Artist Statements - Abstract Painting and Collage Projects

Abstract Assignment (Interstices I, II, & III and Their Twins)

Interstices I (right) and Twin I (left)

Interstice II (right) and Twin II (left)

Interstices III (right) and Twin III (left)

Knots in wood.

Steam rising from a hot cup of coffee on a Sunday morning.

A dead fly on the windowsill, legs frozen akimbo, fragile wings coated in a soft layer of dust.

Cracks in the sidewalk, shadows on the wall, peeling paint.

Rust.

These are quiet things. Their spontaneous appearances in our lives need to be caught and scrutinized, or else they will slip by unnoticed. They are soft-spoken and shy, we are deaf and too busy to listen. But even in their tranquility they are alive, and to me have a powerful intrigue, immense beauty, and grace.

in·ter·stice: A space, especially a small or narrow one, between things or parts.

I did not set out to create Interstices I, II, and III. Rather, I would say, they found me. I really feel as though these paintings knew from the beginning how they wanted to be. It was each of them who dictated where to paint and how to paint; I merely carried it out for them. In their entirety, these paintings are not part of the group of the quiet things of which I was speaking. It is in the spaces between all of the vigor, activity, and excitement that this simple placidness exists. Part of my method in creating these pieces was throwing water onto an already painted canvas, which caused an interesting eroded effect. I began calling these beautiful eroded areas “interstices.” I then filled in each interstice with white (or in the case of Interstices III a dark purple) so that their presence would not be passed by. I found this process very pleasing and not at all monotonous. As my brush traveled around each minuscule curve, I got to observe it and enjoy all of its tiny complexities. Despite the incredible individual attention that I gave each pocket of stillness, upon completion I felt strongly that they deserved further exploration and recognition.

I found and was inspired by Ingrid Calame’s paintings, which are the product of her stain, crack, and skid mark tracings. Employing her hard-edged painting style and bold colors, I created three “Twins” (one in conjunction with each original painting) inspired by the interstices themselves. Something that I find interesting is that once compiled and arranged into a composition, these interstices are no longer silent areas of rest. They become loud and bold. They want you to hear them. Showing the Interstices and their Twins together as diptychs rather than on their own acknowledges this transformation.

Collage Assignment (Currently Untitled)

Touching is communication with our surroundings. It informs us and grounds us; it lets us be present in the material reality that we exist in. For me, this piece is the embodiment of tactile impulses. Visually, it is mainly a formal piece as it is purely nonrepresentational. Contextually, it is the product of an exploration in materials based on their texture, consistency, or physical action done with the hands and fingers:

Texture: Burlap, stuffing, pillowcase, stitching.

Consistency: Paint, glue, various acrylic mediums.

Action: Hand sewing with needle and thread, stapling, forming the “body” out of chicken wire, Twisting the “arms” out of wire and stuffing them, rubbing paint and mediums into the burlap, pulling the threads apart.

Many of these physical sensations overlapped as I worked, creating a kind of compound tactile experience that mirrors our daily existence.

I am aware that its tubular-like appearance is anything but inviting to the fingertips. I am aware that it is gross looking. But I believe that many people have lost touch with what is real in favor for more “comfortable” things. Our society is becoming further and further removed. We talk/text on our phones or listen to our ipods instead of interacting with the people around us; our food is so processed that it scarcely resembles its natural form anymore. We are squeamish. We are sad - that’s what we are. When I engage in the making of pieces like this one, I feel connected somehow once again. Touch it. Feel it. Squeeze it. Reconnect.

Art Show Opening

In a few words, since I am tired and really just want to go to bed and read Dear Theo:

The opening of the juried student art show was yesterday from 3:00 - 5:30, and it was very well-attended. I wasn't expecting so many people to show up and support the student artists, but they did (which I think is great!! :]) Awards were given to several pieces, including my triptych painting! And "Hank" sold!

I have spent the day thus far...

...weight-lifting, constructing canvases with my dad, and doing dirty jobs (ie. banking, putting away laundry, figuring out my class schedule for next semester etc.) I just finished slathering on the first coat of gesso - boy does the canvas suck that stuff up - and I figured that I might as well post another post while I'm waiting.

