Hello peeps it has been forever since my last blog post. I had committed to twice a week and then my website went down getting me out of my routine and it all went downhill from there just like any exercising routine. I have been working...not as much as I would like but I have. Mostly on this piece which is 36"x24". It has taken a crazy amount of time. Even with the small scale donut studies I did, these lil tasty treats have been giving me fits. I do a combination of photo transfer, painting and graphite in my work. Getting all of these different mediums to work together is sometimes super easy and other times like trying to get a puppy to sit still right after feeding it 53lbs of sugar. My reasoning for using all of these different media is about more than just being mixed media, it plays into my message for this piece that hopefully will be explained in the final post for this piece soon. I plan to finish it today before and after an appointment I have. I plan to work a lot this week so stay tuned for updates! P. S. I had my second donut date but I haven't started the piece yet....any guesses who it is?
I did not forget about "A dozen donut dates"....but February got away from me. I thought I had my next date set up late January but my date and I were mutually spent that week and didn't meet. (In may donut dates defense, she didn't know it was an official donut date) I spent my time on other artworks this month and looking for new Call for Entries since our show at MSJ has already come down. It seemed fast, but that is what happens when it is a mid show opening. I am however starting two new artworks today. This is the pic I will be working from and is the donut idea I had before I was distracted with the donut dates. More to come in the following days with this one and the other one that is still swimming around in my brain waiting for a life line to bring it in to reality. Happy Sunday
Thursday night was the opening of "Movement" at Pop Revolution Gallery in Mason, OH. I had the honor of having my artwork, "When Thoughts Defy Gravity", selected as "Best of Show". I created this piece specifically for this call for entry. It is a product about the process. The movement an artist has from ideas to reality.
Not sure how or when but my ability to edit my website returned today. It's been out for a week. Here is my latest finished work from about a week and a half ago. Another work in my "Imagine" series. "And the world will be as one" Inspired by John Lennon's "Imagine" lyrics. Color, size, shape, preferences don't have to keep us from living as one. "I hope someday you'll join us" This piece was created using many different media to reflect the different people in the world. People can be vibrant, subtle, colorful, etc. but they all have value and similar elements that weave them together to work as one. I wore this hoodie relentlessly for years until the zipper broke and I had to hang it up hence the way it is portrayed. Anyone know how to add zippers? I think it is screaming for a comeback!
It is hard to explain the opening night of an exhibit but it is kind of like your mind is naked on the wall for everyone to see what goes on inside your head. It's exciting and terrifying all at the same time. It's also like a wedding where you get about two minutes with each guest before telling yourself to move on to the next person so that you get a chance to talk to everyone that was able to come. I had many great conversations last night about specific artworks and the show as a whole. One of the most interesting conversations was about how much more exciting it is to see the work in person. We have grown accustomed to viewing artwork the size of Instagram on our phone and forget that it lives out there in the real world many times larger than that one inch by one inch frame. My friend Mary said that artwork has a "presence" in person that you just can't capture on such a small scale. That conversation has inspired me to start going to see more work in person again instead of behind my screen. Thank you Mary for coming and putting that thought in my head. If you are reading this maybe we can meet up and go to some galleries together. I have a following of friends and of course family that come to most if not all of my shows and I cannot thank them enough for their love and loyalty. I truly have the best group of supporters out there. You may recognize the tiny human above as my adorable donut date, "Tess". She probably attended her first show in her mom's belly. The gallery surprised us with an awards ceremony where they brought back our most loved professors to present us with medals and a gift from the gallery pictured above. I was not expecting this and it just added to the nostalgia of the night being back in the place I called home for so many years in college. I had very few moments to think last night but I took a moment to look at all of those professors and just remember how much they inspired me then and how much they continue to inspire me all of these years later. It just proves to me how important teachers are in our lives and how I lucky I am to have one of the most important jobs you can have in this life.
#MyOnlyGuns is making it rounds from California to Ohio and then landing in Washington, DC next month. It has been selected to be a part of the "Quietly Powerful" exhibit at Sense Gallery. Good art is not about matching your sofa, but about the conversation it starts. "Being a teacher is an awesome responsibility to not only teach tiny humans but to keep them safe these days in our schools. This artwork is a statement about the thought of arming teachers. It is ridiculous to ever think that the same people who are throwing themselves between the bullets and their kids would ever be willing to be the people to fire bullets. #MyOnlyGuns I ever want to pack in my classroom can be seen here. Fellow educators, please roll up your sleeves and join me."
