“Art bids us touch and taste and hear and see the world…”    -W.B. Yeats

The sunshine and warmer temps have finally returned to our fair city and that can only mean one thing….time to party!  Save the date for JTM’s coolest event of the year, ARTE DE MOORE!  This year we will stroll underneath the springtime skies of Edgehill Village on FRIDAY, APRIL 15th.  This adults-only evening begins at 7pm and you can sip wine and beer as you peruse the many offerings up for auction.  Who knows what hidden treasure you will find?!  Want to see some artwork from our award-winning, featured artist, Amanda Norman?  Check out her website amandanormanpainting.com.

And, remember, while you’re eating, drinking and passing the evening in great conversation and company, this party is for a good cause!  All proceeds from the party support JTM’s PTO!

Tickets are $25 a person and include two drink tickets.  (Additional drink tickets for sale at the door. Wine and Yazoo beer)

We are currently looking for auction items, so if you can help, please contact Stephanie Brakefield at thebrakefields@gmail.com.  Do you have a 2nd home we could auction off for a weekend?  Do you own your own business and want to trade some free exposure for an auction item?  Are you (or someone you know) an artist and would like to donate a painting, piece of pottery, sculpture or jewelry?  If so, we need you!!

Featured Artist: Amanda Norman

Los Angeles based painter Amanda Norman is an award-winning visual artist whose animated still lifes and seductively textured landscapes, are showcased in private collections and galleries throughout the country.

Sought out by interior designers, art collectors and celebrities, Norman's work balances a whimsical stroke with traditional subjects, bringing with it a fresh and lighthearted approach to fine art.

When asked about the surface quality of her work, Norman jokes that her still life paintings are like excavation projects. "More likely than not, there are probably a couple of other paintings under any one finished piece. If you look closely you can usually see elements from the previous works poking through to the surface. I feel these imperfections give each painting a history—kind of like a scar with a story or a quirky birthmark."

Along with the success of her still life and abstract landscape paintings, Amanda has received generous praise for her pet portraits and has been featured in various publications.

"I think that as much as I try to perfectly capture each individual pet, I like to keep them loose and whimsical to a certain extent so that the portraits never seem too stuffy or stale; I want them to have a sense of life. I try to focus on each pet’s unique, lifelike intricacies—the curl of a lip, a droopy eye, a wiry hair with a mind of its own—and highlight those one-of-a-kind quirks."

Norman is the recipient of numerous awards and recognitions, including Local Color Gallery's Top Seller for 2005 and the 2004 Weston Award for excellence in Visual Art. Amanda is an honors graduate from Brown University and has received additional training from The New School for Design in New York City and RISD's Pont Aven School of Art in France.