Two bits of (good!) news since last time:
1. My cell-inspired abstract paintings died after the birth of something new and much better.
2. Two of my pieces were accepted in my college's juried student art show: My big "Hank" on cardboard (Drawing I final) and my triptych assignment :D The show is running from April 5th - 26th, and the opening is this Sunday!!

Goodbye, my little cell friends. Hello, Interstices I, II, & III.
>>in·ter·stice: A space, especially a small or narrow one, between things or parts.

Interstice I

Interstice II



Interstice III

They just sort of happened, dragging me far away from where I thought I was headed. After the initial "blast-paint-onto-canvas-and-don't- think-too-much-stage," they made it pretty obvious to me where and how I should continue to paint them (more thoughtfully.) For some reason I was strangely dedicated to them, and as I articulated each tiny but fascinating area I felt as though I was doing something of supreme importance to me. What I'm the most excited about though is that I have found a way to work in paint which feels special to me. I think the technique I used to create these paintings deserves a lot more exploration.

So these are kind of an offshoot of my abstract painting assignment. The going-to-be second part of my assignment is that I'm going to take some especially interesting shapes from these paintings and then using those make several compositions with flat color. Like Ingrid Calame's work, only instead of using tracings of stains and skid marks and such, I'll use my interstices. I'm thinking that I'll do one composition for each Interstice painting, using the same palette so they'll be little sets :] That's what the newly stretched canvases are for. I'll let you know how they go.

Something crawled into the chimney and died.

Something crawled into the chimney and died. This is my explanation for the reason that our entire basement (which happens to double as my current painting area) has stunk like a rotting corpse being turned on a spit. This also explains the unidentifiable slime that is dripping from the pipes onto the top of the stove, thus contributing to the mouth-watering aroma of a rancid flesh barbecue. What else would that goop be? Melting months-old chipmunk fat, that's what. To make matters worse, the last few days have been rainy rainy rain rain. So not only is it a decomposing little critter body which is burning, but it is a damp, decomposing little critter body. Think rotting wet-dog smell.

What a horrible way to die. What a horrible thing TO HAPPEN TO MY PAINTING AREA!!

Nevertheless, I have not let this predicament (or the fact that my painting teacher is going to be out for the next 2 weeks because he torn his Achilles tendon) come between me and my abstract painting project.

Here's a close up of my second painting. It's not finished yet, but I kind of like it as it is and am not quite ready to add another element. I think it could use some thin lines and the circles need inhabitants...when the time is right.


Here's my third. Not sure if it's done or not...It has a lot more texture than the first two, which is new to my painting. I used acrylic medium to build up transparent layers with opaque pieces, and slathered it on with the pallet knife so it was nice and thick. This thing went through a TON of non-successful stages. I'm still not quite sure how I feel about it, but the more I look at it the more I like it.

What has really been working for me on these paintings is to blast a whole bunch of crazy onto the canvas, and then carefully edit out the pieces that I don't what and add others in. That way, I haven't killed the energy of the initial strokes, which has been a problem for me in the past. I'm having fun, despite battling the headaches brought on by my little friend in the chimney. Lovely. <3

I also finished my first series of ATCs recently. If you've never heard of them and want to know what they are, learn more here. I'm so excited to find out about these and start making and trading them!!! I made them using Adobe Illustrator and turned them in for one of my Digital Imaging assignments, which was to make a set of ten cards (not necessarily ATCs, but I did mine those dimensions.)

Knitting an Army of Starfish

SUCH A GOOD PAINTING DAY! I need to savor this. I finally felt free. Like I was just going and going and pushing that something that keeps holding me back out of the way, shoving it into the corner to sulk. Shoo, you horrible something! Let me be with my paint and my freedom for today :)

I'm not sure if it's "finished," but it's for my abstract assignment.





This morning I've also been knitting baby starfish. Many, many baby starfish. Why, you ask. Well, for one thing, starfish are rarely recognized for their amazing starfish-ness. But that is not the only reason. I'm going to share a craft table during the Blueberry Festival with one of my friends this summer, and I thought they would be cute little things that I could sell inexpensively.

I'm also a fan of the fact that the supplies required is stuff I already have, and I can use up left-over yarn that I wouldn't know what to do with otherwise. :)

Abstraction in the Car and in a Canadian Hotel Room.

