Here are my online journals where you can read bits and pieces of my new life in California and updates on my artistic endeavors. Scroll to the bottom if you want to start at the beginning.
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March 4, 2010
All four Rainforest paintings are finished! They will be available for viewing or purchase tonight at the RAW event in Santa Monica. (Tickets are still available.) I feel like a little kid; just so giddy to have finished these paintings. :) All four are acrylic on canvas and involved the plastic wrap technique that I've been implementing for the past 4 years or so.
Next week I'll begin two commissioned works. One will be an abstracted floral painting of hydrangeas, and the other will be a landscape of a Sydney, Australia beach. I'll start a new journal to track these artworks.
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| Rainforest in Bloom |
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| Rainforest Morning Mist |
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| Rainforest Sunlight |
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| Rainforest Sunrise |
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March 2, 2010
Today I finished and signed 2 of the 4 paintings in the Rainforest series. (In the photo, the 2 on the right are finished). They area ready for the RAW exhibition on Thursday, and hopefully I can finish the other two in time as well! I love working on the thick canvases where I can extend the painting to the edges as well. Then it's also self-framed and ready for display or purchase.
After the exhibit on Thursday my focus will be on preparing for art festivals. I'm going to start exhibiting in the Huntington Beach Friday Art-A-Faire. Yesterday I bought a bunch of gridwall panels to use in my tent for hanging art. Got those really cheap from a guy on Craig's List. Score! For the first several festivals I plan to rent a tent. Then if these go well and I'm making profit, I'll buy a tent. All these opportunities are so exciting and really motivating me to make new work. :)
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| "Rainforest II" abstract painting in progress |
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February 26, 2010
Work on the Rainforest series continues! I'm super excited about painting these days. Yesterday, a small bit of happy laughter escaped my mouth as I swept a large stroke of yellow color onto the painting Rainforest II. It's amazing to me how God created each of us with unique likes/dislikes and talents. I know many people who would never get any pleasure out of the simple act of the one brush stroke, whereas for me I saw the entire painting change before my eyes and I felt it suddenly became alive. Pure joy. Hope I get all these works done in time for the RAW exhibition, but even so I've got plenty to take to show as it is. Just clear my walls and the area under my bed! :)
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| February 23, 2010
The "RAW: natural born artists"
exhibition is in about 1 week. I am diligently working on some new
paintings to present there. They're mostly abstract, and highly
colorful, as always! Alan came up with a good name for my current body
of work. He said that most of my abstractions look like leaves, and
more specifically like leaves in the rainforest. So, I thought, my next
exhibition just might be titled Rainforest. It suits my work
well both conceptually and aesthetically. My work usually is full of
abundant visual metaphors for nature through color, luminosity, atmosphere, shape, and occasional contour drawings.
If
I get time there are a few digital art prints that I hope to paint on
top of soon. First I sabotaged a bunch of my photos on Photoshop,
removing lots of the background, editing colors, etc. to leave a large
amount of white space for painting. I'll share these soon.
If
you're in the LA area on March 4, please come to the RAW event - it's
sure to be a lot of fun! A fashion show, a music performance, a dance
performance, and 4 visual artists exhibiting. It's a ticket event, but
it's really cheap at $10 a person. You can buy tickets here: http://rawarlissavaughn.eventbrite.com/
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| Work in progress - Rainforest 1 |
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| Offensive poster of Obama as Hitler, borrowed from diggersrealm.com |
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February 20, 2010
This
place is so full of movement and excitement. Back in Greenville, where
I was living before, you had to go to the college campus to even get a
slight feeling of what it's like here everyday. Yesterday I was waiting
in line at the post office and while doing so noticed that two young
men were setting up a political display table outside. There was a very
strong image being used as their poster - a portrait of President Obama
with a Hitler-style mustache and the word "Impeach" beneath. Whoa,
that's a little harsh don't you think?! Of course I had to stop on my
way out of the post office to ask, "What's up with that image?"
