My first 'suite' of paintings! 6 character boards in various stages ofdevelopment.

Presenting... my first completed 'suite' of paintings! Not sure how they fare individually but it's nice to see them hanging together. I like to think of them as 6 sets of characters in different stages of development.

Troubles:

I was struggling mightily to reproduce the same style character cut-outs as the one I made for the residency (see top right). But it wasn't working-- my fingerprints kept dirtying up what was supposed to be a crisp white backdrop, the characters and poses weren't as inspired, and I was losing steam.

My mentor commented that making art is essentially about finding out who you are (disclaimer: he fully acknowledged the cheese inherent in this statement). At some point, looking at my foiled efforts to make two pieces of art that looked the same, I realized--  

I'm the sort of person who CAN'T do the same thing twice!

Routines confound me. Remembering to wash my face or take my crazy pills every morning has been a real struggle all of my life. As an art teacher, my biggest frustrations come from not being able to create a consistent studio environment for the kids-- between losing their seating charts and forgetting who does what job and not having proper places for things to 'go', I've become miserable  at times watching the classroom dissolve into chaos knowing that I, the guide, was totally helpless to get us back on track.

Luckily I'm good at inventing new tracks.

 So, rather than trying to REPRESS any differences in these groups of paper-cut characters, I let the mistakes lead the way. I attempted to showcase and react to the imperfections, rather than hide them... process as product, I suppose. Present weaknesses confidently and they're something like strengths...

More thoughts about the content:

Despite being crowded into busy compositions, most of the characters above are quiteisolated. Sometimes the most crowded places, like airports or parties, can be the loneliest. The figures react to each others' positions in subtle and overt ways. But though they peer or scowl at each other, most of them never touch.

However- in a few of the pieces, the figures reach out to each other and interact. In the last piece I made, I tried to imagine two characters tearing themselves free from their rigid posts and jumping into each others' arms.