Saint Carl Sagan

This next painting series I am amidst is one I think has been a long time coming.

I tend to think that what ever it is floating around in the artists head, be that a recent read book, movie watched, behaviors noticed, there is something of an impression made in your brain. Not saying that the same thing doesn't happen in the non-artist head, just that for an artist it is very important. The reason for that is because an artist will eventually use his or her past impressions to express a current perspective. When drawing from the pool of inspiration one can only access what already exists so spending your life engaged in the things you would like to eventually talk about is a good idea. Maybe simpler put, you are what you eat, likewise you paint what's in your brain.

Relating this back to my new paintings, I have been an amateur science fiction nerd and overall science enthusiast for some time now and I think it's finally found a way to make an appearance in my work. I love Philip K. Dick, I've read over a dozen of his books, seen his movies (including a special screening of A Scanner Darkly where his daughter and the artistic director of the film where present for Q and A!!). My favorite program on NPR is the Science Friday edition of Talk of the Nation where amazing scientist radio nerd Ira Flatow discusses all the hot science issues of the week. I do not believe in god even though my mother is extremely religious (studying buddhist monk), or anything close to an organized religion which leaves me looking to science for many of my unfulfilled questions. And still I am in a place of wonder and amazement with the world I live in, and Carl Sagan is one of those influences that can really make me excited about life, it's patterns, it's complex yet simple and sensible patterns.

This series I will explore my admirations for the epic and sensible science figures and make worlds that question reality like the best science fiction tends to. I end this with a quote from the late great Saint Carl Sagan:

The Cosmos is all that is or ever was or ever will be. Our feeblest contemplations of the Cosmos stir us — there is a tingling in the spine, a catch in the voice, a faint sensation of a distant memory, as if we were falling from a great height. We know we are approaching the greatest of mysteries.

Meat Show at the Medicine Agency

Friday, October 15th, at the Medicine Agency I'm going to be showing new work for a meat themed art show. A theme show is a fun way for me to make art that I might not have made otherwise. It gets me out of my usual train of thought and a like a school assignment, I have to think about art coming from particular perspective. In this instance, the show is about all things meat; livestock, meat products, the industry and culture surrounding meat.

For this series I chose a number of images focusing on a sort of self referencing physical manifestation of the male ego, considering the origin of one species (human), to dominate the other (cattle) with totality and arrogance. These works depict cowboy crotches with a male egocentric phrase accompanying each crotch. The paintings are of "meat", like the slang for a male falis, and it's also a cowboy or rancher raising cattle. By not giving the men faces, it focuses more on the stereotype of what it means to act from a place of manhood, rather than an individual thought or action from a person with a unique life experience. I wanted to explore this idea because so many of the larger manufacturing and corporate entities are run by men. I see this need for domination without regard to others a more male attribute, and one that is very relevant at this time in our environment history.

There is also an attraction and humor in these works that plays with our relationship to the absurdity of this type of egotist behaviour. Is it really a problem or do we care if it is? Are some people more likely to celebrate this than they would be to show concern? Or even, is it just human nature and therefore something to embrace? Well, I haven't any answers yet, only more questions, but if you get a chance to look at the work maybe you can find some of your own answers and fill me in.

Whats next...

Well the show was a success and thank you all who came out to enjoy it with me. My big painting found a home and that makes me so happy because I really did put a lot of work into it. Hooray. I took some pics and brought down the show last Sunday... so whats next?! Well, I'm getting fired up for the next round of paintings. I'm really excited about this series but to be honest my favorite work is always my most recent. I've done most of the research (finding image references and such), and I've gotten a break (finally the weather has broke for my biking to beer picnics), and today I found some amazing vintage frames so I have a few panels to build, then it's back to the lab to hide out for a while. I feel like I'm bursting right now, which is a good feeling. This generally happens after a little break in which I get to replenish my tapped out inspiration and start a new. Then my seams get stressed and I have more ideas then I have ability to paint! What a good feeling to have. And then back into the painting process, and then my energy gets tapped, at points its drained... but we'll deal with that when we have to. Right now it's all about whats coming up. So look out for the next show!

Oh Mother
April 2010
Cafe Royale 800 Post St @ Leavenworth

I'm having a show at Cafe Royale, opening this Thursday April 1st. I'm really excited to show all new work in what is officially my first solo exhibition. I worked hard on it and despite my last minute jitters I was very pleased with the show when I installed it last Sunday. The largest piece in the show consists of three painted wood panels, 9'x6' all together. I began this piece in November last year in hopes of covering some new grounds by challenging the size by which I normally paint (which is substantially smaller). It worked- it was definitely a challenge! But also satisfactory art piece and ready on time for the opening. If you don't get a chance to catch the opening, the show will be up the month of April with regular business hours of noon to midnight weekdays, and noon until two in the morning if you're so compelled to visit on the weekend.

These are some drawings from Sketch Tuesday, an event at 111 Minna. I've participated in it about three times now and it is always a blast. Artists are invited to draw at tables set up in the middle of the room so viewers can see the whole artistic process as its being done. It was a bit unnerving the first time but once you get in the flow, the crowd has great energy. Normally I'm by myself, or maybe with my boyfriend making art so it was a step out of the average to approach art as performance.

Art

These are some of the pieces I made in the last year. I worked with quite a few concepts using animals to explore human ideas. The monkey is so close to us on the evolutionary chain that it can be difficult for me to look around my neighborhood (the tenderloin) without seeing the primal behaviors in humans.