It's Your Turn Now

Francis on the left, Bridgette on the right. But which came first?

I feel like I have so much to say about the collaborative exhibition, Your Turn, that Francis and I just took down today from the Blue Sky Gallery.  I don't want to regurgitate the press release here, you can check our actual Your Turn blog for that!  But I do want to reflect a bit on the experience.

1) Collaboration was an unexpected joy.  When you are predisposed to gloomy internal narratives like me, the idea of working alongside your significant other is slightly terrifying.  To elaborate, we have a pretty solid home life, but some of the most intense arguments we've had have been about art (and Valentine's Day which is another story). Therefore, the idea of taking aesthetics, something we both have strong individual-type feelings about and trying to come to consensus seemed daunting - like someone could be sleeping on the couch at some point during the exercise. The experience, however, was extremely productive and it was easy to slip into a working routine with Francis. Which really, duh!  We work together on stuff all the time, I don't know what I was so nervous about.

2) Having ownership over our own individual works in the show helped make the process of working together positive.  In some ways, this feels like a cop out, maybe?  That we both used each other as inspiration, but didn't actually physically work on the same pieces together (except Lost Horizons).  But this way of working did allow us to each exercise some control over what we would be putting out in the world.

3) Francis is really good at framing up interesting compositions. Painting from his photographs gave me the freedom to not have to laboriously build up an armature to hang my composition on, as generally seems to be part of my painting process.  It was so refreshing, and interestingly made me feel able to stop early on if I liked the results of a few brushstrokes. I am generally able to get this kind of freshness in a drawing, but have trouble striking that balance in a painting, because they just seem weighted differently. But why do they need to be? I think it's my own hang up, and maybe also a parsimonious relation to resources as well. If I'm going to pay for a big canvas, then I bloody well better get to paint a whole bunch all over it.

 
4) And last but not least, Charmaine roller skated!!!
The Future of Art Viewing by Issa Randall, starring Charmaine Griffith

Hairy Armpit waves goodbye! detail, Hairy Armpit, oil on panel, 10" x 10"

all photographs by Francis!

Mistakes and Repurposing

I've had ups and downs in my studio - some spectacular failures, some quiet ones that didn't reveal themselves till a few years down the road (those are the worst because then you feel like a bit of a fool).  I've made work that is out of step with the zeitgeist, received copious rejection letters; it's all a little painful when you're a consummate people-pleaser like me.

I'm not really sure how other people fare.  We don't seem to often lift up our shirts and compare the thousands of tiny scratches.  Maybe other artists don't suffer those little cuts as much as I do, or maybe it just doesn't make professional sense to be constantly revealing your soft pink underbelly.  I find myself wanting to distance myself from those feelings even as I write this.

Like any good story about weakness and failure, this one has a redemptive ending.  

Twelve Little Mistakes, 2012, oil on canvas, 34" x 46"

Twelve Little Mistakes is in the 56th Mid-States Art Exhibition at the Evansville Art Museum in Evansville, Indiana.  The juror for the exhibition is Peter Plagens - one of my most favorite painting / art critic / curmudgeons ever. It was his involvement that made me want to submit for the show. Cherry on top?  Mistakes won an award!

This work was born out of disgust with a series of paintings and I like that it has a second life as an illustration of frustration.

Distillations

Magic Beans, aka my ode to Easter candy will be on view!

I was trolling around on the CAA website, opportunities listings (that's a fun Friday night in our household) and came across an exhibition op that looked promising.    Abstraction - check, painting - check, artists in the Midwest, including Ohio - check.  Wait a second, where is this place? Downtown Dayton? What? 

So anyway, that's how I found out about Distillations a show of contemporary abstractions, at Tejas Gallery that is attached to K-12.   I love the name of the gallery, especially since I have a soft spot for the years I spent in Texas.  I always have to do a double take and remind myself, that indeed this gallery is right down on Third Street and not someplace back where I came from.

I talked to Rebecca Sargent, the Tejas Exhibitions & Programming Coordinator when I went to drop off my work.  She admitted that the show was painting heavy, now I seriously can't wait to see it!

Check out the May exhibition at Tejas: Distillations: contemporary abstractions. Opening reception: First Friday, May 4, 6-10 pm.

Violent Peach

Francis took this photograph while documenting some of the room arrangements for Pot Luck.

This was by far the most eerie image of the bunch!

I love this violently peach room at the High Street Gallery.  The color is strangely acidic for what is considered a traditionally sweet hue.  The room is also fairly small, so it feels enveloping when you walk into that much vibrating peach.

