Beach with Matt Painting Start to Finish

Beach with Matt, 20" x 24", oil on canvas, 2012

Happy Holidays

Now that Christmas has come and gone, it's time to share the holiday commissions. I hope that everyone had a wonderful holiday, filled with lots of love and tasty food. I am including in this commission round-up any fall commissions that may or may not have turned into holiday presents.

CEAM: Transliteration Highlights

Now that I am officially "on break" (painting all day, working on loose ends for commissions, upcoming exhibitions and teaching...but yeah, it's break because most of this happens in my pajamas), I am trying to catch up on a few things, these posts are included.

Transliteration: Liz Robbins + Sara Pedigo closed on November 21st, which makes these shots of the installation very overdue. The show was excellent, and I am deeply thankful for everyone who helped to make it possible and who visited while it was up. Special thanks are in order for Julie Dickover, the director of CEAM, for putting everything together. The final show included 26 poems (written within the last year): 10 new drawings and 6 new paintings based on pre-existing poems and 10 new paintings used to inspire 10 new poems. This collaboration challenged me creatively and gave me a dear friend in Liz, I think she is a truly amazing writer.

Liz and I at the Opening Reception!

Sara Pedigo + Liz Robbins: Transliteration

Sara Pedigo, Amy Needs to Unclench, 2012 Oil on panel, based on "Poem With Corset Allusion," by Liz Robbins Sara Pedigo & Liz Robbins Transliteration October 26 to November 21, 2012 Opening Reception: Fri, Nov 2  |  5 to 9pm Conversation with Artists: Fri, Nov 16 | 4pm Based on a mutual interest and respect for each others work, a collaboration of creative forces naturally evolved between Flagler College colleagues Robbins and Pedigo. The impetus for this joint effort began when Pedigo created the cover painting for Robbins' latest book of poems, Play Button. Upon reading the manuscript, Pedigo created several paintings for the prospective cover that attempted to capture the mood of Play Button while not directly quoting any one poem. After the publication of Play Button, Robbins and Pedigo were interested in seeing what would happen if they created work in response to specific pieces by the other artist. The outcome of this collaboration takes the form of new paintings, drawings, and poems that each serve as a response to a particular work by the other artist. Through the continuously evolving creative process poems took new shapes as drawings, and paintings became new stories on a blank page. The artists have used each others respective work as a new-found canvas, a creative springboard for new potential and artistic exploration. As a visual artist, Pedigo is interested in the sensory power of Robbins' poetry. Robbins' masterful use of language creates perfect slices of experience that transport the reader mentally and physically to the world described on the page. Pedigo's response to those slices of experience take the form of loosely painted portraits and drawings that don't always nod back to the specificity and particulars of the poems, but weave an atmospheric interpretation of the mood and lyricism that the poetry offers. The layered and sometimes dream-like quality of the paintings evokes substantial personal responses under which the paintings themselves seem almost to be tangible memories. As a poet, Robbins is drawn to the potential narrative aspects, such as character, in Pedigo's work, as well as the music and mood she creates with color and texture. She is also moved by one of Pedigo's artistic motivations: as a deeply creative way to reunite with loved family. To negotiate these aspects, Robbins moved beyond mere ekphrastic poems (poems about art) and tried to create differently complex, layered products, which included borrowing from other forms, genres, and devices, such as playwriting, aphorisms, songwriting, haibun (a Japanese poetic form), logic (if-then statements), personality typing, synesthesia, and biographical statements. Sara Pedigo has exhibited throughout the United States and in 2007 she was a recipient of the Joan Mitchell Foundation MFA Grant. Most notably, she was included in the 2006 Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition at the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery, and in exhibitions at the Cue Foundation, Jacksonville Museum of Contemporary Art and the Naples Art Museum. Pedigo received her Master of Fine Arts from the University of Massachusetts in Amherst. She is currently an Assistant Professor at Flagler College, her undergraduate alma mater. Liz Robbins' second full collection, Play Button, won the 2010 Cider Press Review Book Award. Her chapbook, Girls Turned Like Dials, won the 2012 YellowJacket Press Prize and is out this month. Her poems have appeared in Barrow Street, Greensboro Review, New Ohio Review, Poet Lore, Rattle, Verse Daily, and The Writer's Almanac with Garrison Keillor, and are in recent or forthcoming issues of Cimarron Review, Hayden's Ferry Review, The Journal, New York Quarterly,and Notre Dame Review. Her first book, Hope, as the World is a Scorpion Fish (Backwaters Press), was published in 2008. She is currently Associate Professor of English at Flagler College.   Crisp-Ellert Art Museum 48 Sevilla Street St. Augustine, FL 32084 (904) 826 8530 Museum Hours: Monday through Friday, 10am to 4pm ** Now open Saturdays, 12 to 4pm ** All exhibitions and events are free and open to the public. About the Museum:  Built in honor of Dr. JoAnn Crisp-Ellert and her husband, Dr. Robert Ellert, the Crisp-Ellert Art Museum offers Flagler College students and the Northeast Florida community a venue for fostering knowledge and a deep appreciation of contemporary art. As an educational resource for the College, the Museum exhibits regional, national and international artists, and provides opportunities for critical engagement and exposure to a variety of exhibitions and personal interactions with visiting artists. The Museum challenges students, the Flagler community and the public to cultivate individual creativity, critical reflection, historical consciousness and respect for the free exchange of ideas. In this spirit, the Museum also hosts public programs, including artist talks, readings, panel discussions and film series that provide a platform for vital interdisciplinary dialogue. flagler.edu/crispellert     |     facebook.com/crispellertartmuseum     |     crispellert@flagler.edu

