i like to paint!

malberga002, originally uploaded by poopee shmoopee.

2007
24"x36"
acrylic on canvas

Today is a ridiculously beautiful day, but my allergies are going HAYWIRE. I've taken pills and nose spray but I still have a headache and my eyes are seriously light sensitive. As much as I'd love to be down by the beach RIGHT NOW, with the amount of pollen, the wind and high humidity it's best I stay inside. Le sigh.

We took Oscar and Luna (our 14-year old cat) to the vet this morning. Oscar was happy until we got him up on the table. He took his shots like a real trooper. Luna on the other hand started growling loudly as soon as I opened the door to her carrier. Everyone in the waiting room heard her spitting and screaming at the vet and me. He had wanted to clip her nails, but she was so pissed off he couldn't. Actually she hasn't let us clip them since we got the dog - 5 YEARS AGO! He told me the only was would be to sedate her - which would cost me $250. Yeah, like that's going to happen.

more of my assignments from last term

mixed media on braced panel
20"x24"



acrylic on braced panel
24"x26"
-- i'm not totally happy with this but had to stop and hand it in anyway. i think the white eyes are a little much. will keep working on it and post updates when i get a chance



egg tempera on masonite panel
7"x10"

day 4 - oh joy

This is the view from my kitchen window:





From the way my week has gone, this blog is going to end up being a repository of whining and bitching. BO-RING!

Instead I'll tell you about my homework for Painting Studio. Here's the project description:

Contrast Diptych

Materials: compositional studies; 2 supports (any size) with gesso or other preparation; acrylics (or other media), mediums, equipment; mounting and hanging equipment.

Process: make preliminary studies demonstrating variations on your theme; select and execute, making changes and additions that suppport your subject as you work; hang the work in various relationships using mounting equipment.

Examples of Contrasts:

• complexity/simplicity
• organic/geometric
• warm/cool
• large/small
• interior/exterior
• transparency/opacity
• painterly/graphic
• boldness/subtlety
• linear/curvilinear
• depth/flatness
• heavy/weightless
• male/female
• accent/neutrality
• activeness/stasis
• public/private
• irrational/rational
• representational/abstraction
• romantic/classic
• asymmetry/symmetry
• textural/smooth
• acculturated/primitive
• blah/blah/blah/you get it
  

Artists to consider:

• David Salle
• Gerhard Richter
• Andy Warhol
• Roy Lichtenstein
• Jim Dine
• Tom Burrows
• Phil Irish
  

I also have to construct my own supports instead of buying them ready made like I've been doing so far. Sooooooo, I'm doing 1 support in door skin and pine and the other support in plexiglas.

I'm still working out the actual painted part.

the first day of the rest of my life

Day 1 of NaBloPoMo...ahem...

Hai!!!

So anyway, the loft is sold! What a relief.

Except for fact that as of November 27th, we are moving in with my parents.

Sigh. I know.

I said I'd never do it. But we ARE doing it.

I mean, how hard could it be to find the perfect balance of price, size and location for a live/work space in the city? It's fucking impossible is what it is. At least, it's beginning to feel that way. The only real good house we've seen, and tried to bid on, sold for 70K over it's asking price. I guess that's why they call it a seller's market.

We're basically putting our stuff in storage and moving there until we can find a new place, buy it and move into it.

Anyway, let's forget about all that for a few moments. Let's contemplate some artwork completed for my 2nd-year painting studio course.


acrylic mediums and techniques study.
acrylic paint on canvas
4'x4'


collage study
7"x9"
old magazines, japanese papers and acrylic paint on canvas board


collage study
7"x9"
old magazines, japanese papers and acrylic paint on canvas board


collage study
7"x9"
old magazines, japanese papers and acrylic paint on canvas board


20"x26"
acrylic paint on braced wood panel


study in observation and transfer of a scaled up image onto a solid ground.


So....whatchu think?

playing with hue and space

study#2 for colour and composition class.

goal: develop a composition which incorporates an illusion of 3 dimensional space using one or more of the following devices: linear & aerial perspective, scale, position, overlapping, depth of field, warm/cool contrasts, transparency, context/viewpoint, saturated/desaturated, value contrast and spatial relationships.

size: 9"x12"
media: gouache, watercolour paper, card stock

linocut for printmaking assignment #2

meditation on light and dark

colour and composition class project#1

acrylic on 3, 5x7 canvasses

project guidelines:

• Light and dark is a fundamental fact of our existence as the cycle of night and day demonstrates. It is a powerful metaphor, which is at the core of many of our narratives. It underlies the structure of all composition and visual organization. It is a major contrast present in all colour relationships.
• It is the starting point for the first project, one that might take you in many directions. Explore it physically, metaphorically, culturally, symbolically and in any number of ways. Think, imagine and challenge yourself.

UPDATE
this is the photo that inspired my project. i took it last summer while up at the cottage. i miss it there. sigh.

hey! are you still there?

I've been meaning to post for ages, but I'm still adjusting to the whole "get up and go" school thing (a.k.a. get off yer lazy ass and do some work, beeyatch). This term, I'm taking drawing, art history, intro to film and video and intro to sculpture.



There's plenty of homework, which I'm not really used to, so my brain is constantly chugging away. That means I'm sleeping fairly erratically. Only to grind my teeth to nubs when I actually do sleep. Since I've been off work since July, I've also been worrying (grinding) about money. So, last Friday, I got myself a part-time job on campus.



OK. Sleepy time now. Post later. Kisses!

i'm baaaaaack!

4 x (8x10)
acrylic on canvas

new work

18x36
acrylic on canvas
completed last week.


4(8x10)
acrylic on canvas
in progress

Ok, yeah, so, like, I , like, totally quit my job, eh?

As of last week, I am blissfully unemployed. I haven't posted at all about work, not because I'm afraid of being dooced, but because there are some things I just leave out of this blog. OK, considering how often I post, there are a lot of things I leave out of this blog. Mostly because my interest in journaling, or whatever this is supposed to be for, waxes and wanes, as they say.



Anyway, now its over and I don't even have to bother thinking about it. Not that that means I'm sitting around the house all day eating bonbons and watching soaps.

You are SO WRONG.

That was just yesterday, and it wasn't bonbons but coffee and not soaps but obsessively exploring flickr. Gawd, I'm such a geek.



For the most part, though, I've been working my tushie off over here. I've been doing a lot of housework, some copywriting work for a local interior designer, designing business cards for my brother's new business, starting a whole new series of paintings and drawings, repainting my bedroom (which should be done today), working on major landscaping projects up at the cottage, taking lots of digital photos AND (as I mentioned) obsessively exploring flickr. phew! and it's only been 11 days!



Damn, I'm working harder now than I did when I was actually earning a paycheck. I think it's a revisit to the twisted form of guilt I felt a few years ago when I was unemployed for 2 years and spending money I didn't actually earn myself. Kirk has been awesome about it, and is excited for me to start school in September. I'm excited about it too, actually. Not because I need the degree to be an artist, but hopefully to gain more confidence, network like crazy, and mostly to accumulate as many new experiences as I can to expand my art practice beyond what I'm used to.




Anyway, until my next post here's a couple of new works in progress for your enjoyment:










This one is actually a year old, but I realized I never posted it!

Thanks to Raymi and Merkley??? for inspiring me to add more photos to my posts. Except with less boobies.

Thanks also to Squid for reminding me that I actually have a blog of my own!

pebble beach

pebble beach, originally uploaded by poopee shmoopee.

just finished this painting yesterday. i really like how this turned out and plan to do a series of them.