By all rights, this painting should be feeling close to finished by now. And yet, it isn’t. The problem is that I can’t seem to put my finger on the problem. I only know it just doesn’t look right to me yet. The foliage is not resolved, somehow. Too piecey, perhaps? I feel a dangerous [...]
Archive for November, 2008
Another Day’s Work
Posted in Work in Progress, tagged "untitled/girl tree", finishing on November 26, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
Two Wall Paintings
Posted in Life, In & Out of the Studio, tagged italy on November 26, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
A wonderfully preserved erotic fresco from the Museo Archeologico Nazionale in Naples, where Dave and I vacationed this summer. The museum is truly a shambles – the nonchalant disregard with which Italians seem to treat the priceless art that saturates their country is pretty shocking – but it’s full of amazing treasure.
It reminds me of [...]
What is Art For?
Posted in Thinking Things Through, tagged dave hickey, lewis hyde on November 20, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
I read with interest the article “What is Art For?” by Daniel Smith in the NYT magazine this past weekend. It is about the not-very-well-known author Lewis Hyde (I had never heard of him) who nonetheless is kind of famous among creative types for his 1983 book “The Gift”, which Smith writes, “tries to reconcile [...]
Psychology Experiment
Posted in Life, In & Out of the Studio, tagged hermaphrodite, open studios, Studio on November 20, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
So the building where I have my current studio had Open Studios last weekend, an event in which I participated, but with no small reluctance. I believe I’ve mentioned before that despite the fact that I post all this stuff on the interwebs, I generally dislike having people in my studio casually. Other than friends. [...]
Another Tree Person
Posted in Work in Progress, tagged "Jack", art supplies on November 19, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
I’ve started another small scale study for a person transforming/dissolving into foliage. But this time, I’m thinking of trying something a little different: making it a diptych, by stacking another canvas on top of this one, in order to separate the body part from the leafy part,
I can’t show you the two canvases together yet, because I [...]
Woman Tree Legs Progress
Posted in Work in Progress, tagged "untitled/girl tree" on November 14, 2008 | 1 Comment »
God, I really need to come up with a better working title for this painting soon. Or even a real title.
Inching closer. I’m not crazy right now about the way the leaves kind of look like wings. I don’t want it to look like she’s about to leave the ground.
“Open” Studio: A Rant
Posted in Life, In & Out of the Studio, tagged privacy, Studio on November 14, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
Okay, so I may be slightly deranged about my privacy. And you may find this hard to believe, coming from someone posting pictures of her work-in-progress on the interwebs. But it’s true: my privacy in the studio is really, really important to me. Not only do I keep many valuable possessions in that room (hundreds [...]
Coping with the Daily Possibility of Complete & Utter Failure
Posted in Work in Progress, tagged "Lead Balloon", failure on November 13, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
So here is the other head-interior-portrait painting. And let me tell you. It is not pretty. I kind of agonized over even posting this, but transparency won out. I can’t only show you the things in process that are lookin’ good. Because, um, more often then not, things in process can look, well, bad. And [...]
Headcase
Posted in Thinking Things Through, Work in Progress, tagged "Mote" on November 12, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
Here is the other main idea I’m currently working on. Like the tree-people paintings, it involves another set of metamorphosing figures, but rather than showing bodies dissolving into foliage, I wanted to paint a kind of portrait – but a picture of the inside of someone’s head, rather than their face. I really had no [...]
Indirection Progress
Posted in Work in Progress, tagged "Indirection" on November 10, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
Here’s the latest incarnation of ‘Indirection’. It’s coming along. The hands are not quite but almost finished, and I’m working on all the overlapping marks in the surrounding field, going for controlled chaos. They’re a combination of measuring marks, which I used to draw the hands accurately, and also too, as Sarah Palin would say, [...]
