Work in Progress-Compulsive Fixation

I am working on my first instillation piece. I started working on this about a year ago and usually it would bother me if something was that slow going. But when I started working on this, I knew that it was an ongoing project and I accepted the fact that I would have to have a lot of patience in order to get this completed. Basically it is a shelf that houses my obnoxiously large collection of lip gloss. For some strange reason I have this crazy attraction to lip gloss, lip balm, or any kind of make-up that you apply to your lips that is not labeled as lipstick. And it isn't just about the actual lip gloss, but it is also about the container and the packaging. This is my first and only compulsive buy and since I think each of the lip glosses are art within them selves, I decided to put them on display so that everyone can see them the way that I do. The shelf is made of 1 1/2" x 1/4" strips of pine. I created a jig that has 6 different sizes/shapes which fits about 95% of all my lip gloss. I created each box individually using the jig and then I attached the boxes together to form a single shelf.



I then repeat the process to form more shelves. I don't follow a specific pattern when I attach the boxes so each shelf looks a little different. When I hang the shelves, I place them close together so that they look as though they could all be one continuous shelf (bottom). I have 3 shelves assembles at this point and I think I need about 4 more to hold all of my lip gloss. Once those are completed, I will sand the front surface of all of the shelves and finish them with maybe a little color and some sort of lacquer or varnish.

Work in Progress-Uncle's Portrait

I am currently working on a portrait for my uncle. I have been working on this painting for 7 months or so and I am having some trouble staying focused. It is almost completed and I would really like to send it to him, but I am unable to come up with something to fill the void in the center-right of the painting. I think that the problem is that I am trying to find a subject that has been a constant in his entire life and I don't know my uncle as well as I would like. Until something surfaces or I just end up calling him, this painting is going to stay the way that it is. The painting is 12" x 16" and it is acrylic on canvas. That is pretty small for me. But I have recently developed this "small painting initiative". My studio is a small spare bedroom in my house and because of the limited space and that I am unable to use caustic materials, I have decided to dabble on the smaller side. I have even started panting in water colors.

Past Work-Money in a Clothes Dryer Epilogue

During my last year in college, I went through a Jackson Pollock stage. I started by painting in a style similar to his, where I laid a large piece of unstretched/unprimed canvas on the floor and proceed to splatter paint it. The finished work was horrible, but what I realized was that I liked how the wet paint interacted with the wet paint in different colors. So I started to produce smaller pieces that had a sense of depth before I introduced the splatter paint. When I did splatter the paint I did it sparingly and strategically to get my desired effect. My mother was showing some pictures of my spatter paintings to a late family friend and he commissioned me to paint him a painting. When I completed the painting, Money in a Clothes Dryer, I wasn't completely satisfied with the end result. I went a bit overboard with the splatter and it ended up more like a spill. So I painted, Money in a Clothes Dryer Epilogue (above right). In the end I liked the first painting better and that is the one that I sent him. Unfortunately I didn't get a picture of that first painting and even more unfortunate... my family friend, Donnie Rotten, passed away not long after he received the painting. The detail on the left shows an example of the paint interaction that intrigues me to this day. ( Money in a Clothes Dryer Epilogue 2004. Latex on canvas, apx. 18" x 24") I donated this painting to a local art auction to raise money for public television. I have no idea where it is now.

Past Work-Stevie

My standard wedding gift is a painting. I like giving my artwork because I think it is a bit more personal then a china set and whole lot more inexpensive!! I enjoy painting them because it can be a bit of a challenge and it is also nice to have someone to be inspired by. And believe it or not, I also like having a specific deadline. I am a huge procrastinator and this way I have something to guide my focus and fuel my drive. This is a painting that I did for my friend Jenny in 2004. This was her wedding present and it is a painting of her dog, Stevie. I call this my "screen print simulation". It is acrylic on canvas that I painted to resemble one of Andy Warhol's famous screen prints. I saw a picture in a magazine that was of Reese Witherspoon's home office. She had similar images of her dogs on the wall, which I am sure were actual screen prints or they could have been computer generated. This was my direct inspiration and I knew that it would be a perfect way to display Jenny's little "queen," Stevie.

The first of many

O.k. here it is. I am finally starting an art blog. Hopefully this is the first step to my obnoxiously lucrative art career. :) I also hope that this blog will encourage me to be more enthusiastic about my art. I haven't exactly been very inspired to create much art in the last 4 years (since I have been out of college). Maybe it isn't that I haven't been inspired but more that I haven't really had much time. The first 2 of those years I worked full time and the last 2 I have "worked" what seems like 4 full time jobs being a mom. I have recently picked up a part-time job on the weekends which so-far has provided me with a lot of inspiration but has taken away more of my non-existent free time. My New Years resolution, that I am just now making in April, is to create more art. The problem is that I seem to have ADD when it comes to my artwork. I am so much more interested in the technique and the process, that I seem to have little focus and drive to any one particular medium or style. Hence I named this blog the ADD Art Movement because who is to say that I have to conform to a specific style, authentic or not. Or that all of my artwork has to be created with the same medium? I don't want to just think inside the box and I don't want to just think outside the box. I want to think inside, outside, all around and far away from the box. And I want to be recognized as more than a remedial artist. I am aware that my lack of focus is one of my downfalls but instead of being inhibited by it I am going to embrace it.