Artist's Picks from The Second Half
With age, art and life become one.” George Braque
When Las Laguna Art Gallery invited artists over 50 to submit work, I was in the middle of a pandemic pivot of my own. 2020 was the year I turned 50, and the year I started the steps to shift to full-time artist. In my 20+ years in architecture and consulting, I've always been creative at the "day job". I've worked on numerous sustainable building projects, had a stint as an exhibit designer, worked as a facilitator, created educational programs and tools for national and international organizations, all while also evolving my art practice. It's time now, in the second half, to dive into the deep end, and go full tilt on art. As I have delved more fully into my art practice, I continue to collect and realize more and more ideas, I'm ever more determined to make progress as a full-time artist. So I submitted recent work celebrating themes of transformation and light. Passage II: Into the Light was accepted. Warm glow.
This Artists "Picks"
I like that the term "the second half" accompanies "over 50". This implies we will have a nice long lived 100 years. In the year 2070, hopefully I'll be a resilient, creative matron, maybe celebrating a retrospective of my work at a gallery somewhere. With the optimism that the show title implies, I took some time to go through art of The Second Half, and see what my fellow over 50 compatriots are up to, whether long-time creatives, new to the craft, in a range of 3D and 3D media.
Virtual exhibits are quite different than an in-person gallery show, so I've decided to pretend that I was walking around with you in a gallery, and "stop and point out some favorite works" from this show. If you have time, visit the gallery for the in-person set or explore the full show at the show website. And for my "artists picks" highlights, read on!
Rose Garden
Artist: Michele Lasker
My own piece is a landscape, so nature is clearly something I’m drawn to. No wonder I notice other’s depictions as well. Fiber art to me is a mysterious world. I love the texture, I'd really like to touch this to see if it's as soft as it looks. Roses without thorns...

Galatea I
Artist: C.A. Stigliano
I’m first and foremost a painter. Sometimes I create an installation, I’ve been a performer, and an exhibit designer, I did a lot of architectural photography back in the 1990’s. But deep down, my first love is putting buttery, goopy stuff onto a flat surface and smearing it around. I admire those for whom a third dimension is their main squeeze, and this life-size goddess caught my eye. She looks ready to turn and say something, tell you what she's looking at, just whisper the right magic words to her, and she'll share her secrets.
