ART SHOW

________________________________________________________________________

" Life is about love, last minutes and lost evenings, 

about fire in our bellies and furtive little feelings, 

and the aching amplitudes that set our needles all a-flickering, 

and help us with remembering that the only thing that's left to do

is live"

-Frank Turner

______________________________________________________________________

I am really excited/terrified to announce:

MY WORK IS SNEAKING INTO A FIRST FRIDAY SHOW!

The Gallery at UNOS:

March 2nd. opening reception! 5-8pm

stop in. stay a while. stay for 2 seconds. look through the windows. tell your friends. sleep out front the night before. I mean whatever you need to do. make that happen.

There will be wine.

There will be at least one puppet.

There will be photography by Marilyn West.

There will be cool people there. I mean I know at least 2 cool people.



and tell your friends. invite your friends. invite your enemies. invite your imaginary friends. they will probably get a lot out of this show.

"so, come!"

_________________________________

About Abernathy Bland:

"I am inspired by life. But I am also inspired by death. I think the fact that I am totally aware of our mortality is what makes me hang on to this whole artistic pursuit. I find inspiration when I chase after the big picture and find glimpses of it.

My puppets and paint buckets have been trekking from my Virginia studio to New York since 2006 where I work as a collaborator with Old Kent Road Theater, a Brooklyn-based experimental theater company. My drawings travel too. I will put my work wherever anyone lets me.

Many of my drawings are done in part with a sewing machine. A lot of my recent work has been illustration. I feel like my work is less loyal to a type of art making and more loyal to a message... so I am often all over the place in my method. I cherish [the] specific, eerie, and clever. I value the spirit of the South, my childhood backyard of solid dirt, and my magic family.

Artists inspire me: Alexander McQueen, Tim Burton, Marina Abramovic, Picasso, Maurizio Cattelan. I love to learn. I am inspired by what I read. I am moved by the sermons of Martin
Luther King, Jr., stories about the life of VanGogh, essays by Emerson, plays by my brother, Eric Bland, and wow, so many more I fail to list here. My nephew, Jack, inspires me to love bigger. I think documentaries are fascinating. I hang around smart people, and I listen."
_________________________________



Important details below
________________________

THE GALLERY AT UNOS
700 North 4th Street | Richmond, VA
Near 4th and Jackson.


Show runs for 2 months from March 2- April 28th

**YES. extend the invite. add people. support the RVA art scene. **


GALLERY HOURS:
Monday–Friday 8am–5pm For more information: 804-782-4800

Open to the public • Free parking available

April is National Donate Life Month

LEARN ABOUT THE AMAZING WORK DONE AT UNOS!
www.unos.org

Sign up to be an organ donor at: donatelifevirginia.org
United Network for Organ Sharing is a national nonprofit based in downtown Richmond which 
matches lifesaving organs from deceased donors to those in need on the national waiting list.

______________________________________________________

I would like to thank this gallery wildly for letting me put some work up.

and including me in their show.

________________________________________________________

GUEST POST. by a cat puppet. <--yes. that is the title.

over a year ago I drew this. 

it was for real.

I didn't realize it meant things like this would happen in my living room...

(yes I did)

Cat made this little post before she left for her show in NY.

Ok. enough is enough.

__________________________________________________________

Let's be honest. 

I know it's enough.

but...

____________________________________________________________

yes. I am humoring a cat puppet.

HAD TO. I WAS COMPELLED. 

_____________________________________________________________

OHHH. p.s.

Now that I am back from NY

via Polar Express

I am prepping madly for a gallery show.

Let's just say there's a pile of glue sticks at my feet and markers to my right.

*

*

I'd like to meet the other person on the planet up this late stressing about how to line up cardboard alligator teeth.

________________________________________________________________

Happy Opening Weekend Old Kent Road

All the Indifferent Children of the Earth

an Old Kent Road Theater Production

at THE BRICK THEATER

3 cheers for

Opening weekend. 

or/and

you can also buy this play. 

HERE

cast member not included:

Big city. Big cats.

good theater.

_______________________________

If we have no peace, it is because we have forgotten that we belong to each other.

_____________________________

It's the perfect day to show the first in my new circus series:

If we have no peace, it is because we have forgotten that we belong to each other.

- Mother Teresa

sewn drawing  ~15"x 24"

ink. thread. fabric.

Happy Valentine's Day. 

 from me and my sweet Valentine nephew. who was born shortly after Valentine's Day. 

how appropriate. he is the best little gift ever.

And it is not just because I get to make him costumes.


 <----pssst. i mean...

__________________________

This is a framed post-it my dad wrote to me once.

he appropriately Always wrote in red pen.

It is a sweet day. 
celebrate.

_______________________________________________________

I Wanted to Make a Cat: and other short stories of triumph and possibility.

________________________________________________________________

I care a lot about making things. 

(emphatic pause)

I care a lot about making things. 

____________________________________________________________

Cannot wait for you to meet 

Vershrankung Rose

______________________________________________________________

 She is currently traveling to Brooklyn to rehearse with the rest of the cast. 

of 

All the Indifferent Children of the Earth

______________________________________________________________

Remember when she was just cardboard?

  

Sometimes I am at home working on a project like this. and someone says, 

"Hey, what are you up to?"

and I think about lying. 

*

* 

but don't.

* 

*

"making a cat head."

*

silence.

 What's up Friday night?

unless you are a good friend of mine. who hears this and, unphased, answers with,

"ok. can you get dinner later?"

_________

or a friend. who doesn't have to ask. 

because I have already texted you a creepy picture like this

because I can only look at this so long...

without flinching.

AH.

_______________________________________

They sell legit clay tools.

But chopsticks are free with sushi orders. so.

Ahahha. I know.

 My roommate texted me this picture. that she took private eye style. 

_________________________________________________________________

Have you seen that MTV True Life episode- 

True Life: I Make Puppets

fur. gets. everywhere.

Neither have I.

_______________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________

I was building legos with a 6 yr old tonight. and he said, 

"sometimes I just make what's in my brain."

I said, 

"me too."

___________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________