All in a Day’s Work

Today was a busy day in the studio. I came to some satisfying conclusions about the direction of my art practice. I’ve been thinking about the trouble I’ve been having with the Rosario painting. I’ve come to the conclusion that I don’t want to do figurative painting anymore. While I am definitely interested in exploring female identity, especially among women of color, I feel that I’m not doing my best work in terms of figurative painting. I think I’m more successful in doing figurative sculpture, and there’s some experimentation that I want to do in clay and papier mache. In terms of painting, I want to explore abstraction and the symbolism of the line and circle.

I’ve also come to the conclusion that I prefer oil paints. I’ve been trying to work in acrylic all week, and I’ve found it tedious. The medium dries so quickly and spreads like glue. I find it impossible to get the texture or blending effects I’m used to getting with oils. There are alot of artists who work brilliantly in acrylic, but I’m not one of them. I’m happy to accept that. So until I can buy some oils, I’ll have to work on my papier mache sculpture, which right now is in a difficult state. But that’s the interesting thing about art making. So many challenges arise during the process, and you have to experiment and take risks and just figure out the problems. Today was a good day in the studio. Who knows what tomorrow will bring.

Random Thoughts on Soap Operas, the Lottery, and Being an Artist

Right now I’m holding my breath, waiting to see how my interview goes next week. If I land the job it means freedom to paint and figure out what direction I want to take my art practice. I’m in a bit of a funk, worried about money matters. Wishing I could win the lottery so I’d have the freedom to make art without worrying about marketing it or myself. But of course that can’t happen because I don’t play the lottery (any more). As I am fighting off my anxieties about my future prospects, I have the television on in the background to provide a little noise so I’m not alone with my gloomy thoughts. General Hospital is playing in the background.

Suddenly, I find myself thinking about my dirty, little secret addiction to soaps and how I won’t give them up because they are a link to my Grandmother, who introduced them to me and my siblings. I was half-listening to One Life To Live today. One character asked another “what do you do for a living”. The other character laughed and wanted to know why Americans have a preoccupation with how people make their money. Good question. Why is “what do you do” one of the first three questions you’re asked when ever you meet someone new.

And how do artists answer that question? I’m reading Art/Work, a new book by Heather Bhandari and Jonathan Melber. In it the duo assert that most artists don’t make a living from their art, that we are artists, and we shouldn’t define ourselves by our secondary occupations. It’s an interesting premise, and one I’ve lived by before having read Art/Work. I’ve always answered the question “what do you do” with “I’m a visual artist”. But then the question becomes “what kind of art do you do” and of course, how much does your work sell for, and how much are you selling.

I wonder if I could persuade people to ask a question I find infinitely more interesting:

Rosario – Day 5

copyright ⓒ2009 Alexis Pierre-Louis, all rights reserved

A few days ago I was painting shadows under Rosario’s chin and two long drips of ink spilled from her chin off the edge of the painting. I immediately wiped the drips but they left stains, and I was sure the painting was ruined. I thought about my options. I could trash the painting; not a desired option since I was really happy with the blue background and everything else I’d worked on. Another option was to let the acrylic dry and serve as an underpainting. I could use oil paint to paint over the acrylic and work in a medium that I’m more familiar with. I thought I was out of options but as I stood in front of the painting, my determination rose, and I decided to mix up some more flesh colored paint and paint over the black drips.

The challenge would be whether I could mix up enough paint–not too much that it would be wasted and not so little that I’d have to mix more paint and risk getting the color wrong on the second batch. I mixed enough paint to redo her entire face, neck, and shoulders but the color was much lighter than I wanted. But at least I’m on the right track. I’ll let this layer of paint dry then make adjustments to her skin tone.

Nick Cave’s Sound Suits Video

Hope and failure: making mistakes in art and life

For four days now I’ve been painting Rosario, and today I attempted to add shadows and completely messed up the painting. If I were painting in oil, I could just add turpentine and wash my mistakes away. But I’m painting in acrylic, and as I’ve said, acrylic is unforgiving. The only way to salvage my painting is to use the acrylic as an underpainting and paint over it in oils. That would allow me to fix some of the proportional issues and blending shadows would be easier. So now I have to decide, do I want to just heave the painting into the trash or do I want to wait a few days and let my tempers cool and try again?

