Preston Contemporary Art Center Opening-Mesilla, NM

http://www.prestoncontemporaryart.com

PCAC Exhibition opens Friday, March 11  Artists' Dialogue Saturday, March 12 Hello Friends of the Preston Contemporary Art Center, We invite you to join us for the opening reception for the second PCAC Exhibition for 2011.  You'll have a chance to see new works and meet artists Kevin Box, Craig Dongoski, Fran Hardy and Suzanne Kane on Friday evening from 6:30 - 8:30 pm and at the Artists Dialogue on Saturday beginning at 1 pm.

Fran Hardy All of Fran Hardy's work focuses on the natural world, especially native flora and its preservation. She is proficient and inventive with a wide variety of media, but her recent work focuses on large drawings on panel, often also utilizing watercolor and various acrylic mediums and grounds.  An eye for meticulous detail infuses Hardy's work, and she says that often various magical creatures and forms will make themselves known to the viewer within the twisting bark of her trees. "My early childhood was spent in the solitary pursuit of reading magic books and fairy tales, and along with my desire to save the natural world and vanishing ancient trees and flora, these forest sprites emerge unbidden and subconsciously as I draw. I enjoy the fact that like observing clouds, every viewer of my work will see different images in the gnarled bark of my trees."  With six solo museum exhibitions, two traveling shows and a 15-year retrospective, Hardy's work has reached a wide audience across the country. She has produced three educational documentaries that have aired at museums and on national television.  View a segment of one of her video presentations at the gallery.

The Enchanted Forest

The Enchanted Forest by Fran Hardy | Make Your Own Book

Installation at Brevard Art Museum for Navel Gazing exhibition

My installation entitled Preconceived Notions consists of five paintings and a documentary that talks about what people think of as the native Florida and what it really is. I hope to educate the public about preserving more of the original native Florida as well as planting their yards and properties with native plants.

Update

All the segments below were all part of our Florida program, The Artist's Process-Going Native in Florida. You can also see our fundraiser segment for our New Mexico program on our Creative-Native Project website (http://www.creativenativeproject.com/artistprocess.html ) and we are working with an Oklahoma museum to do a segment for Oklahoma this year.

Corkscrew Swamp Segment # 1

Our first stop on our trip through Florida shooting the documentary "The Artist's Process, Going Native" was Corkscrew Swamp in southwest Florida outside ofNaples and down Immokalee Road. We interviewed Ed Carlson, director of the Audubon Refuge who has been there for thirty years. It is an extraordinary place with miles of boardwalk that allow visitors to traverse this primordial swamp with one of the largest stands of virgin cypress. It is one of my favorite spots.

We also talked to Ed about their innovative water treatment system which cleans all of their restroom water through the use of native plants.

Segment # 2 Interviewing Kari Ruder at her native plant nursery

We met Kari Ruder at her native plant nursery called Naturewise in Cocoa. She was great on camera and inspiring in terms of what can be done with native plantings. I wish we had done more with native plants in our yard in Punta Gorda some years ago after talking with her. She also took us to Endeavour Elementary Magnet School where she is providing plants and assistance in their innovative gardening program. We participated in their butterfly release in the butterfly garden the kids have planted. I was surprised to see that some of the children found it very natural and others were actually afraid of the butterflies.

Florida native yards Segment #3

We went to see two yards that have been converted to native plants and talk with Gary Cowie, the owner of one of the yards about why he converted his conventional yard to one with native plants. We interview Sharon Dolan owner of Maple Street Natives about how she helped Gary design and plant his yard as well as another yard that was converted to a coastal hammock habitat. Hopefully these yards which are so much more beautiful to my mind than the typical yard as well as being easier to maintain and requiring very little water while providing great habitat for wildlife will inspire others.