When Advertising Gets It Right

Most of the time, I daydream about moving to a place like Bhutan where I won't have to spend mental energy dodging the push and pull of companies trying to sell me happiness. Then today, I came across this ad:

This is why I love painting portraits. This is why I spent a year on my AS IS project.

There truly is a flame of life at the core of every person. It is so much more intensely beautiful than we let ourselves see. 

So try to look at yourself kindly today. You are alive and you are beautiful.

Ignoring the Price Tag

The first painting that I ever made was done with car touch-up paint on my bedroom wall...yup, most laid-back parents ever. There was something so freeing about using cheap, left over supplies to create. Mess up big time? No big deal.

 Flash forward a couple of decades, and I am sort of tip-toeing around these gorgeous, seven-foot maple panels with my expensive paints and gold leaf, scared to make any move that I can't take back. Maybe if this weren't a commissioned project for a public space, or maybe if the supplies didn't cost as much as my car, I'd be slinging paint like a machine.  As it stands though, knowing that those enormous wooden pieces were cut and hauled all the way up to my studio just for this project has me shaking in my boots. So send your brave thoughts my way Friends, because this alter wall is not going to paint itself!

Monday Match: Exhausted Edition

It has been a while...

This painting by Ramon Casas reminds me of this room via Living Etc and both images are straight up taunting me right now. So much work and yet so exhausted!  

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Do you know what happens when you are an artist who happens to think that her spouse is one good looking dude?

Every single male figure that you paint or draw starts to look vaguely like him! 

I'm serious. This 'generic' angel that I sketched out in preparation for a large sanctuary wall that I am painting, could be my husband...or at least a relative of his...eesh.

Time to call in some models.

Seriously though, thank you to the friends who have let me cajole them into being angels. You guys are the best!

Thank you to everyone who came out to the National Museum of Women in the Arts on Sunday to hear me speak about my Urban Portrait Project and Anna Ancher's work!

It was an absolute honor.

Inspiration

Have you ever found yourself charging into a project...

with what you believe is an incredible attack plan...

only to find yourself suddenly in the dark and not so sure anymore?

It is a sad place to be.

Sometimes though, when you're lucky, a new light brightens a little of the darkness.

Then everything that you see glows with it...

 and you feel like singing along.

Thank you Kay Nielsen and Ivan Bilibin for the unexpected inspiration!

Boring Headshot or Painted Profile Pic?

 Colette Marvin has the most fascinating job. She is an art forgery expert, meaning that she researches art crime and cultural heritage protection for the government and for private clients (including consulting on this case)! She also teaches a course at DC's Duke Ellington School of the Arts on Art and Social Media.

I met Colette when she invited me to come speak to her class about my Urban Portrait Project, AS IS. As part of a revamp for her art forgery website, she commissioned me to paint a loose portrait sketch (like one of these.)

In an online world awash in corporate head shots, I love the idea of opening an "About" page and finding a bright, loose painting sketch instead! There are so many creative companies out there who have the most stale staff photos on their websites. Having a piece of art in place of all that blandness is a fresh way to shake things up.

Colette's work requires her to do quite a bit of analyzing and discussing particular artworks, so she will also be including this colorful little painting somewhere on her site. We took this one in more abstract direction--focusing on a dynamic composition of color blocks and lines versus a descriptive representation of facial features. 

This was such a fun project! Thank you, Colette!