Rigged

Here's some images of the last piece I worked on called "Rigged". It took me a couple days to finish, but I had a clear idea of where & what I wanted to put down, including the materials: oil pastel, spray paint, & mat board. Take from it what you will-there is definitly more than one way to interpret this image. For me, it's representing my reaction to the oil spill in the Gulf. I knew when it started, what progress was being made, how much was spilling-lots of details but I hadn't seen any images of what was going on. About a week ago I went through an entire slide show on MSNBC (click here to see the slideshow for all 3 months) & was shocked, disgusted, & deeply saddened by the environmental impact this man made catastrophe has caused. Generations upon generations will be effected by this spill-complete devastation on so many levels. I felt foolish when I realized how unengaged & obvlivious I'd been to what was truly going on in the Gulf. Besides the obvious, filling our vehicles w/ gas, almost every product we come in contact with during the day has been made from a form of petroleum. It's shocking when you realize how dependent America is on fossil fuels. (Click here for a list of common articles made from petroleum-& this is just the start!) So is America the fool in this image??

It's easy to say things like-well I'm going to make a change for the better & start being more conscious about what I buy! But it's very very hard to put it into practice. I know I've become more aware of the issue of our dependency on fossil fuels, but I haven't really made any changes to my life style. I've tried to stop driving everywhere & start walking/riding my bike when possible, but I know I could do more. One easy thing that I've done & that we can all do is donate to the cause. Every little bit helps & hopefully my dollars can go towards efforts to restore people's lives in the Gluf & get this well capped off. Click here to visit the Greater New Orleans Foundation to donate to the cause. 100% of their donations go directly to the organizations working tirelessly in the effected areas.

Just a thought....

So today I was up in the attic cleaning out a bunch of boxes & came across some work I did when i was in college taking an experimental photography class. Some of the pieces had started to yellow, curl, & fall apart already as a result of using rubber cement that wasn't archival. I took that class about 5 yrs ago, & when you really start to think about art & its longevity, how does it fit into your idea of permanence?

I had a discussion with my friend Christie the other day about making art & the cathartic process in which art can evolve into. I see creating as something i must do to be a balanced individual in my mind space. I use art as an outlet-a venue of release to get whatever is in me out-whether its good bad or otherwise-it's out! But I also see all my work as temporary-sometimes as temporary as the time it takes to create the piece. I can think of at least 3 pieces in the last several years where I've completed the piece, studied it, understood it, & thrown it out! These pieces were meant to be expelled out of my mind & released almost instantly.

In terms of the pieces I found in the attic which were already decaying, I found this didn't bother me. Imperfect as they may be, not like they were perfect to begin with mind you, I found them in yet another stage of their existence. I create my art for me & I've never assumed it would be around longer than my lifetime so this yellowing, curling, & falling apart seemed as natural as any other object aging & reacting to the atmosphere.

Kind of interesting when you take a moment to think about how temporary art can be. Just a thought :)

New canvas

I actually finished this canvas about a month ago but haven't had a chance to upload pics yet. So here they are :) I made these clouds for The Factory & felt like they added too much visual clutter, so I re-purposed them onto this fun little canvas-enjoy!

the Grand Rapids Art Festival!!

Two of my pieces made it in this year-here are a few pics of my artwork & me in the old Federal Building downtown GR. & let me just say-the lighting in museums is fantastic for the artwork, but for people standing next to the artwork-not so much-yikes!! :)

Lots of pics

Lots of pics for another project I finished last night. It's interesting b/c some pieces take a month to complete, a day to complete, or even a few hours. I supposed it has to do with me starting out with a specific idea, with the knowledge of what materials I'm going to use, etc. Although I have to say this project was one where I had the materials (a canvas I'd tested paint material on, some wire, & 2 $1 frames from the thrift store), wasn't quite sure where or how I was going to use them, & once I started playing with them figured out the final result. I used the same process on 'The Factory' piece. Anywho-here's the pics of the project from start to finish!

GRAF

A couple of my pieces of artwork made it into the Grand Rapids Art Festival this year! One of them was the just finished "The Factory" canvas that I'd been working on for so long. Here are a few pics of the finished piece right before I packed it up to head into GR for the show.