That's Life.

Fresh off my latest commission, tons of scrap MDF in the garage, and a few empty spaces on my walls... GUESS WHAT I DID?! That's right. I found a use for the leftovers and decided to spruce up a few walls in my little humble abode.

I've always preferred working on tall narrow "canvases." Its something about the way my mind works and how I build symmetry in a painting. I've never been good at filling a square, being one is a totally different story but that's another topic entirely... haha just keeding! Rectangles on the other hand... OH! That shape makes my imagination go crazy with ideas! I can work out the logistics of a painting better in that shape better than I can a square. So I'll always choose rectangles over squares, every time.

That being said, it really has absolutely nothing to do with this post whatsoever, except for the fact that these two "little" projects were painted on leftover rectangle scraps from my BOLD project. Score! So, with a few simple things in mind I set out on my next quick (and I mean SUPER QUICK) little project between projects. 

These are a few things I had on my mind....

Fonts.... I'm obsessed with fonts, and I absolutely love handwriting. When I was little, and even on occasion now that I'm an adult, I'd practice my signature for HOURS. I've always thought my mother's penmanship was gorgeous and noticed some similarities between hers and mine. Especially our signatures. I've always loved the quick scribble of my father's notes he'd leave around the house and the way he initialed all of his belongings. I loved the youthful simplicity of almost all of my elementary teacher's handwriting on the white board, and I couldn't stand the way that left handed kid in my history class wrote his name. Gah!

Languages.... I am obsessed with languages! I love how there are universal truths that connect people to each other, and how one of the main obstacles we have to overcome is the language barrier. I speak English, I speak numbers, I speak very broken Spanish, I speak a few words of Hungarian, and I even speak a bit of pig latin on occasion, iggy pay atinlay isay unfay, okay? 

Quotes... I am obsessed with quotes! I simply adore how combining a few simple words can be inspirational, comforting, motivating, heartwarming, hilarious, and just make you realize that you're not the only one to feel or think a certain way. Our emotional journeys connect us to people, and sometimes it just takes a stranger or a friend to mesh the right words together to describe exactly how you feel in one particular moment. Beautiful.

Love and Life.... I am living and breathing both! For the first time, in what seems like forever, I am truly happy to the core. I've always been a happy-go-lucky lady for sure, and I have my gloomy days as everyone does, but "that's life" or as the French say....

I hung this one on my living room wall.

You probably already figured out where I'm going with this next one... We've all had our ups and downs on the quest for love, I know I've had my fair share... and it sucked. Like, really sucked. You think you'll never know the kind of love that's shared outside of your family and those few close friends. Then all of a sudden, out of the blue.... you do. It's often hard to articulate exactly how your heart feels when you find that kind of love, and while the simplest way doesn't always seem like it can truly encapsulate exactly how you're feeling, it can. They are 3 of the simplest, sincerest, purest, unapologetic and most heart tingling 3 words to ever be connected in a sentence..... 

"I Love You" 

Above pictures of me and my boyfriend. This is hanging in my bedroom.

....and love you I do my dear :-) It's true in plain English, and it's true in fancy French.

So, here's to life. Your life. My life. Our lives. Together and (when they have to be) apart. Here's to all of our happy moments, our exciting moments, our sad moments, our boring moments and to ALL our future moments, between now and forever. I love you.

Cheerio!

BOLD.

I don't know 'bout ya'll, but these last few months have been craaaaaazy busy! Summer is just a flyin by! I've been going and doing all kinds of fun new things with my amazingly sweet, kindhearted, hilarious and very near and dear to my heart boyfriend. We've been having the greatest of adventures! Among those adventures, I've managed to take on a rather fulfilling commission piece....

I tend to over do certain things. My ideas get the better of me in almost every situation. Some of the time, they don't turn out quite like I had imagined. Other times.... the exact opposite is true and they turn out UH-MAZING!

