Just getting this website up and there are some changes that still need to be made. Like the prices...a great deal of these pieces of artwork are sold. Still fine tuning it. But doesn't it look smashing?! My thanks to Beau of Strangecode for making me such a stellar site!!
It's been a productive day. There is a cool wind blowing, meaning that winter is well on its way. I made a fire for the first time last night. DIVINE!!! There is nothing like the sound of the crackling wood and the smokey smell to create an ambiance like that of a fire when it's cold out.
I'm painting again. Hours and hours instead of a few minutes here and there.
My mind is jogging from painful memories to productive new days. The sadness is still here, but it follows me instead of sitting on my shoulders. I'm relieved.
I've turned to pomegranetes. It is the perfect vehicle for this luscious red, and they are actually quite healthy for you. So, in the spirit of this beautiful fruit, I am drawing them, painting them, drinking them and eating them. My studio looks like a blood bath.
Not to say that I haven't been hammering out some progress on the two canvases. With the pomegranetes came a new background. A swirling of gusty winds meets dirt storms meets marble. I've gotten quite fond of it, and it is now my new thing. My other new thing is this appearance of a hide stretched out touching all sides of the canvas without any sort of main variable. It is how I've been feeling - skinned and stretched. Left out to dry. Such emotions can be so much more pretty when painted instead of felt. Pelt. How ironic.
Anyway, step two for the two. Here are where they are so far, starting with him and then her.
These are still coming out pretty large. I'm going to get this yet! I will try to make them smaller from now on.
Well, I can see I need a lot more practice on the computer. But there you have a transformation. She is still in the works.
After all these years of painting. I just realized how freeing it is to release myself from an idea.
Let me clarify. I've harbored this painting, two canvases, a her and a him for the better part of 4 months. It has been slated to be a diptych, although I've never found harmony or a balance that seems right. One figure has her hand extended into the other canvas, and while I have recreated backgrounds for her, her counterpart has left me idealess. I've tried to resketch him, alter the colors, add stitching...the works. But he is no longer in the picture, so it has been difficult, no impossible to conjure up any sentiment that would make him work. There they have sat, leaning against my studio wall, waiting for some attention. They were about as appealing to me as cold liver and onions for breakfast.
All of a sudden it dawned on me, that they didn't need to be one painting anymore. I've always liked her form, and she deserves more intricate goings on with her canvas. The other one can be anything I want it to be. It doesn't need to be placed beside her or have anything to do with her.
Here are the before pictures, starting with "her."
And now, "him."
Just to see what happens, I'm going to show her again, in her process, and then hopefully have some more progress in my next entry.
Here she is:
Let's see what happens!!
It's better to have loved, than to never have loved at all.
I could say with equal sentiment that the saying is a bunch of bullshit, or that after some time...it's true.
I haven't had the luxury of the appropriate amount of time to get over someone whom I loved, and it is unfolding quite predominantly in my new work. I am just so thankful to have this outlet. I don't know what I would do without it.
Over the years, I've had no problem creating a cleverly transparent avenue of discussing my life, the people I meet, my lovers, my family, my fantasy world and a desire to be happy through my artwork. But no one is happy all the time. Some of my best pieces have come from a dark place. Although...the majority of my best pieces are when I've fallen in love. That's my track record so far.
October8th & 9th and October 15th - 16th from 10am - 5pm.
Come see my studio and all its nooks and crannies filled with new work!
As I mentionned - my direction seems to be straying from the sweet and adorable to a darker shade of umber. I'm throwing in gauze - because it's a super transparent accessory to offer up what I have been going through emotionally. Call it trite. Call it obvious. Call it what you will - but I love it. My stitchwork has reappeared (something I can do while watching TV, being a lazy-bones AND getting a project done), and I'm happy about it, although my thumb is paying dearly.
This style was "acquired" from a wall painting that caught my eye in Barcelona. I couldn't tell you what street, because downtown B. is like some sort of medieval labyrinth, but it was up there - not advertising anything but ART. It was beautiful - and moving. Lots of siennas, and golds, whites, blacks and reds.
Here is the first, within this *series* .
I will be taking snaps of the works in their "in between" stages. As it is now, it's hard to keep a portfolio of up-to-date photographs, as I am constantly adding or changing the work I have. At least now I will take those pictures I always threatened to take.
It doesn't get much more exciting than this. I feel like a bucket of sunshine spilling over the edge. My own website!
I can write about my work, reach people I've never thought possible, I can "talk" while I create, I can record ideas on a solid platform instead of pieces of paper and post its and paper towels that I end up losing. This is just...wonderful! (Clapping wildly)
So, this really couldn't come at a better time, as I have much to record; much to talk about and sort out. My work is changing right now. My thought process is wrapping itself around this new, very real and intimate emotional landscape. The subject has been there all along - growing - waiting for the right moment...(as moments tend to demand), and through a fairly emotional time, I've found an incredible source of inspiration, a massive epiphany of insight, and with a little guidance from my girls Jess and Karen, I've discovered a new muse. Me.
