Thirty. The night of the show...intense

At 6 pm, when I showed up, the place was already full. It wasn't supposed to start until 7, but people were already scoping out their favorites. The artists were able to have first pick of the work. At 7, the packed house was asked to exit back out the door and then line up outside. As they went in, they were then given stickers with their names and were able to purchase the work. Well, this created a frenzy and the place filled up again and everyone was squished like sardines. Till 9, there was still a line around the building up Burnside. The place remained packed even up to its closing at 11. It was crazy. It felt like it was a rock star/art show. There was music and drinks and a really intense atmosphere that one does not get during a usual art show. I sold 17 out of my 30 and bought an amazing piece by Rebecca J. Becker. I had a lot of fun and did not realize the show would turn out to be such a frenzy. I love these kind of unknown adventures.

Thirty Show: Native Oregon Plants

This is my work for the Thirty show. Below, please find the press release for the show. It would be great to see people at the event. I am curious to see what the other 29 artists did with their time.


Om Tradition Arts

14 NE 10th Ave. Portland, OR 97232 (at 10th and E. Burnside)

One night only, Dec. 7th, 2007 7-11pm

Thirty! is a 900-piece affordable art extravaganza featuring the work of
thirty Portland artists, both established and emerging. Each selected
artist was challenged to create thirty 7” x 7” original paintings in just
thirty days. This exciting and unique concept creates a space for artists
to push the boundaries of time, size and style. The resulting 900
paintings on pine panels will be available for thirty dollars a piece.
The paintings will be hung salon style at OM Tradition Arts on Dec. 7th,
2007 for a one night only frenzy, in conjunction with the Central
Eastside’s First Friday Artwalk. This is a cash only event you won't want
to miss!

A percentage from each sale will benefit OM Tradition Arts, a new movement
arts studio, also hosting rotating visual art exhibitions. OM’s mission
is to provide affordable classes to the community in various traditional
movement arts (yoga, capoiera, dance, martial arts, etc.)

Native Oregon Plants Information

For the work in my Thirty Show I used a poster created by the Portland Environmental Services. For more information on this, check out their website:
http://www.portlandonline.com/bes/index.cfm?c=32142&

Portland Environmental Services offers this information about local plants:

Naturescaping is landscaping that allows people and nature to coexist. By incorporating native plants into your yard, you can attract insects, birds, and other creatures and help keep Portland's rivers and streams healthy.

If you would like to see some of these plants in their native environment, check out the following places:
* Oxbow Park, 3010 SE Oxbow Parkway, Gresham
* Forest Park, Northwest Portland
* Powell Butte Park, 162nd & SE Powell Blvd.
* Leach Botanical Garden, 6704 SE 122nd Ave.
* Tryon Creek State Park, 11321 SW Terwilliger Blvd.
* Berry Botanic Garden, 11505 SW Summerville Ave.

Guardino Gallery Show: Little Things

This is my work hung at my show. For more info, check out Guardino's website:
www.guardinogallery.com

another piece

right now, as i finish my work for the shows that i am in, i am trying to piece together what new work i want to expand upon. as i do this, i am posting them to see what feedback i can get.
"repression" this will be a watercolor on paper. maybe a smaller piece 18"x24"

new work

these are some images that i recently created. i am interested in introducing the figure into my work, but i do not want it to be a narrative. by adding a little of the figure, it gives a hint of a story, but still some ambiguity. i might turn these into drawings or paintings. they may just work as manipulated photos. however, by turning them into paintings these will be a real challenge

"love can't last on consequences" i think this one will be a 60"x60" acrylic with overlay of oil painting


"your fireworks were my addiction" this will be an oil on 24"x36" canvas



"awaiting that day" this will be a large 30"x70" oil painting

mistaken identity and mississippi studios

i was really excited to catch this picture of larry rinder



then, i realized that it wasn't him, but it is so hard to match a beer cozy to a face these days.



i was under the impression that larry rinder's lecture was going to be set up differently. i enjoyed hearing about the work coming out of CCA, but i wanted to find out a little more about his history and experiences. as a grad student, it is good for me to hear him talk about work that is being created around the same time as my own. it was even harder to hear that students coming from one of the best MFA programs are not even funding their lives through art. i really liked how he wanted to bring up the idea of giving business advise to students. that is something that i feel would be a really important part of school but is left out. for some "object" makers, work can be sold and it feels good to sell the work. in my undergrad, they touched a little on that, but it was always this hush hush thing. going to art school is about building up your concepts, techniques and studio practice. it really can develope someone. what happens though is that you get to that point and you wonder, "what do i do next? where should i show? can i show this work?"
it has been an interesting experience learning alongside "social practicers." talking with them recently has been interesting because many of them are also "object" makers but are more interested in the interactive social part of what art can do. i think that this is an amazing venture, and one that will be morphing the "art world". what it does show to me is that i am more of a "traditional" artist. it will be interesting to see if any of those concepts will creep into my work, but i want to stay stubborn in my art practice. it is hard because you want to push yourself to do work that is compelling to the "artworld," but i would love to be able to just paint. be a painter. sell my work to sustain my life. it is an idealized world, but one that i would like to try for. is that ok?



