Virtuality

I recently had the opportunity to curate some virtual spaces. These walls, art, lighting and furniture don't exist on a material dimension, but visually they do exist on my monitor. There is an increasing number of venues for this sort of "house playing" game (The Sims, Second Life, vSide, imvu, etc). It's been around for years now and is growing in popularity so it's not a new concept. What is new for me, however, is that I actually painted something in real-life with the sole purpose of hanging in a virtual home. You can place any art into virtual frames, so of course MY paintings are "hung" in my virtual dwelling. This picture shows my character (or avitar), Epiphany, sitting in front of Jessi Miller's art:







A good friend of mine who lives in the UK needed to decorate the apartment that lives in his computer. I planned for his space and created one horizontal painting, an abstract with a visible horizon of sorts. I then took a photo of it, brought it into photoshop and cut it into four squares. These four new digital paintings were brought into his virtual apartment and placed into large frames. What started out as one 24" x 8" painting ended up to be four pieces together equivalent to maybe 12' wide by 3' tall, or thereabouts. Here wer are hanging it, and there I am with it all together:











I shipped the real painting (titled "Virtuality" for virtual and reality) off to the UK and now it lives on my friend's real and virtual walls, simultaneously, in two different forms. Below is the original:





Whew! I can't wait to see where the next 10 years take us and how differently art will be expressed. Kind of opens the mind a little wider and turns it at an angle, doesn't it?

Reaction

"Colorful Friends," the show featuring my wonderful friend Stephen Gray-Blancette and myself, had its closing reception at Arts for ACT Gallery in Fort Myers last week. It was a blast! Of course, it was mix good friends, good art and cocktails!









It is a great venue for my art (and anyone's) – featuring brick walls, old wood floors, open spaces, good lighting and separate rooms to categorize art as well as funky retail space in the back. I thoroughly enjoyed seeing my art on display in such an area... and it was fun to see how compatible mine and Stephen's art is... many people who weren't familiar couldn't tell our work apart!










My favorite part about the show was seeing and hearing people's reactions to my art – and beyond that, talking to those interested patrons who eagerly asked questions. When I have a concept for a painting and then execute it, I honestly have no idea how anyone will react. Will they get it? Will they care? Does it look good? Does it convey the emotion that I intended? The answer to these questions, for the most part, is yes! If it is not immediately obvious, I see their faces light up as I explain in more depth everything that went into a painting. People not only get it, but they appreciate it! What could be better?

"Colorful Friends" Show Goes Out With a Bang

You are invited to attend a special VIP Reception for

Colorful Friends

featuring the art of
Stephen Gray-Blancett & Jessi Miller

Also on exhibit is "Eco Art" art made from recycled objects and created by local artists

Saturday, August 30th • 6:00 - 9:00 p.m.

Arts for ACT Gallery
2265 First Street
in the Historic River District in Downtown Fort Myers

It's the closing reception... last day of the show... join me if you can!

Documenting Life

A great part of my life is spent documenting things. I write, I paint, I take photos, I design ads and stories so that they are fit for public consumption. I blog, I write in diaries, both on the computer and in notebooks. I sketch things that I see in my dreams.

I find that as time goes by – and with the progress of technology – that this documentation is increasing. I love going to AdFed conferences, where everyone is whipping out their cameras to take pictures of almost anything. If we're not taking pictures, we're having someone else take our picture in front of something or with someone.

I will be doing a project called 24/7 this coming weekend. A friend and AdFed colleague (founder of AD3), Jim Clark, came up with this brilliant idea as we were running around Atlanta taking photos of what-the-hell-ever. We will choose a day, any 24-hour period, and both take whatever photos we want as we go about our lives normally. Now, I have to say, this is something that I'm excited about! How fun!

What is this innate need we have? Does it correspond to our love and preservation of history? Do we want every single event in our lives put on record for others to view or read about in the future? Is it our need for significance? I bet everyone has a good book in them, directly taken from their life... or at least everyone probably thinks they do.

Sting is one of my favorite musicians ever. I bought his book "Broken Music" and got about 1/4 or more into it before becoming too bored to continue. It's not all about the exciting part of his life, but rather school years. Maybe it will get better if I trudge ahead, but my point is that no matter how cool, famous, talented and interesting you are, does everyone really want to read about the minutia of your life? Probably not. Still, I continue to grow my obsession with documentation.

