Bones, Brains & Loose Ends
I Like Soup at VA MOCA
Spring is ending, and summer, with its hot, funky breath, is right around the corner. My semester has ended, and I was able to maintain my all-A’s streak. I recently went to a scholarship luncheon TCC held for the donors and met a wonderful lady who was funding one of the scholarships I received to attend the Visual Arts Center.
My internship at Virginia MOCA has also ended. My time there was wonderful, and I feel that I’ve learned a lot, especially from preparing for New Waves 2012 and the group of shows to be shown during the Warhol exhibit now on display.
The I Like Soup show looks great. JoKa, an artist from Philly, was included in the show, and his lovely girlfriend Brandi drove down and stayed with us so they could attend the opening.
All the cans are now online and for sale. The proceeds are divided between the artist, the Foodbank of Virginia and MOCA’s educational programming. Creepmachine and AltDaily both wrote some nice little write-ups about it.
My all-time favorite among many wonderful pieces is Nomi Chi’s.
Attempts at Green Underpainting
I’ve been attempting a new technique: creating a complete underpainting with terre vert/titanium white/ivory black before laying in color. It’s interesting. I like the moonlit look. Now, I just need to figure out if it’s worth refining the underpainting before laying in color… how much of the underpainting I want to keep and how much I’m willing to cover up.
After completing these, I'll try other things(I hope to get a master copy). My time at TCC is almost over. I only have two classes to complete before earning my associate's. What I'm going to do afterward has been weighing heavily on me. I like learning. I value education but don't believe a traditional academic path is for me. While important and enjoyable, my other classes(math, English, and so on) were getting in the way of getting as much as possible out of my art classes, which were the real reason I've been in school.
I've been contemplating attending an atelier. Students learn under the guidance of a master painter. It's rigorous. It's intense. It's realistic. There is no degree. My tentative plans are to finish at TCC, take a few months, go to Philly, and attend some workshops at an atelier. I couldn't commit to a full 4 years, financially or time-wise, immediately, but I think taking a few months would be a great way to do some research to help me plan my future path.
I've been doing research, with the help of a new painter friend, to try to help me get ready for the next step. The only reasons I am hesitant are that I would miss my husband for those months and feel a bit like an imposter. Part of me fears that I'd be found *out* and rendered unwelcome if the subjects and type of paintings I like to do are revealed. I want to become technically skilled, so I don't see why my past work would need to come up, but it isn't necessarily my end goal to paint precisely like others who have gone down that route. My goal is to convincingly blend realism with my other more esoteric topics…and, of course, make some money doing portraiture. If I were trained in this way, I could do whatever I wanted with the knowledge. I want access to that, to me, secret world.
I need to learn how to sweep aside my insecurities.
I admire it. I want to be a part of it.
I've been painting a lot of skulls lately, as I'm sure anyone who stops by occasionally notices. I've caught a bit of slack for it from instructors, their point being that it's too apparent or trendy, but I've chosen to ignore the good-intentioned criticism. Skulls have been in art for much longer than Hot Topic has been around, and they're relevant to the topics I enjoy. Besides, they're good practice. We all have them beneath our freckles and makeup.
Below are some skull-themed artworks I've come across and like.
From top left down to right – Unknown found on tumblr(but it tickled me to see it after I had made my own still lifes of skulls with pearl eyes), Skull by David Slone, The Dead by Horacio Martinez, I can’t read the language but their work is lovely!