Fundraising & Art Open House

March 5, 2013

As some of you already know I am about to start a year of traveling in search of the type of education I want. I’ll be going to Philly/Asheville/Chicago on a long art adventure, studying under artists and exploring other art communities, museums and galleries.

Before I begin I am going to have an Art Open House…think apartment art show/thrift store. I will have new work on display and on sale at a range of prices. I will also have crafts/jewelry I’ve made available as well, plus unused and unwanted art & craft supplies.

Any money made will go towards my art educational journey. I would never ask for something for nothing. I simply hope some of you may want to own my work and take this opportunity to help me while also getting something you’d like to hang on your wall.
And please don’t feel like you can’t come unless you are looking to buy something. That is not the case at all. I am a bit of a recluse(always painting and working) so I hope some of you take this opportunity to say good bye. RSVP on the Facebook event page! Feel free to bring a friend and share the event!

Jason, my husband, has also released a print in order to help me pay for all the future madness of traveling, board, food, educational fees and supplies. The print is titled Plenilune…my absolute favorite word(it means full moon), and pictures me sitting on a broom, in flight, with my familiar of a cat, Ninja. It measures 12 x 12 inches and is printed on a satin finished photo paper. The print only costs $20.00, and all funds generated will help me over the next years journey. It’s a touching gesture from him that I’ll always be grateful for. Please check it out. If you’re a local wishing to purchase it, your shipping fee will be refunded and you can pick it up directly from us.

I can’t truly express how hard it is for me to do something like this, put on a solo art show…release a fundraising print, in an effort to help me live my dreams. I’ve worked to save money, applied and been denied grants(competition is fierce), but it never feels like enough, especially when leaving the comfort of a stable situation for unknowns. This line of education and experience is the right path for me, but I realize not everyone agrees. We all have different strengths and weaknesses. I think studying under artists privately, attending an atelier and simply striking out on my own for a period of time can only make me a better artist and person. If you choose to help I will strive to make the most of my time out in the scary world and make you proud. Keep my site bookmarked to follow my journey as I plan to document my experiences.

Heads on Tables

December 12, 2012

It’s over. I am done studying at TCC. Almost. I still need to take an algebra test…damn it.

This semester I took supervised study in drawing, hence all the photos of charcoal drawings, and to finish it up I spent the past week with Chicago artist(and former VA Beach resident) Brett Edenton. It was a really valuable experience to study with someone, even if just for a week, with a very specific goal in mind. In many ways it made things more comfortable. He could tell me when I was doing something wrong and it not be open to interpretation. This wasn’t about creativity. It was about seeing and technical skill and it’s exactly what I wanted and made me very eager to continue down this path. That said, I didn’t do everything that was suggested. I tried to take advice and pick up tips and skill while not losing my own methods that seem to work for me.

I believe I’ve touched on it before, but I really want representational skills. I want those skills to make my work, whether it be figurative or not, more convincing.

It was also beneficial to not be able to dodge someone’s attention while drawing. At first I was very self conscious, and even though that feeling lingered, it was good for me not to disappear in a classroom of other students. Having someone watch you draw can be very scary. It reveals how you think…or how you don’t think.

This isn’t a masterpiece, but it’s a step in the right direction. I hope my touch and eye will grow more sensitive as time and practice pass. I also enjoyed that the project was to draw more heads on tables, something I already seem to like to do.

I also stopped in at the Chrysler Museum of Art before it shuts down for renovations and met this painting I had never noticed before. I call it The Log Lady of Norfolk…but it’s really a painting by Hugues Merle French (1823-1881) called The Lunatic of Étretat (1871 Oil on canvas).

I love it. It’s hard to see, but her eyes almost glow red and her hair is drifting away like smoke. Plus it reminds me of Twin Peaks and that’s always a plus.

Teeth

November 20, 2012

After two years I finally went to the dentist. My teeth are clean, I have a jacked filling that needs repairing and I think I’m finally going to get my one wisdom tooth ripped out of my head.