September Round-Up

Today I dropped off a bunch of paintings to Plum Gallery, located on 9 Aviles Street in St. Augustine. I am excited to have new work there for the next six months, with the first of many ArtWalks taking place this Friday. If you can come by on Friday between 5-9pm, I will see you there. 

Below are cleaned up images of the paintings you have seen in various states of creation in the recent past. Taking stock of the work today, made me realize how much darker my palette has become over the past year. I have changed my painting medium, and really tried to push layering transparency. Often I think the work has a life of its own, and I am just along for the ride.

Easter, 5" x 7", oil on panel

Floating Feet, 7" x 5", oil on panel

Nap in the Orange Chair, 5" x 7", oil on panel

Ocean Waves, 7" x 5", oil on panel

Potluck, 5" x 7", oil on panel

Sand Fort, 5" x 7", oil on panel

Turn Around, 7" x 5", oil on panel

4H Farm for Chase's 6th, 20" x 24", oil on canvas

Brown Dog, 12" x 9", oil on canvas Ode to Bummer, 9" x 12", oil on canvas Birthday Cake Parade, 36" x 24", oil on canvas

Tuesday to Tuesday

This week.....

Friday Night: I attended an artist talk at Plum Gallery with Laura Mongiovi, a wonderful colleague and fellow artist.  Images of her visually supple and amazing work can be found here. Listening to Laura discuss her background and process made me really excited to get into the studio, and very thankful to work with such talented individuals. 

This Weekend: I spent family time celebrating my husband's birthday, we watched football and ate borsch. Below is an adorable photo of our nephew with our dog at the in-laws!

And then some paintings:

This is the painting that I can't quite seem to finish. Every time I think it's done, it's not. I have left this painting in the studio declaring victory too many times! I know it has the best of me at this point, but I am stubborn. I am hoping to loosen up the marks and trick it into something cohesive. We will see. I mostly hate everything but the girl bending over in the creek. Of course she is the figure I have touched the least, I really need to leave things alone more.

A new start on a small 9" x 12" painting, based on a single source photo. This painting features my mother, myself, our dog "bummer" (great name, thanks mom), and my brother's hands. I am most excited about my brother's hands, floating arms are really in this season with my paintings!

Finally, I am working on a group of 7" x 5" paintings. I posted two last week. Here is a shot of the four recently completed, followed by two close-ups made this week.  You can tell the time of day changes, because my carpet color shifts.

(school)work

With the fall semester fully in swing, it can be very challenging to keep up with creating new work. Luckily I have several deadlines that are forcing me to stay on top of working (at making art, not teaching it)! Next month my work goes back up at Plum Gallery, located on Aviles St. in St. Augustine. At the end of October-November, the collaborative works between Liz Robbins and myself will be on display at Flagler's CEAM (Crisp Ellert Art Museum). In January, I have a solo show scheduled at Florida School of the Arts in Palatka.

