Senior Year pt. II

I started off the second semester much more slowly. I decided I wanted to try to make my paintings more complex by creating narrative scenes. I got pretty overwhelmed and I just didn't feel like painting for a while. But finally, I managed to get back to work and worked on large unstretched canvases. I'm excited to keep developing my work but need to find studio space somehow. 

It's so weird to be graduating so soon but I think I'm finally ready.

apologies for the terrible photographs

Senior Year pt. I

Since I haven't updated all year, I thought I'd split senior year into first and second semester.

I started off the year by producing lot of abstract paintings as I usually do. Something didn't feel right. The abstract forms felt like they were trying to become something else. It wasn't until I started adding cartoon images that I felt like I was progressing and starting to find my voice.

 

 

So, senior year has already started and between freaking out and wondering if I'm really cut out for this, I've produced about 30 paintings. I'll be posting those soon.

Mollyne died last night and I'm going to miss her so much. She was such a kick-ass, determined, hard-working lady with a great sense of humor. She was an amazing artist, mother, and mentor. I'm going to do everything I can to make her show in Berlin happen.

I am addicted to bright colors

I had a great painting class today! It started off rocky but I'm really happy with what I discovered today.

Yesterday was the last day of my tuesday painting class DDD: We had an amazing critique and I felt very comfortable talking about everyone's work but it was so sad! I'm going to be so lost without Andrea next year! I guess I'll just have to ambush her class next year and demand to be part of it.

I finally got a better picture of this painting.

This was my presentation for the last critique. It's missing about 6-8 paintings that didn't make the cut because they're not resolved yet.

Andrea asked me if I was proud of my work this semester and I have to say, I am. Looking back on the year, I see that I've really embraced color, paint, and my own weird awkwardness which has become easier to control and use to my advantage. I'm so grateful for Nancy and Andrea pushing me out of whatever rut I was in, getting me to think about my work in different ways, and giving us lots of practice to speak about art.

I've been painting up a storm and taking terrible pictures

I finished!!!! I had a giant paper and a really important application due on the same day and they've been haunting me for weeks and I'm done! That should have been written in capslock to express my sheer manic glee.

Anyway, my giant breakthrough in painting was not as...breakthrough-y on wednesday. But two of my classmates expressed interest in buying/trading for my paintings so maybe class time wasn't completely wasted. Although we did spend more time looking at horrible tattoos than was strictly necessary.

Last, last wednesday, I had a critique that made me realize I needed to push my work further but I didn't know how to go about it. My wednesday painting teacher was trying to get me to reduce my paintings to three or four elements. I made this painting:

Which felt very formulaic and unsatisfying. I understood why it was better formally then my other paintings, but all I had done was to take a few of my painting tropes and slap them on the canvas. I needed to figure out how to create work that held together formally and allowed me to explore, get frustrated, and evolve.

Yesterday, when I got to my tuesday class, I decided to start painting over an old canvas:

My painting teacher watched me get frustrated and told me that it looked like the left side of the painting was my favorite part, so why not paint the whole canvas in that way. Which led me to this:

and this:

I have never had this much fun painting. I never would have gotten to this point without the previous paintings but I'm so glad to be where I am now. And eternally grateful to my teachers for pushing me to get there.

I'm excited to hear what my other teacher has to say about these paintings.

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