Joy Hernandez Art

I'm Featured Artist For March! Woo hoo!

2012-03-02T14:12:00.000-05:00

This March is off to a great start!

I'm the Featured Artist this month at the Art Bank, and I've been working my tail off to get everything ready. The subjects of my show are my "Mee-Ba" paintings, calling the show "Mee-ba.0" I've gotten a lot of great feedback on them over the years, so I figured I'd stick with what I know for my first Indianapolis Feature.

Last night, Thursday, was my Preview Show. We had a great crowd and I'd like to give a shout to the "Lawless Clan," and all that they encompass for being there and being great friends. We had 60's surf/pop music provided by my friend, DJ Allan Dare (who did a great job of interpreting my musical requests: "I'd like something 60's, Beach Boys-like, and red and gold on a synesthetic level.") We were bopping around to the happy tunes and Kathleen, the Book Nook's "Book Mama," took a trip down memory lane. Awesome.

I got a chance to test out my Square card reader, that rocked. It was just so simple! And the transactions were all processed by the time I woke up this morning! It was a Christmas giftie and I'm grateful for it.

Mixed Media and Jewelry Artist Moon Stumpp was there and helped me out every step of the way. I'll admit, I was feeling a bit overwhelmed with this Feature month. I didn't know what I was in for, or wasn't really sure if I knew, and I wanted to do it right, like a good first impression, of sorts. Moon was great, with advice and PR, and gave me some great ideas to branch out with, such as my "Wee Paintings," little 5in. x 7 in. watercolor and ink paintings or 8 in. x 10 in. canvas paintings in a spinning rack. I painted nearly 50 of those things, to fill the rack, and won't be painting more for a bit, until those sell, mostly because I've never painted 50 of ANYTHING and I desperately want to paint SOMETHING ELSE. They were fun to paint though, like a feeling of freedom with how loose I could make them. But yeah, something else for now.

I was on IndyStyle on WISH, Thursday morning, and I brought Remy with, for mostly moral support. I'd never been in front of the camera and that had me pretty nervous. It was the kind of nervous that you file in the back of your mind because you've had so much to do earlier in the week, that you didn't really have time to dwell on how nervous you were. But, I DVR'd the episode, and watched it when I got home, and I didn't totally suck! I'm actually kind of proud of myself. I didn't freeze, talking to people on First Fridays really really helped there, and I didn't do any weird nervous tics or anything. Remy behaved herself and even spoke up once, as if on cue! I'd wanted her to paint some lil paintings of her own (she used to do it!), partly for the interest and partly to help fill that "Wee Paintings" rack, but she wouldn't (she wanted to roll over instead), so we just moved on. She's hosting her own doggie-friendly event at the Art Bank on March 15th, so she had relevance being there too.

The Art Bank: wishtv.com

I feel like I'm in a good place for First Friday, as long as the weather doesn't get too nutty (we had some nice hail earlier--to wake me up-- and they're giving tornado watches/warnings for the afternoon). But it's nicely warm out, so I'm hoping we have a good turnout. In any case, I'm prepared. I know what to do in case of a tornado, and I made some killer dip (thank you Artist Within for showing me how to make that dip last March!) to feed to the people that come out if the weather's nice! Oh yeah! AND I finished 2 new paintings that are currently on display: "Two Stickers On A Wall" and "Mee-ba 11.0." "Two Stickers" can be seen in the background of that IndyStyle video, but I'll have an official pic of both soon.

And hey! 10% of all of my sales for the month of March will be donated to FACE Low Cost Spay & Neuter Clinic in Indianapolis, so be brave, come the Art Bank, buy some art and help a furry friend!

Remy says, "Please?"

Walldogs Comes To Kewanee!

2012-02-22T02:19:00.002-05:00

I can’t wait for July of 2013.

And that’s still a year and a half away.

In July, 2013, the organization, Walldogs, will be coming toKewanee! Walldogs started up inPontiac, Illinois, in an effort to boost tourism to Pontiac. They paintedmurals all over the historic downtown, sometimes repairing faded “ghost signs”(faded previously painted, old-timey advertisements), sometimes creating newmurals featuring hallmarks of the town, in that old-timey style. Now, Pontiac hosts a mural festival everyyear and Walldogs have taken their show on the road.

And Kewanee already has a great downtown. All it needs is afresh coat of paint!

I see it like this: There is only so much of themanufacturing and farming pie to go around in Northwestern Illinois. Really,there’s no real artistic hub in the area, so no one’s fighting for that pie.Why can’t Kewanee take it? We’re already a pretty eclectic, eccentric place tobe. Residents really don’t see it, until you move away, tell people of yourhometown, they cock their heads to the side and ask, “really?” And you have noother answer but yes. Yes, our mayor punched Santa Claus (and no, I don't know how I found that article in the Orlando Sentinel of all places). Yes, Deer Man is alocal legend/graffiti artist. Yes, we make boilers that are all over the world.Yes, we apparently had our very own stunt family, the Cole's (I just found thatout). We’re also home to random famous folks, like realism painter RichardEstes, and we should be proud of that! So let’s paint it on a wall!

I’ve become involved in the Kewanee Walldogs movement, fromafar, using my mommy as my meeting proxy (thanks Mom!). I’m thrilled, I really am. There’s a town inIndiana, Nashville, that has made itself the regional artsy-craftsy hub and hasdone well with it. There’s no reason Kewanee can’t do that too. We could have aFirst Fridays-type event, a once-a-month get together of artists, musicians andappreciators. We have the unique advantage of being able to draw from thePeoria area, as well as the Quad Cities, so if we think outside of our normalbounds, there is money and success to be had.

This will be good for Kewanee, a new spark to the town. Yes we have Hog Days, but we are more than that. Let’scelebrate the spirit of Kewanee, who we are and where we came from. As adisplaced Kewaneean, I know how much of that weird city has shaped me (mostlyfor the better), so c’mon! Let’s Make/Keep Kewanee Weird!

Click here to see a video of one of the Walldogs meetings!

If you want to know more, check out this article inthe Kewanee Star Courier, or this one--which is a nifty photo gallery of some of their previous work, or visit the Walldogs website, or shoot me an emailand I’ll give you the deets on the committee. We need you! And, oh yeah, I'll be posting updates, so c'mon!

Super Dooper Bowl Time!

2012-01-31T13:39:00.002-05:00

These last few weeks have been action packed. The Super Bowl has come to our turf. And to Turf, the IDADA Pavilion, and to the Art Bank. Because, you know, we're all in Indianapolis.

We've been spiffing up the Art Bank, and extended our hours. We're part of the arts tours going through town, starting at the Turf Pavilion, working its way up Mass Ave, down to a local Winery, down to the artsy district of Fountain Square and then back to the center of town. Repeat. We're also a warming station, providing cocoa and cookies, even though we have the very un-January climate right now of 55 degrees.

And this Friday is none other than First Friday to boot! I've been working on my display of my small stuff like a new 'cupcake' stand for my greeting cards, and I've created 'street-legal' postcards (just add stamp) and are now selling them for $1 each or 6 for $5 (basically just as much as a greeting cards, except they're not bundled). Like the greeting cards, they're images of all of my paintings, even the ones that have sold, so feel free to sift through them until you find the right one!

I hadn't touched pen and ink in a while, so I gave it a go for the Super Dooper Bowl too. For all of the East-Coasters packing downtown, I created some "suitcase-friendly" art, starting with some watercolor but the bread and butter of each piece comes from its pen and ink detail. They're 5 in. x 7 in., matted to 8 in. x 10 in. and sealed in a nice plastic sleeve, ready to go home with whoever would like one. Collectively, I'm calling them "Wee Paintings," and they're $10 each, across the board. I'll paint more as the initial batch find their forever homes, but I probably won't post photos of all of them, since they're small and numerous (although unique! No two are alike!).

And, one of the greatest flourishes to my display is a copy of Michael K. "The Artbook Guy" Corbin, titled Art For The People. I've added a bookmark to my copy indicating...a write-up of my first-ever show at the Greenwood Public Library (in Greenwood, Indiana). The book is basically about the accessibility of art and different ways people find to display and express art. There's even a poem of pies. Color pictures, tales from New York, to Chicago, to Miami, to Indy, and a nice photo of my painting, "This End Up." Check it out, if not to read a certain section (*wink wink*) then to read a really wonderful...Art Book.

For the people, by the people, let's bring art to everybody. And stop by the Art Bank and see all the cool stuff we have going on!

Commissions!!!

2012-01-31T02:29:00.000-05:00

I’ve been so crazy busy.

Not that I’m special or anything, I’m just explaining myabsence. I do want to stop starting posts with that thought, though.

I had a crush of commissions (like a murder of crows) tocomplete for the holiday season. I’m nearly finished, but at least now I havebreathing room!

The first finished, due to its Christmas present deadline,is this little puppy. Or, little puppies. It was commissioned by a friend, as agift for his aunt. This is a follow-upto his commission-gift-awesomeness of this one for his wife. This family likes yorkies. I’ve also foundout that yorkies are hard to paint, due to their beige and grey coloring, butI’m no longer as intimidated by them. Well, painting them. I got bit by ayorkie once.

My second commission that I’ve completed, I no longer havethe imagery to post. They werecourt-style sketches, but for a court case in the early 80’s! I was contractedto draw sketches, as if I was present (I was alive then, but my crayon work hasgotten better with age) for four scenes. The director/producer of the projecthad audio of the scenes, but no video to cover it. I’d done court sketchesbefore, in real life, on the spot, but this one required a phone call to my momto find out what color palette people wore then. And, yes, I made sure all therequired sideburns were in place.

My third commission was a custom framing job for a customerthat had recently bought a painting. He wanted me to frame in a 3-d manner (togive it depth) some sentimentally-valued papers that he had saved. Check! Done! Completed at the Art Bank toplay keep-away from dog hair. Thanks Remy.

My last official commission is so almost done, I can almosttaste it. I’m just waiting on the informational particulars. This one’s lookingpretty rad too, so I can’t wait to finish it.

I have one informal commission that I’ve been told to workon at my leisure, and, it sounds like I’m about to be working on yet anotherone. At first, all these commissions scared me quite a bit, but now I’m startingto like the work. So, anyone else?

Color Of The YEAR

2012-01-14T21:57:00.001-05:00

ANNOUNCING…. THE LATEST IN PANTONE!!!

The 2012 Pantone color has been declared. Please join us inwelcoming “Tangerine Tango.” Yes, folks, it’s a reddish-shade of orange. ORANGE. I love orange. Iblame my Kewanee High School roots on that one. Orange and Black, baby.You get conditioned to it.

I’m liking this. This means that soon you’ll be seeingeverything from clothing to toasters in Tangerine Tango. Pantone is a fashioncolor trend company. They look intotheir crystal balls and figure out what is going to be the ‘big’ color of thenext year. They actually come up with a whole palette. Tangerine Tango isjoined by the yellow-orange “Solar Power,” dark-lavender “Bellflower,” deepblue “Sodalite,” fushia-like “Cabaret,” light sage green “Margarita,” lightpink “Sweet Lilac,” aqua-like “Cockatoo,” dark brown “Driftwood,” and tan“Starfish” (even though the first image in my mind of a starfish, it’s thecolor of Tangerine Tango). Designersaround the world will look at these colors and start to produce all kinds ofmerchandise out of them. People will seethese as the must-have colors for items. You’ll wear them on shirts. You’llshop for college dorm supplies and cheap-plastic housewares in them. You’ll buydrapes in them.

I’m digging Tangerine Tango. I like it better than lastyear’s “Honeysuckle Pink.” I already work in Tangerine Tango. So remember: Thisyear, I’m not following the trend…the trend caught up to me! Oh yeah!

All The New Pretty Paintings

2011-11-26T13:11:00.001-05:00

I’ve been busy. No, really. I’ve decided to quit reviewing Work of Art. Why? Well, I just want toenjoy the show! I couldn’t just watch for the fun of it, because I was takingnotes! Anyway, there’s plenty of reviews online, and if you’re really hooked, goto Bravo on Wednesday nights, and get your fix. Same as me.

I’ve also been churning out the art. Yay! So settle in, thisis going to be a nice little post with lots of pictures.

First up, we have this guy: “Violent Green.” I’ve beenjokingly telling people that this is what happens if you don’t color in thelines. (I’ve also been encouraging random kindergarten teachers to hang this intheir classrooms. No luck so far. But it would drive up coloring grades). He’s acrylic all the way, with a nice splatterbackground. He’s also a take on similar crayon I drew back in the day. Muchlike the sunglass-sporting Easter Island Dudes, I wanted to revisit the ViolentGreen crayon and see if I could do one better. And who knows? Maybe there willbe other disturbed crayons down the road.

“Moo Too” is also a redux. I painted these cows, now, threetimes. The first time was in the same original piece with the Easter IslandDudes (they were hanging out in the background). Then I painted them as awatercolor-and-ink that is now hanging in little Noah Gallinger’s room (whatcan I say? Kid loves him some cows). But both of those were really small, so Iwanted to do an acrylic version, much larger.

Keeping in line with my recent love affair with spray paint,I submit “Verde” and “I, Cloud.” Bothwere acrylic on the background, with an aerosol stencil overlay. “Verde” is named as such, because it is aSpanish-style sacred heart. I mean, that’s pretty much it. I saw some on teeveeand wanted to paint one for kicks. I liked the colors, I wanted to be allbrush-strokey and have fun with it. I even painted a practice piece on somefoamcore that is now the inlay on my (non-functioning) fireplace. Instead oflogs, I have that. The name came from the BF; I wanted something non-obvious,he’s a fan of Kerouac and said that Kerouac said that love was green. SoVerde—Spanish for Green.

“I, Cloud” is an interpretation of a photo I took with myIPhone, sitting at a stop light, after a large rainstorm. I looked out thewindow, saw this awesome cloud (we were setting up for an awesome sunset) andall of these telephone poles and such, and shot the picture. OF COURSE I wantedto paint it. Initially, I thought I would just paint the black parts withacrylic and be all by-the-book, but I got bored of that idea. So why notstencil something semi-realistic? Sure! So there it is.

And then there are these guys: “Mee-bas 7.0, 8.0, 9.0, and10.0.” I had a request to paint somemore Mee-bas, especially for a show at a local Chik-Fil-A, and they’re fun todo, so I did it. I’m not sure how many more of these I’m going to do; so far,painting these TEN have been the most of any one thing I’ve ever painted. They’ll be up at the Southport Chik-Fil-A inIndianapolis through the first week of December, so get them now! While theylast!

Make It Pop!

2011-11-01T13:25:00.001-04:00

Episode 3 of Work of Art: The Next Great Artist was a little closer to art I'm used to: Pop Art. Whoo hoo!

The contestants started out by following a line of label-less cans through De Pury's auction house until they discovered...Simon and host China Chow standing under Andy Warhol's Cambell's Soup Can! Each artist was charged with making their own piece of pop art. To quote Simon: "Pop is bold; pop is brave; pop is sex; pop is life; pop is fun, pop is brash, pop is political...so Make it Pop!"

Young For The Win!

We finally get to see the artists rummaging through an actual art supply store and get a glimpse into their plans. Sucklord is going after Charlie Sheen. He plans to make bottles of Tigers Blood and a line of Wizard Dust products, packaging them like they're at a shop. Tewes is going to build the back end of a FedEx truck, changing the name to "FadEx" and tagging it with his own art. Sara J. is going after online dating with a series of 'webcam' photos, Sarah K. is going after the foreclosure crisis with some see through "Sorry, We're Closed" signs. Young is making a big billboard regarding Prop 8 (Sara J rolls her eyes: That's sooo overdone in California...) and people are encouraged to grafitti the back of it.

We do find out some interesting things about our contestants: Lola and Suck seem to be attracted to each other, although Sucklord fears that when his actual girlfriend sees this episode, she'll "cut his balls off." Kymia suffers from social anxiety disorder, after she discovered her father dead from a jet ski accident. Jazz Minh has "Bite Me" tattooed on the inside of her bottom lip (OUCH!). And Michelle's confidence is shaken after her early success, and she's showing it through her Coke can painting...uh oh...too derivative...

Leon's piece is cold. Ads don't make pop art.

We end up with Young, and Kymia (nude water bottle ad) in the top two, and Young takes it home! The judges loved the interactiveness of the piece, and its presence and spark of conversation.

Jazz Minh tries to defend her splatter.

In the bottom, we have Leon (glass collection of ads), Dusty (trash bin that says "How could you?" on the flap), Jazz Minh (two portraits of herself, one that Suck spilled paint on--but she likes it) and Michelle. But remember! Tonight is a double elimination! Michelle is instantly declared safe, she can leave. Her work was too pop, to Andy, not enough Michelle, but she'll live and learn. Dusty is declared safe, but told that he should have painted his bin a bright color (Side note: I told the BF when I first saw it that he should have painted it red. He rolled his eyes at me and asked why he should do that? Beige is the color of trash bins. I said that red would make it more...poppy.--no pun intended--and I was right!)

That means that Leon and Jazz Minh (the BF's favorite) are out. Jazz Minh's piece didn't SAY anything, and Leon needed to make his more personal, or as the judges put it: It was not a bad story to tell, just bad storytelling.

Next week: We get to see the artists interact with small children...which also means that Sucklord: Toy Artist will be interacting with small children...

Movement? Whatdya Mean Movement?

2011-10-25T13:18:00.001-04:00

Episode 2 of Work of Art: The Next Great Artist kicked off with mentor Simon de Pury charging into the artists' rooms, declaring "Wakey! Wakey" ...To which the BF yelled out "And come with me! Oui! Oui!" Hey. At least he's having fun with it.

The artists are lead to a park and given a quick demonstration of New York Parkour, basically a way of running and jumping around a park. I've always heard it called Free Running, but in any case, rock on exercise. The challenge this week is to create a work of art based on movement. The artists will be split into two teams, but they're only joined in theme; they'll each be creating their own piece. They were kind of arbitrarily split down the middle of where they were standing, so Team 1 was: Leon, Young, Jazz Minh, Katherine, Tewes, and Lola. Team 2 was Michelle, Sucklord, Bayete, Dusty, Sara J, Sara K, and Kymia.

They immediately split up and analyze the concept of movement. Team 2: Michelle wants to do something with poo. She likes the idea and claims pooping is movement. So Team 2 comes up with a concept of digestion; each artist takes on a different part, such as chewing, swallowing, digesting... yeah. Simon says yes, it IS movement, although very slow movement, but is it too complex? Are they thinking too much? No whammies! No whammies! EEEHHHT! Whammie.

Team 1 discusses movement in terms of migration, people moving from place to place. Jazz Minh starts doing handsprings while an artist takes photos for her, she wants to incorporate that into her painting. They all start wandering around the streets, picking up debris that they can incorporate into their art. Leon is really happy with a piece of glass he found. Katherine, AKA Guts Girl, comes up with a wonderful concept of...guts movement. You know, like digestion. Wrong team, honey! EEEHHHHTT Whammie.

Simon calls all of the artists together and gives them a stern talking-to. He points out that the pieces are supposed to have more to do with movement in the literal than in the abstract. Make stuff with boingy parts and springy parts and not contemplate bowels or herds. Take two!

Team 2 scraps digestion and goes with a park theme. Sucklord goes to Coney Island in his mind and makes a sculpture where you pull back on this stick and launch a fake rat into a jar. He paints "Flip the Rat" on the side and bam! Good to go. Dude actually surprised me this week. He actually had some good management skills. He commented from the get-go that they might be off course, but still kept on task. He was a pretty reasonable manager, and not nearly as potentially annoying this week. He was safe.

Michelle made a creepy wooden statue, with a large photo of a park hanging behind it, and it was to signify pervs in the park. It had a wooden dowel erection. And when you pulled certain weights under the...dowel, his hands rose up.

