FLOWER SHOP AND OTHER UPDATES

Just some small updates about recent happenings…

Starting this Friday, 3/11 I will have floral landscape paintings from my series ‘Super Bloom"‘ on display in Santa Fe, NM at the gallery Smoke the Moon at their new location. New Mexicans go check it out!

And currently on display at Tohono Chul Gallery in Tucson I have a couple paintings on beautiful handmade paper in their annual 10x10 fundraiser. All the art in 10x10 is only $100! Proceeds go to support the extraordinary gardens and their programing.

More info on the fundraiser here.

Lastly, a reminder about my virtual Artist Talk coming up. Join me as I chat from my studio with the curator of Radical Happiness Jillian Nakornthap about the exhibition, the challenges of staying positive during the pandemic and how making art helps me cope..

You can register now for the event which will be via ZOOM here.

MEET ME IN CHANDLER!

After sadly having to postpone the opening reception for Radical Happiness (no thanks to Omicron) we are now ready to party!

Meet me in Chandler in Saturday, February 26th at the Center for the Arts for a fun event from 1-3.

This Meet the Artist (me) meet n’ greet as well as time to enjoy the exhibition will be coupled with a family friendly Make n’ Take activity. So come by! Say hello! And paint a flower pot!

More info here:

https://www.visiongallery.org/event/radical-happiness-lex-gjurasic/

Big thank you to everyone who has ventured to see Radical Happiness over the past month. Exhibition is up through April 9.

Virtual Artist Talk

Hiya!

I’m giving a virtual artist talk over ZOOM in conjunction with Radical Happiness. On March, 31 at 5:30pm I will be chatting with the exhibition curator Jillian Nakornthap about “Finding Levity Through Creativity” along with a bunch of other fun stuff. I’ll be in my studio in Tucson, Jillian in the exhibition space at the Chandler Center for the Arts and YOU will be at home in your pajamas with a glass of wine!

RSVP via the link below:

https://www.visiongallery.org/event/artist-talk-with-lex-gjurasic-finding-levity-through-creativity/

STAY GOLD ⭐️

Stay Gold is an ongoing intergenerational LGBTQIA+ arts program at MOCA Tucson. I will be facilitating the Spring 2022 Season in a combo of both in-person and online classes. Join me on a journey of self-discovery as we learn to create miniature and dioramas inspired by our personal narratives, internal worlds and emotional landscapes. The program will include a weekend field trip to the Mini Time Machine Museum of Miniatures. And I wanna eat mini food! New and familiar faces are welcome! No art background is necessary! Generous support for this program is provided by iLGBT Studies at the University of Arizona and by the Community Foundation for Southern Arizona LGBTQ+ Alliance Fund.

⭐️Registration now via MOCA Tucson for this FREE program:

https://moca-tucson.org/class/stay-gold-3/

Update: Opening Reception POSTPONED

Out of an abundance of caution we have decided to postpone the in person opening reception for Radical Happiness that was scheduled for this Saturday, January 15.

However we are hoping to see you at an Artist Meet n' Greet to correlate with a fun Make n' Take event (seed bombs!) scheduled for Saturda,y February 26th when (fingers-crossed) COVID cases subside.

The exhibition however WILL be on display and available for viewing starting on the 15th!

Stay tuned for updates.

And thank you for your understanding.

XOLEX

LEX GJURASIC’S RADICAL HAPPINESS!

Broken Rainbow, 12x15”, mixed media on handmade paper, 2020

The Gallery at CCA starts the new year with an exhibition from Tucson based artist, Lex Gjurasic. Radical Happiness will be on display from January 15 through April 9, 2022.

Radical Happiness is a collection of mixed media works, which Gjurasic created during the 2020 quarantine, incorporating a wide breadth of unconventional materials, using only what she had already at home-from sample house paint to mortar to Styrofoam.

Flowering Mound, 17x17”, mixed media sculpture, 2021

The artist, who finds the process of creating art to be meditative and soothing for her mental health, developed the series to relieve the anxieties and uncertainties of living in a country ravaged by the virus. Through the process, she disappeared into other worlds-amalgamations of imagery existing somewhere between memory and imagination.

