Break Time! (Sorta)

Phew, that's over. FOR NOW (dramatic music).

I finally got everything up at Clowes. That includes the little signs that say "For prices and an artist statement, please see the information desk." Yup, all done. I'm so glad. I'm so tired.

It was a week of hard work and I think it paid off well. I've already gotten a ton of positive feedback and that always makes me smile. :D <- See? Big smile.

I delivered five works to Phoebe's this morning: "Pi," "Cone Zone," and three windmill photo prints. They're the pictures I actually took as reference pics for the windmill paintings. I thought they would look good printed out, and of course framed in brightly painted frames. I'm very happy with them. "Pi" has always been underappreciated, I feel, to the point that at one point it was stored backwards, because a friend was frightened of it. I like it and I'm glad it's going to hang at Phoebe's. Neither "Pi" nor "Cone Zone" fit at Clowes, but hey, that's not the only wall they can hang on! Sometimes, when hanging a show, I learned, there's always some editing going on. (I actually learned that on Work of Art on the Bravo channel: One of the artists had that as her criticism for her final show. By the way, I was right: Abdi won. I'm so happy for him, he seemed so much more real than the others). Anyway, there's no reason to force something in art that isn't already there.

I have an idea for what I'm going to paint for Masterpiece In A Day, and just found out that my vacation day cleared (I usually work Saturdays), so this year I'll be able to participate the whole day (last year I cut it short to go to work) AND attend the art parade! Yay! Last year, I did watercolors, and this year, I'm definetly doing acrylic. If my idea comes out remotely like its looking in my head, I'll be happy. I'm really happy right now with how it looks in my head.

Unfortunately, I'm spent. I have no idea what I'm going to do for October at Phoebe's and need to figure out what comes next. I'm on vacation for Labor Day, and will have the chance to go back home, see my family, and see the familiar sights. Hopefully, this will recharge my battery so that I can come back with some more art awesomes. We'll see.

Good news: My art was on tee vee! A photog friend had to shoot a story at Butler University, about their incoming freshman class size and the welcome back weekend. He had to interview a member of the university. He asked the photog where he would like to do the interview and the photog answers, "Well, how about Clowes Hall." He then puts the university official right in front of my work. Interestingly, the piece to the left of the shot, "Rocket Corn," is based off of a photo taken last harvest by this same photog friend. I had asked him for some corn reference photos and this was one of them. Yay for free, subtle publicity!

And now, a collection of my newest pieces:

We have, from left to right, "Prayer," "Vigil," and "Coronal Mass Ejection."

The first two are based off of shots I took while shooting a story of a National Night Out vigil. This year's vigil happened to be scheduled the night after 8 people were shot at a birthday party. Two people died, the other 6 are recovering. The police say they've arrested the shooters, so we'll see what comes of it. At the vigil, I noticed several people holding hands. In fact, when I was editing the story, I realized how many hand-holding shots I had, and made that the editing "theme." The man in the hat was a man that was praying and holding his hand into the air. I crouched on the ground and tilted the camera up to his face and thought it was a very cool shot.

The third painting is on plywood and is another take on the moon. Yes, that black circle in the middle is the moon. It doesn't have nearly as much texture to it as the previous moons, but I think it fits well enought. It's based off a simulation that was shown on the Science Channel, in a documentary about solar eclipses. That red stuff coming out from behind the moon is the coronal mass ejections, AKA the solar flare stuff, that is easily visible during a complete solar eclipse. It struck a cord in my head and I had to paint it. Once again, the background, including the CME, is painted in aerosol, and the moon is acrylic. It looks really more cool in person, I couldn't get it to photograph right.

Last thing: I'll be adding a new feature to the site, or, rather, my web guru friend, John will be: A page that contains event shots, publicity type shots and such. It's not the gallery section, but a place to put all the smiley, happy photos taken during events that my art has been featured at. A photo album of sorts. Yay.

Next time: Progress reports, the inner workings of the site, and more new art!