In the end I think that's why humans love the arts. Art is just a documentation of life, emotions, moments, messages, beauty, pain... all of it is just creative, expressive, documentation... and I am simply becoming more and more of an artist.

Visual Music

Music moves me. It moves everyone. It drives emotion in a movie, creates and then anchors memories, changes moods, invigorates a workout, soothes a bedtime, moves a body and a heart. Music also makes me think, if the lyrics speak to me, and that's what my next series is based on.

I am going to illustrate music. A painting could be depict a whole song, or simply one line. I am starting with "The Tear," which comes from Jeff Buckley's song, Lover, You Should Have Come Over. Specifically, this line: "She's the tear that hangs inside my soul forever." I may do several lines from this song.

Another planned painting is of the song, The Beauty of Gray, by Live. In this song he sings, "This is not a black and white world. To be alive the colors must be swirled. And I believe that maybe some day we all learn to appreciate the beauty of gray." For this piece the subject will be in shades of gray, but I will not use any black or white paint. The background will be the colors that make up the grays.

I am looking forward to finding songs and lines from songs that move me enough to paint them!

Orlando Museum of Art 1st Thursdays Fun

What a fun show it was!

After picking up 15 of my paintings that had been on display in the City of Brooksville, I drove straight to the OMA to drop off "Kiss VI."


I spent the rest of the day in Orlando... lunching with AdFed "League of Presidents" (ha ha! fabulous people that either were, are, or will be club President). Larry, Wagner and Cheryl hosted a great downtown lunch. I then shopped for a blue dress to wear to Ocala's 2008 Creative Blues Addy Awards Gala. Success on all accounts.

I met my friends Shonna and Kim at our hotel, we changed and went to the museum for the show. Arriving right on time, there was no parking to be found for blocks... a good sign!


The show was packed, hundreds and hundreds of people... maybe 300, hard to tell because of all the comings and goings. [Late edit here, I found out there were 894 people there!! so much for my estimate of 300!]

My painting had great placement, seen from most of the main areas. It also had great lighting! I admit I might be spoiled by museum lighting now, it definitely beats how my work looks standing up against the wall at my house. I enjoyed watching people go up to it and gesture, talk and linger. I heard several positive comments about my quote, "There is a perfect second in every kiss." which was in my Artist's Statement.


The evening was great fun, I saw old friends, new friends, rarely seen friends, and met new friends... drank, ate, listened to good music, went through the entire museum and saw lots of modern art, had an overall wonderful time.

Kim, Jessi and Shonna... friends since we were 14.

Cheryl and Jessi

Barbara, Jessi and Cheryl

Kim, Letty and Shonna

Kiss Number Nine

It's good to know that my favorite paintings of mine are the ones I finish last, meaning, they're getting better... or at least they're evolving with me. "Kiss IX," which I finished just in time to submit to the Orlando Museum of Art's WOMAN themed "1st Thursdays" exhibit, depicts a man lovingly kissing his wife's pregnant belly. The kiss series is moving right along, there are only a couple more that I need to do. Of course, I might not stop with those, kisses are such a great subject matter, I have enjoyed painting them very much!

What was really fun for me was the beautiful subjects. Look at her face, it is so beautiful, her lines are just begging to be painted! This is the under-drawing, where she looks like DaVinci might be starting a drawing of her.

I am definitely having this couple model for me again... and I have paired the perfect idea which has been brewing for a long time now with them. I want to illustrate Jeff Buckley's song, "Lover, you should have come over." I have seven paintings concepted – and am truly looking forward to getting these beautiful models into the brooding, emotional and intensely passionate song.

Over and out for now. Happy and peaceful January to all.

Family

The intro page on my website reads: "Her work centers around loving relationships and the beauty in simple moments." Sometimes I think I will make a departure from that theme, but it has yet to happen. Planned or not, it sums up the subject matter that appeals to me.

