Utterly? Really, I wrote UTTERLY????

Ups and Downs, 2009, Oil on Birch Panel, 8x10

Well, in order to tell this story properly, I must also admit to having signed up to receive google alerts whenever my name shows up anywhere on the internet. Actually this is just for professional reasons. It has nothing whatsoever to do with being self absorbed and wanting to find out who says what about me. Heh.

Mostly though, I get alerts about basketball players (some kid named Travis Helgeson is a mighty fine player) in the midwest, teachers who speak up at their school district's board meetings and then finally the occasional update of a blog who has my link on their sidebar. When it gets close to a show that I am in, I tend to get more alerts; the gallery's press release in newspapers, 'what to do this weekend' bulletins boards and maybe an article about my show. And then every so often I get an alert when another blogger mentions me, which is of course, always fun and flattering.

But recently I got an alert that made me turn about 50 shades of red. Some of you may recall my blathering on and on about Joe Fig's excellent book, Inside the Painter's Studio a few months ago. Which, by the way, I still love and am still rereading sections of it every so often. I wrote this very gushy, oops, I mean enthusiastic post which turned up on the book's publishers website as a review!!!! Good grief! I would have written something much less foolish and embarrassing had I known that anyone out there would be paying attention. And while I do stand by everything I said about the book, I might have gone a tad bit overboard when I titled the post "I Am Utterly In Love". Sigh.

However, I must say in all seriousness, that I am quite happy to have been included in this group of fine reviews. Princeton Publishing has put together a wide variety of reviews including those who can write about art and art books with depth and understanding. Including, hello! Artnews!

Um and then there is me.....

I think I should be putting together a writing resume now. Bwahahahaha!!!!!!

PS. And I am very happy that Joe's book is doing well, it just went into a second printing. Awesome!

I Am Utterly In Love

I just received Inside the Painter's Studio by artist Joe Fig the other day and I am so in love with it that I can't actually sit down and read it. I keep it near me all day and have paged through it, have looked at all the pictures but I am enjoying the anticipation of reading the interviews with the artists. So much so that I don't want to spoil all that by actually reading them. Makes sense, right?

Like most artists, I REALLY REALLY like seeing other artist's studios and learning about their studio habits. I like to enlarge the photos I see online and just pore over every detail. Love seeing all the art supplies, art in progress, along with piles of junk, and all the quirky little things most artists have on hand for no apparent reason. Here is a good article about Joe's book, along with some good images of the painter's studios.

And in a feeble attempt to position myself as a painter with a real studio (that's a self-deprecating joke, people!) I am posting a photo of my project table, which I love almost as much as this book.

I Heart Zoe Strauss

2 Ladies, 11x14

Even though I have been on a budget lately, I admit that all that tends to go out the window when it comes to things like books and art. Well, and music, yarn, shoes and clothes that I like, oh and art supplies too. But I digress.

When a good art book comes along, I usually buy it whether I can afford it or not. I put my advance order in at Amazon months ago for Zoe Strauss's book, America, and finally! it came yesterday.

I have been a fan of Zoe's ever since I came across her blog a few years ago. Zoe lives and works in Philadelphia, not far from where I lived once in South Philly (I lived in an icky, but cheap second floor apartment in a rowhouse at 8th and McKean-THAT is certainly a good story for another post:)) and looking at her work is like being transported back in time for me. I love her blog too-her enthusiasm is infectious!

I spent some time looking through America last night and it is an amazing collection of photos. To me they feel familiar, like someplace I have been before; a place I might have enjoyed while I was there, but am glad to not be there anymore. Her portraits are disturbing, but are also oddly inspiring and hopeful. Zoe clearly has respect for her subjects, which is evident in her words and images. I am especially interested in the portraits as I recently read several books about Diane Arbus (whose work I am reminded of when I see Zoe's), and of course am trying to find my own way with painting the figure. Anyway, I hope you'll go check out Zoe's blog, she has had some awesome things happen lately, and definitely check out her book if you can.

I am posting the portrait of the two ladies that I recently finished. Unfortunately, these portraits seem to be incredibly difficult to photograph, they look SO much better in person, and I haven't titled any of them yet either. However I am quite pleased with the direction they are taking. and I will put the others up soon.

Art in the Family

Fall Away, 2008, Oil on Gessobord, 5x5

So with two parents who are artists* all of our children have varying degrees of and interest in art. Our oldest son, who is handicapped and is also adopted has seemingly picked it up by osmosis. Language isn't his strong suit and he never participates in any art projects at home. However he does wonderful things at school and we are always blown away by whatever drawing or painting or sculpture actually makes it home.

