. . . mixed it up

. . . using different colors in this painting. I think I showed it on this blog before, but not hanging up. I took this picture just before I sent it out into the big wide world. It's an abstracted version of an old building wall.


Yesterday I worked a bit on another woven piece that I had already started. . . I just don't know what to think any more. It seems the less I like a piece, the more marketable it is. What does that say about my taste? Or abilities? Not that I don't like that piece I showed you yesterday. It's just that I never intended for that piece to anything but experimental, and it turns out to get rave reviews. The piece that I felt was most boring was deemed to be most "sellable" and the piece I thought was most interesting was judged to be "attractive to only the most sophisticated buyers." Whatever.

. . . predicted the future

and this is it??? I showed this to my art rep on a whim yesterday, saving it to the very last. I had told him I had some very experimental work. He love it. . . he promptly wanted four more of them. Remember, this was the wacky factor at play in my studio last week. The woven canvas scraps, the used crunchy painted masking tape, the homemade and purchased stamps, bits and pieces of paper from the trash, stencils, some of my own photographs, wallpaper border scraps, spray paint, wooden skewers, twine and string. . . there is even a winning McDonald's Monopoly ticket off a large diet Coke for a free breakfast muffin. . .


Remember, I called it. . . said it was going to be the next big thing. . . said it sarcastically, sardonically, facetiously, jokingly. . . but I am absolutely gob-smacked. I just hope that I can retrieve the sense of nonsense I felt when I created it. . . I just let go, no thought to what I was doing. I hope I don't start to overthink these.


And, here's the thing. . . he didn't even see the truly wacky one I've been working on, the prototype with slashes, burns, sewed-up rips, wire, mesh, etc. And, he arranged a show for me toward the end of February. And I got another check. And Blue Valley North High School wants me to come back and display my art for its art students in mid-November. A truly amazing day.

. . . rescued an orphan

painting, that is. This is actually the painting that put me in a funk a few days ago. It was going nowhere and it really was boring me. With not much to lose, I mixed up a concoction of fiber paste and various red and orange paints and spread it over the top of what I had already painted. A few splashes of black here, a few of gray there. . . call it done. I actually like it now.


My art rep called me last night. He is coming to town today and will pick up the six paintings I have ready for him. He tells me what I suspected. . . the economic downturn has effected the sale of art in a major (bad) way. He had urged me to paint bigger pictures. . . now he has requested that I paint smaller and in multiples. . . which I will do happily. It not only costs the purchaser less, it costs me less, too, both in time and supplies. I'm looking forward to it. I told him I had some highly experimental stuff that I might or might not even show him (the woven stuff) and he said basically the same thing I did. . . the wackier, the better. But I think I will spend some time honing the technique before I send the wacky ones out into the world.

. . .found internet love

La case aux fétiches, Acrylique et technique mixte / toile, 130x88cm, 2003.




Yesterday as I was working on a small prototype of a partially woven canvas, I searched the internet for wisdom. . . was it absolutely necessary that a canvas be flat? Were wrinkles and creases and rips and tears against the rules?


I found an association of French artists that more or less answered my questions. Here is the website: http://lapeaudelours.free.fr/html/artistes_et_amateurs_de_la_PDO.php. Totally amazing to me.


My one year of high school French some 40 years ago is not sufficient to translate these pages but really, who needs words when you can look at these paintings? I especially enjoy Rillon's work, like the painting above. Enjoy.

. . . just couldn't think

about a title for today's post, let alone a topic. So here's an old picture from March, 2008.


