Finally!

I finally remembered to bring my camera to work! Here are the images I took last week of some of my latest artworks:

These were sewn over the summer and are now ready for painting! I have several others that still need to be stretched but it's nice to have a bunch of canvas ready for painting all at the same time.

This is the same painting from the above photo (the one on the top right) with another layer of painting completed. I am enjoying it's broken aerial landscape quality right now and hope to bring that out even more with subsequent paint layers.

Forgot my camera, again!

Grrrrrrr! I keep forgetting to bring my camera to work! I really do have new photos of my art to post, I just do not have the camera. Blarg.

Here It Goes Again

It is the fourth week of the school year (I teach art at the elementary level) and I have finally figured out a schedule that will allow me to continue making my own art, get everything else that needs to be done after work, and provide me with some down time. Go me! My next project is to create a body of art that I can work on solely during teaching hours. I am looking forward to posting new photos of my art that I will finally be able to resume work on.

Back to my Summer Routine!

This mornings art time was spent making my small studio space functional. While rearranging things I kept thinking about an art video I show my students during the school year. The video is about Edgar Degas, in it he goes on a shouting rampage about how his new studio is half the size of his previous studio and I now understand how much that can bring one to have a tantrum. Still, I was able to overcome my new space restraints and get some work done. I even found my camera, now if only the battery charger would turn up so I could take some new photos of my new small studio.

This is the finished commissioned painting that I mentioned in yesterdays post.

Too Busy for Summer!

I had initially intended to up date my blog everyday and then I decided once a week would be good and now I am not sure when to do it, it is turning out to be a crazy busy summer! The biggest change is that I no longer have my little house next door for my studio, it is getting rented out. I have spent the last week moving my art things into one room in my house, along with a bunch of other things that had been in storage in the little house. My new studio room is a bit cramped right now as you can see:

I also finised the commissioned painting and have a photo to share but I misplaced my camera during the move so I will have to post that later. I do miss that painting, though it is nice to get paid for making an artwork but then I do not get to keep it and that makes me a bit sad.

Well, time for me to get my studio functional again!

First Week of Summer!

The summer is off to a great start! I have begun working on several paintings, finished one, and have many more in the sewing phase. Today was spent buying wood to make stretcher frames and then nailing the quarter rounds into the 1x2's, I still have sixteen more to go! Here are some of the in progress paintings I have been working on:

This is a commissioned work that is going to have strong
saturated colors, but I really like how this first layer turned out
and I am thinking of doing a series of pastel washed
out colors on this style of canvas.

This is my third painting made by twisting the canvas.
It is the first diptych I have done since
being assigned to do one in college.

I think that if you are going to do a diptych you must have
a reason (my original reason of just happening to have
two stretcher frames of the same size does not cut it) so I
am going to explore making an opposite painting and will
be using the same color pallet for each, just in reverse.

This is my second twisted canvas painting and it
was originally going to be shades of pink with
black in the folds of the canvas. I am glad that I
decided against my original color plan, these colors remind
me of a ripe nectarine and are much more vibrant.

Visual Soundsuits

Last night I went to the Museum of Fine Arts Houston presentation of Nick Cave’s Soundsuits and I left feeling like I had been taken for a mug by false advertising. The presentation had been advertised as a “Special Artist Performance” and was described as Cave bringing “his Soundsuits to life in a performance/lecture.” The word trickery had led me to believe that the audience would be seeing Cave’s Soundsuits make some noise, my hope had been to see a person wearing one of the suits and hearing the sounds it makes. Instead we were presented with a sideshow of still images with Cave briefly talking about each work and only a few video clips showing actual movement and sound.


Of the few video clips we had been shown I can only remember two of his suits creating their own sounds, the rest had music tracks or musicians playing with the dancers in the suits moving along to the music. It is my opinion that a more accurate title for this stunning series of work would be to call them Visual Soundsuits. The majority of the suits cannot make sounds on their own but are instead quite spectacular to look at and are filled with a visual noise.


Okay enough of my ranting! I hope someday strangers are ranting about my artwork and putting in their two cents on how it should be promoted while critiquing my decisions in the design and titling (it would also be nice to have ten assistance like Cave).


I did not get to work on art last night because of attending the lecture but here are some views of my studio. I cleaned it up a bit before taking these photos, there are usually in progress fabric artworks draped over the drafting and sewing machine tables, and laying on the floor. Not to mention bits of string that get dispersed everywhere.