k-e-w-a-n-E-E!

I love going home. :)

It makes me happy. I love the scenery. I love the feeling I get driving on I-74, when, at some point past Champaign, it starts to look familiar. It starts to look like home.

I know, I know, I live in Indiana, another midwest farm state, shouldn't it all really just look the same? NO! It doesn't! There are subtle differences, the shading of the land, due to whatever's in the ground, the way the hills roll. Believe it or not, you actually subconsciously memorize the way the hills roll. In high school, my friend and I drove to the Quad Cities for the first time by ourselves. Usually this involves I-80. On the way back, we took I-74 by accident, and realized something was wrong because the hills didn't look right! It's something you just KNOW.

At some point southeast of Bloomington/Normal, before you get to Downs, there are like 300 windmills all in a bundle off on the horizon. I never noticed them before, they were out my right window, sometimes I'll look out to the left, but not often the right, so I have no idea how long they've been there. But to me, they were beautiful. Some were still, some were lazily turning, and there had to be enough to power the nearby city, I swear. I dunno, I was just in awe.

There are several pics that I've painted that came from home. Kentville Road, named for one of the two roads that goes to my grandma's town, Count Henry, the esteemed hog ruler of Kewanee, and Stark Co. Stimulus, which is what you see, driving north on Highway 78, near the Spoon River (which is actually still in Peoria County, but whatever, title still stands). Those were all painted in Indiana, but taken from memories (well, whatever is stronger than a memory, because it feels like part of my blood and being) of home and are usually painted in a fit of homesickness.

There are a lot of really cool people that have come out of Kewanee, and we all like to diseminate to the four corners of the planet, sometimes to see what's out there, and sometimes to survive not having to work in a factory or somesuch. Just in my work, I run into people that know of that town, through Good's or Hog Days or has a friend of a friend, or happens to be visiting Indy for a soccer tournament or something else completely random. It's a little town that gets around!

So I guess I'm proud to represent. :)

There are some windmills outside of Kewanee too. Well, by outside, I mean, you drive out on the Kentville, past Neponset, and keep driving til the little things become big things and there they are. I took a ton of photos, reference pieces for paintings, and some of the photos I'm just proud of and may just present as such. A wicked storm had just blown through, and could still be seen off in the distance, retreating, but still casting a neat dark blue background for these white windmills. Then I found a couple of cool old barns and a couple of gnarly old trees. I'd love to paint these, but am not sure if I could do them justice; their reality is just so cool; so I may just print off the photos for sale/display. The whole trip was pretty well exhausting, on the heels of so much other stuff, including night after night of bad weather, which equals madness at work. I haven't even had a chance to look at the photos on my computer yet, but they look pretty cool on my lil camera screen. I can't WAIT til I'm able to save up enough for a new camera. 3 or 4 megapixels just doesn't cut it much. :( Oh well, the ones I have can always be reference photos, and, next time I go home (HOG DAYS!!) I can always take more "high def" windmill, barn, and gnarly tree photos. They've been there a long time, and they'll still be there.

Next time: Coffee Shop, Cortex, and, hopefully, website updates!

Hip Sips Recap

Ok, a week later, FINALLY, the recap of Hip Sips.
Sorry that I've neglected the blog a bit, but I've been marathoning. Not literally a marathon--just running around between three states, trying to accomplish EVERYTHING: Work stuff, family stuff, art stuff, and I still probably have a good week to go through before I drop.

Anyway.

Hip Sips was...an interesting experience. It was my first outdoor art fair, and in my nerves, I forgot my camera to take pics of the booth set up. Boo. I also forgot all my easels for display, but hey! Nerves! But, it did all set up and work out just the way I wanted, so yay. I had a coworker help my by putting glue on the connectors and gluing them to some pvc pipes that, when I stuck on the vertical 5 ft. pipes, made 5 1/2 ft. panels that I lined the back of my booth with. There are some bugs that will need to be worked out before next time, such as connecting them to the tent and all that (I used duct tape, but I want it to look better). I made some, basically, big giant grey pillow cases to put over them and used mirror wire and some chain link fence connectors to hang art work along the panels. That worked REALLY well. I was really proud of how that all worked out.

The key to the planning was that I had to fit everything into my Toyota Yaris hatchback. The Yaris is kind of...itty bitty. Mine is one of the three cars in the work parking lot allowed to park in the sub compact spot in the lot. I had a 5 ft height maximum. The tent folded into a case that was 5 ft., the pvcs were no longer than that when disconnected, and the artwork was no bigger than 3 ft. x 4 ft. That entire thing was an intricate Jenga puzzle and it worked really well. Even on take-down, which occurred an hour early because a mondo ugly storm was rolling in. We rushed. I shut the last car door JUST as the first drop of rain fell. Success.

