Sam Wolfe Connelly: Artist Lecture and Weekend Workshop!

Next Friday, January 24th from 7-8PM, we have a visiting artist lecture and talk by the contemporary editorial and freelance illustrator, Sam Wolfe Connelly! We are thrilled to host the event in tandem with the opening reception of Great Personality!



For this lecture, we are partnering with the Minneapolis College of Art and Design. The talk will be held in MCAD's Auditorium 140. During the talk, Sam will be sharing some of his current projects, gallery illustrations, and thoughts on illustration and making. It will be a informative and inspiring talk! This is free and open to the public! Seats are limited, so please arrive early!

Then, we will make our way back across the street for the opening reception of Great Personality! This show features the work by of 50 illustrators and designers who have created non-traditional pinups and "mood setting" environments inspired by the Myers-Briggs Personality Types and the science of ambiance, allure, and attraction. We will discover who we are attracted to, why, and the ways we connect. Learn a little more about yourself through these fully-interactive pieces in the Great Personality Dating Games! These are four, unique virtual reality dating games made and written by Lindsay Nohl. Through these you can get to know all of the characters, swoon over your heartthrobs, and fall for the least expected! Who will win your heart?! You can see more about this opening reception and the artist talk by Sam Wolfe Connelly here!



These series of events are the beginning of a weekend full of inspiration, indulgence, and creation. We have invited Sam Wolfe Connelly to teach a 2.5 day workshop on illustration, studio practice, and how to make the things you love to make for a living! It is all about fine tuning your specific interests and making things possible! The seats for the workshop are filling up quickly- we just have a few spaces left. If you are interested in participating in this workshop you can find all of the information and content on our Light Grey Shop here.



About Sam Wolfe Connelly
Sam Wolfe Connelly has exhibited at Gallery Nucleus, Spoke Art Gallery, Bluecanvas, Bold Hype Gallery, Light Grey Art Lab, Gorker Gallery, The Red Gallery, and Beyond Eden Art Fair among others.

Clients include Playboy Magazine, Penguin Books, Sundance Film Festival, Hasbro, Night Shade Books, Tor Books, Magic: The Gathering, Plan Adviser Magazine, Plansponsor Magazine, Grey Magazine, Evil Ink Comics, Virginia Living, Bitch Magazine, Eugene Weekly, Educational Leadership, Colors Magazine, SCAD, and Coheed & Cambria.

Podcast: Visual Development with Mike Yamada and Victoria Ying

Download the MP3 or Subscribe via iTunes!

Visual Development with Mike Yamada and Victoria Ying
Length: 01:11:56
Synopsis: Walt Disney Animation Studios visual development artists Mike Yamada and Victoria Ying (aka Extracurricular Activities) visited Minneapolis to host our weekend workshop, Create, Concept & Collaborate. To kick off the event, we hosted a public artist talk where Mike and Victoria spoke about the Visual Development process in a studio environment. Since Mike and Victoria are not only incredibly talented artists, but also super knowledgeable and a treat to listen to, we thought it would be a great conversation to share on the podcast!


NOTES:
Extracurricular Activities
Mike Yamada
Victoria Ying

Concept Art Workshop and All Creatives Meet and Greet

Gear up for an excited and inspiring weekend at Light Grey Art Lab!

We are thrilled to host a series of open events in correspondence with out Create, Concept, and Collaborate Workshop with Victoria Ying and Mike Yamada.


Marakeesh by Victoria Ying

To kick off the workshop, we are hosting a free public lecture this Friday at the Minneapolis College of Art and Design (Auditorium 150) at 7pm. Hear Mike and Victoria talk about their experience in the concept art world, what it is like working for Disney Animation Studios, working as part of a collaborative team, and about their personal projects, Extracurricular Activities! Following the hour long lecture, will be a Q & A, where attendees are welcome to ask questions about their studio practice, work, current projects, etc.


