mikewindy

An exhibition at the Red Arrow Gallery November 2014 of multi media paintings, sculptures and woodprints investigating my longstanding fascination with Modigliani, Masks from various cultures and skateboards. The largest works in the exhibit are the two paintings with 4 faces on them. They are 4 feetx 8 feet. The sculptures with nails coming out of the heads were initially used to create the 4 wood prints in the exhibit making each print a unique mono-print since the wood cut faces can no longer be used to print.

In February of 2015 this exhibit was shown again at Casa Azafran a multi-cultural community center in Nashville serving immigrant populations.

I love building up the physical and conceptual layers of work by adding coat after coat of paint, often overlaying it on objects such as nails, paint lids, sticks, bottle caps or ceramic baubles I hand build and fire in a kiln. 

Cowboy Concept Y'all is a figment of mikewindy's imagination. HIs hat is like wonder woman's jet! He's a singing cowboy & folk art critic. That is to say he's a self taught art critic. He writes and plays music as well as host his own youtube TV show(look out for Episode 2 with Miranda Herrick coming soon). He also makes art on his own and curates exhibitions. For the Semi-Pro No No exhibition and the accompanying record Batterymen Vol.1 on which he appeared singing his original song "Baroque Blind Symphony" he appeared on the Steve Gorman Sports show that is syndicated on Fox and The Rock of Ages on Flager College Radio with Uncle Stevo to promote the record. World famous musician John Davis of The Lees of Memory(formerly of SuperDrag) is currently producing a full length record by Cowboy Concepty'all and his band David Allan Foucault due out fall of 2016. You can learn more about CCY through listening to his Tiny Desk Concert competition entry, reading his blog, watching his youtube TV show, reading an interview with John Davis in Downtown Magazine NYC where he gives CCY a shout out, or visiting his BandCamp page.

Introductory Ballad

www.cowboyconceptual.blogspot.com

cowboyconceptyall.bandcamp.com

Cowboy Concepty'all Show

Downtown Magazine NYC

I modify trophies and send them to individuals whose work I admire. I've sent trophies to Caroline Randall Williams, Carson Ellis and Collin Malloy, Soraya Sarhaddi Nelson, David Sedaris, Ira Glass, Dan Bern, Terrie Gross, Jorge Pardo, Dave Hickey, Michael Murphy, Carolyn See, Steve Earle, Susan Standberg, and more. Often times they write me back!

Along with Brad Bornac of Semi-Pro Records and Chris Doubler I co-curated The Semi-Pro No No Show based on Dock Ellis' 1970 No Hitter. It was a huge success and was listed in the Nashville Scene as one of the best art exhibits in Nashville in 2015

The Nashville Scene/Semi-Pro No No Show

The 2 x 2 Gallery is a mikewindy project started in 2003 while in Graduate school at University of Memphis and has continued to be a fruitful generator of ideas for many artist and art lovers including the birds in our backyard in Nashville.

The International Potato Art Show happened at Johnny's Kitchen in Hastings, Florida in 2009 and 2010

International Potato Art Show

2x2 Gallery

In writing a cover article about music blogger Rick Saunders I met Ted Drozdowski who was extremely generous towards with his time and knowledge. I built him a diddley-bow and showed up with friends at one of his gigs at the famed Family Wash in Nashville,TN and presented him with it. He know plays it in his live set. Here his is in November of 2015 playing it when he and his Scissormen headlined Music City Roots. I also created a stop animation for "Beggin Jesus" a song from his 2015 record "Love & Life". That film will screen at the 2016 Clarksdale Mississippi Juke Joint Film Festival.

You can read about it and see it's world premiere on Pop Matters at the links below;

Pop Matters Beggin' Jesus

Beggin' Jesus

Nashville Arts Article

In 2005 I founded the Hastings Found Object Sculpture Society. Between 2005 and 2010 I hosted over 50 three hour found object sculpture workshops at the Hastings,Fl public library. When I moved to Nashville in 2011 I continued my interest in providing community workshops to kids and adults alike by founding the Inglewood Found Object Sculpture Society. You can see more about these events that are rooted in the idea of maker spaces and the maker movement on the link below.

Inglewood Found Object Sculpture Society

Behind the scenes: Amanda Valentine came to Maplewood in 2014-2015 and helped students think about how fashion might be useful to help astronauts while para-terraforming Mars. We used Nikki Giovanni's poem Quilting the Black-Eyed Pea; We are going to Mars as our conceptual launchpad. My students won a gold medal at the MNPS PBL Expo for their project.

For more information about Amanda Valentine http://www.amandavalentine.com/

Drawing South Podcast