Above is a charcoal drawing I did recently of some plaster teeth…that I came home to find Jason making…in his own mouth. So yes, those are Jason’s teeth.

Enjoy some dentist themed horror radio shows.

Fear on Four – Day at the Dentists

Nightfall – The Dentist

Teeth are an interesting thing. You don’t realize how important they are as a child…how easy they are to loose. They are often your first reminder of mortality and decay, and a common theme in nightmares. I sometimes, when stressed out, have dreams of my teeth falling out of my head.

Bones, Brains and Loose Ends

May 30, 2012

Spring is ending. Summer and it’s hot, funky breath is right around the corner. My semester has ended and I was able to maintain my all A’s streak. I recently went to a scholarship luncheon TCC held for the donors and was able to meet a wonderful lady who was funding one of the scholarships I received to attend the Visual Arts Center.

My internship at Virginia MOCA has ended also. My time there was wonderful. I feel that I’ve learned a lot, especially from my time spent preparing for New Waves 2012 and the group of shows to be shown during the Warhol exhibit now on display.

The I Like Soup show looks great. JoKa, an artist from Philly included in the show, and his lovely girlfriend Brandi, drove down and stayed with us so they could attend the opening.

All the cans are now online and for sale. The proceeds are divided between the artist, the Foodbank of Virginia and MOCA’s educational programming. Creepmachine and AltDaily both did some nice little write ups about it.

My all time favorite amongst many wonderful pieces is Nomi Chi’s shown below.

I’ve been attempting a new technique, creating a complete underpainting with terre vert/titanium white/ivory black before laying in color. It’s interesting. I like the moonlit look. Now I just need to figure out if it’s really worth refining the underpainting before laying in color…and how much of the underpainting I want to keep, how much I’m willing to cover up.

After these are completed I’ll be trying some other things(I hope a master copy). My time at TCC is almost over. I really only have two classes to complete before I earn my associates. What I’m going to do afterwards has been weighing heavily on me. I like learning. I value education, but I don’t believe a traditional academic path is for me. I felt that my other classes(math, english and so on) while important and enjoyable were getting in the way of me getting as much as possible out of my art classes, which were the real reason I’ve been in school.

I’ve been contemplating attending an atelier. Students learn under the guidance of a master painter. It’s rigorous. It’s intense. It’s realist. There is no degree. My tentative plans right now are to finish at TCC and then take a couple months, go to Philly and attend some workshops at an atelier. I couldn’t commit to a full 4 years, financially or time wise, immediately, but I think taking a few months would be a great way to do some research to help me plan my future path.

I’ve been doing research, with the help of a new painter friend, to try to help me get ready for the next step. The only reasons I am hesitant are that I would miss my husband for those months and I would also feel a bit like an imposter. Part of me is afraid that I’d be found *out* and rendered unwelcome if the subjects and type of paintings I like to do were revealed. I want to become technically skilled so I don’t see why my past work would need to come up, but it also isn’t necessarily my end goal to paint exactly like others that have gone down that route. My goal is more to be able to convincingly blend realism with my other more esoteric topics…and of course make some money doing portraiture. I feel that if I were trained in this way I could do whatever I wanted with the knowledge. I want access to that, to me, secret world.

I need to learn how to sweep aside my insecurities.

I admire it. I want to be just a little bit part of it.

I’ve been painting a lot of skulls lately, as I’m sure anyone who stops by occasionally notices. I’ve caught a bit of slack for it from instructors, their point being that it’s too obvious or trendy, but I’ve chosen to ignore the good intentioned criticism. Skulls have been in art for much longer than Hot Topic has been around, and their relevant to the topics I enjoy. Besides, they’re good practice. We all have them beneath our freckles and make up.

Below are some skull themed artworks I’ve come across and like.

