Drawings

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″

My drawing today didn’t get interesting until I admitted my mistakes,
Until I stopped trying to be perfect,
Until I let the picture have something to say–
responding to what was really there, instead of my
expectations,
assumptions,
and fear.
I have often felt as though my art is my child–
If that is true, I don’t want to treat it like Michael Jackson:
Driving it to a destiny of artifice
and performance without substance…
Caving in on itself.
Honesty and uncertainty are the truly interesting things.

The human things.

Mi Casa, a house in Aruba, oil pastel on paper, 9″x12″

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.

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.