picnic table phenomenon

I have a back log of images to post, so I will start with the past and move forward.

Several weeks ago I had a startling realization that my day to day life was infiltrating my paintings. This came as somewhat of a surprise, due to the fact that my paintings are typically amalgamations of imagery from photographs that are at least 20 years old and can reach as far back as 60-75 years ago. However, when I was driving home from work, I noticed that the picnic tables at the end of my street were an exact copy of the picnic table I "made up" in the reflective driveway painting.

I am really excited about the idea that my brain is inserting my current life into these paintings. It actually syncs up with the idea that these paintings are giving past moments, captured in the photographs, new life in the present. I just had no idea that this newly "created present" would unintentionally contain my physical surroundings. 

In other news, I have been paintings some small little studies (2" x 3"), to play with color relationships.

        

Last, but not least I have shifted the two newer beach paintings, one more than the other. Two nights ago, I worked on both of these, and thought I had finished each of them. However, tonight I ended up erasing my mom out of the second beach painting. It seems so sad to me now, the remaining figure feels incredibly lonely, but I think the painting is stronger for it. I am not sure if I will leave her that way, but before anything else happens the current paint will need to dry a little bit. enjoy...

beach painting 1 ( the barely changed image, some signage in the middle and background)

beach painting 2 (the loneliest beach painting, before tonight's painting session and after)

what i love about painting

On this sunday night, with monday looming on the horizon, I decided to take a break from grading to paint. There are several reasons for this, the foremost is that I know I am a better teacher when I am actively solving the same problems I am asking my students to.  With the problem of what to make, I started a painting from a black and white photograph of my mother with her parents looking over the edge of a cliff. If I had to guess, I would place them in North Carolina. I think my brother and sister are making it into the composition on either side of my mother, although figures come and go once the painting progresses. This completes the image as a pseudo-self-portrait, my mother sharing the place I would be in if the painting was true to the time period of my siblings. It potentially also makes my brother my uncle if the time was only true to the original source photograph.

This point gets me to the reason why I love painting so much; its ability to transform reality and traverse time. Potentially I am missing the power of other mediums, but I cannot resist the thought that painting outweighs other media's ability to assimilate, accumulate, record, transcribe, and combine time into a believable reality.  As well as the way it exists in our brains or perhaps more specifically ours dreams (subconscious). I am so thankful for having painting as way to move through time to be around my mother in an active way again, as opposed to a passive viewer of photographs or old home movies. The only other way I have experienced her in a similar way is in my dreams. In that space, we have gone on car rides together and talked about mundane everyday activities. My dreams of my mother are never extraordinarily (outside of the impression of spending time with her). They are just the mass of moments that make up everyday life. Those moments, and that feeling of being near her again are the moments I want to reclaim in my conscious reality. That is why I paint. That and the thrilling experience of mixing and pairing colors in a way that recognizable imagery emerges.

early morning painting

sharing a little early morning painting..............................................................

I plan to further the figure/ground distinctions once this dries a little.

the weekend round up

Best in Show Brief

This weekend was the opening for the group show, 100% Pure Florida at Fifth Ave Gallery in Melbourne Florida. At the opening reception my paintings were awarded Best in Show. The prize is a solo show in June at the gallery. Needless to say, I am very excited and honored (and ready to get back into the studio).

I want to thank all of my family and friends for coming out to support me during the opening reception.  And to give a very special thank you to Marc Stone, who is the best friend and personal cheering section a girl could ask for.

Here are two images of the paintings in the show:

at the lake, oil on panel, 12"x 36"

at the lake, detail

late summer, oil on panel, 9" x 12"

In other news my dear friend, Marcie Paper's work is up in Richmond VA at 1708 Gallery. She is an amazing artist so check out her stuff! 

mark making

Mark Making is looming large on my mind recently. It may be the most influential way that paintings define themselves in relation to other forms of image making. I am obsessed with trying to create "noise" with my marks that fuse the figure and ground to each other. This idea relates to the scene in I Heart Huckabees where Dustin Hoffman's nose begins to disintegrate into small squares of space. 

       

A couple of recent head studies exploring mark, each painting is 7" x 5".

16" x 20"

Another beach painting that I may have completed in 1 session, please let that be true. 

And once again small shifts in these two ongoing paintings, I think both are done.

24" x 36"

3' x 4'