Temptress

What does “mixed media” imply? I used hand-made paper (that I made), paper I bought at the recycling center, oil pastel, acrylic and gloss medium.

The Temptress is every hottie who makes unsuspecting people melt into a puddle on the floor – that is why she is faceless. She is wearing this mask that is almost animal like in shape – we’re all animals not just the attractive woman, who may or may not know it. I also covered her mask with the tissue thin paper and her breasts – so she is even more mysterious and… tempting.

LowBrow now open!

LowBrow at Gallery X
October 5–30
Opening Reception: Saturday, October 8, 7-10pm

Lowbrow is a widespread populist art movement with origins in the underground comix world, punk music and hot-rod street culture. Most lowbrow artworks are paintings, but there are also toys, digital art, and sculpture. So if your work is too embarrassing for your mother to see, it’s Low Brow… and it’s for us!

Small Vices…

Mini paintings.

One of the exhibits I am planning on putting work in is a mini art exhibit. The works are not allowed to exceed six inches… considering how large I typically work this was quite the artistic challenge. I rose to the challenge. I did two, 4×6″ pieces:

Best ending line of an overheard argument “Jesus! Why Don’t you Get a Job?!”

Vice (Thirst)

I was thinking to myself about being Macho. It’s like the masculine ideal. How in some circles it’s still the way to be. I wish I could say it’s just older people, but I feel (and fear) there may be some younger people who have this extreme view of gender and how one acts and shows how “manly” they are. The idea of being “manly” is by drinking, fighting, having sexual prowess, being the war-hero, being the hunter, the bread-winner, etc.

This is one of the ideas I had come up with…

Simplicity and insanity.

I am truly glad to be doing something proactive for my future by going to graduate school, but I really really missed painting! There are aspects of my current program that are disappointing, one, no graduate level studio art classes – am I not a future art educator?  So I feel a little, meh about it. I have to put up with the not so great parts to get to the part that will end up being a benefit. Besides there are far too many other things I could bitch and moan about that are far worse than not taking a graduate level studio art class.

I wrote the following several months ago. I’ve been editing it. I think it sums up some of my frustrations:

Finding Balance.

Simplicity is waking up on your day off and realizing you have nowhere to be and no one to please. It’s taking a walk in the woods and truly enjoying the fresh air, the surroundings and letting everything else, all your worries fall away. It’s ease. It’s mindful. It’s harder than it sounds. We live in a “fast-paced” world. Everything is at your fingertips, fast, and everything is so important. It needs to be done now, not moments from now. Everyone is so ambitious.

I’m ambitious. I want to be self-sufficient. I wish to complete my master’s degree. However, it seems the more I try to help myself the more complicated and stressful things suddenly become. Instead of being like typical college students who possibly have one part time position, I have two. And I still need to rely on unemployment to get by— I would die a happy woman to never have to deal with the people at unemployment ever again . It’s all so complicated and bureaucratic! Just to file unemployment is a stressful project. I have to prove to them that my schooling is helping me improve. I have to tell them what classes I’m taking and when. There’s paper work to fill out and phone interviews with people from unemployment — and I still need to do homework!

I wish there were a solution. I just want to breathe. I want to absorb my schooling, which I’ve worked so hard to get to. I want to enjoy life, simply. I want to be able to follow my heart. Wouldn’t it be nice if we really could do whatever we wanted? That it wasn’t just a nice sentiment reserved for the lucky, elite few who have the means and opportunities to simplify their lives and follow their hearts? Everyone should be so lucky.

Your Silence.

the chics in the window.

It started with one idea of a self-portrait of me standing in the window. I saw my reflection one evening in my kitchen window, the idea came to me, how I liked the way the window pane divided me in sections. I sketched it out.  The idea behind it being on the outside looking in or vice versa… that is why there is no background other than the window pane. It was  feelings of longing to be included, feelings of wanting to just be like everyone else, it was voyeurism, but not always of the sexual kind, it was years of loneliness — it was a damn lot for one 24″ x 32″ painting. Next thing I knew, I did two more!

I feel like they have also become me at different stages of life… as the last one is clearly a young girl while the others are clearly not.

p.s. the writing in the last one is supposed to be backwards:

another fine new england Sunday…

another cold cold day where I sit at my computer freezing in my layers sipping cocoa with a splash of cinnamon. I had gotten the idea upon reading a recipe online.  I was a little short on chocolate to actually melt so I used Swiss Miss with a splash of cinnamon… its a fine combination for those short on cash and chocolate to melt.

Someone made a comment about my art today… telling me how talented I was. Considering my work doesn’t often sell,  get into a lot of shows, or get much recognition,  I kind of forget that I have any talent at all! I’m just like this mad-cat-lady scribbling and throwing paint at stuff: canvas, paper, post-it-note holders, myself whatever happens to get in my way. Sometimes it forms a picture sometimes it forms a piece of shit, so I throw more paint on it and hope for the best.

old school…

Way back in 2001, while I was a senior at UMASS, I took junior painting because I was a graphic design major and not a painting major – which is confusing even to me sometimes. At the beginning of the semester we had to write an artist statement and come up with a series of work.. this is painting number 2, I believe, of said series. It had a name, if only I would’ve written down somewhere… I would’ve remembered it now!

I know the concept was women’s body types in fashion… so this was my politically (though not always atomically correct) fashion models.