"To me Radical Happiness isn't toxic positivity, it is coping. While creating my Flower Mounds series it was like a visual Prozac, keeping me afloat during the pandemic," says Gjurasic. "And when I noticed the levity I felt while making the art spread to those who experienced the work- that was absolute magic."

Flower Mound, 25x36.5”, mixed media on paper, 2020

Gjurasic's commitment to the safety of quarantine was unwavering; she began hand-making paper when her supply of other viable surfaces dwindled. To do this, she used, among other tools, a child's plastic pool. On this delicate paper, she painted rolling hills carpeted with flowers, creating part of the series, Flower Mounds.

Radical Happiness features pieces from the series Flower Mounds which she calls, "a love-letter to the natural world." The pieces draw from Slavic art's reverence for botanicals and a nod to her cultural roots.

"Throughout the creation of this series, I thought often of the delight and solace my Slavic foremothers took in floral motif embroidery on garments, decorated "pisanica" or Easter eggs and traditional Croatian silver filigree jewelry during tremulous times," says Gjurasic.
As the death toll of the pandemic grew over months and then years, so too did the meaning of this body of work. Gjurasic began to see similarities between Flower Mounds and the burial mounds of various global cultures. "Painting mounds of Day-Glo blooms shaped like headstones, I created a new and sacred space for grieving loss."

Join the artist for an in-person opening reception for Radical Happiness on Saturday, January 15, 2022, 4 - 6 p.m. The Gallery at the CCA is located inside the Chandler Center for the Arts, 250 N. Arizona Avenue. Open Monday - Friday, 10 a.m. - 5 p.m., and Saturday, 12 - 5 p.m. Admission is always free.

For more information on Lex Gjurasic's Radical Happiness visit visiongallery.org.

Contact me directly anytime at gjurasicpark@gmail.com

Embrace, 3.5x3.5”, mixed media on found vintage photo, 2021

Online Studio Sale Starts NOW!

It’s HERE, my annual online Studio Sale!

Ok newsletter subscribers you have just 24 hours to make your early bird sale picks for purchase.

After that the sale goes public to the rest of the World Wide Web.

This year’s offerings are 77 floral paintings on beautiful colored handmade paper. All the sale paintings, no matter the size are $50-$200! Shipping is an additional $5 with FREE locals only pick-up in the Tucson area. Shipping can be bundled at $5 for multiple pieces purchased. As always the sale is limited time only, first come first served.

Here’s how it goes, same as every year… CLICK THE LINK BELOW, once you have made your picks then quickly email me at gjurasicpark@gmail.com and arrangements are made from there. It’s always go too have back up choices in mind just in case your first choice gets nabbed. Please feel free to message or email me with any questions.

The Studio Sale runs NOW TODAY Tuesday 11/30 through the end of the week Sunday 12/5! And this is the early bird portion of the sale for first picks till tomorrow, 12/1.

http://www.lexgjurasic.com/online-studio-sale

Good Stuff *micro* Pop-Up!

I’m pleased to invite you to this sweet Holiday shopping event that I’ve cooked up with Tawney of Little Toro Designs. This outdoor event is in the backyard of private home in the Broadmoor neighborhood of Tucson, AZ. Check out the FB event invite here.

This pop-up will be the ONLY public event I will vend at this Holiday season!

(Online studio sale to follow…)

And to further entice you out of your pandemic hibernation we will be providing complimentary mimosas!

We ask that you please have respect for pandemic precautions and wear a mask.

Check out all the cool artisan vendors below:

Lex Gjurasic/ (ART) IG HOT TIP: I will be posting art that will be for sale at the event here as the date grows closer.

Tawny/Little Toro Design (jewelry) IG

Nathanael/Tu Kaets Pottery (ceramics) IG

Rosie/ Sonoran Rosie (desert herbals) IG

Amanda/Outspokin and Bookish (zine bike) IG

Shazieh/Agave Pantry (baked goods) IG

Elana/The Solstice Studio (textiles) IG

Feel free to email me with questions! See you then!

Lex + Meow Wolf

Deep inside the new Meow Wolf project Convergence Station in Denver, in the dank swamp biome Numina, inside an oversized spore lives my ART! When Meow Wolf invited me to be involved with this amazing project of course I jumped outta my pants at the chance! Viewers can play with animations of my art via a touch screen. It’s so cool.

