Bluebird of happiness?... 16"x 20"

I know, I know; but the cynicism of the title is sort of apropos of my life right now. I haven't accomplished a whole lot of painting this week as I have a house guest. But I have begun a new piece. I tried pouring the oil paint. This again was prompted by a visit to a friend's studio, and it is exactly in line with what I did after my undergraduate degree. But I think there is something entirely too arbitrary to it. I quickly needed images and marks upon which to hang and mold the composition. This week I was able to show my house guest my current work, and I think she was most struck by the pen and ink drawings I began - as am I. And I believe that their strength lies in the mark. So I am trying with this painting to begin to explore what the mark means to me within the medium of paint.

Concluded

So perhaps this isn't as much a departure as I felt it was yesterday. The botanical images are painted from direct observation which I haven't done in quite a while. But I am able to create a more dynamic image if I work from an actual object in front of me in the studio. When I sat down to work today the delicate maple leaves had curled and dried out changing shape. I didn't think to anticipate that change yesterday. But I suppose I am satisfied with the first impression of them I was able to make. After finishing this piece, I think I will continue to paint in oils for a time.

It has happened...12" x 16"

Well, how's this for a change in direction?

I visited a friend's studio and had the pleasure of viewing her newest work - big juicy oil paintings! They were fabulous. And while I was there, I was struck with the desire to return to oils in my own studio.

Here it is. I don't know where this will lead. Will I incorporate my acrylic vocabulary of painting into new work in oils? Is this an aberration? We shall see.

I sure had a lot of fun making it.

Botanical II

I couldn't resist the urge to work back into this piece with watercolors in select areas. I'm not so sure that was the best thing. Right now I am going to take some time away from this drawing and see what I think after a few days.

Botanical II 22" x 30"

Here is a second ink drawing. I am hoping they develop into a series. So far I think there is enough to the process and the resulting compostions to continue exploring. I am building up these botanical spaces by combining the practice of drawing from photograph and from direct observation. Currently I am focusing on exploring the ink and my ability to expand the vocabulary of marks I am making. How can I effect the drawing through the contolled application of water, or masking, by slowly developing wash layers, or directly drawing on the paper using a nib, ink and concentrating on texture. These are very exciting for me right now.

Finished...

I think.

Adobe Illustrator

I am dabbling in design. I got a smokin' deal on an older version of Adobe Illustrator and am hoping to develop my fluency with the program. (There are even rumblings of children's book illustrations, but they are faint.)

I have been popping in and out of children's boutiques lately - you know the yuppie ones that sell baby booties for a mere $40 a pop. I suppose it's that biological clock of mine. But I have been interested in little alphabet cards I keep seeing. So I sketched out a few ideas last night and tried my hand at starting one with AI today. It's a little overwhelming, but I am surprised I got this far...Stay tuned.

Taking Care of Mizuko 8" x 10"

This took a surprising turn. Paintings have seemed a little forced lately...I got out of town this weekend down to Cape Cod, and I think it was really good for me. In a "filling the well" sort of way. I had a few ideas for linocuts. I don't know that I will sit down to work on them, but I did find the inspiration to push this composition in a different and what I think is better direction.

8" x 10"

I'm not so sure about this one, but I began working on it today. It is very small and nearing completion. I would like to create another panel to go with it.

Botanical I

I think it's finished...

Do you live in Phoenix?

Go see my paintings at Burton Barr Central Library beginning Jul. 1.

Too many posts

I know, I know...Get a job, right? Well, some days it's hard to focus on stuff like that. I decided instead to turn my energies to the studio since reviewing job postings is making me feel inadequate today. I am interested in showing my work locally, and the idea is to get some stuff up at a certain coffee shop. (no, not that one.) They seem to do a pretty swift business selling art, so I saw it as an opportunity to put my clandestine polaroid project to a good use. I have been snapping the darn things off and on for 6 years and have really come up with some surprisingly great results. I posted just a few of them under a "polaroids" link to the right.

Here is a teaser to get you interested.

Botanical I

I put some more work in on this today. I am discovering new ways to articulate the various textures and shapes. I especially like the grass I am starting to build on the right side of the piece.

