Text patterns intrigue me.

This time I mixed in paperclips, which added some interesting texture. I do, however, wish there was a way to make the paper clips stick to the paper without having to tape over them. Glue just didn't work, probably because paperclips are both thin and metal.

Painting faces, yet again. I do not know why, but I cannot seem to stop! Not my favorite painting ever, but I cannot quite put my finger on the reason why.

This is one of my favorite spreads thus far. First, I put down a thick, textural layer of gesso. Next, I rubbed black paint on to accent the texture of the gesso. A photo was then glued on and watercolor painted on the photo. The image was printed on an inkjet printer on regular copy paper, so when the watercolor was applied, the ink bled a little and softened the shapes in the photo. The effect was astounding to me and the concept is something I may play with further.

This was actually created last week, but it was only just inserted it in my sketchbook. This was a rather chaotic day. There are just days when my thoughts do not make sense, and this was one of those days.

A crumpled paper towel with acrylic paint was taped into the left hand page to add interest and texture.

The page on the left is simply the silhouette of a face created with acrylic paint along with pieces of images from magazines and other sources. The page on the right has the images as well, but in this case I used gesso to add texture to the piece. The words are my own thoughts on the day. I have also incorporated duct tape, which is such a fabulous tape in my mind. It can do just about anything, and it visually interesting, at least to me, all at the same time--I love it.

I am really pleased with the way my experiments with acrylic paint came out in this piece. The contrast between the curvilinear yellow forms and the more geometric, rectilinear blue and green forms adds interest. The process of mixing paint and text--meaningful text that relates to my thoughts and feelings about the day--and photographic images, which in this case came from a magazine, is both fascinating and enjoyable to me.

Art Journal

In class today we talked about art journals, among other things, which I found slightly amusing because this is something I already do. Well, maybe that is not completely accurate. It is something I did consistently my senior year of high school, as a part of an assignment, and something I picked up again last year, but not to the same personal level as in high school. It is also something I started again this past week--and this time is is immensely personal and cathartic once again. All of that being said, I am going to begin posting these pages as a create them.

I am back a school and painting again--finally! Hopefully I will be able to post some soon.

Sorry it has been so long since I last posted. The summer has been speeding by! This weekend was wonderful, however. I had the opportunity to show my work at the arts festival in my home town. And, I actually sold a few pieces! It was a great time to meet with other artists and to be able to share my art with others.

Wow! It has been a long time since I have been able to post. I job, an internship, and a 15 page paper will do that to a person. But the paper was on Titian, who is fabulous, so it's not so bad, though it kept me busy.

Since I am already on the topic of Titian, I will start at the end of my Italy trip and discuss him first. We saw some Titian's elsewhere, but the best one--by far--was in Venice, Titian's final painting, the pieta. This painting is absolutely brilliant. The brush work is loose and rough, which draws the viewer in a conveys far more emotion than some of Titian's earlier pieces, which are smooth and polished. The colors break up--almost into impressionistic dabs--giving even more to study upon a close examination. Each individual in the piece also seems to portray a different emotion and a differernt reaction to the piece, leaving a pleathora of ways to connect the viewer.

Needless to say, this piece touched me a moved me. I could had stood in front of it for hours. I loved it. It was certainly one of my favorites from the trip.

I just returned home from Italy. I was amazing, absolutely amazing, but I am still processing it, so more on my trip later.

Pieces for Painting Final

I have been thinking about abstract expressionism a lot lately. There is so much freedom in this style. These men and women broke the mold, and did something new and completely different. I hope this is something that my art can do as well. They also managed to express something, and to touch me, without normal conventions or a very recognizable subject matter. This is striking. It makes the viewer think and ponder. Such pieces also have the ability to touch each viewer in a different ad unique way, as the relate to and dialogue with the piece, in their own way, based on their own experiences. This is not to say that a representational piece cannot do that--it certainly can, and many pieces do--but I think there is something fascinating about the ability of something abstract to do this.

Happy Easter!

Today I dyed an Easter egg. The way the colors drip and blend until they finally dry is fascinating and beautiful--perhaps even more so than the finished product. I am not sure that this qualifies as painting, or even art at all, but it was extremely enjoyable nonetheless.

And it would not be Easter without this wonderful tradition.

I don't really know where I was trying to go with this piece. I do not like the way it turned out at all.