On Saturday I took Betsy to get a Halloween costume. She wanted to be a princess. When we got to the store, in the costume section, she first found a lovely pink ensemble that was perfect. Three steps down the display, she found one she like even better, pink with gold mesh; around the corner and down the other side, she found yet another princess costume, white faux velvet with a hoop skirt. Then we found a beautiful purple and blue Ariel (Littlest Mermaid) costume that completely invalidated all the other costumes that had come before. Except for the cheerleader costume that she wanted to buy for next year. After much discussion and "are you sure? are you postively sure?" we got the Ariel costume and went to her house to try it on. It itched, it was scratchy, she cried, "I wanted to be a princess." She put her X-large red KU T-shirt on under the scratchy costume. . . no, no, no, it still was itchy. She was inconsolable. Then her mom came home, they compromised on various options and Betsy went to her party as Ariel with her face made up to somewhat resemble a cat.


Then Joey and I had some on-on-one time. We went for a ride in the car. . . first he kicked off his shoes. Then he spilled all of a sack of cheese fishes in his carseat. Then he stretched out his foot and with his prehensile toes managed to push the button to lower the window on his side of the car. He was ecstatic. . . "win-down". . . perfect use of his words, the window and down and the wind was rushing in. As he started to throw stuff out the window, however, I pushed my button to make the window go back up. He saw what was happening and managed to put his foot on the window as it was rising. . . something bad happened then and now the window won't go up or down. It's stuck and man, is it ever "win-down."


Had a dream about art . . . using a couple of pieces of old canvas. . . including some of the woven canvas intersperse with string and twine and wire and paper. Will try to remember the dream and recreate the piece of my dreams, so to speak.

. . . hit the wall

No new art today; just this edited picture of some piece of machinery.


I uploaded a few paintings to my flickr account last night. I had been under the impression that my art was improving with almost every piece I did. I was inspired by my photographs and trying new techniques and materials, as well as putting some different design elements into them.


When I looked at the results in flickr, I'm disappointed. . . and I can't decide whether the paintings are crap or whether the photos of the paintings are crap, or both. I know it's been a problem getting good photographs of some of the larger pieces I've done, but . . .


I think I'm just tapped out right now. . . as I said a week or so ago, I'm "mailing it in". . . playing it safe. It has something to do with the economics of the times. . . I don't want to waste paint or supplies because they're too expensive. It has something to do with worrying about my future, about whether I'll have to go back to work in a real job. That prospect looms large, assuming that anyone wants to hire a 58-year-old woman who hasn't done much of anything in the business world for six years, and pay me enough to make it worthwhile to get in the car and drive to said job. Thanks to the current economic mess, my husband's guaranteed pay has been cut by 50%, but at least he has a job, unlike many of his fellow workers in the automobile industry. The stress is really hitting him hard. . . he's sick all the time with various ailments that he knows are stress-related but nevertheless have symptoms that are quite real.


So I guess I can sit around feeling sorry for myself and bitching, or I can do something to help out. I'm floudering right now. . . waiting for the Universe tell me what to do. . . does that really work?

. . . colored inside lines

This painting is loosely based on a picture of a wall of an old building, about 40 x 40". It's very orderly, isn't it? Almost boring, especially after those others that I have shown lately, with the crunchy textures and different colors. I think I wanted to paint something that was a sure thing. . . no risk of having to pitch the canvas when I was done with it. . . no reason to tear it up into strips and make a woven piece. This one is pretty safe, I think; no stress. I've noticed that I have been using blue a lot lately, all different shades, from navy to bright purplish to greenish blue. It's fun to see what shade I can come up with using difference washes. The left side of the painting is a combination of pyrole orange and quinacadrone burnt orange, poured directly onto the canvas and mixed as it was applied. I love the resulting mix of the two paints. The dark brown strip was created using some kind of "antiquing" acrylic from the hardware store I found in the faux finishing department. I thought I would try it out. The background is pretty textured. . . I used the joint compound, but at the advice of the painting guy at the hardware store, I mixed the joint compound with gesso and some white glue. He told me that joint compound was made to go on rigid supports, so I needed to add something to it to make it stick to the canvas better. It works very well, dries a lot quicker than Venetian plaster, and doesn't flake off. It's a lot less expensive than Venetian plaster, too, even with the additives.