Polaroid flowers 22" x 30"

It was time to get to work in the studio today, and I didn't feel as if I knew where to go with the Rose Garden painting. So I grabbed my polaroid camera and took a quick walk round the block and finished out the film snapping flowers in people's gardens. I began sketching one of the photos on a gessoed canvas then it dawned on me that what interested me about the photo was the multitude of overlapping textures. So I put away the canvas and pulled out a piece of watercolor paper and my india ink. The resulting drawing is still in it's early stages. I am hoping to work up some very dense darks and textures. Unlike recently past drawing projects I think I will see this through to its resolution.

Work over the weekend

I spent some time on this over the passed weekend. I realized I was feeling very stuck by the piece. I had laid down an initial layer of images over almost the entire canvas and I didn't know how to proceed. I chose to work on top of and paint out some of the plaid, introduce the black at the bottom of the canvas, begin working with rose silhouettes and outlines, and painted a larger, well articulated flower in the upper right hand corner of the piece. I think it makes the composition more dynamic. The piece is still progressing, so check back to see what happens next.

Bored?...

Play dress up. under the "games" link.

Minot rose garden 20" x 20"

I started a new painting today. There is a call for entries at the Arts Center where I volunteer on Tuesdays. They are looking for works that are inspired by a local public rose garden. I visited the space yesterday to photograph the flowers. Today I got to work on a small linen canvas I just stretched at the start of the week. I purchased the linen down the street and it is beautiful. It has such a nice silky, fine, weave; I really think I am going to like working on it.

I photographed the new painting, but as is often the case, the photo that was in focus wasn't quite the right exposure. It is included below in all it's darkish glory. The second image is the same jpeg that I altered in Photoshop. I still haven't mastered the art of color correction with that program. The alterations I did make allow the painting to be more easily viewed online but do not provide an accurate representation of the piece.

I also worked back into and finished the "elm" painting - for which I still don't have a satisfactory title. Any suggestions? I posted the final picture of it under my portfolio links to the right. Don't expect vast changes. I only tinkered with the red border I was articulating around the iris.

I was reading Mindy and Carianne's blog the other day when Carianne wrote about how posting a picture of her work helped her to view it more objectively. I didn't really think about it at the time, but now that I am working in a more intuitive fashion and my decisions about a painting's progress are more arbitrary, I am finding the blog posts a useful tool in that way. They allow me to see the painting differently. I suppose it is the translation of the physical canvas onto a 2-dimensional screen. With that said, this painting is not yet finished. I had an idea after I saw it online.

I think it's done.


****

I had a thought about the work. I think it is primarily about chroma. As I work I am driven to select images and then react to the colors I put down on the canvas...

It's all too fresh to articulate exactly; but it's about reaction, and intuition, and fate / does "arbitrariness" sound too convoluted?...

Oak Affirmations

I am playing with titles for this piece. I worked out all the venetian red background. I am conscious of not using it as a crutch. I still have the overabundance of stencildom, but I am selectively working over that.

not elm but oak

Okay, so I got a little out of control with the stencil...I cut out some Frisk paper (is that what it's called?...I can't even remember now) and continued to stick it to the canvas and fill it in with paint. I am going to have to take a break so that I am able to work back into this painting and obliterate some of these leaves. I am not all about hard edges and flat surfaces; but I am glad I found a way to work that aesthetic into my pieces.

alium linoleum

alium linoleum 3' x 3'

Here is something I am working on in the studio today. It's rainy and warm in Boston right now. The world is fabulously wet and drippy.

finished pink lady slippers 14" x 28"

That's the name of the flower, a pink lady slipper - the latin name for it, which I don't know, translate to venus' foot. Hence, t title.

Well I seem to have broken my venetian red streak and I think it's for the best really. I was excited by what developed in this pieced today; and I am excited by some of the ideas I have had as of late. Things are really flowing.

Venus' foot

I am not sure that this photo is in focus. Here is something I started today. We saw these flowers when we were hiking in Middlesex Fells this weekend. They are a type of wild orchid. I was pretty impressed by what Massachusetts can put forth as a "wildflower". I have stitched into this canvas prior to stretching it. Firstly by closely following the outline of a mockingbird in the lower right hand corner. Don't worry, you can't see it. I can't even notice it when I am working on the painting in the studio. Secondly I attached two canvas hummingbird cut outs. Now that I am painting, I am ignoring the sewing; but I don't know if that will work in the end. I drew the images and worked out the composition taking the position of the appliques into account. But I think unless I really build up the paint and acheive a certain thickness the attached fabric will continue to read as a distraciton.

