The Chair Show

The Berthoud Recorder wrote a very nice article about my show last month. Click on the link to see the pictures..........

Thursday, Apr 9th, 2009
By Megan Reece
Berthoud Recorder

Mary Giacomini has always known she wanted to be an artist. In fact, “I’ve always been an artist,” she says, “it’s getting the bravery to call yourself one” that is the hard part.

Giacomini is this month’s featured artist at The Great Frame Up in the Promenade Shops at Centerra, 5943 Sky Pond Drive, E130 in Loveland. The show opened up on Friday, April 3, and will be up throughout the month of April. The work featured will be some in her chair series: “The Chair Show: Places to be Peaceful.” The Chair Show will highlight artwork of chairs in different places.

“Comfy places to hang out,” is what Giacomini says of her inspiration for her chair show. Each of the paintings represent places where Giacomini has found herself comfortable and comforted. “My backyard” is one, she says of her home west of Loveland. Other places in the chair show include locations in Glenwood Springs and Allens Park.

Giacomini grew up in Minnesota and graduated from the University of Minnesota with a Bachelor of Fine Art degree in 1983. Since then she and her husband have had three children, two now grown and one still a teenager. After her children got older, Giacomini was able to take her artwork more seriously. She has become very involved in the local art community and she says that she appreciates the arts and the local events in Loveland and Berthoud. Seeing artists celebrated outside of Denver helps her to appreciate her own town.

Giacomini has lived throughout the Loveland and Fort Collins areas for 16 years and still appreciates the area for its small-town feel. She grew up near the Twin Cities in Minnesota, and so Loveland still feels small to her. The closely-knit feel of the community has inspired her to become involved with her local art community.

For example, last year Giacomini submitted a design to be displayed as part of Loveland’s “City with a Heart” program. The program puts up public displays of art, all of them individual artists’ representations of Colorado and the Loveland area on large, three-dimensional hearts. Giacomini’s piece is at 29th Street and Taft Avenue, and features many of the symbols and landmarks that make Loveland a part of Colorado.

For her featured show at The Great Frame Up, Giacomini chose about a dozen pieces of chair art to be displayed. When asked about her art and how long she takes to finish an individual piece, Giacomini laughs softly. “It takes all your life,” she says. Art flows with time and every piece is different. A piece can always be changed and transformed.

With change the only constant, perhaps a visit to Giacomini’s chair show can bring reminders of comfy places you have gone to sit in the past.

To learn more about Mary Giacomini and to see examples of some of her art, visit her Web site at: http://MaryGiacomini.com.

http://www.berthoudrecorder.com/News/2009/apr/9/sports/find-your-happy-place-cha