This week, I drove to my old house in Pennsylvania to pick up some old art supplies and canvas I had left there when I moved out. My hope had been to assess what was there and potentially use some of it back in my New Jersey studio– art supplies can be expensive, at time, and I am no stranger to using what I have or gesso-ing over an old or failed painting so as not to waste the canvas. When I got there, I found three or four old, painted and half-painted pieces, including a huge 60″x48″ canvas. The date at the bottom of the painting read August, 2005.
And it was terrible. Really terrible.
I loaded them up and drove them to my home in NJ with plans to get each into the studio and painted white immediately. I didn’t want anyone to see them– as far as I was concerned, they didn’t represent my passion, talent, or potential and I didn’t want anyone judging my current work based on this old, awful stuff. Frankly, I was a little embarrassed of them. Continue reading
Hope everyone is enjoying their weekend – I know I am! This week was one of those non-stop-isn’t-it-over-yet-how-can-I-have-so-much-to-do sort of weeks, and I am feeling quite grateful for the weekend. I have promised my fiance that I will most definitely clean the house and catch up on the laundry tomorrow– I’ve been holed up in my studio all week long preparing to hang some new work in a fantastic new restaurant space in Media, PA (House on Jackson Street, if you’re in the area!). So before I commit myself to domestic duties, I wanted to make sure to add a new page to the site I’ve been planning on adding – a page dedicated solely to sketchbook images and drawings. These are the pieces I do in preparation for a painting, just to blow off creative frustration, or sometimes, just because I love drawing with ink. It contains images like this one:
Be sure to check it out here, and I hope you enjoy!
This is by far the largest painting I have undertaken in quite some time. I’m genuinely enjoying the space, and the progress on this particular painting, so I thought I’d share a few shots of the work in progress with you. Enjoy!
Some new work. All acrylic on canvas – see the full details on the current work page.
As always, contact me with questions, queries, or interest! Enjoy!
“Awk Fox” – 24″x24″ Acrylic on canvas
I have struggled with the idea of an artist’s statement for just about as long as I’ve considered myself an artist. As a painter/illustrator, I was sure my visual pieces were capable of speaking on their own– in fact, I figured that if they didn’t, I had failed at what I consider the primary goal of all art, to communicate. Regardless, I kept coming across all the reasons I needed an artist’s statement, all the reasons I “should” have one, all the situations I would come across as a professional that would require it. And so, I struggled. I like to think that I am pretty handy with the written word, but writing about yourself and your work is an entirely different game altogether. There’s so much pressure there. Ultimately, in the years I have spent as a professional artist, I have never successfully written and artist’s statement, and, frankly, I have never needed one– but I’ve recently learned a few things about this elusive beast, and now I’m going to share them with you. Perhaps you will spend a few less years writing terrible things about yourself than I have.
Among those in the art world– and by “art world” I don’t mean you and I, I mean the galleries, dealers, and agents running this business– there are mixed feelings about artist’s statements and whether they’re necessary at all. It turns out, far less of these people require them than you may think, though some still look for a statement in introduction or even use them in shows. The problem is, most artist’s statements are just plain bad. In theory, they should offer some limited insight into the art itself– who the artist is, the technical process, the artist’s belief system of philosophy, or how the piece fits into a larger body of work, and the like– without stepping all over what the art is able to say for itself. The artist’s statement should be demure and totally okay with playing in the background, while the art remains the focus. The artist’s statement should offer insight and information without being required when it comes to actually viewing the painting (as a side note, if your visual art piece is not accessible to the viewer in some way outside of a lengthy and elaborate statement, perhaps you should consider becoming a writer instead…). And the artist’s statement should add to and compliment the work is accompanies, not distract from it.
Unfortunately, the increase in artist’s statements has come along with an increase in awful. Continue reading
Saying it’s been a while would be a massive understatement. I’m pretty sure I haven’t legitimately blogged since August. To be fair, I spent September through December finally finishing my last semester of graduate school, and am now the proud owner of a very fancy and very expensive piece of paper.
In all seriousness, my degree is in urban studies and community arts, and I am endlessly proud of myself for actually working through this and finishing, regardless of how long it took me; and I’m endlessly grateful for those people in my life who have supported me and encouraged me throughout the process. I am also pretty grateful that it’s over. Don’t get me wrong – I have always loved school, and I have always been a good student, but I was ready to be done this particular phase of my life.