"Hand"

I used my hand to create a resist in this piece. I then went back through and adjusted some of the edges, in particular making some areas softer, so there was more variety. The whole process was really enjoyable--painting over my hand and getting rather messy. I don't think I am completely satisfied with the end result, however. I think is needs more value contrast or maybe the addition of another color. Perhaps I will play with it more later.

Some Reflections on Art

The concept of appropriation and reference images came up, so I am going to attempt to convey my jumbled thoughts on the matter.

I think everyone uses reference images in their work. We are all inspired by something. Even the great painters of old had something to look at while they painted--even if that something was a real person, they were nonetheless referencing some image. I think it is impossible to paint without reference. Even the paintings I do while not looking directly at something come from an image in my head, which inevitably came from an image I actually saw. Now this is not to say that there is no difference between painting from life and painting from a photograph, because there is certainly a difference there. Painting from life leaves the painter with the problem of transforming the three-dimensional world into a two dimensional surface. The photograph inevitably eliminates that difficulty since it is already a two-dimensional image. Photographs also cannot, and do not, move or suffer from changes in lighting, which make painting from them easier--and yet this is precisely the value of photographs. Is it so wrong to use your resources? Vermeer used the new technology of his day--the camera obscura--to create more realistic rendering in his painting, and yet those are considered masterpieces. So what is so different about using a reference photo? Photos, of course, also create their own set of challenges. They can lock the painter into one scene and make it difficult to deviate--to make the picture one's own, rather than just a copy of a photograph. But this can also be a good thing. It pushes the artist to think outside the box, and to create a piece that touches on the unseen, rather that just the seen. As artists today, photos can capture the world for us, so we do not have to worry about painting it--we can be free to paint the deeper feelings and emotions and characteristics of life in a new a unique way. I know in my own paintings, reference photos help me with a pose and give me a guide for proportions, but leave me the freedom to adjust everything to create the mood or the emotion I am looking for.

The issue of the photograph also brings me to the issue of appropriation. What happens when one uses someone else's image in their own, either as reference, or literally incorporated in? As noted earlier, I think every artist does, in a sense, appropriate something in their work. We do not live or create in our own little bubble, so we are influences by the work and the images around us. This is a good thing; it inspires us and pushes us. I am so intrigued by the whole concept of appropriation. It is a dialogue with the past, and it is pushing the boundaries of what has already been done. Now, I don't think is is ok to simply copy someone else's work; it has to be altered or changed or made one's own somehow. Copyright laws also come into effect here, and I do not understand all of the rules regarding that, so I cannot accurately comment on that aspect of this matter. But I certainly would not want to do something that breaks a law, so one must be careful in this area, I suppose.

Lastly, about the debate over whether something is more valuable, or less valuable, because it is more realistic. I don't think that realism equals value at all. There is value in both realism and abstraction--and the whole gamut in between. To me a piece by Jackson Pollock can take my breath away and touch me and make me think as much as a piece by Caravaggio. They are different, yes, but they are both striking.

"Yellow"

Inspired by Henri Matisse, I thought I would try something new and do a piece with cut paper. I painted solid areas of color in watercolor on watercolor paper, and then cut pieces out. It was a miserable failure. Not only did it stress me out--it was way too tedious for my liking--but I could not seem to come up with anything that seemed to work. Finally, after much toiling this weekend, one large piece intrigued me enough to post. The curvilinear shapes in this one appealed to me. I was also interested by the varying shadows this piece created when placed on a white piece of paper. The paper curls up slightly, which created dramatic shadows in some areas, and barely a hint of a shadow in others.

"Abstract 7" &"Abstract 8"

7

8

These are two abstract experimentations with drips and splatters to get myself back into the swing of painting. I am particularly pleased with the first one. It had a nice emphasis on the dark areas, and there is a nice contrast between the softer and the harder edges. There is also a nice organic quality to the piece overall. The bottom one seems a bit too plain--like maybe it isn't quite finished yet.

Alone

This rather relates to my post yesterday, but people are increasingly disconnected. There is the sense among so many people, myself included at times, that one is alone in life. I think that technology only adds to this isolation, it doesn't help diffuse it. We far too often look to facebook or myspace or twitter for companionship, and never form truly deep lasting relationships with real people. This is something that seems to come out in my paintings. The world is full of people who feel alone, but we are not alone. I paint people because it makes them real--it makes me real. And they are painted in real paint, because it makes everyhthing all the more tangible.

