The work continues..

I've been a away for awhile, concentrating on a series of small paper collages.

--Though I find that I can't ignore the rust work. I found these two pieces at a scrap metal supply in Sacramento.

 I loved how they were already rusted in this pattern. 

--Mounted on wood.

--Now, for the added oil paint.

I'm debating whether to seal the metal with resin this time around. I'm liking the unfinished look. More posts coming soon...

Art on Display at Sunshine Roasters

I wanted to announce that I will be showing my art at a local coffee shop, Sunshine Roasters in Forestville CA. The show runs from October - November. Below are two of the 17 pieces that are on display. Hope you can make a visit out to take a look.

A couple of months ago I posted a photo of a completed collage of the Golden Gate Bridge. I wanted to give you a peak into my process when I am creating the collage. I have completed three so far. Each result is a bit different but I started all of them in the same way. I place a layer of blue map pieces down first, followed by the green hills in the foreground, the bridge, the mountains in the background, the water and the city scape last.

                                          Beginning

                                          Middle

                                          End

Dream Come True

It been a while since my last post since I have been busy working and moving. Even though I haven't gotten the chance to create new work I was itching to show the work publicly that I currently had. So, I made the decision to donate most of it to two worthy causes. Through Facebook and a friend I was fortunate to give my work away to the Place County Breast Cancer Endowment and to a separate fundraiser for Cancer both in Roseville, CA.
The first fundraiser for Cancer was called the Crabby for Cancer Auction. Come to find out, all of the pieces that I donated to Crabby for Cancer sold and created quit a buzz. I was so excited to here the news.

The other event was also an auction through the Placer County Breast Cancer Endowment. The organizer of this event decided that my work (my work!) was too good for the auction and needed to go into the gallery. The gallery that she is referring to is the Blue Line Gallery in old Roseville. During college I had the opportunity to volunteer at the gallery a couple of times. I always thought how cool it would be to someday see my art on it's walls.
With the kindness of the gallery my three pieces will be on display as consignment. When sold, half of the proceeds will go the the gallery and the other half to the endowment. The larger abstraction will be on display from June-August 2012 and the smaller pieces from September- November 2012.

This is all very exciting to me. It's a dream come true to be able to have this opportunity. I am so thankful and proud of myself. All it takes is a little faith in my dream. I feel completely supported by the universe and my friends and family.
The first two pieces will be in the gallery during November and the last two pictures are of what is currently there on display.

Larger Paintings

 Untitled, 4ft x 5ft; Oil on Canvas, Salt Solution

Untitled, 4ft x 5ft; Oil on Canvas, Salt Solution

The thing has already taken form in my mind before I start it. The first attempts are absolutely unbearable. I say this because I want you to know that if you see something worthwhile in what I am doing, it is not by accident but because of real direction and purpose.

Vincent Van Gogh

The above paintings I completed just before I graduated. I made the stretcher bars and stretched the canvas to fit around the bars. This process is less expensive then buying the canvases out right. I had a few ideas that I was considering for the composition and like the Van Gogh statement above, the first attempts were terrible. Never have my first attempts been worth saving. Most of the time I have a difficult time painting the ideas in my mind. The nice thing however, is that I can paint right over them and start fresh. I used the same salt solution that I use for the smaller metal pieces. What I find interesting is the solution turns white on the canvas and orange on the metal. So, all of the white areas that you see on theses paintings is the salt solution. I have received interesting interpretations of what people think the imagery means. I painted on the canvas first and then applied the solution on top. I wanted to allow the solution to create the imagery on it's own. I then placed the paint and build up the texture from there. I'm not sure that they are both finished. I could easily go back into them and add or take away what isn't working..but we'll see.

Collage, Golden Gate Bridge

Collage of the Golden Gate Bridge San Francisco, CA 12/2012

Every year my family does a white elephant gift exchange with a theme. This past Christmas is was my sisters turn to choose the theme. She decided on Geography. I thought this theme over for a couple of weeks and knew that I wanted to be creative in my approach. I made a list a some of my favorite places and settled on San Francisco. At first, I thought that I would buy Giants tickets, or a day pass to one of the museums there or a dinner out to a nice restaurant. While all of these ideas were good, I wanted to push the envelope a bit.
One day I was looking around Pinterest for creative ideas I came across an artist who uses maps to create scenes. I knew immediately that I wanted to use maps to create a collage of the Golden Gate Bridge. This artist's work by far surpasses mine but I was so inspired after taking a look that I decided to give it a try. After many late nights and 15 maps later the above image is the result. I couldn't make it to this years gift exchange but I sent my creation anyway. From what I heard it was a hot commodity. What do you think?

Creativity

I once heard that art is about story telling and most art comes from a place of struggle and darker parts of ourselves that we are not usually used to talking about. Some examples might battling addictions, weight, depression or family hardships. To make meaningful and thought provoking work the responsibility of the artist is to go to those parts of ourselves that we keep buried away from the rest of the world.

During my last semester of school the work that I was creating was lacking and I couldn’t seem to figure out a solution to get past this block and move forward. One of my professors who knew of my struggles asked my this, “Amy, do you want to be a painter, a really good painter? Artists who are painters travel to the places of hurt, they are willing to dig deeper for source materials. How far are you willing to dig to find what matters to you?” These were hard questions for me to tackle but I also knew that if growth was to occur in my work I had to go to these places of myself that I feared. It ended being some of the best advice I received while in school and helped me to create and generate ideas for the work that I made before I graduated to the work I am still doing 10 months later. Sometimes however, an artist doesn’t always have to go to the darker, deeper parts of themselves to be creative and I think if you do want to be more of a creative person then read the books below. 

Recently I watched a presentation on TED Talks that got me thinking about what I wrote above. The speaker was Julie Burstein, the author of the book I posted below; “Spark: How Creativity Works.” This is a great read if you want a little insight into creativity. Another book to consider reading is by Daniel H. Pink titled “A Whole New Mind: Why Right-Brainers Will Rule The Future.” Anyway, happy reading and Happy Thanksgiving!!