Case and point. My friend Kelsie: eyelash professional, nail arteest, and hair fixer upper - asked me to do "A" painting for her salon. I say "A" painting, because she clearly meant she wanted me to do just ONE. So of course I decided to do 4. She gave me free reign to do what I wanted, so what did you expect me to do? One just wasn't enough!

Here are some snap shots of my prep steps... 

SO.... I decided they needed to be done on wood cut outs of the word "BOLD." Her salon is called "Bold and Beautiful," and that is exactly what I had intended to do with these soon to be masterpieces! ...make them bold AND beauuuuuutiful!

First off, painting a canvas would have been too easy. So of course, I had to buy an 8ft sheet of 3/4" MDF to cut the letters out on. I don't own a truck, so I had to borrow my parents getaway beast and my dad's table saw. Not to mention get help to cut it as I am not strong enough to maneuver that thing on the table saw solo. Got it up there by myself though... I did, I did. Thanks Uncle Bruce for re-teaching me the safety tips of table saw etiquette. Cutting my hands off is definitely on the top of my "no-no" list.

In order to cut the centers out, I had to drill holes first. Right as I was about to get started on all of them... my drill lost its juice on the 2nd "B" hole... haha The battery on that drill really sucks. I had to wait a whole 24 hours for the stupid thing to charge! 

BONUS NOTE: Uncle Bruce also GAVE me a scroll saw! My first ever! After wanting to buy one for so many years... free. Totally free. I was in awe. I've used it for a bunch of little things... and for fixing a pair of sandals. Scroll saws do wonder with leather... fact.

After I got them all painstakingly cut out as you can see, next came the task of painting them! My boyfriend has been such a wonderful advocate for my love of color. So, when I asked him if I should do them black and white (her salon is red, black and white themed) or if I should do them with bright crazy colors, he said, "COLOR! Make dem b****** pop!" So that is exactly what I did. He tooootally gets it <3 

I found some images that fit in nicely with the letters, planned them out and got to painting. I did a combination of acrylic paint and colored pencil. The pencil gives them a nice little edge. MDF is a dream to paint on, not to mention color on. I plan on doing a lot more with that later...

I really hope you enjoy the finished product Miss Kelsie! They were such a blast to work on and it's been so much fun consulting with you on them throughout my creative process. 

So... who's next?!

Cheerio!

Doodle Friday: Back To The... Past?

When I was younger, I never planned on being as involved with art as I am. To be honest, going to school and being an "artist" was never my "dream". While art was always sneakily hiding under my skin, watching and waiting to break out like mad crazy teen acne, my dream was to be a Marine Biologist.... tra-uly. I wanted to train dolphins and whales to do the flippy flip for tourists! But for a girl who doesn't like to play in the dirt and has an irrational fear of sticking her hand in a fish tank, that dream was a bust. A TO-TAL BUST. Then my plans changed, I wanted to be a hairdresser. Ha! Who was I kidding? My hair was awful in those days and I really had no clue as to how to fix it - so that too was a bust. Then it was on to being a professional chef. I soon discovered that I really didn't like to cook unless it was absolutely necessary and what I really liked about cooking was collecting recipe books... so, bust. Again. Then, I was going to be an Architect. Now we were getting somewhere. Architecture is NEAT! Buildings and structures and whacked out living places are my bread 'n butta! I still love the idea of being an architect. However, the amount of schooling that profession required not to mention my general laziness with academics was just ridiculous, and the math? Yea. I couldn't stand my algebra teacher in high school. BOO. So, I dropped Trig to be the Art Teaching Assistant... pretty much the whole afternoon of my entire Senior year.


Thus, my last "dream" nugget blossomed: Art Teacher! Sounds tangible, viable and like a downright hammer-nail-head thing. Right? Not. The longer I T.A.'d the more I discovered just how impatient I am, and just how annoying high school kids are... well, the ones who don't take their high school art classes "serious" enough for my taste. I don't mind teaching or helping people out with their creative side, but the patience required to teach "string art" year in and year out? Yea, I wasn't sure that was a ditch I wanted to be stuck in... So! College came, and I took art. Art history, art theory, and studio classes galore! Four brilliant years later here I am - totally awesome with a crafty degree under my belt and taking all of life's punches head on... well sort of. I'm an awesome ducker. Pretty impressive for a jolly green giant. I also took boxing... so that helped. 


