Time in: 1:00pm + Mathew Cerletty

Every once and a while I check out Painting People, figure painting today  from the library. It has both portraits and figurative work with a wide variety of styles. One of the artists that I am always drawn to is Mathew Cerletty . Maybe it's because his portraits have a similar minimalism to them as mine do, and he often paints himself (like me), but  his have a distinct oddness to them and seem to reflect more specific inner narratives.

I'm probably also drawn to the patterning in a lot of them- bedsheets, wallpaper... if you are familiar with my work you know that I did a body of work titled "Ornament and Silence" using only decorative patterns as the subject matter. I blew the patterns up large scale and combined patterns from many time periods, styles and cultures.

As I'm reaching my goal for how many double portraits I've wanted to do, I've been thinking about what I'd like to do next- if I would like to continue with another portrait series and if so, how would it be different? Keeping it simple but with some added information is what I'm leaning towards. I have a few ideas that I'm bouncing around and after mulling them over there's usually one or two that seem to stick and I feel they are worth pursuing. 

TO DO:
Clean up studio
white out scott?
gesso paper for Asher portrait
Home Depot? - board and traps

PLAYLIST:
The Murder Room by P.D. James
Tegan and Sara - The Con
Grace Potter and the Nocturnals
The Books - The Lemon of Pink

(Images are of Mathew Cerletty's pieces entitled The Faux Pas and Last Chance Dance)

Private Viewing

I've been out of my studio for a week or so and as a result have not had much to post here. The few things that I've been doing are not very exciting- priming panels, sweeping, applying for some competitions... nothing worth writing about in length. 

There is one event on the horizon though that I am really looking forward to. Every time I photograph someone, I thank them and let them know that I will be having a party once I complete the paintings  to show them the finished piece. This is a way for me to promise it to someone else which in turn means that I need to follow through with it. 

I'm excited to say that I've finally set a date (and sent out invitations- so it's real!) for a private preview of this series I am working on. It will be on October 17 and if you are in the Chicago area and would like to attend, please email me and I will send you an invitation with all of the details. 

This week I should be back in the studio and working hard. I've got three new pieces I'll be starting, and there is one that I've been working on which I might make a significant change to. I'm in that undecided place where I keep looking at the painting and I think it could be okay in the direction it's headed, but then again, it could be better. 

I'm also launching a new project that I'll be working on which I'll go into more detail when I've actually got something to show. Blogs are so much better with pictures. 

I'll be gallery hopping tonight...what will YOU be doing?

Tonight is a big night in Chicago for art. It's the start of a new season and it seems almost every gallery in the city is having an opening which means hours of gallery hopping, cheap box wine and cheese cubes, if you're lucky.

If you aren't already in the know- there is a blog that lists the openings in Chicago every weekend called The Gallery Crawl and So Much More. Check it out and maybe I will see you at some openings tonight.

New face to work with

Today I photographed a new person for my portrait series. I met Michele at my critique a couple of weeks ago and she approached me about being photographed for the series. I'm very excited to have some new references to work from and to get going on the last couple of pieces. I've been waiting for someone to pair with another woman that I photographed a while back (Nell) and I think they would make a great combination. 

Starting a new painting is always exciting and I can't wait to get back in the studio and get back to work. I've been giving my studio the cold shoulder the past few days in response to its tendency to be an inviting place for rats. 

(Latest in the rat saga: the tail that was found in the basement disappeared a day later so I didn't actually have to clean it up... although I hope it doesn't turn up again in another location!)

Not the 80's hairdo

I just went down into my studio to check on my current painting (I do that occasionally to see if there is more I need to work on) and did my routine scan the floor. If you've made your way around my blog, you know that I have my studio in the basement and have found clues that with careful deduction have led me to believe that there are rats in the basement. Each day when I go down there I scan the bare concrete and dust floor and look for anything unusual. There have been some mysterious items such as peanut shells and disturbed tools as well as some not so mysterious clues like squeaking, pellets, and oh yeah, a dead rat that have all contributed to my belief that there are rats down there.  

Time in: 1:30pm

To do:

Finish Rebecca- right side of face- extend, right eye

photograph "Surprise" 

Home Depot

keep going on Tom and Scott

update website

research

Playlist:

Murder Room by PD James (audiobook)

The Books - Lost and Safe

Air

Vienna Teng

How the critique went

Last night I participated in the Open Crit program at the Hyde Park Art Center. I posted about this particular program a couple of days ago with all the details if you want to take a look. There were four artists that were critiqued last night: Kate Friedman (mixed media artist), Alan Thomas (photographer), Renee Prisble Una (sculptor and installation artist) and myself, and the crit was well attended by a very engaged audience. 

All of the work was much higher calibre than the first critique and it was great to be in good company. I presented four of my pieces from the "I live in a duplex" series which I've been working on this past year. Basically, I started out with the idea to paint two portraits together on one panel to see how they would interact. A painting of a single person is one thing, but a painting of two people tells a different story. 

I received a wide range of feedback- it seemed either people really liked what I was doing with the pieces, or really disliked it. Each critique is facilitated by two people that are fairly well established in the art community. Last night it was the photographer Dawoud Bey and curator Nathan Mason. They really liked the way that I captured the psychological tone of each person but both thought I was unsuccessful at painting double portraits. Dawoud suggested I cut them all in half and then I would have something. 