Point being, outside of teaching, I still have a lot of work to do. I left my house at 8:45am this morning and am just stopping now to sit down and write this post (with the exception of my 45 minute dinner break). With all of this said, I would like to point out that I am not complaining because I throughly love every minute of the whirlwind that is my life. I recognize how lucky I am to be in this position.

So on to the work...I promised my Exhibit Portfolio class that I would post weekly, since I am asking them to do the same thing...so hopefully I will be able to keep up the bargain. This is what I have been up to.

To double check the feasibility and outcome of a drawing one assignment here is a 45 minute blind contour self-portrait. It is pretty entertaining!

On to the birthday cake painting, which I'm pretty confident will be titled Birthday Cake Parade. At this point I think the painting is finished, but nothing is safe until it has left my house, so who knows. On a side note, this photo is terrible and I promise a better on in the near future.

The next painting has really shifted significantly in the past couple of painting sessions. At first, I realized that my brother's head (the little boy on the right) was too small, then too big, then the figures were all too orange...etc. Long story short, the painting has really changed dramatically, while appearing to stay almost exactly the same. I think the title for this one, will be taken from the back of one of the photographs, "At the 4H Farm for Chase's 6th Birthday Party". Since taking the last image, my mom's mouth has already changed a little, but overall I am a lot happier with the painting. 

Finally, I am working on 4 tiny-small commissions that I will share upon completion. Outside of that, I have two more small paintings to share, both are 7"x 5" and feature my most adorable nieces. On a tangental note, my BFF is also visiting her parent's condo this week and I took several photos of her amazingly adorable daughters on the beach (which will hopefully make their way into a couple of paintings). My oldest niece is officially the age I was when I first met my friend Kari, and the painting of her and her sister in the ocean makes me think of being in eighth grade again.

+2 to online

So this past week I dove off the deep end and started a Facebook Page so you can follow/like me there in addition to reading about my work here. Pretty soon this will just turn into a never ending loop. In that spirit, I am including the Portlandia clip that I previously posted on my personal Facebook Page to introduce my "public artist page". Following the completion of this post on the blog, I will probably link it to both FB pages...that's right folks I'm truly in the "technology loop" (the Portlandia reference is not a joke)!

So on that note...here is the progress made on my recent long painting with a birthday cake. Not sure what the title will be. It's 36" x 24". Please pardon the glare, I am mostly painting at night now, so the surface is much more difficult to capture with my iphone.

Additionally, here are two new tiny-smalls...

and finally 2 new drawings from poems. Both drawings are graphite and white acrylic paint on 9" x 12".

end of summer, fall starts

Technically we still have until September 22 until the first day of fall, and despite the 80 degree temperatures and tropical rains, in my life, fall has arrived. School is back in session, and I am excited to start teaching again. I introduced a painting class this afternoon and will meet with a bunch of new freshman for drawing 1 tomorrow morning!

I NEED to paint through this semester in a serious way if I am going to meet upcoming deadlines. With this in mind I have enlisted Marc to keep me in check, "tell me to paint everyday" and to be relentless about my evasiveness. Last night was a lost cause. However, Monday night and tonight I got it in gear. Below are the contents of all things brewing in my studio currently (with the corresponding timeline shots).

On a side note, I have been listening to Fiona Apple's latest album, The Idler Wheel, obsessively. So the work below was almost exclusively made under this album's spell. Before the artwork, here is my favorite song...right now.

Now for the artwork:

a new 20" x 24", oil on canvas

a new 36" x 24", oil on canvas

a new little dog, 16" x 12", oil on canvas

Finally, several drawings based on poems by Liz Robbins. 

Please excuse the quality of all the images, they are iphone shots taken after dark. Specifically, I made the drawings black and white to eliminate the color distortion present in the original photos. 

website rebuild

Check out the newest version of my website! This update is brought to you by a power crash and resulting memory loss on my computer earlier this year. I frequently fail to learn my lesson with file management and memory back-up, but on the bright side I do have an updated website.

ENJOY! 

Click the screen shot below to visit the site or click HERE.

