Lecture at Ringling College of Art and Design

I was invited back to my Alma Mater to lecture to the senior students at Ringling College of Art and Design. It is quite gratifying to be welcomed "home", have time to discuss art and politics and the politics of art with former professors over an Italian meal, visit old artists friends both from school and from outside of school, and talk serious shop with the new crop of artists.
We drove like crazy barely outrunning the grasp of a major snow storm, heading south. Stopped in Atlanta to see theLeonardo DiVinci show, it was amazing and pertinent, before heading to Sarasota. After a memoralble time there, we scooted over to Savannah for Valentine's Day. What a lovely city that is!

"Real(ists)" Exhibition, Sarasota FL

The "Real(ists)" Exhibition curated by Kevin Dean of The Selby Gallery at Ringling College of Art and Design was an excellent concept with international top notch talent displayed to illustrate the many ways in which contemporary artists are using inspiration from the real world to create art.
"Tea Time for Darfur" was included in the show, my cocklebur / burdock jumbo sized tea set that raises political and moral questions about the ongoing tragedy in Darfur.
Dean writes in the beautiful 40 page full color catalogue about my work;
Unpleasant and Shifting Realities
Equally disturbing is Val Lyle's tea service made from cockleburs. The title refers to a real nightmare. Lyle called it Tea Time for Darfur (from the Sticky Subjects Series.) the sticky subject here is the death from starvation, disease and war of an estimated 300,000 people in the former British Colony, and our inability to stop it.

"Sanctuary V" at Virginia Intermont College

From January to March 10th, 2010 the fifth incarnation of the art exhibition "Sanctuary", my solo immersion / installation complete with tobacco, red clover hay and bailing twine is installed at Virginia Intermont College in Bristol, VA.
In each exhibit new works are added and older works swapped out.
For this show a new 7.5 foot x 5 foot work is shown for the first time.
Gallery talk on Feb. 5th at 5:30 pm was well received.
Thanks to all the brave souls who faced wintry weather to come out for the talk!

The new year is picking up speed already!

Raw Linen is my latest break through in painting. This one is four feet x five feet, and I have several more bigger ones in the works!

"Tea Time for Darfur," my cocklebur/burdock tea set is in a big exhibition Jan-Feb in Sarasota FL at The Selby Gallery curated by Kevin Dean called "Realists." There is a catalogue with images and thoughts on each piece by the curator.

I installed a solo show yesterday at Virginia Intermont College in Bristol, VA running through March 15th with a gallery talk by Moi on Feb 5th at 5pm.

"May all the Best be Yet to Come!"

New Website for a New Year!

14 inches of beautiful heavy white snow right before the holidays gave the perfect oppertunity to slow down and regroup.

A new webite is in order for the new year!

Check out http://www.vglyle.com/ and let me know what you think of the layout, the tabs, the images and writings.

I've referred to 2009 as "The Year I Missed!" because I was so incredibly busy I did not take time to smell the flowers. It felt like I needed to focus on laying groundwork, and in 2010 I'm hoping to build build build! And hopefully have a few moments of quality time.

"May all the best be yet to come!"

CASA Light of Hope Sculpture Unveiling

Three years work culminates this coming Friday with the unveiling of Light of Hope in Downtown Knoxville, Tennessee. The sculpture in bronze of two life-sized children was commissioned by CASA of East Tennessee. CASA stands for Court Appointed Special Advocates for abused and neglected children in juvenile court. These volunteers represent the best interests of the victimized child with the goal of securing a safe, permanent home. Both Federal and State laws allow judges to appoint CASA volunteers to "speak up" for the child's best interests. Light of Hope is both a memorial to loves lost due to child abuse and a celebration of lives saved by caring.

Friday, November 6th 2009 at 2pm at the Carey E. Garrett Juvenile Court Building in Knoxville, TN.

The concepts for the sculpture were explored and refined in numerous meetings between myself and the CASA volunteers, board members and director, Carolyn Doty. Initally we did not know if it would be marble or bronze, abstract or representational. At one point I asked "What emotion(s) do you want the sculpture to evoke? What do you want people to feel when they see this piece?" The answer was "Rage. And Hope." Rage that this problem exists in our community, Hope that we can make a positive change. From that consensus, I presented a dozen designs that were discussed and refind into the powerful piece you see today. I chose the shape of a compressed triangle to deliberately call attention that this was not a standard "stable" square or rectangle, that something was askew. Diagonals in artworks are "action" loaded, and as you follow the sidewalk around the sculpture, the diagonals created by the stone call for action. I chose the black granite stone and the traditional cemetary base stone as a not-so-subtle reminder that this is a true monument. The distressed child on the right sits atop the inscription "In Memory of Lives Lost to Child Abuse" and the compforting child on the left, who has an arm around the shoulders of the first child, sits atop the inscription "In Celebration of Lives Saved Through Caring." The life-sized children are a compilation of kind neighbors' and friends' children as I did not have specific models to work from.

Phooey on Vandalism

Replaced the three stolen bronze sculptures in downtown Bristol for the permanent children's scavenger hunt based in the book "The Very Hungry Caterpillar" over Halloween week-end. It was a huge amount of effort and work for so many folks! But they are back in place, with a significant increase in the amount of concrete and steel securing....

Let the Caterpillar Crawl Resume!