Dusty made a lonely teeter-totter. He made a giant cut-out of himself and sat it at the end of the teeter-totter. He misses his wife and kid. I hope that doesn't become an issue next week. I do like Dusty!

Team 1 decided to scrap migration and go with Circles. Everything had SOMETHING to do with circles. Bayete went out on the roof and spun around a bunch of times, pointing a video camera at himself, until he wanted to puke. He then looped the video into two side-by-side boxes and projected it on the wall of the gallery. And, after being in the bottom three last week: Bayete won! It was simple, not too thought out, and the judges liked it. It moved! (And I kind of liked him murmuring, "C'mon render...Render!" a phrase often murmured or yelled at my day job).

Tewes made something with a hose coiled around a bucket and a hand in a circle on the wall. The hand was supposed to spin but didn't. The judges weren't pleased. Lola made a ball out of shredded paper that just kind of sat there. Meh. Young touted his curator skills all the time and made a silvery flag with a circle sewn into it to symbolize Japan's flag and it flittered in the air, and said...something...about the earthquake there.

Speaking of nuclear disasters...Guts Girl had a complete meltdown. She wanted to fling guts at a plastic sheet, while video taping it. It had nothing to do with circles, she kind of lost it when the artists pointed that out. She didn't even want to do the video part, just have guts on plastic (again!) but the artists pointed out that was soooo last week and had nothing to do with circles. So she said that she would make her first-ever video, because looping video is kind of like a circle, right?

Wrong. It was a mess. The judges called her out on it, that, hey! We've seen this before! If Ugo was derivative of Keith Haring, Guts Girl was derivative of herself. She started doing some kind of weird sobby crying in front of the judges, explained in her commentary that she has Crohn's disease and that's her fascination with guts and blah blah and she's harder on herself than anyone and this crushes her and blah blah blah she went home. If you're on a contest show like this, and can't bust out of the same thing week after week, it's good you go home early. No matter how hard you tried when you filled plastic with dough and jelly and called it a small intestine. Sorry. Harsh. But I wasn't very impressed on week one, still not impressed in week two.

And next week, we're promised a double elimination! Oooooo...

Kitschy time!

2011-10-18T03:02:00.002-04:00

Alright, it's been nearly a week. Hey! Stuff got in the way! But...Wednesday marked the start of the second season of Work of Art: The Next Great Artist. Yay! No, really. I loved the first season. Think Project Runway, but with artists instead of fashion designers. The show, produced by Sarah Jessica Parker, gathers an eclectic group of artists, of various media, and has them compete against each other, week after week, challenge after challenge, for a nifty prize and a show at the Brooklyn Museum of Art. Last year, during Season One, I was rooting for a young artist, the likeable Abdi, for the win. And guess what? He one. Yay!

The first episode of Season Two was titled “Kitsch Me If You Can.” This was our introductory episode, with each artist submitting, prior to the show, a self-portrait that is hanging in the Brooklyn Museum of Art. Some of the more interesting ones included Arkansas art teacher Dusty’s crayons-stuck-to-the-wall rendition of this own face, and Chicagoland’s Young Sun’s photograph of himself standing naked with a slimy covering, with his dying parents (cancer) laying on hospital beds in the background (he said this was their last family portrait together…). He must be vying for this year’s Nao.

This year’s “Miles” is…The Sucklord. Yup. That’s what he calls himself. And if you call him by his real name, Morgan, as mentor Simon de Pury made the mistake, he will quickly emplore you to address him by his formal title. On the one hand, this guy is hilarious. He identifies with the nerd culture, making art out of disassembling Star Wars action figures—apparently is quite successful at it—and has quip after quip of never ending sarcasm. But…It borders on the pretentious. That’s one of the fun aspects of this show: Groaning at the super-pretentious artists, and appreciating the down-to-earth artists. That’s a big reason why I rooted so much for Abdi last year: He wasn’t that pretentious, he was a real guy. The Sucklord, well I’m glad he wasn’t eliminated this go-round, he’ll add a lot of humor to the show, but I don’t see him winning, and his antics may get old quick.

There was Chicago graffiti artist Tewes, who was amazed by the décor of their studio. He said he’d worked in abandon buildings, rooftops and …jail, so this was all very neato. He had a cool painting of a pink spray painted hand on a wall, in his body of work. But the trick here is that the challenges aren’t just geared to painters. Some artists are photographers, some are performance artists, some are, actually painters, but the challenges will often force people out of their comfort zone, such as the first one did for Tewes: He had to make a sculpture. With a cheesy cat.

For The Win!

Each artist was challenged to take a piece of ‘kitschy’ art and rework it into something more acceptable for a gallery. I’ve read many reviews where people were actually standing up for the artistic value of the kitschy style. And leave it to The Sucklord, he stood up for it. He loves crappy art! (He got a wizard painting, declaring it Gandalf and Lord of the Rings to be a religious experience).

There were several female artist with dark hair, they kind of blended together for me. Sara J tended to have a hang up on inner pain, and expressed it with watercolor paintings of a style I just usually refer to as “Nightmare Before Christmas.” Little big-headed people all weepy and…wah.

There was a woman who knew real pain, Michelle, who apparently was in a car vs. bike accident (she was on the bike) a few months before the show and had developed a new appreciation for life. She had an interesting technique of creating paper sculptures. Her kitschy piece was a wood carving of an eagle. She painted it grey, making it look like a tombstone and created a paper skeleton to lay at its base. She was the challenge winner.

This sent Ugo home.

Ugo was the evening’s looser. He went home. His work was declared too derivative of Keith Haring. And it was. It was also very red-on-red, and when he took the red back panel off the piece at the end of the show, leaving only the plexiglass with red…thingies…painted all over it, the judges looked like they felt they made a mistake. Almost. And Sucklord got into their sights for his lack of defense defense of sucky art. He and judge Jerry Saltz are going to get along great! (sarcasm).

Oh yeah and then there was the girl that creates art by creating guts sculptures. Yuck. And according to the season’s previews, she cries weird.

In the end, for this first episode, it comes down to the question of “Who do I root for?” It’s not so simple. I don’t have any immediate favorites like Abdi. I just had a good vibe on this guy. I’m kind of liking Leon, the deaf Malaysian guy, but I’d like to see more of his work so he’s not just a reality TV novelty. Tewes has a neat style, I only hope he’s versatile enough to make it. Other than that, Dusty does have some of that ‘good guy’ appeal, and his crayon thing was really cool. I quizzed the BF and he (really really enjoyed his first time watching the show!) picked Kymia (one of the brown-haired chicks that has yet to make herself more memorable to me), Leon, or Michelle, the challenge winner. He also likes Jazz Minh’s painting style, but also worries about her versatility. And, as he put it, he fears the judges are “too snooty for her stuff.” I guess that's a synopsis of what this show is about. Art...but for the masses (the BF describes himself as an art appreciator, but no artist. He especially marveled at the idea of being challenged to complete a certain project like the show requires. He said he could take on high-pressure work environments or video games, but never ever creativity on demand!)

Snooty versus regular folks. Kitschy versus gallery-ready. Ding! Ding! Ding! GO!

Noah

2011-10-06T13:40:00.000-04:00

This is Noah. And this is “Noah’s Farm.”

My first foray into baby nursery décor, I did this three-piece for the newborn son of my good friends, Gary and Sarah Gallinger. It was his “Welcome to Earth” present.

Gary is a farm kid, I believe he knew how to drive a tractor before driving a car, and, of course, is a fan of the green and yellow. Sarah has a background with the horsies, especially dapple ones (and I got to find out what a dapple-colored horsie looked like). So of course this kid was going to be spending his rooky years in a farm-themed nursery.

I designed the three to be tied together with the fence at the bottom, but yet be placed around the room as they fit, should the family ever move. Initially, this project was supposed to be a mural, but they and I decided on some canvas work, as a keepsake, as mobile art, and, as Gary likes to joke, an investment in Noah’s college education fund (heh, yeah right! I’m waiting for my art to still pay off MY college education!).

So in the end, we have here, a dapple pony with some li’l chickies peeping at her, two cow buddies, and a John Deere, put-putting away on a faraway field. Either little Noah is going to grow up loving farms and animals as much as his parents, or he’s going to be forever creeped out at animals staring at him. Either way, I had fun doing it, and the grown-ups like it, and there may be one more addition to this project (though not on a canvas!) in the future. By Christmas…If I start on it now….And given that Noah was born in March, I had been working on them before that, and only finished them when he was five months old…I better get cracking!

Masterpiece In A Day 2011

2011-09-28T12:53:00.001-04:00

Da-da-da-DAH!
It’s that time of the year again! It’s September! It’s the Fountain Square Art Fair, now known as Art Squared!

That also means…It’s time for Masterpiece In A Day.

I’m a fast painter. As long as I sit still long enough and just DO IT, I can get a lot of painting done. But the key there is the sitting still part. MIAD is an endurance test, by all measurements.

I like working with acrylics over oils precisely because they dry quickly. In the sun, on a nice 70-ish day, they dry very quickly. This is all very good, as I said, I paint fast. But…My attention span wavers, constantly. That’s why I’m not in Animation.

I always think about a painting for a while before a brush hits the canvas. I have a concept in my head. I have it mostly mapped out. I can “see” it before it’s even created. Then I compensate for the ‘short’ between my hand and my brain (nothing EVER turns out as I see it) and…Voila! The finished piece!

There’s been a lot of construction in the Fountain Square area all summer, extending the Cultural Trail that runs through downtown to the once-close-but-since-the-70’s-cut-off-from-downtown-by-the-interstate Fountain Square Arts District. The Trail will be a good thing…when it’s completed. This has been shown in previous districts. But it’s a tough trial for the local businesses. The project was supposed to be done in July but then they discovered a nice relic from Fountain Square’s connected-to-downtown-days: The iron remains of the train track that used to service the area, using the Fountain as a turnaround. Why no one already knew it was still there, buried under the pavement, I’ll never know. But they had to assess it for historical value, then rip it out, and continue constructing…and they have. They now say they’ll be done in December.

In the mean time, I get to see everyday one of the things I really really like to paint: Orange pylons! OF COURSE I’m going to paint a pylon for MIAD!

I took a picture of my subject that morning, after registering, since I didn’t want to actually sit in the construction zone to paint. Remy and I carried on our tradition of setting up shop outside of the Hero House comic shop by the Fountain and I started painting.

Remy, my dutiful assistant, assisted my by giving a puppy-face to passersby and collecting their affection. She’s a good helper. (Last year she participated, this year she declined).

I’m happy with my work; at one point, I was scratching my head and wondering why it doesn’t look right! Every now and then, it’s good to remember to stand up, step away, turn around, and look at the painting fresh. You’ll see where you’re going wrong, and be better able to fix it. I did that, as well as my high school art teacher’s trick of turning the canvas upside-down—this refreshes your brain by forcing it to look at the painting anew—and I labored on.

People came, commented, left, Remy got fussy, went home with the BF, I painted on. I finished just in time for the 3pm deadline: Five hours of continuous painting. Turned in my work and went home to rest: I was exhausted! Whoever thought it could be so tiring! (Oh wait, I did this last year…and the year before that!).

We capped off the day with Remy and I marching in the neighborhood art parade, Remy as the World War 1 Flying Ace, my holding her leash and holding her “Curse You, Red Baron!” sign. Then it was time for the results…

Ok I didn’t win this year either. But I really like my painting, and, while there are things to fix, I’m happy with how it turned out. I did get it selected to be shown in the October First Friday show at the Wheeler Arts Center (where we registered and were judged at), so that’s really cool too!

Yeah…I’ll do it next year. I’ve got until then to improve my endurance and quicken my pace!

What High School Art Did For Me.

2011-08-17T01:59:00.001-04:00

It's been a crazy week, with the 'day job,' but before it got all crazy, I got some cool news.
THIS appeared in my hometown paper, the Kewanee Star Courier.

I stand by it. I stand by my art teacher. And the best part would be the feedback I've gotten on Facebook and such regarding the article. Sounds like there are alot of us that stand by our art teachers.

Here's the crummy part. Art is elective. You know, it's the catch-all for those little weirdos that most likely won't amount to much. They're not so good at English or Math or Civics class. Who cares, really? I mean, you can't test paintbrush-wielding to get the school's marks up for No Child Left Behind, right? And, you'll never make anything of yourself wielding a brush anyway. Those creative gigs, meh. Real work is in accounting...or engineering...or whatever it is that leads people to get an MBA (I'm talking about you, Booker ;) ). So yeah, cut it. It's not worth anything. It's not teaching anything. It's just taking up resources, money and time that could be spent on scoring high on tests.

Uh, yeah. Here's what art gives us, even the least deft of the paintbrush-wielders. Art gives us creativity. Art helps us to think 'outside of the box.' Corporate-types love that phrase, right? That and synergy...and efforting. God, I hate that term. Anyway, you can't think outside of the box if all you've been taught is how to stay in the lines. Accountants have to come up with solutions...that requires creativity. Engineers have to come up with solutions and make diagrams and thoughts real. Not only is that creativity, but envisioning. And the MBA's? I don't know, but I'll sell them my art for their offices, if they know what they like, right? (HINT HINT).

And even better than deft-paintbrush-wielding skills, here's what I learned in art: I learned people management. I learned time management. I learned leadership and delegating. I learned strategizing. I learned negotiating. I learned how to make something out of nothing, be satisfied with my work, and then do it all over again. And I learned all of that from one teacher who trusted me to get my job done. I learned what it meant to do my job without micromanaging and to be trusted to accomplish that. That's a feeling many professionals never ever feel, let alone a high school student taking confidence from it.

Sure, I learned artistic principles. I learned about perspective, two-point, one-point (we touched on 3-point but only briefly, I still got it). In fact, 15 years later, and about 3 weeks ago, I recited and explained the concept of perspective and vanishing points and horizon lines to a coworker that...comes from a more word-based background than I do. I learned how to frame and compose a shot. That knowledge, something I picked up my freshman year in high school, has carried my through college and I use it every day in my professional career (read: my day job). I know if I just just a slight step this way, a smidge that way; my shot composition just improved tenfold. And I learned that so long ago, I do it instinctively now. Thank you Mrs. Blake.

There are alot of jobs in this world that go unnoticed. Jobs you encounter every day without really realizing that someone had to set out to learn it, so that you could enjoy the fruits of that work. My day job is one of them. People love to watch video, but few stop to think there was actually a person behind that lens. And that person not only learned the technical information required to operate the equipment (Math! Science!) but had to have an eye for it. An artistic eye. And that eye was nurtured by someone, probably an art teacher.

Many people preach the woes of this country. We're the best in the world!...Oh, wait, this other country is poised to beat us at ____. Wail! Wail! 50 years ago, a working section of our country set out to do what no other country had done before, and what no other country has (to date) accomplished since: Put a man on the moon. There was alot that went into that. They were creating technology out of thin air. There were designs made, schematics, concepts, that were then created into something, that was then put through tests, then put into use and then, next thing we knew, we were walking and talking on the moon (and playing golf). To make something out of nothing, to create an entire science with practically no precedent (like space suits and helmets), took creativity. They weren't all eggheads, they were artists. And we actually sent, probably without knowing it, an artist to the moon. Alan Bean. And with some pretty deft paintbrush-wielding, we get to experience what he felt and saw and his moment on another world. Art did that. Art and Science.

Budget cuts blah blah blah. You know what will get us ahead and keep us there? Creative thinking. Go hug an art teacher. For all you know, she may have taught thousands of kids in a nearly 4 decade career (and, as in the case of my teacher, will continue to do so part time) and instilled in us a creativity that's priceless and an outlook on the world that will carry us through life, and skills we never knew we'd use so much.

Thank you, Mrs. Blake, from your All-Stars everywhere.

PS And thank you Dave Clarke for the excellent write-up! K-e-w-a-n-EE!! :)

The Aviator Has Friends!

2011-08-05T17:32:00.000-04:00

Remember this guy? He now has some friends.

I kept going with my “cut stencils and spray paint” technique and churned out three more.

The first finished is “Autopilot.” I have a confession to make. I love zany robots. The low-fi goofy kitchy ones are the best. And this guy is right in there with them. I think he’s getting a bit of an energy overload, by the look on his face, but I’m happy with him. He’s just a cool robot!

The next was “AM Radio.” No, that’s not a teevee. That’s a radio! Really! It only has one antenna! I was kinda going for an old school radio, but I am happy with how it turned out. Those cross-hatch marks on the yellow part? That means it’s a speaker!

And the third is “Gone Pie.” Its…a cherry pie. Ta-da! This one offered a new challenge. I liked how the pie came out, but it was missing something. After staring at it for a bit, I realized that those black “ta-da” lines were lacking something. Like there was too much of them and not enough pie. I had a scale problem. So I actually cut this one off it’s original frame and re-stretched it on a smaller set of stretcher bars, scaling it down to a smaller painting and cropping out some of those lines. Again, I’m happy with this one too, (of course I am!) and happy I solved the little challenge this pie threw at me!

All three of these are hanging with their predecessor, “Aviator,” at the Art Bank. Come see their big debut, Tonight, at the Art Bank!

Alternative Galleries

2011-07-29T00:13:00.000-04:00

This July is winding down and I had an interesting show for the month: I showed art in a tattoo parlor. The 111 Arts Gallery and Tattoo Studio, to be exact. I’m not a tattooed person myself, and I’m not too sure how well my style of art would translate into the tattoo world (although, if anyone ever does get a tattoo borrowing from one of my paintings, I’d like to know about it, that would be a fun kind of honor…Unless it’s somewhere covered by a bathing suit—Then I’m not sure I want to know). I guess, in the end, this is an article about alternative art spaces.


Sam Koch and his sons, and Zack Starkey by the window

I had a good time showing at 111 Gallery on the First Thursday of July. It had a nice atmosphere, I shared the space with two other artists: One that could do incredible things with wood working, Sam Koch, and another, Zack Starkey, who painted some nice pieces to fill frames built by Koch. Koch brought his family

along for most of the evening, three small boys, and the littlest one enjoyed stuffing one of the cookies I had brought as refreshments into his mouth, running around, then handing half of the cookie to his daddy. It really was cute.

Moreover, when you say “art gallery,” there are a few things you don’t really expect to encounter: Walls papered with tattoo art as a backdrop to the featured art, dudes discussing lotion applied to the front curb (so as to better grind a skateboard), and toddlers with cookie-mouthfuls. In other words, I had a blast!

Many people hear “art gallery” and think of people in the perfect black dress or a nice tailored suit, sipping wine or champagne from little fluted glasses, eating hors d'oeuvres that I can’t even spell (heck, I can’t even spell what they are—I had to google it). Those people are making small talk about the stock market, stores I can’t afford to even enter, and…well…I don’t even know, I guess eventually the angst and existentialism of the art in front of them. Or something like that.

And frankly, I’ve never shown at such a place. Now, I’m not in New York, and I’m not even that high on the Indianapolis totem pole. But it seems like I consistently show at “alternative galleries.” My first show, ever, was at the Greenwood, Indiana, Public Library. I’ve since shown at a café, a make-your-own-pottery place, an auditorium lobby and now a tattoo parlor. I currently have my art displayed at a high-end consignment shop, and have had it displayed at a hair salon. My current home is a converted old bank! In other words, if you can provide a wall and a crowd, I’ll show my art there.

Now, granted, I had to think about what work I would show where, and, luckily, my style really varies. I was unfamiliar with the other artists at 111 Gallery, so I thought ahead and selected work that I hoped would go with the “vibe” of the place. Next month, I’ll be showing at a Chik-Fil-A on Indianapolis’s southside, so I will definetly be picking pieces that have a family feel. Clowe’s Hall, the auditorium, was massive, so I pretty much showed anything and everything, and then had to think of what would fit together. The artists I shared space with at the café, I’m friends with, so I selected work I thought would fit well with theirs. It’s just a matter of doing a bit of research, prior to hanging, asking the questions that need to be asked and putting some thought into it.

