a conversation between friends

t: funny how the best art / creative stuff seems to come from darker places
but interpreting the art is definitely half of the awesome part about it

me: true.

t: on which point?

me: the darker places, and how you interpret it. a specific painting comes to mind. let me see if I can find it.

(photo property of the Metropolitan Museum of Art)

Picasso.
Blue Period.
I saw this painting in the MoMa when I was maybe 20 or 21 and it kind of changed my life.
in a dark but eye-opening way.

t: mmmm, i've never seen this one before
i like it...

me: neither had i.
I'd never heard of it, never studied it. There's a TON of art I've never studied.
But there was something about this that made me think a bit harder.
This man is eating a meal.
a simple meal, bread and water, milk, wine?
and it just struck me, because obviously the person who would be affected the most by this painting would be a blind person.
But a blind person would NEVER SEE IT.
Never be able to understand what blue really means.
never be able to comprehend the difference between a bllue period and a red period for a painter.
never know the difference between water color and acrylic and oil.
Never know what Picasso's painting style is.
Yet, here is Picasso, painting this blind man eating a meal for some unknown reason.
I mean think about it....
People create things, when you break it down to bare bones (9 times out of 10, and yeah, I'm grasping at numbers here, but a creative mind like you will get me :P)...
People create things because they either have to or else they're miserable.
OR because they have a story to tell or a message to convey.
Of all things to paint considering option 1, why would Picasso paint this to keep from going insane creatively....
and no blind person could ever truly understand the story that this painting tells or have any kind of message conveyed to them.
You can describe a painting to a blind person until you are blue in the face, but you're never going to be able to make them feel what you feel when you see it for yourself.
That's kind of a helpless feeling.
Which, ironically enough, is what I felt when I saw this painting as I came to this realization.
Ok... that's my artist soap box.
I'm done preaching, lol

t: haha, you should write stuff like that in a blog :p

Art Gallery opening at Convergence on Saturday the 13th

Convergence is having an art show this month entitled "Works from the Heart". Yes, that's right, that's my painting on the home page. Boo yah. I will have two pieces up and for sale. Come on out and support local artists!

I won't be able to make it there until later because I won't get off work until a bit after 8 pm, but I'll be hauling ass to get there as fast as I can! Come see me and my art!

Saturday, March 13, 2010
Opening Gallery Reception starts at 7pm and goes until 10pm.
1801 North Quaker Lane, Alexandria, Virginia, 22302

If you decide you'd like to buy anything, just go through etsy.

Work in Progress

Still needs some work. My new etsy page is here and artwork should be a few times a month. Check it yoyo! I'll keep you posted.

I have a pretty significant event coming up on March 6th for networking, so hopefully this will be a great way for me to make some sales. I just ordered business cards that will be here soon, so things will hopefully take a good turn in the near future.

Make love! Make art!

EDIT on May 9th, 2010: You can see the completed painting here.

Recent Works

So it's been a while, and I'm back to the old grind again, with some new (somewhat) secretive projects up mine and perhaps someone else's sleeve. :P  But that will stay quiet for now until it's better formulated, and even then, I think it's going to be pretty hush hush and likely long in the making.

So for now, some photos of some recent works to keep you updated.  More to come on a more frequent basis soon.

"People are going to want to make sex all over your art."

So I was talking to a coworker who knows that I've got this group art show coming up this weekend, November 7th, to be exact, and she asked me how I was doing with my art.  I told her that I was fine with the art, mentioned the pieces that I had done, and the pieces that are almost done, and the pieces that I was still kind of mulling over whether or not I was going to try to get them done.  Then she asked me how I felt about the pieces.  I told her I felt fine about them.  I like to paint for me, because it feels so gratifying when I'm done.  I paint to work through something, or to capture something, to tell a story or to share a message.... similar to photography, but 100 times more exhausting in pretty much every sense of the word.  Then she asked me how I thought people would react to it, and that question, I didn't know how to answer.  I know all about it from my side because it's a one on one relationship, but ultimately a painting winds up on a wall somewhere and it gets seen, reacted to, appreciated, bought, ignored, critiqued, pick the word, it doesn't matter.  I had no idea how to answer that question.  I told her that I knew that I felt good about the pieces, but that I really didn't know how in this new venue, with new people, and with this much advertisement how it would be received, and that this was the only thing about the show that made me nervous.  And that's when she said it.  That's the best damn sentence I do believe I've had said to me in the last six months.  

"People are going to want to make sex all over your art."

Absolutely fucking hysterical.  I laughed soooooo hard and felt soooooo encouraged.  Love my friends.

It's Thursday morning.  T minus 40 hours.....  

I think we're going to have some more photos like this one from last year's art show after 40 hours with no sleep.

And a few more just for fun...  I sliced my finger open on this painting as I was pulling it out of my truck.  It was still wet when I hung it up on the wall.  1'x6'.

Me and DannyPants.  The man with the plan, and the man in charge of the show.  He's also in charge of the one this weekend, and will be getting me set up with my solo show within the next 6-12 months.

Madre coming out on crutches to show me some love!