Sales? Not so success. Lotsa lookers, one lady swore she wanted my train tracks painting...but...she wanted to also spend all her money on wine. Eh. There were maybe 100 people there. The Wilson Winery people, especially Debbie Wilson, were really really nice and helpful. This was the first year for a, hopefully, annual event, and turnout showed it. Maybe next year word of mouth will spread a bit, and it won't be 90+ degrees with 90+ humidity and people will WANT to come out and have some wine. They had some good jazz bands! And, big time thanks to my friend, Tim Booker, for helping me set up and man the booth before he ran away to Ohio to get drunk. Thanks Booker! You survived the Boondocks (no, really, there was a billboard nearby directing people to tour the Boondocks Farms!)

In the meantime, one of the artists from Art & Soul by Phoebe Gallery, Debra Dragoo, set me up with Paige at Cortex, a hip hair salon in downtown Muncie, and I met with Paige yesterday after dropping some art off at Phoebe's. My work will now be on show at Cortex, I'll probably switch them out monthly, and all work will be for sale as well! So yeah, need a hair cut? Need a painting? Go to Cortex.

Next up, my trip home to Kewanee, a coffee shop, and windmills. Soon. I promise.

HIP SIPS!!!!

Ok we interrupt this scurrying about to bring you:

HIP SIPS!!!!

Saturday, June 12, (tomorrow) Wilson Wineries is hosting an art, jazz, and wine festival on their property... Entry tickets is $20 and it benefits the Randolph County Cancer Center. So see? It's a good thing! Wilson Wineries is near Modoc, Indiana, which, in turn, is, depending on which way you wish to go, south of Muncie or north of New Castle.

Art and Soul By Phoebe Gallery will have a booth there, with a sampling from my Muncie art buddies, and I'll have a booth as well!

My pal, Booker, is helping me man the booth, and I've been running around the last two days, making sure I've acquired everything I'm going to need tomorrow. I've got my art work strewn around my front room and all the hardware and structure ready to go as well. Here's the catch. I'm shipping the whole thing there, tent and art and all, via my two door, hatchback, Toyota Yaris. Everything has a five foot limit, if its longer than that, it's not fitting. I'm so taking a picture of how this is going down. It'll all fit. I swear. Here's hoping for sales, as then I won't have as much to haul back!

I've got the credit card thing worked out, I hope I actually have cell reception out there. I have a back up plan, but having reception will make it so much easier.

I still have to price the last bit in my portfolio, make a few more signs, and finish one last lil painting that is for sale, but is also the center piece of a magnet display. Besides mucho artwork, I'll have lil things for sale, like some bracelets I made up a while ago, and some beer bottle cap magnets. Figured that would go over pretty well at a wine festival. These aren't just Bud Light caps, either. Personally, I can't stand the taste of beer, but my boyfriend is quite the connoisseur of imported beers. Imported beers have nifty caps.

Oh yeah, and I have to put hangers on the newest art. I have three panels I have to sew covers for, and I'm hanging art from those, and hope to hang a few lighter pieces from the tent itself.

Did I mention scattered showers are predicted? I have tarps like nobody's business! It'll rain out there to be sure, but we'll keep working in the dry tent!

So yeah, come out to Modoc, help some cancer patients and buy some arts! And wine! And we have jazz!

Back to work...

Work Of Art

I just got done watching Bravo's new show, "Work Of Art--The Next Great Artist." Think Project Runway but switch paintings for clothes. In fact, it IS Project Runway with paintings instead of clothes. The format is pretty much the same, the rules are basically the same. A bunch of people are gathered in a studio, tasked to paint a picture correlating to the assign theme (this week was portraits of an assigned partner), they have a showing of the paintings, and afterwards, the top and the bottom artists are gathered together to discuss just why they were in the top and the bottom. Then someone is named winner and someone is named loser, and the loser is kicked off the island...I mean, studio.

I'm a late-comer to the whole Project Runway thing. It's a fun show to watch when there's a marathon on and I should be doing something else but I don't really want to and need an excuse. I like the challenges that the designers have to partake in, and its not cheesey like America's Next Top Model has become. Both of those shows, for me, the appeal is watching the process, watching these people stumble through the challenge they're given and then the reveal, when all their hard work is on display, for better or worse. Sometimes contestants look totally lost, and then their final product (dress, picture, whatever) is shown to be really neat. The catty-ness and infighting are definetly not the appeal to me at all (although my boyfriend cracks up at some of the critiques the judges give the designers on Runway).

My first impression of Work Of Art is pretty much positive. I'm in. I want to see who wins. It was cool for me to see these people race against time for something that, well, in the end, usually has to dry! I would sooo mess up my piece on the way to the gallery under the gun like that! Not to mention having to come up with something good constantly, and in a very short time constraint! I participated in the "Masterpiece in a Day" contest in my neighborhood last year, for the first time, and Damn! That felt like an art marathon and I was only half way happy with my work! I was so tired. These poor mooks are gonna be exhausted, physically and creatively, when they're done!

