This week, TRAC 2015 (The Representational Art Conference) was held in Ventura, California November 1 -4th. TRAC an academic conference that explores representational art’s place in the 21st century, and the schedule included several exhibits, both onsite and off, and over 40 academic papers, ranging from neurobiological roots of our love for representational painting, to visual memory for representational landscape painters. You can see the list of academic papers & the accompanying abstracts here. The keynote speakers varied from artistic scholars based in the academic, museum, business and science fields. Each day included art demos from a stellar cast of international artists, including Max Ginsberg, Conor Walton, Alicia Ponzio, David Kassan, Lea Colie Wight and Mario Robinson, as well as familiar art-stars whose work inspires all of us in social media, gallery shows and art world publications.
Students, painters, sculptors and scholars gathered at the conference to see exhibits, hear presentations and expand their notion of what representation art is, where it comes from, and what it might be in the future. Many of the presentation artists met at the conference face to face for the first time, some after being “friends” on social media for years. The camaraderie at the event was palpably festive and enthused. Like-minded souls gathered in a beautiful setting talking about everything related to representational art; from it’s history, to current projects in their own studios, and overlapping ideas on the possibilities for representational art in the future. The air was buzzing. If you get a chance to attend one of these conferences in the future, do it. You can like & follow TRAC’s facebook page here, and their web site is here, where you can sign up to get on their mailing list. And last year’s conference is captured in snippets on video here.
Love this painting…..your mastery of light and shadow always intrigues me. I stare and stare at it to learn how to do it. Thanks! Also, thanks for the coverage of the TRAC2015….lots to explore there.
Hi Marilyn! Thanks for the sweet compliment. Light & Shadow are always a lure in artwork, aren’t they? We’re intent on trying to capture the magic to share it with everyone. Here’s hoping we both continue to chase it with our paints & brushes. Enjoy exploring TRAC!