I have set goals for myself. I have a vision of what kind of artist I want to be, and this painting is not up to my own standards of quality. I’m not a perfectionist, because I don’t believe perfection is achievable. But I do think I am able to tell the difference between what is good work and what is not. So today counts for a failure, and maybe tomorrow I’ll be able to learn the lessons I need to learn from my mistakes. For right now, I just want to curl up on the sofa and watch period dramas.

Rosario, Day 4 – hair

copyright ⓒ2009 Alexis Pierre-Louis, all rights reserved

Today I’ve finished the background and have started on the hair. I have highlights and low-lights now, I want to go back and create mid-tones. The eyes still need work, the mask needs work, and I’m still debating whether I want to keep the painterly brushstrokes on the face, lips, and neck. I’m leaning toward yes.

Painting, for me, is a way of expressing emotion. When the world outside gets to be too much, I like to retreat to my paints, brushes, and canvases and paint my cares away. The way the paint moves across the canvas, sometimes a scraping, dry brush stroke, sometimes a luscious, creamy slide, sometimes a slippery, watery glide–it’s all magical to me. No, it’s more than magical, it’s spiritual, it’s meditative practice, it’s almost like a silent prayer.

I can’t remember who, but someone once talked about the happy accidents that occur in painting, and it’s true. Sometimes things you didn’t plan just magically occur and your painting is the better for it.

Rosario, Day 3 – background

copyright ⓒ2009 Alexis Pierre-Louis, all rights reserved

I often begin work on a painting without an idea of what I will name the painting. As I am working the name comes to me, as it did with this painting. I’ve decided to call the painting Rosario because it makes me think of a friend I had in 6th grade. Today is grey and rainy. I’m fighting the gloom by painting the background a vivid blue. I miss working in oils, but I bought a batch of acrylics, so I am committed to using them. Between boughts of painting, I am drinking coffee and daydreaming about spring–will it ever arrive?

Day 2 – New Painting

copyright ⓒ2009 Alexis Pierre-Louis, all rights reserved

I’ve started work on the eyes, lips, and necklace. I still need to work on the skin tones, hair, and background–maybe I’ll start working on it tomorrow, but I have a lot of errands to run tomorrow, so I may not be able to get in any studio time.

I like the way the painting is developing. I can tell that the skin is going to be problematic. I’m not sure if I want to work wet-in-wet, which is going to be hard with quick-drying acrylics over a large area. I kind of like the dry brushed skin, but I’m not sure if it makes my lady look lizard-like. But these are the challenges I love in painting. Problems come up and you have to figure them out.

New painting – Step 2

copyright ⓒ2009 Alexis Pierre-Louis, all rights reserved

The great thing, and the challenging thing, about acrylics is they dry so fast. In just a few hours I was able to add the flesh tones to the skin, and the basic form for the hair. The tough thing about acrylics is you have to be diligent to wash your brushes immediately after use or the paint dries on the brush and its ruined. This was a good start for the first day.

New painting in progress – Step 1

copyright ⓒ 2009 Alexis Pierre-Louis, all rights reserved

I’m working on a new painting. I’ve started with a charcoal sketch on canvas. I’m using artist’s acrylics, which is a switch for me because I usually paint in oil. Here I’m working on the background, making the underpainting black to add depth to the overpainting. This is a work in progress.

Art Blurbs and Art Supplies

Decided against doing an art blurbs column–would rather put the energy towards making art. Will feature an RSS feed of my Twitter posts in my blog sidebar instead. Waiting for art supplies. Excited about new project.

And…I’m back!

I’ve taken some time off from blogging to consider my art practice–where it is, and where I want it to go. During my down time, I read a lot, made some sound collages, but not a lot of visual art. I began social networking on Facebook where I store my sound collages, updated my website, and also began social networking on Twitter.

It’s my experience on Twitter, with all the major museums, galleries, and artists that are tweeting, that helped me reconnect to my passion for making art and talking about it. So I’ll be doing an Art Blurb column, a collection of art news stories from around the world, written very concisely.