Mike Yamada

At 8:30pm we will make our way over to Glam Doll Donuts for an All Creatives Meet & Greet! Get your donuts, get your coffees, and teas, and spend the evening getting to know other artists in the local area, as well as from around the country! You are welcome and encouraged to bring business cards, promotional materials, and a notebook to take down any information! All creatives are invited, so feel free to stop by and say hello!

To read more about the lecture and Meet & Greet, see our facebook event here!


All Creatives Meet & Greet, January 2013

The workshop will take place all weekend! We are very excited for this boot-camp-esque class, where students are able to make work, have one on one critiques, business discussions, and more!

Do to the events and classroom setting, we will NOT have gallery hours this weekend! Feel free to stop next week or check out the In Place Exhibition on the online shop and gallery.

We hope to see you here!

Podcast: 'In Place: Wish You Were Here'

Download the MP3 or Subscribe via iTunes!

In Place: Wish You Were Here
Length: 00:56:43
Synopsis: In Place finally opened this past Friday! Along with an awe-inspiring exhibit, the event also launched In Place: Wish You Were Here, a companion book that collects all the artwork from the show in one place, along with context for each piece in text and maps. The following morning we held a book signing and artist talk at Verdant Tea, where we chatted about how the project originated, and were joined by participating artists Casey Crisenbery, Erik Krenz and Jeff Johnson, who shared their perspective and the stories behind their pieces. In the conversation, we directly reference a lot of specific pieces of art from In Place, so you might want to have the online gallery open to follow along!


Show Notes:
In Place online gallery
Buy In Place: Wish You Were Here and artwork from the show
Verdant Tea
Jeff Johnson
Casey Crisenbery
Erik Krenz

Podcast: Crossing the Line in the Cranial Sand

Last Friday we were joined by Tom Cassidy and Mr. Thursday for Crossing the Line in the Cranial Sand, an evening of nontraditional spoken word, poetry and storytelling. It was a hugely entertaining performance and we're happy to have recorded the audio to share with our listeners!

Download the MP3 or Subscribe via iTunes!

Crossing the Line in the Cranial Sand
Length: 01:38:08
Synopsis: This week podcast is the audio from 'Crossing the Line in the Cranial Sand', which was a night of nontraditional poetry and storytelling performed by spoken word artists Tom Cassidy and Mr. Thursday at Light Grey Art Lab on Friday, July 26th.

Notes:
Tom Cassidy is a spoken word and correspondence artist whose work makes the mundane seem far more important and funnier than it really is. He has been an active participant in the international mail-art community since the early 1970s and his works have appeared wherever the envelopes were opened. A former board member and series host of Access to Art for the Minneapolis Television Network, he currently serves on the boards of both Cheap Theatre and Patrick’s Cabaret and regularly performs hither and yon.

Mr. Thursday hails from Roanoke, VA where he teaches and coordinates Roanoke’s Annual Marginal Arts Festival. His lectures are derived from different texts and actions, which combine Fluxus, Situationist, and Post-Neo Absurdist techniques. In them he uses props, texts, found material and costume to code a dialogue performed through improv, paroxysms, and loud vocalization. Masculinity, warfare, popular and underground erotica, role-playing, desire and the intersection of these concerns in the exterior world are some of the recently highlighted concerns of these performance lectures.

You can find a few more pictures from the event on our flickr page.

Mike Yamada and Victoria Ying Artist Talk and All Creative's Meet & Greet!

We have a double-whammy of an event for you guys!

As you might know, Disney Animation Studios' Mike Yamada and Victoria Ying are headed to Light Grey Art Lab for a weekend workshop at the end of August and we're doing a couple of free public events that are really exciting!

