Wednesday, November 6, 2013

Falling Star

"Falling Star"
12 x 26 mixed-media collage on wood with vintage tin, leather, safety pins and assorted found objects -including my old switchblade earring from the early 80s
and torn out pages from the program of the No Principals Tour

Created for the Siren Nation Art Show: "Then and Now"

Inspired by a recent trip down memory lane as I revisited my old stomping grounds to see Blondie in concert for the first time with my old high school partner in crime.

Also inspired by the heartache of broken friendships, unsettling childhood memories, Aging, Dreaming and Clinging to the threads of who we once were.

We are all just tiny bits of dust falling through life, burning up. Just a short-lived trail of light.
Falling Stars

As I began to sketch out my idea for this piece, I ended up writing a 'poem' instead.
I don't normally do that!
But I guess it's what needed to come out. Then I attempted to record it, another new thing! 
You can hear my spoken word here: 


Just trying new things and putting it out there for better or for worse!

It's an Attitude
It's the Lava within
It's the Heat and the Pressure and the Pain
It's what Pushes Pushes Pushes you
and what Spits you out
of the cliques and the clubs and the groups and the gangs
and leaves you out on that divinely desolate road
where you know Nothing really matters in the end
so you may as well live as LOUD and Raw and Wild as you can
because it's the only way you know how
You can make up your own Rules
and then break them if you want to
Just Dive into the Pit
and Crash thru it as Hard as you can
and then put the pieces back together again
in your very own way
and it doesn't have to make any sense to anyone
It's a wretched, sexy mess
It's Fucked!
and it's Beautiful
because that's the way you see it
It's Anger, Disillusionment and Betrayal
and it's Brave
It's Turmoil tied up with Hope
It's Frustration
It's Fear ripped wide open
It's Vulnerability
It's Turning out the open wound of your soul to let your inner Light bleed out
Then . . . Now . . . and Forever
It's what it means to be
Punk at Heart.


Art Show Opens This Thursday, Nov. 7th 
at Albina Press from 6pm-9pm 
and will be up thru Dec. 3rd

Imagine

"Imagine" 
Art guitar created for the 7th Annual Day of The Dead Show at Guardino Gallery


1 Global guitar, 2 pairs of jeans, 1 black leather purse, 1 lace doily, 1 old baking sheet, 1 CA license plate and 23 bottle caps were Reused to create this Instrument of Peace . . . 

 Back in August, as I was contemplating the devastation of the Syrian crisis, "Imagine" came on the radio and filled me with inspiration to make an anti-war piece.

Imagine all the people living life in peace . . .







Siren

"Stone Cold Fox" My portrait of Amy Stoner as a  Siren


2 new pieces I created for the Paint Your Heart Out Art Show to benefit Siren Nation


"Swallow me"

Tuesday, November 5, 2013

Oly Cow!

"Oly Cow!"
12 x 12 acrylic and Prisma color on denim covered board with beer cans and bottle caps

My first ever LIVE painting event!
I had no idea how it would go, I was TERRIFIED! But no one really paid any attention to me, so I just had a beer and did my thing and it all worked out in the end.





Painting went home with the highest bidder, 
but the real star of the evening was my shoes!



Thursday, September 5, 2013

Remembering Josh


Recycled materials have stories to tell . . . 
Where they came from, what they may have meant to someone, why they were saved,
how they were found.
What may seem mundane to most might very well be meaningful to someone else. 
We may never know, or even care to question the secret lives of most ordinary objects.
 Things cannot tell us their own stories. Our stories, our memories,
our love is what gives them value.

When I started making 'Beer Art', I put out a call for bottle caps. My sweet art-loving, beer-swilling friends have been eager to support my cause by generously supplying me. One friend traveling in China on business brought back a whole box of Chinese bottle caps for me! Another family went on a treasure hunt through the streets of Cambodia for exotic caps and cans for me to make art out of. And one devoted friend drank a beer she didn't even like
just so I could have the cool can! - Now that's Love!
It's not uncommon for me to find paper bags or small boxes of garbage on my front porch, 
left in the spirit of kindness and art. Offerings of trash to be transformed.
I'm a lucky gal.

This summer I got a package in the mail from a dear old friend.
There was a small bag of bottle caps and a short letter explaining how she found them
in an old beer stein when she was cleaning out her brother's apartment
and couldn't bear to throw them out. 
I knew that she had just lost her brother Josh in a tragic car accident a few months before 
and I was deeply moved by her gesture to pass the caps on to me.


