(only in) Remission

"(only in) Remission"
2010



Originally I had considered a red heart. Although it worked for my personal meaning behind the piece, and looked beautiful with her red hair, something about it was just not working. Plus, I didn't want it to look too typical or like some kind of religious iconography, so I had a last minute overhaul of the whole concept-- the night before the show!


The idea of a bruised or grayed/decaying sort of heart came to mind. Then I also thought about how coals are black and gray; dingey and dead looking, yet still containing bright burning red embers inside. From the start, I wanted the heart to morph into something organic. The veins and arteries reminded me of roots (which tied into some complex metaphorical statement I wanted to illustrate, that I don't want to go into right now- haha) and so I was thinking of it turning into roots and twigs; like something was growing from it. The thought of rich blacks and grays reminded me of black irises- thus the idea was born.

One of my favorite, overlooked parts of this is the bust (LOL). Using a super-secret technique, I creating this pattern of colors and highlights, coming through the black of the corset. You should click the image above to see it up close.

Below you can see more textural elements I incorporated throughout this piece:

And there you have it- my latest piece.

Post show update (LOL)

`a outrance- sold at the Houston Art & Culture Art Walk
Finally home from Houston, and I am soo happy to be. These last couple of months have been craaazy between school, work, and preparing for the art walk. At long last, I have TIME OFF (a day!! haha!!) so, I will finally take some time to chill out and finish all my little projects that I put on hold months ago.

I just wanted to say "thanks" to all the people who made it to the art walk, and a special thanks to my dear friends who were a HUGE GINORMOUS help, and to my newest art patron ^__^. Thank you all, and I will make sure to post pics ASAP ^__^ I've got a new painting I want to show off, as well as pictures from the event. I'll be posting soon!

(letdown)

Hello my pretties... it's been a while... still nothing new to share with you (no time!) Still busy preparing for the Houston Art Walk, trying to get things finished and made, blah blah... A nice person on flickr reminded me of this piece I did a few years ago and I thought, just for kicks, I'd share it with you.

I love Radiohead, and some awesome artist did the above portrait of the band as an illustration for Rolling Stone. Loved it so much, I had to keep it but didn't know what to do with it, so I incorporated it into my own little sketchbook art. Acrylic, ink, decoupage, notes from a friend, stickers, etc... Until next time...

Bleep blorp computing error! x_x

Yup, that's the way computers speak to one another... my brain (and my eyeballs) are fried. I've been working on the same stupid painting for about 5hours now... I'm sooo tired of it! haha :P I just need to take a break, go to sleep...

Just wanted to share the progress with you guys. I'm reeeeally excited because I've been having some problems with getting her colors/shading right, and for whatever reason I broke out my prismacolors and went to town... Very happy with the results! Any way, I'm gonna take a break now...

I will leave you with a shot of my messy work area. It's like a squirrel den. Or rat's nest... It can be clean and organized... but not when I'm working. Evvverything gets dragged out and tossed within a 12" radius of me for easy access haha. Those freaking lights too... It is burning up in here with them being on all day! My head hurts... zzzzzzzz

Website Updates

Fishies!

Not a new piece, it's actually one I did a few years ago for a painting class. Thought I'd share it just for the sake of posting something. How I hate not having pictures to look at lol.

The assignment was to do a still life- nothing against anyone who enjoys doing them, but I haaate doing still lifes. So boring! So I decided to do create a "still life" with still objects, yet present them as kinetic forms. I was inpired by these amazing koi fish ornaments I saw some years ago, and decided to use them as my inspiration. Assignment fulfilled, and my sanity preserved. yay me. haha

Quandary

For various reasons, I haven't posted pics of the completed the red dress painting. One of the reasons being that I'm fical. The painting is finished, and hanging in a gallery, but part of me has always had a strong desire to take it down and redo parts of it (that's typical me haha). Originally, I wanted to go with a sophisticated, yet avant-garde sort of look, leaving the background unfinished, with the newsprint.


(this is basically what it would have looked like WITH the unfinished backround, I've just added a lot more detail and refining to the subject)


And, (b/c I don't have any GOOD pictures) here's how it looks with the finished background. I think either way it looks okay, but either way gives it a completely different feel, so I'm not sure what I'm wanting.





Thoughts, anyone? Please post and let me know what you've got to say ^__^ because I don't know haha. I'm always way too anal and overthink things, so sometimes I need an outside source or point of view to help me figure out what I may not be seeing. Any way, love to hear from you guys.

Progress Shot

I said I'd post some progress shots of what I'm working on. Not too much, but hey, I always like seeing what other people are working on, so I'll post pics for those who share an interest in seeing the creative process.
Click images to view up close.

The surface is covered with a really heavy gesso, covered with letters and printed pages.
I've also added some embossing paint (to create embellishments), medical gauze and tape, and even iodine.
The pic below sucks but you get the idea--

Since the edges are about 3" wide, I'm using them as an extension of the canvas. Heck, the entire canvas, literally, is an extension of what I'm expressing. One day I was feeling kind of bummed while working on it, so I started writing a little thought on the back of it. I've continued adding to it since. Just whenever I have a thought, I'll jot it down on the back. I could care less if anyone sees it or even reads it. I just think it adds that much more gravity to it. If someone one day, a hundred years from now, reads it, they'll study it and write about it in some analytical art blurb. I'll be like VanGogh, and they'll talk about how crazy that girl was. haha. Maybe not. But, that's how I feel sometimes. I can dream, can't I? :D

Welcom back ME!

Ha ha. So I've been away for a while...

I've been busy with school and work. I've done a lot of sketching in the mean time, just haven't had the time to post anything. Luckily I've had the last two days in a row off and have been strangely inspired to get some stuff done. So, here she is-- (pardon the crappy photo quality)

The final piece actually consists of two canvases, so this is the first half. I'm not really going to do anything else to her, but I will do a little more with the background once the second half is ready to go (that way they tie in with eachother) Any way, I'm excited to get started on part II!

AND I've almost finished another little something I've been working on (yay!) so I'll be posting that one in days to come!

My 2.5 Seconds of Fame!

Ha ha. That's all I can say about that. My mom sent me a link to the Betz Gallery page where you can watch a brief news piece on the gallery. My piece Charlotte y Raton made a brief appearence... in the background ha ha. My mom was really excited, like moms are, and was like "Your painting was on TV!!" Check out the clip (it automatically plays when you get there)... you'll see it in the background lol. Sorry I can't just upload the video here.

Chicas

I've been playing with 'liquid' acrylics, which are basically a thinner, watery sort of acrylic paint that can be used like watercolors. They also provide some really vibrant colors, and can also be mixed with regular acrylics for a less transparent look.


Untitled. 7/2009



None the Wiser. 6/2009

Oldish/Newish Art

I haven't posted anything here in a long time... so I'd like to at least leave you here with the only pic I've got of the following painting. It's not a new piece, but it's so undocumented, that I don't even have it on my website yet! eep! So I thought I could at least post the 'in progress' shot I've got of it. (It's finished, I just don't have photos of it finished, and it's in Houston, so I can't get better pics) oh well... Click on the pic for a better view.


"La fille dans le jardin" ("The girl in the garden") 2009
If anyone out there wants more info, contact Betz Gallery!