Tuesday, October 19, 2010

#7 The Party Girl

Part of the reason I love painting is seeing the process of a new work take form. Sometimes I have the entire composition mapped out before I begin. Sometimes I wing it. This one, "The Party Girl," is referring mostly to embarrassing drunk photos that get shared online all too often. In this day and age, when real consequences don't seem to exist and no one really understands the eternal life of something posted online, I felt it prevalent. The pose is inspired from Luke Hillestad's "To Set His Torso Free." When I saw this painting I was amazed by how fluid and dynamic the body looked. So here're some in progress shots. I'm feeling close to done on the figure...now to complete the rest (my least favorite).

Friday, October 15, 2010

St Paul Fall Art Crawl

Unlike with the Spring Art Crawl, this time, I knew what to expect. I knew people didn't walk around with the intention of buying. And if they would buy, they usually wouldn't buy anything over $50 unless they came specifically shopping. Also with Lowertown St Paul's face being ripped open 24/7 by bulldozers and pipes sticking out of the ground getting ready for a transit system that won't be here for 4 more years (don't get me started), we knew attendance would be low. That being said, I used this art crawl as a debut of my new series and showed paintings that only my friends had seen previous. I was obviously very nervous about this. But it was wonderful. I put up an artist statement (which most people read) to introduce the meanings of the pieces, which I think helped my purpose a lot. I got a lot of laughs and a lot of comments - which really validated this series for me. The fact that the public can relate is what it's all about - and that keeps me painting.
And a shot of my apartment because it is just so cute: