Fence 2010 Artist Salon

Hi All, just a quick update on what I'm up to. I'm taking part in the Fence 2010 Artist Salon, held by the Arts Center of the Capital Region in Troy, NY. It runs through July 19, and I have 2 paintings in the show. They are "Generations" and "Like Eating Glass." Stop on over and check them out if you have time! The Arts Center website is www.artscenteronline.org if you want to check their hours or any other information.
Hope you all can stop by and see it :-)

Artist Trading Card

Here's a look at my first-ever ATC, or Artist Trading Card. It was created on a piece of canvas paper the size of a baseball card. :-)

Are you Man....or Fish?

Well it's taken me about 5 months, but I've finally finished another piece, entitled "man.or.fish" -- it's acrylic/shattered mirror on canvas. The size is 24" x 48" (2 ft x 4 ft), and is my largest one to date. I'm thinking it probably would have taken me less time if I had made myself work on it more often, but I'm satisfied with it and happy that it's done. These last few weeks I have really pushed myself to finish it, and I'm glad I did. The inspiration for the piece came from a doodle I did while hanging with the bf and the words "Are you man or fish?" just sort of came to me. I guess it's like "are you man or mouse?" ...except, of course, with fish. I think fish are lovely and I've never done them in a painting before. These ones are loosely based on koi fish, and if I was to do another painting with fish, I think I'd shoot for something shaped more like a rainbow trout (those are gorgeous, as far as fish go).

Below is a view of the entire painting, and then some detail shots. I also set up the "photo shoot" according to research I've done about shooting your own work if you're too poor to hire a professional photographer, so I hope these are acceptable for now, because I'm broke.

This Studio Ain't Big Enough...

I'm working on finishing up my most recent piece (it's a big one), and every time I work on it, I am reminded of how small my bedroom studio at home is! I'm also broke as hell, so I can't afford to rent a nice studio in the nearest city or anything, but I'm making do with what I have for now. Sometimes I feel like it's so hard to get into the zone and just do my thing without worrying over a bunch of things, like spilling paint/paint-y water on the carpet, marking up the walls, and running out of storage space. I also wish I had a way of hanging up my paints on some sort of rack so that I could grab them and organize them a lot more easily. In my dream studio, I will have that and a ginormous table for painting on and I won't ever worry about spilling paint because it won't be a huge deal.

The easel I have is a little unsteady at times, but it does the trick, and I'm so glad I have it. Years ago, when I had only been working on smaller canvases, I wouldn't dream of using an easel because it seemed like holding my wrist at a weird angle to paint wasn't very useful...but I feel like getting used to an easel takes a little work, and it's a very helpful instrument, especially for larger canvases.

I also just realized that I'm blathering on about things that might not be that interesting, but I want you all to know that even when I haven't posted something new in a while, art is on my mind and in my room and always in progress here in LaurenLiz's world. :-)