so, after the lecture, i went to mississippi studios and was still processing some of the things that were brought up in the lecture. it was a cd release show for Run On Sentence, The Builders & the Butchers, and Shoeshine Blue. they were all folky, eclectic and emotional. it felt good to go to something were i was able to just sit back and let the music take over. going to all of these lectures has been great, but this was a different "art" experience. folk music has a history of giving people the chance to overcome something difficult in their lives. i want to paint as if i were writing a folk song. i want to deal with many of the emotions that are going through me right now and interact with people in that way. maybe that can be my social practice; practicing letting myself go to influence someone else's emotions quietly through my paintings.

Guardino Gallery Show

I have been working on small pieces for this show. I have some work that already would fit the size requirments, but I am making all new work. I want the sizes to be the same. I am trying to maintain a similar look to what I got into the show with, but also allow myself to develope those ideas just a little bit more.

Also, the Portland Environmental Services gave me permission to use their poster as part of my "30" show. Now, that it is all planned out, I just need to get the panels and start making.

Lecture Possibility

Yesterday, Storm Tharp came into Art Media and I asking him if he had ever lectured at PSU and if he would be intersted in that. He is one of my favorite local artists and his work would be really interesting to hear him talk about. He said that he would be nervous, but would enjoy the experience. So, I told him that I would try and make it happen but that it wouldn't be until the following year. He was recently written up as an emerging artist from Modern Painters, has been in numerous shows in the area and would be an incredible asset to our program. Just saying....

Gorge Sold!

I sold my "Labor Day in the Gorge" painting today! I am sad that it is gone, but the couple that bought it seem really great. I feel as if this piece was a real stepping stone for me. I need to sort what I learned with it and use that in new work.

native plant inspiration

Recently, I was asked to participate in a fundraiser/art sale. It consists of 30 Portland artists making 30 paintings in 30 days. That is a daunting task on top of which I am trying to create my graduate body of work and work for the "Little Things" show at the Guardino Gallery. Some of my friends will also be in the show, so I decided to go for it. What scared me, was not wanting to make work that would "sell." One of the reasons why I am going to grad school is to try and break free from that idea. How then, do I use this opportunity to do something a little more "academic."
During our dinner for Jean-Marie, I was joking with some of the other MFAs about a Native Plants poster that happened to be on the table. Then, an idea ran at me. I could recreate this poster, but on these panels. Using, the codes for each plant, I could make up a new system to paint them. I am thinking maybe a basic line drawing of the plant as a base and then paint the image using similar colors. An example would be maybe the background color for "shade" plants to be blue or something that needs wet soil to have shine on part of the image. This would give me rules to follow and thus make it easier to create all of these pieces.
I would then make a key for each so that the person getting the piece would know a little bit more about this plant and its care.

Seattle Trip

On Friday, the MFA students went to Seattle. It was a concentrated day full of visiting the new sculpture garden, museums, galleries and Harrell Fletcher's Come Together event at The Henry.
I enjoyed the Richard Serra piece. I had seen some of his work in NY, but I enjoyed it being in an outside environment rather than a gallery. I also was really excited to see Mark Dion's installation. He was one of my favorite lecturers from my undergrad at the Maine College of Art. Maybe I also liked that I have been interested in plant imagery and this piece had some similar aspects to projects I have done myself. For a show in Portland, Maine, I potted and labeled common weeds to give them more importance and to try explain their value rather than their unfavorable identity. He also labeled "weeds" and these were actually then locked up in a museum.
I also was really intersted in seeing first hand Patricia Piccinini's work at Frye. She is one of my favorite contemporary artists. I enjoyed how awkward and terrified I felt around these creatures. After awhile, I started to feel comfortable with them and it makes me wonder how I can use some of these ideas of fear and safety with my own work.

Artwork at Vino Paradiso

For the month of September, my paintings are at Vino Paradiso with my best friend Michelle Ramin.
417 NW 10th ave.

Introducing My Work

I used these images to show my recent work. The first image is "Hidden Agenda." It is oil on canvas and is 24"x36". The second one is "Desperate." It is watercolor and gouache on paper. It is 18"x24". The final image is "Labor Day in the Gorge." It is watercolor and gouache on paper. It is a diptych and is 22"x60."