Add to that, my art friend, Carmen Hurt, has now established a store on the Zazzle.com website. What's a Zazzle store? She can take her art imagery and have them applied to merchandise, such as mouse pads, coffee mugs, IPod covers and...shoes! Yeah really! I've been encouraged to explore the site as well, so who knows, before long, some kid can be rocking the Mee-Ba shoe collection. Now THAT'S an alternative showcase for art!

I also recommend this article on the IDADA website, for tips on showing in alternative galleries. And since THIS article is getting long enough, you can go click and read it yourself!

So for August, mark your calendars! Joy Art at Chic-Fil-A on Southport and Emerson on Indy’s southside, and First Friday, August 5^th at the Art Bank! Gen Con will also be occurring downtown, so feel free to take an adventure! (And don’t be intimidated by Stormtroopers, the ones here are really quite harmless).

I've Moved! ..Well...Sorta...

2011-07-14T21:43:00.000-04:00

I've been showing at the Art Bank on Mass Ave in Indy, now, since February. I really really like it there, its just such a cool place. Up until now, though, I've been in the "Incubator," AKA The Upstairs. I liked The Upstairs, it was alot of fun. The people are all cool and I had a blast painting the rooms with my friend Miranda Gabbard. We painted colors in those rooms our parents would have NEVER let us put on walls! (And better yet, we put them on the floor!)

But now....I'M DOWNSTAIRS!!! YAY!!!! Even better, I'm right by the front door, on the right side, ready to catch your perepheral vision as soon as you walk in. Score!

So what you see here is a continuation in painting walls colors that your mother wouldn't approve of, in this case: Black. It was suggested to me to do so, because I use alot of thick black lines and bright colors in my work and those would only be enhanced by a straight-up black wall. I like it! Also, I get the entire wall, plus the little bit of wall on the corner. The white side is actually the front door of the Bank, so, again, a prime position.

In addition to the main wall, I also get the little closet (minus the door) on the wall. A visitor to the Art Bank, last First Friday, called it an alcove, so I'm stealing that name: I get the Alcove on that wall. I painted it black as well, and decided, in a moment of great insight (yeah right) to paint the ceiling black. You know, adhering to all those HGTV shows that say that painting a ceiling expands the room. The ceiling in there was pretty low too, so I figured what the hey. Yeah. All went well until I realized I needed to stand on a ladder one step to reach the ceiling...up I went...sticking my head straight into the CFL bulb dangling from the middle. The bulb exploded, I didn't get electrocuted, and glass rained down every where. Lucky for me, the owner of the Bank, Dan Haynes, is an electrician by day. He made sure we weren't going to die and then helped me pick glass out of my hair. Thick Hernandez Hair saved the day--no cuts to my scalp! Of course, the Boyfriend shook his head in exasperation, later, when I told him this story. "Who does that??" "I do!" Yeah.

To round out the usefulness of the Alcove, I got this little gem at Goodwill! It locks and I even got the keys to go with it! I spray painted it a more olive green color at first, but then I learned a big lesson in spray paint + humidity = a crackle finish. Not the look I was going for. Dash to Lowe's (Valspar paint smells just so good) and I come back with some nice glossy paint in a color I thought matched the spray paint... and turned out to be hella-lime. Hey, lime's cool, I like lime, painted the handles bright blue (I love that blue) and added a red polka-dot rug I got at Wal-Mart (on sale! haha) that is actually for Remy to lay on when she visits, since the floor has a nice tile finish, not so nice to fuzzy feet. That basket is an Asian newspaper-woven basket from Hobby Lobby (again, SALE) to hold my greeting cards (FOR SALE, a pack of 6 for $5) and my business cards and we're good to go.

I like my new wall, it rocks. I'm really happy with it and the increased traffic it holds. I can hang work on all three walls of the Alcove, plus the wall outside the Alcove, plus the main wall, so it turns out I have a ton more increased space than I had upstairs, and I had an entire wall up there!

So, August 5th is the next First Friday. Come see! Come see! It has even more awesome in real life!

Requiem For A Paintbrush

2011-06-24T21:09:00.000-04:00

Oh Paintbrush, I knew you well. You were such a loyal, hardworking paintbrush. You were 3 inches wide (I mistakenly said you were a 2 inch) and were very useful when it came to gesso-ing canvases. In fact, that is how we first met. You were a class-required purchase, and on sale with the employee discount at Hobby Lobby. I was taught how to build and gesso canvases, with you at my side. You were quick to learn as well, and applied a smooth, even coat to every canvas placed in front of you.

But you quickly picked up more than that. For any large area that needed a good blending, you were there. You were the king of skies, merging the purples to the blues, to the whites. They always turned out smooth, as if pulled from the sky itself.

You were not daunted by the size of a canvas, in fact, the bigger canvas, the better. Large work spaces were your forte. You were not cowed by the fine detail from the small, itty bitty liner brushes; they could fill in the flower petals in the fine field you could create. There had to be you, before there was them.

You wore your dried paint and gesso marks well. It showed your character, the number of pieces you assisted on. And you always owned the gesso. I had to look today, for a brush to take on your duties. This new brush was also on sale, though not on employee discount. Those days are passed. This brush will be adequate, but not the same. It will not have the handling ease you possessed, or the thickness of bristles. They just don't make brushes like you anymore. But it was those very bristles that did you in. I wish I could glue them back!

Good Paintbrushes don't die. They simply loose their bristles.

Latest Works

2011-06-23T21:46:00.000-04:00

While I've been so busy, lately, I have managed to churn out a few new pieces. Without further (FURTHER) adieu:

This lil happy piece is called "You Can't Do That On Television." It was actually painted last fall, ...but... I wasn't able to finish it until this spring. It needed a healthy coat of spray gloss, that, with the winter being the winter, could quickly become an unhealthy coat of spray gloss--not just for my own oxygen consumption, but because I've found that when you use aerosols under certain temperatures, they tend to make little bubbles as they dry. Not cool for the amount of work I put into it...so I waited. Anyway, it's my crumpled paper technique AND it just sold today! Woot!

This agitated fellow is "Aviator." Kind of a take on the Red Baron, or of fighter pilots of old. I explored a new (for me) technique here: I made a stencil, painted the background, then the fill in colors for his hat, skin, scarf and goggles, then laid the stencil over to make any black lines with aerosol (actually the black is appliance spray paint, interesting texture/sheen). I'm currently using this same technique on a companion piece to this one, tentatively called "Autopilot."

This one is "Faith 7," named for the Mercury capsule of the space program. I saw the real thing hanging at the Johnson Space Center in Houston and took an AWESOME pic of it (it's on my facebook if you really want to see the original). This is my pop art-stylized way of portraying it. I'm digging the style, it may reappear.

This one is called "Re-Entry" and is of Apollo 17, you know, re-entering our atmosphere. Again, seen at the JSC in Houston, and, again, in a broader pop art manner. And if you look reeeeally closely in the background (though you can see it easily in real life), you can see my fleck-art stars. White paint. Randomly applied. I likes it.

And now for the second wave of Mee-bas!

The red/green/blue one is "Mee-ba 5.0," the pink/navy/yellow one is "Mee-ba 6.0," and the white/grey/black one below is "Mee-ba 4.0." The first three Mee-bas were sold, and my mommy suggested I make some more Mee-bas. She even suggested the white/grey/black color combination, but later claimed to like the RGB one better. They vary in size, as Mee-bas do, and are sold seperate and as a set. Mee-bas are actually really fun to paint, and I see a really large one down the pipe somewhere. You know, after I clean all the other stuff off my plate!

That's about it for now, back to work on "Autopilot" and other plate-fillers. I've finished painting my new wall at the Art Bank and get to hang my work there tomorrow. AND I have the sniffles. NOOOO!!! I am NOT catching a summer cold! Just sayin'. I have too much work to do!

Gallery News

2011-06-22T00:31:00.000-04:00

I've had quite a bit on my plate lately, both art-wise, and non-art wise, so I apologize for the absence.
I'll just talk about the art-wise here.

We've gotten the upstairs of the Art Bank ship-shape...Just in time for me to move downstairs! Woo! I'll miss the upstairs, I've worked hard, with many of my fellow artists, to make it a neat, nifty place to be, so by all means, still go up there to check it out!

I'll be busting my tushie, getting my section of wall fixed up this 'weekend,' so, hopefully, I'll have plenty of pics to share when it's all over and ready to go. I seriously can't wait for my 'weekend' now!

On the Muncie front, I've got an upcoming show there for July. (I know! I'm posting about it BEFORE it happens! What a shock!) I'll be joining artists Zack Starkey and Sam Koch at the 111 Arts Gallery in downtown Muncie. It's actually a tattoo parlor, so that's a pretty interesting change of setting. Art can be shown in tons of off-the-beaten-path venues; so far I've shown in a library (Greenwood, my first), a pottery place, a high-end consignment shop, a hair salon, and now a tattoo parlor. Those besides the normal galleries or coffee shops you'd expect. I'll show anywhere they'll have me! I still haven't quite decided what pieces of my collection to take up there, but let's just say it won't be my traditional still lifes. I'm seriously considering busting out the aerosols on plywood, just 'cause. In any case, you'll have to come to Muncie on July's First Thursday (July 7th) and see! Oooo a surprise!

AND I'm now a member of IDADA , the Indianapolis Downtown Artists and Dealers Association. Yay! I've gone legit! Some of my work is now featured on my IDADA page and its a pretty cool benefit of showing at the Art Bank. Score!

AND I've just been invited (and just accepted the invitation) to join the White Pines Gallery, an online gallery that's based here in Indy.

Site mistress, Sally Cunningham, visited the Art Bank for June's First Friday. We chatted a bit and she liked my art! I was invited to join, and she even gave me a lil write-up on her site's blog! (Scroll down to the Saturday, June 11, 2011 entry). It was very much appreciated, and I hope White Pines will be a good online home for some more my art. Another thing I can't wait to set up. Heh, I'll probably do that this 'weekend' too, after I've turned my arms to jello prepping my wall at the Art Bank. When all you can do is rest your fingers at the keyboard, at least you can get some more work done!

AND...well...If there is an AND, I can't think of what that'd be right now. No new pics in this post, but some nifty links to check out. And, while I'm expanding my online turf, my actual website, joyhernandez.com is still my home turf. Well, that needs some big time updating, but hey. I'll add that to my list of stuff I need to get done, you know, like all the goofy garden/yard projects I've been accomplishing. Hey, you never know, if my rock garden thing I'm building turns out like it currently looks in my head, I'll post some nifty pics of that too!

Cheers!

An Art Engagement

2011-06-22T00:06:00.000-04:00

You miss quite a bit if you miss First Friday at the Art Bank. Lots of new art, fun artists, and wonderful art appreciators and...
This:

Bryan and Jennifer came to the Art Bank last October, for First Friday. It was their third date. It was also the night that he looked at her and knew he was going to marry her. So he waited until June. He had his brother help him out, taking photos of Bryan holding up signs, asking Jen to marry him. They put the pictures together into one piece, Bryan painted on it a bit to give it a more artsy look, they added a frame and he rented a wall at the Art Bank, just for the night.

He then asked Jen to come with him on another date nite. They wandered the downstairs part of the gallery and eventually made their way to the upstairs. He had it all planned out: "What do you think of this one, Jen? What do you think of that one? What do you think of THIS ONE?" And....

I happened to be on call, had my camera ready and positioned it in the far corner of the gallery room, for the best vantage point. A downstairs artist agreed to give me the head's up when they arrived. Bryan gets down on one knee, and I start rolling. Next thing they know, I'm sticking a microphone in their face to get all the lovely details, while fellow artist Luis Medina is pointing out that Bryan successfully ruined it for all romantically-inclined men in the entire city: The bar has now been raised.

So yeah. First Friday at the Art Bank is a pretty hoppin' place. Who knows? Next time, you might wander into an art wedding, on a night when you thought you'd just go check out some local art!

Spiffing Up the Backyard

2011-05-04T13:02:00.000-04:00

Unveiling my latest creation! Garden decorations! How did I do it, you ask? Here’s the photo play-by-play:

You start with a bit of barn board and some old fencing, thanks to my art friends Preston, who happened to have a barn he tore down, and Vinnie, who happened to want to get an extra piece of fencing out of his yard.

I was limited to about a 5 ft. height, mostly because I drive a Toyota Yaris, and while it’s quite the little hauler, it’s not very long. It performed admirably, pretending to be a baby pickup truck, but 5 ft. was all it could go. No matter, that was all I needed.

I gathered 8 of the boards, laid them in my yard and put two screws into each one to connect them to a bracer board across the back. I put another bracer board across the bottom for stability. It pretty much looks like an old piece of fence, and that’s what I was going for: An old piece of fence that I could paint on. Vinnie’s was already fence-ified, so all it needed was paint.

I start with background color, orange for the barn board and a nice turquoise blue for the fence. I’ve totally fallen for this color of blue—it comes as a spray paint by Valspar at Lowes and I can’t find enough excuses to use it. I had them mix the color into an actual flat latex paint, and there are plenty leftovers for future projects!

I have day lilies (at least I think that’s what they’re called) surrounding my backyard. It’s a pretty dreary backyard, full of mosquitoes in the summer if I don’t fight them off, so this year, I’ve vowed to spiff up the place. So day lilies went on the turquoise fence.

The BF and I have planted three raised garden beds in the sunny corner of the yard, and I’ve recently expanded to sunflowers on one side of the garage. The garage is white and just kind of there, so I figured it wouldn’t mind. A large sunflower blossom went on the orange barn board fence, for encouragement to my little plants.

I leaned both pieces against my garage, and in the strange empty spot on the day lily side, I’ll lean a (probably painted lime green) lattice to encourage the bird house gourd seeds I’ve planted there. If all goes right, I’ll have a very productive, colorful backyard!

Thank you Preston Karns and Vinnie Oliveri!

The Artist Within

2011-04-07T22:05:00.000-04:00

I really need to start writing about this stuff BEFORE the fact, not after, but March/beginning of April has been...one of those months. Little of it is art related, so I won't go into it here. But anyway.

I was the feature artist at The Artist Within in Muncie! (Yeah...I should have written about this sooner...)I was the feature artist at The Artist Within in Muncie! (Yeah...I should have written about this sooner...)

The Artist Within is a neato shop in downtown Muncie, where people can come and paint their own pottery. Then they fire it in a kiln for you and you get to keep it (for a nominal fee, of course). You can paint your own bowl or platter or lil puppy statue, whichever you please. They have this giant long wall and use it as gallery space for Muncie's First Thursday event! Yay!

So for the month of March, my art and only my art was on that wall. This was my first go-round as a feature artist, so I wanted to make it special. I marathoned 8 new pieces, and before I knew it, "Windmills and Middletown" was up and ready to go!

I'll admit, it was daunting, I was kind of winging it, but I've made some really great friends (including Debra Gindhart Dragoo, who had her Green Glam for sale there as well) that have guided me through the Muncie "art scene."

There was just one hitch: Apparently, there was some kind of event (ironically, also dealing with the Middletown Studies) downtown that night, and that seemed to draw away the usual First Thursday patrons. Soooo.... it was kind of dead. Great. But it's a great venue, and I had a blast, and would gladly do it again and learned a lot from the entire experience, so that made it worth it. Really. In fact, I'm in talks for a potential First Thursday in June, so there. (details will follow as soon as they're laid down).

And now, for your viewing enjoyment: Pics of the First Thursday at The Artist Within!

(From left to right: Debra Gindhart Dragoo taking a picture of "Rocket Corn," Debra again taking a picture (with bisque pottery in the background), and a close-up of my wall, starting with "Getting A Living")

(From left to right: My wall, starting with the latest "Turbine" watercolors, the entire long wall display area, and my sign-in table --apparently Francis Scott Key felt the need to sign in and relay the greeting "F U!" Classy, Mr. Key, classy.)

(From left to right: My pic and an article about my work in the First Thursday preview section of the Muncie Star-Press, Debra Gindhart Dragoo's Green Glam set-up.)

Next time: The latest projects! Because there's always more and there are about 8 half-finished canvases LOOKING AT ME.

I’M AT THE ART BANK!!!!

2011-03-11T23:35:00.000-05:00

I officially have a wall at The Art Bank on Mass Ave and College, in downtown Indianapolis! Here’s what my wall looks like, it rocks:

It is in one of the three upstairs rooms at the ‘Bank. One already occupied room houses a tea company (really yummy!) and the other two have been recently opened up! Room #1 is “The Incubator,” a room for those of us “emerging artists” that have never really shown on Mass Ave, or aren’t really established in Indianapolis. So far, there are 6 of us. Mine have the orange tags under them. They are to be seen and purchased…so go!

Room #2 is now the “Art Lounge.” Fellow incubating artist Miranda Gabbard and I painted it…
all the colors I’m sure our parents would never EVER have let us paint a room. We even painted the floor and some of the furniture. Ideally, we’ll get a couch and some comfy seating up in there, for proper lounging, but it’s a place where artists can hang, appreciators can hang on First Fridays, and seniors from the local arts college (Herron at IUPUI) can show their work as part of their senior credit. Yes, that is tomato-soup orange on the walls, with one wall grey and black, and school zone yellow on the floor with a gold circle. We accented it with bright blue furniture…because bright blue spray paint was on sale.

Next up, we’ll tackle the look of the gallery room, with nice ‘neutral’ shades of grey on the walls, and brick red with a silver circle on the floor! AND the Art Bank is doggie friendly, so let’s just say Rembrandt does enjoy spending time there as well! (Because the biscuits flow freely, for the most part!).

The Latest Works

2011-03-11T22:56:00.000-05:00

I have been slammed. Sorry. Real life stuff, one thing after another, and best of all, most of them dealing with art. So I have quite a few new pieces to share with the class. I’ve been busy. BUSY PAINTING.

First up is the turbine trifecta:

We have “Blue Turbines,” “Purple Turbines,” and “Night Turbines.” You guessed it! One’s blue-tinted, the other is purple-tinted, and the third is my rendering of the turbines at night. I’ve never seen the turbines at night, but I’ve been told they pulsate in unison, like an alien landing pad. Now THAT would be cool to see.

All of the reference pictures were taken in the same location as the previous windmill series (through research, I found out they’re actually called turbines, but hey) except I got MUCH closer: Right alongside the highway. These were on my drive home for Thanksgiving, again in Illinois, and, if you’re curious, just drive north on Highway 40, from Peoria, and they’re near Bradford, Illinois. Mesmerizing.

This next set is from my Middletown Series.

(From left to right: “Using Leisure,” “Training The Young,” “Getting A Living,” and “Engaging in Religious Activities.”)

It’s funny to me to even HAVE a series, given the whole short attention span thing. For me, I guess, a series encompasses 3 media (in this case, watercolor, acrylic, and photography, although those two aren’t pictured here) that all have a general theme: The Middletown Studies.

The Middletown Studies were originally done in the 1920’s in the most scientifically “average” town in America: Muncie, Indiana. Middletown was the city’s codename for the study. There were six categories for the study, with fun vintage titles like “Using Leisure” (having fun, I guess), “Training The Young” (education) and “Getting A Living” (employment). I loved those titles, so I did a piece for each category and titled it correspondingly. Both these and the windmills were part of my first Featured Artist show in Muncie, at The Artist Within (gallery and pottery shop).

This last little one is already sold. Sorry. It was a commission, a birthday present for a friend’s wife. It’s titled, “Just Try To Take It.”

