March is almost here folks!  I am especially excited, and not just because the days are getting longer.  I have two shows coming up in March.  The first show is at The Lofts Gallery @ Mile Post 5.  It is a great opportunity for me to show my work and get further connected to my fellow art-makers!

The opening is on Friday, March 1st from 6-9pm.  TRICK SENSEI will be performing a special acoustic show in The Lofts at 7:30 pm for free.

Also on First Friday at Mile Post 5:   James Halvorson will be showing at the Denizen Gallery:  Post Political: Large Works for Coming in From the Cold & Building Community.  And  in Gallery 5 Lori Lazar will be showing her work: Wanderlust.

I also have a show coming up at Guardino Gallery for Last Thursday, March 28th.  I have been working on a new body of work based on urban traffic patterns. Here is a preview of one of my pieces that will be in the show:

Hold Up, 30 x 30″, oil on canvas

I’m getting settled into my cozy new studio at Mile Post 5.  I really enjoy the community of creative folks here. I have been busy painting and meeting new artist.  There is quite a bit going on out here with theater performances, figure drawing classes and First Friday art openings. Currently there is an group installation show up in the galleries and throughout the property. My neighbor, James Halvorson, has a piece in it titled “String Theory”.  His idea started late last summer at the Portland Ballet Theater, where he volunteered to help build the set.  He was impressed by the shapes and started thinking about integrating shapes on a large scale.  Here is what James has to say about his piece:

“This pun of a title speaks more to the experience of creating the installation than it’s subject. These materials kept taking me to theme of  awareness, of our mental state, of thinking and cognition. Once the idea of  “ripe” is applied to the process of thought, associations tend toward soft and mushy. Dull. Fuzzy. Moldy. Too late for use. Suddenly, the term isn’t quite as appealing. I would like us to form new associations around the term “ripe thought”.  The idea is to think of ripe as a virtue of readiness. For me, these materials visually demonstrate a condition of mental ripeness that talks about an ability to be active, quick, and seizing opportunity. The progression of color in these connections suggest a temporal process of becoming ready to act, to implement. To experience.

As I installed this piece over the course of a week, the reactions and conversations about this piece have taught me a few basic and valuable facts about the forms which I have patterned after the neural pathways that animate our brain matter. The following is a brief report of these discoveries made through casual conversation while installing this piece.

Humans recognize space as a network of equilateral triangles, this is the basic building block for making order in our visual perception.

Most everyone likes to climb things. Consuming alcohol increases this desire. I have had numerous requests to make a jungle gym like this outdoors.

Stop by Mile Post 5 tonight for February’s First Friday Opening and see James’ installation in person.

I’m home from a wonderful trip to North Carolina.  Hay Mow at the Lake Eden Arts Festival was a hit!  Cappi Macsherry of AnTHM Gallery did an amazing job set up the bottom of the Big Red Barn with art from some amazing artists.  I did a little live painting outside (I forgot my camera the first day, of course, so I don’t have any pics of that!!)  and finished up two landscape pieces.  On Saturday morning I taught a children’s workshop.  I heard great music and talked to a lot of awesome people about my art.

Here is a shot of the Big Red Barn and the surrounding mountains!

Another shot of the barn…

Here is my art set up inside the barn.

Work by Spencer Herr.

Me and artist Spencer Herr.

Work by Lamar Sorrento.

Artist Cleaster Cotton and her work.

Here I am escaping Cleaster trying to put “bunny ears” on me for the picture!

Here is a group of kids working on some landscape paintings in my workshop!

A beautiful painting by Clair.

The finished masterpieces!

Spencer Herr giving his workshop about Communication through art.  I was very inspired by his work and learned a lot at his workshop!

I did manage to slip away and enjoy the rest of the festival.  I got to see some amazing music, watch some contra dancing, and even do a little dancing myself.  The last day of the festival LEAF had a Member’s Reception that I got to attend.

Here is the LSS Showcase, these are local high school students!

Early morning Contra Dancers.  It’s a lot harder than it looks.

Msafiri Zawose at the Member’s Reception.

And here are the finished paintings I was working on all weekend:

I have the great honor to be invited to Black Mountain, NC by ANTHM Gallery owner Cappi Macsherry to participate in Hay Mow at the Lake Eden Arts Festival.  The festival is May 11-13th at the historic Black Mountain College.  I flew out to NC  a week early to attend a great opening at the Monte Vista Hotel, which Cappi curates, featuring my art and the work of Jackson Hammack, Sally Sweetland, Alicia Chatham.  Here are some pictures from my adventures so far:

My parents drove down from Pittsburgh, PA to attend the opening at the Monte Vista Hotel.

Here I am again with Cappi.  The awesome car is work by Andrei Palmer

A beautiful painting by Jackson Hammack

A beautiful shot of the Blue Ridge Mountains.

Here is the city of Asheville.