I really tried to flesh out from them what they thought wasn't working. A big problem for both of them was that not all of the portraits are spacially correct. For example, in some of them it looks like one person is right on top of the other, and then of course each background is completely white and void of spacial reference. While this is intentional, Mason said that for him this made it so that there was no interaction between the two people in each piece. This is probably the feedback that I had the most trouble with. While I understand that the spacial ambiguity might flatten out the images, I didn't understand the leap to then saying there is no interaction between the two people when they are the only thing on the picture plane. They also said it looked "forced" which perhaps refers to the fact that not all of the portraits look natural in their placement. "Clumsy" was another way Dawoud put it.

I've thought quite a bit about whether or not I want them to be spacially "correct." I've always come to the conclusion that I want it to be ambiguous because they don't have to exist in the same physical space (in my portrayal) for them to interact. They can interact in many ways besides being physically next to each other, and this is what I wanted people to think about. They are really only connected because I painted them together. Since both Dawoud and Nathan had a pretty strong feeling on the matter, I'll have to take another look at my work with this in mind and see if I look at them differently; to re-evaluate whether or not they're working.

Part of the reason I started this series is because I'm interested in the stories that are co-created between the viewer and myself. Last night many people chimed in with what "story" they thought was being told in each piece- and they're ALWAYS different from one another. There were people that adamantly disagreed about what was going on in each scenario and I think a lot of people were fascinated by the apparent diversity of responses to one painting.

The critique gave me lots of great food for thought, challenged me to be able to explain my work and allowed me to meet some great people. I even had one woman give me her card because she wants to be included in my series. It's been a while since I had some challenging and critical dialogue about my work, and for those of you that know me well, you know I thrive on it. 

Here are some detail shots of the other artists' work: on left- Kate Friedman, on right- Renee Prisble Una.

Untitled but getting close

I'm hoping to finish up part 2 of this diptych that I've been working on. This is the piece that I recently whited out the face and started over on because sometimes you just need a blank slate to work from. Here is a picture of the two pieces together, although the color is way off in the one on the right (Rebecca) which is the one that is not quite finished. 

I've been asked whether or not how well I know a person affects how easy or hard it is to paint them. It's an interesting question, and while I'd be quick to say that it doesn't make a difference, that's not entirely true. There have been portraits that I've been working on where the person I'm painting (in real life, not the painting) has said or done something that has bothered me and put me in a foul mood. This does make it difficult as it usually makes me not want to look at their face and I'd rather slather paint all over it.  (By the way, I'm not talking about this particular portrait!)

Time in: 3:00pm

To do:

Adjust angle of right eye

Widen side of face by right eye

bangs- highlights a little too much?

varnish

think about title

Get paintings ready for tomorrow's critique

-buy bubble wrap

lips- too much shadow on left upper lip? expression

Playlist:

Bad At Sports podcast- the Stockyard Institute and the Cafeteria Sessions

The Murder Room by PD James (audio book)

The Raconteurs

Ray LaMontagne

Nick Drake

Time in 1:30pm + Open Crit @ HPAC

The Hyde Park Art Center here in Chicago has started up a new Open Crit program that I will be participating in this Thursday, August 27th. Artists can submit their work for consideration of which four are selected per critique. Each critique is facilitated by two established members of the art community: artists, curators, critics... and the public is invited to come and participate as well. This week photographer Dawoud Bey and curator Nathan Mason will be critiquing.

I am really interested in this program as I miss the critique process. In college, it was such a wonderful thing to have regular critiques and to be regularly getting feedback on your work. OK, there were a lot of times that the feedback was utter nonsense, but it's still such an important part of the process to receive critical feedback from a variety of people. 

Post-college, it's hard to come by. I've made a point of it myself to find and join established critique groups or to start them so that I have regular feedback on my work. This gives me something to work towards as well as fresh eyes to view the work I've been staring at for so long. 

If you are in Chicago and are interested in checking out the program, here are the details:

Open Crit @ the Hyde Park Art Center

5020 S. Cornell

Chicago, IL 60615
Thursday, August 27
6pm-8pm

The Open Crit program asks what is the critical discourse surrounding your work, and how does your work relate to that discourse or not? Designed to be useful for artists who really want to progress to the next level in their career, each selected artist will have up to 30 minutes of dedicated discussion with a facilitator and the audience. The session will provide critical response to actual works brought in by the artists for the evening. At this program Photographer Dawoud Bey and Curator Nathan Mason will be providing feedback to the artists, along with our audience members, embracing the word 'open' and making the experience truly participatory. 

Time in: 10am + It Wouldn't Surprise Me

I'm just putting on the finishing touches of my latest piece: "It Wouldn't Surprise Me." I'll be varnishing it and fixing a few things today, but it's basically done. It's nice to finish this one up; it's been a challenging piece. 

To do:

clean up white on "surprise"

varnish

touch up on Eric's nose, and both lip highlights

Rebecca- 

keep going on face, refine skin tone

palette- too pink

eyes- develop

lips too high contrast, soften

Frame "No Words"

go to Home Depot and get rat traps

pick references for next piece

small portrait?

Playlist:

NPR

Murder Room by PD James (audio book)

Camera Obscura- "Let's Get Out Of This Country"

Kings of Leon- "Because of the Times"

Jesse Sykes and the Sweet Hereafter- "Oh, My Girl"