Finally

Posted by: sweetpaint | March 31, 2010

Finally

Here (finally) is the series of work done for an art exhibition. It’s taken me quite a while to document this work at least somewhat correctly (I’m still pretty bad at photographing my work with correct lighting and all that, despite numerous tutorials on the process, but I’m working on it!)

The first series of portraits were done somewhat sporadically, and some though not all, were done primarily using photographs. The dates on the works are the dates of the photographs I used. I’ve lately been really obsessed with old photographs, having discovered a whole stash of them hidden in my family’s house (some left to my parents after my grandma died a few years ago.) There’s something about a photograph — that frozen second in time. I also noticed a big difference between the old photographs I’d found; in most of those taken early 1900’s, the subjects are generally so stiff and uncomfortable. Only then I’d find these random old photos of people caught unawares and grinning away, and those are the best. I love candid shots — and those more recent portraits of friends and family I’ve found incredibly engaging. (P.S. thank you to those awesome people who let me use them as subjects in the portraits!)

The second series of paintings is called the “Fortune Cookie series.” As I was painting them, I was collecting fortunes, many of which were graciously donated by friends and family for this project. Simultaneously, I was (and still am, by the way) becoming obsessed with birds, especially flocks of birds seen at a distance. The result for this was that both the fortunes and the birds somehow mingled with the landscapes I’d chosen. I think that using the short texts of the fortunes in the pieces brings this odd aspect of narration to the work.

The last painting shown here (“Psalter”) goes back to a fascination with graveyards. The tree in the piece is a cemetery tree, a giant oak, and the prayer in Latin is the Psalter of St. Jerome (again — it is also in my cemetery series from the BCA.) This piece didn’t turn out exactly as I’d wanted it to; it seems kind of haphazard and very very stiff, which is not what I was going for. Still, it may be a jumping off point for something else.

Please feel free to comment!