I didn't use all the caps, I used exactly 37 of them. 
There was also a small feather that had made its way into the bag. Was it from his pillow? 
Or his down jacket? It was another little piece of him and it felt important to include it.
I don't know if these caps once meant something to him, but I hope that I have helped 
to make something meaningful for my dear friend Angela.

Rest in peace Josh, we are thinking of you.



Wednesday, July 31, 2013

A ribbon around a bomb

Frida as The Rogue

Acrylic on red leather stretched over wood panel, with upholstery tacks, bottle caps, feathers, silk flowers, gold bulls, vintage neck tie and wrecking yard bling.

I looked up the definition of a Rogue and found this:
"Operating outside normal or desirable controls" 
Yep that pretty much sums her up.

I think the reason that I have never painted Frida (besides the intimidation factor) is because her image is so iconic, and already done to perfection by her. I wasn't inspired to paint the classic image that can already be seen everywhere. I wanted to go a different route and paint the reason I admire her, and try to capture the bad-ass rebel she was in spite of all her pain and suffering. This was my first time painting a portrait on leather and I really like the way the texture lends a sense of grit and strength. This is not a tender or vulnerable depiction, this is the bitch who did it HER way!

“I was born a bitch. I was born a painter.” ― Frida Kahlo

My portrait of Frida is less about her eyebrows and more about her spirit and determination to live out her passions and pave her own road.


Maybe it was a bit too subtle, but I spent the whole evening (after the art opening) 
in a unibrow and mustache and NO ONE even batted an eye!
 
 
 Please support Gallery Mini!



Saturday, July 20, 2013

Peek-a-boo!

Carnal-val

You never know where art will take you.

Just getting back from an amazing 2 weeks touring the Midwest - that's right I called it "amazing" and NO we don't have family there, we went because we wanted to. It doesn't really matter WHERE you go as long as you GO! Just get the Hell out of dodge every now and then and see someplace new. Gain a different perspective on things, it's good for the senses, even if it is Indiana. I always feel richer after a road trip (despite the credit card bill!). I'm fortunate that my husband and son are good sports about all the museums I want to visit and we visit A LOT! This trip took us to:
The City Museum (The art of FUN) 
and

We saw Cave paintings, Outsider assemblages, American Folk Art, Mexican Art, a Goldsworthy installation, Impressionism, Expressionism and Contemporary Masterpieces! I was utterly knocked out by the Street Art I saw on Milwaukee Ave. in Chicago! It seems IMPOSSIBLE to pinpoint what  inspired me the most. I'm still absorbing it all. I can feel it percolating through my veins, trickling into my subconscious recesses. Not sure how this will all play out (in my own art) but I hope I can make something of it.

It's never cut and dry. Art rarely follows a well organized path.

As soon as I got home I was eager to get back to work again. Just had a few days to make the deadline for The Carnival Show at People's Gallery. Couldn't miss this one! I set out to make a fun, twisted, risque folky piece. I wanted to be a little bolder with this one, take it some place new.

I cut out some long sexy legs for a cool relief effect.


Then I smoothed out some contours with a new knife I bought. 
Carving out new ground.
I like my new tool!


The initail idea was to create a Tunnel of Love.


But then she took me to Rio instead!


So I chose to aim for the Brazilian themed 'Carnaval' Show 
at the Mark Woolley Galley next door instead.

Sometime around 3am the night before the deadline, I decided the legs needed to be able to OPEN and that it would be much more fun if the piece could be interactive! But HOW to do that? Hmmmmmm. I called the best resource I could think of and Stephanie Brockway showed me the way. I backed the legs with black felt for smooth, gliding action and Viola, she came to life!

YES it's supposed to be stylized and symbolic.
YES I hope it's like nothing you've ever seen before.
and
YES it's supposed to make you a little uncomfortable
in a good way!

Bold IS Beautiful.



I can't help but giggle when I make art like this. 
I have the most fun when I can push the boundaries, 
I don't see the point in making it unless I do.
I get excited when my art takes me some place new 
and part of it is not knowing what to expect or how people will react.
It is a powerful feeling to exercise my right to make whatever the Hell I want!

This piece took me someplace I needed to go.

I don't really care if it wouldn't look good above your sofa.


I also made a headdress to wear to the opening



Here is a little Samba for you!






We KNOW it is now Post Lent, but as a companion show to PEOPLES' ART OF PORTLAND Summer "CARNIVAL" show celebrating American "carny" culture, right next door, the MARK WOOLLEY GALLERY decided to tweak the concept and present "CARNAVAL", a celebration of the scores of Latin-inspired events (think RIO). So please join us, dress brightly, and join in the fun on
SATURDAY, JULY 20 from 5-9 and forward this to art and fun loving friends!


Monday, June 24, 2013