Process & Collection: A Portfolio

New painting - Untitled

2011-02-26T13:48:00.000-08:00

I sort of want to call this Love, Faith, Potential, but I'm not entirely sold on that as a title.

Potentials You Never Intended to Realize

2011-02-20T13:41:00.001-08:00

Little 6x6" painting... definitely something new for me!

Ernest vs. Honest

2011-02-13T22:49:00.000-08:00

This painting hasn't strayed from the original concept at all!

*cough*

I basically ditched the original idea, as I found that my original approach wasn't successfully leading me to a desired destination. Or a destination at all... nevertheless, lesson learned! I have many new ideas on how to approach this concept next time I'm feeling up to it.

What is this we have here, then?

I reworked the theory that this piece of art should represent, and have made it a far more personal piece. The title Ernest vs. Honest is directly discussing my approach to art, and how sometimes I feel that my process can be quite driven, quite decorative, and not strong enough to have a final image in mind. All dressed up and nowhere to go is a phrase that is sometimes applicable to describe my thoughts of process, which is pretty daunting. Of course, art can be about the journey, but I still want to develop my abilities to realize a planned image, representing an idea with certain strength and enough detail that one could argue that the work does indeed support the theory. I want to be more proficient.

I'll get there.

Update: Health painting turned potential landscape?

2011-02-12T21:23:00.000-08:00

This thing refuses to be the health painting I had planned for it... but I think it's looking pretty sweet anyways, so I think maybe it doesn't matter. Or maybe it can be a Biomedicalandscape fusion painting? No big deal. (I'm freakin' out man!)

...and some detail photos for good measure.

A Toast! (Healthy Biological idea painting)

2011-02-08T21:18:00.000-08:00

Update photo!

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This painting is a tester for some healthy paintings I've been having ideas about. It's got a fair way to go, but I thought I'd stick an "in progress" photo up (as usual).

What does this painting have anything to do with health?

Well.

We'll see?

Cells; some sort of structure; and health is messy? Eww!

Give me some time, I'll get back to you.

Untitled (mean dog 002)

2011-02-08T17:52:00.000-08:00

I started this drawing what seems like forever ago, and I was finally able to convince myself to work on it! It's complete, and going up at the restaurant with the rest of my artwork - how refreshing to get it out of the house so quickly after finishing it!

Blue goals painting with a fish - the camera-shy wimp!

2011-01-24T21:50:00.000-08:00

Well, we have ourselves a painting! I finished this up tonight after devastatingly realizing last night that I was out of black paint. Who runs out of black paint?! WHO!? Anywhoodle, paint replenished, painting finished.

I even managed to squeeze a fish in there.

I think this painting has a fairly simple narrative with the tiny fish and the enormous leap it seems to be taking. And the atmospheric feel still lends itself to some form of landscape. Can't help but root for it.

This image comes across as a bit flat, and I hope to get a decent photo of it before putting it up for show at Lady Marmelade! I will be showing some work with my new artist friend, Kat Cearns, and we are both super excited. However, I don't intend to have any daylight hours free until the weekend, and we set up on Friday, so... this might be the best one I can get for a little while. Make sure you check out Kat's blog too: www.katcearns.blogspot.com

Just to give a little range though, here is an image taken with flash, so you can see the irridescent paint; it has more depth than the photo above would have us believe:

... and a detail photo for good measure!

As blue as my blue paintings get?

2011-01-20T21:03:00.000-08:00

I seriously started this painting tonight, and I'm excited to get to work on it this weekend. It will have more fishes, and a somewhat more graphic flare, but what excites me most is that it's a bigger surface! I really miss working bigger than 3' in a direction, and it feels great to have my body interacting with the plane. Not just fingers and wrists. It was delightfully distracting to feel my spine and neck moving around, and I've missed it!

These newer paintings seem to be about goals and pursuit. Which is interesting, because it seems rather detached from the bio-psycho flare my work typically has. I think I need to work some of those ideas back into the work, because I think there is a strength in the biological approach as those viewing the art have something meaningful to relate to. We can all take part in the discussion of the body. Nevertheless, it's freeing to explore different concepts, and being the control freak I am, I am excited to link whatever I find in these works to... well, rather lamely stated, past and future pieces. I am happy this painting is succeeding in confronting some of my technological weaknesses as well, and I can tell I will be learning quite a bit from the process regardless of the results.