The little toughie in the painting is Velcro Whisner, a yorkie with a lot of attitude. The photo was emailed to me by his “dad” and the Double Bubble is a squeakie toy, not the real thing. I loved his li’l “I’m soooo gonna bite you now” look on his face. It made for a nice challenge. Yorkies are tough to paint, given their coloring and their long hairs. I had to be careful to work backwards, 3-D-wise, to make sure I did the ears before the forehead and such. And, with anyone’s pet, I wanted to capture that ‘look’ that makes this Velcro and not just some random yorkie. I know every spot on my dogs’ faces, and I’m sure other owners know their pets that well too!

hehe, Also, word is, a tear was formed when this lil pressie was given. Win!

Why I Bought A Better Homes and Gardens

2011-03-11T21:47:00.001-05:00

OK I don’t usually do this. I swear. Well, I have been known to read a Good Housekeeping, but believe me, I’m better at reading it than keeping house. This issue caught my eye. I’m pretty sure it was the brightly painted furniture on the cover. That was it.

You have until April to pick this one up, it’s a seasonal issue. It’s AWESOME. And when you’re done reading it, you’ll want to paint everything in sight.
Some highlights:

The Hand –Painted Lamp!
It has been a long time since I’ve seen such simple, yet wonderful things done with a paint marker. Not since I took an orange paint marker to our security guard’s mug at work and changed the “Indystyle” to “Andystyle” (his name—he appreciated it!). I wanna try!

The Lace Pillow!
This one reminded me of my art buddy, Debra. She does marvelous things with lace doilies and aerosols, so I challenge her! Bring on the lace-sprayed pillows!

The 8-Bit Painted Lamp! Robot Napkins! Tetris Curtains!
Part of the nerd collection, these are all done with fabric paint (and, in the case of the robot, resist made of Elmer’s glue). I think, should I ever have a formal dining room, the table will be made up with robot napkins. I mean, how could I not? Now, if robots are not your taste, these you could pretty much plug in whatever design you want. Me? I’m kind of partial to nifty robots.

AND THEN THERE WAS THE SPRAY PAINT SECTION

These people spray-painted their door! With yellow farm paint! Really, it says right there on the can! (And verified by a farmer friend as John Deere Yellow). The rug, that was sprayed!

Then, inside, the walls were sprayed, although I’m skeptical of that technique. It looks more expensive than regular rolled on paint, you run the risk of crazy drips and uneven coverage. You could probably get the paint tinted to whatever you wanted and just rolled it on for less than the cost of so many cans.
Now, the spray paint zinnia on the rug, I think I’m going to try that this summer on my front porch grass rug. In yellow. It will be pretty.

DISCLAIMER: TO BG&H: Hey! Don't get mad that I took pics of your magazine and put them on the interwebs. It's free pub for you guys and I just encouraged all of my closest and interest internet buddies to go buy it, so there. A free teaser, just for you!

The Art Bank --FDIC: Fun Deposit In COOL.

2011-01-14T16:11:00.000-05:00

Last Friday was First Friday in Indianapolis, and I had a chance to hang out at The Art Bank on Mass Ave. I've gotten to hang there a bit, the last few First Fridays, and this time I remembered to bring my camera (so, sorry if this post takes ten years to load).

The Art Bank used to be a bank. Really. A really really old bank that John Dillenger supposedly robbed back in the Depression. It's not your average gallery, either. Appearance-wise, they have left all of the interior walls up, all of the bank fixtures inside, this place really is an art...bank. The teller's windows are in place, even the 'drive-up' window on the northeast side of the building. If it weren't for all of the, you know, artwork around, you could easily picture yourself walking up to a teller and asking to make a withdrawl (or, in John Dillenger's case, demanding a withdrawl, seeee, put it right here in the bag! And no funny stuff!)

From left to right: 1) Carmen and Dan in the 'drive-up' teller window. There are a few art pieces in this small space, but it's more like an impromptu chill-spot for now. 2) The Book Nook, AKA the bank's old vault. A cozy space selling locally published books which are displayed using the drawers from the small safe-deposit boxes inside the vault. 3) Art fans examining Mark Patrick's work, as seen through the bars of the teller's window. Imagine me, the photographer as the bank customer, and one of these ladies as the teller. An excellent example of how every surface is utilized in The Art Bank.

There are some strong characters at The Art Bank. I didn't get a chance to snap a pic of amazing oil artist Kim Estes (she left before the camera came out!). It's to her credit that I 'discovered' this place. She was the featured artist this last July, with a show of paintings based on Hubble Space Telescope photographs. Of course I was a moth to a flame as far as space paintings were concerned and they were amazing! But for the double-win, I made some new art-friends and enjoyed the really wonderful atmosphere that is The Art Bank. This is not your average gallery with a 'stuffy' stigma. This place is more like an art-party on First Fridays, with bands and activities in the parking lot during warmer weather. There's alot of high traffic even in the winter, so the Bank is always hoppin'.

The first character I'll introduce (that I actually got a pic of!) has to be Carmen Hurt: The Internationally Unknown Artist and a true CHARACTER. On my first trip to the Bank, I was drawn to her dramatic colors. She uses alot of bright oranges, yellows, and that bright turquoise-y blue that I love to use so much, so, once again, about as moth to flame as I could be for not having space stuff around. She uses oils for her large paintings, blended and blended and smoothed until it looks like acrylic. She does use acrylic for her lil boxes and lil paintings. The lil boxes contain "round-tuits," perfect gifts for procrastinators.

From left to right: 1) This is Carmen Hurt. See her brightly-colored artwork over her shoulder? Crazy-dazzling. 2) These are Carmen's shoes. A lady this colorful, what, did you think she wore penny-loafers? 3) These are some of Carmen's lil paintings. They are minis of her "Some Flung Blue" series that features...blue paint flung around on orange and yellow backgrounds. These are acrylics and the larger versions are also in acrylics. These lil guys are displayed on the counter outside the tellers' office. 4) Inside the tellers' office, a large oil by Carmen covers a storage space and more lil paintings and lil boxes cover the top. 5) This is Carmen's wine, chilled in the snow on a table outside the Bank. Told you this place was hopping, even in the bitter January winter.

Next door to Carmen is Mark Patrick. He's a recent addition to the Bank, displaying his oils and watercolors on the counter and in the cubbies used by the tellers. I'm honored to say that Mark saw my show at Clowes this August, by coincidence, and, once he figured out it was me, said he had wanted to meet the artist behind that show. I was humbled and I marveled at how small the world is sometimes. I envy Mark's loose style, and all the colors that blend to form, say, just the petals of a flower.

From left to right: 1) Mark Patrick and his art. See how every space, every nook and cranny is used to display at the Bank? 2) A close-up of one cubby, used by Mark Patrick, with some of his florals displayed inside.

The last character I'll introduce this time is Preston Karns. Preston is a glass-artist based out of the Shelbyville area, so he has quite a commute to the Bank. When I first met Preston, his art occupied the space that Mark Patrick is now using. Preston's art involves fused glass, etched glass, glass-glass-glass of all kinds. This last First Friday, he showed me a photo of a counter top he created, using beer bottles (it was for a bar in Ohio) that were melted until they formed an interesting surface.

From left to right: 1) Preston Karns, glass artist. That's his artwork on the stand in the background by the window. 2) Preston's turtle, a close-up of the piece that's on the stand. This is a many-layered piece, with the ground looking like its in one spot, the turtle a little closer, and the fish a little farther away. A neat 3-D effect. 3) Jellyfish from the same piece. Some of the jellys are closer, some farther away, and a piece of sea-weed right up front.

There's something interesting about that room that Preston's standing in, on the second floor of The Art Bank. Very soon, some of my art will be displayed on a portion of wall in that room! I'm going to The Art Bank! I can't wait! I'll post details as soon as I get them, and dance happily around until then. Thanks Preston!

Next time: There's an issue out of Better Homes and Gardens and I'm totally captivated by it. Really. Tetris-themed curtains anyone?

New Art! Windmills! ...I mean...Turbines!

2011-01-14T15:44:00.000-05:00

I have been freakin hard at work lately. My day job, of course, is usually manic in some form, but, in the middle of all the chaos, I've managed to produce these three beauties:

We have, from left to right: "Purple Turbine," "Night Turbine," and "Blue Turbine."

Yes, folks, I went back to the windmills, this time in watercolor. Again, these are "Illinois" windmills, located off of Highway 40, north of Peoria, basically. I took a different route home for Thanksgiving, given that I had to report directly to my grampa's home in Neponset, Illinois. I don't know for sure if that route was actually any shorter than how I normally go, but it was quite scenic! I mean, the first one, "Purple Turbine," is a based off a pic I took pretty much pulled over on the highway, leaning out my window, and puzzling a passing minivan of locals. I was RIGHT UNDER them--They were amazing! So lazily spinning out there and they were everywhere! Yeah, I'm a bit mesmerized.

Coloring wise, it was a cloudy day, so I figured I'd play off of that and make my clouds various colors (they were very very grey that day). I also liked how they were in silhouette, contrasting my earlier windmills, all nice and white against a blue sky. In "Purple Turbine," theres' actually a nice purple stripe/highlight down the side, like the blue feature in "Blue Turbine," but it didn't really want to show up when I was photographing/processing it for the web. Even more incentive to see it in person, right?

"Night Turbine" is the only one made up, with no photograph in mind. I was reading up on these wonderful creations (hence the name change from 'windmills' to 'turbines'--that's what they're scientifically called). I saw many references to seeing them at night. I haven't had the opportunity to do so, always travelling in the day, but I've been told its an eerie sight, will all of them blinking red in unison, to ward away airplanes (or land UFOs). I just decided to set up a bunch with my swirly representation of glowing and see how it works out. I'm pretty pleased. This one, in real life, is a bit darker than how it photographed, further proof that you can't win every time.

I found out alot in my research: North Central Illinois's past as basically an immigration mecca for Flemish folks, their use of windmill tech brought from their homeland (actually had Kewanee, Moline, Annawan and Atkinson mentioned on a Dutch website!). Illinois's windpatterns allow for expansive use of turbine tech, and some schools have even begun to build them on their property as a power/income source. One school mentioned, was of course, Bureau Valley (located in Bureau County, home of my windmill muses), home of, that's right, the sports teams: The Bureau Valley Storm. I know there's naysayers in the area, people upset that their country quiet has been upset, but you know what? I'm a Star Trek fan, and eventually people will just have to get used to flying cars and space travel and all that future imagery, and these turbines, to me, represent the first, small, step. (Or really really tall step--I've been told the next time I see the turbines has to be from above, via plane).

I'm prepping for my March show at the Artist Within in Muncie. I'll have 6 new ones, and possibly these 3 Turbines, if I decide they fit the show. Two of the new ones will be the half-painted acrylics looking at me while I type, two watercolors and possibly a pastel (if I don't decide last second to make it a watercolor). I'm excited, aaaaand I just need to buckle down and paint. But I wanted to share this post and two more and get back into the habit of NOT neglecting the art blog, so there.

Next time: First Friday, The Art Bank, and why I'm so excited about a Better Homes and Gardens magazine.

The December Post

2010-12-09T23:45:00.000-05:00

As always, I hope to make more than one post a month, but hey. It least I did make one for this month!

On some levels this month is a happy month. The holidays of course, my birthday was really fun, and this month has been a bit less stressful, at least for me, than previous ones.

Unfortunately, I'm about to loose my main art gallery. Art & Soul By Phoebe Gallery in Muncie will be closing at the end of the year. Because of its positioning in downtown Muncie, gallery owner Phoebe Wantz is keeping it open to watch the Muncie-version of the New Years Eve ball drop, and then after that: gone.

Phoebe had a stroke at the beginning of November. It was a small one, thank God, and she seems to be doing MUCH better even just a month later. She had to miss the First Thursday opening of her November show and alot of her great friends pitched in to run the gallery in her absence. In the end though, there's no arguing with doctor's orders: The gallery had to close to relieve some of the stroke-causing stress.

There was talk of maintaining the gallery as a co-op and there's talk of an online gallery or some quarterly shows to be hosted by various venues in Muncie. The co-op was unobtainable, but I do look forward to future projects with Phoebe. She's a force to be reckoned with, and no dumb stroke will slow this lady down for long!

We had our final First Thursday show at Phoebe's in Muncie on December 2nd, my birthday. It was bittersweet: The bitter being the last show there, and the sweet that is so much that has come from it. I sold a painting! "Pylons" is no longer on the market! I'm so happy for that. (For the next week, the four remaining windmills are still on display at Phoebe's, but they come down December 17th--Go see!) My other Muncie friends, Debra Dragoo and Michael DuQuette had a joint show at the 111 Arts Gallery in downtown Muncie. It was called "Dirty Words and Pretty Faces," with the Dirty Words being art that Michael created featuring (very prominantly) cuss words in an artful form and the Pretty Faces being Debra's collection of, well, pretty faces (colorful paintings of women, almost in a folk-art style--Debra--forgive me if that's a wrong assessment, I'm not too good at pinning down styles!). It was a cool venue, I think by day it's a tattoo shop.

I'm not done with Muncie. No way. I'm slated to be the featured artist at The Artist Within there next March. AND if I remember to bring my camera for reference photos, I hope to have a whole bunch of new stuff, with a special theme, but I'm not leaking any hints yet. Those that need to know, for now, now.

I wouldn't be done with Muncie anyway. Last January, I had my first show at Phoebe's. I've only been out there and showing for a year. I saw a posting on Craigslist, a call for artists, and responded and she gave me a shot. Now, it's a year later. All the shows I've had! Clowes! Phoebe's! I've got a Facebook fan page and this art blog and my work has gotten out there! That's all I really set out to accomplish and I did it. I'm so happy for that and so thankful for that first shot. I'm still shy about my work a bit, I'm still nervous when trying to find new places to show, but I'm not as nervous, my confidence is way better. So, thank you, Phoebe Wantz! Thank you so much! (I know, I've said this to you in person many times, but hey, one more on the internets never hurts).

I'm working on other shows; it pretty much seems to be accepted that the art world slows down around here when winter hits. At least it seems like it. This December has been freaking harsh, single digits just for funzies. I don't blame people for wanting to stay indoors and not go out to see stuff! So its a good time to reorganize and see what's where.

I have a really cool event coming up in January, but I don't think I can talk about it just yet. But, when I found out, let's just say there were many happy dances involved. I know, I know a big horrible hint, but I'm smiling ear-to-ear and that's all I'm going to say so I don't jeopardize the opportunity.

I've started making greeting cards featuring my art and they're doing very well! I'm so happy for that! So yeah, again, if you would like a pack o' cards, they're 6 for $5 and you can either just get a pack of randoms or you can select which 6 images you'd like and I'll bundle them into a pack. Still, I've got over 100 works (yeah...I paint fast.) I like to say they're like Pokémon: Gotta Catch'em All! I have a sample pic in the previous entry and over on Facebook, you can message me there (or shoot me an email, subject: greeting cards) if you'd like to order some. I ship too, or deliver if its within a reasonable distance.

Got to make the annual trip to the Motherland (Illinois--not Russia) for Thanksgiving. I usually try to go around my birthday and it works out that it was so close to that holiday. I took some pictures of my recent favorite subject matter. That's right. Return of the windmills. This time in watercolor. I painted three, smaller pics this time, and one shows them at night. I'll get pics as soon as possible to post.

And, I'm having a SPECIAL SALE!! I have priced 13 works down to $25! Why? Well, basically, because I have 100 Pokémon/I mean, art works that take up space. So I figured this was a good way to make some room. I paint too fast, they stack up too fast, and I'm not going to quit painting, so they're priced $25. They're marked in the Facebook photo album as SPECIAL SALE and they're all types: Acrylic, Pastel, Watercolors. Once again, shoot me a message if one catches your eye and we'll arrange. Thanks!

In the mean time, I've been hanging out at the Art Bank in Indianapolis on First Fridays. I don't have any work there, but have made quite a few artist friends among those that do. It's such a fun gallery, and over all wonderful vibe and the art's amazing. I highly suggest checking it out!

Next month: I don't know! haha Probably updates on the upcoming Muncie Show and we'll see what else happens. Because this time last year, I never would have guess I would have written about all that I have so far!

What's Going On.

2010-11-13T00:18:00.000-05:00

Whoa.

It has been a BUSY month. Ok, it's been a busy FOUR months, but who's counting?

Let's see...

The Clowes show was a fantastic success! I sold four paintings, and take down was October 10th. I had a blast doing it, would do it again in a heartbeat and learned so much in my preps for it. I mean, I can frame stuff now! All by myself! (I'll frame your stuff too, and cut mats, for a fee of course, just email me). It was a great experience, and I look forward to the Scholastic Art Awards in March (something I have in common with Andy Warhol: We're both Gold Key winners!). Clowes is the host of the Indiana...let's call it state contest, the winners (Gold Key holders) go on to show in New York, then Washington, D.C.). Also, capping off the year, next spring, is Freddie Kelvin's show. He's an amazing photographer, and worth checking out! (That and his nature-inspired works will go well with the dawn of spring!)

I haven't had a chance to do much painting in the last month. Just kind of shoring up and completing stuff that I had been working on for various other projects. Clearing the backlog.

I built this:

It's my birthday present from my mommy. It's actually a (really freakin heavy) pine workbench that I put together for a kitchen counter. I'm going to paint the legs blue, and then sand them to give them an aged look, and seal the surfaces. It's gonna be rad. I'm just really proud of it because it's the most complicated thing I've ever built. I mean, it came in a kit, but there were 90 screws involved and the thing was so heavy I can't lift it by myself.

I also finished up some comic lid boxes. See, the BF and I collect comics. I'm X-Men oriented, I just spray paint my box lids different colors as a way to remember what is in which. He took it a step beyond, and has me paint the lids a basic color, then the logo of whatever the box contains. From back to front, we have Marvel (for the miscellaneous), Green Lantern, Hulk, Spider-Man, Thor, Thunderbolts, and two Avengers. The Hulk and Spider-Man lids are the latest, and fresh off the recently cleaned slate. I'm happy with the detail on the lids, especially the Spider-Man one. You get one pass at that, because the paint is hard to cover up on those lids, so I'm glad I got it right on first go. The Avengers one is the hardest, next time, if he needs a third one, he's getting the Avengers "A" logo and that's it!

I made these:

Announcing: JOY HERNANDEZ ART GREETING CARDS!!

Yeah, I've been blowing up Facebook lately about these things, but I think they're pretty neat! Here's the deal: All of my artwork are available as lil prints on nice greeting cards. Even the images of the paintings I've already sold. There's a nice white space inside for whatever message you'd like to send and envelopes are included. I picked brown cards because I think they provide a nice neutral background for all the zany colors in my artwork. Somehow, they all 'go' with brown. Anyway, I'm offering them as "custom" packs of 6 images of your choosing. Just pick 6 images and I'll whip them up into cards. You can get as many packs as you want, its just that price is based on the pack of 6 model: $5 per pack. For odd numbers beyond that, I'll price them at $1 per card. Also, at art shows and events, I'll have "theme" packs premade, the theme kind of being how I group them. For example, the 5 windmills and another nature based painting would make a "theme" pack of 6. Shipping will be based on how many are ordered and how far they will be sent. Email me for more details!

Phew. I gotta come up with a more concise way of explaining all that. I made a bunch of those bundles in preparation for...my latest event!

Sheek Treasures For You at the Earth House. It was this last Saturday, November 6th. The Earth House is a building that used to be a church. I think it still is, sometimes, in some capacity, but the first floor is now a cafe, and the second floor has a sound set-up and such for seminars and concerts (apparently Ok-Go played there a while back). Traffic was much slower than anticipated, so that left plenty of time for chit-chat with my artist neighbors. We bartered amongst ourselves, and I got a cool fused-glass necklace pendant and a set of hand made ceramic salt shakers. I also hosted Green Glam jewelry and Stuff from the Bunker mosaics from my artist pals in Muncie but, save for the sale of a pack of cards, the day was kind of a bust. Oh well, can't win them all.

