redonk.

Warning: Complaining in 3...2...1...

I've been having a hard time working on my own art lately because of the ridiculous amount of time I've been spending slaving for working for MRAC. I had no idea that an unpaid volunteer position could consume so much time and energy. It's redonk. Between meetings, typing, retyping, editing, Facebook posting, managing a "simple" Gmail calendar, responding to endless condescending emails, and attending weekly meetings, etc... I've been giving between 5-15 hours per week of my personal time over to them. Time that I'd like to be creating my own art, thank you very much. It seems like I'm doing a whole'lotta work so other people can have time to work on their art and hang in the monthly shows. I'm all for furthering the center so community members can participate and enjoy, but at some point I have to draw a line.

I'm keeping my promise to myself: I'm giving myself until August to see things change there. And change for the better. If not, I'm out. I've got a life, too you know.

UPDATE ON 7/13/12: I QUIT.

anxiety painting

I've been quite the fan of splatter paintings lately. You might recall my last two, abcdef FAIL. and Time to Eat??. The first part requires me to squeeze copious amounts of acrylic paint onto a 5x5 canvas. Controlled messiness is fun! After that, it's all about what I find in my mind to apply to the surface.

I started a new one this past week.. reds, creams and yellows. I accidentally blew a load of glitter over it. But I ended up liking it, thank God. There's no undoing glitter. Once it's there, IT'S THERE. It looked to harmonious, so I added silver. I remembered that I had my mom's old medical dictionary from when she did nursing... so I pulled it out and started perusing through different afflictions, disorders, viruses and diseases. Good times, indeed. Who knew that SO MUCH could go wrong within your own body?

I'm not sure what order I found things in, but I discovered various medical drawings of the body and explanations for anxiety disorders. I started combining them together on the surface, adding my own paintings and ink drawings to blend them all together. I'm still not finished, but here's the progress so far.

birthdays

I've always enjoyed making birthday cards. I thought I'd share the one I made for my sister this past week.  Since her and her husband (and baby to be... and kitties) will be moving onto greener pastures soon, I decided not to get her a big birthday gift that she'd have to pack and unpack within the next week. LAME. That's rule #1 of moving. Do not give people more shit that they'll have to pack. Because it might end up at the Salvation Army by Tuesday.

I decided to get her gift cards instead. Which is something I normally try to avoid, but this way if they need any decorations, then they can jet over to Home Goods.. or if they need any paint or repair items for their new digs, then they can go to Lowes or the Depot. Instead of buying a little gift card holder, I decided to attach little pockets into the card. Five tiny little fasteners secure it to the card, and then I adorned it with stars n' such. I think she liked it. I certainly enjoyed making it!

I should have taken pictures of the chocolate cupcakes I made. ... but we ate them all. Here's a visual. It looked like a 5 year old made them. A slightly professional 5 year old.

mermaids and duckfishpony

Speaking of things that I might not have mentioned before: Duckfishpony. Go ahead, Google it. DUCKFISHPONY. You'll find I had my 15 minutes of fame on HGTV's show That's Clever! What the hell is a Duckfishpony, you ask? Well, it's the loneliest creature in the lake, that's who.

Back when I was working as a summer seasonal employee at the DEP in New Jersey, I had the task of drawing up a coloring book to give out to kids who visited various state parks and forests. (My other 10 minutes of fame is located here. Don't be too impressed with my crappy drawings, please! NO AUTOGRAPHS.) When my assignment was done, I ended up combining some of the animals together into new creations, which I then ecstatically shared with my graphic designer friend Jonathan. The first one was the DFP. Soon after, the Foxcycle followed. Then Cathippoeagle.

Fast forward to 2005. I had minor surgery that left me couch ridden for a whole damn day. My mom asked me if there was anything she could get me, so I asked her if she could bring me some clay. I ended up sculpting the DFP in all it's three dimensional glory. Through a curious series of events, a producer from the show That's Clever! ended up calling me in 2007 asking if I was interested in having it on the show. I said no. YEAH F***ING RIGHT I SAID YES. It aired in 2009, and since then the DFP has graced the shelf on desk, watching quietly over my creativeness.

Fast forward again to 2012. My cuz asked me if I could paint a cast iron mermaid for his steamboat. I started mixing the colors, and almost immediately I thought of DFP. I brought him down from his shelf and let him watch me paint the woman of his dreams. Once she was done, I staged a little photo session with them. They're friends now. But soon, she'll be sent off to my cuz so she can grace his boat in all her glory. And yes, I know I'm crazy.

DFP approaches with caution...

he makes his move...

SUCCESS.

did I ever share..?

I don't think I ever really posted any pictures of my work from college. Here is my largest bark and latex figure that I entitled Unnoticed. I love this piece. I had an interested buyer after my senior thesis show, but they wanted me to crate it and ship it to Texas. That never happened, which I don't mind.

Here are two smaller ones that I did earlier this year. I made two small relief sculptures out of plasticine and embedded the tree bark texture into it. Then I made a plaster mold so I could cast multiples in latex. Once several layers of latex are brushed into the mold, I peel it out and adhere each one to a piece of tree bark. Then I start to build up colors, all attempting to camouflage the latex figure into the background. More colors always equal more depth.

I was obsessed with the shape of these figures for a long time... it's a female torso from the collarbones down to the hips and pubic bone. Each one is a little different. Just like everyone, I guess.

fond memories

Yesterday I had the pleasure of running into my former sculpture professor while I was hanging up fliers for the Bike Art & Student show at the MRAC (<-- another story, for another time). I had just paid for my large iced coffee at the local DD, when I turned around and instantly recognized her. And I was so flattered that she recognized me as well. With our coffees in hand, and my bike in tow, we walked back to her home where we discussed our activities over the past seven years. I was surprised that she remembered my bark and latex figures. They were something that I've always loved to work on, and should do so more often, now that I think about it.

From the way I was explaining my so called 'art-goings-on' it honestly sounded like I was trying to convince not only her, but myself of my involvement in the art world, if you could call it that. I've done a good amount of work in the past couple years... but... I don't know. Nothing extraordinary, I guess. And no, I'm not being hard on myself. It's the simple truth. I'm an artist with professional training with a full time accounting job. I try to allot the time to work on pieces on my 'off-time', and sometimes I simply cannot. Sometimes I feel like I've failed already.

Seeing her again... It makes me yearn to begin new sculptures. It makes me want to finish the work that I have already begun. It makes me sad that I don't have a functional sculpture studio space to work in. Sure, I have my 'office' that doubles as my sewing room, where I can cut stained glass and paint... but a sculpture studio, it will never be. I'll either ruin the floor, muck up the walls, damage the stairway to and fro, this or that or so on. Sigh.

Will I ever work on sculpture ever again? HELL YES I WILL. I don't know when, but I have so many concepts that I want to explore. I wonder if other artists have gone through similar periods in their lifetime. First and foremost, I have to finish three projects that I've already started. None of which I'm keeping myself. Only one of which I'm being paid for. I have to stop doing that, too.