"Generosity and Intuition" Koons, Tinterow and Picasso

Yesterday evening I attended the beginning of a new series of lectures at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston.  "Conversations with the Director," in this case Gary Tinterow, generously supported by Louis Vuitton, had invited artist Jeff Koons for a discussion of Picasso's work featured in the museums current exhibition, "Picasso: Black and White."  Now, I will be honest, I have seen the show and already reviewed it here, I really just wanted to see Jeff Koons. Koons is one of those artists that has kind of  bad-boy pop star quality in the arts.  He was married to an Italian porn star and created many works involving close-ups of the female anatomy, and of himself with his former wife. Aside from the shock value of those works, he really does take his work seriously, as did Picasso, and that I cannot help but admire and it always helps to learn something new.
        Koons' work is primarily centered around mass media and consumerism; from plastic inflatables, to steel balloon dogs, to the appropriation of art historical works into contemporary pieces, his work is a commentary on how we consume images and objects much like the works of Andy Warhol, Robert Rauschenberg and David Salle. These are pieces that can be appreciated aesthetically and on the surface by anyone, and for those of us art history geeks, there is a bit of a private joke for us to enjoy.
      Shortly after Koons graduated from the Art Institute of Chicago he exhibited Vacuum Cleaners encased

Chicago Sculpture, image from Wikipedia.

in poly-acrylic boxes, basketballs in water-filled tanks and created the now famous/infamous sculpture of Micheal Jackson with his monkey, Bubbles. The buzzwords last night that kept emanating from him were "generosity and intuition." From what I gathered he seemed to think of his and Picasso's works as an allegory for humanity and acceptance.
       To illustrate the idea of generosity, Koons sited the 50 ft. cubist sculpture that Picasso donated to the city of Chicago in 1967 that is displayed in Daley Plaza, known as the "Chicago Sculpture". Picasso created so many works, but often I think a lot of people don't realize how much work went into his thought process. To illustrate this idea of the "intuitive", Koons and Tintero presented a finished drawing (Study for a Sculpture of a head, 1932) of a sculpture that Picasso created.  He created the two dimensional drawing first, but the subject matter was in three dimensions complete with cast shadow, mass shading, tonal values, a vignette background, highlights and realistic geometric perspective. Tinterow pointed out that he (Picasso) was always thinking in 3D, but created it first in 2D and then created the sculpture (Sculpture of a head at Aquavella Gallery, Oct 2008).
     When thinking about both Koons and Picasso as sculptors one has to consider the process from going

"Puppy" in Bilbao, image from Bluffton.edu

from small scale to monumental.  Though Koons Balloon dogs illustrate this rather efficiently, as you go from a transparent, fragile plastic for lack of a better word "toy," to the imposing reflected steel, Koons commentary on this work was that as people we feel as though the world is a void and we are filled always looking out and that he wanted to reverse that have the work be filled reflecting the void around it.  What I found more interesting was work that I had seen before but never really thought about as far as "why." "Puppy" is a 43 ft. tall Topiary sculpture of a white terrier that was created with an estimated 60,000 live plants. Koons brought up a good point that once the work was created, ie. planted, he lost control of the look of the sculpture as the plants grow in various natural ways and tend to take over the work.  What I found most interesting about this work is that the stainless steel armature holds a self-sustaining irrigation system, showing to me that the work was well-thought out.
   Going back to Picasso's paintings, Tinterow pointed out that many of the works in the exhibit are of the

Titan, Venus and Adonis, ca. 1550, image from TheMetMuseum.org

female form.  He also pointed out that there was a relationship between this, Picasso's lover. Marie-Therese and Titan's Adonis and Venus, ca . 1550. Marie-Therese was around 15 or 16 years old when Picasso about age 45 took her as his mistress. There was a bit of role reversal as Picasso aged, where he became the Venus clinging to the younger Adonis.  Koons, who owns Picasso's "The Kiss," 1969, combined these two paintings for his latest Antiquity series as a ground for the Venus figure and Irish Tribal leader in the center of the work.  Koons pointed out that the figure had both a phallas and breasts.  The phallas represented the strength that tribal leader had to provide as a warrior and the breasts as a means of nurturing his people. Koons also referred to this as the 'biology of connection,' something which resonates with me as