The Contestants: My money's on Abdi. I liked him. Maybe it was the nerd in me and the fact that he painted himself like some kind of superhero for his entry-piece for the show. He seemed the most real, without pretense, and I related to him and the opinions/feelings he voiced during the show. I like his work, and hope he makes it all the way. He's interesting and down to earth. He had real-world reasons for what he was doing and not all "this is the inner turmoil blah blah blah and if you don't get it, you're not cool enough" about his art. Go Team Abdi!

Nao: She needs to take a pill, calm down, and quit judging the other artists. And she needs to shut up and take the critique. She does not know all and I hope this close call humbled her a bit. I did like her barrett at the end of the show. Maybe some cool Fimo clay or something. If I had some Fimo clay, I might be moved to make one for myself...if she wasn't so holier than thou all the time. "I'm not responsible for how people see my art!" Geez.

Miles: This poor kid looks like he won't physically make it through the show! He won this week, but he looked like he was going to melt down first. He has OCD and its cool that the OCD set is getting represented, but I just hope the kid doesn't break before the last episode. Maybe he'll come out of this knowing better how to roll with the punches.

Erik: The new guy. He's the amatuer guy that doesn't know much about the world of art. Ok I get that. Hell, I'm practically there sometimes. I did like his quote about how the professional world does things just so, but the amatuer world doesn't know those rules and therefore knows no limits. hehehehe. But quit giving excuses. Ignorance isn't an excuse. Don't use your amatuer-ness as a crutch. It ain't cool and it'll get old fast.

I look forward to next Wednesday and yeah its a reality show and yeah it's cheap entertainment, and like Tyra Banks' models, its not like the winner of this thing is really gonna be the next Michaelangelo (or Remy just barked "Rembrandt!") but it'll get the general public thinking and maaaayyyybeee coming to HIP SIPS TO BUY SOME ART!!!!

Really subliminal there huh?
Ok enough screwing around by this artist and back to booth preps for Hip Sips!

Uncorked

Remember this one?

It has now become this one:

I've titled it "We Are All Americans" and I like it alot more than I did with that icky, pastel, sidewalk-chalk-that-puked background that I had given it before! Turquoise is way better. I like turquoise. I sat down last night and just FINISHED it. Practically started and finished it in one sitting, painting the edges this morning after the rest had dried overnight. When I'm on a roll, I guess I'm on a roll!

I free-handed the image with a brush (usually some pencil work is involved, but not this time!). I actually used my own arm and handing holding a flag as the 'model' for the painting, obviously exaggerating the colors and bone structure and stuff. I darkened the skintone as well. My arm was too pale for my point and currently has something that looks like New Jersey drawn on it in blue sharpie because one of my friends decided to play Connect-The-Dots with my freckles while I was working. Yeah.

This one is going to Phoebe's in July (and will also be for sale at Hip Sips this weekend!) and is part of the political thread of paintings I'm working on now, for that month's "theme." The title refers to the current immigration debate and, overall, the subject matter is drawn from my memories of the 2005 immigration rally we had here in Indianapolis.

I was working for the Spanish-language station then, so we had a front row seat to the rally, a march that would start at a downtown Catholic church, and wind its way to the City-County Building, Indianapolis' version of city hall. There's a big square to the south of the building, and we had a platform set up for a good view of the speaking podium so that we could take it live (even though most of our viewing audience seemed to be at the rally). We were all set up and ready to go and its nice and quiet and then... We begin to hear chants of "Sí se puede!" and a sea of 20,000 people, wearing white shirts and carrying American flags, flows from the street into the square. It was amazing. They swarmed in, chanted and rallied, and the leaders speechified. Some of the other stations had just pulled up on the street to get a few minutes of video and then boogie out, but the crowd filled the entire area; those trucks weren't going anywhere; and some of the people even tried to climb on top for a better view!

It was all a very peaceful demonstration, and, at risk of sounding like a hippy, there was a strong and welcome sense of togetherness. These people wanted to put on their best face for the rest of the city, as if to say "See? We're not out to get you, to undermine you, we ARE you." The crowd around our podium was almost more mesmerized by us than the speakers, and I probably could have had 200 people doing the Hokey Pokey if I had just asked.

I took that photo that day, and, I guess that's part of what inspired me to paint this picture. With all the rallies in all the cities that year, it would have been great if some legislation would have been passed at that time, as pay off for all that hard work. But nothing was, and it would be amazing to see that kind of action again. Hopefully, people aren't feeling too apathetic, defeated, or scared to speak up in those kind of numbers again.

First Thursday, New Works, and HIP SIPS!!!

Sorry I hadn't posted in a while.