After
a 15 minutes discussion on the problems of American society and
government, it basically comes down to a campaign for a man named
Larouche to take over as leader of our country and make some huge
changes in the way our government operates. I don't know about this man
Larouche, but I did agree with much of what this campaign stood for such as placing emphasis on advancements in medicine and science, renouncing the use of economy to judge the health of a society, and making sustainable living habits. However, that poster
is still terribly offensive to me. I mean, Hitler was a human, yes.
However, the name "Hitler" has been demonized into an monstrous murderer (and
rightly so). With regards to what Hitler's name stands for, I
think it's highly disrespectful, dehumanizing, and unwarranted to style Obama's portrait in his
image.
Despite my lack of approval for the campaign poster, the
young man I spoke to did get me thinking about the general complacency
regarding politics in America. I must admit I don't follow it closely,
and often don't understand it well enough. How much importance should
politics play in our lives? As an artist I tend to value those things
which have esoteric or innate qualities. I suppose I'm trying to better
society with thought provoking art, bring into actualization some sense
of amazement with our world, and encourage the use of visual communication.
Politicians are (or rather, should be) trying to better society through
constant dialogue about policies meant to set standards for human
living and ensure reasonable peace. I see a space for artists as
politicians in that essentially both groups wish to better society, but
can the two groups understand one another's language? Are the
politicians visiting galleries or artist websites to gather the feeling
of the populus? And are artists reading governmental documents and
history books, and voicing their concern or approval of our current
leaders?
The slightly pessimistic side of me says, "I don't have
time or knowledge to understand all the complexities of our world to
make good decisions about government, that's what I'm paying others to
do!" I'm still contemplating whether that side of me is too apathetic or not.
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| Abstract texture painting with a few splashes |
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February 15, 2010
Played with paint last night. :) Continued a group of 9 x 12 paper works. My favorite is the one to the right which has some uncharacteristic splashes of paint thrown onto the paper. Also, after the street art fair in Huntington Beach on Saturday, I was inspired to make some ocean wave paintings. Don't judge! I know it sounds cheesy, but hey, an artist has to make a living too ya know! These are intended to be sold at the street fair when I get a booth in a month or two.
(If you like ocean wave art, check out these surf paintings for sale on Fine Art America.)
Also just submitted applications for three artist residency programs for 2010 and 2011. Wow those applications eat up a lot of time, with each one demanding slightly different preparations for the images and other materials. Hopefully it will all pay off and I'll be accepted for at least one (or maybe all)!
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| Me, preparing to work in my hallway studio |
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February 5, 2010
Began a few new creative adventures tonight; (4) 9"x12" papers and (1) 10"x10" canvas. The canvas is actually the remains of an abandoned project from about a year and a half ago.
Prepared my hallway studio for work...laid out plastic, laid out a towel on top of the plastic, placed a small table nearby, gathered paints, jars, and brushes. Then I set to work texturing the empty white spaces. And, regrettably, within about 3 minutes I made a big spill of hot pink paint just 1" past the protected space!
Well, lucky for me, it cleaned up well and saved us our security deposit! But, I learned my lesson, the whole hallway must be protected from my clumsy art making sessions! :) Next time, camping tarp is going down.
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February 2, 2010
Arrived to my new home, Huntington Beach, California, in early January! My husband is attending graduate school here, while I have the opportunity to develop my career as an artist and build my business Visual Overture Magazine. Already California is proving to be a better place for an artist's career, as I've already gotten an exhibition in March! It will be in Santa Monica, but I'm not sure on the details of the location. It's an alternative venue, meaning it's not your standard white walled gallery showcase. This exhibition is a culmination of several creative efforts like fashion and music, joining together in one night of artistic fun. You can check out the website, RAW: natural born artists to understand it better.
California will definitely be different than North Carolina. The sunsets here are gorgeous, just take a look at the photo to the right! Our apartment is much smaller than our old house. Here's a pic of my "studio" in our current apartment (more of a hallway!). Big difference from my previous studio in NC! :) But it's fun really. I actually feel very creative in my new environment and am working on several new pieces (keep you posted as new work completes). The image here I've titled Waterwheel and it's a digital collage melding imagery from my trip across the country with digital samples of my painting textures.
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| Huntington Beach at Sunset |
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| My "Studio" in New Apartment |
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| New Artwork |
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