From March 12 to April 3, the casual passerby and the passionate art collector alike can view new works by painter Jim Vogel during an exhibition at Blue Rain Gallery in Santa Fe, New Mexico. The small-scale show, featuring six pieces in total—two lanterns with paintings on all sides and four paint boxes framing Vogel’s paintings—will be placed along the window of the gallery on Guadalupe Street so those passing by on the street can take a look. 
Odd Bird Out (sides 4 and 6), six oil on canvas panel vignettes with antique lantern frame, 18 x 9¼". The frame was in collaboration with Christen Vogel.
The unique three-dimensional works are a partnership between Vogel and his wife, Christen, who worked on repurposing old vintage lanterns and painters’ boxes. “My wife, Christen, and I collect junk, and we found a collection of wooden plein air painters’ boxes that looked almost like briefcases. They had been through the ringer,” Vogel says. He thought it would be neat to feature different artists within the paintboxes. One of these artists is musician Joni Mitchell, who sings the words “I live in a box of paints” in the song A Case of You. 
Georgia Was Utterly Enchanted By Negative Space, oil on canvas mounted on antique framed in antique paintbox with objects, 15 x 17 x 13½" (box open), 15 x 11¾ x 4" (box closed)
“Georgia Was Utterly Enchanted with Negative Space is a pretty straightforward statement about how [Georgia O’Keeffe] enjoyed working with negative space rather than just the object she was painting,” Vogel says of another piece in the exhibition, in which he painted a smaller version of O’Keeffe’s Horse Skull with White Rose. “On the left side is the painting and on the right side is some of the old paint trays. I put some old grody paints in a little tin that would have held turpentine or linseed oil. The next box, he says, will depict Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera as diptychs, titled Frida Laughs, Diego Cries.
In the work Georgia was Utterly Enchanted By Negative Space, Vogel painted his version of Georgia O’Keffee’s Horse Skull with White Rose.
One of the lanterns, titled Odd Bird Out, features a flock of elegant swallows surrounding a “silly sparrow.” “You have these graceful birds next to this frumpy sparrow just sitting there,” says Vogel, who mentions that a passion for birding was instilled in him as a child. “Vogel” even means “bird” in German, a phenomenon not lost on the artist. Another lantern will feature owls, which Vogel and his wife often hear outside their home at night.
An opening reception for Painter’s Boxes and Lanterns takes place Friday, March 12 from 5 to 7 p.m. —
Blue Rain Gallery 44
South Guadalupe Street • Santa Fe, New Mexico 87501
(505) 954-9902 • www.blueraingallery.com
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