Blog Juggling

Yes, I have started another blog!  This is a daily blog featuring one or more of my (elle)ement series each day.  You can find it at: http://elleements.blogspot.com/ I hope you'll take a look.

It's been awfully quiet around here...

Well, I've sorta gone off the deep end. 

If you've been familiar with my work for any time at all, you probably know that I am easily taken down a new path.  Maybe not completely new, but I am switching things up a bit.  You know how the linoleum block prints on the dress paintings came to be the little (elle)ement series?  Well now the (elle)ements have expanded, and grown.  A new group of layered abstract collages have been percolating in my head, and now are starting to come together.

This is a terrible photo, but have no fear, I'll start posting good ones soon.  If you live close by, many of these pieces are having their first wander into the public eye at our Annual Christmas Show at United Bank in Jackson, GA.  And a handful of others are at The Swan Coach House Gallery in Atlanta.

Now if you are feeling the urge to grab me by the shoulders and ask about the dress paintings, have no fear.  You'll be able to find me and the big dresses at several shows this Winter and Spring.  And I am pretty sure this layered abstract look will find it's way into new dress paintings.  I am looking forward to seeing where this all goes!

Once I have these babies back in my hands, I'll get some good photographs taken and get them up for you to see.  So stay tuned!

Did you know?

Did you know?  It seems to be such common knowledge around here, but you, sweet folks I meet here and there at shows may not know.  That fella that helps drive the van, (when he's in either the driver's or passenger's seat) the one who helps set up the tent, and the walls, and keeps my art show neighbors entertained.  That guy?  Well, he's a pretty good painter too.  My other half, my go to guy, actually is a pretty big deal. 

Scott is a signature member and Past President of both the Georgia and Southern Watercolor Societies.  His work can be found in private and corporate collections in the U.S., Canada, France, Australia, and a few other places.  He doesn't show at outdoor festivals much anymore, as his commissions keep him busy enough at home.  But next weekend is an exception!  Next weekend, I'll be helping him drive the van, and set up his tent and be his go to gal and all that stuff. 

Come and see us on Saturday, October 6th at The Bluff Park Art Festival in Birmingham, Alabama.  If that is too far to drive, you could catch a glimpse of his work on our Etsy page.  I've just put some fresh work up, check it out at http://www.etsy.com/shop/TheSpringGallery?ref=si_shop

What I did today.

I didn't plan to paint a still life.  I just walked out to the studio.  I have been finishing up a commission, which got temporarily sidelined, and somehow I just veered off course. 

My big pieces have elements of still life in many of them. I used to paint them all the time, so it's not particularly shocking that a lemon and pear wound up on my drawing board.  And I have a pretty good idea why.  Those of you who know me will understand a need for something simple after the last couple of weeks.  So here is what I did today, and last night.  Two pieces of equal size, 8" square, on canvas.

I have put them up on Etsy, you can see them, and other work here   Remember to bookmark the page, so you can check back, as I plan to add something new daily.

Here they are, Still life on Dirty Drawing Board, done last night.  And Still Life on Fleur Des Lis, otherwise known as what I did today.

Prettybird and Sourpuss

I am on the road again, heading to the St. Louis Art Fair.  Opening this Friday night on the streets of Clayton, MO it is the art show I have been looking forward to for months!  I will be surrounded by many of my favorite artists, and am looking forward to seeing all the beautiful work they will bring.  You can see the list of Mixed Media artists and links to their websites here and once you get there you can find your way to the other media.

I thought I'd take a minute to show you a couple of brand new pieces I will be bringing to this show, Prettybird and Sourpuss.

 

Prettybird is a pretty collage of a dress, sewing patterns and linoblock prints, incorporating a little painting of Tufted Titmouse eggs.  "Pretty" is stitched through the canvas above the dress.

 

And Sourpuss is an ironically warm piece about a bitter girl.  The dash marks behind the dress indicating that Sourpuss keeps score.  The lemons are painted on top of a repeat pattern carved and printed from linoleum.  Both pieces are 20" wide, by 24" tall.  $895

So if you are in the St. Louis area this weekend, come and find me, or pass this on to a friend.  And if you tell me you saw this blog, I'll give you 10% off your purchase!

Chatterbox

Chatterbox sat on my easel for almost 2 months.  I poked around with it, found a few successes, but found myself stuck, and put it aside.  Working on other paintings, chatterbox stayed in the back of my mind, trying to find the answer.  The pressure started to mount, as I had two shows on the horizon that I wanted this piece for.  Finally, three days before packing the van, it started to come together.  I needed the megaphone! 

