it's been a while

I've neglected this blog the past year but while I'm working on my new website I'll try to keep this up to date. I've made a lot of paintings that I don't like, but here are some that I do.

...and this too

an idea of what I've been doing...although I don't really know what I've been doing

These are the oil paintings I've made since I started renting my studio in mid August. There are also a number of drawings but I'll have to photograph them later. These photos are horrible, but I just wanted to put something up for now. I'm not satisfied with these paintings but I have been painting differently since graduation, so in that way these paintings are little experiments, and I am excited about that. They are almost all painted from life. They are various sizes. The still lifes are the newest, one I painted today.

I am still on the planet

I am still here! I am still painting! I have a great studio two blocks from my house with a fantastic little coffee shop on the corner! So things have been good but I haven't felt like sharing or showing what I'm working on. It's not that I'm plotting a grand masterpiece, I'm just relishing the freedom of not having to be critiqued constantly. I realized that although I had some of the best times of my life at school it also took a little of the fun out of art. It's just hard for something to stay care free and fun when you have assignments, deadlines, and grades to worry about.

So I don't want to show what I'm working on, on account of the slim chance that someone will give me they're opinion. World! I love you but I just don't care what you think! At least not now.

That's it for now folks, I'm going to go hide in my studio for a while.

a long time coming...

I am graduating!!! I've completed everything I just need to put on that dorky cap and gown and get the diploma. I haven't posted in a VERY long time because I have had a crazy semester! But amidst the chaos I managed to make some work so here it is.

This is a little series that I did as a part of a collaboration between the Tyler painters and the Boyer School of Music composers. My partner was Annie Neikirk and you can visit her website here: http://aneikirk.art.officelive.com/default.aspx
She wrote a piece in response to my PV2 series of drawings and then these are the paintings that I made in response to that work. All together we titled the collaboration Elegy. They're all a foot x foot on panel.





This is another series also about the military (big surprise I know!). I painted these paintings from some photos that a friend of mine that was stationed in Iraq in 2005 emailed me. These paintings were a nice "full circle" moment for me because I received these photos back in 2007 and tried to make paintings of them then. I never really finished them though because I felt that I couldn't make a painting that was as powerful as the original photos. This year, three years later, and the friend that took them has since passed away, it felt like a good time to try painting them again. The paintings came out really quickly, I only spent about an hour, maybe two on each of them. It feels like the photos have been floating around in the back of my head for three years and my brain has been slowly digesting them so that when I felt that it was time to revisit them my hands just knew how to paint them. It feels like a nice way to end my time at Tyler. They are all about a foot x foot on panel.







Last but not least are my embroideries. Making these things killed my hands and tested my patience. They each have at least 50 hours of work in them. They are all 4 x 6 inches, the exact size of the photos that they are copied from. I'm happy with them. I like that they read as a photos from far away. I'm interested in making something that is such a slow process out of a snapshot which captures a quick moment. Please forgive the bad photos. You can see my reflection in the glass, I will take some better ones soon.

one month, and the entire past 14 hours...my hands hurt

These are horrible photos and I plan to take better ones but I needed to get this post up just to feel some satisfaction. I have been working on this embroidery for a month now, but I completed the last third of it or so TODAY. And by today I mean the ENTIRE day. I have spent the past 14 hours embroidering my little heart out. I have watched three movies, countless "This American Life" podcasts, and nearly worn out my radio. I have drank more hot chocolate than should be humanly possible. BUT IT IS FINISHED! I think that I'm going to try to make two more before the semester is up. I like the way that the photo translates into embroidery and I like how the very medium gives it a different read than when the same image is painted. It is 4"x6" the exact size of the original photo.


the front


the back


TA DA!

"safe with me" BFA show

I'm sorry that it has been so long since my last post. I haven't been posting because I've been very very busy! with exciting things! I had my BFA show titled "safe with me" a few weeks ago; it was up Feb 3rd through the 6th. Despite the opening coinciding with a snow storm we still had a great turnout. I got a lot of good feedback on the show as well which was really great to hear. It took a lot of work but it was very much worth it. Here are some pictures:











Since the show I have a lot of new things in the works...I'll post about them later...

http://www.thepuddingweekly.com/featured-artist.html

It has been so long since my last post and I have a lot of new stuff to share! But in the meantime check out this site. I am the featured artist!

http://www.thepuddingweekly.com/featured-artist.html

things in the works

I suppose that I'm playing with how much information to give to a figure. I'm thinking about how when I paint in the face it changes everything because it suddenly gives the figure a specific identity. I'm not sure that's something that I always want to do. But then I ask myself why I'm painting figures at all. Maybe I just can't get the faces right. Maybe I'm just sick of painting ex-boyfriends so I'm avoiding it. I'm not sure if these are finished or not and I'm feeling stuck... any thoughts? anyone?

rainy day landscape

I already sold this baby! Well, sort of...I traded it for a beautiful painting by the ever so talented Joanne Birely :)

still working on a title...

This is a difficult one to photograph because there are alot of different whites in there, but you can get the gist of it.

Artist Statement

My paintings are personal and often autobiographical. I frequently use candid photos as source material; the kind of photographs whose lot in life is to make their way into scrapbooks or to be hung on refrigerator doors. These photos, taken to be seen by friends, lovers or family members, are meant to capture a moment in time. They are a physical and visual way of remembering; they can simultaneously feel posed and natural. My work translates photos of this quality into paintings. This translation interests me because this type of photo caries specific memories and associations for a particular person but when it is translated into a painting it becomes an image that is meant to be viewed and accessible to many people. This creates a tension in that the image then serves as both a specific and personal image as well as referencing broad and universal themes.

My imagery highlights that which is simple yet significant: families, friendships, communities, time and memories, but through these themes they ultimately discuss larger issues such as war, the military, death and decay, the loss of innocence, and regret and mourning. I am interested in when the themes of life, that are too overwhelming to fully comprehend, interact with daily life. How do you mourn someone; how do you cope with the permanency of death? One might surround themselves with the deceased’s photos yet try to move on, because we want to heal but we don’t want to forget. A photo can be a connection to the past and yet it can also be a constant reminder of one’s regrets, the permanency of time, and the inability to change the past. I use photos as source material because they are nostalgic, romantic, and deeply personal; that for me is ultimately what painting is about.

the thin line between finished and unfinished

and I've started painting...or something like that

These are mix of drawing and painting using oil, acrylic, and even pencil. I have started some larger oil paintings and even finished one, but I don't have any images of them yet.