First Week/Last Year

For the past year I've had two bodies of work running parallel to each other - representational depictions of nature and wildlife and abstracted architectural structures.  (I've felt split in half.) Last semester I made the decision to focus mostly on the architectural work - it is a new way of working for me so there is a lot to explore and experiment with.  

Here I am now - midway through the first week of my final year in grad school which means…THESIS SHOW!  Eh-ghads!  Translation:  I need to start making a cohesive group of work to show in May.  So what do I do?  I complete two paintings…one meteorite and one geometric-fied cube.  At first I felt like I was back to square one, completely torn between which path to take - organic vs. manmade, but then I hung them side by side and realized they were pretty much the same form.  What does this mean?  I have no fucking idea.  But it's taking me somewhere so I'm just going to buckle up and move along.

Meteorite, oil, 31"x23"

Cube (until I come up with a better name), oil, 22"x16"

The cube painting above had an interesting morphing process….

At one point last semester I considered this a finished painting.

But then I decided to flip it upside down and add some yellow.

Next I just sanded the hell out of the whole thing and blocked in some super dark purple.

Added some finishing details and ta-duh!…painting conversion complete.

Hey, you know what helps when you're trying to decide between two paths?  Add a third path.  Just kidding, it doesn't help at all but it's a nice distraction from having to choose from the previously discussed paths.

Vitrine I, flashe and gesso, 13"-ishx11"-ish

Vitrine II, flashe and gesso, 13"-ishx11"-ish

Flowers, Fake Grass, and Acid City

I began the two paintings below last semester.  They were originally part of six panels that I planned to be a cohesive series but three became individual paintings of houses, one turned into a weird chair painting, and these two branched out on their own.  They kept inching closer and closer towards each other on the wall, gradually turning into the pair they are today.

Stage 1

 Holy Patriotism!  Muse ease up the red…

Stage 2

Whew.. The blue calmed things down a bit.  What's up with the smoke/clouds above the grass?  I don't know…just seemed like the thing to do.

Stage 3

The flowers got some work today.  It's coming along, not as quickly as I would like but I've got two museum gigs this summer so studio time is less than ideal (learning that efficiency is the key).  But just because I am at work does not mean the making comes to a halt, it means the Acid City series is growing.  Who says you can't make art with limited resources…office supplies rule.

Step into my time machine, fast forward a month and real flowers/fake grass is complete!

Someone Else's Homestead

Someone Else's Homestead

Someone Else's Homestead, the series I began during my South Carolina residency this summer, is finito and photographed!  I am not exactly sure of the order or orientation the paintings will be arranged in, above is a test shot. What a great sense of closure and now the door in open to fully jump in and begin new work.  Here are some general words that describe my experience at Rensing.  Next on the agenda is finding a venue to show the series…hmmmm….

To immerse yourself into another person's environment is to become consumed by another person's thoughts, beliefs, their life.  Those feelings take time to dissipate after you have left the space in order to  resume your own life again.  The transition period takes awhile to stumble through, it takes time to absorb the experience and then to leave it behind.  But you quickly learn that there is no way to fully resume your previous existence.  There is no picking up where you left off because the experience changed you, and maybe in just the most subtle of ways or maybe you see the world entirely different.

Chair, Flashe and acrylic, 31"x23", 2015

Baby Goat, Flashe and acrylic, 31"x23", 2015

Sewing Machine, Flashe and acrylic, 26"x20", 2015

Cabbage, Flashe and acrylic, 26"x20", 2015

Basket, Flashe and acrylic, 22"x16", 2015

Pinecone, Flashe and acrylic, 22"x16", 2015

Summer

It's pretty much the dead center of summer.  I've had about six weeks to recover from the first year of grad school and have about six weeks to prepare myself for the second (and final!) year.  A good portion of the summer was spent at the residency in South Carolina and I am super happy to report that I finally finished the series, Someone Else's Homestead, that I began while in Pickens.  It is a great feeling of closure and has led to a new and smaller series that I began and am really enjoying.  I love how one project can unfold into the next. The painting portion of the series is complete, now it is time to photograph and write a proper statement about the work.  Better photos to follow!

Singer sewing machine that lives in the Rensing library.

