Thoughtful Tuesday - The Maid

I skipped a week. On the plus side, I finished a painting I'm really excited about. However, I'm not ready to post it. I am ready to talk about the next piece in my 2015-2016 gallery: The Maid. Sometime in early 2015 I was really inspired by a song by the band Leaves' Eyes titled "Maid of Lorraine" - aka, Joan of Arc. 

At first, I wanted to do a traditional burning at the stake, but chose not to. Instead, I decided Joan should would be 'burned' by grass instead of flames. Further, the small sparks and ash would be flowers and petals floating away. I also wanted to keep her image ghostly and undefined. This is not my favorite of my pieces last year, however, looking back on it a year later, I do see joy in it. 

I could have taken a very dark route with this piece, but I decided, Joan is not dead - she's living. She didn't die at the stake, she became immortal. This is how I magically took this historical and religious figure, and connected her to my usual imagery of plants, life, and death. Fine. That's not very magical. 

The Maid

What's also not magical is me neglecting to blog last week, and I had to force myself to type this post. Sigh. There. I did it. I didn't proofread. I will promise to upload two or three new, finished pieces next week, and see a lil bit of what I'm working on next. 

Studio Monday: Old Tricks

I always wanted to incorporate live (or dead) plants in my work. If the piece eventually decayed - even better. I used to do this, and a stopped. There will be more on this later as a song I listened to over the weekend really peaked my interest and now I want to do a piece inspired by it. Once that piece is in the works, I'll be sure to elaborate more on the concept. In the meantime, I continued working on a piece and started a new piece inspired by another song. I've been working on one for a while, but decided to revisit the old concept of using live plants into my work. Here's a sneaky peek of the concept with peek of new WIP: 

Don't you love the blurry?

I hope this all works out. I'm very slow when I do paint because I wait for my pieces to dry before adding more layers. I'm usually one color at time, but trying to break that. Also acrylics dry fast, but in the dry time, I get distracted. I'm working on it. Tomorrow or next week I'll post a Thoughtful Tuesday on a piece from last year as well as a recently completed piece I haven't added to my 2015-2016 gallery. Excited for all the new things and inspiration. Thank goodness for good music.

This weekend's motivation brought to you by Insomnium's "Shadows of the Dying Sun" album. 

Thoughtful Tuesday - The Suicide

In January 2015, I promised myself to complete a body of work. The goal was five pieces, at least 30 x 40 inches, all united by a theme. The theme evolved to something I still want to work on, but this is the first in that body of work. 

After years of hearing references and seeing images, I finally read Dante's Divine Comedy as a requirement in college. I remember sticking small post-it notes in my book not just for future papers, but future paintings. My professor also had book of Gustave Dore's prints illustrating the cantos that she let me borrow for a week. The one canto that struck me the most and still does is Canto XIII, the Woods of the Suicides. My imagery has always related in some ways to plant life, trees, etc. Last year, I finally felt the time had come for me to finally create my own suicide tree, and this is the final product. 

Over a year later, I'm still very proud of this piece, but there's still an itching feeling to continue with the same imagery - maybe create an entire woods of suicides of my own, or other cantos. I have so many ideas, but I've become a slow creator working on my pieces. Hopefully, this blog keeps me motivated. This public motivation.

The Suicide

You can find the image and other pieces in the 2015-2016 gallery. There are few more from last year to upload, which will happen soon. It's possible I may revisit more of Dante's famous work again. For now, this is enough. 

Next week, I'll promise myself to show images of what I'm currently working on, followed by another visit of last year's work.

Thoughtful Tuesday - Finishing and Beginning

The past two weeks have been productive enough for me to complete roughly 3/4 paintings, which means, I CAN START MORE PAINTINGS AND OVERWHELM MY ARTISTICNESS AGAIN. 

It's really not that bad. I snagged a bunch of cheap canvases for cheap because I don't mind cheap.  My art is for my own catharsis (most of the time) and if someone would like a part of it, I don't mind passing a piece along (depending on the piece and effort of course). 

Upcoming projects? There are at least 3 different bodies of work I want to do, 1 is a continuation from last year I have no posted yet because I'm still undecided how I want to list it, and a few out of my area pieces. Example: I'm going to paint an elephant...with wings... yeah....let's see how this one goes o.o.