white photographs while  Richards-Davis did six encaustic works. Each addressed issues around climate change. “Bleaching,” featured at the SmartHome, explores the rising temperature of the seawater and its effects on the coral reefs. (Like other featured art and decor, it will be at the Smart Art Sale, which takes place from noon to 4 p.m. Sunday.)

Being green is a local issue, too. In Richards-Davis’s studio, she uses rags rather than paper towels and weighs the benefits of using the more expensive but environmentally friendly soy wax to clean brushes. Her other option is paraffin, which is petroleum-based.

In the end, though, her work isn’t just about the right methods and materials. It’s about aesthetically beautiful abstraction and what it evokes.

“I think that in our superficial, fast-paced world, art asks us to slow down long enough to consider, ponder and reflect,” says the artist. “As for what it does for me, it allows me to play my one note in the symphony. ”

Artwork shown: Bleaching, Nancy Richards-Davis