this painting has spawned one more piece. i'm currently working on a Robert Rauschenberg-inspired piece for the Art From The Heart group. And i'm hung up on this theme. Since Mr. Rauschenberg liked to do what he called "combines", basicially mixed media collages, i'm using this painting as well as news clips and photos of the more recent horrific stories currently coming out of Iran.

artist statement

I've asked the question about writing an artist statement on a few of my favorite NINGs before. I don't remember getting that detailed an answer. But in skimming to blogs over at Art From The Heart I saw someone else asking the same. They got a very detailed set of questions.



1.Why do you create art?

2. How does creating art make you feel?

3. what emotions do you want delivered threw your art?

4. who inspires you and how is this reflected in your art?

5. What message are you trying to bring to the viewer?

6. how much time do you spend on your art work?

7. how is your work a reflection of you?

8. What is your vision or philosophy?



Most of them, yeah, I think they'd make a great part of an artist statement. Not sure about question number 6. I don't think that matters. But the rest are good and I plan on answering them. Umm, eventually. :)

My obsession with "The Vote" and my current WIP

Turning 18 is a symbol of freedom for lots of people. For some it's marked with drinking in excess. Or getting a license. Or graduating and moving out on their own. For me? The day I turned 18 the first thing I did was register to vote.

I don't consider myself to be terribly politically minded. I don't know Who's Who in the world politics and most state, local and national politics just leave me feeling rather sad. But I've always, no matter what country I was living in, made it a point to vote.

I don't vote uninformed. Election time may be the only time I pay close attention to the politics around me but I do know who I'm voting for and why I'm voting for them. My political leanings are very different from my family and friends but they are solid and grounded.

Maybe this is why I'm obsessed with the current situation in Iran. The people were given the right to vote. The people of Iran turned out in record numbers. And then their vote was not counted. Where is the logic in that? The issue to me isn't whether or not the person legally voted in would be better or worse for the outside world. The issue is the individual right of the Iranian people. Is their "Right To Vote" real? Imaginary? Is it a farce so that nation's leaders can wave the "Look at us! Our people are free and have the right of personal choice" flag?

What happens when I become obsessed with a subject? I read about it constantly. I want to learn all I can about it. And then? I paint it.

This is only a WIP. Much, much work to go (though I hope I finish while the issue is still relevant.). The green sign to the right of my painting is the text I wish to add to her veil. I might add both the Farsi and the English. Or I may add only the Farsi. And the hands I wish to add at the bottom below her veil, if there's room and it works with the composition.

AFP

I should state that this is ~inspired by~ Amanda Palmer. It doesn't look much like her. Well, maybe when you take into consideration my highly-stylized way of doing portraits. But I still really like this painting. It was very fun to do though it took me eons to complete. I was really scared of messing it up cos I liked what was happening so much.

But I think I did ok. :) As far as paintings go, I think it's one of my favorites of my own work.

the purpose of a blog?

It's been a dream of mine to set up an actual website for quite some time. I've used this blog for a while as a website replacement. I haven't spoken very often here. I've mostly just posted pictures of my art work. It has it's advantages. It's very easy to post here. It doesn't take much if any maintenance. But it has one major disadvantage... a disadvantage "to me" anyways. And that is organization.

Let me start up front by stating I am NOT a neat person. I'm organized. It's completely different. Things should have their place, usually grouped by like-kind, color, subject matter, etc. But that placement might not be neat and clean. The problem with posting art on a blog is I'm not able to group by like-kind.

And then my OCD starts to twitch.

So to me a website is a great solution. I can have a page for paintings, a page for clay sculptors, a page for mixed media, etc, etc. But then what to do with this blog? I'm going on 3 years here. I'm not thrilled about dumping it all.

So I thunk on it. And thunk. And thunk some more. And decided the blog would be about ~process~. It's a place to post WIP while I'm working out the bugs. It's a place to brainstorm ideas for future works (the ~original~ purpose of my twitter).

So this is one of my first posts to include ACTUAL WORDS.

Let's see what happens.

Wheel of Misfortune