Something else I have been working on...

I started working with this after finishing the small painting, but stopped once the muscles in my shoulders started to bother me. I used to work a lot with ink and paper. I like paper as a medium, and I like ink; but I haven't worked it out. This piece is on the backside of an earlier attempt at paper and ink - an attempt I won't be showing anyone. I need to search out the spark that was my earlier fascination with the media. It hasn't yet resurfaced.

finished (with a lower case "f")

I did work back into this one. But I am hesitant to call these Finished. It feels more like I walk away from them.

metamorphosis 12" x 12"

I may work back into this one, but I haven't decided. So far the last few pieces have been "one off's" - executed in one sitting at the easel with little planning. It has served to detach me from the process, and I think it gives the work more vitality.

same day service 12" x 12"

This, I decided, is my venetian red period. Something about leaving the underlying rust coloured gesso unpainted gets me all excited. (too arty for my own good). Here is another in the newest series of work. And we are eager to solicit opinions.

It's not a new painting but...

here

5.14.2008

A new vein?...

A new leaf?...

Ha, ha, ha.

A little more fun perhaps.

Desperately Seeking Opines

I am flirting with the idea of starting an Etsy shop. Just a very small one mind you. I would like to sell my prints - the linocuts I have made. Most images are editions of ten or twenty and I thought to sell them for $20. I am wondering what you think. Is that a good price? Or better - does anyone know someone running an Etsy shop and is there a trick to generating traffic for and thus sales of your product?

It's done!...

And I love it. After many months, a move, and unpacking I have found the focus to tie up this piece I began in Arizona. And I really think it progressed beyond what I had originally hoped for it. Time to get started on something new.

A better photo

I spent a little more time with this piece today, and I took a better photo of it as well. I was using the auto focus on my camera lens, but it didn't quite seem to do the trick in the last entry. I apologize for the glare that is reading on the right hand side of the painting, but most of the surface was wet when I snapped the photo; and it is hard to reduce that shine and still have enough light for a good exposure.

I think there is a nice sense of light developing in this piece as the background becomes more uniformly dark and has time to dry. I can then work overtop into the foliage and get the colors to pop. I still don't know where this is going; and it may perhaps be becoming too "precious"; but I am enjoying it nonetheless.

New Painting

I just happened to start working on this last Friday or perhaps it was Monday. Some of you may still be able to discern a ghost image through the middle of the composition that looks suspiciously like a tree branch. Yes, the cardinal painting bought the farm. But such is life - in the studio anyway. I don't know where this is going save that it is relaxing as opposed to the arduous "filling in" I am engaged with on the mockingbird piece. I am simply creating a collection of botanical imagery with this piece. And I am hoping that certain ideas concerning my other piece will continue to percolate - namely redefining the word "finished". I am looking to wrap up the mockingbird piece and thinking it may have more to do with ceasing to work on it rather than resolving it. Funny how it works.

Mockingbirds

How tedious, right? Everytime you log onto this blog, all six of you, there is yet another picture of this painting in which very little has happened. It's like my magnum opus that never sees resolution. It's true, I am moving at a snails pace with this piece, but it has a lot to do with the packing, moving, and job searching I am tackling as of late.

Yesterday when I sat down I was able to see it with a fresh set of eyes, and I feel I am making progress now in a different way. The original idea I had of the painting had become irrelevant, and I was able to reframe it and make some choices that were outside the original concept. I can see a way through the piece now and ultimately to its ending.

Doodling...Noodling

Here is the tintype I am messing around with - rather inexpertly I may add. But the work is more like doodling and I like the free reign it gives my mind to wander and experiment. In fact, that's what I think my current dabblings have largely been about - play. And play in the context of art is always a good way to introduce fresh ideas and approaches.

