Cherry painting #2

Holy crap, it's been 2 1/2 weeks since i last posted???!!! that's some messed up stuff, right there.
however, it's not like i haven't been working. my craft partner in crime, BunniesLoveCheese, and i are in full holiday craft market gear. one each weekend. i should probably take a moment to promote the next two we are doing:




THIS SATURDAY, DEC. 11th
"Standard Craft"
holiday craft market sponsored by art collective PositiveSpace
@the Standard Tap
2nd&Poplar
11am-3pm

NEXT SUNDAY, DEC. 2oth
"Procrastinator's Holiday Bazaar"
sponsored by PositiveSpace
@ Johnny Brenda's
Girard & Frankford
12-4pm

BE THERE. BUY [local!] CRAFTS. DRINK [local!] BEER. EAT [local! FOOD. [but the crafts and beer are more important.]
come out and support laura and me! and if you won't buy our wares, for love of god, at least buy us a beer!

so that is what i have primarily been working on. i WILL have photos of some of these new items, i just didn't get to take pics before packing up for our craft show last weekend. [and then left my huge box of goodies at laura's.]

in addition, i have also been working on finishing Cherry's hummingbird series. And i am happy to announce that the second painting is now complete! the picture i uploaded doesn't do it justice, as it is really about the paint and materials. you kind of have to experience it in person. i also need to take a picture using my tripod in the daylight- i had to do a lot of photoshopping to even get it to where you can see whats going on. there's a lot of glare from the amount of iridescent pigments, reflective beads, and polycrylic i used. but when you view it in person, you can see the blurry outline of the buzzing dragonfly wings- and when the light hits it as the right angle, the wings become a bursting of light. fun.

i'm really looking forward to all this holiday craft and making of xmas presents to be over so that 1. i can ENJOY the holidays with family and friends, and 2. so i can really get to work on all of these ideas that have been brewing [mostly while listening to joanna newsom, as cheesy as that may sound..]

Cherry Painting #1

no, not a painting of cherries...

This is the first in a set of hummingbird paintings I've been commissioned to do by one of my biggest supporters, Cherry!

Working on this painting gave impetus for the epiphanies and revelations I've had about painting, my work, and where I want it to go [see previous post].
And, for the first time in a LONG time, I felt like I was at home with painting, that I wasn't trying to contrive something because I "thought I had to". And MOST IMPORTANTLY, I didn't have the thought demons [the nay-saying critics inside my head] nor was I bothered by the ringing of past professors' voices in my ears.

I never thought I'd really escape that, but I think that listening to all of the artist & crafter interviews on this one podcast I've started following has really helped me. Listening to others speak about their work in a non-pretentious way, and the fact that they are successful artists outside of the mainstream and outside of the Art World, is really giving me hope. I've just been so caught up, these past few years, in everything that art school was preaching, the direction my professors were urging me to go in....and, they very well could be right, that maybe I "should be doing this other thing, this other way". But when listening to those voices prevents me from painting at all, then "that way" is the wrong way. For me at least.

To put it one more way, it's as if I came to a multidirectional fork in the road, recalling voices that urged me to take one way, with my own mind telling me to go another, and then over-reasoning/analyzing to take yet another route. And so I stopped, and sat/stood/slept at that fork for the past 4 years, only imaging where each of those off-shoot paths could take me. And everything that has been happening lately- including commissions and realizing that staying in a 9-5 desk job will eventually kill me, I just decided to get up and start walking, intutively, whichever path my feet gravitated towards. So, I guess, this blog will be documenting my "travels".

So, thank you, Cherry. I am free from the bonds of my past! And, I think, on the path moving forward again.

yes I said yes I will Yes

[written yesterday]

Dear B.Log R. Eaders,

[Had to make it look like i was actually typing an email, in my Outlook window...]

I really should be typing up meeting notes right now, but instead I have to write about this idea I had while freefalling into daydream. I think it just saved my life [metaphorically speaking] in this moment. Perhaps I’ll go home re-energized and ready to make when I get home- instead of excitement-turned-burned-bike-riding-energy-turned-tiredness.

