December 23rd, 2010 talkingfox
Starting Dec.25th, 2010 ALL proceeds over cost from the sales of fine art and photographic prints from my online galleries will be donated to The Whittemore Peterson Institute for NeuroImmune Disease. NeuroImmune diseases effect millions worldwide and are critically underfunded.
http://www.wpinstitute.org/
My online galleries are here
I will say that I have a vested interest in the work of the WPI as I have been diagnosed with ME/CFS and have tested positive for the recently discovered XMRV retro virus that the WPI is diligently researching . This is why I’ve not been posting very much. I have been too ill to keep up on this blog and to add my voice in some small way to activism efforts. The activism wins when I decide how I’m going to spend what energy I have.
Hopefully, with continuation of the research, treatments and perhaps even a cure will be available to the approximately 17 million people worldwide that suffer, often with woefully insufficient medical care and without help for even day to day needs.
More information about what ME/CFS REALLY IS here
I consider myself fortunate to have done as well as I have in the past with periods of remission and a relatively gradual onset, but unfortunately there are millions, including children, that don’t share in my good fortune.
Let’s Help ’em out by funding the research!! C’mon…you know you want to…..
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October 21st, 2009 talkingfox
I’ve been slack lately about posting new work as I finish it…sorry.
So, here are a few new pieces from my “Something Old” Series.
“Reclamation” 2009
I really liked the irony of this image. The plants are growing out of derelict logging equipment. 😉
Chandelier 2009
I was experimenting with creating detail with very loose brushwork , Ashcan School style, in this piece. I really enjoyed the odd perspective and reflected light and subsequent color play. Great fun to paint.
As always, I welcome your opinions and comments and prints are available on my Imagekind Gallery.
Sorry, but I’m hanging on to the originals right now as to try and get a show put together.
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September 2nd, 2009 talkingfox
I’ve been working on the “Cheesecake makes you Phat” series lately and in my researching about came upon this crackup of a site. It’s an analysis of the bizarre works of Art Frahm. Don’t know who Art Frahm is? Check this link!
Art Frahm- A study of the effects of celery on loose elastic
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August 19th, 2009 talkingfox
Well after reaquainting myself with the SCA I think I’d like to do some portraiture as it comes available.
EVERYONE looks better in garb in my estimation. I think what has kept me from doing a lot of portraits in the past is the isistance of people that their portraits be visually synonymous with glamour shot photography or state portraiture type stuff.
How much more fun would it be to capture everyone’s inner Lord and/or Lady? Since I have a small talent for realism, I think this could be a fun exercise.
This idea tickles my creative fancy as well, since I have an abiding interest in both textiles and history that actually passes over into the perseveration zone…
W00T for multi-level creative itch scratching!
Hmmmm, now all I need is subjects….
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June 11th, 2009 talkingfox
I’ve started work on a new series as I’ve not done any illustrative work in awhile.
I lovelovelove retro- styled pinups, but I noticed that the body types were all exactly the same, with the exception of Coops work. Also the trend seems to be to an overly slick stylistic approach.
I decided that a different body types needed to be looked at as subject matter and that a return to the more painterly pinup needed to happen, at least in my studio. Thus came the “Cheesecake makes you Phat ” series. I think that a direct challenge to the narrow societal parameters of what is beautiful (and imposed on us!) is in order.
Larger women tend to be very body shy and I was worried that I’d have an issue with finding people willing to share reference shots, but the support for the series has been overwhelming! I’ve got models ranging from a size 12 to a size 30 and all of them are fabulous!
I’ve already had interest from spaces willing to show the series and it’s still on the drawing boards! Awesomeness!
The trick is going to be finding the balance of titillating rather than tawdry and provocative rather than pornographic. I’m also throwing in modern twists such as piercings, dreadlocks and tattoos.
There was something rather innocent about the classic cheesecake pose, at least by current standards. I’m hoping to retain some of that charm.
You’ll have to wait to see them when the series is finished and I’ve got prints available.
Just remember that patience is a virtue, but in general I’ve found being virtuous is mostly overrated
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May 20th, 2009 talkingfox
I find that one of the hardest thing for me socially is how to gauge when to stop or start looking at a thing. Somehow there seems to be some sort of unwritten rule somewhere as to just how long that it’s acceptable to actually stare at anything…or more importantly anyone.
I find that I usually either don’t look at people at all or inversely I stare like I’m boring holes in them. The latter usually happens if I find them OR what the light is doing to them interesting. Just how do I explain that I’m bugging out on the series of planes that their face has become?
One thing that I’ll say for photography work is that the camera acts as a social buffer against my unabashed tendency to fall into whatever it is that I’m looking at.
Artism strikes again, much to the detriment of my social calender….
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April 7th, 2009 talkingfox
I have just recently been accepted to The Evergreen State College here in Washington State.
After 20 years of doing just visual art as a mainstay I’ve decided to expand my options and take on finishing my BA, adding a goodly dose of Art History to the mix. Ultimately my goal is to acheive my MA in Museum Science from University of Washington, one of the few in the country that offers that specific degree.
I’ve worked in museums as a day job before and I must say that my own work benefited from the experience. A good museum is more than just a warehouse…it can be a think tank, library,classroom,social hub and multi-media center as well. I found that the daily company of others passionate about art stoked my creative fires.
