To shift gears a bit, I have decided to work on two smaller canvases for my next works—one is 22” x 28” and one is 24” x 30”—the same size as the piece “Sources,” and both will also deal with imagery regarding women in mirrors— at least on the surface level.
I spent late last night preparing some of the imagery I want to use. When I work on this aspect, I try and work from some images and then experiment with distorting them and manipulating colors and contrasts until I like the basic work as a starting point. While I like to draw to prepare for painting quite a bit, and I like to draw and use clean lines in my work otherwise, we are lucky to have computers today to see how different colors and shapes will work in terms of composition.
I bought a printer with a computer forever ago— an Epson something— and it came with this Adobe PhotoDeluxe software that I still use to this day. For my needs of manipulating images and playing with layouts it is perfect. Every time I have changed computers I have frantically remembered at the last minute to find this installation CD and bring it with me.
So, I am pretty happy— that is an understatement, I guess— with my ideas for colors and overall layouts. Today I worked to prep the canvases, and do the remainder of clean up in my studio. I can see the floor again, which is good, but I am saving some colors I mixed to do the finishing touches on “Photo ID Required.” Thank goodness for the other technical innovations of plastic cups and saran wrap. As with the computer, I have tried many other ways to keep mixed color fresh, and find that this is the best for me.
I am including a photo of the canvases. Now you too can feel the exhilaration, terror, and impatience of looking at blank canvases.
In actuality, I like having the canvases ready to go. I like having canvases at all. I always get excited when I bring some home (no I don’t stretch my own— I did it for a bit and didn’t like it as much) some fresh ones from the art store.
I will likely not truly work on them concurrently— it is just easy to keep both ready and close as they are smaller. My plans are to do one horizontal piece and one vertical. I feel a bit like Jack Spicer who started to cry for whole books, or series, rather than single poems. In some ways I am starting to think how these ideas interrelate and how the canvases will talk to one another. That said, I am making a very conscious effort to focus on each canvas as an individual work. It is an interesting set of needs each philosophy brings to the table, and only begins to add more energy to the making of the works.
And it is raining, raining, raining in Boston. Being on the sixth floor of Midway Studios, I get the addition of a skylight, which is wonderful. And I often feel as if I am living with the seagulls as they dive off my roof and soar past my windows, or collect on the roof of the new convention center across the way. But on days when it is rainy and windy, like today, I don’t see a one. They disappear. Except I can hear them clunking around and screaming at each other on my roof. Every once in a while, one will clumsily thump into my skylight. It is ridiculous.
So, today, the seagulls are squawking and there are canvases waiting for paint.
I spent late last night preparing some of the imagery I want to use. When I work on this aspect, I try and work from some images and then experiment with distorting them and manipulating colors and contrasts until I like the basic work as a starting point. While I like to draw to prepare for painting quite a bit, and I like to draw and use clean lines in my work otherwise, we are lucky to have computers today to see how different colors and shapes will work in terms of composition.
I bought a printer with a computer forever ago— an Epson something— and it came with this Adobe PhotoDeluxe software that I still use to this day. For my needs of manipulating images and playing with layouts it is perfect. Every time I have changed computers I have frantically remembered at the last minute to find this installation CD and bring it with me.
So, I am pretty happy— that is an understatement, I guess— with my ideas for colors and overall layouts. Today I worked to prep the canvases, and do the remainder of clean up in my studio. I can see the floor again, which is good, but I am saving some colors I mixed to do the finishing touches on “Photo ID Required.” Thank goodness for the other technical innovations of plastic cups and saran wrap. As with the computer, I have tried many other ways to keep mixed color fresh, and find that this is the best for me.
I am including a photo of the canvases. Now you too can feel the exhilaration, terror, and impatience of looking at blank canvases.
In actuality, I like having the canvases ready to go. I like having canvases at all. I always get excited when I bring some home (no I don’t stretch my own— I did it for a bit and didn’t like it as much) some fresh ones from the art store.
I will likely not truly work on them concurrently— it is just easy to keep both ready and close as they are smaller. My plans are to do one horizontal piece and one vertical. I feel a bit like Jack Spicer who started to cry for whole books, or series, rather than single poems. In some ways I am starting to think how these ideas interrelate and how the canvases will talk to one another. That said, I am making a very conscious effort to focus on each canvas as an individual work. It is an interesting set of needs each philosophy brings to the table, and only begins to add more energy to the making of the works.
And it is raining, raining, raining in Boston. Being on the sixth floor of Midway Studios, I get the addition of a skylight, which is wonderful. And I often feel as if I am living with the seagulls as they dive off my roof and soar past my windows, or collect on the roof of the new convention center across the way. But on days when it is rainy and windy, like today, I don’t see a one. They disappear. Except I can hear them clunking around and screaming at each other on my roof. Every once in a while, one will clumsily thump into my skylight. It is ridiculous.
So, today, the seagulls are squawking and there are canvases waiting for paint.
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