It’s another hot day here in NYC, but i have to say not as near as it has been. We’re lucky to have a cool (ish) day. The summer is slow as summer is meant to be. I’ve started to update my website and I’ve decided to use this blog to talk a bit more about my work. I make work all of the time and many times it just gets thrown up on Instagram where i don’t feel like i can really speak about it. (I’m not a fan of long captions. )
At the end of January of this year (2019) I began to paint. I had never painted before although I guess a lot of people have mentioned that some of the layered prints I’ve made could qualify as paintings, but this was my first time actually brushing paint to canvas. It began after I had read the Jerry Saltz article “How to Be an Artist” in New York Magazine. Here’s the link if you want to check it out. https://www.vulture.com/2018/11/jerry-saltz-how-to-be-an-artist.html I know I’ve been creating for a long time now but that doesn’t mean I don’t need some inspiration and encouragement. One of the suggestions he gave was to copy something by your favorite artist (or something along those lines). I had been obsessed with this giant cardboard cut out by Claes Oldenburg that I had seen at his show at the MOMA in NYC. When my husband and I saw it we were both totally blown away because we only knew Oldenburg’s soft sculptures. Here is a photo but I think it doesn’t really show the size well. It’s the dude on the right that I loved so much.
So I decided to try to make my own version.
The first one looked like a robot or android. I have an obsession with otherworldly creatures.
These are the 2nd and 3rd versions. They’re all hot glued together and I began to realize that there would be nowhere to put them. They’re each about 8 feet tall. My husband and I now sleep with them in our bedroom. They’re sort of our protectors i guess.
Next I began to make some moveable pieces. I put them together with brads, but I have to say they’re not the greatest either. I haven’t really made too many since then because I’m running out of space and I’m worried they’re going to get wrecked in my storage space. I really prefer the hot glued pieces but I think I may also try some industrial strength Velcro.
Finally i’d had enough of the cardboard (which by the way is everywhere now so if you need a cheap project just walk down the street.) so I decided to make a soft sculpture. I’m beginning to realize that perhaps Claes realized the same thing I did and wanted something that would last. But first here is a weird headpiece I made at the Painted Cloud in a class taught by Nick DeMarco a master of cardboard. It was meant to be turned into a paper mache but It would have taken way too long and I didn’t want to bring it home so i threw it in a dumpster.
Here is the soft sculpture it’s in many iterations. I can’t stand to keep anything minimal or white even though sometimes I feel like it might look best. it’s just not my thing. i like color too much.
Anyway, creating these pieces made me realize I could paint . I’ll talk about that more in the next post.