I truly believe that my experience as a working artist could be of benefit…and no, I’m not planning on stopping my own work. The prime word here is AND.
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January 19th, 2009 talkingfox
I’ve gotten into manual tinting of photographs lately. Why Is this listed as “hand” tinting? Because I’m using the computer rather than an analog approach.
There is a big difference as to how I’m approaching this however, in contrast to the tutorials I’ve seen on the subject. I do NOT use bucket fills. I’m using Corel Painter in watercolor mode, thin ‘wash’ over thin ‘wash’, just as I would in analog. As a result the , well, results are looser and more complex in color.
Time consumptive but great fun none the less.
Recycling Rhapsody
Flotsom and Jetsam 5
Omega
As always I welcome your input and prints are available at my
Imagekind site.
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October 20th, 2008 talkingfox
I hear a lot of argument on both sides about digital media. Galleries have been slow to accept it as a valid media and many analog purists dismiss it as somehow “cheating”. I’ve actually heard some say that digitally created works of art somehow “don’t count because you can just whip ’em up”.
As someone who has worked on both sides of the aisle on this issue let me start by saying that nothing is “just whipped up” in any working artists studio that I know, my own included.
I’ve been working with digital media off and on for well over 20 years. As of late I’ve been working in combinations of digital and analog mediums. Has the digital experience changed my approach as an artist?
Yes and No.
I work mostly with Corel Painter IX these days. It has a gazillion and fifty two nifty features that I don’t use, opting to work the digital format like an analog medium. Why don’t I just work the analog equivalences you may ask?
My reasons are as follows:
1. Pixels aren’t toxic.
I worked in oils for years, then switched to wax pastels due to toxicity issues. I tend to not pay attention to where my brushes and solvents are and also have an unfortunate propensity when rapt in work to stick my brushes in my mouth when I need a point or to wipe solvent laden brushes on my pants leg. *DOH*
Even though there are other mediums that don’t require toxic solvents I realized that most artists pigments are, in and of themselves, toxic. This includes the pigments in pastels, acrylics,watercolors etc. Cadmium anyone? And then there’s always the issue of toxic fixatives.
2 Pixels are green
No solvents, no minerals, no wasted paper in reworks , no waste in general.
3. Safety of Originals
I had a studio flood on me a few years back. I lost a lot of pieces. I’ve also had pieces meet a number of more unusual demises, some involving housecats.
Back up your files on disc regularly and your originals are safe
3. Space
it takes a whole lot less space to work on a Wacom Tablet than to work on an easel, as well as a drafting table and airbrush booth. That and one doesn’t have to pay for all of that equipment.
4. Versitility
See entry 3.
I tend to approach my digital works the same as my analog work ie with classical layering technique.
I also tend to combine scanned analog and digital, using the best of both worlds.
The only thing I really miss about analog is working with impasto, but then again a girl can’t have everything.
When I was in college , back in the earlier days of computer art, my instructor told me 2 things that have stuck with me throughout my career.
The first is that it doesn’t matter what tools an artist uses to get the effect that they’re going for. They STILL have to come up with the idea for the piece and make every call along the way as far as approach.
The second is that a computer is really nothing more than a fast pencil. You still have to be able to draw and be well grounded in artistic fundamentals in order to make it do what you want.
My challenge to you is this…look around the works posted on this site and My Imagekind Gallery.
I have a whole lot of pieces that are marked mixed media. Can you tell which are purely analog and which are analog/digital?
I’d be interested to hear which you think are which.
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October 6th, 2008 talkingfox
I got a new camera for my birthday! It’s a Canon 40D and I seriously love it. It has a whole lot of features but not so many that it overwhelms me.
While I’m adjusting to the new lenses and stuff I’ve been digging through the piles of raw shots that I had stockpiled and cropping and whatnot as needed. I’ve even managed to find a few keepers in the bunch!
I started 2 series in Alaska, which are very much about life in the North. The first I call “Hidden Support” and looks to the nature of animals in support of people in Alaska, notably the paleolithic. Without fauna, mega and modern, people would never have been able to survive in the Far North. In addition, the modern Northern societies are still supported by animals that lived eons ago in the form of Oil. Agriculture in Alaska is still pretty minimal. So past present and future , Alaska is supported by the bones of animals.
Here’s a few examples from the series:
Ghost Bear 2008
Fossil Spine 2008
Sea Lion Skull 2008
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In addition to the ‘Hidden Support” series I’ve been editing another series all wound around light refracting within and shining through Ice. I think it plays off the bone pieces well not only visually but conceptually as well. The Ice represents the pressures of the environment in living in the Far North. Everything one does is wound around a seasonal deadline that will not be pushed to suit a person. So what we end up with with the 2 series together is Hidden Support and Obvious Pressure.
Ice 3 2008
Ice 4 2008
Even though I’m still getting used to the new camera, sometimes I can still get a good one….this was taken in my best friend’s house. The eyes were not manipulated. All I did was to desaturate the other colors. In addition, the wonderfully creepy dolls eyes in this terracotta sculpture were set looking forward. They do tend to follow one about the room…which I think came through.
Watcher by the Door 2008
As always prints are available on My Imagekind Gallery
And as always I welcome your opinions, comments and critiques!
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