I finished "Family at Fence" which I posted the under-sketch to yesterday. I am now working on "Penguin Family." Here are those two pieces:




I tend to work in series/themes, and while I am not aiming for a family theme, it really must represent "loving relationships and the beauty in simple moments." My past animal paintings, or "The Nurturing" series of 3 plus the "M is for Manatee" all depict families. The question comes to my mind, "what is NOT family?" My good friends are like family to me. In loving relationships, dating or the like, it's almost like people are as family even if for a short time. I don't know a lot of my blood-family very well, which makes them more distant than many of my friends.

At the risk of sounding cliché or trite, I would go as far as to say that we are ALL family... just some of us are closer than others. Recently I heard that the Bush family was traced back to the BinLaden family, with common blood-lines. I was dumbfounded for a moment before co-workers explained to me how if you go back several generations, you can link almost anyone together. We've only been around so long, right? I guess it makes sense.

Here's to one, big, happy earth-family! Peace, my brothers and sisters.

Art for who's sake?

Today in the art department at my day job, a talented graphic designer told us that in his class the other night, he told his students that fine art has no value. It is worthless. It does nothing for the world beyond providing an aesthetic. Graphic Design is what can move change, affect anyone, make anyone money, do anything.

Rumbles of protest broke out and we started naming artists who's art has messages or tells stories, and besides, wasn't it enough to bring someone pleasure, what about psychological value? Why buy anything decorative if it didn't add value to one's life?

"Almost no one creates art for art's sake any more" he added. This turned things to "commercial art, graphic design, fine art," and what those terms meant. Our Creative Director was of the opinion that an artist who paints to sell is a commercial artist. The aforementioned designer said that Thomas Kincade had fallen into that. Me, I believe that if an artist is selling their work, they are a "professional" artist because it becomes their profession, and that if the art is created to sell something else, then it is "commercial" art.

Names were thrown around from Michaelangelo to some current local artists and many in between. Storytellers, salespeople, artists, advertisers, designers... is any of it less art? I do agree that graphic design currently has more power to deliver a message than fine art, mostly because of the very nature of it... it is carried to the masses by the all-mighty media. Fine art is carried to a living room.

I brought up the gators, since I had felt like they were a bit of a "sell-out" before. They're not, but admittedly I chose the colors to appeal to a specific audience. I did not choose the colors for me. Is that what art for art's sake is? For the artist? Hmmm... that seems rather self-serving. Art is art is art. Bad art is art. Commercial art is art. Movies are art. It's all expression, and it all speaks to someone. So it's communication – which though it is a rather commercial word – means it's people coming closer together.



I'm painting "Family at Fence" tonight (under-drawing above). It's not part of a series, it's not in colors that will appeal to a particular market. I'm painting it as a tribute to families, an ode to togetherness, a portrait of love. Art for art's sake, for my sake, for the world's sake.

Honesty in art

I have a day job. I work at a magazine. It's publishing, but it's also advertising. My background is in advertising (for the past 16 years). So, as a painter, I find it a challenge to simply paint with honesty, because the "sell" gets in the way. When deciding what to paint next, I often think, "What will sell?" instead of simply painting what I want to paint. Honesty can be controversial and I live in a small-ish town that is on the conservative side. Personal honesty can be impertinent to the trends and therefore ineffective as a product. Meaning: sometimes what goes on in my mind, no one would really care about anyway.

I'm painting gators right now. I live in central Florida, so this makes a lot of sense. I'm painting them orange and blue, which also makes sense given that none of my painting have realistic color. I prefer to transcend reality or racial specificity by using bold, emotional colors instead. I wonder, though, if I would have chosen gators to paint next had I not been planning to show and sell locally. Does that make me a sell-out? Is that dishonest? I really do love my reference of the gators, I shot it a couple of years ago and think it's a fabulous photo. I just don't know.

I am also writing a book (yeah, in my spare time). Honesty in writing is even more challenging, but not because of the sell-factor, because of the bearing-my-soul-factor. I know that the more honestly I write the more interesting, shocking, identifiable the story is... the more emotional and touching it is. It's almost like I have to write as if no one will ever read it, and then deal with showing it later.

Getting that honest emotion into painting, though, while branding myself as an artist, is difficult. How to meld the marketer that I am with the artist that I am, that's the hurdle. For now my answer seems to be - paint what I want AND paint what I think will sell. Not one or the other. Then, let the chips fall where they may.