I guess maybe the goals are coming from personal psychological goals to overcome oneself. Which is to let the body free itself from biologically induced torment? Do I know what I'm talking about? (That means no.)

Note: Please excuse my poor photo. I paint at night because I work in the day, and I'm just so excited to look at it the next day on my lunch break that I have to post it! Also - the real painting really isn't all the blue - the iridescence is just reflecting a schwack.

Don't Call me Dolly

2011-01-05T22:47:00.000-08:00

Completed! I am actually super pumped about this painting - it's a lot different than most of my recent work, and it's fun to try a new vein with some success. I'm still working on what exactly I'm trying to get at conceptually, but it seems to still be sticking to the biologically psychological thread I seem to tread. I'll paint it out.

PS: don't forget to actually click on the image if you want a better view of the detail.

Don't Call Me Dolly - a slop of a fish painting

2011-01-03T00:06:00.000-08:00

Hahahhhaaaaaaaaaaa...

I was having some fun and getting a little messy and exploring how to paint a fish. I think it's pretty interesting actually, although maybe a little immaturely rendered. It's been a while since I have tried to paint something figurative, which reminds me that I need more fish photos. My bros have sent me some good ones, but it's hard to get pictures of them live in action! Especially up close enough to get some decent detail. Nevertheless, alls well that ends well, and I had enough fun to justify painting this, if only for that reason. It's also a nice kick in the pants telling me to make sure I have a figure to reference! Tsk tsk.

It also reminded me that figurative painting is not that hard (albeit not exactly second nature for the goop-loving me). I think it's a nice vein to be exploring for a little while.

2010-12-01T22:03:00.001-08:00

Welp. This is where I've left off. I am going to try to draw a decent salmon. I mostly just wanted to document that this painting did look pretty decent at one point. Haha... aaah. I have no faith in my salmon drawing skillz. I haven't really been able to find a decent image of a salmon from the perspective I was hoping to approach it, so I am feeling less than golden. I will be super irritated if the damn thing starts looking like a koi.

Yes, it IS time to start drawing it, Rachelle. There's nothing else you can do until this is done.

Bully painting.

2010-11-25T22:33:00.000-08:00

New painting. So there.

Umm... started a new painting. Not sure where it's going. It's making me nervous. I can't tell if it looks like river rocks, fish scales, or leopard print. I guess all these things make me happy, but... I can't help but feel like I'm at a bit of a standoff. Lots of staring and sighing at this point. Productive, I know!

My idea is to do a salmon painting (if you guessed rocks of some sort, you would be correct!), and even a live salmon! Maybe fish heads too, but... mostly just it's being alive. It is also supposed to touch on animal guidance and our hyper emotional, hardly perceptive attention of surroundings and connections, and failure to balance spiritual understanding to the objective. It is also still playing with ideas of biological emotion and our limitations within it. Especially as believers that bodily experiences can be divine.

I'll try not to resort to a big bloody fishy mess on this one. I might even try some other colours. Get a little wild.

Rachelle's work leaves home

2010-11-18T20:04:00.000-08:00

Well well well, Blog. I remember you. And all the guilt you bring me whenever people ask if they can view some of my art online. It's excruciatingly embarrasing to say, "Yes, I have some online, but the site has not been updated in over a year." And here's the clincher - I want people to be able to see all the work! Shame on me (3 hail Mary's?).

Here is a deposit of images.

Okay.

Here is a deposit of images that reflect the paintings that I recently hung in a fabulous coffee shop in Victoria called Solstice Cafe (529 Pandora Street). I am so excited and proud to have some of my work on display, and in such a cool place! Let's put it this way... they have an award on the wall for being the best place in Victoria to breastfeed. And the food is amazing. And the tea... don't get me started. But either way, here's an update of what I've been up to, and I intend to dedicate some efforts to keep this website in better shape.

PS: If you actually click on the images above, they should expand so you can see bigger images. Also, anything with fish heads in it tends to be newer work. Cheers all!

My meat helps compose the heavens.