Convergence Station is open NOW. So go take a trip!

Thank you to the whole MW team, specifically Caity for roping me into this dream and Brad for making magic happen. Also big thank you to Andrew Brown for helping me take images for the project.

🦐🍤🦐🍤🦐🍤

Spore.

Animation on the screen

Animation still

Animation still

SUPER Bloom SUPER Sale

🌸Super BLOOM SUPER SALE!

I’ve created 99 (!!!) 7x5” paintings on LOVELY handmade paper.

Each botanical painting will be $100 each and available ONLINE through Hey There Projects starting promptly at NOON PST, next Saturday, September 4.

Also at that exact time I will be chatting LIVE on IG with Hey There about my new work, flowers and fully like whatever. Should be entertaining!

🌸To get to my IG go HERE.

🌸Hey There’s IG is HERE.

Follow us both so you don’t miss you on this incredible sale!

🌸Link to the Super Bloom Sale will be HERE at 12:00 pst on 9/4.

Super Bloom the exhibtion runs September 11- October 7 virtually HERE and IRL at the Hey There Joshua Tree location.

SUMMER SPECTACULAR!

It’s time for the Hey There Projects annual Summer Spectacular group show, and this time they are doing things a bit different. The gallery in Joshua tree is back up and running full speed so this year the Summer Spectacular will hang in the gallery as well as art being available online from July 10 thru September. A opening reception will take place in Joshua Tree on Saturday, July 10, 5-9pm.

LOOK AT THE SHOW HERE!

Art will also hang in Hey There’s LA location. And the Spectacular will also include special Instagram LIVE events…FOLLOW THEM AT @heythere_projects

As work sells, we will add new additions, so keep your eye on the prize.

My pieces in the Summer Spectacular are included below.

XO

Wild Violets, 9x12”, mixed media on panel, 2021 $350

Pink and Gold Flower Field, 9x12”, mixed media on panel, 2021 $350

Elbe Goods!

Pink and Gold Flower Field, 11x15”, mixed media on paper, 2021

A garden grows at Elbe Goods! I’ve planted an array of flower mound paintings in downtown Tucson at El Be Goods bouquet. Each painting on display is available for purchase, framed, measuring 11x15”, mixed media on paper. You can go by to see the work anytime during regular business hours starting on June 8th when El Be reopens after a brief summer break. The work will be up through August 31st.

Flights of Fancy! (And more)

Well, this is fancy! Flights of Fancy! It’s the recent edition of Southwest Contemporary Magazine which features not just my new work but tons of amazing stuff by dynamic southwestern contemporary artists. Order your copy now. And check out SWC’s website as a great resource for art in this region, especially valuable if you are planning a visit. Thanks for including me SWC! 🏜🙏🏻💕🌵

Excited to be included in the juried portrait exhibition I Am You, You Are Me, which can be viewed virtually HERE and in person in Scottsdale, AZ at the Civic Center Public Gallery. Thank you Scottsdale Public Art for being so supportive of my work.

Much like the year 2020 the virtual exhibition Picturing 2020: A Community Reflects has ended but is not forgotten. And like anything that lives it survives online lives forever and you can still view this exhibtion with the UA Museum of Art. This exhibtion opportunity along with the talk I gave really has been a lodestar for me in many ways. Thank you to the UA Museum of Art staff and friends for making sharing my pandemic made art possible so early on in this missagash. Take a look here.

One more delightful bit of news, recently I was nominated for a Governor’s Award for visual art by Citizens for the Arts. Though I didn’t move along in the process it truly was an honor to be acknowledged by being nominated.

Mounds on Pink @TinyTown

Last minute art show! Tiny Town needed art for their gallery walls so I stepped up with my series, Mounds on Pink. I began creating on this series, an extension of my Flower Mounds works, on Christmas Day 2020. These Mounds are mixed media including house paint, ink and flashe on a textural pink Mulberry paper. Each piece is framed, measuring 15x22”, and is affordably priced and includes shipping.

Mounds on Pink can be viewed safely IRL at Tiny Town Gallery at 408 N. 4th Ave, Tucson AZ NOW till March 28th. Please enjoy and brows Mounds on Pink online HERE.

