Figurative Paintings

I’m excited to be showing at Cupcake Royale in West Seattle… although their hanging methods are a bit of a challenge (stringing wires from the ceiling rail). With the help of my dear friend Kaylan, everything came together– despite an angry rail hook nearly claiming both our eyeballs!

The work in this show focuses on the mixed media work I’ve been developing this year. Many include my recent fascination with CD cases (jewel cases) as a surface element. Maybe it’s the influence of having worked as a graphic designer for a local CD manufacturer (Realtime Inc.) for a year and a half. Maybe it’s the recent CD design project I completed for musician Mike Greenleaf (see Jan. 16 2009 entry).Or maybe it’s just all the thoughts I’ve had lately of how quickly the world moves to update its technology, and the debris it leaves in the wake of this change. I enjoy painting on these clear little boxes, the dimensionality of painting on each surface and looking into the piece, or including findings inside of them to interact with the image.

I have realized that I am an impatient artist. My inspiration isn’t very polite– it doesn’t wait for a primed canvas and the perfect spread of paints. Creation for me is this inexplicable desire to interact with my surroundings, to tell my story with them. With this body of work, the creation of art is as much about how I see the world and what I choose to collect as it is about the technique of handling materials. With this in mind, I want to reflect on the time and place I NOW find myself– the things I thought about and what crossed my path along the way.

“It Doesn’t Matter, It’s Just Us, and Nobody Really Knows Us”-Mom, acrylic on jewel case with found cigarette foils and beer bottle cap mounted on book cover, approx 9″x11″

Look at What the Weird World Washes Up, acrylic on jewel case with pastel drawing, approx. 17″x11″

My reflection in a simple piece called “A Thought,” gold ink on an empty jewel case floating in shadowbox frame, approx. 10″x10″

This is a detail from a self portrait I painted in 2007. It is now buried in the ocean, in a sense, because I painted this over it:

The self-portrait had been an assignment in Zhi Lin’s class at the UW. He was a very exacting instructor, and because of this I learned much from that one class. But that also means I spent about 60 hours on this painting… and while that’s nothing to some artists, to me it felt like years. I have always felt that I capture the essence of what I’m painting best when I work quickly and keep it fresh. There is always the battle to not overwork a piece and “close it down,” as they would say in critiques. Well, the self-portrait had closed down for me, and maybe I was also sensitive to my brother’s comment that I looked sad in it. I tried to explain to him that the expression is not SAD but REFLECTIVE, but the fact remained that I didn’t particularly want it hanging around for years after I finished it. So, one day I just started slashing across it with turquoise colors and experienced a sort of elation as the thing that was in my heart jumped out onto the canvas. THIS is what I want to be looking at: in just a few hours, an image had emerged of my friend Audra’s favorite beach in Aruba painted from the memory of my 10-day visit there.

This was a fun venue to show my work. The coffee shop is a converted house that features live music every weekend, and serves beer and wine as well as coffee and tea. I remember seeing the work of AJ Power here some years back and was very impressed. I’ve since seen him popping up all over town, from his open studio in Ballard on their Second Saturday Artwalk to the Bellevue Arts Museum artsfair (this year taking place July 24-26). He inspired me to follow in his footsteps to book a show at C&P… hey, I figured it worked for him!

Plus, they had this great little orange room that made all the colors really pop!

Artist Statement
I don’t ever want to settle into the complacency of “knowing.” The goal of my work is to reach that feeling of being lost in the woods (minus the fear)–that refreshing disorientation that makes you see everything with a clarity, as though for the first time. How does one stay awake that way, without letting the mind be lulled into the sleep of assumptions? I have recently started creating with found objects instead of automatically painting with oils on canvas, as I have done for years. In this way, I want my practice of artmaking to be a physical ritual of inviting the presence of mystery, not presuming to know where it will lead. What I have been surprised to find is that this way of working, for me, is often more truth-telling and autobiographical than ever before.

These paintings were commissioned as cd covers for the folk/americana musician Mike Greenleaf– he’s putting together a couple of albums as a retrospective project. I’m going to be working on the graphic design of the cd packaging as well. My process for these paintings involved sifting through a pile of his photos to find the emotions that best expressed the nostalgic sincerity of his music, distilling them down to their essential qualities in sketches, then executing the underpainting in burnt sienna before building the final color and detail on top.

(Detail)

(Detail)

Paintings on view Dec 15- Jan 15th.

Artist & Craftsman Supply, 4350 8th Ave. NE, Seattle, WA 98105. 206-545-0091

Artist Statement: “B-sides and Rarities”
This show offers a glimpse of the often-unseen drawings and paintings that form the process of exploration through artistic academia. On view will be those pieces that stood out to me from the piles of work that line my path through classrooms and studios over the last ten years of study. I chose them for the energy they contain— raw, some of them unfinished, they reflect those moments that I was totally absorbed in making new discoveries.

Putting it all together… This was a great venue for this kind of show. There was more variety than I usually put up– and I brought way more pieces than I would need. The A&C guys were great help– donating last-minute materials, giving occasional input and swingin those hammers with me. Thanks, guys!

They even let me sign the wall!

This would be a beautiful thing to look out your window and see except on the day of your well-publicized reception!

Had a great time regardless! Thanks to those of you who ventured out of your houses that night to get there! And to those who missed it, the paintings will be up until January 15th.

What began as a move to new studio space became a move to a new living space as well… a total restructuring of my life. My work in the last couple months, (and lack of blog entries!) has been marked by this transition. I painted my last self-portrait directly on a mirror as commentary of my shifting environment– the figure relating to an ever-changing ground. I came up with the concept as I was looking for another room to rent in a house with roommates, and finding none that satisfied me. I realized now is the time to strike out on my own, to gather all my possessions that were usually spread out in bigger living situations, and condense them down to a 200 sq. ft. apartment. The gesture of the pose is me contemplating whether or not I can do it. The phrase also works on another level– the issue I’ve always had as a non-conformist: not wanting anyone to put me in a box, and always being aware of not doing that to others. Further, as I realize there are other ways to live than I had previously accepted for myself, I’m questioning the ways in which I create art that might be different from what I’ve been accepting for myself as well. I’m thinking of the box I had always fit myself within– and whether it may be time to break out of it.

Sophie picked up her painting yesterday, and was very excited with the results. She immediately exclaimed “I love it!” with a big smile on her face, and beyond that: “There’s not a single thing I don’t like about this painting!” Now, that’s what I like to hear! I love being able to bring that kind of happiness to someone with my work. It’s a moment like that I say to myself “this is why I do it!”