(school)work

With the fall semester fully in swing, it can be very challenging to keep up with creating new work. Luckily I have several deadlines that are forcing me to stay on top of working (at making art, not teaching it)! Next month my work goes back up at Plum Gallery, located on Aviles St. in St. Augustine. At the end of October-November, the collaborative works between Liz Robbins and myself will be on display at Flagler's CEAM (Crisp Ellert Art Museum). In January, I have a solo show scheduled at Florida School of the Arts in Palatka.

Point being, outside of teaching, I still have a lot of work to do. I left my house at 8:45am this morning and am just stopping now to sit down and write this post (with the exception of my 45 minute dinner break). With all of this said, I would like to point out that I am not complaining because I throughly love every minute of the whirlwind that is my life. I recognize how lucky I am to be in this position.

So on to the work...I promised my Exhibit Portfolio class that I would post weekly, since I am asking them to do the same thing...so hopefully I will be able to keep up the bargain. This is what I have been up to.

To double check the feasibility and outcome of a drawing one assignment here is a 45 minute blind contour self-portrait. It is pretty entertaining!

On to the birthday cake painting, which I'm pretty confident will be titled Birthday Cake Parade. At this point I think the painting is finished, but nothing is safe until it has left my house, so who knows. On a side note, this photo is terrible and I promise a better on in the near future.

The next painting has really shifted significantly in the past couple of painting sessions. At first, I realized that my brother's head (the little boy on the right) was too small, then too big, then the figures were all too orange...etc. Long story short, the painting has really changed dramatically, while appearing to stay almost exactly the same. I think the title for this one, will be taken from the back of one of the photographs, "At the 4H Farm for Chase's 6th Birthday Party". Since taking the last image, my mom's mouth has already changed a little, but overall I am a lot happier with the painting. 

Finally, I am working on 4 tiny-small commissions that I will share upon completion. Outside of that, I have two more small paintings to share, both are 7"x 5" and feature my most adorable nieces. On a tangental note, my BFF is also visiting her parent's condo this week and I took several photos of her amazingly adorable daughters on the beach (which will hopefully make their way into a couple of paintings). My oldest niece is officially the age I was when I first met my friend Kari, and the painting of her and her sister in the ocean makes me think of being in eighth grade again.