Untitled (Flower Mound) #2, 15x22”, framed, mixed media on paper, 2020-2021

FLOWER MOUNDS IN PASADENA!

Pasadena, California is the home of the Rose Parade so its only fitting my my flower mounds would pop up there too. Currently on display at sp[a]ce Ayzenberg I have a grouping of flower mounds so monumental that they can only be best described as mountains. To ogle these pieces online and to purchase follow this link. And if you are in the Pasadena area arrangements can be made through sp[a]ce to safely view the art in person.

Click here to see these pieces in more detail unframed on my website.

Paint with ME! (again)

Another fun chance to paint with me via ZOOM and help fundraise for the Tucson LGBTChamber’s University of Arizona scholarship is coming up…and this time is just in time for Valentine’s Day! On Saturday, February 13th at 4pm I will lead you step by step in paintings a bouquet of kisses! So invite your loved one from a far, your chosen family or best friend to join in this light hearted event by clicking the link below to donate and register. This event, as always, is open to anyone at any artistic level.

More info here.

Register NOW!

(Imma dork)

UA MUSEUM OF ART TALK IS NOW ON YOUTUBE!

If you missed The Coping, Context and Magic of Making Due about persevering and my artistic process during the pandemic, well, HERE IT IS. I really had a fantastic time chatting with University of Arizona Curator of Community Engagement, Chelsea Farrar. I hope you watch it and have as much as fun as we did!

THE COPING, CONTEXT AND MAGIC OF MAKING DO 🌟

Please join me on January 21st at 5pm MST via ZOOM in the special event “The Coping, Context and Magic of Making Do: A Conversation with artist Lex Gjurasic.” I will be chatting about my recent work created during the pandemic and how making art gets me through tough times with Olivia Miller, UAMA’s Curator of Exhibitions and Chelsea Farrar, UAMA’s Curator of Community Engagement. Broken Rainbow which was created at the onset of the pandemic was featured in the virtual exhibition at the University of Arizona Museum of Art, Picturing 2020: A Community Reflects.

More info and to register on ZOOM for this free, virtual event here.

Broken Rainbow, 11.75x16”, mixed media on handmade paper, 2020

👠 Red Shoe Auction

It’s been a crazy year and many of us have hardly worn pants let alone shoes. But when Ronald McDonald House Charities reached out and asked me to embellish a pair of red shoes for them I couldn’t say no! It is so special to participate in creating this auction item because in the past I have had friends that have relied on the support that Ronald McDonald Houses across the country provide to families. When I was informed by my daughter, who has volunteered at Ronald McDonald House Tucson, about the services, support and love they provide our community I was was astounded.

For THE BIG BENEFIT I chose to decorate a pair of red clogs. The result is a one-of-a-kind, hand-crafted shoes with major cottage core vibes. If you follow my work on IG you will notice the same daisy inspired flower mound motif I’ve been playing with since COVID isolation started and now it’s manifested onto these size 8.5 women’s Bjorn brand clogs, pictured below.

I’m a 7.5 and they definitly fit me, though my husband keeps reminding that I can’t keep them! And let me tell you, they are VERY COMFORTABLE.

The Red Show Auction kicks off December 1 and runs through December 5.

Visit the online auction website at redshoeauction.org where you can view all the extraordinary shoes by Tucson area artists.

Go directly to my RED SHOES HERE and BID!

THANK YOU FOR SUPPORTING RMHC SOUTHERN ARIZONA.

¡Arizona Daily Star!

Me with a stack of paintings I’ve created since the pandemic began.

Photo: Mamta Popat for the Arizona Daily Star

Extremely excited to be featured in today’s edition of the Arizona Daily Star!

Along with an interview about my art and a cute photo this feature includes the announcement that my painting Infinite Flower Field will be printed as a full page of The Star on Friday, Dec. 4 that YOU can pull-out and use as WRAPPING PAPER for holiday gifts!

See the full article which includes the other artists featured in The Star’s 12 Days of Cheer HERE.

Thank you to Kathy Allen for including me in this festive holiday project and to Mamta Popat for taking my photo for the profile.

What a way to kick off the holiday season!

Infinite Flower Field, 11x15” mixed media on paper, 2020