So, it’s as if all of the ideas and notions swimming about in my head, for pieces and works and paintings and craftings converged and knocked me breathless. Lately, I’ve been thinking incessantly about how to marry my need and love to paint with my obsessed infatuation for fibers and fabric into something that makes sense. And then the side-swiping thoughts about making meaningful work, work that says something beyond “ooo, perdy colours and feminine imagery…” and the thought demons that usually ensue.

But they didn't get to attack. I glided past them in my freefall of thoughts: I think it’s really coming down to using the paint as material to construct the backgrounds/backdrops- much how I am accustomed to painting trees and other flora. Then come these thoughts of the fabric flowers I’ve been making- they can’t be contained to the two dimensional backdrop. They need to exist like their living counterparts do- in space, around our ankles and hanging from trees. This is turning into 3 dimensional spatial planning, e.g. installation work.

Then backlash thoughts: what about painting? What about manipulating the 2 dimensional plane into the other worlds? BUT: my paintings have always been about SPACE. There is always the space around the foreground elements- I’ve never filled the entire surface of the painting [well, I have, at the urging of a well-respected professor- who was all about the painted surface, painting as the tactile paint living on the surface]. But even within that parameter, I’ve always needed the painting to act as the viewfinder to the larger world- wherever it may be.

[I digress.] So, these flowers- give way to the thoughts of the birds I’ve been painting- that I feel need to come alive through many pieces and bits of rich fabrics- 2 dimensionally through collages, or entering the 3 dimensional world- maybe both. Maybe I need to bring these animals alive in real space, much like we give personas to our stuffed animals when we are young. These animals need to exist off of the picture plane. Then, looking at Mandy Greer’s work lately, thinking about how these lush yarns become knitted/crocheted forms that turn into tangles of branches, leaves, or Spanish moss, extending from the background walls. I need to make this place, where material is color and color is material. And I need to create this place that I live in, inside of my head, this world I run to when everything on the outside is pressing in….like Alice’s world beyond the rabbit hole! [yeah, ok, cheesy considering my long obsessive history with the story, imagery, and characters…]

And then after this freefall [haha, um, down the rabbithole?], I’m slammed back into reality when I happen to look back down at my meeting notes. Surrounded my glowing computer screen, piles of photocopies, an array of yellow-lined paper with various work notes scribbled all over, and more of the same pinned to the murky gray walls of this cube-this cube I sit in, day after day. And suddenly, with that thought, I am propelled back into the free fall of day dream and think about how so many of us are stuck inside these walls: dreary, drab- some photocopy-lined, some not- and how we create a mental escape plan to some other place, whether it’s some complete fantasy wonderland, or if it is just daydreaming about the unattainable vacation to the islands.

So, the culmination of these whirlwind thoughts and time-warp daydream is this: I need to find a cube, cover it in the photocopies and legal notepads I plan my escape from each day, and create the “safe place”, the mind-space of refuge that I escape to- and welcome all office job refugees into it. Not so metaphorically, but actually, visually, and physically.

And that, y’all, is my goal/resolution-revolution for 2010.

[View of Mandy Greer's installation piece, "Dare alla Luce"]

[i HIGHLY recommend checking out her website/work:

http://mandygreer.wordpress.com/]

another pair down

completed these in one night, 4 hour period. my fastest to date!
AND NOW, on to the decal experimentation...
[will report back tomorrow]

ps. sadness in philadelphia. damn yanks.

finished before the AM

these were for a custom order of Day of the Dead Pumps, through my Etsy shop. i'm super proud of myself that i painted these in two NON-late nights! thanks god, because i am getting sick and need sleep for the 20 other things i need to work on...

in the meantime..

I made this flower pin especially for a wedding I attended this past weekend. I needed to brighten and liven up the black dress ensemble I was wearing, as it looked like I was instead going to a funeral…

But it made me excited about making more flower pins/clips. Any constructive feedback to offer?

So, I know I haven’t been the best at keeping up with this “one art item a day” thing. But that doesn’t mean that I’m not making.