There is something William Eggelston-esque about the color interplay and the areas where you can see the paint has been patched.  In this photograph, the room itself has an down-beat institutional feel with the linoleum floors and the small details of grate, wall socket, smoke detector and can light.

The fact that the floor is tilted to a slight degree adds to the vertigo (although that could have something to do with the glowing crazy painting on the wall too).

All in all, I love this photograph. Thank you Francis for the strange and perfect documentation.

POT LUCK

I feel incredibly fortunate to have crossed paths with Jessica Roller and Michelle Blades - two amazing artist friends in the Dayton / Cincinnati area.  Jessica harbors a love of Modernism that I share, and Michelle and I clicked immediately while installing our two-person show Cavort (which Jessica coordinated) in Yellow Springs last spring.  

So, it is with great excitement that I announce our upcoming group exhibition called Pot Luck - a title coined by Michelle to help convey the post-holiday free-for-all this experience is sure to become.

The reception which will be held at 48 High Street, will have a pot luck theme.  I'm bringing pigs-in-a-blanket.  Any intrepid viewers out there that want to bring something to share are more than welcome.

Gallery 510

Just in time for the holidays!  Loretta Puncer of Gallery 510 is displaying three works from the Candy Store Grid, in new fresh white floater frames.  Head down to the Oregon District and check them out!

Faculty Show 2011

Fall is upon us, and that means it's time for the Sinclair Fall Faculty Show.  This year I decided to keep it simple and show some paintings.  I've really felt like committing to painting lately (although sometimes it feels like a scary commitment).  Both pieces are looking their best under the bright lights of the Triangle Gallery.

Traffic and Francis Dance, Triangle Gallery, Sinclair Community College

Francis Dance (diptych), 2011, water-soluble oil on canvas, 24" x 46"

Francis Dance, was shown in Cavort and I've posted the two separate parts of it on this blog.  I like it best as a diptych, however, as it's shown here. The original painting is the one on the left.  It was inspired by a dance Francis was doing (I think an imitation of the Swedish dancing demonstrated by the women of ABBA in their heyday) while wearing his blue striped overalls.  The pink on black companion piece was done a couple of days later as a further exploration of the "dancer" motif.  Once finished they seemed to go together - it's nice to dance with a partner after all, and the flipped orientation helped them fit.

Traffic is my most recently resolved painting, inspired by the black on yellow traffic sign arrows that help you nudge in when going around a curve.

Traffic, 2011, water-soluble oil on canvas, 40" x 40"

Francis Dance detail

Okay two more...

Francis Dance (Pink), 2011

water-soluble oil on canvas

20" x 20"

Francis Dance (Red), 2011

water-soluble oil on canvas

24" x 24"

Yellow Springs!

Bricks, 2011

water-soluble oil on canvas

12" x 12"

Really looking forward to my two person exhibition with Michelle Blades (Michelle's work is delightfully disturbing) at the Yellow Springs Arts Council Gallery opening May 20th.  The space is really interesting with a beautiful tucked away garden and a crazy rounded wall.  

Here's a little sneak preview from me.

The Dinner Party

Got to see Judy Chicago's Dinner Party at the Brooklyn Museum this past weekend.  I've always considered it a little cheesy and overwrought.  Vagina plates!  Tapestries!  Triangles!  Oh my!

Seeing it in person, however, made me review my opinion.  It was really impacting to think of all the hours of hand work involved in the creation of the piece.  I also like that there was collaboration and a focus on female-associated crafts, weaving, ceramic painting, etc.  The stories about the notable women were interesting to read and reflect on, although mostly the place settings focus on white women from the Western tradition. 

I can see the validity of the critique that the work essentializes all these diverse and amazing women - boiling their contributions down to vaginal imagery... but I think it was an influence on my paint brush today. 

Pink Corners (better color)

Pink Corners, 2011

water-soluble oil on canvas

20" x 20"

New work

Stripe Flags, 2011
water-soluble oil on canvas
20" x 20"











Particle, 2011
water-soluble oil on canvas
30" x 30"












Pink Corners, 2011
water-soluble oil on canvas
20" x 20"












Been working on some new paintings recently...explosions, pinball, clouds, physics, and lots of stripes.

Heathcliff it's me, Cathy

Wuthering, Wuthering, Wuthering Heights
water-soluble oil on canvas, 2010
40" x 40"








Wuthering, Wuthering, Wuthering Heights got a shout out on an all things Brontë blog. They are correct in the assumption that the piece is inspired by the incomparable Kate Bush. She would be amazing even without the mime-dancing.




Of course I love the gothic novel by Emily Bronte as well. Tragic romance is always good. Wuthering is a Yorkshire term for bad weather - fitting for the painting I think.