A Dozen Donut Dates has officially kicked off with finishing my first piece. "Tess" took a little longer than expected, but I experimented with some new techniques that I loved and hated all at once. Late one night I completely wiped out her face and started over. This series was born to get back to the old-fashioned idea of spending time with people in person and seeing what they have to offer on the inside. We often make decisions about people much like when selecting our donuts. The donuts are in cases much like people on social media. We can only see what is on the outside until we bite into them or until we spend time with them. This was not my first donut date with her family, we have a mutual love affair for donuts. We met at the park, ate our donuts (that much like Tess, wore a sparkly sugar coating) and then went for a hike where Tess, dressed in a fluffy pink hoodie with sparkly gold stars, was perfectly happy foraging for rocks in the mud and grass. After finally getting her to leave, we decided to meet for lunch as well. Her dad carried the pink glittery treasure box into the restaurant and sat it in front of Tess who insisted on sitting right by me. We had met for dinner only a couple of weeks before and her treasure chest that night consisted of makeup that she proceeded to pretend to put on me throughout dinner. Assuming similar contents, it was the best surprise ever to see not only the rocks she had collected that day, but the rest of her rock collection as well. This lunch was spent naming every rock in the chest and then coloring them with markers. Names included were things like "froggie" because it resembled a frog and "rainbow" for a completely gray rock. What I love most about tiny humans is their ability to be uninhibited by rules and logic and to just be themselves. I've known Tess since she was inside her mom's belly and she has always been a spitfire, a character, and a beautiful tiny human. I can not wait to see where her creative mind leads.
Teaching tiny humans takes tremendous energy. I try to work on artwork a few nights a week and a majority of the weekend. This week grades are due and entering grades for 925 tiny humans has taken a larger chunk of my time. Last night though, I stole 2 hours to myself and worked on Tess. Hopefully finishing her up this weekend and then planning Donut Date number 2.
While dropping off an additional work, I was able to get a sneak peek tonight of the show at Studio San Giuseppe, Mount St. Joseph University. The opening will be Feb 1st from 5-9 and the show will run through the 18th. It's a bit of an overwhelming feeling to walk around the corner and see 17 of your artworks all hung together in one space. I think a lot of the feeling was due to the large number of self-portraits I have done in the last year. I mean no one is really a fan of looking at their self, but like Chuck Close said, "I drew myself because I was the only one in the room." As artists we get inspiration at the craziest of times and it's just easy to use your own image. But I have also always thought that every artwork anyone creates is a self-portrait whether it includes their image or not. The irony of this body of work is that I have always hated to have my picture taken and would avoid the camera at all costs. Then one day I realized that if I didn't start taking some pics soon I'd only have old lady pics.
What looks like the aftermath of a donut war is actually a behind the scenes look at my latest delicious adventure. What began as a photoshoot for a stand alone next artwork, ended with a bakers "dozen" of ideas for 2019. Initially I was working on another artwork for "And the world will live as one" lyric from John Lennon's "Imagine" song. Color, size, shape, preferences don't have to keep us from living as one. If you know me you know my love affair with donuts. My favorite is all of them. Like people, each one has a reason to love it. Some have fun sprinkles or stripes, some are strikingly beautiful, some are nutty, some are plain glazed...what you see is what you get, and some have their deliciousness hidden on the inside. I went to one of my fave donut shops and bought more than a dozen donuts to arrange, cut, and my fave BITE into to get a variety of shots to choose from. While working on small studies this past week an idea screamed into my brain late one night. I'm going to go on a "dozen donut dates" in 2019 and document them and the people that share them with me in an artwork. We spend so much time on social media that we have become antisocial. I want to get back to finding out what deliciousness people are hiding on the inside. I went on my first donut date yesterday....more to come on that later. I'm working on several artworks at once right now and my mind is all over the place which is actually nothing unusual. Stay tuned...you donut want miss this. Interested in being one of my donut dates?
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AuthorGood art isn't about matching your sofa, but about the conversation it starts. Archives
August 2021
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