Art Shows

Our university town art league recently discontinued most of its virtual online galleries and reopened its exhibit hall to the public for presentation of the annual members-only “Summer Open” juried show.

Patrons may now enter the premises, but only a few at a time, and all must wear masks.

The BRC founder entered his “Save Us” (Golden Dolphin) banjo into the competitive exhibit. This 5-stringer depicts sunny dolphins frolicking in the open expanses of the sea.

Some species of this magnificent aquatic mammal are at risk of extinction from human related activities like whaling, climate change, and pollution. Note the message at the octave fret space (right).

The vulnerability of this extraordinary creature reminds us of our own fragility while living under the cloud of a global pandemic.

Despite summer heat and humidity, Show-Me State musicians in a rural township have sought to save the regional tradition of Bluegrass music by performing it at a community outdoor pavilion while hidden behind masks like desperados and observing social distancing. Pick up trucks park outside the pavilion, and the occupants role down their windows to enjoy some live entertainment, a brief respite from these uncertain times.

Music brings people together.

Referring to themselves informally as The Milquetoast Rangers, the jammers have modified their moniker to The Rock Island Rangers to reflect the name of the local park where they have been conducting their weekly outdoor jams instead in the activity room of a nearby burger shop.

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Because of a recent upturn in the local Covid-19 data, this picking session and other related jams are currently on hiatus.

From the BRC: be safe, stay well, and save the music.

Heralding the upcoming Fourth of July holiday weekend, a festive hot air ballon recently passed over our dock just outside the back door of the BRC workshop.

The sprawling 62nd annual “Art in the Park” weekend festival hosted by the Columbia Art League this summer was cancelled. Its Veterans Art Pavilion, co-sponsored by the United Veterans Foundation, was presented online as a virtual exhibit. The BRC founder, a USAF veteran, had his “Freedom Eagle” banjo accepted into the show.

Take a guided tour of the pavillion at https://columbiaartleague.org/veterans-art-pavilion

BRC banjos have a signature mother of pearl inlay on the heel of the neck for the eyes-only of the musician.

A life long student of military history, the BRC founder has walked battlefields in the US, Europe, Middle East, and Southeast Asia. While tinkering in his workshop, he listens to audiobooks about these engagements and the participants.

From the BRC, we wish you a restful and peaceful holiday weekend.

This month, the local art league presents its “Flora” competitive show as a virtual exhibit. The Roman goddess of spring was Flora, a name that means flowers, and wildflowers abound along the highways of the Show-Me State. A commercial garden called the `Missouri Wildflower Nursery` is located in the Lake of the Ozarks region near the rural township of Brazito.

The BRC workshop submitted a banjo entitled “Ozark Spring” which was accepted into the juried competition and displayed (above) on a wall of the virtual gallery flanked by faux windows.

On the instrument`s peg head, a small butterfly curiously approaches the stem of a giant white rose (right). The sun and a flower are inlayed on the truss rod cover, and leafed-out greenery appears immediately at the first fret space.

Along the fingerboard (above left), the aforementioned themes are echoed as the sun, flowers, small butterflies, and plush leaves mark harmonic intervals.

The new owner collects her “Ozark Spring ” banjo from the BRC founder while both wear personal protective masks (below right).

Despite these uncertain times, the summer months arrive beneath sunny and unusually blue skies which bathe a doe and her fawn perusing our lakeside garden at daybreak.

The BRC workshop wishes all our readers good health and peace.

Because of public health issues, the local art league converted its current exhibits to a virtual format until further notice. The juried “Visual Mixtape” competition asked members to fashion entries based on the works of their most influential artist.

In the tour of this virtual gallery, the BRC founder`s “High Lonesome Sound ” banjo is stationed on a far wall adjacent to a doorway. It was cited among the “highlights” of the show.

All of the works in the show are listed in a catalogue for visitors to view and enlarge for more detailed images.

For close-up pictures of the “Hi-Lo-So” banjo, please scroll back to the March 21, 2020 posting of “A Busy Season.”

In a separate “Patron`s Party” virtual gallery, the BRC Terrapin banjo is exhibited as a donation in a fund-raiser for the community Art League. For additional photos of the Terrapin, please scroll back to the January 26, 2019 posting of “Over Indulgence.” The banjo sold in the opening hours of the fund-raiser.

After studying these virtual galleries online in detail, the BRC founder gazed out the back window of his workshop for a reality check and took the above photo. Mr. Fox reconnoiters our lakeside garden for breakfast while Mrs. Fox and her young kits wait just off-camera.

The BRC workshop produced a couple of 5-stringers for exhibition at the community art gallery this Spring. The “Terrapin” banjo was donated to a fund-raising Patron Party in support of the Art League. Surprisingly, it was conspicuously displayed as a frontispiece on a central pillar at the entrance of the exhibit hall. The Terrapin will be raffled-off at a gala auction that has now been postponed.

Also this later Spring, the gallery is opening a juried show entitled “Visual Mixtape” that has challenged members to submit entries mirroring the master artists who influenced their works.

The BRC founder has entered a “High Lonesome Sound” banjo to reflect the unique sonic quality of Bluegrass music and its distinctive lineage of pioneer musicians like Bill Monroe, Flatt and Scruggs, and the Stanley Brothers.

Amidst the tuning pegs on the headstock is a treble clef that is pierced by a bolt of lightening and surmounted by the profile of a wolf`s visage.

Clawed wolf paw prints track along the fretboard among gold stars and paua abalone treble clefs.

For the eyes only of the musician, the “Hi-Lo-So” banjo neck has a large paw print on its heel which is a signature location for a mother of pearl inlay on BRC 5-stringers.

By request, the Art League has asked for a small photo of the artist who influenced each member`s submission to be posted with the work in the now rescheduled exhibit. The BRC founder provided a picture of himself taken at a banjo camp with Grammy Award winner Eric Weissberg- his boyhood banjo hero.