Live Laugh Lollygag implied a show about whimsy. This is indeed what was displayed in the art gallery with works by Betsy Bleed, Evan Brown and Grace Woodard. Betsy’s paintings were saturated with so much color. They were fun and happy in a cartoony style. Grace’s artwork consisted of doodles on disposable coffee cups. The cups were adhered to the wall neatly in rows and made some cool shadows. Each one was different and some of them seemed to have some insights into what might’ve been Grace’s beliefs or things that she considered important. Many of the cups had drawings of women together looking like friends. Evan’s paintings were mainly Plein air oil paintings of places around Marion, mainly from matter park. Evan’s paintings had a much more painterly style and gave a nod to the more lackadaisical part of the show’s title.
Going to this show was really interesting for me since I knew all of the artists personally and had invested time and friendship into them. It was really cool to see artwork on gallery walls that my peers had done. Part of it admittedly was a reality check for me as well. These artists were my peers and they already had worked on gallery walls. It made me think more about what I was doing to reach my dreams. Looking at their work, I thought it was impressive, but I also thought about my own work and how I could get my art on gallery walls. I noticed that each of these artists just did something they wanted to do. On Evan’s artist statement, he basically just said he liked painting Plein air environments so he did. I find it sometimes hard for myself to do that. To just draw what I want to draw and worry about what its worth later.