"Loaded" 36x48 oil on canvas

Available on Etsy

More progress pics of 36x48 piece

Studio shot of WIP

It's big. I wanna go bigger though. Too. Much. Fun.

36x48 WIP

Just a peek at the skeletal structure of the piece. I am so bad about documenting pieces for work in progress updates but I actually thought about it today, so here it is :)

Maybe later I'll take a pic of the mammoth taking up my studio space. Boy it's gonna be tough doing a 48x60 in here like I want to....

Back to painting I go!

I am in awe...

Wolf in Sheep's Clothing, Jeff Soto, 2008

I just came across Jeff's work on NotCot and must admit to salivating a bit. I must own one. One day, that is. Check out his website for more eye-candy.

Yum.

Regarding Libertine

I was asked by someone on DeviantART about the piece. Brought up some interesting points I thought I would address here as well as there, as it is so rare to receive a thoughtful critique on my work that I'd like to take the opportunity to not only respond to the person who posed the issues to me but the audience watching my work at large....

***

It was mentioned the piece in the work in progress pic was more tender and soft and that the final product was perhaps violent, frustrated, and flat. ( http://sagittariusgallery.deviantart.com/journal/23346931/#comments )

Truth be told I was having an issue with it when it was soft and tender because that's not what the imagery was. The scene isn't a tender moment. It's visceral and rough. The before and after is the difference between making love and fucking. There's an aggression to the scene that was not channeled in the work in progress pic further on down the blog. It was where I was hung up. It wasn't saying what needed to be said.

Depth...I either work it in or I abandon it completely. Many of my works (such as "Enraptured" for example [link]) don't focus at all on depth but more color and movement. A color making up a certain part of the body. This piece I would say has more depth than my "color block" pieces (the extended leg pops from the canvas a bit for example) but yes, it is quite flat. Of course, the point of view comes into play here - it's there. It's in your face. It's unabashed. He is hidden aside of course from his manhood penetrating her, but she is the focal point. She is the act. The act is her. It's a raw statement on lust for the flesh. It isn't about love. It isn't about making love. It's about a basic desire to screw.

We exist in this strange dichotomy where romance is amplified by chick flicks and presented in the video store steps away from Debbie doing *something*. Men aren't the only lustful beasts roaming the earth looking for a hole to satisfy themselves with. This piece explores the other side.

Libertine (Mature)

"Libertine" 24x36" oil on canvas 2/22/2009

This is the 3rd piece in my new series of mature abstract erotic artworks. This piece took a very long time with me and is, I believe, my largest challenge to date. It's a maturing of style, a melding together of many different facets of my painting technique into one piece. I'm strattling the line between overt and abstract, though I do believe the imagery in this particular piece to be quite evident. The paint application reflects, and even replaces, the movement of the actual act. The colors used echo flesh on flesh in the middle of the night....

As you might have read here or on Twitter (or both...) this piece was a real struggle for me. Please click the image to see the larger one, there is so much paint on this piece and so many intricate details it's tough translating on a small format (unfortunately a limitation of the digital age...but this piece was made more for a gallery setting anyways....)

The "before" is below. It's transformed a lot in the past few days. I worked non stop on it and thought about little else. It was actually all consuming and I wonder where the week went....

Crossroads...?

Thanks Junkyarddoll for the shot!

WIP

I am *not* feelin' it. Needs more contrast. Definitely. I feel like just swirling black on it. Sometimes I need to do that, just take a drastic measure to get past the issues I have with a piece. Sometimes I need to ruin it to save it.

Marination

So I've been feeling pretty exhausted lately...maybe I'm coming down with something, maybe it's the late nights at the easel. Either way I can't function before noon. And that's irritating to me.

I sit here sipping on a coconut iced coffee trying to get motivated. Fridays a bunch of us get together and make dinner and just chill out. It's my turn and I am making fajitas. Found this fantastic recipe online - http://blog.cooklikeyourgrandmother.com/2008/10/how-to-make-steak-fajitas.html - and just finished marinating the flank steak I picked up at the market. It calls for quite a bit of fresh cilantro, which I love (and hope everyone else does too...I know cilantro can be one of those hit or miss herbs....) and the kitchen smells fabulous with the aroma of cilantro and lime right now. I usually like to light my scented candles (I have this thing for Yankee Candle, especially any and all of the beach scents) but I am holding off for right now because it already smells like summer in here...a welcome reprieve from the 30 degrees outdoors.

