Adventures in Painting pt.3: canvas time

Update: (August 20th). I probably killed it. Erm...never fear, though! I'm going to make it work... Just trying to figure out what it needs.

Update: Aiming to be braver about color. Looked at Alice Neel for inspiration on painting skin.

Paintings Part 3 (August 8) Acrylic on Canvas: SKA-DOOSH!! Bought some canvas! A punch to the spleen of my gnawing artsnob-insecurity. It's just a beginning-- but hey, a step.

Jon balancing tiger on head while texting after work. Yes, yes I did train my boyfriend to do tricks with stuffed animals.

Adventures in Painting pt.2: acrylic on board

Paintings PHASE 2 (August 6) Acrylic on Chipboard: I wimped out and bought large chipboard rather than canvas. Painting on them was satisfying, though! Unfortunately I didn't prime the surface and they might decompose instantly. Sigh. Les whoops.

(in progress)

(in progress)

Update: blech. I totally ruined the second one. Too fussy and too timid at the same time... Time to put it away for a while and try the canvas. Nope, you're not allowed to see it.

Meetings with Hannah Barrett and David Curcio

First Mentor Meeting (August 5) NYC: Hannah took a look at my stuff and saw humor and melancholy, discomfort with the things I'm drawn to, and an ambivalence/struggle with the isolation of the art world. (She's got me pegged. Simultaneously RESISTING and EMBRACING the art world has been a source of angst lately).

Adventures in Painting pt.1- gouache on paper

Kitty again! In an ugly phase right now.
 I'm thinking about light...

Update: More paintings on paper:

After ComicCon at the ICA

Paintings PHASE 1 (July) Gouache on paper: The idea was to paint scenes from my iphone. Just ordinary moments. Truthfully I'm not wild about 'em. Hoping that Hannah Barrett, my new Mentor, will have some advice!

Antidepressant Robots

Antidepressant Robots:
A.K.A.HAPPYBOTS!

Inspired by the Foldout History of Antidepressants, this little book on the left, I started this series. I'm a grateful consumer of Prozac, with plenty of ambivalent feelings about 'needing' it, and I've often thought that the names for these medications (Xanax, Fluoxitine, Wellbutrin) sound like robots. Therefore:

Lithium and Librium

Nardil and Valium

Prozac and Zoloft

I've made eight so far. The robot design reflects the decade that the drug was released. Made some stamps to look like specific pills, which look okay, but then I ruined it with these over-elaborate label/tags at the bottom.

I'm into the idea, but something's missing in the execution... I'm not happy with them. They need to be either simpler or grungier. I was advised to leave them for a while and think on it. Roger that!