Meditations: Looking In, Reflecting Out

"Bridgette Guerzon Mills and Crystal Neubauer come together to present mixed media works that speak to the need for stillness and reflection in a busy and hectic world. Crystal is inspired by what has been discarded and deemed valueless to illustrate her inner reflections through collage, while Bridgette's encaustic and mixed media work is a dialogue of the natural world outside reaching into her spirit. Both artists' work can be seen as meditations, looking in and reflecting out."

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This is what I have been busily working on and I am looking forward to seeing it all come together. The last time I prepared intensely like this for a show was about 5 years ago when I had my first show ever at the Fifth Avenue Art Gallery in Melbourne, Florida. It was a solo show and I painted a ton of paintings for it- I had a wall of tiny paintings, so that kicked the tally for amount of paintings way up high. It was an intense couple of months as I would paint at night mostly after my son, who was just a wee baby then, went to bed.

After the show and learning how much inner stamina and pure discipline it takes to produce a number of paintings for a show, I decided that I would put shows like that on hold. But my goal has always been to keep painting and to have work out in the world, here and there. I have not actively pursued anything else because like I said, it takes so much to get ready for a show. And with my little ones, I honestly just can't do it unless I have extra help.

But then Crystal, Cindy and I put our heads together and decided that it would be a lot of fun for me and Crystal to hang our work together at Cindy's place. PerficalSense Studio is Cindy's studio (that I teach at) and she opens it up every month for an artist to show their work. What I love about Cindy's place is that it is so comfortable. And what I mean by comfortable is that, you step in, and you feel welcomed. Not all places are like that.

So, I threw my hat into the ring, or whatever the saying is, and jumped in. Now, I am pretty spent right now, but I have to say, that when you have to produce a body of work, you just do it. And you make and make and make...and you start to hit on something...and when the time is up and the work time is done, you just want to come back and keep going. And the making leads to more making and each painting is a step to the next one.

I am grateful and excited for the opportunity to share my work and have it hang next to Crystal's at the PerficalSense Studio in Evanston, IL. Hope you can join us!