Starting at the top, the first panel has a cardinal apparently calling out the name, which is stitched through the canvas.  The typewriter images are photo transfers of a fabulous old typewriter that sits, rusted solid on my front porch.  The bulls eye represents the epicenter of chatterbox's voice.  Text behind the dress is from a spam email I received, a long letter filled with typos.  The megaphones are linoleum block prints that I carved and printed on pattern paper.  Below is a bit more of the letter, and a long, transparent glove.  The last canvas has the bottom of the dress, with more megaphones, transparent this time, and a circular pattern in the background.

I think this piece pulls together the feeling I wanted of unending one way communication.

I finished this piece around midnight, the night before leaving for a show in Cleveland, OH.  Scott framed it around 6 the following morning.  Perhaps she should be renamed "Just in the nick of time!"

A new gallery

One of the things on my to-do list this year was to make some more contacts with galleries.  Actually it has been on my to-do list for a very long time, but folks who know me well know that I can move glacially slow sometimes.  This is especially true of things that I worry may not be pleasant.  And the whole prospect of sending in a portfolio to a gallery seemed pretty high on the unpleasant list.

One of the realities of being an artist is you are always applying for a job so to speak.  Occasionally at a show I'll hear someone saying to their friend, "oh, you should do this next year!"  Like all we have to do is roll in to the festival, pop up a tent and *poof* you're in business.  But the truth is there is an application process to all the outdoor shows I do.  The artists apply through different online systems, sending in a short artist statement, and usually 4 images of your work, and one of your display.  And of course your non-refundable jury fee of anywhere between $25-$90.  The work is juried in categories, with usually jewelry, and mixed media work (that would be my category) getting the lion's share of applications.  The jurying is done by a blind jury, meaning the folks doing the decision making don't know the names of those applying.

A show with a good reputation will get somewhere in the neighbourhood of 1000-1500 applications for a show with 250 available spots.  A few have much higher odds, with as many as 2400 applications.  And notification of acceptance, or rejection, is always in the form a a quick email, usually read with one eye open to minimise the impact.  While rejection letters are usually met with a sigh and a grumble, acceptance letters are like crack for artists.  The kind of crack that keeps you applying next year.  Those happy endorphins just start buzzing as you think about how only 1 in 10 artists got in the show, how you had to score higher than the 1000 or so artists who didn't make it, and all that ego building nonsense that the brain can't help playing with.  But truth is much of the jury process comes down to the simple things, like personal taste, how many oily landscapes the jury has already seen this morning, whether the lighting in your photographs is a little weak.

But all this usually happens in a city far far away, by folks you don't know.  The artists never get direct feedback for the money they spend on jury fees, and frankly I'm good with that.  The application process and the one eyed email opening has become part of the rhythm of my life.  I am used to it.  But applying to a gallery?  That seemed like a totally different animal.

Galleries usually have a much more stand-offish way of dealing with interested artists.  If you look at some good gallery websites and find the submissions link.  (That is no Freudian slip, the artist is submissive here)  Often you'll find what they expect from an artist, number of images and the like and how they want it delivered, mail, email...whatever.  Then they say something warm and fuzzy like how they don't have time to reply to all submissions, if we are interested, you'll hear from us, if not, you won't.  Don't call.  I guess the rosy part is you don't have to pay an application fee this time to be ignored.

And I am sure this all comes for good reason, I expect galleries get pecked to death by folks who think they can paint.  I actually witnessed an artist meltdown as he was turned down by a gallery owner when he walked in with ordinary paintings tucked under both arms.  So I do understand the need for distance.

So this all takes me back to the idea of applying to a gallery.  I found one I really liked.  I thought about applying for a year or two, I went in a few times without saying anything.  Then one day I actually opened my mouth, introduced myself and got a card.  And still I fiddled.

The push came from an unlikely source, Scott and I were invited to stay at a friend's house on the way back from a show.  And an artist who has been included in galleries and exhibitions in New York and Washington among other places was there also.  I was tired, we had a few drinks, we were unloading about the show, and art in general.  And I was explaining about what a big assed chicken I was about applying to a big "white wall" gallery.  How the rejection would sting a little more if I was standing there all alone rather than in a group of a thousand.  The next morning as we were leaving he asked to see my work, as I had been talking about it the night before, and he really didn't know me from Adam's house cat.  So Scott and I pull one big piece out of the van, rest it on the dirty sidewalk on the side of the road and let the cover it is wrapped in slip to the ground. 

He got this look on his face like he was surprised that I had sense enough to form words or dress myself and said, "You don't think you could walk into any gallery in this country and get in with this work?"

So I applied to Pryor Fine Art, in Atlanta.  And if you go to the Artists link, you'll see my name, second from the top.

Ok, enough celebrating...back to the studio!