Jeff Koons, Antiquity 3, image from Sleek-mag.com

a follower of contemporary art, wherein we pull or appropriate images from the entire lexicon of art history to create a new work that has relevance for the same issues that we have always dealt with as human beings both collectively and individually.  Unfortunately, I could not find an image on the web of the work that showed how these two paintings and the objects were combined.  However, I did find this piece and it illustrates the same ideals/principals discussed here minus the Picasso reference.
 

Gallery Hopping: Weekend of 4-20-13

Last night I attended the opening of two shows in Houston, and today I have to pick from 7 different events as to what to go see and then think about what I want to review, ie. it's going to be a fun filled week of looking, thinking and writing about art.

If you missed it, go check out these two shows, my reviews will follow later this week.

ALLIANCE GALLERY:
UNDEREXPOSED: University of Houston Digital/Media Senior Class Exhibition
On View Through: May 15, 2013
Hours: Wed-Fri, 3-5:30pm
3201 Allen Parkway, Suite 125
http://www.houstonartsalliance.com/alliancegallery/underexposed/

HARDY AND NANCE STREET STUDIOS:
THIS CONSTELLATION OF THINGS: The Hardy and Nance Street Spring Show
Today: Noon to 5PM
902 Hardy St, Houston, TX 77002
http://www.facebook.com/events/136442673198764/

TODAY'S EVENTS:

The Menil Community Art Festival, 11am-5pm
http://www.facebook.com/events/479095122144666/?suggestsessionid=85ea0d74e38ae0c7db927b23f40ca2c9

Darke Gallery: Last Chance: Funk and Budge, Ceramic Sculpture, Noon-5PM
http://www.facebook.com/events/272543212882516/

Jomar Visions: Spring Group Show, Noon-7PM
http://www.facebook.com/events/326289007474244/

Lan Northwood Art: Spring Equinox, April Open Studios, Noon-5PM
http://www.facebook.com/events/146454122196078/?suggestsessionid=168eeec7a4e3906d1a94886d5e606997

Guiton Street Studios Opening, 2pm-8pm
http://www.facebook.com/events/399509680148216/

Warhous: 420 show: One Love Show at 4:20pm
http://www.facebook.com/events/278255522307670/?suggestsessionid=fb6abd2a6a27ad94c5e0589a352be9ed

My hopes are that I make it to Darke Gallery, Lan Northwood, Guiton and then back to Jomar.  As much as I would love to go see the Warhous show, I'm just not sure if this would be a kid appropriate event, and I will likely have "socks-on-floor" with me.

Next weekend looks like it will be shaping up as well to be a busy weekend in the Houston Arts Community.  I'll work on that event list later this evening.

Until then, Keep Making Art!

Director's Cut Show Information

This is the first show that I have participated in, in Houston (that wasn't related to UH) in about five years. Hope to see your smiling faces there!
~Stäcy

The What and Why of my painting on The Shining.