Nest prints

Here is part of my "nest" ruminations. I purchased a Bible and what seems to be a Chinese Hymnal several months ago at a Goodwill in Phoenix. The paper is very thin, translucent almost and the text is delicate enough to read as an overall value in the background. I took the books to Kinko's and had the spines cut off - I felt really bad doing that to the Bible...But I did it anyway. And yesterday I started cutting this nest into a small linoblock I had laying around in the studio. It was all very impulsive. I stopped cutting and printed a proof, but I was so surprised by how well it looked I didn't bother revising the cut block at all instead I began printing my edition of 25. Yea! I love them. Please forgive the magnet included in the image of the print. They were still hanging up to dry when I photographed them.

BTW if anyone knows someone who can read Chinese characters I am very interested in learning what is written on the pages on which I printed. Thanks!

Life Drawing in Brookline

The two drawings above are from my latest life drawing session. The top one is the longer pose - about 35 minutes; and the bottom about 10. I am excited about the sense of volume in the bottom pose. I think it's acheived mainly through the curved lines that sweep through the figure, something a previous drawing teacher had tried to dissuade me from articulating. But the models I have the opportunity to draw as of late are substantial people, and I am losing the underlying bone structure because I cannot see beyond the changes in shape that their flesh create. It's all very exciting - and perhaps a weird thing to say, but having done alot of life drawing you typically see one body type; a super trim athletic female. Perhaps this is the only person willing to disrobe in a room full of strangers. It gets pretty boring to draw similar body types. The two sessions I have had in Brookline have been pleasant surprises as the models look like normal women with weight and mass to their bodies. It's great - they are very Rubenesque.

These two poses are from the first session. Again the longer pose is pictured first, the shorter second. I hope to continue attending and improving my observational skills!

Antonio lopez garcia

I finally made it to the Museum of Fine Arts last night. Phew. It was free from 4 until close which was the biggest carrot. The admission price is normally $17 Wuh? So expensive. The collection was gorgeous and I will have to spend many more Wednesday nights with the work soaking it all in. But the highlight of the evening was the special exhibition of Spanish artist, Antonio Lopez Garcia. (Yes, you can get into the special exhibit for free as well! What a coup!)

I would encourage you to Google the artist to view other images of his work and get a better sense of his style and subject matter. Most of his paintings were near photographic in their observation. The subjects were not always rendered with the definite edges and finite shapes that film could provide. Instead there was the sense that he was painting - as one got close to the canvas and realized the information provided was merely an impression, an imperfect blot of paint, a ragged edge indicative of brush work. But the work was exhaustive. Lopez Garcia is not working from photograph! He is spending years sometimes visiting sites and painstakingly making accommodations for changes in light and objects. I was overwhelmed. His courage to take seemingly endless cityscapes and work them out building by building; tone by tone. Truly inspiring.

Nest number 1

I have been thinking a lot about nests as metaphor. It all grew out of my interest in painting birds and with our move to the northeast where I am watching spring begin her slow march for the first time in fifteen years. Seasons?...Wuh?... I am nesting and so are my new avian friends.

What does it take to build a home? And what are the components? I feel strongly that collecting is part of this. The wrens and robins collect moss, grass, trash whatever is in their surrounding environment and the areas where they commonly return to find food. The composition of their nests is defined by their habits, surroundings, and physical features. Do their feet have the ability to knit and weave? Are their beaks suited to the task? Some birds do not build nests at all - instead purloining the work of their industrious counterparts or perhaps hollowing out the trunk of a tree. What am I working to grasp and collect to create a sense of belonging?...

So here is my nest. I made it without the use of needles in what I believe is more akin to crocheting. I am considering dipping them in wax and adhering drawings to them. We'll see.

Finger knitted nests

I have a really hard time formatting posts in blogger. I suppose I am asking it to do more than it is able, but the tintype post looks presentable so rather than endangering that I will post my other few photos and ideas here.

Above is a photo of a hanging nest that I began finger knitting. I am not sure I should even use this term...am I using it correctly? Let's just say that I made this with yarn in a knitting like fashion without needles. I am thinking a lot about nests lately, and this is a solution for visually expressing the Nest. We shall see.

Below is a step in the development of the stitching idea. Sewing objects on canvas is very slow going. I want to produce my pieces more quickly than sewing will allow me to do. So I thought about stiching on images of birds drawn and cut out of other pieces of canvas. We'll also see about this as well.

