During the month of June, artists in our Re-Imagine programs worked with the subject of Reflections in their sketchbooks and related studio projects. We studied the visual impact of nature mirrored in bodies of water and the distinctly inverted, remarkably abstract views found there. Continue reading

Over the past six months or so, we have been busy creating work for our upcoming Water Worlds exhibition, opening June 10th, 2022 at the Anchor Building Gallery in St. Clair Shores, Michigan. Hosted by artist and marina owner Virginia Carstarphen, the show will be installed in a massive marina structure located on Lake Saint Clair that is usually reserved for boat storage. We are very grateful to Virginia and her husband Todd for providing this exciting opportunity for all of our artists. Continue reading

Here we are closing in on the end of 2021 and once again waiting to see what the new year holds in store for each and all of us. After another year marked by the pandemic, political strife, social upheaval, and environmental disasters, it is sometimes difficult to find positive guideposts to cling on to. We search with guarded optimism, knowing instinctively that they are out there, but somehow they just keep getting harder and harder to see.

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There is something quite enticing about a new sketchbook. From the moment it  opens, a whole new world awaits to be discovered. The blank pages suggest such promise and opportunity for visual exploration and creative play. Many pages -- many attempts -- many hours -- many thoughts. 

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KB Studio closed temporarily, or what I thought was temporarily, at 9:00pm on Thursday, March 19, 2020. The city of Chicago had just instituted a Stay-At-Home-Order starting on Friday, March 20th. As we left class that night, myself and a group of students, we were just beginning to register the magnitude of the Covid-19 pandemic but still unable to see the truth of what was to come.

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As we move with a wee bit of optimism into 2021, I am beginning my new year with a brand new website designed by my patient and digitally gifted son Zachary. He has been nudging me to write a blog for a least a decade now but, as I am often intimated by the art of writing, it never seemed an easy fit. But with the pandemic pushing us towards alternative forms of communication and a quieter pace of life, it seems like the perfect time to share my thoughts on the one thing that gets me up in the morning, fills my days, and keeps me company at night — art.

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