I have been thinking about the pros and cons of natural media versus digital media. There are wonderful things about digital art, and they can mimic natural media fairly well, but there is still something lacking--at least to me. There is something so wonderful about paint. They way it flows off the paint brush, the way is gets all over you hands, the way it can be thick--three dimensional really--or thin, the way it changes as you apply it to the paper and the way it changes as it dries. Paint is real, it's tangible--I can touch it. Digital art is not. It is stuck in my computer until I print it. And even then, it never seems to have the same physical quality that I love so much about paint. I think in an ever changing world--where so many things are fleeting and where things change so fast, and which is becoming increasingly disconnected--that natural media is a necessity. It proves that things are real.

Not really paintings...

These next six images are a project, not for painting class, that has been consuming all of my time lately. They are a series of posters which I have created to help bring awareness to and reduce some of the stigma associated with self-harm. Since this has kept me from painting the last few days, I thought I would at least give you something to look at and post these. Enjoy!

"Untitled Figure 2"

I decided to do a gestural figure painting today. It ended up looking sort of like a robot with glowing eyes, which was not what I intended, and, consequently, I am not all that pleased with the results. I think the problem was too wet paint that expanded and left me with a rather blob-ish distorted form.

"Fade Away"

I painted this face into a light wash that was still rather wet. As a result this piece has a really nice, soft effect. This seems to be particularly effective with the blues, which give the piece a rather ethereal quality.

"Abstract 6"

This is just a random little abstract piece on watercolor paper. I have been feeling rather uninspired lately. I think it is because I am so busy with and stressed about other school work right now, that I cannot just relax and be creative and enjoy painting.

"Hooded Face"

I decided to play with a warm/cool contrast in this painting. It is watercolor on watercolor paper, yet again.

"Green Face"

I am not quite sure why, but I tend to stay away from green when I paint--or at least lately. So I thought I would deviate a bit and paint another simplified face, but in green this time. It is watercolor on watercolor paper again.

People

I am fascinated by people. People are all different, unique. I know I am lucky if I can understand myself most days, let alone others, but that is precisely what intrigues me. It is that incomprehensible aspect that I try to comprehend in my art. I love to paint people and give the viewer, and perhaps myself, a small glimpse into the workings of the mind. In addition, on those occasions when I do a portrait--one where I am strictly painting the person rather that just painting a person who is no one in particular, but perhaps embodies everyone--I paint what I know of that individual or how I see them.

All the talk about creativity and dance, got me thinking of my favorite dancer ever, Mikhail Baryshnikov. He is absoluty phenomenal. Here is a link to a video of him dancing freely, uninhibitedly. Check it out if you have time. (He doesn't actually start dancing until about two and a half mintutes in, so fast foward a bit).

"Art is not made for anybody and is, at the same time, for everybody."
Piet Mondrian

This quote struck me. Art is so personal, so individual, and yet so universal. It is a strange tension, but I find it to be completely and utterly true. When I try to paint, worrying too much about what others will think or what others will want, I rarely create something good. I have to put myself in the the painting, and then be concerned with others. It is in the creation of art, that art is essentially individual. It is in the viewing and appreciation of art that it becomes more universal.

"Untitled 2"

This is just watercolor on watercolor paper. I am not sure how I feel about this image right now. Maybe my reflections will be clearer in the morning.

Emotions

"The mind is its own place, and in itself, can make Heaven of Hell, and a Hell of Heaven"
-John Milton

The mind and emotions are powerful. They truly effect the way we--or at least I--see the world. Emotions can be both wonderful and horrible, confusing and clear. There are days when my head feels like it is spinning and nothing makes sense; and there are other times when my mind is crystal clear and everything seems to line up. Either way--good or bad--emotions fascinate me. They are what makes life interesting and gives it flavor. I'll admit, there are times I think that the world would be so much easier with out emotions, and there are times I try to shut them down, but shutting emotions down just leaves me tired and numb. And numb is no good. It these emotions, the positive ones and the negative, which I paint. Generally they are my emotions, which I paint into faces that are not my own. It is my way of expelling those emotions, particularly those I have trouble understanding. Once they are out on paper I can see them and evaluate them more rationally. It's my own personal little therapy session. Other times I paint the emotions I see in others. There is never a shortage of emotions; I could fill a lifetime with paintings of different ones. Emotions are not simple or easily understood, but they are enthralling.

Mail Art by Jenn Sprowl

This is the mail art piece I received from Jenn. The colors in this piece are wonderful. The browns in particular are rich and deep. It is also so interesting to see how the postal system adds marks to these pieces. I once again added the black boxes to censor the address on this piece; sorry it makes it hard to truly get the full effect.

