83-88, Rosebush plein air studies.

I'm working on loosening myself up by doing plein air (like how I painted in Edmonton when I first started self teaching!) I'm sitting in the same spot each time, and I'm interested in my brushwork but also what I notice or don't notice day to day. The angle is always slightly different, and the ground is never the same. I do different times of day each time so I get light variances too.

I count the split painting as one because I painted the two halves side by side.

I want to do 24 of these at least.

80 - Bec & Em, 81 - Ethel & Mavis

We just had our first critique of my senior 1 semester in block!

After the meticulous ground on the portrait of Voltaire, I decided to minimalist the ground here and focus on Bec Cook and Em Connor.

I was really meticulous on the girls instead. So the focused was switched. Bec's hosiery was really hard and things like hands I had to be careful with. This was also painted from a photo. I'm trying to do less painting from photos.

Lastly, I also did a second painting, using the good painting as a reference in 2 hours rather than days. I named it Ethel & Mavis. I get too OCD and too meticulous to the point that I overwork things.

79 - Voltaire at the Den

We just had our first critique of my senior 1 semester in block!

This one I was actually most interested in the reflections and textures in the ground than in the portrait of my friend John Voltaire Paredes. I still tried to capture his outgoing and friendly (though drunk) nature from a photo where we sat having afternoon beers at The Den on campus.

Fall 2011

I believe I left this blog at 68 paintings. Another semester gone by, and between work, a car wreck, and my first block semester I had a lot of stress a few distractions.

The first project was that we drew a word from a hat, and I traded my first word (toy, remembering the toy themed projects I already had to do twice in the Intermediate classes) and got children's book. So I started by thinking about art that had to do with children's book, the themes that are discussed or not discussed in children's books, and a professor pointed me towards Henry Darger for inspiration.

I found a picture of Samantha and I as kids modeling our Easter dresses and drew material from that.

69

My dad doesn't like it, I could tell. He didn't want to admit it to me but this bothered him. It's about distorted memory, my childhood fascination with death (which when explained just made him stare at me oddly), and the current absence. Samantha can never return, she's gone, and the memories shift and fade a bit, and she is just absent, you know? The next painting is a little more Darger-esque, and when I told Dad about the rabbits being about not really understanding death and funerals and not being allowed (um, by him) to go to my gram's funeral he was rather uncomfortable. So no, he doesn't really like my work. (Keeps asking me to paint a picture of his Harley.)

70

According to my classmates, I'm the creepy one.

71 72

73 74
75

So afterwards, I was rather tired of thinking about death and darkness. It had made September, which is also the anniversary of both Sam's birthday AND death, a very hard month and I was just done with that. So I was going to paint still lifes...

76

Except then, October 6th came along. I got wrapped up in Occupy Houston and lost track of painting, but my professor, Rachel, was so glad that one of her students was thinking of politics she suggested I just do something to document Occupy Houston. So I did, putting together a collection of an Occupied newspaper, collected images, statuses, websites with QR codes, arranging them in a timeline. I also documented Live-stream images of the raid in Boston in October which I witnessed live online.

I don't know how this sits with me as art, but it seemed to be Rachel's goal to get me to stop painting and think outside the brush (as much as I enjoy the brush). I have to admit: I don't get it. I've taken art history courses, one specifically on Contemporary Art, but contemporary media gets a tad lost on me. Maybe its my design background but I don't see that as art in my mind, but design. I'll just call this whole project one painting.

77

The November project was delayed by a car wreck. I was struck at a light by another driver who was running a red as I was advancing after my stoplight turned green. So I lost a week and a half to dealing with insurance and having to shop for a new car (I got a 2012 Nissan Frontier, 4 door). I had trouble thinking of a project. I ended up deciding, on a whim while goofing around in the studio losing my head with my friend Em, that I would snap a quick photo of each member of my block class. Then in Photoshop I mish-mashed everyone together and made a single person with a piece of everyone and painted that. I wish I had had more time, as it feels unfinished. Rachel liked the Photoshop better than the painting, and insisted I do some more to see how I liked it (again, away from the brush I want to study and back toward the design I walked away from...) Mixed reviews.

