Twelve

Wow I've been busy. Midterms just ended, and I spent one of the best weekends of my life back home in New Orleans a few days ago. I haven't posted for a long time. Sorry about that. Anyway, here is my latest painting, also for the Self Image and Metaphor class:

Fitting

2010

The assignment was to go to the zoo and meld yourself with an animal to say something metaphorically. Can you guess which animal I am?

....................................................................................................................................An orangutan! 

After the zoo, I couldn't decide between an orangutan or a gorilla, and after researching the symbolism of both animals, I found out that they mean almost the complete opposite of each other.

So I am the orangutan, the "other human" who did not want to work for a living, so he moved to the forest to live in the trees (according to Indonesian myth). I am fitting my hand into a gorilla hand print, the mark of an ape who, when appearing in dreams, symbolizes that it is time to earn what you want and to stop waiting for things to just fall into your lap.

This is an appropriate result for someone who is absolutely self-critical all the time and is always trying to be better, braver, stronger, more productive, despite an innate laziness and fearful hesitance to just jump into things. I need to be and want to be more like a gorilla. Mark is totally a gorilla. I don't know how he does it. Being an orangutan just comes easier.

BONUS

Here is a side-by-side comparison of the drawing and the painting, switched to black and white for easier read of the differences and similarities. I think the painting turned out more orangutan-like, no?

MORE BONUS

Here is a painting I did in high school, as a senior. The wonderful Sally Perry bought it when it was hanging in the senior show, and it is hanging in her office! This is the picture she sent me of it:
 

I can't remember the title.

2007 

I think it looks great all framed and hanging on a wall. Mark considers this my "break through" piece as a painter.

Eleven

This is Project -1 for my Self Image and Metaphor painting class. The project is called "Self Portrait with Object of Ambiguity from Observation."

My Mother and Mark

2010

The object I chose is a silk pashmina that Marmar bought for me in San Francisco and gave to me on a visit a few weekends ago. Pure silk, pure love. My mother has a large collection of pashminas to chose from to wear to work everyday. So this fabric is like a little piece of both of them, the two people I trust and love most in the whole world.  Pure comfort. (This is also the first oil painting I've done in a loooooong time, so at least I had comfortable subject matter to offset any anxiety I had about working the materials.)

And with the explanation, there goes the ambiguity. 

Here is a detail:

Just look at the contentment!

Ten

Post ten. The first painting of Fall 2010. 
Ah, what a day. I walked ALL OVER Midtown yesterday, lost in my own head and sweat.

Hello?

Nine

So, I had my first show outside of school on Friday at the P&H. "Exudation," it was called. I thought I would publish my statement along with the images...so here it goes:

Crown

2010

"Exudation" is in reaction to the Gulf Oil Disaster that is affecting my hometown in Southern Louisiana and the surrounding states.  The word "exudation" is used to reference equally the oil steadily and continually spilling into the Gulf and the strong outpouring of emotion from the citizens of that region, myself included. It is a reaction of frustration and of grief.

Pipeline

2010

My two pieces of the show are titled Pipeline and Crown.  Little framed images of people, animals, and landscape are placed on a rusty metal, industrial background in Pipeline. A black substance is seeping, exuding, from the top of the picture plain, running down, sometimes obscuring the sentimental collection of images. Yet, the oily lines create a web, connecting all the different pictures together. The disaster affects everything. In the portrait Crown, the figure is shaking her head, trying to rid herself of the substance, but it is too integrated into her hair. I am not sure if the black specs are flying off of or rushing to meet her.  I am also reminded of a crown of thorns and a sort of half-halo. The figure looks almost saintly. She is frustrated yet almost at peace, like she is tiring of her struggle and is resigning to it.

I come from New Orleans, Louisiana, which is currently surrounded on three sides by oil. I came to Memphis to become an artist the good-old-fashioned college way. Primarily, I am interested in  painting representationally and realistically, and am slowly becoming more interested in and bold enough to try my hand in more abstract ways of story telling.  To me, art is story-telling, whether the story be a novel, headline, or a single word.


And thank you so much to all those who came out to see it.

Eight

Hey. Sorry about not posting in a while. Something came up.

I had to shoot down to New Orleans, very last minute, to teach Printmaking at the New Orleans Center for Creative Art (NOCCA/Riverfront). It lasted two weeks and went by very quickly. The kids were either about to enter or were already in high school. With very few exceptions, they were great students and really took to the techniques they learned for making monotypes.

Here are a few of their prints:

These are the prints of (from top to bottom): Johnston Burkhardt, Gabby Daigle, Khaiga Zuniga, Katie Caldwell, Tyler Conde

Seven

^ Hey lucky number right there.

Today in my cultural anthropology class, a Lakota man named what translates to English as "Backwards Elk" gave a lecture about ritual. He then invited the class to go outside and smoke a peace pipe with him. We stood in a circle, each taking four puffs of a special and delicious blend of tobacco as we thought silent prayers and wishes, sending them towards the heavens in our smoke. I wished for better luck. Up drifted my breath, and away it disappeared. We all shook hands, said thank you, and went home.

I got out of the car in my driveway a few minutes later. The yard is covered, every inch, in clover.  In the first spot I looked down at was this:

My Celtic ancestors gave me a sign that they were listening.

Six

Okay Okay! I have a my first show on July 9th. It will be at the P&H here in Memphis. Now I just need to figure out what to put in it. Ah well, I'll worry about that after finals.