So, what is the point of all this is? Nothing really. Its mostly just a lot of back story that is meant to lend a hand in showing you where I started with my art. I don't, by any means, think I am the world's greatest most awesome-est artist, even though my mommy says I am :-) What I do have is a deep love and appreciation for art. I may not have an art "career" but art definitely defines what I am. It is in every part of my being just as much as the air I breathe. Its my oxygen and livelihood. Without it I'd be.... a bump. A worthless bump. With no flava. No pizzazz. I like pizzazz. Hopefully you do too. So I leave you with a Doodle, from the 5 year old me... I love humble beginnings, in everything. ENJOI!

Cheerio!

The Irreversible Stepford-Society Conundrum

I cannot believe it has taken me THIS long to get around to posting about this project. This majorly huge/monumental/aesthetically defining project moment in my life. This show changed my art forever, and finally gave me the "style" I was waiting to discover when I walked thru the doors to my first art class my freshman year in college...

The artwork below was all a part of my Senior Exhibit my last year in college. My show was titled:

"The Irreversible Stepford-Society Conundrum"

I thought my title was a cleverly put together statement that touched on so many different facets of mass medias definition of beauty standards. i won't go into great detail about my artist statement... mainly because I can't find it and also because I haven't talked about it enough to remember my argument. So I'm just going to show you the art instead! I will say that it's mainly all about judging someone based solely on their appearance/clothing... but I figured that was implied. What kind of judgments would you make about someone if you couldn't see their face? The face can tell you a lot about a person... 

**Click on the images to see them bigger yo!

"VICTORIA"

 

"KATHERINE"

This show was probably the most labor intensive project I have ever taken on, and rightly so. Not only did I make/paint/draw all of the artwork, but I designed, built and painted the stands and all of the picture frames you see. I had a very specific aesthetic in mind for my show, and I didn't want my final grade or my graduation hanging on whether or not the frames were cheap and tacky. So I opted to go BIG.

"LAUREN"

 

"AUDREY"

 

Apparently to some my show had a very futuristic feel... The Jetsons was a common comparison, which I think had something to do with the framing. I happily acknowledged the comparison though, because I simply adore The Jetsons! The lithographs are framed as well, but they have glass... which DOES NOT photograph well. So, many apologies for the poor photo quality on my litho's.

"NAHNI"

 

"PIPPA"

 

Each sculpture was constructed in a four-part process. A process which I won't go into great detail with. I will say that each has an aluminum wire skeleton which I then "sewed" on a gutter guard mesh with a very thin gauge galvanized steel wire. Their "skin" was created using a sturdy paper mache-like process and then each was painted and sealed. Each one probably took a solid 30 to 40 hours to construct.  I'm still trying to figure out a way to make a much more durable sculpture that looks cleaner without putting "skin" on them. I loved the raw look they had, but I couldn't leave these ladies "naked" ha!

"JANE"

 

"SAM"

 

All of the paintings and lithographs (the black and whites) were done before any of the sculptures were made. I used them as my blue prints and because they only showed one side of the figure, it left a lot to interpretation when creating their rear-ends. For instance, the figure named "Audrey" has a lot of button detail on the back and an A-symmetrical slit in the skirt. In retrospect I think I did their drawings first as an unintentional homage to the art of tailoring. Fashion sketch to fashion sew.

Honestly though, paying tribute to my love for sewing and clothing did play a big part in my creative process. Fashion design has always been one of my favorite art forms. The sketches, the colors and the way the designers depict certain materials is fantastic. I wanted to do large scale fashion "sketches" of my own but done in an unusual way... which I believe I captured.


Here's an early stages shot of one of the sculptures... my fingers were MUSH by the time I was done. That metal is shizzy-sharp yo.

Cheerio!