Watercolors with DannyPants

So Dan's been bugging me since I moved in to paint watercolors with him.  Tonight was the first time we did. It was fun! Dan went from a field on fire with barbed wire in the sky (it's what I saw), to a "band poster" because he's been a little preoccupied lately. And I made something that I think looks kind of like those caterpillars in Sonic the Hedgehog in the lava levels except for now they're all stuck together and are turning into bubbles.

That's right. We're awesome. We know. You don't have to say anything. :)

From Medieval Latin "prolificus"

Holy hell, it's been a long couple of days...

(the color is best in photo three...)

A List of Studio Musings

1. It is officially the Red Room.

2. It's bigger than any other space I've ever had to work in, which means it's going to be messier than any other space I've had to work in. (And Dan is not a fan of messes, so I should keep up on that.)

3. There is a HUGE mirror in my studio, which could easily come in handy in any number of situations... but I have a feeling that it's either going to be me using it so that I have a nude model to work from and that I'll be painting a lot of myself (which is normal, but strange to think about since I've never done it before), or that I'll become incredibly self-aware/self-conscious about my body since I'll be staring at it all the time since the mirror literally takes up an entire wall.

4. I am very glad for this HUGE mirror nonetheless, because at least if it gets messy, the room still feels big!

5. Art is fun, but not as fun when you find yourself sans-Disney Princess.

6.  It's orange. Which is different. And bright. And fantastic.  And I'm completely unaccustomed to it. Accompanying my vibrant orange walls, there are gold satin sheets hanging on the walls catching paint that goes places I didn't mean to send it flying, and a deep red rug on the floor. And I love it! And I'm pretty confident that my color palette is about to become incredibly vivid and warm, or will go to the opposite extreme and be very cool and calming.

7.  "Barack Obama is black."

8.  I've got a convenient shelf for wine, but no wine on it.

9. I've got a record player, and more records than I know what to do with thanks to Dan having about 20 times more vinyl than I do.  

10. I discovered something horrible about myself tonight, and I know that the reason I discovered it is because I was in my studio.  As excited as I am to have the Red Room, I'm a little scared of it now because if this is only week one of being in it and I discovered something this disturbing, then what's next?

11. I have a list of ideas in my sketchbook, and I need to start acquiring supplies to make them.  Home Depot rejects, here I come.

12.  I've got more ideas than I know what to do with...  it's going to be a good Fall!

I'm not naked...

...but I feel like I am.  

I've set some artsy fartsy goals for myself lately.  One of them is to become better at drawing, and another to sketch more frequently about whatever pops into my head.  So you can imagine the look of horror on my face when I realized that I left my sketchbook at work last night.  It's sad when the starving artist has to decide between using gas to go get her sketchbook on her day off or waiting for two days since I have today off and a work meeting not in the store on Tuesday.

In the meantime, I'm going to try and distract myself by drawing octotrees for the one piece that is in progress right now, and I'm hoping some new music might help to enhance the distraction?  I just bought the Hazards of Love by The Decemberists, Noble Beast by Andrew Bird, and my second copy of In Rainbows by Radiohead.  (The first copy went AWOL along with an old lover a while back, I think.) Hooray for F.Y.E.'s $9.99 sale and a roommate with the hook up.

Uhg, this is soooooo frustrating.  We'll see how long I go before I break down and head to work to get my baby!

Thanks be to Dan.

So there comes a point in every artists life when they suddenly realize that a studio is absolutely imperative in order to maintain sanity.  This usually happens about..... oh, the second week of art school.  

If you're a financially stable artist, you can afford a place that's big enough for your all of your basics like a bed, your clothes, some decent furniture, a TV if you're into that, and maybe even a kitchen that's big enough to prepare more than Ramen if you can fit additional food groups into your budget in addition to all of your art goodies.  

But if you're a starving artist, you've got your bed (or an air mattress for 8 months, not saying any names, though), and some cheapo furniture from Target and whatever mom didn't want anymore, your clothes, your desperate attempt at a healthy diet, and the remaining 50% of your belongings are your art supplies.  If you're lucky, you've got enough space to make this work.  If you're not, then you're doomed to always have a messy room, always have paintbrushes and tronies in the drawers next to each other, and to always be forced to clean up after yourself when you're done just so that you have enough space to walk around the next morning to get dressed for work.

Not anymore.  Right now, my bedroom IS my studio and has been for the last year.  But starting August 15th, I will have what so many artists dream of and have to fight tooth and nail for to make it happen.  I will have a bedroom AND a studio.  Not only that, but I'll be paying for both of those rooms for the price of one!  This is right about where the clouds part and a ray of sunshine beats down like a spotlight on a young twenty-something covered in paint holding a half-full wine glass in one hand and a paintbrush in the other raised triumphantly in the air and with her mouth in a "O" shape makes a faint heavenly "oooooooooooooooooooh" sound with a bewildered look on her face and wonders how the hell this happened.

Long story short, through a series of crazy events, I'm moving into a new place (my 4th apartment in less than 12 months), but I think that this one by far will be the best living arrangement ever.  My good friend is giving me the hook up.  Not only do I get to be roommates with him, but I also get both my rooms for a sweet deal for the Metropolitan area, I get to shorten my commute to work by about two-thirds, as well as watch what happens when you put a chihuahua in a confined space with a cat that's twice it's size.  

This is going to be fun.