S-A-T-U-R-D-A-Y....NIGHT!

well, my show was supposed to go up yesterday, but i'm most definitely still working on it.

let's hear it for 2 hours and 45 minutes of sleep within a 36-hour time period! wooo!

sidenote: artists know that this is not uncommon for us. 
although over the last year i've been a whole lot better at that sleep thing...i guess i'm just making up for it now.

there's lots of stuff that goes into the publicity and the reception, so look! i'm super proud of my little invites and poster. i realized later that i was able to incorporate illustration, photography and graphic design (plus hand-drawn type!) which is probably why i loved making them.

steph took these photos for me when we were on a break (her bfa photography exhibit goes up the week after mine comes down!) and we laugh a lot.

so...my opening reception. food, pictures, words and maybe some tunes. also, great company. tomorrow night. come!

til then, i'll work on making sure there is a stellar show to see.

t-minus one week

well, i suppose the correct equation would be

T - < 1 week

because my show goes up in less than one week. i'm not freaking out (at this very second, though you may check back to find that a falsehood at any given moment) but i'm determined and i'm excited.

who says art majors don't use math.....

//

picture 1: texture, scumbling and glazing studies for the second image in this post. 

picture 2: the actual final painting alluded to in the aforementioned post.
picture 3: typography for that same image (i did the majority of this piece in a day!) 

picture 4: this will be one of the more technically complicated pieces. the reference photo is in the back, which was one of the most intriguing photoshoots i've done for some time.

i wrote the above text yesterday (saturday) though i'm just getting around to posting now.

which is good, because i just had a riveting conversation with a friend about my show. he's an art education major, and as we discussed some themes and difficulties and processes and it left me feeling invigorated and pumped to get working on my show. i'mma go to bed tonight like a kid on Christmas eve, just waiting for 5am to roll around so i can pop up and start painting.

maybe you're a little excited, too?

composing without a net

yesterday i had a talk with a friend who's a [dang good] music composer.

he said that he had the opportunity to take a lesson from renowned composer david rakowski, who enlightened him on how he composes his amazing compositions. 

rakowski said that he used to compose really meticulously, trying to make sure everything was just right. 

then he decided to change this mindset. nowadays he puts restrictions on himself, like composing 100 piano études, writing each in only six days, without revising*. he explained that composing like this is like walking a tightrope, but there's no safety net at the bottom. sometimes he makes it all the way to the other side…and sometimes he falls to his death. 

cool thing about this, though, is if he falls to his death, he just starts a new composition. but by composing without a net, his compositions have the capacity to be more organic and interesting.

my show is next week. i am more behind than i'd like to admit. 

to finish this project, it's time to start composing without a safety net. 

[*rakowski talks a bit about it here]

//

picture 1: this is the first painting where i really just threw caution to the wind. i'm about halfway along the tightrope with this one; we'll see if i fall off or not. 
picture 2: it's like a game...find the painting i was working on last night, the stickies that keep my life in order, some studies i've done, a big ol' lamp that i brought in to literally shed some light on my work and i'm also in there somewhere. they're all very hidden, of course. 

you're invited.......

.... (!)

tangled typography

my show may be a little different, because it incorporates my words as well as my art. i don't think it (or i) would be complete with only one or the other.

it took a long time to edit the words for this piece, and all day saturday to get the typography right. i drew and re-drew and re-drew. and my hand kept cramping up. however, it was pretty rewarding; i like doing hand-drawn stuff. here's to hoping that i don't mess it up with the process i'm putting it through today....

friendless foodless environments foster focus

honestly, the alliterations just kinda come out.
no idea why.

i skipped an activity the other day* where friends and food would be involved in hopes of finding focus. it worked!

stuff has been slow but a little better.
loooooooook.

//

picture 1: looking at a piece through a mirror often helps pinpoint errors a lot faster than just looking at it straight-on. same concept of turning it upside down, etc.

picture 2: super excited about this one. it's based off of one of my favorite places and my hand literally cramped up after i finished drawing it. 

picture 2: start of a painting. after taking this picture, i worked on it some more and really messed it up. i couldn't stand to look at it for about a week, but when i worked on it again i was pretty pleased with the result, which you'll see in the show.

[*confession: by "the other day", i mean the day of september 17, which is when i wrote this but forgot to publish it. so i changed the content and posted now. good alliterations shan't be wasted in this space of the interwebs.]

evidence of construction

i know i'm super bad at updating. but it's because i've been working hard! my show is in LESS THAN THREE WEEKS. 

(!)

more info on that soon.

this whole process has taken longer than expected. it might be because with the help of some dear friends, i made my own boards to paint on. 

so...my fingerprints will be all over this project. 

//

pictures 1 + 2: raw materials (masonite and poplar), cut to the near-perfect sizes
picture 3: after we measured/mitered/nail gunned/glued/clamped/routered the cradles to the boards 
picture 4: gessoing all those pretty wood surfaces
picture 5: waiting for the gesso to dry....