Our 13 year old son has probably been the most consistently interested in art and has been telling us that he wants to do to art college for years already. He loves pottery and I have a whole bookshelf full of clay bowls and sculptures to prove it. He has recently been really into throwing pots, however that's been on hold during football season. He doesn't draw too much anymore but once in awhile he does something wonderful, he did this sketch of Penny when he was about nine:

When he was younger, he went through reams of paper, writing and illustrating the adventures of his character FUNNY BUNNY in comic book form, based on a beanie baby that someone gave him once. You know, Funny Bunny Saves the Sun from Blowing Up, Funny Bunny vs. Godzilla, that sort of thing. He has also played around with computer animation and you can see a few of them here. (obviously he is not 21, shhh)

Our oldest daughter, who is now eleven, has not done much in the way of drawing or painting over the last few years, although she has been doing a lot beading and other craft projects-things she and all her friends enjoy. This year she began middle school and has simply fallen in love with art, thanks to the awesome art teacher at her school. She is so excited about everything she is doing in the class and has also joined the school art club (she also is in the drama club and plays clarinet and will be starting piano lessons soon). I bought her some pastels and she has been busy doing all kinds of drawings in her sketchbook and then last night she did this self-portrait in watercolor:

I may have to get some tips from her on the portraits I am working on.

Our youngest daughter, Ginger, LOVES painting and her artwork has graced a few of our holiday cards. She is incredibly enthusiastic about everything and I suspect that she might make a very good assemblage artist someday, based on the fact that she is a total pack rat and is always hot gluing stuff together. In the meantime, she is also involved in music, plays percussion in the fourth grade band, and does lovely, very elaborate drawing of animals and ladies with up-do hair styles.

Of course art projects have always been a big thing around our house, but the kid's interest in them comes and goes. We don't push it either way and just try to go with whatever they are into at the moment. We have a lot of art on our walls, which we enjoy but the kids don't seem to pay much attention to any of it. Maybe it is soaking into their sub-conscious though, I hope so. And my older daughter has been spending quite a bit of time lately looking through my art books.

I love though, that they all have a wide variety of interests, with art being just one of them, which is something I didn't really have when I was a kid. I was sort of pegged as an artist when I was young, which was fine, I knew that I wanted to be an artist when I was five, but when I made noise about doing other things, like writing or being a special needs teacher, I didn't get any encouragement. I grew up believing that I was good at only one thing, something that I have tried to change as an adult, by learning how to do other things (um except for math, which I suspect I will never figure out). So that is a lesson learned and while our life clearly revolves around art, we make sure to encourage and support our kid's other interests too.

However, I can't say that Doug and I won't be doing more than a few happy dances if anyone decides to attend art college.

*Doug has a BFA from Tyler in photography and sculpture. He is an artist at heart, and his interest in photography led to holography, a field in which he was very successful, both as a creator and and in the business side. But he will get back to his own art someday, I know.

New Books

Wrap Around, 2007, Oil on Panel, 18x24

Today I am basking in the glow of a very lovely last few days with my family. Our time was spent finishing the stupid Christmas puzzle, watching silly movies, wrapping gifts, baking (I ate way too many frosted sugar cookies, bad girl!) and just hanging out.

My studio was quiet and nearly forgotten, poor thing. But my fabulous husband gave me two books which will ease me back into work over the next few days. One was a book about Monet, which is quite different than the other book of his work that I have. This one shows the details of his business-sales records, receipts, influences, travels, personal papers like letters and photographs, it is so amazing to see those items and it's good to be reminded that even artists like Monet had to deal the with the more humdrum things like paperwork.

The other is a wonderful book about Richard Diebenkorn. I have been a fan of his work and am now especially interested in his figurative work as I am thinking that I will be focusing on that while I am at the Vermont Studio Center in February. Anyway, this book describes his background and the images of his work are just amazing.

And for my birthday a few weeks ago, Doug gave me a book of etchings, mostly portraits, by Lucian Freud. It too has been very inspiring, if a bit disturbing. Which I love, by the way.

I have another laid back day ahead of me, although I do plan to putter around in the studio a bit. Even though I am finished painting, I do need to paint the panel cradles and put hangers on about ten pieces. And as I have now learned from Monet, there is always the paperwork to do.