concerning cancer and art

I'm a painter which is supposed to mean I express things via brush and pigment...or something like that.

I have a confession: until the last 36 hours, I have never "expressed" anything. I have merely reproduced, added a little personal flair and contributed to the already overflowing mass of pretty art and kitsch in the world.

I have searched vainly for a muse and I have finally found her in the most unlikely of places: 5D, oncology, Greenville Memorial Hospital.

My job exposes me to the most raw aspects of the human soul and nature. Modesty is stripped away, dignity lost and faith tested to the Nth degree. Nine months of dealing with death, both physically and emotionally, have created a veritable Niagra of feeling within me--the tension of which grew so great that the creative dam finally broke and the result is two days of incessant painting.

My first piece is intense but still beautiful in ways. My second piece makes me uncomfortable. I have poured enormous amounts of my own self into this painting, almost without realizing it. I'm exhausted after 2 very focused hours of working it but I feel such a release--unlike any I've ever felt where my art is concerned. It could be labeled innappropriate by some. Shocking by others.

I may post pictures eventually but I'm currently still trying to process.

Friday's fare

Oh my...

I already know I'm a children's book snob.
I won't even pick it up if the illustrations don't meet my standards.

I generally feel about the same way everytime I pass the toy department at any of the major stores--they've become so cheap looking, too electronic...I just get disgusted.

but THESE!!!

jaune

I don't really like yellow that much but it becomes the daffodil.

Bic pen sketches in the park, bubble tea, matte blue sky and sun just cool enough to be wrapped in Bolivian wool.


Currently: Bjork, cotton curtains betraying soft breeze, Rooibus.






I sewed an apron. I think it's kind of cute actually:

cakelette

check out this charming little cupcake stand. Yet another completely clever Etsy creation--

also..

I love this:

indian summer

At George's behest, I started a new sketchbook and the idea is to do one sketch every day.

We'll see how this goes.
Here is the first (please forgive the crappy picture...when I feel like fighting with my scanner I'll post a better one)
The park was lovely today and full of all sorts of fascinating human beings. However, since Greenville County likes to encourage being outside for long periods of time downtown by leaving parking tickets on your car, I could only stay for a couple of hours.

My favorite bubble tea shop is re-opening in the morning and I'll be missing the festivities due to twelve hours at work, but if you're in the area, I highly recommend visiting O Cha (now located on the West End, just past Doug Young's studio on the Riverwalk and directly beneath the Lazy Goat). I'll be vicariously sucking tapioca pearls through a pastel straw whilst saving the world one cancer patient at a time.

cadmium

One of my all time favorite cyber haunts is
Artcyclopedia, a fabulous resource that I discovered in the throes of art school. As I was stuck in a hotel with nothing else to do today (after being forced to tour the Hershey Chocolate Factory), I decided to find an art genre that I knew nothing about. I ended up reading about Tonalism and as I scrolled through a list of occasionally familiar artists and demure landscapes, I came across a piece that was strangely nostalgic and completely unlike the others. I give you Youth, by Arthur Frank Matthews.


When I was a child, I would often get lost for hours in a (very worn, very beloved) book of Greek myths brought alive by hauntingly beautiful Mucha-esque illustrations. Matthews' deviation from staid trees and foggy landscapes brought back the earthy and fresh childhood visions of dancing driads, Persephone and her pomegranate and lavish feasts on Olympus. The Tonalist's dancing youths bespeak Waterhouse's maidens clothed in the warm springtime palette of Mucha and the masters of Art Nouveau--an excellent marriage.

I recently found my tube of white gouache, without which I am utterly powerless in the area of water media, and was immediately renewed in my resolve to start painting again.

3.5.2008

fromage