From top left down to right – Unknown found on tumblr(but it tickled me to see it after I had made my own still lifes of skulls with pearl eyes), Skull by David Slone, The Dead by Horacio Martinez, I can’t read the language but their work is lovely!

Newish Work

May 13, 2012

Here is my latest batch of finished work. All of them I did for school but also with my own series of work in mind. I am slowly switching to linen as my old stock of rougher canvas runs out to help me do better detail work.

Focus - 18 x 24, oil on canvas

Filter - 18 x 24, oil on canvas

Reception - 18 x 24, oil on canvas

Deception - 18 x 24 inches, oil on canvas

Fools and Pearls

May 8, 2012

I’ve completed two small pieces this past semester. I’ve been experimenting more with dramatic lighting, and the second one, while plain, was a chance to try to make myself paint in thinner layers to avoid my paint building up in unwanted textures.

The first is called Fools and Pearls. The second is called Deceiver.

Upper Darby PA’s Education…Losing More than Future Tina Fey’s

May 2, 2012

There wasn’t much I enjoyed about school as a child. I was a depressed, scaredy kid that spent most of my time in my own head, reading, writing or drawing, but my schools were able to break down my inclination to introversion and provide me with creative outlets.

I was lucky that I went to schools dedicated to providing a thorough education, not just the basics, to all of their students. My favorite memories from Garrettford Elementary and Drexel Hill Middle School school are my art classes, music(though I couldn’t sing a lick) and even gym class.

I played the saxophone and was terrible at it, but I was given the opportunity to find out if I liked it. My elementary school regularly put on concerts. I remember the principal, Mr. McAllister, dressing up as a mad scientist and dancing to the Monster Mash. I played the Hanukkah song on my sax while sporting a beehive…coifed especially for my later debut as a Supreme for our Golden Oldies medley.

The Beehives! The Memories! Thank you Garrettford!

Gym class, including recess, was a chance to run, scream and be ridiculous. They made sure we weren’t cooped up in little boxes all day. Our schools bussed us to the local High School’s indoor swimming pool and taught us to swim.

They stressed creative writing and held yearly Young Author’s contests. Drexel Hill Middle School even developed a program for budding authors and theater kids called The Playwrights, which was perfect for preparing children to participate in a summer theater camp called Summer Stage. I wrote and directed a play all at the age of 14!

Even in high school, when I really went off the weird kid deep end, I looked forward to my art classes. When I couldn’t participate in my senior years advanced art class, my favorite art teacher, Elizabeth Harendza, sought me out and provided me with assignments she was giving her other students. She allowed me to find refuge in her class during my lunch period. I don’t know if I would have graduated without the solace of art class. I don’t know if I would have known to seek comfort in those classes if I hadn’t been exposed to the arts at a young age. I wouldn’t have known to seek it out in high school if my interest in art had not been recognized in elementary school.

This may all go away…with the additional loss of foreign language, technology and the school libraries!

Like many other schools across the country, Upper Darby is facing a budget crisis. There is no one reason this is happening. It is the result of inflation, property values decreasing, students outside of the district attending UD schools, No Child Left Behind and the funding of charter schools.

The result is practically all programs aside from math, science, history and english are being slashed from curriculums beneath the high school level.

The internet is buzzing with articles and movements to stop/fix this. I don’t know what the answer is. I don’t even live there anymore, but the possibility hurts my heart, especially because this isn’t something that’s just happening there. Public schools all over the country are being forced to make some hard decisions.

Here are some links to read up more on the issues, probably all more eloquent and informative than my blog post.

PhillyMag.com article

Save Upper Darby’s Music Facebook page

Save UD Arts main page

Save Upper Darby Arts Facebook page

And yes…Tina Fey of 30 Rock graduated from Upper Darby High School. So did that girl from The Blair Witch Project…and more importantly to me, Lloyd Alexander, the fantasy children’s author who wrote the Vesper Holly book series and The Chronicles of Prydain.