We'll just call this one 78.

This post is long enough, I'll write a new one to talk about what I feel like I gained this semester or want to focus on now.

Spring 2011 in a nutshell!

Basically, I worked like a crazy lady this past semester. We moved to an apartment near Reliant Stadium to be closer to school, and I worked at the Museum of Fine Arts Houston as a temp retail job that ends, well, today. I focused on my painting class and also had a printmaking class, so I was working 30 hours a week with two studio courses to stay on top of.

Like I've shared in the fall's blog post, I was going up for Block. Block is the name for a group of courses at the University of Houston that serve as quality control. You compete against your classmates, and you only get two tries. Basically, you take painting fundamentals and intermediate painting, and you can apply at the end of intermediate. If you get in you're in and don't have to compete any further, but if you don't and you have tried twice you're just out and that's that. You can still get a general Bachelors of Fine Arts and dedicate a minor, but you can't get the Bachelors of Fine Arts Painting and the intensive studio courses that go with it.

This semester, I tried for the second time.

And I have to tell you,


I GOT IN!!!! :D

I'll have my own studio in the Junior Painting wing this fall and will be studying under Al Souza and Rachel Hecker. :)

You may now imagine me doing ecstatic happy dances. :)

And here are the paintings that I am counting toward this blog. I've been learning to let go of less successful paintings.

64. Fiona Rae Project Insert a toy into an existing painting, like I did last semester with the Alice Neel pieces. Based on Fiona Rae's. Work in progress detail below.

65. From our combination painting project, Hello Picabia.

66. From the same combination project, Kill Dorothy.

Update 5/30/2011 Better pics for the next two paintings.

67. From the final project, a still life Art Student's Breakfast.

68. Memories of My Backyard

This month I've been working two jobs and also teaching after school art classes on wednesdays so I haven't painted anything since Art Student's Breakfast. I actually really enjoyed that still life so I plan to do some more this summer.

Spring 2011, Project One (10 paintings, again)

The thing about not getting into block last semester is that I need to retake Intermediate Painting again this semester for my second (and last try). So you're going to be seeing me redo the same projects I had assigned last semester, and I want to try to do a few more on the side. I've started working at the MFAH as well so I'm a busy girl!

I was a lot more relaxed this time than I was last semster, perhaps because I know what to expect. I did let my brush strokes relax, and I didn't get so wrapped up in the details the way I did last time. Feeling like I managed to do better work this time, actually.

54. Ground Focus, the apple is the figure placed in the ground of the large pattern.

55. Figure Focus, the painting focuses on the figure rather than the ground.

56. Bird's Eye View, rather than doing one painting over again in a different way we did an above and a below point of view.

57. Edge Focus

58, 59. Matisse Format (left) and Hiroshige (Right) per last semester's explanation.

60. Grid.

61. Inserting a neighbor's painting into yours, I added Kirby's Monster can painting and reworked my grid to be asymmetrical.

62. Everything in my vision when I look toward the still life, much better than last semester's.

63. Worm's Eye View, a favorite. :)

My first show piece!

53. Red Cranes, acrylic on canvas board. January 2011, currently on display this month (February) at the Sweet 16 show at Liberty Station on Washington Ave in Houston.

12x24 inches, acrylic on canvas board, varnished and ready to frame!
Available, $75.00 Contact me.

Printed statement:

Red Cranes was born out of a desire to feel comfortable, to embrace beauty and be happy in simplicity and color. The setting alludes to the marshes of Louisiana where I grew up, yet with a dreamlike quality where one can't quite decide where the setting is exactly. In the trees? The bog? Moss? Stark against the pastel and teal background, graceful red cranes dwell content and resplendent against their backdrop, commanding the attention like a white crane amid a dank marsh.