It is a rare thing for me to have the time to sit and think about the visual decisions I have made on a work before it is shown in public, but I am doing that now.
     There is no doubt in my mind that Stanley Kubrick was a genius. He was both literally-with an IQ of 200-and visually a genius. When the opportunity came to me via Julie Zarate to make a painting based on a film of a particular director for the show called 'Director's Cut', of which I hope my work will be accepted and subsequently shown in the next few weeks, I could not pass it up.  Kubrick has always struck a visual chord with me.  From my first glimpse of 2001: A Space Odyssey to Eyes Wide Shut, no other director, has pulled me back into thinking or dreaming about a work past the actions of the characters in the film. At first, I chose to do a scene from Barry Lyndon, because every scene in that movie is a painting, and it not well known, but I grew bored with it, because I couldn't come up with a solution compositionally that would adhere to the nature of the film. In any case, I scrapped that idea.
      Debating about it in ZBHO one night, Ron McLeroy asked me what my favorite movie of Kubrick's was and I didn't hesitate in naming "The Shining." I gave my reasons against it, that I didn't want to paint Jack Nicholson, because it was kitsch at this point, there are any number of paintings, drawings and photographs of Jack's character when he says "Here's Johnny."  It was too iconic. Ron suggested I paint the twins, and I heartily agreed, but I also knew that they could not be the entire focus of the painting, as again, there were plenty of paintings, drawings, and photographs of them already.  So without having seen the film in a couple of years I picked up on the most memorable parts of the film to me that were visually interesting.  The moment when Wendy first discovers what her husband has been up to when he is writing and she has been taking care of the hotel, pages and pages of typed structures of the same sentence "All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy," the elevator blood scene that is first seen by Danny before they even go to the Overlook Hotel, the "redrum" door that is drawn by Danny after he has physically withdrawn from his worldly body and leaves Tony, his imaginary friend, there in his vocal chords to assure his mother that he is safe and then the twins, delightful and zombie-esque in their pleas to have Danny come play with them forever.
       I had to think about the composition in a different way, it couldn't just be one film still of a character, it had to be a painting, first and foremost, not a direct copy of what the lense saw, it had to have the essence of Kubrick's vision, but still be mine. As I continue in my career I begin to think of my paintings as scenes from films, though they are not, and though this is the first painting I have ever done based on a film. They start in the middle, just as The Shining does.  We learn very quickly that there is a history of abuse in this family. It is physical, violent, possibly sexual, definitely maniacal and there is also quite a bit of neglect being presented to us in the care of one character to another.

"just like pictures in a book" 18x18" Acrylic on Canvas. April 2013.

    So too, the painting starts in the middle. If you were to read this painting from left to right, and you can, you'll noticed that I left out the word "All" in the entire part which contains text.  You'll also notice that the first "and" is missing the letter 'n.'  When I researched my source imagery I found this particularly appealing, because for me it relates to the fact that none of the characters in this film are complete, there is something missing in each one of them, some sense of facing reality. Each of them in turn breaks, becoming affected by the ghostly inhabitants of the hotel. The letters themselves become larger as they meld into the wall support of the elevator, just as the problems they face with violence from their dangerous inner voices become larger. The elevator and the blood, well who could resist the challenge of painting blood.. I have a particular fondness for fluid motion. Many of my works carry this same theme, usually in the form of water. You may notice that the elevator itself, though it is detailed with the running Native American motif at the top is blanked out where the push buttons should be.  In the film, those doors never open, they just spew blood, and in the film, we escape along with Danny and Wendy, but not through those doors, we must go outside of the hotel and the painting to do that.  Going with my theme of middles, you see neither the top or the bottom of the "redrum" door, you are given a handle and even a key hole, which symbolically refers to the peep show/fantasy that Jack enjoys when he first enters Room 237.  Finally there are the twins. Andy Nolan, when I asked him to give me a C&C on the finished piece, asked me why I cut the right girl off.  This was a very serious compositional decision on my part. Being that they are the only human element and they are in the foreground of the work, I knew they would get a lot of attention, and I didn't want to give them more real estate in the painting than was necessary. I'm counting on the way our minds and eyes work together, by filling in the space for me. They lead you out of the painting, allow you to escape outside.
    As to the way in which one element overlaps another, well this coincides with the style of the film as well.  Kubrick faded many of scenes directly one into another, overlapping the moving images.  I've gone back and watched the film several times now since completing the painting, it is worth another viewing even now, as every time I go back, I notice something else that I didn't see before.  My hope is that I have given an essence of what Kubrick intended in the film along with my personal take on what affected me most with his work.  I struggled with the title of this work, at first leaning towards the quote that the girls say to Danny, and then thinking about naming it Room 237, but then after watching the film again, I had an epiphany.  The advice that Halleran gives Danny about the visions he is seeing is really pretty key to this film, "Remember, they are just like pictures in a book, they are not real."
  Special thanks to those mentioned in this post, you kept me thinking about what I was doing, and that is always a good thing, and a thank you to all of the chatters on ZBHO, for your constant input, support, feedback and encouragement.
   *ZBHO can be found at Zbrushhangouts.com.  It's an online community of artists working via video platform in real time.