As you can see in my booth set up, I have a grey, three-panel set-up in the background. This was expanded on my set-up for the Wilson Wineries event last June. That one was outdoor, I had a tent and just hooked those things onto the tent. This time, no tent, so, with the help of my pal Rocket, we made feet for the panels out of cement poured into kiddy sand castle buckets. It held up awesome! Not even a wobble! So here's the recipe: Those panels are PVC pipes, strategically glued so I just put the top and bottoms onto the side bars and they're good to go. A big grey "pillow case" for a covering, fence post hook things with wire and "s" hooks to hang the artwork. All finished up with sand bucket feet! This whole thing collapses into easy pieces that fit nicely into an already packed Toyota Yaris hatchback.

(PS Debra: Your jewelry was very visible, but I moved that black art stand thing in closer for the picture, just letting you know. :) )

It kinda sucked that it was such a slow day, but good things came out of it all. We each had to contribute to a raffle (yay for greeting cards!) and I actually won the first draw. That NEVER happens. I got a cool orange glass vase from the same artist that made the pendant. I'm happy with the idea to include the greeting cards, because, it seems, at alot of those events, people are looking for small things now, big thing later. If you have a booth full of mostly big things, having a few small things drives some traffic, small sales, and ways to get awareness out there. A good business decision. Warhol would be proud.

Next time: Big News, unfortunately, out of Muncie. Yeah.

Andy Warhol and Charles Schulz

2010-11-12T23:35:00.000-05:00

October 15th was a pretty big "art day" for me: I drove up to Anderson, Indiana, for the Charles Schulz exhibit and then back to Indy to the IMA (Indianapolis Museum of Art) for a docent-lead tour of the new Andy Warhol exhibit that was sponsored by the UIndy Alumni Association (my alma-mater).

That means lotsa driving.

The Schulz exhibit was kind of spur of the moment. I hadn't heard of it until I started playing a Great Pumpkin contest sponsored by Schulz's widow, Jean. My friend Kat said "Hey! While you're spamming our Facebook profiles with Great Pumpkin trivia, you should go check out this exhibit!" Or something like that. I have no idea how she heard of it, but at that point, I had about 4 days left of the exhibit, so Friday it was. It was a sweet lil exhibit: A lot of panels on the wall that explained every main character and some trivia on when they first appeared and all that. From Charlie Brown and Snoopy all the way to Pig Pen and Franklin. They also had a case for each decade that contained memorabilia produced. I actually had one of the items in the 1980's case (a wind-up walking Snoopy) but the rest were pretty rare. Ha, I would know. Between me and my mom, we have a pretty extensive collection. Some of my prides are a 1969 moonlanding Snoopy that she got in her childhood, and another 1969 space Snoopy that I found at an antique store. That's a great combo: Snoopy and Outer Space, my first loves. (Sorry, I'm a nerd).

Anyway, it was a great little sight and a chance to wallow in my "Snoopy heritage" (no really, you guys don't understand: For my entire life, and, I think, most of my mom's, Schulz's creations are like part of the family, as engrained as language. In fact, a Snoopy something is brought up in nearly all of our phone conversations). Art-wise, Schulz's work is basic. It's round, big-headed kids with complexes and their free-wheeling, imaginative dog. I'm convinced he's one of the great philosophers of our time (you know, because all the ones they quote in texts and classes were dead long before I was born...so that's the time frame I'm looking at). There was just a way of looking at things to their simplicity that he possessed and it showed through into his very ink-lines. They had some panels up from each decade, and it was interesting to see how much his style changed. Apparently, for merchandise, he insisted throughout his life that merchandisers use the style of the moment, the most recent, and not any of the 'retro' styles. Which is interesting, given that there was an entire line of "60 Years of Peanuts" on sale last year that delved very deep into the retro styles (I'm partial to 50's Snoopy: Those big ears are so cute!).

He took great pride in his lines and his lettering and it showed. He felt the true art was in the lettering and took great pains to get it just right.

Quick drive in rush hour back to Indy...

"Andy Warhol Enterprises." This man was a business man. In fact, both artists of the day were very adept businessmen. To Andy Warhol, business was the art form.

The tour was a very neat experience. The docent (basically a well-informed museum tour guide) pretty much told us the same stuff that was written on the plaques on the wall, but you don't get the opportunity to ask the plaques questions. Our docent lead us to the final room first: Andy Warhol's silkscreened self-portraits in the twilight of his life. The centerpiece of the room was a gigantic Warhol head (wearing his "scary wig") in turquoise with black. The thing had to be at least 9 feet tall. This was the man. Rewind back to the beginning: This was his life.

Dude apparently had a shoe fetish. This worked out well given that his first job was drawing advertisements for a New York shoe company. He was the child of immigrants, born and raised in Pittsburgh and his father, a coal miner, died when he was young. He was a "momma's boy" because he was sickly and she took care of him. They were also dirt poor. Warhol spent his adult life chasing the almighty dollar, and I guess he caught it, since, when he died, he was worth $200 million. Yeah.

He literally chased it as well: There was an entire room devoted to his dollar bill drawings. For most of his career, at least as shown by the exhibit, he searched out ways to mass produce his art work, thereby increasing his chances to earn more dollars. His early shoe drawings were drawn on some imprintable paper, so that he could rub ink on them and mass produce many many shoes. This also added an uneven, squiggly, quality to his drawings, so that no two were exactly alike. As you move through the exhibit, you see him start to perfect his technique, eventually settling on the silkscreening. But with the dollar room, it was explained that he hand-drew those, because trying to silkscreen-replicate the US dollar was walking to close to the line of counterfitting, and no one wanted that. Also, an interesting note: He loved his mother's handwriting. If he needed lettering done, he let her do it, with her Old-World style of writing, and her iffy spelling (On one if his dollars, she misspelled United States as United Staes). He loved the imperfections and kept them in.

There were crates with logos of companies all over them, Del Monte, Coca-Cola, Brillo, and, of course, Campbell's Soup. One of the Campbell's boxes was a work in progress, each side showing more of the evolution of the work: Sketched cans, letter-painted cans, red parts filled in. More mass-producing. I asked the docent how he didn't get in trouble with the companies for their copyrighted logos, and he said the companies looked at it as free publicity by a well-known artist. Must have worked: Here I am a month later and can list all of those in the exhibit!

They had his pink and orange (with green grass) silkscreened flower painting. And they explained to us The Factory. By this point in his life, Warhol was doing well enough and was in demand enough to have bought this old warehouse, called it The Factory, and set up shop. Other artists and musicians worked out of there, it was the home of the Velvet Underground. It was also called The Factory, because he would hold these parties where he would invite all his friends to come over and paint blobs of acrylic onto canvases. They would line these things up all over the floor and the friends would just go at it. Then, after they were dry (and, I assume, the party over) Warhol would go back and silkscreen the black details over the bright colors, tying them all together and turning blobs into flowers, Marilyn Monroe, and Deborah Harry. All that labor, basically paid in the chance to get blitzed or high at a Warhol party. This also explains why sometimes Marilyn would have green hair, or whatever.

...So... Anyone wanna come over and help me mass produce some stuff? I have...Pepsi to offer!

They had a room devoted to his "movies," 3 minutes of someone standing in front of the camera, doing whatever they want (one model refused to blink and just stared). They had a room devoted to his dollar sign drawings (there we go again) and a room with his corporate logos and coverage in magazines (I totally forgot he did the Michael Jackson cover of Time). They had a room with the Debby Harry and Marilyn portraits as well as other people. See, at that time, he made an announcement: He would paint anyone's portrait for 20 grand. Didn't care who, didn't care what they did, as long as they could pony up 20k. My grandfather: "You gotta get a deal like that!" Yeah, no kidding. At this point, it's more like, "Hey! I'll paint anyone's portrait for...$100!" (no really...I will!)

He began to loosen up towards the end of his life, getting away from the xerox-quality copying for looser versions of similar things. He died from complications following gall bladder surgery (they overhydrated him...oops). He also had been shot about 15 years before his death, by a crazed woman that wanted her movie script back. He had lost it, only to be found after his death when they were clearing out his estate. It was in the bottom of a trunk, just kinda placed there and stuff got set on it. Again, oops. He had heart surgery and pain for his last 15 years and he made sure The Factory was less open and, I guess, it scared him. Rightfully so.

It's a cool show, very fun to see his work up close. I never knew that it was acrylics behind that silkscreening. I've never tried silkscreening, and am not really interested in it at this point, but it was cool to see so much done with it. The show is up until January 3, it is definetly worth it to go see.

PS: I haven't posted any pics from either artist, I'm not sure what the rules are and don't want to get in trouble. Feel free to Google any of them, though, they're neat! Or...Go to the IMA and see them in real life!

Papa Gus, Etc.

2010-10-16T12:05:00.000-04:00

And now I reveal unto you the long-awaited Restaurant Project images:

Ok so this is honestly my first real stab at this. The final image is the entire board, which I covered in aluminum foil for effect. There are two parts to the 'Papa Gus' booth at the City Market: Tommy's, which sells mostly baked potatoes, and Papa Gus, which is more of a burger/50's diner kind of space. I had to design a kind of cover for the work space, so that people won't keep adding random toppings as the cooks are making the sandwiches, and keep more of a green tone to the Tommy's side. I still have to make up some giant magnets that are going to go on the sides of the AC duct that runs above the booth space, magnets that say in stylized letters "Eat," "Drink," and other...suggestions.

I hope this plan gets implemented, I think it would be a pretty fun project. Costa, the owner, has to present it to the board of the City Market so that they can approve it all, and there we go!

I've been busy. Crazy busy. I've managed to create two new works:

The yellow one is called "0" (aka "zero") and the blue one is called "5." Why? Because that's what the hands are doing, making a zero and a five. Both are kind of modeled off my hands, and, well, I've been on a hand kick lately. I don't really know why. I'm glad I finally figured out hands; when I was a kid, I could not for anything draw hands properly. I just drew people with their hands in their pockets. Now I can paint them with relative ease.

Which leads me to ANOTHER project:

This one is called "Okay." It's acrylic on a wooden board like the other two, (and really very pink, although the color looks washed out in the photo) and is for a breast cancer awareness fundraiser. I was asked to donate a piece of art to the Head To Toe Expo's silent Auction at the Muncie Mall today. I just kind of came up with that one, the idea popped into my head, said, "I'm HERE! Paint me!" and that's what I did. I have another painting in the works that will be carted back to Illinois at the end of the month for another cancer fundraiser, this time for the leukemia-stricken child of a childhood friend of mine. The fundraiser is loosely Nickelodeon-themed, so I'll be referencing the 90's "Big Orange Couch" campaign in the painting. I'll post more info on that as I get it too. And a pic. Of course a pic.

I've also been painting the lids of the BF's comic book boxes, one Spider-Man themed and one for the Incredible Hulk. Spider-Man is done, Hulk's getting there. Pics will follow when they're done, I'm pretty proud of these two.

And, just for giggles, I made this:

This year is the 60th anniversary of the beginning of the Peanuts comic strip. Jeannie Schulz, the widow of creator Charles M. Schulz, and her family have put together a website, www.greatpumpkincountdown.com for basically the fun of it and in celebration. The site is actually a contest, where you participate in silly things, like clicking on a Snoopy pic and adding it to your Facebook page, and you get points. The points go toward a drawing on Halloween, the night when the Great Pumpkin arises in the most sincerest pumpkin patch, and brings presents to all the good children there. So says Linus. I'm having fun with it, spamming my profile page in a passive-aggressive revenge to all those friend I had to hide because they play Farmville too much. AND it's Snoopy! What could be wrong with that! Everyone needs a little Snoopy. I bet if we had more Snoopy in the world, there'd be less strife.

I made these two posters out of brown wrapping paper. I sketched out "The Great Pumpkin" (aka a mistaken Snoopy silhouette from the cartoon special) and Charlie Brown as a ghost onto the paper and just painted them using my acrylic paints. Each took me about an hour, minus drying time. The sign is a piece of foamcore board that I wrote the letters out in the same manner as Linus's sign in the cartoon. I stuck them up in my windows on the front of my house and Yay! Instant freebie Halloween decorations!

Next time: I went Museum Crazy yesterday, with the Andy Warhol exhibit at the IMA and the Charles Schulz exhibit at the Anderson Fine Arts Museum. Reviews to follow and updates on the latest work. Also: Clowes is down, a success, what's next? Earth House!

Masterpiece In A Day

2010-09-24T20:00:00.001-04:00

It has been a crazy week, but really, just a continuation of non-stop crazy weeks. I'm tired.
Saturday was the Fountain Square Art Fair and the Masterpiece in a Day competition. I participated last year and had alot of fun; this year I was dead set on participation.
Except...

I fell backwards while shooting some video for my day job and wiped out. The camera weighs about 20 pounds and all 20 pounds of it was next to my head, on my shoulder, as I fell like a tree. I kept rolling! The video was actually quite funny. Part of the magic of falling with a camera on your shoulder is the wonderful twist technique you develop in mere seconds, not just to save the camera from getting broken, but to get the thing off of your shoulder and away from your head before impact. That's where the real pain can be. That and the pain of slamming your neck and shoulders against the ground with almost no way to brace your self. Ouch.
And, since I scraped my knee, the occupational doc decided I needed to update my tetanus shot. I'm right-handed, and, stupid me, I offered up my right bicep for the shot. OUCH. Over the next five days, I had just about every side effect possible of the stupid tetanus shot. My right arm was swollen, it hurt to move it, my whole upper body ached. I was dizzy if I moved to quickly. I was incredibly tired.

I was DETERMINED to participate in Masterpiece in a Day.

So, I loaded up a wonderful Radio Flyer wagon freecycled to me with a bucket, some water, my acrylics and brushes, a piece of foamcore board and my shower curtain drop cloth (better than regular drop cloths and excellent at stopping paint!). I tied Remy's leash around my waist, took up my canvas in my other arm and we walked to the commercial district of Fountain Square. We set up in front of Hero House, my local comic shop. They're dog-friendly (Remy is partial to the Pet Avengers comic and Dog Pool) and said they didn't mind. The contest got started around 10am, and I was done by 2pm! I was really proud of my speed, it wasn't that I was being speedy, I just knew what I wanted to do and executed it. And that was including the time it took for Remy to paint HER masterpiece. It wasn't too hot, but, if you're 50 pounds of fuzzy, it was a little to hot to want to hold a brush in your primary cooling unit: Your panting mouth. So, Remy went for a minimalist approach: We got a few turquoise and pink splatters out of her, on a mostly white piece of foamcore. Since she's a mostly white dog with black spots, we called it her self-portrait.

We turned in our work (Remy was allowed to participate, the only dog to do so, but was not allowed to win...I told them that was ok, since I didn't really want to loose to my dog). We found out that just a little while earlier, another artist that was working on a wonderful figure painting around the corner from us had a massive seizure and slammed his head against his painting, smearing the shoulder of the figure, before being taken to the hospital. An artist near him had ruined her painting leaping to his rescue. He had some friends come and put his painting into the frame he had built for it and formally enter it in the competition and was able to leave the hospital, with a clean bill of health, in time for the judging. I met him later, while we were all looking at his painting. I shook his hand and was glad he was okay. He looked completely fine and said that he just got so caught up in working on his piece, that the next thing he knew, he was seizing.

Since I had 2 more hours to kill, Remy and I went home and I sat on the couch, drank lemonade, and rested. Then...On to the Art Parade!

Clearly, it is not the average parade.

Afterward, I strolled the Art Fair booths nearby and waited out the fifteen minutes until the judging announcement. Honestly, I wanted to go back to my couch. In the end, neither Remy nor I were winners. The Best Of Show winner was a guy that made a neat video showcasing all the square shapes in the cityscape of Fountain Square. The other four winners were a large (wooden?) painted robot that hung from the edge of a 3 story building by painted (wooden?) balloons, like it was being carried away, a large portrait, a still life of some restaurant table settings and some decorative art magnets. All very cool work so I'm content. For me, I was just glad I pulled off my piece:

It's my hand. I took a reference picture of it the night before, for better lighting (I knew it'd be one directly sunny day that day) with all of my last names written on it. I actually wrote them on my hand with a Sharpie marker to just wear while I painted, but I sweated it off pretty quickly. My own last name is in the middle, wiht my dad's side of the family to the left and bottom, and my mom's side to the right. There's one from my dad's side on the right too, but it just fit better there. I'm happy with it. I'm going to fix the shadow side of the middle finger knuckle, its a little weird, but other than that, I'm pleased.

I had discussed the plan for that painting with my Gramma Weber a few days before she died. She thought it sounded like a good idea, and then she was gone, so I decided, come rain, hail or tetanus shots, that painting was going to come to fruition. It's not for sale. It obviously means more to me than anyone else, and to paint something so...keepable...is a departure from my normal work. I was speaking with the lady that runs the front desk at Clowes about attachment to my work. If I had a strong attachment to every piece, if they were all my babies, I'd have 100 babies! They don't do me any good, I painted them for SOMEONE ELSE to hang on their wall. After funds are exchanged, I care very little what happens to it. (I say that now, wait til I see one of my works for sale on craigslist or something...yeah). I can't care, because it isn't mine anymore, it's making someone else's house look good and they've attached their own meanings to it. But this one is MINE. It's called "For Gerva Dean Weber" and it will hang in my entry way, a sort of showcase spot in my house, for as long as I live here, and always in showcase spots in future homes. It's where I come from. It's her, it's my mom, it's my dad and his parents and my grampa and his parents and my gramma's parents and such, going back to completely other countries. My family is relatively young, American-wise, in some branches, and very old in others. I liked the contrast of all the different cultural names. There are some English ones in there, Spanish ones and some hardcore German ones. That is me.

So yeah, after the action-packed day, I wiped out on my couch. Completely drained of energy but satisfied with my work. Yay.

Next time: The first rendering of the diner project has been completed! Images! And my Event Photo Album has been updated! More images! And I just finished two more paintings! And I'm working on another for a breast cancer fundraiser auction!

Long time, no post. Sorry.

2010-09-14T12:37:00.000-04:00

It's been a crazy, hectic last few weeks.

I got the diner project, I've got one drawing done, two more to go. I was hoping to have it done by now, but...

The weekend right after that, my grandma died. Her name was Gerva Dean Weber and she was 83. She had been fighting pneumonia off and on for most of her life and so now she doesn't have to fight anymore. She would watch my brother and me while our mom was at work. Most of the time, 'playing' at Gramma's consisted of goofy, creative activities. We would string rainbow varigated yarn around the living room to make a maze or to hang towels on for a fort, we would cut up and tape together Pepsi boxes to make little houses for McDonald's Happy Meal toys, or we would draw and color and play with a spirograph. She always had these retractible crayon things in her purse and would let us play with them during church. She was the preschool teacher's aide at my elementary school, so, basically, my first teacher. It was a blast. She taught me to sew and do latch hook stuff and stitch on plastic canvas. Alot of the crafty things I can do, I know how to do because she taught me. In fact, it was our crafty time together that got me my job at Hobby Lobby during college. The boss said one reason he hired me was because during the interview, I kept referencing "my gramma and I would..." and that would be most of our clientele: Someone's gramma. I'll miss her alot, but she taught me so much that it's like she'll always be around.

It did throw the week for a loop. I was supposed to go to Illinois on the Friday before Labor Day weekend. She died the Monday before. I rushed to Illinois, to help where I was needed. I stayed with my Grampa and hung out with him, kept him company and we talked alot. My throat hurt for days because he's nearly deaf and you have to yell. Loudly.