On Friday August 30th, Light Grey Art Lab is partnering with the Minneapolis College of Art and Design to host an incredible artist talk led by Mike and Victoria! It starts at 7PM in Auditorium 150 (first floor on the south end of the building). They'll share their work, process and thoughts on being involved in the visual development / concept art industry as well as chat about their personal projects, inspirations and motivations! Mike and Victoria have been an incredible team, working professionally on a variety of incredible feature films. A short Q&A will follow the lecture, some come with questions in mind!

Then, immediately after the lecture, head down the block to Glam Doll Donuts for an All Artists Meet & Greet! We're teaming up with SOOVAC to bring together an incredible amount of creatives to mix, mingle and enjoy as many sweets & caffeinated drinks they can handle! Bring your business cards and get ready to say hello to Mike, Victoria and the rest of the Twin Cities creative community! It should be a blast! The event runs from 8:30 PM - 10:30, come by and say Hi!

RSVP via our Facebook Event!

To Recap:
Friday, August 30th, 7 PM - Mike Yamada and Victoria Ying Artist Talk at MCAD!
Friday, August 30th, 8:30 PM - All Creatives Meet & Greet at Glam Doll Donuts!

Questions? Send us a note! hello@lightgreyartlab.com
All of these events are free, so bring your creative friends and let's talk art together!

Podcast: History Of The "F" Word

This week's podcast features a lecture we hosted way back in September of last year! History of the "F" Word: A Historic Look At One Of English's Nastiest Words, presented by Deanna Larsen, coincided with The Expletive Show. The lecture consisted of a wonderful discussion around all things F-word related, including taboos, historic and current usage, cultural hang-ups, as well as some hilarious personal stories from the audience itself.

Apologies for the rough audio, this was recorded before we invested in proper audio equipment and took some finessing, but we really wanted to share this conversation with everyone!

It should go without saying, but due to the nature of the topic there is a lot of strong language in today's show. If you are offended easily or have children present, this might not be the show for you. For the rest of you salty, nasty, foul-mouthed listeners, enjoy!

Download the MP3 or Subscribe via iTunes!

History Of The "F" Word
Length: 00:58:24
Synopsis: This week's podcast was actually recorded last September in conjunction with The Expletive Show. We had the honor of hosting poet, teacher and MFA candidate Deanna Larsen for a energetic drop-in lecture/discussion revolving around one of the world's most versatile (and in some ways, most controversial) four-letter words: the "F" one. Warning: if you're sensitive to strong language or are listening with children present, you might want to sit this one out!

Podcast: Happiness & Success

A couple of weeks ago we held a discussion at Light Grey Art Lab called 'Happiness & Success- Do What You Love, Love What You Do" hosted by Lindsay and Jenny. It was a great conversation and hopefully gave some of the guests some new perspective on pursuing creative endeavors. Throughout the night we discussed how to rethink, create, pursue and achieve personal and creative goals, changing ways of looking at ourselves, and how we - as creative people - can flourish with the talents and ambitions we have.

We thought it was a conversation worth having (and worth continuing) so we recorded it for this weeks podcast! Enjoy!

Download the MP3 or Subscribe via iTunes!

Happiness & Success
Length: 01:24:51
Music: Barbarian by Pierlo
Synopsis: On March 1st, 2013, Light Grey Art Lab's own Lindsay Nohl and Jenny Bookler hosted a discussion called 'Happiness & Success - Love what you do, do what you love'. It was a fun and free-flowing conversation on what it truly means to be successful and happy in a creative world.



Thanks to everyone who attended and participated!

Audio Lecture : Ollie Stench Talks About Punk Rock

A while back we had Ollie Stench visit Light Grey Art Lab and give a lecture called Ollie Stench Talks About Punk Rock. It was a great conversation about how he personally defines Punk Rock as a movement, the culture and worldview that created it, and how it has changed the world since.

We recorded the audio, and we're finally* ready to let you listen!



I've embedded a youtube video you can play in your browser, or there's a direct link to an MP3 incase you'd prefer to listen on the go! Download! (right click to save)

Ollie is an awesome guy and fun to listen to, so we're looking for opportunities to bring him back in the future! If there's something you'd like to hear Ollie talk about, let us know!