Pick-ass-o and Spanish Porn for Painters

       So on Good Friday I went to the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston and saw the Picasso: Black and White show, and revisited the Portraits of Spain exhibition that I had seen earlier in the year with my partner in crime, Em Connor. While I have never been a fan of Picasso's cubist works, I cannot deny that he was the epitome of the ultimate salesman, nor can I deny that he knew who he was and what he was about.  I think perhaps what is most impressive to me about Picasso, was not as I would perhaps have claimed before, that the man could actually paint as evidenced by his Blue and Rose Periods, but instead was that he made the choice to pursue his own way of living, working and producing art and he followed through on those decisions.  He really was a bit of a bad boy with his multiple mistresses.  I used to scoff at that idea and wonder what possessed him to do that and get away with it, but these days my mind has been turning a course over in a different way, and I actually feel a bit of pity for him.
           Artists, inherently, are not well known to be the most upbeat, happy, normal people. Do we grow into this role, or is it something that is a by-product of being creative?  Sure, we laugh, love, become attached to others just as any other person would, but maybe this is one field in which we are united, that our creative prowess takes a toll on our emotions, mental stability, and general well being.  Look at Van Gogh, man cut off his ear after a fight with his room mate then sent the ear to the prostitute he was in love with at the time.
           Looking at Picasso's work in this light makes me think more about the madness of the field.  We have to be so vigilant in what we do, we cannot take time off (*I'll explicate this a bit more a later post), must adhere to the whims of our creative natures, be obsessed, addicted to creating the product and completely immerse ourselves in our work.  This is not simply a hobby for us, it is an all consuming occupation. Maybe I am coming late to the game on understanding Picasso, and maybe I am completely missing the point. Nearly all of the work was filled with rudimentary lines, devoid of the majority of the chromatic spectrum, yet the intensity was clear to me for the first time.  Almost all of his paintings were of the female body, disjointed, pulled apart, arranged almost as though they are in a puzzle, really only clearly defined by the breasts.  These women were both ugly and beautiful, perhaps that is what Picasso's work is really about: inner torment.  The 'genius' is in the madness, the obsession, the want to paint feelings from his view point, and perhaps the choice to change stylistically was a necessity after all.

Spanish Porn: Paintings for Painters, i.e. The Portraits of Spain.

I was not disappointing in revisiting this exhibition. A lot of the critique and commentary that Em Connor and I had remained the same upon this second visit.  This exhibit was composed mainly of paintings found in royal collections and as can be assumed, one found the normal array of portraits of the monarchy of the time with their displays of wealth and power.  There were also some paintings that made me laugh outright.  In the second gallery is displayed the proud portrait of dwarf who so genuinely looks good-natured, and whose hands are grasped in a position that make him look as though he was just texting a funny comment to a friend.  His eyes have that quality that made me think he had just said "Dude, that is hilarious."  

     In one of the later galleries there is a portrait of another royal member who proudly displays her mustache along with lifted breasts for the fashion of that time along with the lines of her age.  These paintings stuck out, not only because they were exquisitely well painted but because the subjects didn't have that dour expression so common in Renaissance portraits or even the slight amusement we see in the Romantic Period, but a genuine sense of humor. 