The BF joined me, on Friday, in Illinois, as we had planned and we had the funeral, my ten year high school reunion (that included a dancing pirate for no good reason other than there was one) and "Hog Days," the yearly celebration of the status of Hog Capital Of The World that Kewanee has enjoyed since the 1940's. It was a run'n'gun kind of weekend. I didn't really take many reference pics or get any really good ideas in the style of the windmills and such, but there wasn't really time for it and I wasn't really feeling it anyway. Some people paint when they're sad or angsty or whatever, and I'm not like that. I don't like doing that stuff when I'm stressed or sad, I paint when I'm happy, not to work out some profound emotion. So when there's crap going on, art gets put on hold so crap can be dealt with.

We got back last Monday, and Tuesday and Wednesday were like a recovery time. A MUCH NEEDED recovery time. No art, just lounging. Really, I was wiped. I did manage to get the one diner drawing done, I have to do the other side of the diner and a design spec-type drawing for this counter thing. And some hamburger-magnet designs, but that's kind of secondary. Maybe tonight, I'll take on another. After a while, especially after coloring in black and white checked tiles, my hand really really hurt!

Friday night I went to Greek Fest in Carmel. The Greek church there is AWESOME. It was a dark, clear night, and the church was lit up, very stunning. My friends, Kat and Bill, gave me the grand tour and I got to watch a guy (a priest?) painting Orthodox icons. Actually, one of the other priests said that icons are not painted, they are 'written.' So I got to watch him write an icon. It was really cool to watch (and he uses the same paint as me: If it's good for a church with a rich art history, its good for me!) He had been working on it all day and was about 75% done with it.

The Greek church has many domes in it, including a big dome right over head. The other domes were half-domes off of the main part of the roof. Kat said that, over the next few years, all of those domes will have icons written on the insides of them. I can't wait to see that. Whether you're religious or not, or Orthodox or not (I'm Lutheran), it'll be stunning to see. The care that's put into each painting and the fact that it's on a curved ceiling, pretty high up in the air. Awesome. I'm reasonably sure Indiana has NOTHING like that. The half dome behind the altar will have Mary, with her arms stretched out. It will be really really neat. Kat says that all Greek churches have some variation of icons on the inside of domes and that will be a really cool stylized Sistene chapel effect.

I don't know how often the church is open to just public viewing, and even if its only next Greek Fest, I encourage everyone to go check it out, if for its artistic and architectural aspects alone.

Sunday was the Gallery Tour at Clowes Hall. It went really great. I didn't really have any time to think about it too much, and that was ok. I wasn't really nervous, although sometimes I think I just jabbered. Like I said earlier, there isn't too much emotion put into my paintings, no angst, or that crap. I realized when I was jabbering, that there were more stories behind them. I'll tell my story and other people can make up their own. I like it better that way. I felt really confident about it all, and it was an overall confidence boost. I got to stand up there and pretty much say: Here's my art. Here's why I painted that. If you don't like it, ignore what I just said and make up your own. But I like it that way and I'm happy with it. I got a standing ovation...because everyone was standing and clapping. There weren't places to sit. I'm cool with that, I'll take a Standing O whereever I can get it!

I was glad so many of my friends came to see it. The artist that is the other 'book end' for the season, Freddie Kelvin, was there. His show is in the spring, he's a photographer, and I look forward to checking it out. This entire event has been a discovery session and I've shared my notes for what to do and what not to do.

I had some friends from as far as South Bend come to see, that was really great, and there were some random people there that I don't know. I think they were Butler supporters, and hey, that's cool too. I may be getting a chance, later this month, to do a similar session again, for a larger event, where I get to just come an hour early and hob knob prior to everyone taking their seats, pointing at the wall and saying "I did that." That would be great.

Satuday is the Fountain Square Art Fair. Masterpiece in a Day work starts at 10am and ends at 3pm. Judging is at 3:30pm and the Art Parade is at 4. I'll probably be set up near the Hero House comic book store. I'm planning on taking Remy with me; she went last year and did very well. If worst comes to worst, the BF can come and walk her home, it is our neighborhood. I got her to do some spatter-painting on foam board earlier this year, so I think I'll bring some extra board and some paints and brushes, so she can paint too! It'll give me something to do while waiting for my paint to dry. I think I'll even proactively register her when I sign up. "Rembrandt Hernandez." I was gonna get a little child's canvas apron for her to wear while sitting there (and in case she lays down on my paint!) and splatter some paint on it and call her my assistant. We have fun on these things.

After that, I still have a few paintings to finish for the next Muncie show, and am contemplating a booth at an Earth House event in November. The booth space is only $35. I sent an email to the people in charge, requesting the information and referring them to my website to see if I'd be a good fit. They loved the site and said I would. I had told the BF I'll wait on too many more of these events, since I've had so many this year, but a $35 booth fee is really a good price! And, each time I do one, it gets easier and easier as I work out my own infrastructure. AND, he likes the Earth House and has alot of buddies involved in stuff there... Hmmmmm.

Ok, this is a long enough post.
Next time: Hopefully some pics of the diner stuff- completed! Hopefully some pics of paintings done for Phoebe's and I'll also be updating the "Photos" section of the website with event pics as well! Really!

Break Time: OVER!

2010-08-27T15:43:00.000-04:00

Yeah, THAT didn't last long!

I just gathered info today for a new project: I get to come up with a design proposal for a diner in the Indianapolis City Market. For those not really around here, the City Market is this old brick building that kind looks like a train station, across from the City County Building (aka city hall). It has a large open space in the middle and a terrace above with chairs. The open space is divided up among booths of just about everything you can imagine. Vendors come and go, but some are basically permanent. The City Market recently underwent a huge and costly renovation, but the disruption caused by it put a lot of vendors out. Now, they're trying to do ANOTHER redesign, but this one with an element they forgot: Style. I saw a proposal pic at the diner, and it shows booths with actual canopy roofs and no cookie-cutter grey counters, but bright colors and various styles all working with whatever each booth sells.

My booth proposal will be for Papa Gus's/Tommy's. On one side, Tommy's, it's all spuds, all ways (with weiners soon to be added). The other side, Papa Gus's, is cheeseburgers, hamburgers, tenderloins, seasoned fries: Hot food. Gus, the owner, wants a 50's style feel, the highway diner motif, with stainless steel, magnets to hide the steel air ducts, and that classic style. I happen to LOVE that style. He has the coolest black and steel toaster on the counter and some retro hamburger signs. I took some reference pics of the diner as it is now, and have already brought up some ideas for updating his counter stools. I'm excited.

What does this mean? It means I've been watching waaay too much HGTV. Am I branching out? Hey, I'll take an opportunity when it presents, I'm no fool. I have to come up with a presentation board, (like I've seen on HGTV!) and some perspective drawings. I definetly can do perspective drawings. I also get to play with a logo of a sort, and my friend, Kat, is doing the website for him, so we have to make them match. Kat works there too, she's the one that gave me the head's up. Thanks Kat!

I'm really excited for September 18th too. It's the Fountain Square Art Fair day and I got the whole day off! I had an extra vacation day, went for it, and so now this year, I can participate in all the events, rather than cutting it short at 2 for work. I'm really revved up about my painting idea, I'm really really revved up for that. I think I'm on a bit of a roll, so, maybe tonite, if I get my chores done, the brushes are coming back out of the bin. There's some paintin' to do!

All that AND a trip to the Motherland (Illinois)? Yay! I'm torn. On the one hand, I want those days to hurry up and get here, on the other, that marks the end of summer, and while it's been a stressful, action-packed summer, it was still pleasantly warm out to explore aerosol art. I've decorated the front porch to my liking and just have had alot of fun. Art in the winter is fun too, but paint doesn't dry well in the cold. Maybe by then I'll have settled down enough for the pen and ink drawings my mommy wants me to get back into.

And, now for some pics:

From left to right: "You Cannot Resist," "Carrot," "Strawberry," and "Indiana Working Press Association."

"You Cannot Resist" is aerosol on an acrylic background. It actually covers up the painting that is on the floor in the picture of me and my dogs. I got really really mad at that painting, and sometimes, you just need to paint over it and make it go away. The black texture on the yellow letters comes from a pizza box edge that I dropped on to the painting while I was spraying it. Happy accident. I could have spent an hour trying to re-do the un-re-do-able, but I decided I liked it and proceeded to drop the pizza box on the painting several times.

"Carrot" and "Strawberry" are both aerosol on wood, similar to "Radish." "Radish" is currently at Butterfly Consignment, in Castleton, so I needed something to fill a big gap at Clowes. Same technique, same swirly style, I'm happy with how they turned out.

"Indiana Working Press Association" is kind of an inside joke, stemming from a photograph taken while out with some friends. I really liked how the green wall played off the table, and the simplicity of just the glass and smokes and lighter, placed near the bottom of the shot. At the time, the quote was, "You know you're out with a bunch of photogs when someone thinks nothing of standing on a chair in a bar to take a picture of a table, just to get the angle right." Hey, when the image is there, its there. Regardless of 'who's watching.' My favorite part about this one, is that that glass is the first time that I think I've painted glass in still life since college. Glass is kind of a mind trick, because it doesn't really have any color, but reflects the colors around it. So you have to give the idea that glass is there, based on it's reflections. I'm pleased with the result.

You know what? I take part of that back. I didn't paint glass in college, the still life I was working on (in oils no less!) had a silver pot in the set up. THAT'S what was messing me up! I remember my teacher telling me that silver isn't really a color in the paint world, because that pot was so shiny, it's true color was the colors around it, the reflections. I never did finish that painting (I got sick), but I did get a good grade on it for all the other parts. And I learned a lesson in the process, that, years later, I was able to apply to glass. I earned that grade well, in the end!

Next time: What's up, the Motherland (more windmills?) Hog Days, and the diner!

Break Time! (Sorta)

2010-08-24T02:04:00.000-04:00

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!

Busy Busy Busy Busy Busy Busy.....

2010-08-18T12:56:00.000-04:00

Phew.
Ok.
Crazy Week.
And it's not done yet.

I have half the show up at Clowes. We ran out of time, both for me and the union stage hand, of our four hour allotment. I had to get to the regular job, he was only scheduled for four hours anyway. We're set to continue the work tomorrow and finish it then. I'm pushing for two hours and we're done. I think it can be done. Just take some quick work, that's all.

I've spent the last two weeks on a mega-push to make sure everything gets done. I finished the last of the paintings for a while (just a little tapped out), and I'm really happy with them. One only got half done, but I just kept looking at it and looking at it, and it just wasn't in me yet to finish it. I like where it's going, but sometimes you just have to walk away from a painting to save it. If I had kept trying to finish it, I probably would have messed up the parts I like, and that just won't do.

I got some framing equipment. I got a little device that looks like a stample gun, except it doesn't kick back, or threaten the glass, and shoots those little tabby things into the frame to hold the glass, work, and backing in. So yeah, I know offer framing services. Or at least, assembly services. I just get old frames and fix them up, so I don't have the abilities to order brand-new frames from anywhere. Reduce! Reuse! Recycle! I offer Green Framing!

I learned how to cut glass, from my awesome mosaic-artist friend Deborah Lewis. She has a studio, The Bunker Studio, in Muncie. She gives lessons on how to cut glass, design and make beautiful mosaic pieces, and how to adhere the glass on to surfaces, like gazing balls and window panes.

The lesson came along by accident: I kept cutting myself on the glass from the frames! And then I broke a large piece of glass! I was really disheartened and scared of cutting myself again. Deborah told me to bring the glass up to The Bunker, and she'd cut it down for me so that I could reuse it for smaller frames that didn't have any glass. While she was cutting that glass down, she taught me how to score and cut stained glass andplay around with a piece of light green. Then I got to glue it onto a mirror and take it home! AND, I didn't cut myself!

Ain't it perty?

So now I have a new skill. And I'm not afraid of glass. I have a large window in the front room of my house (my 'studio') that has a smaller window above it. The name starts with a "T" and many people have said it to me but I keep forgetting what it is. Anyway, my landlord said I can make a stained glass pane to put up there, and Deborah inspired me on the design: Circles. It'll be like bubbles are floating around the window and it will be awesome. Thanks Deborah!

The rest of the week was mad-assembly of the framed works, the boyfriend being very helpful in putting hangers on the backs, dotting "I's," crossing "T's," and making sure the name cards are just right. I'm going to be so happy when I get this all up and finished...Just in time for the Fountain Square Masterpiece in a Day! I actually have an idea for this year's painting, a better one than last year.

Also, I'm thinking photography for Phoebe's this month. The photos I took of the windmills, the ones that inspired the paintings, are excellent stand-alone photographs. I'm just trying to decide if I want them black & white, or in color...Either way, they're going up there on Monday!

So here's the rundown of activity:

From now until October 10th: Joy Hernandez Art at Clowes Hall on Butler University.
September: Windmill photos at Art & Soul by Phoebe Gallery in Muncie.
September 12th: Gallery Tour at Clowes Hall.
September 18th: Masterpiece in a Day in Fountain Square, Indianapolis.
Until October: Three pieces are at Butterfly Consignment in Castleton, Indianapolis.
Ongoing: A variety of pieces at Cortex Hair Salon in Muncie.

Busy busy busy.

I leave you with a sneak peak at Clowe's, with stage hand helper Joe, hanging the works:

Next time: My latest works, those that I finished just in time for Clowes!

Windmills, Broken Glass, and Boo-Boos.

2010-08-06T02:14:00.000-04:00

I've been rolling right along with my preps for the Clowes Hall show.

I got my new camera, a Canon Powershot A495. It's 10 megapixels, but hey, I'm upgrading from a 3 megapixel camera, so the clarity is stunning as far as I'm concerned. I was worried about being able to afford a camera at, basically, the drop of a hat, but I kind of lucked out. My old camera, a college graduation giftie from my mom, happened to die just as Canon was rolling out their 14 megapixel cameras. This dropped the price in the formerly new 12 mpx cameras, and, of course, practically clearanced the 10 mpx. Yay for good timing!

And with that, I bring you these beauties:

These are four of my latest paintings, all to be shown at Clowes. I'm calling them all "Bouquet - ..." (Bouquet- Pink, Bouquet- Yellow, Bouquet- Rose, Bouquet- Green, to be exact). The Yellow one and the Rose one are flowers the BF has given me. I'm not sure what the yellow flower was called, he always finds such interesting flowers that I have no idea what they are. The Rose is the flower he gave me for our anniversary. (Awwww.) The Pink one is some little flowers that grow across the street from my house; I have no idea what they are either, but they are cute little round things with vibrant color. The Green is because, well, every Bouquet needs some greenery, right? They range in size, with the Rose being pretty big and the Green and Pink being very small.

And then there are these guys:

Together, I'm calling them "Power." (Power One, Power Two, Power Three). They are painted from photos I took last time I went home to Illinois. About 20 minutes from my grandma's house, there are a crop of these things. I can see them from my grandma's town, but they are itty bitty, only a half inch tall. Then you drive. And drive. And drive. And they get bigger. And bigger. And bigger. The photos I took, I think, are awesome. A storm had just passed, and these were to the east of me, so the storm was retreating to the horizon in the pictures, adding that dark sky look to the background to make the windmills pop out really well. I painted them with a nice, bright blue, because, well, I wanted to. There are two more that I have yet to take pictures of, the last one just finished today, so they'll be up shortly. These will all be at Clowes too.

The one in the middle is the one I started with, but, geez, that thing gave me so may problems. The windmills are a very geometric form. The blades, no matter what place they are spinning in, are each a certain degree seperated from the others. Get that angle wrong and the whole thing looks off. I painted the blades on that middle one at least twice (three times in some parts). I painted the background with such a nice, blended blue, that it was difficult to re-blend in areas where I needed to. Frustrating. But finished. And I'm happy with the results.

I just loved the grace and shape of these windmills. They're like the future, but then, there they are, in the middle of a corn field, next to some old barns that have been standing since Woodrow Wilson was president. It's like when I remember that my great-grandfather was born in the same year the Wright brothers first flew a plane, and lived to see all the leaps in technology before he died in 1994. That was alot of advancements. And here they are, spinning away, next to an old farm barn. Or, as a friend put it when he stumbled upon some windmills in a field, "If we had a case of beer, we'd STILL be up there, watching them spin."

***

I've been working on framing my paintings. I bought a nifty lil mat cutting kit at Hobby Lobby (40% off coupons rock!). I've pretty much got the mat cutting bit down. I've been hoarding frames from Salvation Army and Goodwill and such, so I only have two more frames to acquire. For reassembly, I was told a quick easy way to secure everything within the frame, but with the larger ones, it's just not going to work. So I think tomorrow (with another 40% coupon!) I'll be purchasing this device that shoots lil holders into the frames (or, as I've been calling them, tabby things). I figure, if anything, I'll be able to make some side money cutting mats and reassembling frames, to earn back its purchase. Anyone need some mats cut?

I don't work well with glass, though. I cut my leg, I cut my finger, and I cut my other finger! All on my left side, too! They're starting to heal up, but last weekend was a bit disheartening. Or it was all just the loss of blood. Hard to tell. I've started wearing my leather work gloves when messing with the framing glass, so that's worked out.

I did break the glass on a large frame though. Grrrr. And then I broke it again while trying to move a piece of plywood today! Just not cool. But, there's an upside! I have an art friend who works in stained glass, and she said she'd cut the glass down to smaller sizes for me, which works out, since I had some smaller frames that needed glass! Win!

I have an exstensive list of things that still need to be done, 10 days to do it all in, one painting half done, 4 that need to be photographed, 3 blank canvases that are calling to me, solid ideas for 2 of them and 1 canvas that has vexed me for the last time and will have something painted over it soon.

That's the rundown for now, I'll have another update soon, with all that stuff I promised in the previous post. For Reals.

Found Moon

2010-08-04T00:58:00.000-04:00

Remember this one?
"Lost Moon."

I titled it after the book by Jim Lovell. The book is better known as Apollo 13. That movie was impactful to me, made me crazy about space stuff and fuel something of an intense hobby/minor obsession for the better part of the next 15 years. I painted it for the "patriotic" loosely-themed month of July at Art & Soul by Phoebe Gallery. See, right before I painted it, Obama declared that we weren't going back to the moon, at least on his watch.

I love the scene in the movie, after the 1969 Apollo 11 moon landing, where Jim Lovell (Tom Hanks) is standing in his backyard, putting his thumb over the moon and blocking it out. Later, when Apollo 13 is in crisis, his wife, Marilyn, stares up to the moon, knowing that her husband is somewhere there.

I've always enjoyed staring up at the moon. I can point out the Sea of Traquility, the Ocean of Storms, and let's not forget the Bay of Rainbows (the official, less Saturday-morning-cartoon name is Sinus Iridium). The large crater near the bottom of it called Tycho, after astronomer Tycho Brahe, is that one that thas the light colored rays arching away from it. Some nights, its good to just stare up at the moon.

I painted "Lost Moon" as something of a companion to "From The Earth" (that title also tied to the Apollo program and Tom Hanks...points to the best guesser). It was going a step further on the aerosol + acrylic style, using the aerosol to get that awesome smooth glow that is around the moon, and the acrylics to get the texture and the craters of the moon. With "Lost Moon," I referenced those nights that the moon is low and golden and large on the horizon, and those nights when that moon is touched by clouds.

It hung at Phoebe's for the month of July, and was often visited by a blind woman, Dena Polston. Dena has been blind since birth and has never seen the moon. I guess she knows its there, because someone has told her, but she's never been able to stare up at the moon, at Tycho, Tranquility Base, or Mount Marilyn. Dena experiences art by touch, and she touched "Lost Moon." She said that by doing this, she saw the moon for the first time. This kind of blew my mind. I've been saying that alot about this story, but its really the only way to describe it, and it still doesn't completely convey my awe. Awe doesn't even convey how I feel about all of this.