One of my beloved baby goat friends.

Vitrine:  a glass showcase or cabinet especially for displaying fine wares or specimens.

So I am into vitrines now.  Like the Penny portrait from the last post, my interest in vitrines came from a catalog I got at my museum gig.  The catalog is filled with urns, artifacts, and beautifully elaborate display cabinets.  The interesting thing is that these decorative vitrines are empty so their purpose of housing fine wares is taken away, leaving them to be art objects unto themselves.

Vitrine imprints.

empty vitrine in-progress 1

empty vitrine in-progress 2

Lani's Penny

The world is enormous with billions of people cruising around on its surface so I find it fascinating when a person crosses your path that you instantly become pals for life with.  Lani is one of those rare people.  And it is a mathematical fact that if Lani is rad then her dog, Penny, will also be rad.  Well, I can attest that Penny is indeed an amazing creature.  Lani asked me to paint a Penny portrait and I said hells yes.  As always, the journey began with research.  And coffee.

The wheels begin to turn...

My museum gig provided me with a very unexpected direction:  A Sotheby's African, Oceanic, and Pre-Coloumbian Auction Catalog.  I instantly knew I wanted to collage some of the images from the catalog into the Penny portrait.  Why you ask?  For three reasons:  1) The artifacts are sacred, rare, beautiful, and valuable just like Penny is to Lani.  2) The rich earth tones of the pieces are similar to Penny's coloring.  3)  My pal would never in a million years guess that I would use ancient African artwork in the portrait.  WILDCARD!

BOOM!

First move was to build a panel and then...SURPRISE!  A turquoise under-painting?  Why yes!  (I wanted the background to be a cool brown to contrast Penny's warm brown fur.)

It was challenging to choose from so many amazing artifacts.

And the painting begins...

Stage One

Stage Two

Stage Three

 Ta-duh!  Here is the final portrait...

Penny, acrylic, 18"x14.5", 2015

Final stage:  Penny girl gets shipped to Phoenix.

Rocket Sloth

The Rocket Sloth Story

Once upon a time I got a speeding ticket.  I painted a rocket sloth on the ticket.  It is now on sale for the price of the citation ($171.50).  The End.

Rocket Sloth
13"x4.5", acrylic on speeding ticket, 2015

Days Twenty and Twenty-one: The Final Chapter

DAY TWENTY

I thought it was pretty extraordinary that this plant was engineered to hold the morning dew in perfect droplets on each of its serrated edges.  High-five to you, Universe.  The Rensing homestead has many worn edges, cobwebs, and my favorite…moss and mushrooms.

Blanket of moss on the driveway wall.

Tiniest red baby mushrooms in all of the land.

I was hellbent on finishing this painting series before I left.  I wanted to have one neatly packaged project to take home but I was rushing it.  I wanted this experience to be over with because it has been very challenging.  From the first week it was obvious that my expectations were very different than the reality of this residency and I've been stumbling over that ever since.  

Residencies are a gift of time to devote completely to your chosen art form.  They are not strictly self indulgent non-stop blissful blocks of time - each one has its own unique challenges.  The benefits of a residency have to outweigh the sacrifices that have to be made such as financial strains, being away from loved ones, etc. and as I sit here on my final day at Rensing with my bags packed, the sentence that keeps bubbling up in my mind is:  "I left my life for this...was it worth it?".  The knee-jerk reaction is that yes it was worth it because it made me realize how exceptional my daily life really is.  

So the series is not complete but I am ok with that.  Below are the finished four pieces and the final two are well into being 3/4 of the way completed.  I am looking forward to seeing this work in my studio - away from the environment that created them.  I am glad the final details will be done at home...unhurried.  I've been thinking of a name for this series and Someone Else's Homestead keeps surfacing.  The subject matter is pulled from another person's personal space, my part was selecting the objects that appealed to me.  So am I telling someone else's story through their objects or am I using their objects to tell a story of my own?

DAY TWENTY-ONE

in-progress sewing machine detail

in-progress tree stump behind sewing machine

Day Nineteen

Basket painting-finito!

Snake in tree-check!

Little mushroom-yes please!

Baby goats-you better believe it!

This little dude is a rock star-hells yes!