The Modbo and S.P.Q.R. proudly present September’s First Friday in the Arts Alley. The opening reception is Friday, September 5th, from 5:30 pm til midnight, with live music by Over the Moon at 9. The Modbo will host LIFE>>though>>DEATH, new work by Jeremy Grant, while S.P.Q.R. houses Magic Lands, new work by Holly Conlon. This show runs through Friday, September 26th. The galleries are located at 17b and 17c East Bijou, 80903. 719.633.4240. themodbo.com.
About the artists:
Jeremy Grant is an emerging artist and award-winning graphic designer. His found-object assemblages have been exhibited in two-person and juried shows regionally in Colorado. Jeremy is married to an author, has two beautiful babies and loves Jesus, bourbon and robots.
Sacrifice, difficulty and even death often precede the blossoming of new, more richly varied life. The poet Hopkins says “See how Spring opens with disabling cold,” and the Christian scriptures offer an analogy of a grain of wheat that “falls into the earth and dies, but if it dies, it bears much fruit.” In this ambitious, new body of work, GrantI express these ideas using an eclectic mix of collage, resin and found objects, which he has destroyed, cut up and re-assembled into more rich and varied groupings. A timeline element exists in each of these pieces suggesting the journey of life through death.
Holly Conlon is a mixed-media artist who works in Colorado Springs. Most recently, she has shown at The Modbo and SPQR; however, she has shown her work at various galleries in Colorado Springs and Taos for the past ten years. She attended the Arts Magnet High School in Dallas and attained a B.A. in English at the University of North Texas. Currently, she teaches middle school English at Corpus Christi Catholic School. During her college years, she wrote and published poetry in various literary journals and participated in poetry readings. This focus on the image in language ultimately became her focus in visual art. She has developed her art-making skills by taking classes from The ModboCo School of Art at Ivywild as well as enjoying critiques from other downtown artists.
Says Conlon, “If a Catholic artist/magician were able to time travel to Neolithic Europe, take along ephemera from all the other time periods, and create a portal to an entirely new realm, then those portals would be what I would like convey in this body of work. The ability to experience a unique vision is one of my favorite parts of being human, and one I have used as an escape, an affirmation of reality, as well as, a template for how I would like to the world to be. In the work for Magic Lands, I have tried to portray that experience of “travel” into other worlds. The work is shiny and glittery to signify that it is magical and fanciful. I have used the shadow box as it is the perfect medium for containing a brief glimpse into this other world. The pieces are strongly narrative because they are little windows into other realms, complete with their own stories. The boxes have a magical, religious feel because I see them as being a way to present the sacred in a non-verbal and yet accessible way.”
About the band:
Over the Moon is an experimental instrumental and vocal project featuring the highly combustible “UBU” formant of ukulele-bass-ukulele. All previous attempts at combining these instruments together in a single venue have resulted in riots, famine, and oftentimes musician alienation and loneliness. We hope, however, that the third time is a charm. Former Head Full of Zombies members David Weed and Kevin Rodela reunite and join newcomer Jesse Cerda in presenting an eclectic set of music, with a foundation of jazz and swing standards peppered with ditties from nearly every genre.