October 10, 2011 at 9:39 am · Filed under other
Unsurprisingly, I have been neglecting this blog for more than a year now. My most recent post is from the spring of 2010, before I’d even made plans to move to Philadelphia (where I’ve now lived for OVER a year, crazy I know!). I hardly had my ish together, and I’d like to say that has changed along with my location. Ha. Although I think the fact that I now live away from home and successfully pay rent (in my 2nd Fishtown apartment) is progress, I’m still pretty far from any kind of endpoint. I’m still at the point where people ask me, “What do you do?” and I make some sort of a joke to avoid answering. Not because I’m ashamed (a job is a job!), but because I want to be able to tell them I have a plan. Like a capital P Plan.
I don’t really have a plan.
So what have I been doing?! Well first and foremost, settling into a new place. Place being city. I think we’ve now successfully passed the honeymoon phase and entered that really getting to know each others’ flaws part of our relationship. For example, Philly has surely realized by now that I am terrible about buying tokens ahead of time. Also that I don’t attend First Fridays hardly as often as I should. And I’ve learned that Philly has a side thing (or I guess more accurately a full-on affair) with hoodlums and burglars!
Yep, finally after years of living in cities (4 years of Baltimore, 1 year of Phila) I have experience my first breaking and entering! Goodbye PS3, goodbye laptop. Also goodbye my new baby DSLR. Gross, right.
It sucks, but it’s not actually as bad as it could’ve been. I had a reasonable amount of my files backed up, as well as renter’s insurance. I wasn’t home when the break-in occurred, and they really didn’t trash the place at all. In actuality they left it all creepily in place, to the extent where we didn’t realize we’d been robbed until we’d been in the house a good 10 minutes. Our little fluff Anderson seemed no worse for wear (although to be fair I think that little demon angel could withstand WWIII without caring).
But obviously it’s unsettling to know somebody was in our house. You feel kind of bitter towards your fellow humans, wondering how somebody can do that without seeming to feel any guilt or remorse. I was working on a couple of new WordPress themes for a paperpetual.com reboot and that was completely lost. Photos from my grandfather’s funeral. Some episodes of trashy ABC Family TV shows; a bunch of recipe bookmarks. Bummer. Ugh!
But life goes on.
I’m going to try to use this as a literal start-over clean slate. First task is getting in gear and getting paperpetual revamped. Second (albeit most likely parallel) is starting to make new work. On Saturday I applied with the super talented WomWoms-making Beki Basch for a booth at Holiday Heap, so we’ll see if we get selected or not. Craft fairs are what I promised myself this past New Years, so maybe I’ll at least be able to make a little bit of good on that before the year is out!
So… what I mean to say is it’s all up from here! And inversely (but not really opposite), time to buckle down.
March 27, 2010 at 10:03 am · Filed under art updates
A list:
1. What a 5-in-one is and what to do with it
2. Daniel Johnston
3. How to sponge paint without making it look like your gma did it
4. Juice with spinach in it can taste quite good
5. Scenic artists might be bitter and angry but they also band together, get shit done, and probably don’t hate their jobs as much as it sounds like they do
6. The best part of owning your own business is owning your own business, and the worst part of owning your own business is owning your own business
7. Muslin is less expensive than canvas and works just as well
8. It might be awesome/beneficial to learn how to airbrush (similarly, Painting the Secret World of Nature, John Agnew has some good tips on the subject)
9. The Hub is the only place worth going to in Tampa
10. I might want to look into getting into tattooing
February 12, 2010 at 8:35 am · Filed under other
I’ve worked on a couple murals over the years, usually school related projects involving a number of people and artists. This mural was different, if only because it was all up to me. And boy did that make a difference.
I went into it thinking it would take me about a week if I worked steadily. Ha. In retrospect, that thought is hilarious. To be fair, I hadn’t exactly measured the space, and I didn’t have a concrete plan of what I was going to paint (albeit something beach themed). The first thing I did after getting to Palm Beach was measure, and as it turns out 30ft x 10ft x 6ft with 10 doors is actually ginormous when it comes to muraling. 900 square feet of regular house painting, especially if you have 10 doors worth of trim to attend to, takes forever. Then add in carefully measuring and taping off faux window panes, actually painting the murals, and then finishing everything with faux trim? FOREVER.
But I’ve finally finished, so here goes:
Continue to Page 2 for close-ups and details of all the panels and doors!
