Four chickens

 

I am making these little objects as part of a series I am calling "Who's Counting?"  It is a continuation of the idea of counting your chickens before they are hatched, about daring to dream and being able to see beauty and potential in unexpected places.  The eggs are oil painting, but much of the work  comes from doing this very precise collage work on the front and sides, so that the pieces become more object than painting.  My hope is for each one to be a precious little thing, kind of rich and sumptuous with the combination of fabrics.  They will eventually be hung together in a geometric pattern (more on that to come).

   

 

I love the smell of tempera paint in the morning

Just about ready for the new school year.  This will be my first year as an art teacher.  I have been teaching elementary school for 13 years, including many an art lesson.  But this will be different.  Five periods a day of art classes coming and going, kindergarten through fifth grade. I can't wait.

I put a mural at the entrance to the room, and continued it onto the back wall.  It feels like stepping into a painting.  My hope is that it will creat a slight shift in awareness as we enter the room, readying us for artmaking.

Some of My Favorite People Are Sheep

The Two-wall Gallery on Vashon Island is now the site of a September art show called “The Value and Beauty of Farm Life” which was juried by Vashon Sheepdog Classic.  So come on down and vote for your favorite piece and some lucky dog will get a $250 prize (woof!).  I will be there September 7th for the First Friday Art Walk, proselytizing for myself.

I have to say, I had such a feeling of satisfaction to have paintings selected for a show put on by a sheepdog group.  My new-found peeps!  It makes that monthly student loan payment feel worthwhile.  No joke.

I redid my sheep painting at 4 times its original size.  I thought it would take just as long but really, it took 4 times longer to paint (I believe I actually painted every hair on Zilla's face.  She is now my BFF.) Fortunately I did flip the image which tricked my brain into thinking it was a brand new painting.  The right side of my brain is so gullible!

(Not that it should make any difference, but these chickens are also nude and gay.)

The World Is My Canvas

After painting a set, I thought "I could get used to this."  It's fun to paint big.  Really big.  I have hopes of doing mural paintings with students at my school this year.  I decided to practice on the bedroom of an imaginative boy I know.  He had wanted one wall of forest, one with a pink sunset, one with a desert, and one of sealife. I got as far as the first two.  Somehow, the mood cast by these walls makes you want to whisper.  Next step is painting one of these trees at the entrance to my school's art room.

Visualize Bacon

And when pigs fly, I will realize my every dream and have a farm.  We have big plans to start flying lessons SOON.  BIG PLANS.  In the meantime, I am left to wonder what flying pig bacon tastes like.  Mmmm...

Unabashed Optimism

They say not to count your chickens before they've hatched. Well, I say you should count them and eat them before they hatch. Some people might call that foolish. I like to think of it as an omelet.

His Favorite Prank

"His favorite prank was to use pebbles to spell out curse words and ominous messages. (Humans are so gullible.)"

You think these animals are really cute with really small brains, but we all know they are secretly plotting to overthrow the human race. Birds are experts at espionage and other covert operations (they are everywhere...).

Why Would You Typecast a Duck?!

If it looks like a duck and walks like a duck, do not assume it's a duck. And quit stereotyping ducks!  That is the message of this painting. 

Don't let anyone else tell you what you should and shouldn't like, how you should and shouldn't be. Forget about being cool. Forget about arbitrary rules. We all have to march to the beat of our own brass band. Unless it's your mother talking, in which case you should do exactly what she says. (Okay, that last one was a side note to my son.)

I Love Menial Labor

am finding that these pieces are surprisingly labor intensive. In fact, the painting of the images is really the least of it. I find I spend a lot of time meticulously painting in letters and borders. I actually love to do it. I find it super relaxing. I also find it is best done while listening to embarrassing folk music or old episodes of Law and Order Criminal Intent. The result is that I am now secretly in love with Detective Bobby Goren. He is so weird, but so smart.

Sometimes you win...sometimes you polish a turd



This is not the turd

What was meant to be a small, quick, experiment of a painting turned into a time consuming turd polishing experience.  Perhaps I exaggerate.  It was a painting of a cup.  I was trying out using white washes to create the cup so that the areas of shadow showed through as fabric.  It turned out not to have an interesting enough effect to make up for the boring subject.  Oh well.  After spending WAY too much time trying to figure what I could add to save it from mediocrity, I finally decided I just needed to paint something that would be beautiful to look at.  I do love waxwings.  They already look deceptively like a painting.  So there you have it.  Look, its' a bird.

This is the turd.

Vote Lintzilla the Sheep for (unofficial) Mayor!

This is a painting of my friend's sheep who is currently running for unofficial mayor of Vashon (the sheep that is, not my friend).  Also in the running is a dog and cat pair as well as 2 humans (good luck, humans. You'll need it!).  As I was saying, it might seem ironic to have a sheep in a leadership position, but this gal has the guts to make the tough choices (plus, all voting dollars support Vashon Partners in Education).

Here is another angle of the same painting so that you can see the egg fabric framing the painting on the sides.

It's a Product, It's a Process

"Not that he had a choice, but he always preferred renting.

That way, if anything broke, it wasn't his problem."

I like the idea of adding text that looks like it is going to be inspirational, but instead is absurd and irreverent.

Apparently I am not yet tired of ridiculously cute kitties.  I wish I were being ironic about them, but no such luck.

I have been adjusting my studio space to accommodate the evolution of my artmaking process.  I have often alternated between oil and acrylic paint, but now I am collaging/sewing/gluing/painting fabrics.  This new process has meant new mediums/adhesives (UV protection, archival, acid-free, and so on).  I was collaging fabrics by sewing them together, but I have been experimenting with gluing instead. And then there is the collection of fabrics, growing by the minute.  There has been a great deal of improvisation to this new process (and surprisingly, a lot of drying time with all the layers and mediums).  You can see the process laid out a bit here in these photos.