Sometimes you feel like you want to paint. Sometimes, you have a really good idea in your head, and you're staring at the canvas, and you know exactly what you want to do, and it just doesn't want to happen. In that, you don't even want to pick up the brush. Kinda like wishing my eyes were some kind of laser printer and if I stared at it long enough, the image would just appear. Added to general business, that's how I've been feeling lately. I know what I WANT to paint, I'm just not feeling it.

I did finish two paintings and have a nice start on two more. I have two more canvases ready to go (little ones, to compliment one that's started), one I need to build and finish for a display at Hip Sips (more on that later) and two more blanks that are starting back at me.

Without further ado, here are the two finished:

The loose "theme" this month at Phoebe's is patriotic/political. I've been a bit pissed off, lately, about current events, so I decided to act on the political side of it. The first painting I've called "Lost Moon." It's the name of the original book Apollo 13 was based on. I love that movie. I'm sad we're not going back to the moon anytime soon, and it's a shame. This one is similar to that other moon painting I did, but with different colors and added clouds. It's spray paint and acrylic and reminds me of those nights when the moon is still rising and looks so large and golden colored in the sky.

The second one is tentatively called "The War." If I think of a name that fits better, I'll change it but for now, eh. It's VHS tape glued onto canvas, then spray painted, then little oil board stencil letters glued on. It says, "My generation had not seen war. You said we were soft. Happy now" I also just realized I forgot to put a question mark on the end...but there weren't any in the stencil package. I think I'll just paint one on in black. Anyway. It refers to alot of the talk nearly ten years ago, when we went to war in Iraq and Afghanistan. "Elders" on the tee-vee political shows were always discussing how this was my generation's war/Vietnam/Desert Storm/conflict du jour. They always remarked how, while my parents generation was so scarred by Vietnam, they still had it to strengthen them up, or prove they were men, or grow up, or whatever, just like our grandparents had WWII and Korea. My generation, Gen X/Millennials, had gotten off easy; how could we ever stomach such a test? Please. Now these wars have dragged on, while the rest of the country just kind of chirps along, and now the War in Afghanistan has been the longest lasting war this country has ever fought. All on the backs of Gen X/Millennials. Are we strong enough now for you? Or are we still selfish little pansies? Do we now have an excuse to wage wars for the next 50 years based on Millennial politics, just as the last 40 have been constant rehashing of Vietnam policies/fears/politics like the Boomers always have an excuse to do? Yeah.

These two are very obviously works in progress. They both have to do with the Arizona "Papers Please" law and all the insanity roped around that issue. I've also discovered I desperately need to buy more of that rich blue color of paint before I can finish the one on the left, or the two little ones that will accompany it. I gotta get on that. I have two weeks to finish them...but first...

HIP SIPS!!

Next Saturday, June 12, come on out to Modoc, Indiana, and see my booth! I've been graciously lent a tent by my coworker and friend, Gary Gallinger, and he helped glue some PVC pipes so that I could make some panels to hang my work from ('walls' for the tent). The whole event is at Wilson Winery, in Modoc, which is just south of Muncie, or just north of New Castle, if you prefer to drive out on I-70. There will be Jazz, Wine, and, of course, ART. So yeah, come get drunk, listen to some music, and buy my stuffs. :)

I've been hard at work preparing for the event. I have some stuff ready to go, work already done from the Eiteljorg event, but this one is outdoor, so there will be a whole other set of set-ups to accomplish. And I have to keep in mind that I'll be transporting the entire set up, work and all in a Toyota Yaris. It's a hatchback, and that sucker can haul, but I'm limited by a five foot packing height for everything. This will take some cleverness. I have a three day weekend leading up to the event, so I have much to do next 'weekend.' I'm excited and antsy and can't wait. All paintings that I have finished will be for sale at Wilson Winery, including any new ones that are 'meant' for Phoebe's. And *crossing fingers* I'll be able to accept credit cards! I've applied and have been accepted through this company that runs an app off my IPod, so as long as it actually works, and doesn't freeze up or something unforseen, Visa and Mastercards will be accepted. And checks. AND CASH. So yeah! Bring a friend!

Lastly, I wish I could post some pics from this month's First Thursday, but...I didn't make it. I got to the edge of the Indianapolis area, and felt like I was going to pass out while driving! I had to pull off to a parking lot and chill for a few minutes, and then turned around and went back home. I was really mad at 'myself' for not being able to see the gallery with my spraypaint art displayed, but I know when I'm beat. It wouldn't really do for me to be all scraggly looking and sickly and then try to sell art and stuff. I'm gonna try my hardest to make it up to Muncie before take downs so that I can see, but we'll see, with all the Hip Sips preps.

Ok this post is ungodly long. There will be more later this week about the Hip Sips preps, and those 'in process' works when they're finished!