Busy Busy Busy Busy Busy Busy.....

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.

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

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

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

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.

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

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.