November 10, 2009 at 8:21 am · Filed under art updates, life updates
As I type this I’m sitting the living room of my Aunt & Uncle’s condo in North Palm Beach. To say it is beautiful would almost be an understatement. The rooms are spacious and carefully decorated, with accents of blues and greens that complement the ocean. The ocean that is literally just outside. They have a lovely deck that wraps around nearly the entirety of the apartment, and the large glass doors and windows that lead to the balcony look right out on the waves. I’m sitting on a comfy couch and feeling the ocean breeze on my face and hearing the waves and looking through the glass onto the gorgeous turquoise water. This is so brilliant it should be imaginary.
I came down partially to drive down their BMW convertible (I know, what a chore), and partially to transport the series of Florida bird paintings they’ve commissioned for this house. I’ve completed three 24″ x 36″ paintings, and will perhaps do more. But for now, here is the completed series:
(click for enlarged views of each painting)
October 1, 2009 at 8:28 am · Filed under art updates
The thirteenth in the series of watercolor chickens: a Partridge Cochin rooster!
Original watercolor, signed.
8″x10″
For sale, $40!
Or, prints available for $20.
Go to Etsy shop for purchasing.
October 1, 2009 at 8:23 am · Filed under art updates
The twelfth in the series of watercolor chickens: a Buff Cochin rooster!
Original watercolor, signed.
8″x10″
For sale, $40!
Or, prints available for $20.
Go to Etsy shop for purchasing.
September 29, 2009 at 12:04 pm · Filed under art updates, life updates
I haven’t been updating this recently, but there’s a reason! Or rather, a couple reasons. First, it was the last week of my life in Cape Cod, so I was at least kind-of trying to appreciate it. Second, my parents and Texas grandparents came up to visit, so there was a long weekend span filled with sightseeing and lobster cooking/eating and shopping and seal watching and beach going and just plain socializing! Third, it was my birthday so obvi I was celebrating. Fourth, I had to move! I feel like I have had to move so many times in the last few years, and it’s really never very enjoyable. So I was packing up all my stuff, cleaning out Jessica’s parents’ condo, driving all my stuff back to PA, unpacking it all, shoving it somewhere until the next time I have to move… you get the idea.
But now I’m back settled in good old Pennsylvania, so updates will follow. I’m still working on chicken paintings, as well as a few commissions (two more 24″ x 36″ bird portraits to go with the herons, and one 36″ x 80″ painting of two penguins and two dragons playing golf together in a foursome). But I’m also planning on starting a couple of my own Projects. I’ve been doing primarily practice/busy work/commissions this summer, and it’s about time I give my brain a good shake and come up with something a little more conceptual. I get antsy if I don’t.
I’m also job-hunting. Which is depressing and hard, especially since I don’t really know yet what I want to do.
So more on both of those topics to come.
Well, I guess technically more on everything to come!
September 6, 2009 at 12:16 pm · Filed under sunday artist
OK, this is kind of cheating b/c I’ve written about her before. But whatever, when I re-do Paperpetual.com I’ll probably delete that journal, so here it is again. And besides, she’s great enough to merit more than one entry of regard. You see, Mary Temple is one of those artists of whom I am quite genuinely jealous. This jealousy doesn’t spring particularly from her making something spectacular that I can’t help but wish I had the skill and audacity to complete (although this is certainly part of it). It’s more because she’s doing exactly what I’d love to be doing; her work is a better version of some of the projects I’ve tackled over my last couple years of undergrad!
It’s one thing to discover another artist who makes work very similar to your own. Realizing that someone else has already done a project you’re considering can be a let down, but half the time the circumstances are different, and it can give you a bit of fuel to go out and make your version better. But Mary Temple is different.
Her shadow work isn’t an exact replica of an idea I’ve had – it’s more of a more eloquent and direct interpretation of the same things I wanted to discuss in my work. It’s similar to some of the things I’ve worked with (most specifically hand puppet series as well as my brown center shadow installation), only better. And if I could have thought on it longer, I’m sure I might have traveled in the same direction as Mary Temple. Her work is what I wish I could have done, what I wish I could be doing! It’s frustrating, but also kind of amazing. I’ve been inspired by a multitude of artists over the past coupe of years, but it’s positively scary how akin I feel to her work. It’s like we’re sharing brain waves!
Mary Temple, www.marytemple.com!