    The Madness of Queen Joanna, was for me the pivotal painting of the exhibition.  Not only was it a rather large work, I'd estimate 10-12 feet across and 6 feet tall, the figures were life sized and was painted with diligent care paying close attention to dramatic lighting.  This really set up a scene, it wasn't a portrait, but a look into the bed chamber of Queen Joanna in her state of madness, flowers strewn on the floor at the opening of the bed curtains, the carpet buckling just a bit because of the movement of the figures upon it, she stands there disheveled denying the ministers of the monarchy access to his highness, as she had refused to let them bury her husband, believing he will be resurrected.  The pinpoints of light and shadow were truly epic.  Here is a two minute clip on the work for those that are interested:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ynOd6jv1Xr0

Project for "Socks-on-Floor"

STOP MOTION FILM PROJECT

So I know I have fallen behind in my blogging for this week... it has been a busy week.  I'm in the middle of working on a painting for the Director's Cut show (being juried and curated by Julie Zarate), forcing myself to spend an hour on Sculptris everyday to prepare me for Zbrush and then I also work, which means either I sub for another teacher, or I teach my own students.

"Socks-on-floor" watching and analyzing
stop motion films... she even came up with
her own system of filled in stars.
She records the title, length and mediums used.

      My daughter aka "Socks-on-Floor" when asked what she wants to be when she grows up has been answering it with a combination of lawyer, rockstar, film maker... rockstar comes and goes and so does lawyer, but she has been interested and has been making her own storyboards and films since she was six years old (she is now 10).  Over the past year she made two films for school which were book reports for her fourth grade class... these were labor intensive both for her and myself (I had to edit and compile over 80 videos, to make the first 12 minute film on the Hunger Games, I learned a lot and had fun, but I'm not overly anxious to repeat three full days of editing any time soon.)
    Someone shared a stop motion film with me on facebook. Her Morning Elegance by Oren Lavie: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2_HXUhShhmY
I had to share it with my daughter who immediately started spouting off ideas for making her own. So this time we are taking a different approach.  I came up with an assignment project for her, so that she will learn some valuable things in the process of making film.  I'm starting her out with research, she has to view 20-30 short stop motion films and review them, pick the five best and write a short summary of each, why she likes them, and what she has learned in viewing them.  Part Two involves researching Stop Motion Film on wikipedia (yeah, I know its not a scholarly source, but I think it will get the job done.) She has to write down and define every word she doesn't know, and paraphrase each paragraph. By doing this method, I am essentially guiding her to teach herself.  Research is something that is taught in schools but not really encouraged towards something a student actually is interested in (IMHO, how many research papers did I have to do on dead authors because that was what we were reading in class, as opposed to a subject that I picked?) Part Three involves coming up with 6-10 different ideas for subject matter for her film. By making her think about multiples, she will be evolving her ideas. She will do some rough sketches for each and then explain to me which one she has picked and why. Part Four involves gathering all of the necessary supplies, and storyboarding. Part Five means making the film. Part Six will be learning to edit the film. I'm actually going to walk her through the first 10-15 seconds of editing and then let her go from there.  Then lastly she will present the film to me and family or friends and we'll publish it on the net.. so there begins her portfolio.

Serious enough about this project that my
10 year old is working through lunch.
Little does she know that this will be a
frequent occurrence as she grows up...

    Ultimately she is going to create a short stop motion film minimum of 1 minute but no more than 3 minutes, and she can work on this for up to two months... because I guesstimate that it will take her that long to do all of the research and compose her ideas if she works at a normal 10 year old pace.  So hopefully, I will have something to share on her project by the end of May. She says..that these are her 'art lessons' with Mommy... which cracks me up, but she's right.

What some of my other students are working on.

Speaking of Art Lessons, I have a couple of photos to share from some of my other classes.  Some of the fun things that I do with my private school and private lesson students of all ages are pictured below.

