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.

Art Frahm- A study of the effects of celery on loose elastic

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….

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

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….

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.

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.

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.

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!

Since my paintings have taken on a somewhat photographic quality over the last few years anyway , why not just skip a step in the process. My photos tend to have a painterly quality to them as well. I’ve actually had a few people ask me if they were pen and inks, paintings or photographs. I guess you can take the girl out of the studio , but… well you know the rest.

Another plus is that photography tends to crack me out of  my Aspie studio isolation more. I can’t help but think that this is a good thing.

The next step is going to be figuring out how to combine the 2 mediums and try to create something that is not wholly painting and not wholly photography but is, instead, something that retains the qualities of both and yet is neither completely. It’s going to take some thought.

In the meantime , while I figure this all out here are a few of my most recently finished shots.

Again, as always, I welcome your feedback and opinions of the work and prints are available at my Imagekind Gallery

Portrait of a Eurasian Eagle Owl 2008

Pine 2008

Flotsom & Jetsam 4 2008

Flotsam & Jetsam 3

Frost 4 2008