Tintypes and nests

Here are photos of two of the tintypes I bought in Gloucester this weekend. The actual tintypes are quite crisp. Unfortunately my photos are rather soft in focus. The halo in the photo on the left is oil paint that was added by me ala an artist I saw at the Lisa Sette gallery a few years ago. It's not my original idea but it is so intriguing I feel compelled to go through the action of making one of these photo paintings to see what it instigates.

Wonderful weekend.

I didn't paint today, but I was reminded of how fiercely I want to continue making art, and how much I have to say. I visited the DeCordova museum outside Concord, MA. this weekend. Tyler was fishing on Walden Pond, seriously, and I trotted out to Thoreau's cottage and pondered the wonderful words of the transcendentalist before hightailing it indoors at the museum up the street. I was quite immediately greeted by the installation pictured at the right. Now I was very, very, naughty to take photographs of this. It is typically frowned upon because of a few reasons not least of which is the fact that a flash can damage the often light sensitive surfaces of artworks overtime, but there is also that whole sticky issue of copyright and intellectual property.

Bah...

I loved this - positively swooned over it. And felt that I absolutely had to capture it for further scrutiny back home in the studio. As I talked about the piece to Tyler I realized I was interested in how the botanical subjects were turned into flat symbols and then grouped according to a mood or subject to create these crazy motifs - sort of Victorian, sort of fanciful, grotesque. Yes, this piece was grotesque in the way that the grotesque becomes the sublime...I loved it.

On another note, I was lucky enough to find four tintypes as I sorted through bins of antique photos in a shop in Gloucester MA this weekend. The owner was a collector of other people's snapshots as were some of his close friends. And I was immediately fascinated by that as well. What a wonderful and strange obsession - very voyeuristic in a way. Love it!

I got some work done!

I had all week to spend some substantial time in the studio. And I took some of my frustration with my new cardinal piece and channeled it into good work on the mockingbird painting. I had invested so much time in this piece already I found it was a good motivator to keep going. I need this to come to fruition, right? It can be hard to judge the progress of this painting as all the work is so painstaking. But if you go to the bottom of the page and search the blogs by subject (mockingbirds) I think you will see I got some remaining gesso covered and a few birds more realistically rendered.

Stitching

I have been liberated by my recent spate of grad school rejections. I feel a little differently about painting right now. I am was so careful the past few months because I knew I needed each and every painting to be a success so that it could be added to the portfolio I hoped would get me into an MFA program. Well, now that I'm not going - by the way, I'm not going. I know I haven't mentioned that yet; but I didn't get in anywhere. I sort of feel relieved as far as art making is concerned. I feel expanded. There is more of a chance now to experiment and take risks because if it doesn't work out, "hey, that's okay".

Hence the idea of sewing drawing. Strangely enough while I was perusing my friend, Mithi's blog, I found she had hit upon the same idea. Even beter was that she had posed the question of "how to" and her readers had given her a litany of enthusiastic replies. And the ideas worked! Thank you Mithi. I know very little about sewing machines, and when I sat down to attempt this initially, before reading Mithi's blog, I was trying to freehand sew with a normal set up. Well the fabric pulled and the thread rebelled. And it was a mess. But here I've replaced the plate underneath the foot in order to raise the cloth off the feeder (feed dogs...that's what they're called, really) and I have changed the foot as well. The result: a very even stitch despite the fact that I was running the machine backwards and forwards, turning it left and right. It looks like a nice continuous line. Now that I know I can do it, I began research into subject matter for some new work.

I don't know about the cardinal painting right now. I suspect it will be abandoned. Then there is the Mockingbird piece that I was working on when we left Phoenix. That is in suspension. And there's also a large piece I researched and bought the supplies for that I never began. I don't know what will happen with those loose ends yet. We'll see.

Don't worry...

I am here. And I am even making art - amongst looking for a new job, and registering cars, and figuring out the T. I am here. I am making a painting. You've seen it, and I am sorry to condemn anything but I have a sneaking suspicion it belongs to that school of bad paintings. That's okay though. I think I have a job, which means that this week before I start work will be dedicated to working in the studio - and eradicating the bad painting. I shouldn't say too much. I have had some serendipitous art experiences lately. Last Friday I attended a drop-in life drawing session in Brookline where I got some time with a model and exercised those observation skills. Phew. I can tell I'm out of practice. Perhaps I'll get around to posting some of those images.