Top Left: Tuesday Night Ladies Painting Class, Students are working on creating ten different kinds of still lifes from the same source material. Pictured Marilea with Edge Painting, and Stephanie with Close up to the point of Abstraction.  Top Right: Art Society at a Private School, Students are creating Decalcomania projects in both top right picture and middle lower picture. Bottom Left, same class, student has torn and collage decalcomania project to make a new form painting.  Bottom Right: Private Lesson Student nearly finished with grape study in Prisma Color Pencils. 

 encourage in a way

Second 4x4 project

So here is the second 4x4" project, Acrylic on Canvas.  Had a bit of delay... but back on track! Woohoo.

"Alycin" 4x4" Acrylic on Ampersand Canvasboard.
3-2-13

This is of my youngest sister, Alycin, in her renaissance hat and some pearls. 

Started the next one, will work on that tonight and tomorrow... along with the fifty other things I need to be working on

Now back to your regularly scheduled programming :D

some recent work

Today I am updating my portfolio because I have a job interview later that requires me to bring one. Here are a couple of works previously unseen on this blog that I thought it would be a good idea to share.

"Aquataneous Transmission/Kismet" 24x24" Acrylic on Canvas, Private Collection of S. Dowell. Novermber 2012.
I do have prints of this available for purchase.

Elephant in the room, did you say, who wants to talk about that?  I've noticed that since I have graduated from university, my art has been taking on an almost literal sense of the issues I have been dealing with in my personal life.

"Red Room" 48x65" Acrylic on Canvas. Private Collection of M. Brice, May 2012.

   This was my final work of my college education.  Happily its in the loving care of Ms. Brice in California.  I got a lot of great commentary on this work, which surprised me, because I felt it was pretty literal. It just goes to show that no matter what my intention was, people draw something out of it that relates to them, and frankly, that's a great thing.

Update on 4x4" challenge.  Last night I spent quite a bit of time working on a painting of my youngest sibling, Alycin, in her renaissance costume... as I am not happy with it, I am not going to publish it today. I will be working on it again this evening when I get home and hopefully, I can get it to the point of being worthy to be seen.

4x4" challenge

"Kimbo" 4x4" Acrylic on Clayboard, 2/25/13

So I have been following my friend Sue Donaldson's and fellow HAC* member Brian Greb's progress through an interesting painting challenge since January, each day they create a 4 inch by 4 inch painting. Yesterday I decided to pick up this challenge... now don't expect a painting everyday...I do work during the week teaching high school and junior high students that not all substitutes are stupid, mean, or crazy, but I am strict, thorough, and can pick up and teach a lesson from philosophy to calculating the volumes of three dimensional pyramids. In other words, I like my job for the most part.  It gives me a chance to meet and interact with the "ME" generation and open their eyes, ever so slightly, that not all Gingers are completely devoid of a soul, though if you count my freckles, I have accumulated 30-ish so far (insert maniacal laughter here).

Kimbo at my studio at UofH, senior open
studios, May 2012.

    So to avoid any further nonsensical rambling about my starving-artist life... here is the painting I completed yesterday (pictured above.)  It's the first in a series I plan to do where I do portraits of my real-life, virtual and perhaps even imaginary friends.  This one is of Kim, an amazingly talented mother of 3/business owner/chef.  I say chef, because every time I go to her house for any kind of function that involves food, I almost always walk away with a recipe of whatever dish she served that night.  That woman makes some of the best damned pecan chicken I have ever had (and normally I don't go in for chicken on anything, strictly a beef gal.)  Kim is also one of my great friends, who has been one of the most supportive of my work. She owns the piece "Surrealism Swimmers," one of the works I completed while in my last semester at UofH, and has it proudly displayed where no one could miss it. Kim is also one of my favorite models for painting, because she can look both hard and soft at the same time- notice how at first she might look a bit perturbed in this painting, but then you see the amusement in her eyes and lips. She carries herself really well too, so when I am working on pieces that involve her neckline and back, that perfect posture is just gorgeous in acrylics or oils. On top of all this, Kim is a wonderful friend, we may not speak for a couple of weeks in between whatever drama is happening in our lives, but we always pick up right where we left off, and then there is her talent for making jello-shots... you just cannot beat that with a stick (and frankly, why would you want to?)

