Painting huge paintings has greatly slowed my ability to produce consistently. My new resolution is to create smaller drawings a few times a week to boost my moral. The last painting I have completed is in reference to the Virgin Mary. In the Catholic church, women are encouraged to look to Mary as the ultimate role model. Unfortunately, it is a goal that is impossible to achieve because Mary is both a virgin and a mother. Which no woman could actually achieve, as it is impossible to be both. I have continued the theme of the holy card with a contemporary figure referencing qualities of Mary. I included lily's in the piece, which are the flower of purity. I composed them so that they point downward as a sign of surrender, and inability to achieve such a standard.

For my next painting I am researching the patron saint of girls, St. Rose of Lima. I began to lay it out today and feel confident that I will have it completed by the end of the semester.

As far as the drawing goes, I am using images of saints and altering them as I see fit. Right now I reflecting the gut wrenching stress I am feeling with anxiety. This series will combine my rather constant battle of anxiety with imagery of hope that the prayer cards are meant to posses. It doesn't work with my thesis, but it is giving me an opportunity to become familiar with how prayer cards are rendered and composed.

New Work

I just completed a four foot painting I had been working on for a past month, which is the biggest I have ever attempted. It is my first in the series I have begun which relates to catholic prayer cards. I am discussing how people view themselves pursuing their goals/or occupations in life, as to that of Catholic saints. It is a way to analyze how people perceive themselves to get through each day of their lives, and how we believe that some how our actions will obtain a greater good. Catholics look to the saints as a model of how to live their lives, as well as how to achieve their ultimate goal of a greater afterlife. I also have a strong interest in the symbolism of prayer cards due to my Catholic upbringing, so I am working to recreate a work of art that references those images. I am going to mount this piece on a gold backing next week so it will read more as a prayer card and then put it in a black floating frame.

Work in progress

This is a close up on a full body painting I started about a month ago. I still have a lot of rendering to complete, but I figured I would post what I have thus far. I created this piece as a study of color and skin tone for my next body of work, although I have been unhappy with the end result. Post critique yesterday, I have concluded that my new work will be on a much larger scale than I have previously worked with and I will be rendering skin tones with a less monochromatic approach.

In my landscape painting class we were required to recreate a painting of our choice, I chose Abbey in the Oak Orchard, by Friedrich. I was content with the end results, though it was a struggle to recreate the work of another artist.

Graduate Work

Finished my first piece of graduate art work, as of tonight. (need to get a better image...) Putting in the frame tomorrow, which will bring it to it's final state of completion. Overall, I am satisfied with the general outcome of the piece, aside from a few small things I might change. I believe this has been a successful trial of how I am going to render future work, and I am especially satisfied with the color scheme.
I am currently working on a larger work that includes the whole female figure and will hopefully be shooting reference photos for my next pieces this week. I have decided to narrow down my research on perception to focus on the process of belief, by incorporating religious ideology into my paintings. Not necessarily in a religious sense, but as motif to look further into how we perceive ourselves in our own lives, as well how we perceive others, as we work towards an 'end good'. Mainly focusing on why there is a need to perceive an outcome for all that we sacrifice, or work towards on a daily basis.

Graduate School

Finally feeling settled into my new environment at Kendall College of Art and Design, after approx. a month of moving from Fort Wayne. I was given the opportunity to move in my studio two weeks ago, and have thus begun working on two new paintings. These two paintings are much different from past work, both technically and conceptually,but I feel still retain many elements of my previous style.
Conceptually, I am begging to explore the relationship between perception and imagination. I was reading a bit of Sartre and came across this quote as a point of interest,

“The object of the perception overflows consciousness constantly. The object of the image is never more than the consciousness one has, nothing can be learned from an image that is not already known…It can, of course happen that a memory of an image presents itself unexpectedly, and presents some new aspects.”

-John Paul Sartre, " The Psychology of Imagination"

I am still attempting to solidly compose an accurate artist statement, but decided I would start painting with a loose idea of concept and see where that led me. I am mostly attempting to create a dream like atmosphere that reflects a reality juxtaposed with an image that provides a narrative about the subject of the painting.

Technically, I am now using a much more limited palette than my previous work. I am using this palette to promote the idea of imagination vs perception by creating an atmosphere that is realistic, but also has a dreamlike element to it. In the current pieces I am starting off on, I am using blue grays being juxtaposed with a brighter range of yellows.

This particular painting is about half finished. I still have further rendering to accomplish in the face, and much more to go in the background, as well as hair. The flower in her mouth is also in need to quite a few more layers, and will eventually 'glow' against the neutral palette.

Artist Statement

I realized recently that I had never posted my general artist statement that was the focus of my graduate school portfolio pieces. My more recent work that I previously posted focuses on different ideas, but this is still the main basis of my work. Most of these pieces are posted a couple of blog postings back.

Growing up in the suburban landscape of Midwest America fueled me to explore the world beyond the monotonous exterior of my community. I pushed myself to obtain a more thorough perspective of the society that surrounded me. I was united with it, but simultaneously I challenged myself to be an observer. My observations led me to discover my agitation for a general disorder in the apparent obsessive pursuit of physical perfection. Not physical perfection in itself, rather, how this shallow desire conflicted with the gender roles of society, thus further pushing them into a state of disorder.

When I began painting, I strived to portray the physical ideals that I perceived to be the most imperative to each individual that I rendered. Through this perception of physical impeccability, I naturally began to structure a general sense of disorder through a bleak color palette and intense expression. This body of work focused on illustrating the way I perceived the pursuit of perfection in individuals, while characterizing the disorder I saw underneath the vaguely falsified exterior. As my work evolved it was not the actual obsessive pursuit of perfection that perturbed me, rather the socially acceptable desire for men to strive to conquer perfection in women. I constantly observed the way a man’s eyes would chase a women endlessly throughout a room, until another subsequent entity entered. If he was successful in his endeavors, I would observe the carefully crafted tag of ownership he would place around her.

In my recent work, I set out to create a seemingly perfect feminine entity in an ambiguous, ethereal atmosphere where she is being ‘hunted’, illustrating what I had constantly observed in everyday social situations.

I create pieces that capture different moments in the courtship process that radiate the consuming qualities that I have discerned through my observations and become accustomed to through my personal experience. These observations reflect a shallow desire and pursuit that can be found in the disorder of gender roles in society. I anticipate that my work will continue to reflect the truisms drawn from the social behaviors witnessed.

Recent Works

I spent a lot of time putting together two shows during my final semester of undergrad, as well as frantically applying to graduate school. Everything turned out better than I initially anticipated, and I was accepted into my first choice graduate school, Kendall College in Grand Rapids. My senior show encompassed the work I used to apply for graduate school, and the basis of my current artist statement. This work is featured in previous blogs, along with these two additional pieces.

Reclaim I. oil. 2010Reclaim II. oil. 2010

These two pieces are more a commentary about the innate ability of humans to be reclaimed by their natural compulsions. I had been spending a lot of time contemplating exactly why certain traits are so carved into some individuals and not others. Mostly focusing on why certain actions, or traits are so impossible for different individuals to be capable of over coming, or erasing from their general demeanor. The basis of these two pieces was to start formulation a way to show a interpretation of this process. I do not feel these pieces were entirely to successful conceptually, as I need to evolve this thought process further and create a more elaborate composition. I was satisfied with my rendering of the skin in both pieces, the second one especially.