"Brushed Pale 6 -2"

I added some warm yellows, which added some nice contrast to this piece.

"Brushed Pale 6"

Another simple, subtle, deconstructed piece. This time, however, I painted on watercolor paper and I did not sketch anything out before hand. This made it really difficult to complete the piece in a small number of brush strokes. Since there is no pencil, this piece has a much softer feel than my earlier pieces in this series. It seems a bit flat, however, and I think I will add a second color in later to add more depth.

"Brushed Pale 5"

Another minimal painting. This one really aggravated me and I am not quite sure why. I wanted to keep using as few brush strokes as possible, but for some reason today that made me really tense. Sometimes when I think about a painting too much--try to make it spectacular and full of tons of meaning, I over think the painting and stifle my creativity. And then I just become more frustrated because I am frustrated.

In spite of my frustrations over this piece, the idea of minimalism and deconstructing a painting still fascinates me. This whole line of thought has been inspired by Piet Mondrian, who took deconstruction to the extreme. I do not want to go as far as he did, limiting myself to lines and rectangles, but I like the idea of striping things back and getting at their core--simply.

Self-Portrait by Oskar Kokoschka

I stumbled across this piece by Oskar Kokoschka. The expression, the emotion, perhaps the insanity, are brilliantly captured. I also love the way the brush strokes speak on their own.

Normal?

What is normal? Is there such a thing as normal? A great deal of the time I do not think that anyone is really normal. We are all slightly insane--idiosyncratic, esoteric, quirky. I also think that everyday we walk a fine line between living a "normal" life and being committed to an insane asylum. All of this fascinates me and spurs my creativity.

Words that relate to my art... more to come on this later

pain
healing
normal?
hollow
alone
people
emotion

...

Sorry about the delay in posting. I managed to come down with a nasty virus.

"Brushed Pale 4"

The fourth subtle piece on computer paper. I am really pleased with the expression captured on this one.

"Brushed Pale 3"

Subtle on computer paper with a sketch done first, once again. I am not really pleased with the way that this on came out. It became too wet too fast, and thus there is too much green and not enough clarity.

"Brushed Pale 2"

Another subtle piece on computer paper, which I sketched out before painting. I am trying to force myself to use as few brush strokes as possible.

"Brushed Pale 1"

Another subtle piece in watercolor, this time on plain computer paper. This time I sketched out a face before I painted.

Lyrics to a song (Somebody's Baby by Jon Foreman) that has moved me lately:

She yells
"If you were homeless sure as hell you'd be drunk
Or high or trying to get there or begging for junk
When the people don't want you
They just throw you money for beer"

Her name was November, she went by Autumn or Fall
It was seven long years since the autumn
When all of her nightmares grew fingers
And all of her dreams grew a tear



She's somebody's baby
Somebody's baby girl

She's somebody's baby
Somebody's baby girl

She's somebody's baby still



She screams
"Well if you've never gone it alone
Well then go ahead, you better throw the first stone
You got one lonely stoner
waiting to bring to her knees"

She dreams about Heaven, remembering Hell
As the place that she visits and knows all to well
Every now and again, when she's sober
she brushes her teeth



She's somebody's baby
Somebody's baby girl

She's somebody's baby
Somebody's baby girl

She's somebody's baby still



Today was her birthday, strangely enough
When the cops found her body at the foot of the bluff
The anonymous caller this morning tipped off the police

They got her ID from the dental remains
The same fillings intact, the same nicotine stains
The birth and the death were both over
With no one to grieve



She's somebody's baby
Somebody's baby girl

She's somebody's baby
Somebody's baby girl

She's somebody's baby still

The song is on Jon Foreman's myspace if you would like to listen. (http://www.myspace.com/jonforeman) Look under the Winter album.

I wanted to do a piece that was really subtle, but this is too subtle. There is not enough contrast to make it interesting. I think if I had at least rendered one section more tightly it would have asdded more intrest. Perhaps I will work one it more tomorrow.

Collaborative Art

This is the second collaborative art piece that I created with my sister. I first painted the face in blue, and then my sister added interest to the piece by brushing in the red on top.

Collaborative Art

My sister and I decided to do some collaborative art pieces. My sister started this one, then I added in some more color and value contrast to complete it.

Newspaper Experiments

These are just some experiments I did using newspaper for a paper. The textural quality of the words is interesting, but the newspaper is very thin, making softer edges difficult without destroying the paper.



My sister decided to paint with me while I was home. The following two are her experiments.