New and old projects

On the way home from my sister's wedding in August, my husband and I were driving through incredibly beautiful areas of the US. We drove past HUGE fields of sunflowers, saw rainbows, saw rainstorms from a distance, and lots of windmills in the middle of texas. My husband was asleep so I had time to think and stare at the landscape. I have always struggled with how to make art including all the things that inspire me. I've been wanting to pursue some "medical" art, if that makes sense...but also be able to express my faith in God. It dawned on me driving in the middle of New Mexico what I could do...ideas just started flowing and I had to make my husband drive so I could sketch them. I appreciate the body and the earth so much because of who created it. So combining these two concepts really appeals to me. I got started on a piece today, it's looking a little like camoflauge but it won't when it's finished.

I also took extra paint and returned to my old GIANT painting from my oil painting class. I've changed it some more and will continue to, it's an old friend I can't decide what to do with.

I'm back!

I'm posting! I kind of of left this blog a while ago, but I've been doing art so much with these little kids at the elementary school, I can't resist not doing some art or thinking about it all the time. I decided to post a recent oil painting done for jessi and ryan for their wedding present. I was pretty happy with the results. I've painted temples in the past, but I discovered it's hard to make it perfect. I discovered a new method that made the temple just right. Anyway, I think I'll paint more of these, but maybe when student teaching is over and I have more time to do what I want with my art.

Don't kill creativity!

I absolutely love this TED talk by Sir Ken Robinson. He's hilarious and makes a good defense of why the arts should be taught in school and why we need art in general. Watch it, it's totally worth it.

fire power

I haven't posted in a while...mainly because of technical difficulties in getting images of my artwork and such. Well here is a a video of an artist named Cai Guo Qiang. A lot of his artwork his does with fireworks. Just goes to show you that art isn't just painting anymore =)

final print project

This was my final for my intaglio class. It's done with aquatint which is basically this longer process where you etch a copper plate with acid. It took FOREVER! But I really enjoyed the class, I'll post some more pictures soon, I've scanned all my jar paintings and will get those up asap.

Recent

I'm in Intaglio (printmaking) and an oil painting class. In painting I'm working on a huge 40"x44" painting, the biggest I've ever worked with. It's given me some trouble compositionally but I'm hoping for the best! This one below is a print I did representing broken glass:

Ok so I wondered what ya'll thought about this artwork. I did it in response to the artist kara walker who I did a report on. She deals with a lot of issues about racism, sexuality, power, etc. I really enjoy what she does even though it's kind of intense and if you're not careful, pornographic. Anyway, she uses silhouettes to narrate a story, often about some sort of power struggle. She does large paper cut outs and adheres them to gallery walls. So her image is located below and mine above. She is an african american artist and I am not. So is what I did racist?

It's not in my defense, but just my reaction to the racism I felt living in Lumberton, Texas. I felt like children thought racism was a game and they would wear confederate flags as superhero capes and wear shirts that said "the south will rise again." I surely did not enjoy or think this was right.n So in mine, if you can't tell, there is a little girl blowing bubbles that have the opposite race floating in them that will soon be impailed by knives. Gruesome? Yes, so is Kara Walker, WAY worse than mine.

What do you think?