Collaborations

I am steadily working on a Collaboration with Liz Robbins. Although I can't post the exact poems each of these pieces were inspired by, you can read some of Liz's work by visiting her blog here. Last week we meet up and she shared new poems based on the paintings I have created this summer, they are AMAZING. All of this work will be on display this fall at CEAM on Flagler's campus. Here are the paintings I have created so far...

each painting is oil on panel (thanks again Reeves!)

amy needs to unclench, oil on panel, 7" x 5"

barely rooted, oil on panel, 7" x 5"

deciding to depart, oil on panel, 7" x 5"

drive her to the shore, oil on panel, 5" x 7"

growing a third eye, oil on panel, 7" x 5"

no forsaking, oil on panel, 7" x 5"

200+ Tiny-Smalls

I would like to introduce the latest batch of TINY-SMALLS. I have officially reached and passed the 200 number, excluding commissions. It is pretty exciting and a little overwhelming to photograph, keep up with, and create them. Simply labeling each with its number has really helped my organization. Again, a Tiny-Small equals a 3.25" x 2" or 2" x 3.25", oil on panel. They also now feature drilled holes, for hanging, courtesy of my father-in-law Reeves! Reeves is a whiz with all things including my mundane painting questions and requests.

TS 181

TS 182

TS 183

TS 184

TS 185

TS 186

TS 187

TS 188

TS 189

TS 190

TS 191

TS 192

TS 193

TS 194

TS 195

TS 196

TS 197

TS 198

TS 199

TS 200 (painted while watching Breaking Bad)

TS 201

TS 202

TS 203

TS 204

Also I have final images for several of the other paintings previously posted. I am still unsure about titles, but that is always the case. Trying to pin down the subject matter in a concise way is very difficult for me. Often I think this is because I am trying to create a mood or potential narrative for the viewer and do not want the title to get in the way through over specificity...but how many backyard titles can one person have before they become derivative? I think I am definitely on that border.

Wooden Bridge with Six Dogs, 30" x 40", oil on canvas

Line Judges, 24" x20", oil on canvas

Field Notes, 30" x 22", oil on paper

The Creek, 20" x 24", oil on canvas

Rounding out July

I am rounding out July, and facing August is a little intimidating. Here is my checklist for the next couple of weeks:
1. complete lots of paintings and drawings
2. re-do my website (thanks to not backing it up on an external hard-drive)
3. prep for teaching
4. a couple of outstanding doctor appointments
5. visit friends and see art in NYC**
**this one isn't really a task, but it does distract from 1-4.

So on to the new starts, and a big Poem based drawing:

1. A new 16" x 20" painting:
This painting includes my "Paw-Paw" (maternal grandfather), my two nieces, a tiny mother in front of a white house (see the black and white photo), and my brother's childhood friend Josh (the little guy sitting in the lower left photo).

I originally thought I was going to have a young version of my mother in the foreground.

2. A new 24" X 20":

This painting is featuring my niece Aliya and tiny-small versions of my mother and her brother. I got a little zealous trying to make "painting progress" and forgot to take a start shot. Overall my latest tactic for painting involves sketching everything out in charcoal and then painting. 

3. A new 30" x 40":

This painting is featuring my mother with two friends and five dogs from the early 70's, and a photograph of my husband Marc and puppy-cuteness Shelby. I am really excited about this piece because I truly love the idea of my mother spending time in a world with the two creatures that I love the most (sorry I referred to you as a creature, Marc). My mother was a notorious dog lover and would consistently bring home strays her entire life. 

4. Resolution to the big Charcoal on Canvas drawing previously featured and begun several years ago...turns out that all I needed was a fantastic collaboration to finish the piece. The final drawing was transformed based on Liz Robbins' poem Beauty Sleeping in the Wood. Our collaborations will be on display this fall at Flagler College's CEAM(Crisp Ellert Art Museum)! Future posts will announce the opening.

The original drawing, charcoal and gesso on canvas, unfinished from 2008.

The new version.

Sharing Cleaned Up Images

I took some decent photos of paintings last week and thought they would be an improvement over the iphone photos that have permeated the blog.

Croquet, 24" x 20", oil on canvas

Follow Me, 16" x 20", oil on canvas

Front Porch, 30" x 40", oil on canvas

The Girls, 7" x5", oil on panel

We Could All be 30,  24" x36",  oil on canvas

 a new batch of tiny-smalls

TS174, 3.25" x 2", oil on panel

TS175, 2" x 3.25", oil on panel

TS176, 2" x 3.25", oil on panel

TS177, 2" x 3.25", oil on panel

TS178, 3.25" x 2", oil on panel

TS179, 2" x 3.25", oil on panel

TS180, 3.25"x 2", oil on panel

finally, a little gift for my very dear friend Kari for the arrival of her third beautiful daughter

3.25" x 3.25", oil on panel

Weekend Round-Up

I wanted to share the progress made this weekend on my newest painting. I consider this weekend a success, because I got some reading and painting accomplished in-between eating popsicles at The Hyppo.