I am currently working on an array of projects, mostly custom orders and commissions:

-custom Day of the Dead painted shoe order

-custom Flamingo painted shoe order

-custom painted motorcycle tank of the Leprechaun [omg, don’t even get me started on this….you don’t even know how many hours I have/must continue to VISUALLY STUDY this disgusting image…]

- 2 commissioned hummingbird [, etc] paintings

- need to finish a commissioned Medusa painting

- AND preparing for holiday craft shows!

Not to mention trying to decorate and prepare a costume for our Halloween party..

As I finish each of these projects, I’ll be sure to post them, until then, there might be a few days to a week in between each one. And I promise that one of these days I’ll write some insightful words, complementing the work, that are worth reading.

I wish my body could take more coffee. I wish it also needed less sleep to function.

all talk

A-hoy there, bloggy voyeurs!

I have returned from that brief hiatus. My sincerest apologies, especially to those of you that may have been sincerely concerned with my creative productivity and overall artistic health. This past week and a half has been pretty busy- as the rest of my October is becoming. Actually, the rest of the year [holidays!].

Despite my absence, there has NOT been a serious lack of work. After returning from an art-unrelated business trip earlier last week, I spent about two nights working on a Brownie/Girl Scout style jumper [not having access to my own computer or camera at the moment, I had to internets search for a specimen, pictured].


I absolutely LOVE the fit and simple style of this jumper and I wear mine all the time, [the pro of being an overweight 2nd grade dumpling] and figured why not make a whole bunch of them in different colors and fabric patterns??? I decided that this was THE occasion to bust out the yellow and orange butterfly patterned curtains, circa 1978, that I had been saving for all these years since first finding them in one of my mother’s closets when I was in 9th grade. [The same year, incidentally, that I had started my yearly resolution of “making my own clothes”…which has just finally been seen through in this past year.]

So, working diligently for two nights, into the wee hours, using the original brownie jumper as the pattern itself, I created my dream jumper.

And it totally sucks.

I know, I know, it’s part of the working and learning process. It’s just hard when you are so accustomed to drawing and painting coming so easily, and having the control to make the final piece look at least half-decent in the end. I know that I just need to go back and make a new jumper, learning from my mistakes [too tight around the upper thigh region, need to iron the fabric and work VERY slowly on the strap pieces, in order for them to LOOK like actual jumper straps, measure more accurately, etc etc etc..] but it’s hard not to fall victim to desires of instant fashion gratification. Needless to say, I won’t post pictures of the jumper until it is adequate enough for me to wear. So, maybe by next week you’ll get to see what amounts of my sewing skills…

[Also, this project, along with every time I work on altering/creating clothing, reminds me that I should stick to pursuing what I’m really good at- many people can make mediocre clothing, but few people are painting shoes and bags that look like mine…]

And what an appropriate transition into the next bit of project news that consumed the remainder of my week! I spent Thursday night and all day/night Saturday working on a new wallet THAT I AM SOOO FREAKIN EXCITED ABOUT. It is definitely a present to myself, and will never be up for sale, as anyone that even remotely knows me can see why. What spurred me to work on this wallet was the fact that I am currently lacking wallets from my display inventory…



.. And I wanted to have a good display inventory for the 2nd Annual Philly Swap-O-Rama-Rama that took place this past Sunday. It was my 2nd year participating- I think next year I’ll need an assistant- it was soo busy!! I didn’t get to forage the piles and piles of swapped clothes and accessories, but I did help a lot of people make their 2nd hand shoes into something special. If I were more organized for this day, I would have brought my camera to document their projects. There was a lot of picture taking, and I have been able to link to a few people’s personal pics…hopefully the rest will be available tomorrow and Thursday, when Philadelphia Weekly and City Paper put out their next issues. I was also asked to talk about my work on camera, though absentmindedly never asked what the video was for/where I could eventually find it. Hey! There was a lot of excitement going on…..But as soon as I find these artifacts, I’ll be sure to post or link them!

Conducting the workshop at Swap-O-Rama-Rama made me realize that I kind of miss teaching- especially to those that are genuinely interested in learning certain processes or techniques. But I think I’ve went on long enough here, so more on that story as it develops…