And that’s cool and impressive and nice, but I think it’s sad to see articles and comments calling on their memories in an attempt to make people care, or worse, hoping for Tina Fey to somehow come to the rescue with her celebrity status. We should already care.

There are so many other alumni who are doing what they want/need/should be doing now because of the Upper Darby School District’s past dedication to providing a rich and varied eduction. They may not be famous or rich, but they matter. Below is a list of links to UDHS graduates visual arts portfolios. These are the people I remember from high school. I’m sure I’ve forgotten many. I’d be happy to add more as the information comes to me.

Kevin Wright – Film

Shaun Kessler – Animation and Illustration

Mike Sheperd – Photography

Ron Cala – Design and Illustration

Mark Amadio – Graphic Design

Pat Woods – Fine Art and Education

James Ulmer – Fine Art and Illustration

Eric Hazlett – Art Director at Boco Digital Media

Matt Biller – Designer and Art Director

Work and Life, Life and Work

April 21, 2012

Not much concrete and provable progress to post about, but I’ll try anyway. I’ve been busy at MOCA VA working on photographing the cans coming in for the I Like Soup show opening on May 25. Check out the tentative landing page about the show. All the cans will eventually make it online. The list shown there needs some editing as some people weren’t able to participate, but there is still a lot of awesome to see soon!

Articulated Gallery has updated their online shop with pieces from the Marvelous Humans show curated by Josh of Creepmachine.

As for school I had two pieces on display during the annual student art show. I also one an award in the fine arts category for my painting Focus which I’ll upload to my site soon. If you’d like to see it you can view it and other award winners on my school’s website.

I am also working on redesigning my site. A friend of mine will be assembling it into a working page in the future. This is roughly what it will look like. I looked at many other artists’ sites to get an idea of what I liked and didn’t. I wanted a site that would work as a gallery but still allow me to blog about my process, struggles and art in general.

Marvelous Humans and I Like Soup shows!

April 4, 2012

This Saturday at Articulated Gallery in San Francisco is the opening for the Marvelous Humans show curated by Josh Geiser of Creepmachine.com. If you are a local you can RSVP to the Facebook event page.

I also finished customizing my soup can for the I Like Soup show at Virginia MOCA. When the page for the show goes up and more cans start coming in I’ll make another post! Here are some shots of mine. It’s a working kaleidoscope!

Here is a shot of something I’m working on for school. I struggled with the skin tone for a while because I don’t normally paint portraits with so much shadowing, but I think I am getting closer to what I want now.

Moving forward!

March 30, 2012

Life has been full of a lot of nice little things lately, from Donut Shop Dreams to Local Gov Elections and more.

My good friend Alicia is doing her damnedest, along with another friend of hers, to open up a 24 hour donut shop on Granby Street in downtown Norfolk called The Norfolk Donut Supply Company. She’s running an IndieGoGo.com campaign to help raise some start up funds and demonstrate to other investors that there is a community interest. My husband is making a Donut-esque Pinup poster for her to send to donors as a reward for donating.

If you’d like to read about her donut plans please go to her website!

Also my friend Jesse Scaccia, co-owner of AltDaily.com, is running for Norfolk VA city council this May 1st. He’s a really interesting and sincere guy that has already done a lot for Norfolk and it’s art community and genuinely is interested in improving Norfolk for everyone, not just artists. You can read about his campaign at his lil’ Facebook page here.

There is also a new site that is covering the local art scene, promoting shows and individual artists. It was a niche that needed to be filled. It’s called Art Scene Hamptonroads.

Tomorrow is the opening for TCC’s Annual Student Art Show and I’ll be attending! And the New Waves 2012 show is still up, so if you’re a local please stop in and check it out.

Here is a preview of the can I’m painting for the I Like Soup show to be displayed concurrently with the Andy Warhol Portraits show at Virginia MOCA this spring. I am turning mine into a kaleidoscope!