End of June Wrap-UP

I would like to introduce two sets of paintings that belong to and are exclusively composed of other people's families. I recently finished both sets of tiny-small commissions and wanted to share the final product. The first is group was painted for the Davis Family and consists 33 paintings that range in size from a 2"x 2" to 4" x 4". The group shot and several individual paintings are below.

Group two is for the Cole Family, recently shipped the second set of 5 paintings their way and wanted to share a few of the results. They are either 2"x 3.25" or 3.25"x 3.25". 

Currently, in my studio the following work has been brewing.....

a new 30" x 40" painting start

the 30" x 22" paper piece taken at the angle to avoid glare

the latest version of Follow Me, 16"x 20"

the finished(?) version of Croquet, 20" x 24"

painting not posting

Here are a couple of updates on several works that you have already seen in progress and a couple of new surprises!

1. Follow Me, the working title for this 16" x 20"painting....

2. We Could All Be 30, the working title of the previously titled work Dad With Floating Hands...

3. Fresh Starts, the newest painting featuring Marc Stone (my favorite husband and person), my niece Aliya, and a young version of my mother. The photos of Marc and Aliya are from our wedding...it's only taken three years for me to consider painting from them...sometimes I move a little slow. Also this work is on a 20" x 24" canvas, and I really like the dimensions. I am going to have to order more soon.

4. I also painted my kitchen, which doesn't really count...but I did use oil-based paint so I am adding it to this enormous blog post. 

 before is above, below is after

5. Last but not least, I am working on a collaborative project with the wonderful poet Liz Robbins. We are each making work in response to the others. I am making original works of art based on her work, and in turn she will do the same. Our efforts will be part of a 3 weeks exhibition at Flagler's Crisp Ellert Art Museum (CEAM) in the fall. Here are two finished drawings done in response to different poems, titles are shared by both.

the archer, 9" x 12", graphite and white acrylic paint on paper

snow white and the seventh sin, 9" x 12", graphite and white acrylic paint on paper

I have also pulled out a large scale (4' x 5') charcoal drawing on canvas that I started and never completed 3 years ago, I think I can take it somewhere.

Drift Magazine Interview

Recently, Rachel Bardin an excellent photographer and generally interesting person was gracious enough to come over to my studio/house and talk for several hours about my thoughts on painting, photography, and teaching. You can check out her personal photographic work HERE. 

I am very thankful for her ability to whittle down the conversation to something resembling coherency. Reading the responses, I can tell how mentally preoccupied I was from a busy day of teaching. Frequently it takes me a while to switch gears. My favorite quote, which didn't make it in was "maybe things were just more brown then" in relation to late 70's photographs (this statement is currently written in pencil on my studio wall). And the question of whether or not young adults will see low resolution pixelated photographs as romantic once the early 2000's becomes "vintage". Maybe I will strike it rich by making that an Instagram filter.

 Without further ado, I very happy to present an online interview about my artwork found HERE!

follow me

Below is a progress report on the painting that I am currently calling "Follow Me". One really exciting and fun aspect of this painting is the presence of Aliya and Ansley, my adorable nieces.

This is the stopping point at the end of the day, so I can walk out of the studio for the evening.

Yesterday I also worked on two smaller 5" x 7" paintings:

Last, but not least, I have opened up the can of worms in my solo dad painting, "Dad with Floating Hands". Directly below is the last "finished" version of the painting and below that is the current version very much in progress version. 

This painting's current resting place, I think I need to let it dry for a day or so before diving back in. 

Mid-May Progress

First Day of Spring, 24" x 20", oil on canvas, 2012

The completed painting, now titled First Day of Spring. I am happy to say that in my delay of posting this painting has left to Annapolis and was sold this past week at Wynn Bone's Gallery! Hooray for people who purchase paintings.

I am currently wrapping up several commissions of "tiny-smalls" and plan to post the results soonish.

Fresh starts are springing up in my studio currently. Color is something I am trying to push around more, but I seem to have come up with a familiar (many too much so) palette so far.