I spent January and February recovering from the process. I know, that seems totally dramatic, but it felt like I worked nonstop for months and months and kept promising myself a break that never came. When January arrived and I had actually graduated, all the breaks I promised had added up! The last two months have seen me functioning. Not really reaching out and doing anything huge or worthwhile, but maintaining. Keeping the house, keeping my standard clients, doing a few small artistic projects, getting dinner on the table most nights, and not much else. For the first two or three weeks, I felt intensely guilty about this. Intensely guilty about not doing enough, taking advantage of my new skills, doing something that justified having this new degree, and, frankly, not blogging.
Guilt is a funny subject for most creatives– we all seem to feel it much more intensely than others because, many times, our creative productivity (and sometimes our jobs) rely solely on our own internal motivation. Most of the people in our lives don’t eve recognize our art as anything more than a hobby, and if we’re lucky they may classify it as a “side job,” let alone do they realize the work, effort, and constant self-motivation it takes to do something because you love it, and not simply because you get paid for it. No one pushes you to be a creative– it’s something you’re born with, and it often has to begin and end with the resources we have on the inside as individuals. There is no boss pushing and motivating, no company offering incentives and raises, and sometimes, there aren’t even parents and loved one pushing and hoping for your success as a creative. If I had a dollar for every time someone in my family asked, “Are you working yet?” I wouldn’t worry about promoting myself as an artist. Continue reading
The past two months have gone something like this: grad school, vacation, grad school while on vacation, grad school upon returning from vacation, a vacation from the vacation, final exams. Notice the lack of breathing in between – and the lack of art making, and of course, blogging.
Through the haze that is my second-to-last semester of grad school (so close!), art found me – even when I had decided that I wouldn’t have time for any side projects until the week after finals. Months ago, I signed up for elance.com – if you’re a commercial creative (designer, web designer, illustrator, etc.) and you haven’t checked out elance yet, do. It’s lovely.
I initially looked at the site because it had been recommended to me in my search for a web programer. As a graphic designer, I get a lot of clients who want me to make them websites. Since I can design them but not actually make them working sites, I normally outsource the programming portion. While I was searching through the droves of potential web-guys from all corners of the globe, I decided to also sign up as a contractor myself – extra work never hurts! That meant, among other things, that once a week I would get an email with a summary of the jobs available for bidding that most fit my profile. I hadn’t yet taken the time to completely fill out my profile (grad school, again), so the suggestions I was getting were a little all-over-the-place. Somehow, in my mostly unhelpful email from elance two weeks ago, I stumbled across a woman from the west coast looking for “word art”. Even with a blank profile and no history on the site, I bid on her job and linked my bid to my etsy shop so she could see some of the typography paintings I had already done.
She hired me immediately.
She asked if I would do a piece featuring the word “move” and the colors purple and teal. It just happened that there was lovely story behind the to-be-gift, and she was kind enough to share it with me via email. Continue reading
Just a quick post tonight – it’s Sunday evening and I was thrilled to spend most of the day locked away in my studio sketching in a brand new sketchbook. As a rule, I don’t usually change sketchbooks in the middle of the year unless the initial one is full (not the case with the moleskine I posted about a while back), but I couldn’t resist a couple of little 5.5″x8″ Strathmore mixed media sketchbooks I stumbled across in Michael’s clearance section the other day (only $3.00 each!) The paper is much heavier than my other sketch books and suitable for all kinds of wet and dry media. Below are a few of today’s finished products! Enjoy and let me know what you think!
There has been a lot going on here in my little home studio!
As you may have seen in my last post, my birthday was at the beginning of the month – I turned 28. Twenty eight marks 16 years since my grandfather taught me to paint with oils. Twelve years since I marched myself down to the guidance office at school and demanded that they replace all of my math and science classes with art and music classes. Ten years since I graduated high school and decided to attend The Art Institute of Philadelphia. Seven years since I graduated with a Bachelor’s in Graphic Design. Four years since I started painting again after having given up on the art after college. And, I decided while reflecting on my 28th birthday over a glass of wine and sushi with a friend, high time I started taking myself as seriously as I wanted others to.
It’s confession time – I have always relied on others to value me and my talents more than I value them myself, because placing real value on the things that I chose to do made me uncomfortable. It made me uncomfortable because if I grabbed on to something – like art – and threw myself into it and failed, I would be devastated; but if other people insisted I should throw myself into it and I kind of did, I couldn’t be blamed if it went terribly awry. I have grappled for years with art not being a serious enough endeavor, but more so with not believing I was good enough to make it one. Continue reading