Dena fell in love with that painting, and I couldn't take the moon away from her! So at the end of the month, I told Phoebe that "Lost Moon" was now "Found Moon" and it was also now Dena's. I love and appreciate staring at the moon and to have the chance to give that to a person who has never experienced that was...something more than amazing.

The next time Dena came into the gallery, Phoebe was to give the painting to her. When she finally came in, she brought a poem with her to have Phoebe give to me. Phoebe surprised her by putting the painting into the same hands that had just held the poem. I wish I could have seen that moment.

Dena's poem, coincidently, was also titled "Found Moon." And here it is:

You call to me like an old friend
You touch me beyond mere words
Though I cannot see all that you have to offer
I have an innate feeling that you are meant for me.
I'm drawn to you over and over again.
Like a forged chain inexorably linking the two of us.
I always know right where you are
Every time I return, I have to look and make sure you're still there
You make me dream of romantic places and times
I can't help smiling
Just thinking of songs, poems and other works you've inspired
I'm so glad I found the moon in all its glory
And I'm elated that we have found each other.
-Dena Polston

This whole thing just rocks so much. And I'm still not doing justice to it all. But it still really, really rocks. I could have a piece of my art hang in the Louvre, the White House, or positively critiqued by the best, most highly-regarded art critic in the world, and it still wouldn't measure up to the compliment from Dena that, as far as she is concerned, that painting contains the real Moon, the Moon I look up to in awe.

Thanks Dena!

Next Time: New camera, that mystery painting, a whole bunch of new ones, Clowe's update, injuries, framing, and a coronal mass ejection (...that's the big scientific name for a solar flare!).

Busy Busy Busy

2010-07-24T12:22:00.001-04:00

Yesterday, I accomplished alot!

The day started in Muncie, hanging a couple of security cameras for Phoebe's. Some no-brain jack knob stole some stuffs and that's just not cool. One of my co-workers, Gary Gallinger, an avid techie, sold some small, HAL-looking cameras to Phoebe with a crapload of cable and I attached them, ran them through the ceiling and set them up so Phoebe can record them. I was told if I can set up a liveshot, I can set up this system and...Presto! Instant security system, just don't add water. (cause, you know, it's electronic).

While in Muncie, I dropped off Angry Flower Girl, Comí El Loto, and Tomoe at Cortex, reclaiming From The Earth, Pineapple, and Tomato. I also picked up my July show pieces from Phoebe's. I'm sitting out August there to prepare for Clowes. I did leave Lost Moon behind, now retitled Found Moon. I left it for Dena, the blind lady that loved it. It's hers now, her moon.

Drove back to Indy, stopped by Butterfly Consignment. Left for them Radish, From The Earth, and Licked By Rembrandt. Those will be there and for sale for 90 days. Go see! Go see! Also, they had a really cool lime green and silver bracelet for sale, and it called my name and I BOUGHT IT! :P I worked hard that day, it was my reward! :) The lady working that day said it was cool that I bought something there because so many artists drop stuff off but don't buy anything either, kind of instead of supporting the establishment that's giving you a shot. I told her that wasn't and issue for me: If I find something nifty and its a good price and I got the dough, I'll buy it. I like cheap finds. My problem is letting myself buy stuff! Bad Joy!

Also at Butterfly Consignment, I delivered some Green Glam jewelry, handmade by Debra Dragoo, for sale there as well. Since I have to drive back and forth anyway, I'm a go-between. I have a cool blue scarab necklace made by Debra, so go check out her stuffs too, its pwitty!

Drove down to Southport, to my friendly neighborhood Hobby Lobby. Got a mat cutter kit thing (had a coupon!) and some mats as matboard was on sale. Got some orange paper for the labels I have to make for each painting. I had a good start on it the night before, but then I went and got the wrong shade! Grrrr.

Stopped by Value World, my neighborhood thrift store, and got a bunch of big frames (I had a coupon!). They have some horrible looking prints, usually in really nice wood frames, but always for a very low price, given the size of the frame. So I buy them, discard the print, repaint the frame and instant art display!

I finally figured out the formula for the blades of the windmills. I made a little check thing, and made sure all the angles lined up with that piece of paper. Penciled them in and painted them over. I have the three little ones done (they had all the background finished, just needed windmills) one large one (the one I needed to repaint) nearly finished, just need some final touch ups, and one more all ready to go, I just haven't really gotten to it yet. Hey! I got tired!

No really, as I was working on them last night, I realized, as you get tired, you mess up. I stopped myself before I messed up something stupid. Good thing, cause these windmills have been giving me headaches and I want to paint something else. I have one Puerto Rico ocean painting to finish (the one you can see me painting in my website photo) and four blank canvases. I also have some plywood scraps that will soon be painted as well!

I still have a TON of work to do, but its trucking along. If I just keep doing SOMETHING, then every day I'll be closer to being done. This house is gonna look so empty with all my artwork hanging somewhere else for so long!

And I'm saving my pennies for a new camera. Pics as soon as possible!

Next time: All that other stuff I keep saying I'm going to write about, except I'll (probably) really do it!

Windmills = GRRRRR

2010-07-21T13:08:00.000-04:00

Update! RAWR!!

I've got four paintings done. I'm calling them, collectively, Bouquet. There's a big pinkish rose, on a turquoise background, a non-descript yellow flower, on a purple background, and two lil ones: A pink round flower on yellow, and a leaf (kind of like an olive branch) on orange. The yellow one and the rose are based on flowers my boyfriend has given me recently. He's the type that loves to give flowers, and I'm the type that's happy to receive them. The lil pink one is based on some Remy and I saw in my neighborhood on a walk (she actually gets to go to the dog-friendly local comic shop! Yay!). And the leaf is because...every bouquet needs some greenery.

They're kind of stylized, similar a bit to the three Mee-ba paintings I did. I'm happy with them, and figure they'll make up one wall for Clowes (out of 24!).

The windmills are....coming along. I have the backgrounds (read: sky) painted on all that are going to be windmills. I have the ground painted on most of them. All that's left, really, is the ... stupid windmill. You know, the point of the whole thing. I was really scared of the straight lines and getting the angles just right for the blades. I think I've figured out a work-around, I just need to settle down and do it. Hard part is, for some reason, with the blues or what I just don't know, I have a hard time seeing stuff on those canvases at night. I'm due for my eye appointment to get my prescription upped anyway, so I know my eyes suck. I'm restricted to painting those in the daylight, even with lots of lamps at night! Tomorrow is my Saturday, so it will be devoted to painting those things, as I'll be home and awake (two key things) in the day time. Seriously, when I just PAINT the windmills, I'll have 5 more paintings done! It's so frustrating, like a clog in a pipe!

I have four more canvases to do. I'm thinking doggies. I have cool pastel drawing I did of Dottie at a lake a few years ago. I'd really like to paint Remy. Most of the time, when I'm painting, she likes to sit right next to me. I joke that she's my painter's assistant. Sometimes, she gets paint ON her, she'll lay down on a splatter or something. It really is cute. I'd like to give her a beret or something, and an apron! A few months ago, I got her to make a splatter painting on a piece of foam core. She likes to hold brushes in her mouth. I probably should train her more. Her whole name is Rembrandt, so we joke that she's an original Rembrandt. SO, I'm thinking the last four canvases will be Rembrandt and other dog-oriented. Remy just has so much attitude in her face! I've tried sketching it out, but she's really hard to capture! Maybe if I just PAINT it, it will all work out. I'd take a pic to post here, but...My camera is still broke. I looked, as suggested to me, on Craigslist, for a new camera, but I was worried there was some shady deals. Some cameras were listed at nearly the same price as a current one, but with half the megapixels! I'm aiming for a 10 or 12 mp camera, figuring I'll keep it for another 5 years at least. They're debuting the 14s so the prices are dropping fast on the "older" models. We'll see.

Last, I'm working on matting my watercolors and pastels. And framing them too, of course. I figure if I can learn to cut the mats myself, I'll save some crazy cash. I think I'm just about scared of the rigid straight lines of the matboard as I am of the windmills! Most of that work will have to wait til Friday anyway, so let's get over my windmill blade fear first and then tackle the mat board!

Next time: For REALS: That painting at Phoebe's, Art Bank, matting, and what paintings are now gonna be where. For REALS!

Death of a Camera...RIP.

2010-07-13T13:32:00.000-04:00

Welp, my camera died. I don't know how. I don't know how to rescusitate it. It won't switch off the little movie setting that's in between the picture viewing and picture taking settings. When it does switch to the picture taking setting, it shows all the little icons on the screen....and black. *sigh* It was a good run, anyway. Guess I know what I'll be saving up for. Worst part is alot of stores have the upgraded version of the same camera (Canon Powershot--with 12 mp instead of 3) on sale now! Oh well. In time.

Hey! I know! Someone buy a painting so that I can use the proceeds to buy a new camera! Yeah! That's it! :)

Even though I can't show you through photo-documentation, things have been hopping lately!

Thanks to the awesome Debra Gindhart Dragoo, another artist that shows at Phoebe's in Muncie, I know have artwork showing (and, hopefully, selling) at Cortex Hair Center in downtown Muncie. It's a really nifty place, with some cool swirly textures on the wall that, if you follow them back to their sculptural source, reveals them to be strands of hair from a lady's head. I plan on rotating painting in and out of there as I take new work up to Phoebe's, usually around the 24th of the month.

Also, thanks to fellow newsphotographer (although at a different station) Joel Clausen, I'll soon have four paintings on display (and, hopefully, selling) at Butterfly Consignments in Castleton. I met with the owner, Niquelle Allen, and they have a really wonderful shop! The walls are a deep yellow and a chocolate brown, and should look neat as backdrops for my works. She selected "Licked By Rembrandt," "Radish," "Conversation Dimmed," and "From The Earth" to be shown there. All are for sale as well! None are there yet, as I still have to finish framing "Conversation Dimmed" and "From The Earth" is still at Cortex. Haha, much to do.

And speaking of framing, I have about 28 pictures that NEED to be framed, pronto, because....
August 16th through October 10th, Joy Hernandez Art will be showing at Clowes Hall at Butler University! I'll be kicking off their season, hanging pretty much my entire collection (the display space is HUGE) in the lobby of Clowes. They use the lobby as a gallery so that people that are attending shows have something to look at (and, hopefully, buy--Hey! I need a new camera here! :D ) during intermissions or before the shows. Thanks to my pal, Mari Yamaguchi, we will be holding a reception/gallery walk & talk on September 12th, at 1:30 pm. There will be a free jazz concert, following the walk & talk, at 3pm, performed by students at Butler.

In the meantime, I'm pretty much painting my BUTT off, I have 14 canvases here in my front room (my "studio") in various stages of production, from still in the wrapping, to having paint on it from 4 months ago, to halfway finished, to all but finished but I'm too intimidated to fix it, to ...Finished! Yes. I have one painting finished. Thirteen more to go. I wanted to take a picture of it and show you all but....my camera broke. :( Can you see yet how much this is bothering me? I feel like I got poked in the eye!

On that note, time for the rest of the day.

Next time: The explanation of that painting in the previous post, updates on the progress of THIRTEEN paintings, how things are coming in Clowes preps, and an update on my sanity, or lack thereof. Oh yeah, and fun at the Art Bank! Laters!

July's First Thursday

2010-07-02T14:52:00.000-04:00

First Thursday was last night. It rocked. I have a few people interested in some of my paintings and one is particularly notable.

There's a lady that has come into Phoebe's often, and she's been blind since birth. Recently, I've painted the moon, using extra paint to make crater textures to give the moon a bit of realness. Currently, I have Lost Moon on show at Phoebe's and this lady came in "saw" the painting.

She sees by touching, she analzyed Lost Moon and loved the texture. It is spray-paint smooth on the background, then the roughness of the cratered moon, and then a lighter, smoother texture for the clouds that cover it. This is a woman that has never experienced the moon. We can only SEE the moon, unless you're one of the lucky few, you can't touch it, and you certainly can't taste it or hear it or smell it. The moon's existence is only presented to us earthly humans through sight. So, for the first time, this woman "saw" the moon.

Phoebe relayed this via Facebook: "She said to tell you that she talked to your painting and said it was like greeting a friend...she said, "hello, Moon" and she could feel it."

My mind has been blown.

From Left to Right, Top to Bottom: Art & Soul by Phoebe Gallery; "The War" hanging on the wall with other artists' work; "Lost Moon," hanging where it can be experienced; "El Día De Los Papeles," article and close-up pics next time; and Phoebe, taking a break, relieving a break-er, revelling in success, I hope. Thanks Phoebe!

Also, as promised, a bit about coffee shops, or, at least, one in particular: Country Morning Coffee Co., in Kewanee. It has recently opened, my mom told me about it, and we visited the shop during my trip home. They have wonderful fruit smoothies (coffee and I don't mix; I'm already a spazz).

The owner, Elizabeth Wolf, has been trying to bring the 'art vibe' to Kewanee. Why not? It has a great downtown, with all the old buildings pretty much preserved (not really due to much to any kind of activism, I think it was more that no one new what else to put there so why not leave them alone? Well, except for the always encroaching Good's Furniture of course.) The result is a bunch of old buildings, looking like they would have in the 20's or 30's with lots of lil shops and such that have moved into the ground floors. I assume that people live in the second and third floors, but I've never met anyone that does!

Elizabeth is already hosting art, using the coffee shop walls as gallery space, and Mrs. Lane, my former art subsitute teacher, runs a gallery two blocks away. The library is across from the coffee shop, they could sponsor some reading related events (poetry slam, anyone?). There are some fun restaurants nearby. This is the same area that comes alive during Hog Days (Labor Day weekend, to lay people). Imagine it pumping and bopping every...say Third Thursday...or whatever!

I would love Kewanee to have an event like this. I only wish I was closer, so that I could lend a hand in organizing. There isn't much else going on in K-town, its practically a blank slate with the infrastructure (businesses) in place. There are a few places around Indiana, small towns, that have embraced the artworld as their form of commerce and notariety, there's no good reason Kewanee can't do it. It's ripe for the picking, and we just need someone with the ambition (and proximity) to do it! We all know (especially through Facebook) who can do-play-perform-cook what. C'mon Boilers!

Next time: Cortex, Clowes, and what was that new painting with no explanation you just saw above??? Yeah.

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

2010-06-25T13:08:00.000-04:00

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

2010-06-22T13:42:00.000-04:00

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!!!!

2010-06-11T20:31:00.000-04:00

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

2010-06-10T20:45:00.000-04:00

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

2010-06-08T12:55:00.000-04:00

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!!!

2010-06-06T13:06:00.000-04:00

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!

From The Earth...

2010-05-25T12:42:00.001-04:00

One last spray paint painting...or at least psuedo-spray paint painting:

This one's called "From The Earth." The background is spray paint and the moon is painted in acrylic. Hence the "psuedo."

I've always wanted to paint the moon, but, maybe its just because of my eyes being bad, the moon has always had a nice glow around it when I look at it. In photographs, its very clear, but I wanted to make sure it had that glow. How I see it.

The canvas was repurposed from the second attempt at the Pineapple painting, the one that I overdid and ended up kinda grey-looking. If you look closely, you can still see the outline of the pineapple beyond the black parts. I was wanting to cover up the spray work underneath, and more spray paint will cover up spray paint nicely. It just dawned on me how to make the glow behind the moon! Spray!

The acrylic moon I painted very rough, let the paint stand up in little peaks to simulate craters. Best part: I pointed out about where Apollo 11 would have landed to my boyfriend when I finished it, Sunday night. On Monday's episode of the Big Bang Theory, they were pointing a laser at the moon, more specifically, at the Apollo 11 landing site.

Also on Monday, after taking From The Earth and the others to Phoebe's, my story for the day at work was about some kids that broke into the Carmel Performing Arts Center Palladium and sprayed words all over the dry wall. Spray paint, all day. I was joking on our way up there that it was really an art form...but really they were just being juvenile. And not that bright: They almost misspelled "Carmel" as caramel, and had to correct it. Duh.

Stuff like that keeps happening, I might start believing THE MAN is watching me, like Big Brother or something!

Anyway, I was so happy with my painting of the moon, I almost didn't want to take it to Phoebe's for sale. I like it! But maybe someone will like it more and buy it, and that's the point. I could cover my whole house with all my work, but I'd rather it go to someone else's house. Eventually, I'll run out of room. I'm on the fence about painting more moons, like a moon series. Maybe some half moons, or a copper moon (when its low and large on the horizon some nights). This will all follow the political stuff I'm gearing up for, for Phoebe's July show. It's supposed to have a patriotic theme, and we were discussing how, sometimes, dissent is the best form of patriotism. Or at least questioning and not blindly following is the best form of patriotism. I've got three ideas so far, and canvas is on sale this week. Yay! I can't wait for my weekend!

Spray Paint: El Fin

2010-05-23T00:13:00.001-04:00

I think I'm done with spray paint...FOR NOW (Cue dramatic music!). Well, almost done. I figured I'd experiment with this one canvas as a final test- mixing acrylics and spray paint, but really, its a way to finish off/cover up another failed experiment. But first the pics!

The first one, "Angry Flower Girl," you've all seen before. But but but! Wait! There's more!
I re-worked it, just a little bit. The black lines around the form I sharpened via a stencil, and I'm happier with it now. I had free-handed it in the first go-round, and I do like the crispness the stencil gives. The stencil doesn't quite cover all of the blurry bits of the black from before, but I'm cool with that too, like a weird shadow or something. Two feet wide, four feet tall, I declare this one done.

The next two are both on canvas. They are 18 x 24 inches, one laid vertically, the other horizontally. In the spirit of their gi-normous Radish predecessor, I've named them "Pineapple" and "Tomato." I kind of did them at the same time, I'd paint the background of one, and while it was drying, paint the background of the other. I'm really happy with how the Tomato turned out. You can't tell as much in the photo, because my camera simply sucks, but the colors are blended where they need to be, sharp where they should be and its just all around crisp. About as juicy a swirly tomato as I could ever paint. Yay!

I was really happy with how the Pineapple was going too...Until I botched it pulling the stencil off for the last time. For some reason, the stencil pulled up some of the background colors. This truly makes no sense, since it didn't do that to the tomato at all! But, unfortunately it did. Then, in a moment of sheer genius (sarcasm!) I decided to spray some paint into a baggie, not to huff, but to capture it in its liquid form, use an old throw-away brush (the paint will harden bristles horribly) and try to touch it up. Okay, okay, worked alright on the black bits, the light blue bits...The orange bits? Not so much. It dried darker than the surrounding orange. I quit while I was a little ahead for the part where it got weird in the yellow part. In a perfect world, I would have just accepted how it was from the beginning, and tried to pull it off as some kind of chipped stucco look, or something. In a perfect world, my stencil wouldn't have screwed it all up!

Then, to do one better, I tried to re-do that painting on a whole other canvas. Annnnddd theeennn I screwed that one up too. I tried to "dirty" it up a bit with some extraneous flickers of black spray paint, which just dulled all of the colors and looked messy. No go. So, in the end, I accepted the imperfections of the first Pineapple (if everyone turns their noses up at it, it will just go in my kitchen, so there) and sprayed all over 2.0 to fit it for a simple, acrylic-meets-spray paint makeover.

Then I'm done with the spray paint. It's loose and fun and all, and I think I'm about played out with the loose and fun style. Every once and a while, you have to go back to the 'harder' stuff, for me, the still lifes and intricate paintings that make me sit and concentrate, instead of flit around and fly free. I'm grounding myself, if anything it will reaffirm my skills. Then, later, when I get bored of sitting still, I'll go back to some kind of sillies again. That's how I roll.

