just more dumb words

this week i have become an insomniac. it's not that fun. the first time it happened i got on to thinking over the semester's challenges (aka graduate school blackholes). all of them have been redonkulous. i guess i "experimented" as everyone suggested i do. i went through a materials crisis. watercolor on paper, then on panel, on plastic, on handmade paper, on three-dimensional surfaces, then photography, then oils on canvas, then acrylic, then fluid acrylic. so if you were thinking to yourself "what is she doing with her time?" that is my answer. i've struggled and struggled; and i haven't even begun my image/ content crises.

meanwhile i have had some opportunities to do paintings for people i love. i attempted one in acrylic. it was so-so. i actually hated it and then i haphazardly ruined it today. i brought out my watercolor supplies. within seconds i realized that watercolor (on plain old boring paper) is where i belong. all that to be at square one again? yep. i guess that's what grad school is all about. exhausting all your options so you know your direction more clearly. and now i do.

one negative aspect

since i started at cgu i have heard the cliche "throwing the baby out with the bathwater" at least twice a week. one time it hit an all-time high of three in one day!

i'm a traitor

this week, after several critiques, i woke up one morning and decided to give oils another go. why shouldn't i? for some reason, i had a loyalty issue. like i married into the watercolor mob and i was never allowed to look back. i have fought for my watercolor underdog and maybe to my detriment. so i bought some stretchers and today i gessoed my first canvas in almost three years. at first i felt like a cheating jerk. but then i realized that our little "falling out" was silly; i didn't have to choose. oils and i are getting reacquainted and in the meantime i still hang out with watercolors.

opposites distract

this week i've had meetings with a ton of people. we looked at some of the stuff i've been doing including "mustard" (pictured below). it's funny how polarized the response was. one lady (and a few friends) suggested i enhance my practice by making my own paper and incorporating three dimensional paper forms to better develop my ideas. and then a few days later someone said that i don't need to change my process. i just need to make things flatter. instead of making my own paper, i should go more industrial than organic in order to make my watercolors more contemporary. so this week i was told to go more three-dimesional and i was told to go less dimensional. welcome to grad school?

exhibit shots

here you go. unfortunately there are no images of last night. i didn't have grant take pictures of the opening (because that is totally bogus). but it was packed and really fun. whit and heidi came and got to meet some of my new school friends. and they got to see what all these peeps make.

the show was divided into two adjacent galleries. here's the entrance to the gallery my piece was in (i really lucked out with the placement):


here is my piece titled "mustard". it's 76" x 64"



now for some highlights: i seriously love this sculpture by a dude named william and was so thrilled that our pieces were placed next to one another. i also think this installation by cristina is beautiful. she also did a nice installation in the atrium.


this shot really doesn't get the greatness of the last piece. it was to the right of mine and i think it is the bomb. amy does these pink sculptural paintings from belly button images. also some other nice pieces that you can't really see. bummer.


this is nuttaphol's work. he could possibly be the coolest person in all of the claremont colleges. he is hella cool. and his work is also part of the reason why i go to school everyday.


in the other gallery there was a mix of stuff too. the underlying theme was figuration, something unique to our class. claremont is primarily an abstract painting school so all the other students and faculty were surprised by the change. jacob did the small piece and now he's working in textiles (in an awesome way). and the cellulite man creeps me out and makes me laugh big time.


yoshie did the video in the back. i have to tell you that it is the most nausiating and enjoyable thing to watch. she eats junk food non-stop for five minutes with a carnival scene and music playing behind her. barf. in a good way.


and lastly, my friend leia did this painting of a hollywood couple.


there are so many other note-worthy pieces ( i'm missing shots of delmy and laurence's pieces) but that gives you a lil taste for what went down. or up. or whatever.

1st year mfa candidates' show

the fourth leg features the work of over thirty students at cgu's peggy phelps gallery ( 251 east tenth street in claremont). it will be open from octber 8th to the 19th. there's an opening reception tomorrow october 9th from 6-9pm. if you are in california, please come and enjoy the greek food and some fun art. and don't you worry, out-of-towners. i'll post some pictures of the opening.

clockwork orange

when i woke up really early yesterday morning, i finished everything pressing at the house. with my spare time i decided to cut off four inches of my hair? sure. and as the day dragged on, my decisions got crazier. for instance, a painting i've been doing this week seemed at the time to need a huge neon orange (think tang) stain over most of it.

i decided to sleep in this morning.

bears who cares

ok, so it's not much, but it's something. it's the first decent thing i've made this whole month of september. not the first version. no, no. maybe the fifteenth. i've been having, well, a bear of a time (pardon me) making something work. this bear came to me in my dreams but really i feel like it came back from the future. i plan on using this as one of the pieces to a puzzle. that puzzle will hopefully be created in...seven days? if not? at least, it's a start.

update

the slide business wasn't a big deal. a lot of people surprised me with their work- and mostly in a good way. i'm starting to really enjoy this lil' group i'm in. i've had three critiques from professors. and i got the concensus no one is crazy about representation. my advisor said he usually hates anything representational and i was his fourth meeting with a representational painter that day. i asked him if he was super bummed that he had to talk to me. well, no, but he wanted to make his opinion known. others said that images were tyrannical. but i figure i signed up for this challenge. my painting is slowly coming together after a few drafts. i'm making sure it's finished so my one piece in the group show is a newbie.

cgu love

it's official. i like grad school. this past week we have managed to move into our studios, register, listen to a billion lectures, assign jobs, and tonight we are going to look at everyone's slides. barf. don't get me wrong; i can't wait to see everyone else's slides. it's my slides i'm worried about. anyway, i'll be starting a new piece today. i want to get something new going before i have meetings with professors and before we hang our first show in october. once something's nearly finished, i promise to post it.

read all about it

great news. our show "i am you" just got reviewed by geoff wichert from 15bytes. it's a really nice article. if you get a chance, take a look at this month's edition (june 2007).

www.15bytes.org

and tell me what you think.

the breakdown

so the show is up. it was one hectic day. thanks to all who could make it. i was really happy to see people i haven't seen in a crazy long time. if you weren't able to come the night of the opening, the show will be up until june 9th. the gallery hrs are m-f 9-5 and sat 9-1. check it out when you get a chance because these pictures don't do anyone's work justice.

zu kills photography

eva's beautiful print installations

self-portrait

a new lease on life

r.i.p. steve rogers

phooey

traditional landscape

after the fact

left: this isn't denny's
right: bad paintings happen to good people

left: sorta big, sorta littlish
right: a million things could go wrong

perpetual irony

twice my lesson

here it goes

The Official Postcard

For all those who will be in Salt Lake this weekend, I am having an art opening during gallery stroll. I'm showing with my two friends Eva (print installation artist) and Zu (photographer). We're exhibiting contemporary approaches to portraiture/ figurative art. Come sample the vegetable platter at the Rio Gallery on Rio Grande St (300 South 455 West) on Friday, May 18 6-9pm. It's going to be wicked awesome.

two new pieces i'm working on