july 29

im getting close to being done with all my paintings for my sugary paint show!!! wooo!!! when im finished im going to polish up the website and obviously also put in the new paintings. im slowly learning how to loosen up my strokes and marks ...its like im kind of in an independent study now, for a few years. haha! -im having to guide myself by trial and error but im always looking at art magazines, etc. and work of other artists to keep my perspective sharper and not stubbornly honed in on where im at in a piece. also, im learning that you have to be flexible and humble and willing to give up a plan you think you HAVE to keep -...you know ...kind of like life :/ Instead of being a stubborn little baby and trying to force something, im consciously trying to have more 'dialogues' with the work..(but dialogues that are almost..fights, that you have to win!...); you want to listen to whats happening and be very malleable in order to let the work, itself become malleable- and thus, it becomes its own real presence..(and you've whipped it into submission! haha). mostly i look at books that i have to help me. ("books are my friends") these are some of my favorites that i look at the most (i look at them and immediately think oh man have to go paint)




one of my favorites :) its called chrysanthemums, (if youd like to hear something nerdy and embarrassing, they remind me of the momraths from alice in wonderland, which i dont know why, theyve always been my favorite part from the movie) plus um.. the colors, movements, etc etc. are sooo BEAUTIFUL!!!


i LOVE loveeeee LOVE the way monet painted the couch here...ahhh! oh my gosh. ...and its relationship to the red pattern in the carpet, the dark green background, with the stark bright white (obviously from the window and sunlight that was actually there and that actually cast the beautiful shadows) but within the composition,to give a breath of freshness and emphasize relationships...

freaking look the the neon orange in her dress next to to dark greens, whites in shadows, etc.... ahhhhhh! (besides the obvious beautiful composition and light and shadows and enormous skill)

love!!!


this image of cy's painting doesnt give the real one justice bc you cant see the individual, different hues as much. the looseness of it is so inspiring to me -but a 'looseness' that has FORCE and a place and creates point blank statements in the painting, not a looseness that is there out of not knowing what else to put or being gimmicky or trying too hard to make something perfect or pretty or not even thinking at all (and just pushing paint with a palette knife and calling it art! ...sorry had to rant there for a second, im ok now)- it is just a confidence that is understood and stated.





i think im loving lautrec more every day. AHH! i mean. the way that he paints..... is amazing and beautiful and gentle but matter of fact..the marks have his hand in it but are also existing independently. i want to paint like him (oh and *him and **him)

july 19

july 18

yay! at the "Framed" show (http://mokahart.tumblr.com/) this past saturday, my drawing was one of four that sold in the first hour for top price (every hour, the prices were knocked down); there were around 120 pieces total in the show so not too shabby!! :)

july 14

this one's just about done! yay! disregard the background..its paper i covered my studio walls with that are covered with paint marks hehe

july 8

this needed something other than neutral shades of brown and reds...so i put my favorite color, turquoise, (of course!), on top to start :) that particular turquoise isn't something i ever use, it's a little deeper and more green than the light and crisp mints i like to use but i thought id try it anyway. while i was putting it on i thought that it looks like the cheesy sort of southwestern turquoise i always saw while growing up in arizona, but i kind of like it for that reason (and, i guess i liked it a lot more then too, because for a long time growing up, my whole room was painted that color). im thinking i'll eventually name it "arizona: the sounds that dove make", or something like that. maybe that's cheesy too (you know!! -to match the color? haha.) dove were (and are) always around my family's house in phoenix and whenever i hear one now it makes my heart hurt, in a good way i guess, but with nostalgia, bc it makes me remember everything about home


close up so far


this one's still coming around. it needs a little more aggression and confidence to balance the softness; i don't want the painting to look careful, or to express that, either


again: random. but i took this picture on my trip with my mom and siblings a few weeks ago, it was at a yum Mexican restaurant in chester, nj. i like the placemat and am thinking i'll try to make a painting sometime with flowers like this in it (mix of decorative, representative art with my love of abstract..). i don't know why, liking the Hispanic and Indian (well, from India and the Southwest, both) right now, -i think it's so pretty and romantic and exotic. and, all the other pretty pictures i got were of my family and i dont want to creep them out by putting up single pictures of them online. well that about does it

july 8, i know, i have been a terrible blogger :(

ive been really bad, i KNOW. i haven't posted anything in a whole month. i went out of town a couple times, each time for a week or so, and have been a little out of the loop; been working and also, getting to help a little with visual at anthro; plus, my husband and i got another dog (hehe! we are a little dog crazy. it's an animal WONDERLAND! animals everywhere. all we need now are a few goats and a pig or something like a donkey or mule, so that when i open the door a couple dogs run in followed by some miscellaneous animals all around the same size, -a mixed, motley pack. like a mixed can of nuts and you just never know what will turn up next, how exciting. ...and they of course, would also need the essential cloud of cartoon dust around them like Pigpen from Peanuts/charlie brown, you know??!!...) ***....what happened? i think i passed out. ok anyways, ya, and i lost my camera for a couple weeks..thank the good Lord i found it, PHEW.

well anyways, now it's time to go, go, go because my painting show is coming up in a few weeks and of the four i still needed (not including another top section to an older one), i've got one painting almost done, two big paintings that need to be pushed in the direction of being finished (so maybe halfway there?), and one that i've yet to start. -that one has been a complete NIGHTMARE to construct, frame-wise. i originally had planned to make my last painting enormous and had spent way too many hours, (too many days?) putting it together and stretching it's canvas, bruising my hands, etc. nightmare...until i realized that the wood had been bowing. so, had to start that all over; it'll be a lot smaller but a good size piece, nonetheless (i believe around 3 by 3 feet).


i'll post some pictures of what i've got so far at the end of today but for now, LOOK at how cute this is, and Michael's, of all places, did it! wow, you go Michael's. (croche). it is so random and senseless and cute and i love it, who would have thought Michael's could turn that out? i almost got hit when i saw it and slowed down to take a picture.. so worth it