2009-09-13T14:10:00.001-07:00

Painting Update: Sept. 14, 2009. Here is where we are standing now with this painting. Also, note the detail photo so you can really get a feel for what it looks like in real life. It's gory in the perfect romantic way.

New project: Sept. 13, 2009. This is sort of a continuation of the practice with dogs, fish heads, frustration, value of self, and demonstration of the biological expression of emotion. Plus there is just something about meat that is hilarious.

Materiality, my playground!

2009-08-19T21:50:00.000-07:00

Painting update: August 30, 2009. I think I maaaay be reaching completion! I think I am slowly accepting and appreciating the composition of the image, but I think I might need something heavier in there to anchor it... or maybe not. I guess we will see!

Painting Update: Aug. 26, 2009. The layers are really starting to contribute rather than plague the overall painting. Huh. Tea time!

Painting Update: Aug. 24, 2009. Ahhhh what a mess. I knew it had to go there before it got better, but... bah. Painting can be so cruel. I am trying to think about the horrible things cheese and wine go through before they get good. I'm going to go eat something and try to remind myself that painting cannot be trusted.

New project: August 19, 2009 (started early July). These images are a work in progress for a friend and colleague who foolishly asked me to make a painting for her! Sucker. I mean, best decision of her life! Right?

This project is getting increasingly more fun as I putter along. I have missed splashing around and making a mess and then getting anxiety attacks that I may have destroyed my wood floors. This puppy already has a gallon of house paint (1/2 interior and 1/2 exterior, latex) on it, and a bunch of heavy canvas underneath swaddling it.

I don't think looking at how paint interacts with itself will ever get old.

Don't worry, the ugly pink was mostly just to facilitate the fabric swaddling. It's already entirely gone, and we are on to actually making the painting look generally pleasing, an important step towards the flabbergasted confusion/I love it? reaction I'm looking for. It is also planned that the final work will be much lighter, I just wanted to start off dark to get some depth going on. I guess this means on to the acrylic stages.

New Prog/Proj

2009-06-13T20:55:00.000-07:00

COMPLETE: July 04, 2009. All I know is that it's done. And the next self-propelled painting project will involve the human body and lungs. Mostly lungs. Probably.

As for this project, I think I am slowly getting a grasp of what I am exploring. The unfortunate part is that I am not sure how to effectively explain what's going on. There is obviously still some exploration of materiality. And there is some sort of psychoemotional (is that a word? probably not) expression. I think the dog is a device to distance the painting from becoming to directly personal, as the message should not only be applicable in a self-study sense. I think everyone suffers from inner conflicts, and the obvious desire to behave in different ways than is appropriate (shut up, Freud). On that note, I think I am doing the image damage by saying anything about it, but feel free to let me know what you think.

Painting Update: June 28, 2009. Hard to say if it's finished. I don't want to talk about it. *huffs off* (which means I know it's not). But I do like how the dog is now looking less angry and more afraid. Despite their being more or less the same emotion.

Drawing update: June 22, 2009. Welp. I think the drawing portion is relatively completed. So much of it is going to be covered in paint anyways. And I am still looking forward to those teeth. I'm still thinking about what I'm getting out of this, and I feel like it may be commenting on becoming what you embrace. Regardless of what you want to embrace, or regardless of if you want to embrace anything?

Drawing update: June 17, 2009. I'm thinking crusty yellow teeth. Sorta like the yellow in the fish head painting below. I think it references something biological that is a result of harm (puss). And something about being harmed by being the harmer. Ah. On with my blither blather.

Narcissism dog likes empathy? Title in progress. As is the drawing. I can't wait to make those teeth look gnar.

And...

...this is another narcissistic empathy painting. Something about being too distracted with frivolousness to notice the grotesque fishy heads. Or something. I'll elaborate later... maybe.

Grades = Art = Art = Grades

2009-06-10T22:39:00.000-07:00

Do you remember all that complaining from way back when I was legally considered a student? Well, those complaints were stemmed from the agony of artistic growth, for the most part in drawing and painting media. I plan to slowly comment or attempt explanations about all of these past pieces to try to make some sense out of them, in hope of directing my future exploration of art. However, for the time being, I'm just going to stick them up, step numero uno to reorganization and further rationalization. And by rationalization, I mean, development of a thesis people who speak human can understand. Wish me luck. And feel free to comment away.