Two paintings I am working on for Hay mow.  You can see how the surrounding landscape has influenced my work.  My little studio is set up on the back porch at my friend’s house here in Asheville.

Today I am getting my self all caught up on the technologies  that link WordPress blogs to face book and  Tumblr accounts.  This is all new to me and though I usually find myself tempted to resist change, I am going for it.    So I have a Tumblr account, kellyneidig.tumblr.com, even though I am not 100% sure what Tumbler is.  AND I think I linked my Blog to facebook.  So this is just a test to see if this post magically appears in facebook land somewhere.

I will be adding images of my new work to Tumblr and updating my blog more frequently.  I have some fun things coming up to share with you!

Here is an Image of some new work to keep you happy!

Divergent, 48x48", oil on canvas

Here are some pictures from the reception for the 10th Northwest Biennial at the Tacoma Art Museum.

My art looks good on museum walls!

My two friends, and great Portland artist, Shu-Ju Wang and Christopher Kelleher!

Artwork by Jeremy Mangan!

Work by Benjamin Love.

Installation artist Reza Michael Safav brewing some Persian Tea!

I have been very fortunate to have the opportunity to travel to some amazing places this year.  Some farther away than others.  All this travel inspired some new art.  In late August  I crossed the river with my friends Leah and Ryan and went to the Goldendale Observatory in Washington.

Here the sun is setting behind Mt. Hood. Not something we get to see from Portland!

The very informative Park Ranger at the observatory showing us the telescope.

I took this picture back at our campsite.

On the way home the next day we stopped in Maryhill, Washington and bought 50lbs of peaches which we later canned and turned into pies.

This is a new painting inspired by outer space:  “Cantenary”,  24×24″, oil on canvas.

And here is “Singularities”, 24×24″, oil on canvas.

Back in the studio with Leah, Ryan and Chris  to make some art.

and the finished pieces…

Then I was off to Kaua’i with Chris and Vortman of VORCAN.  Chris’s dad, Mr. K, chaperoned us!

No vacation is complete without doing a little work…We set up a mini studio in our hotel.

I made an island inspired landscape and collaborated with Vortman to create the submarine piece titled “20,000 Vort’s Under The Sea”.

The best part about the whole trip was the Helicopter ride.  I got to sit in the front!

The Na Pali coast seen from above.

Hanalei bay….

Next I will be off to Florida for Art Basel Miami, then a cross country road trip with Chris as we drive his car back to Portland  so he can finally become a proper resident!

I have been wanting to post some pics from my opening back in April at Guardino Gallery , but I am the worst blogger ever.  The opening went well and I exhibited with a fantastic ceramic artist Brian Jones:

Aside from making wonderful art, Brian is now interviewing artist.  you can listen to his first two interview pod casts here:  http://bjonescast.libsyn.com/rss

He just interviewed me and that should be up by the end of the month.

And here are the photos from the rest of my amazing trip!

A night shot of Reykjavik…did I mention I love my camera!

The Blue Lagoon.  If locals tell you not to go there because it is to touristy or to expensive DONT LISTEN TO THEM.  This is the best place ever!

My friend Leah came to visit me for the last week.  I picked her up from the airport and we drove southeast on the Ring Road to Kirkjubaejarklauster for two nights.  The landscape changed dramatically around every bend.

Skogafoss, one of the many waterfalls along the way.

A view from the top of the waterfall.

Here is Sólheimajökull Glacier, the first glacier we spotted.

And another glacier.

Jokullsarlon, the glacier lake.  Bits of the glacier break off and float out to sea…

…where they get washed back up on the black sand beaches.

And another glacier.

On the way to Hofn, pronounced Hopna.

On the way back to our hotel we stopped by the glacier beach to find the ocean taking the glaciers back out to sea.

This was taken on our way back to Reykjavik.  Some barns getting eaten by a big rock!

I built Iceland out of a pile of rocks in our driveway.

Icelandia….Portlandia…

Iceland give me one last amazing sunset.

I found this on our last day exploring Reykjavik before we have to go to the airport.

Everything about my trip was amazing, even the flight home.  Here we are sandwiched between two layers of clouds as we make our descent into Seattle.

We rented a car for the week so we could get out of Reykjavik and see some sights.  I think the man at Cheap Jeeps really liked us cause he gave us the coolest car ever, “Lightening McQueen”.  Here we are on our way to Þingvellir National Park.

Happy snow people!

I took this photo using the tilt shift function on my camera.

This is the continental rift  between the North American and Eurasian Plates  at at Þingvellir.

Most people in Iceland believe in hidden people. Elves and trolls are believed to live in the lava rocks.

I made friends with the curious Icelandic Ponies.  They will walk right up to you and let you pet them.  I want to bring one home with me.

I love the fluorescent orange contrasting the landscape.

Lightening McQueen made a friend.

On the way to Snaefellsness  we caught this great reflection off the icy lake, this photo doesn’t even come close to the amazingness of it.

It’s not all snow and ice in Iceland!