Surly Girl

 Surly Girl was just that.  A surly, difficult painting, with numerous re-dos and fiddles.  I could give a handful of excuses as to why this one was such a pain, all of them legit in my mind, but I'll save you from all that.  Let's just say, I love the way she turned out, and there are some beautiful things that happened in this piece that wouldn't have happened had I nailed it the first time round. 

The title came from a night at The Surly Girl Saloon after a show in Columbus, OH last year.  The name just stuck in my head, which is a rarity these days, for anything to stick that is.  In fact I just had to check with Scott to find out just where we were, but the name was a winner.  And certainly worthy of stealing for a painting.

Starting at the top and working down, the lemons signify that this girl isn't making lemonade out of a damn thing thank you very much.  She is a little bitter, so deal with it.  The crow is there simply for the sound of his voice, although the patterns in his plumage are quite attractive.

The dress itself is painted with a knotted up tree.  I took and developed this photo about 25 years ago in art school.  It finally came in handy!  The pattern around the dress was one of the things that was done twice, and because of this has a lot of beautiful color shining through.  You'll have to trust me on that one though, as it needs it's own close up to show that off.

And the bottom, the tornado, is my favorite.  Built with linoprints on pattern paper, and not much else, it is a vast improvement over the first version.  The first version is currently facing the wall in the studio, it is nicely painted and would stand well on its own if you have a hankering for a tornado painting.  But man, did it fight with the rest of the painting.  It had to be separated from the rest like a cranky sibling.  And if you've ever known a surly girl, you know what kind of damage they can do, a tornado seemed like a good metaphor.

Yesterday, as I was finishing up the piece I knew it needed one more thing.  Although I don't always stitch the name of the piece into the canvas it is becoming a favorite thing for me to do.  So I spent another couple hours last night coming up with a little crosstitch pattern, poking holes through the canvas and stitching in a yellow so subtle that pretty much no one will see it, ever.  It won't show up in the shots I send in to get juried into shows, but it's there.  Hopefully to be discovered by someone as they hang it on their wall!  "Girl" is stitched on the other lemon.

Now to get back out there and see how "Chatterbox" is coming along.  Thanks for checking in!

A case of the uglies.

Not only did my work take a little shift early this year, but my way of working did also.  Gone are the days of being quite so deadline dependant.  I used to work on the final piece, pushing it through and finishing it up just in time to load it into the van and head off to a show.  The downside to this was not only that I'd leave for a show physically exhausted, but I would also return home to a messy studio, with nothing but blank canvases to look at.

Now when I return home I find a handful of paintings in mid stream, ready to be be picked up and carried through to completion.  This is more comfortable for me because I am not trying to start from scratch, trying to find the magic right out of the gate.  I am inspired by what is in front of me, and can build on it.  When I walked into the studio for the first time in a week, this is what greeted me...

Yes, "Chatterbox" has miles and miles to go, but it has good bones.  And I was glad it was there, not only to jump start my painting, but as a bit of relief to it's sister in the studio.  "Surly Girl" is also in progress, and is currently living up to her namesake.  As much as "Chatterbox" is inspiring, "Surly Girl" is not.  "Surly" is in fact going through a eye gouging ugly stage.  The uglies are not always a bad thing, in fact they are practically expected, much like awkward teenage pimples.  Sometimes I court the uglies, building on them on purpose.  The uglies can be used to balance out a painting that has become too saccharine sweet, or you can surround a nice bit with something muddy, or squishy, and the contrast makes it shine. 

But right now "Surly" is just ugly, muddy, patchy, and just difficult in general.  And a sure fire way to be sure she stays that way is to sit here and continue to write about it.  So off I go, let's see if I can get her back on the rails.  If I do, I'll post about her, if I don't...well, try to forget I ever mentioned her.

Sugar

Sugar is fresh off the easel, and ready for her first show.  The dress itself was a gift, someone came to see me at the show in Fort Worth with a shopping bag with this little gem tucked inside.  She thought it was a perfect piece for a painting, and she was right. 

The chemical formula for sucrose is in a pretty script in grey on pink in the background.  The right side of the diptych is pure contrast with deep smoke and charcoal grey.  A sugar bowl (which happens to be my china pattern) is painted at the bottom.  Three perfect duck shaped mother of pearl buttons drop through the middle of the composition. 

And, by the way, "Sugar" is Scott's nickname for me (not always deserved, but that's another conversation.)  Did you know that I consider all of these pieces self portraits?  Even sweet ones like this that began as a generous thought.

 "All the girls" will be heading to Seaside FL for her first show this weekend, maybe I'll see you there.  Sugar is about 20" x 22"   $925