Also, art networking is freaking fun! I've nearly got 200 'fans' or 'likes' or whatever on Facebook and I thank every one of them! My goal is to pretty much get my stuff out there, and, hopefully, on someone else's walls, and the only way to do that is to be present for everyone to see.

I'm thinking my next turn will have some politics in it. Given my background in current events and political cartoons, there are some subjects I can't ignore. Sorry if you prefer to keep politics out of art, or don't care for my opinion, but hey, its my way to express what I feel. You're welcome to your opinion and form of expression as well (as long as it doesn't involve tearing up my art--that's just mean).

I've got the Hip Sips--Art, Jazz, & Wine Festival coming up June 12, in Modoc, Indiana. It's an evening event, so come see! Great atmosphere, I promise. ;)

And, I think I'm going to take a stab at submitting my art for juried review at Oranje Indy. Or just Oranje. But since alot of my friends aren't in Indianapolis, I added the Indy as a reference. Looks like a nifty event, fun and flit, like some of my work recently, so we'll see. Not trying to jinx myself, it is a juried event, but it never hurts to try right?

Then I'll get a better camera and my pictures won't suck! Yay!

Ok bye.

Why I Didn't Join "Everybody Draw Mohammed Day" On Facebook

2010-05-20T12:14:00.000-04:00

Apparently today has been declared "Everybody Draw Mohammed Day." I discovered this last night, when a Facebook friend posted a link. I thought about it, and slept on it, and, today, decided not to participate. At least, not on the Facebook link.

Why?

Ok some background. In 2005, when this issue first came to light, when Muslims around the world were protesting and asking for the heads of political cartoonist contributors to Danish newspapers, I was all on board. In college, I was a political cartoonist for the paper, The Reflector, I won awards for my work in journalism contests and got to meet with nationally syndicated, yet local, cartoonist Gary Varvel. Now, while Gary and I disagree politically on many fronts, it was a wonderful chat, he made me think about alot of things cartoonist-wise, and pointed out that there weren't many female political cartoonists. He told me what I could probably do to start getting printed in newspapers, if I had something to say, but after college, I "got busy with post college life" (yeah yeah yeah) and focused on my job that truly paid the bills and stuff, and cartooning got benched. I was greatful for the chance to do it though, because it got me out of the funk I moved to Indiana in: Animation wasn't going to cut it, I was burned out and didn't want to draw, and cartooning eased me back into it. I'm always up on current events and it allowed me to express that. And, you know, I may still jump back in. We'll see.

When the 2005 protest started, I was angry. To be honest, I'll be damned if someone will tell me what I can and can't draw. I looked at the situation like this: I don't adhere to your religion, mores, or whatever. If I did, I would be a member of your sect, culture or whatever, and then you can dictate to me all day what I can and can't do. As it stands, I'm a Lutheran member of the "American" culture (in quotes because it is so diverse) and American country. The religious ideals that I adhere to are of the Christian varity as interpreted by the writings of Martin Luther (and sometimes, whatever pastor is in charge, but, unfortunately, that's a separate issue). The cultural norms and mores that I adhere to are American: We make our own way. We can be a secular nation where (hopefully) no religion or sect, even Lutheranism, can hoist its feelings about something onto all of us (And no, it never really mattered WHAT religion Obama is, or if he has any. He's the head of government, not a church). And I abide by the laws of my country, the United States of America, and most specifically in this case, the First Amendment and all of the rights afforded in it. You know, like Freedom of Speech. I liken it this way: If I was Jewish, I'd have to eat kosher, right? But I'm not, and I'm gonna eat all the Oscar Mayer hot dogs I want, instead of Hebrew National. The freedom to do so, without fear of recourse, is part of me not adhering to that religion. The same thought process allows me to watch Disney movies, because I'm not Southern Baptist. If I had kids, and wanted them baptized, and the Lutheran pastor said I had to have other Lutherans be the godparents, well, I guess I'd have to do what he says on that one, though.

So yeah, I'll be DAMNED if someone is about to tell me what I can and can't draw. Screw you. I'm a political cartoonist (if not anymore in practice, certainly still in spirit) and I have something to say. So I drew this:

I didn't draw an ugly Mohammed. I thought I drew a pretty cute one. I even gave him a halo, to give him holiness. He's not necessarily holy to me, but others think so, so I recognized that. I figured he was probably looking down on his flock, from where ever he was, and thought, "Man, with all that's going on in the world, THAT'S what they're upset about? Really? Wow."

I posted it without fear on DeviantArt, and, despite comments of discouragement and encouragement, I've left it up there. Even when friends warned me to check under my car, afterwards, to make sure it wasn't a bomb. 'Cause see, there have been artists for generations that have had something to say, to push humanity forward, in a sense, and they had to do so without fear of outraged mobs.

Now, as to why I didn't join the Facebook group. I'm not drawing a new picture for this years "day" because the above picture is all I really have to "say" on the issue. That picture, five years later, still represents what I think. I checked out the Facebook page and actually was really appalled by the comments on there. There were people making blatant racist (or religionist?) comments against all Muslims, just being totally disrespectful of the entire group. I think that's wrong. Also, there were the typical, American, Christian-Evangelical-wear-your-religion-on-your-sleeve nutjobs that were posting on there how it's ok to make fun of Mohammed because all of his followers are going to hell anyway because they aren't following the ONE TRUE religion...as dictated by the tele-evangelist they send too much money to each week to be "healed." Yeeeahhh. Not cool either, because, face it, those people are just as much extremist as the ones marching through the streets, carrying signs saying "Kill those who insult Islam." Screw both of you. So I'm not joining your little club.

No one can tell me I have to adhere to their religion, except the one I belong to, and it's completely my choice to belong to that one or not. Jews can't make me not eat pork, Baptists can't make me think the Lion King is sinful, Muslims can't make me not draw Mohammed (or anything else) and Evangelicals can't make me hate everyone that isn't like them or else I'm an evil sinner fornicator that's going to hell (or whatever). Now, if you're a Muslim, I'm not saying you should draw him. If He didn't want you to draw Him, DON'T. But don't call for my head because I did. I'm free to do what I want.

But, c'mon, people, don't go on Facebook and show how ignorant and intolerant you can be. The answer to intolerance is never more intolerance. Pot? Kettle? Extremism on both sides? Draw him for the freedom of drawing him but remember he's important to alot of people, so at least draw him respectfully. And sorry, Pakistan, that Facebook got banned.

What I Learned Today

2010-05-18T03:22:00.001-04:00

Ok Grrrr.

Spray paint can be frustrating. That is what I learned today.
I like other kinds of paints, like acrylic, because if you mess up, hey just paint over it. Spray paint you get one pass.

I reworked "Angry Flower Girl" by making a stencil for the black to sharpen it up. I actually kind of like that one. Not sure if it's up there very high, as happy as I am with the "Radish" but hey. You gotta know when to stop messing with it.

Speaking of which. YOU GOTTA KNOW WHEN TO STOP MESSING WITH STUFF.
I made two more canvas versions of the swirly food. One, a tomato, came out freaking awesome. I'm so happy with it, I can't wait to share pictures. Like, I was so happy with it, I did a little happy dance. Yes, yes, I like this one.
But...I made one more. A pineapple. I have a thing for pineapples, their shape intrigues me. I have a bunch of little pineapples all around my house, mostly concentrated in my kitchen. They're just cool. So, of course, I had to make a swirly spray paint pineapple. It had all the promise of the tomato. I had used some spray adhesive to hold down the tomato stencil's little pointy bits. Worked great. Did the same for the pineapple and it tore up some of the (very dry) background colors/layers! Not fair! Then I tried to fix it. Yeahhh. I should have quit when I was ahead. I started to, in a moment of stupidity, lay the stencil down so I could try to respray it (or something like that). Rule #1 for spray paint: ONE SHOT AT IT...Don't screw it up! Rule #2 for spray paint: Attempting to violate Rule #1 will cause you to SCREW IT UP!

Some of the really cool black came off the pineapple. *sigh* I am sad. This is so not cool. In the morning, I will try to fix it. But for now! Now, I go to sleep and let the thing dry overnight. I can't possibly screw it up while I'm sleeping. That's what I get for trying to get it finished quickly so that I could sleep with the satisfaction of having that idea checked off my mental list. Rule #3 for spray paint: Don't rush for no good reason. You WILL screw up.

Let's review:
Rule #1 for spray paint: ONE SHOT AT IT...Don't screw it up!
Rule #2 for spray paint: Attempting to violate Rule #1 will cause you to SCREW IT UP!
Rule #3 for spray paint: Don't rush for no good reason. You WILL screw up.

On that note, I will sleep off this weird bipolar-esque art feeling of on the one hand, accomplishing something, and on the other hand, SCREWING UP.

But hey, I could always just hang the pineapple in my kitchen.
'Night.

PS: Pics will follow on my "weekend" (Thursday or Friday), as my camera takes way to long to cooperate. It is a ridiculously concentrated effort and I'm putting the evil lil device on notice that it shall be replaced! Some day.

Spray Paint Endeavours

2010-05-13T21:30:00.000-04:00

I've finished my three spray paint efforts. I'm reluctant to call them grafitti art, but they were inspired by a contest that was going to be held at the Art & Soul by Phoebe Gallery, in Muncie, but was cancelled after some unwarranted controversy. Anyway, here are my three pieces:

The first one is called "Angry Flower Girl." Why? Because it looks like an angry flower, but also like a girl wearing a green dress with red hair.

The second one is called "Yeah." Figure it out.

The third one is called "Radish." once again, figure it out. Sorry, all my creativity went into making these things, and I had very little left to devote to naming.

I definitely like "Radish" the best. I'm just really really happy with how it came out. The other two are like evolutions. "Angry Flower Girl was my first try. I painted that one free-handed, using some Krylon paint, some Valspar paint, and some off brand Wal-Mart kind for the black and white. I like the flow of it and I like the shape of it and I'm glad with how the colors blended in some parts, but other parts I think I overworked a bit. I like how it moves and the shape of it all...I didn't use stencils on this one, so I might still go back over the black parts with a stencil. I'm torn.

The second try was "Yeah." With that one, the background, the purple and white cloud bits, are free-handed, but the black parts and the word are stenciled. I sketched this out while watching "This Is Not A Show," a REM special that was on Sundance back in March. I was just watching and listening, and this popped in my head. I scribbled it down with a bunch of sharpies, while my boyfriend looked at me, puzzled. I liked the colors, and the three lines in the corner are something I draw to symbolize speech or thoughts. Just my little style. I'm cool with how this turned out, it is what it is. One thing I learned, though, was that next time, I'll probably use some kind of low-tack spray adhesive, instead of little bits of rolled masking tape to stick the stencil down to the plywood. When I sprayed the black, you can kind of see some spots where the paint dusted under the stencil, and the masking tape left a clear, undusted spot. Not happy, but there's nothing I can really do about it. If I try to change it, to fix it, I'll just screw it up. One thing you have to do sometimes is walk away before you make it worse. I had to stick the stencil down somehow.

The third one I did is called "Radish." I'm the happiest with this one. The stencil was fun, I figured out how to not completely screw up the rest of the picture while stenciling (I didn't cover the entire thing everytime on the other one) and I like how the shading on the radish came out. It was a last minute decision and it worked out well in a medium where you pretty much get one shot at it. Spray painting is definitely an artform where you better just make a plan, stick with it, and get it right on the first try, because there are very few re-dos. Acrylics are just the opposite, you can re-do and re-do until you have a big wad of paint on a canvas, and then you can still re-do, because all that extra paint just adds an interesting texture to the background. For reference, come see my painting "Tomoe" in real life. That one has, like, three other paintings under it that I got mad at and covered them up.

The swirly style of the radish is another marker of mine. I like to do these random swirly fruits and vegetables. I've done pineapples and tomatoes in the past, but never anything this big and with spray paint. I may do a pineapple and a tomato still, for the June show at Art & Soul, but I'd probably do them on canvas. These paintings are 4 ft by 3 ft, for the most part, and on plywood, so I'm going to have to get creative as to where I can store them! I love painting big, but, man, storage is what really limits me! Also, I really need to get a higher megapixel camera. My shots of these paintings really suck. Hmmm, I think after my next sale, that may be on my list. :)

So, what do you think?

The Day After First Thursday

2010-05-07T13:01:00.000-04:00

Wow. First Thursday was packed!

As the weather has warmed up, there have been more and more people getting out to see what's going on. It was a constant stream of people at Art & Soul by Phoebe, even some fire fighters stopped by...in their big yellow truck! It kinda freaked everyone out a bit, like a sudden alarm, but they were just driving by and wanted to look around, they said.

Phoebe had her prom dress on display, and several other momentos from the 50's and 60's. A sculpture artist made a tail fin from a 50's car, for the front window, and a restored red 50's car was parked out front (hey, don't ask me what kind, I couldn't tell you). That sculpture artist also had on his 38 year old, patched, hippy jeans on, going with the retro vibe. Me, I embraced the tie-dye too.

The artwork was a fun mix. This First Thursday was also the 95th birthday of the grandmother of a frequent artist. The grandmother contributed some textile pieces and we all had cake with her. There was also a submission from an 11 month old! No joke! It was obviously...abstract and there were pictures of him in the process of painting. It was cute! The caption said that he liked to watch daddy paint, so they gave him a canvas and a brush and he smeared paint around. Now, if only I could get my dog Remy to quit "helping" me while I paint, and to perfect her own technique. Usually, she sits, leaning against me, while I paint, sometimes nuzzling my elbow. One time, I did have her hold a brush in her mouth, and she came up with a something on some foam core board. We'll have to do it again, I think. Her whole name is Rembrandt, after all.

Which kind of leads me to my paintings on display this month:

This one was titled "Licked By Rembrandt." Why? Because when we were sitting around trying to figure out what it should be called, Remy walked up to it, gave it a good sniff (everyone's an art critic) and then licked the middle of the canvas. I guess she approved. It was such a bizzare little moment, that phrase just had to be the title.

These four are titled "Rewind 1, 2 3 & 4." They can be sold together or separate. I'm not entirely pleased with the acutal photos that I took of these pieces (or Licked). For one thing, the colors are pretty flat and even throughout and don't have the shadows that are in the photos. I need to get a better camera. My current 5 year old one with only 3 mega pixels is a bit obsolete. But it was a graduation present, so Thanks Mom!

All five of these have something in common: Spray paint. There is actually an earlier version of "Licked" that has yellow circles with bright blue shadows, and orange around the background. I liked that one so much that I hung it in my kitchen. The colors went well. It always feels so good when an experiment comes out the way you want. That orange one was never really meant for sale, I just wanted to test it out. One both the oranged one and "Licked" the backgrounds are spray paint. The black and gold coloring on the "Rewinds" are also spray paint. There initially was going to be a grafitti art contest at Art & Soul for the month of June, but true grafitti artists were skittish about being public, and it didn't help that some over-reactionary numbskulls tried to counter publicize the event as promoting criminal activity! Art & Soul was just trying honor that art form!

I don't even know how to do true grafitti style art. In fact, these paintings were mostly an experiment to see how well I could control the paint. Now, I have three pieces of plywood that, today, I hope to paint with some grey wall paint to seal them, and then see how far I get in crafting my "masterpieces." ha. I'm just going to be happy if the paint doesn't run.

These three and two more (undecided, probably a bit more traditional, one may be political) pieces will being going to Art & Soul in June.

-Joy

First Thursday!

2010-05-06T15:50:00.001-04:00

Ok, so today is First Thursday!

In alot of cities, they do a special art/open-gallery walk on a certain day of the month. In Indianapolis, its First Friday (by the way, that's tomorrow). In Carmel, Indiana, they do Second Saturdays. In Muncie, Indiana, they have First Thursday.

I'm currently showing several pieces of art each month at a new gallery in Muncie called Art & Soul by Phoebe. It's a cool little place that fills up quick. Their motto is "Artists first." They often have a feature artist, or little contests (this month also hosts a scholarship contest for local high school artists) and sometimes a fun theme. I guess some people would have something against a theme, like their art is supposed to be as it is...or something like that. But you know what? I like the themes. They're not written in concrete, but it is a fun way to get you thinking. My art style bounces around so much that I look at a theme as a challenge. April was a spring theme, ok, easy enough: Flowers! But May? May is retro month. 1950's, 1960's--I heard they even got a restored vintage car to park out front just for kicks. Phoebe is going to put her prom dress on display and all the artwork in the front of the gallery will most likely fit the theme.
It got my creative juices running and here's what I came up with:

hmmmmm....Oooook. The host is is a bit wonky with the pics. I'll try to add them here later, I have to get going to Muncie! If you're here via Facebook, look in my "Acrylics" photo album for "Rewind 1, 2, 3, and 4" and one called "Licked By Rembrandt." Those were my five Art & Soul paintings for this month, I'll explain those titles in a post when I get back!

-Joy

Hi!

2010-05-06T15:29:00.000-04:00

Hello,

So this is the blog for Joy Hernandez Art. This is the story behind the art. And this is the first post. Yay!

Sometimes, I have a hard time ...explaning... my art. People will ask me questions about why I painted it, what inspired me, what does it "mean" and I have no clue what to answer. Some of my work comes from my day job, a TV news photographer. I see stuff on a day-to-day basis that just kind of intrigues me, so I paint it. Sometimes, I'm painting odd, stylized versions of something from back home (Illinois). Sometimes, it's just an idea that popped into my head that I just need to get out of my head. And, man, do I get antsy until that can happen.

I guess my driving force behind my art is making something visible so that others can see what I see. My first career goal was to be an animator, to work for Disney (thanks, Lion King) and to draw what I "see" so that other people can watch it. Unfortunately, I have about a 3 second attention span. I found out, half way through college, that there was no way I could sit there for the next 40 or so years of my life, and draw the same drawings, with only minute changes, over and over, to make images move. So I changed directions, moved to Indiana, and got into television news. Now, I only have to hit a record button and stand there for thirty seconds in order to have 30 seconds of video. Much better than drawing 500 pictures! And now the viewer can see what I saw!

My 2-D art is like that, in fact, its all related. My news photography is an extention of my art; from shot composition to subject matter, I can't have one without the other. But with my 2-D art, the art on this website, I can show you whatever I want. I don't have to wait for the right circumstances to be there, in order to capture that sight. If I want to see a statue on Rapa Nui wear sunglasses, I don't need to wait for someone to put a giant pair on it, I can just paint it and you'll see it!

And then that three second attention span plays in: As you browse the images on my website, you notice that there is no discernable theme for the subject matter of my artwork. In fact, in most cases, there is no discernable theme in the style of my artwork. I will work in one style, in one type of medium for a while, then get bored, or run out of ideas, and do something else. I'm versatile! *bows* Eventually, I'll come back and work again on another style (I need to do some more pastels...) but until then, I'm a pinball machine bouncing around.

The only discernable connection is: Color! I'm not scared of bold colors and I'm not scared of bold black lines. I had a wonderful fellow art student teach me the value of working in dark black (not shying away from it at all) when I was in high school, and to that, a shout-out to Carl Baker. And of course, the only way to balance out the blackest-blacks are with the boldest color. I'm a fan of orange, as any good Kewaneean should be, and I personally see the world rich with color. Take some time, sometime, to stare at a cloud. Or a vast field. Notice all the bits of color there, more than Crayola could ever dream up. There's purple in that green, you know.

So here's the introduction to the world of Joy Hernandez Art. As I work on projects, I'll post pics of the process (hopefully...unless I'm on some kind of roll). As I finish projects, I'll post a pic here at the same time I put them in my online gallery, and explain what was going on behind it, where it came from. And as I participate in art events, and after I've participated, I'll blog all about it.

Thank you.