"Surrealism Swimmers" 14x18" Acrylic on Canvas. May 2012. 

Well that's enough rambling for today about yesterday... off to new adventures in painting tonight! *HAC stands for Houston Artist's Collective.

Brinner, Dreckfast and Srunch

   So on a typical Sunday I normally play around in the studio and do house chores, acting out the parts of the 'domestic' room by room, while playing Mom to a vivacious blonde, known as "Socks on Floor."  Today however, I had to do a make-up lesson with the "IN-girls," a group of four siblings all age ten and under that I have had the pleasure of visiting with and teaching for the past three years.  The "IN-girls" are by far my favorite group of children to teach for one of many reasons: they have what every pupil should, an insatiable curiosity about every topic known to man, a healthy work ethic, and supportive parents who don't hover, but instead re-emphasize what I am teaching through careful, patient counsel and reminders.

Kiwi Project by one of the "IN-girls" November 2012, age 10. PrismaColor Pencils.

Cecile Baird's
 Painting Light with Colored Pencil

 The girls are also talented, but they weren't born with the talent to draw and paint (few are,) instead like me, they have been steadily practicing what I show them each week. One of the most fascinating aspects of teaching this group is that they are curious about so many things, eager to share their ideas and cannot wait to be told a story while they are working, whether its about my childhood among three brothers and two sisters, mythological and legendary figures or artists themselves.  In turn they tell me about what they are reading, what new things they have discovered throughout the week, or are working on in school and I am always personally guided through their science experiments, art projects, and shenanigans with each other. (They also giggle at my poor attempts to learn Vietnamese..I've learned finally how to say all of their names and now they are teaching me numbers... but apparently when I say the number 'three', I sound like a bleating sheep.)

       Today we began a new project in colored pencils, a very bright pink orchid out of Cecile Baird's book (Pictured above-right). I teach by showing: I draw, they draw, I color, they color, then during the week they have small homework projects that reinforce what we have learned. As I had woken up late today, I took a snack with me, and the girls questioned me, I told them I was eating my breakfast - which was true - I woke up later than usual and hadn't even thought of hunger until I was heading towards the car. They deemed this to be utterly hilarious as it was 4 in the afternoon and decided that what I was eating was not "breakfast," but "brinner!"  This lead to a lengthy conversation about the transition from one meal to the next and they came up with the title words to my blog for today.

NOTES on Painting Light with Colored Pencil

'Money Plant Project after Cecile Baird',
9x12" Prisma Color on 50lb. Strathmore Paper
December 2012. Stäcy Smith

I wouldn't say that this is a book for the beginner, but I will state that anyone with just a bit of experience working in this medium will find this book as a useful resource for technique.  Be prepared to lay out some funds for supplies if you plan to take up doing all the projects in the books as the "IN-girls" and I have. Our first six projects cost about $65.00 US in colored pencils alone (per student)... I did not go in for the even more expensive Derwent pencils, but instead used colors from Prisma as substitutes. As the girls and I have just entered the second half of the book, we just spent another $13.00 US each in new colors and a replacement of Indigo Blue.. (if you decide to take on the project of the Money Plant, you will go through 40-60% of that pencil.)  We have devoted an entire year to working in colored pencils before we move back into painting. It helps build motor skills, and color theory memory, as the girls are beginning to get used to how certain colors mix to make things darker or lighter. (And, its a lot less supplies to carry around than for painting, 1 bag instead of a rolling file cart.)

Getting things up and running! The never ending wheel of Progress....