Incase you missed it before, here's the Download!

*Sorry it took so long, it's all my fault.

Ollie Stench Talks About Punk Rock

This Thursday, Ollie Stench visited Light Grey Art Lab to talk about Punk Rock, specifically how he defines Punk Rock as a movement, the culture and worldview that created it and how it changed the world since.

It was an energetic talk that was inspiring both for Punk Rock enthusiasts and neophytes alike. Ollie did a great job outlining some of the major players in Punk Rock's birth, and spoke to the social context of the time, and why the Punk Rock movement was an inevitable reaction to culture of the early '70s.



Ollie is a passionate (and opinionated) speaker, and it was impossible not to be drawn into the world he so clearly loves! The lecture was great fun and a huge success, and we look forward to hearing more from Ollie in the future!

Ollie Stench has been an active participant in the Punk Rock scene for the last 30 years of his life, and he is an incredible expert in everything that surrounds the topic. You can find out what he's up to at his blog.

You can see more photos from the event on our flickr group. We will have an audio version of the lecture available on our website as soon as possible!

Recap of Deanna Larsen's 'History of the F-Word' Lecture

This Tuesday we had the honor of hosting poet, teacher and MFA candidate Deanna Larsen for a energetic drop-in lecture/discussion revolving around one of the world's most versatile (and in some ways, most controversial) four-letter words.



There was plenty of wonderful discussion around all things F-word related, including taboos, historic and current usage, cultural hang-ups, as well as some hilarious personal stories from the audience itself.



The discussion ranged in tone from uproarious humor to serious discussion and personal reflection as Deanna transitioned through an exhaustively interesting and deep analysis of the word.

We've also very excited to let you know we recorded the event, and plan on releasing the discussion to the public in the near future! Honestly, we're just dipping out toes in ways to share classes and discussions around the world, so please be patient as we figure out the best way to deliver a quality final product! Hopefully going forward, we'll be able to bring a lot more topics and interesting discussion online for everyone to download!

We want to give a HUGE 'thank you!' to Deanna for all of her preparation, enthusiasm and the scholarly approach to the topic!





If you couldn't make it but you'd like a chance to see Deanna in the flesh, she'll be teaching a creative writing workshop at Light Grey on Tuesday October 2 from 7 - 8:30pm for 'Trusting your voice' for $15.



Deanna Larsen is a poet and MFA candidate at Minnesota State University, Mankato where she teaches English Composition and is an assistant poetry editor for Blue Earth Review. Her work has appeared in PANK, Blood Orange Review, Neon, and numerous other publications. She has recently been nominated for two Pushcart Prizes and for inclusion in the annual anthology Best New Poets. Additionally, she is a Spanish tutor, freelance translator, and laser tag enthusiast.

Click through to see the other images from Deanna's great lecture including a couple that have the infamous F-word on them.

Come to 'History of the "F" Word'!

This Tuesday we invite you to a special lecture/discussion with Deanna Larsen, called History of the "F" Word.

It should be an excellent conversation about everything from the urban legends of its etymology, its literary history and modern usage to the vice president’s infamous slip, the FCC, and the effects of taboo.

History of the "F" Word will take place Tuesday, September 18 from 7-8:30 PM. Admission is $6.00 at the door, but if you pre-register on the Light Grey Art Lab site, it's discounted to $5.00!

Deanna Larsen is a poet and MFA candidate at Minnesota State University, Mankato where she teaches English Composition and is an assistant poetry editor for Blue Earth Review. Her work has appeared in PANK, Blood Orange Review, Neon, and numerous other publications. She has recently been nominated for two Pushcart Prizes and for inclusion in the annual anthology Best New Poets. Additionally, she is a Spanish tutor, freelance translator, and laser tag enthusiast.

Hope to see you there!