I'm going to try and fit in a little painting. I have an hour and a half before my sis shows up. I feel like I haven't been all that productive the past few days. Although I stayed up wicked late last night working and reworking my newest 24x36 painting, I am still unhappy with where it is and don't see where it's going. I have this awful habit of not being able to set a painting aside until it's finished. It's an internal challenge...and probably a character flaw. I just can't let go.

We'll see what comes of it. I haven't worked on anything else since what, Monday? If I can let a steak marinate, why can't I let a painting do the same?

Snow....

It's snowing right now. It gets so quiet when it shows. Even though I live in NY and snow isn't something we're unaccustomed to, never the less it becomes quite still as the heavens open up and the first flakes fall to the earth.

It's 5:30 here, and with it being February, daylight lasts a bit longer. We actually get an "evening", instead of say in December where it's as if the lights are suddenly cut and day becomes night in a matter of moments... I like this combination. Everything glows an eery blue....

It's quite inspiring.....

Dive

I've been in the studio a ton lately. I had decided around Christmas that I am not going to just float along as I have been. I mean, I *love* Etsy. I'm a regular cheerleader carrying cupcakes on a platter whilst enjoying a swing in my handmade hammock, but I need *more*. I realized I've been painting (to an extent) pieces for my shop and shying away (to a degree) from the more gritty work I have a craving for. That post last month? That's what I mean.

My parents...their reactions to my new direction were well, priceless. And pretty much what I expected. My mother, during a dinner party a week or so back, took a peek in the studio and returned blushing and muttering "oh my."

Cecily Brown has, since my freshman year of college when I picked up the contemporary painting bible "Vitamin P" and flipped through to her juicy, naughty paintings, been a key inspiration for me in my work. A chick that ballsy...right up my alley. I've watched her work over the years transform as mine has done the same. And honestly? I have to question where it's gone. And I mean both of ours.

I took a long hard look at it and decided I wouldn't just paint. I'd *paint*. I'd breathe it, sleep it, live it... Not that it's something I ever simply "did". But I felt the need to dive into it with more ferocity and hold nothing back. As I feel her focus has shifted (whether on purpose or due to demand...) mine has as well. My early work was all about the female form and exaggerated perfection. I feel like I need to be more honest and less iconic.

So, I've used my inspiration from Brown as a diving board. I still love her work but it's meaning...it feels like it's been lost a bit. More abstraction and less of that naughty representation hinting through. Stripped to paint application and colors and yes, here and there, the hint at a figure. The hint at something more.

Me? I've never been much on good old abstraction for the sake of abstraction. Even when I paint an abstract piece, a wholly abstract painting, I fight myself on adding something. I see abstraction (as I apply it) as an exercise in letting go more. But really. I'd rather not leave a painting void of "something". So, my work is striking that balance. Especially the more overt pieces. Fine art pornography...na. I want it to say something more. I want you to look for it. And when you find it, when it smacks you in the face, as it usually does, I want you to feel something. Feel dirty. Feel exhilarated. Either way.

So that's where I am going with it, for what it's worth....

Tempestuous

Ok...so I know I haven't
exactly been keeping up with this blog I have here. There was a time way back when that I relished the moments I'd sit, mix up my favorite drink, and ramble on about everything and nothing just to exact a release. Somehow that dissipated into the occasional "hey there, I'm still alive, see, I'm painting!" posts that eventually faded into static cause, let's face it - of course I'm painting. I loathe complete redundancy just for the sake of it.

Etsy contacted me about writing an article on facing one's fears and approaching a gallery. A how to of sorts, to artists, from an artists perspective. It got me thinking.

I need to write more. So, I am going to try. Starting now.

6x6 landscapes

A patron of mine asked for a pic of all of my current 6x6x1.5 inch landscapes together so I thought I would post it here as an example of how fantastic these little guys look all together, you know on a wall (or a porch railing as it were *wink*).

I've really gotten into these little guys. They're great for playing around with the paint and experimenting with different application techniques.

Of course all of them are available in my Etsy shop, along with some larger landscape pieces that I've been working on too.

As you can see I am *sick* of winter. I long for the days where I can leave the front door wide open and the breeze dances through my kitchen as the light scent of summer tickles my nostrils.

A couple more months though. Just a couple more....