I just got back from a short vacation. My dad and I decided on a whim to go up to Quebec city for a few days to practice our french and enjoy a change of scene. We go pretty often, so it was fun to revisit our favorite restaurants and drink lots and lots of coffee while people-watching in malls :)

I packed a full art kit for the hotel room and the car, because unfortunately I can't stand down time (I wish I could, maybe I wouldn't get so exhausted.) Our next assignment in painting has to do with abstraction, so I've been playing around with that in my sketchbook.

If you have ever tried to write of draw in the car, then you know how difficult it is to get any kind of precise line. At first I was kind of annoyed, but then I decided just to go with it. I made what I guess I'm going to call "Car Compositions." I just held my pen to the paper and tried not to influence it at all. After a while I found myself cursing the roads that were at all well kept :D The results were pretty cool, especially because right now lines of different qualities really inspire me.


During the small bouts of time when we were actually in the hotel, I worked on a drawing which I had started in the car (plus a few others.) A few weeks ago I guiltily ripped a few pages out of a science magazine at the gym because I thought the pictures were inspiring, and they came in handy- I don't feel so guilty anymore because they went to a good cause :] I used one of these pages as a base for my abstract drawings.

I'm still playing around with the idea and recreating the image in various ways, but I think it may go somewhere. I might use it for my next assignment.

It's been awhile...

School started up again, so I've been immersed in that since my last post (not that I mind. I was actually starting to feel slightly stir crazy.) What have my creative juices been producing since then? Quite a bit, quite a bit...with a few rough patches. I'm taking painting this semester, and I've been having trouble "finding myself" in that medium and working with it in a way that feels right to me. I need to learn to let go. Of what I'm not sure. I need to learn to stop being afraid. Of what, again I'm not sure. But things are coming around. I'm still wondering, not knowing where to go or what to do or how to approach what I want to achieve, but it feels more contemplative rather than panic.

I'll rewind back to where I left off last time, and then move forward through my various projects in chronological order until I'm alllll caught up.

5. Knitting. I finished that sweater that I mentioned getting started on in my last post. It has skulls on the sleeves, and is nice and warm and cuddly. Since then, the knitting bug has continued and manifested itself into a striped hat with a pompom, fingerless gloves with cables, and a very special eccentric head warmer (it's too sacred to be called such a trivial thing as a "hat") made out of a yarn named Ruthiferd. More on that coming up next.

4. Spinning. While poking around the knitting books at Barns and Noble one day after Art History, I cam across a book that inspired me to no end (not only as a graphic artist, but as a person with a budding interest in fiber arts): Intertwined: The Art of Handspun Yarn, Modern Patterns, and Creative Spinning.
That was it- I HAD to learn how to spin. Spinning has a wholeness which has become scarce in our society, which is unfortunate. We are so disconnected with who we are and what we are capable of. What are hands can do if we let them handle the materials around us. It has a humbleness too, because the yarn produced is the result of the efforts of many individuals coming together- animal, care-giver, shearer, etc.

So I got myself a drop spindle, romney fiber, and a 10 minute lesson from the woman who sold them to me. And I went at it. The one on the right is my first yarn which is 2 ply. After that came Ruthiferd, with whom I tried something more creative. I spun a thin single and then plied it with some rug yarn laying around, letting the places with too much twist fold over on themselves and make cute little doodlies :)
For a while I let them be themselves, their yarn-ness. But then I wanted to feel them through my fingers again, and so I made the head warmer.




3. Knitting. Again.

This is what Ruthiferd and Mr. Romney 2-Ply decided they wanted to be.

It encompasses my skull perfectly; nice and loose, but it's thick and heavy with lots of body, so it's kind of like wearing a slightly itchy really weird looking (and I say that fondly) helmet. My bedside light strongly agrees. Suits him, don't you think?

2. Planning. Enter Painting Class. Planning for my "narration of a place triptych" was not an easy task, considering I was creating a whole race of plant-bee-ant-like beings with a collective
consciousness who lived in hive-pod-like things. What a blast had I, yes I did. Pages and pages of sketches and ideas and thinkings, where I studied and documented these beings who did not yet
exist outside of my brain. What were their growth patterns? How did they relate to one another? Did they need to eat? How did they reproduce? Are they nocturnal? Questions, questions, questions. But the biggest question is: How on earth do I illustrate this in a painting???





1. Painting. One thing I have to remember: I'm not going anywhere unless I try. And sometimes trying means failing, but you need that failing to know what fails and what succeeds.