  I started an art fan page connected to my Facebook account sometime over the summer while I was running art camps from my home studio.  Yesterday I decided it was time to give it a portfolio update.  Please feel free to like it.  Art by Stäcy Facebook Fan Page  You'll find about 10 pieces of work that I completed over my time at UofH.  If anything it will give you an idea of how my mind works now as it concerns composition. 

Well, I think that is all for today... tomorrow I will post progress pictures of the projects I am working on in the studio. Till then, ~S

Work Work Work...

So the other day I was at a library and I happened to scan through the shelves and found a book that was titled "Art is Work" by Milton Gracer.  I didn't have a lot of time to leaf through the rather large book, but I gleaned this from the first chapter.

1. "Work that goes beyond its functional intention and moves us in deep and mysterious ways we call Great Work."

2. "Work that is conceived and executed with elegance and rigor we call Good Work."

3. "Work that meets its intended need honestly and without pretense we call Simple Work."

4. "Everything else, the sad and the shoddy stuff of daily life, can come under the heading of Bad Work."

Now I don't exactly agree with all of these quotes, but I found it interesting that Gracer took it upon himself to define what these degrees of work are. Maybe I'm over-thinking it, but then what exactly is the point of having a blog where you can basically argue with yourself if you don't over-think things... or perhaps just "think" about things... perhaps that is why I am ever-fascinated with philosophy and critical theory (there is without a doubt, a lot of over-thinking going on here.) What we classify as work is so varied.  Surely by Gracer's definition, doing the dishes is either simple or bad work, but perhaps painting a scene of someone doing the dishes would elevate it to either Good or Great work, depending on the composition. Nonetheless I digress, I find so many things that classify under the heading of work, that I have lists and lists of tasks lined and scratched out.. many of them obsessively beginning with "make coffee." (Giggles to herself)  It could be worse, I could write "Make List" instead.  Ooh... I'll be titling my former "to do list" to that from now on... a "Make List."  (Yes, I know I'm odd already... you don't have to point it out, unless you just absolutely cannot help yourself, then by all means, go ahead.)

I recently joined a google hang-out, one for digital artists, (allow me to state that I am not a digital artist, hell... the most digital art that I do, is in the form of screen shots to the Paint program on my pc.) However, I found that these artists share a lot of similarities to me. We are all interested in rendering objects, IE. human forms, chairs, cars, etc..  I can relate to that with my work. Half of what they talk about including 'topology' is all but lost on me, but I'm gleaning what info I can, and they seem pretty nice so far.. (except when they mimic my semi-Texas accent, and YOU know who YOU are. tee hee hee)  If nothing else, this groups serves for me, anyway, a chance to hear other people discuss their art form from their studios/work spaces, whether they be in England, Brazil, or just on the other side of the city.  This is a simulated situation, that helps make up for what I miss about being in the block studio program.  Honestly, I didn't think I would miss the random conversations of my fellow painters, but I do.  You get nearly instant feedback on what you are working on or doing on cam... one of which is how lazy I am by not blogging, organizing my facebook or updating my website... but perhaps by hearing that on a semi-daily basis it will be just the kick in the rump I need to get moving and get it done.

Today's projects(forecast) include a collage painting that I have started, and need to finish... picture below, a bit of light painting on the background of Lalu's painting... and reading a bedtime story to 'Socks-on-floor'(otherswise known as 'Lalu') and her best friend.

This btw, is just a photo of the collage... forewarning... the finished product will probably look nothing like this. C'est la vie.

And just for fun, here is a piece that I created not too long ago.. that needs publishing anyway.

"This American Life,"  I can't remember who bought it... was sold through Austin Art, over the summer. I was listening to a lot of NPR during this time, hence the title, and this was during my last semester of college, while I was being supervised by Al Souza and Jack Massing (of the The Art Guys).  I had planned to do a series of paintings like this with muted grounds and film noir figures...if you think I should get back into this series, drop me a line, as I am currently undecided..