The Foundry "Sweet 16"

I decided to try my luck at another juried show. "Sweet 16" at the Foundry in Bakersfield was a show benefiting Teen Challenge that showcased 16 pieces. I worked and worked and toiled away at what I thought best represented the theme "sweet".

Originally, a cupcake came to mind. (Naturally) The cupcake was to be a headband, on the head of a nice little girl, holding out a dead bird. This was such a lovely idea! I sketched it out several ways though, and I couldn't figure out a way to make it look realistic enough. I felt that the bird kind of cheapened it. Also the cupcake. Too cliche. So I dropped both of those ideas and just went for a little girl. Simple enough.

The yellow eyes made it creepy enough to fit in line with a lot of my work. Once again this isn't the best photo quality but I haven't the time or the desire to go and get all fancy with my picture taking skills just yet. I did submit it, though, and it made it into the show! I was on display throughout May at The Foundry in Bakersfield.

I did remember why I stayed away form entering shows and all that though. I am not good with other art minded people. I get all annoyed for some reason at the pretentiousness or whatever it is when you walk into somewhere and immediately feel out of place. These are most likely my demons, though, and not the fault or vibe created by anyone at the Foundry. I just don't think that I am there yet with how to act and what to do. Not much of a mingler, hah.

Art Club

Yes, I joined up with the Bakersfield College Art Club. I made a flyer for club recruiting and everything. I thought it would help me to interact on a smaller scale with other art type people since I don't get much of that at home, and maybe even do a little networking. We met every Monday and basically planned a group show and performed critiques on each others work that we planned on putting in the show.

I ran through most of the paintings that I have painted in the last few years with decent response. At this point I still have only minimal experience with publicly sharing my junk. I will wait, though, to share most of these images because I would rather show them only as they make it into other shows that I apply for.

Anyway, not many pics that are applicable to this post, unless you are interested in my Art Club flyer... but I was more using this post as a seguay to the work that I was planning on doing for shows a tthe Foundry in Bakersfield. The Foundry is a relatively new gallery that I wanted to submit some of my stuff to. One of the Art Club members was also a member of this gallery, and suggested that we participate in their show: "Sweet 16". More to come on that show.

Other Art Class Adventures

We had many assignments that followed the standard basic painting expectations that I had in my head. Color theory, Still Life, Landscape, Portrait, etc. Here are a few Landscapes that I worked on. Truthfully, I never really felt it with these either.. except the Ralph Steadman study of course... but I got more positive feedback out of these than usual so eh, here they are.

The house is a picture that I got from Shaker town. I HATE Shaker town. It is freaky, unnatural, and full of heeby jeeby vibes. I don't really mind the land or the idea of it all.. I think that I have some deep seeded issues with symmetry or something like that. I only get freaked out once inside the buildings. Anyway, I have been meaning to paint Shaker town for years and years but never had the excuse. Naturally, this gave way to a pretty alright little landscape. PS: This is the ONLY painting that Thacker has ever told me that he really liked. He hates art in general and is not at all interested in my junk but does like this so I counted that as a real victory.

This, of course is the Ralph Steadman study. I did the typical Van Gogh landscape at the top and needed a play thing that I could spend some time on. This was from a coffee table book that I have by Hunter S. Thompson, "The Curse of Lono"... that is highly coveted and took me 5 years to find.

Art Class

After a near meltdown in the Fall semester, I decided to take a sanity class in the Spring. I took Basic painting. I never really put much thought into my current skill level, what I wanted to learn or hoped to get out of taking a class and all that bit. I have been casually painting since I was old enough to talk my mom into buying me paint. I usually painted cartoons on my bedroom wall and started to make my own makeshift canvases when I was 18 or 19. I was pretty excited to learn an actual skill and begin to hash out the "right" way to do a few things.

Against my better judgement, because these were class assignments and I didn't think them out of my brain, I will post a few things that I did in class.

The tree looking one is a color study that we had to do. I actually spent a lot of time on it because I couldn't use green paint. This idea came to me in a daydream of slices of bacon sitting on grass. Halfway through its fruition, however, I abandoned the bacon idea and went for this weird Christmas tree farm look.

This is my first ever attempt at a still life. I love how rich the colors are but I must admit that I don't like painting still life much.I had fun experimenting on this one though. Sorry for the shiny reflection... these images are via camera phone so they have a bit of glare to them.

Another still life. This one actually got into the Student art show but I spazzed out on the deadline and blew it for myself. I scheduled the time off of work, had the painting in my car, ready to go, and then as I arrive to the school parking lot one hour before the end of the last hour of deadline day, I realized it didn't have a hanging wire on it. It also had unfinished sides...which is not typical of my style, I always finish the sides but for some reason left these unpainted entirely. So, I got super bummed at my irresponsibility, then went home, made a pot roast, and eventually got over it two hours later. (That is a bright yellow box in the front there, not a stick of butter)

Final still life. Yellow and Purple. I liked this one mostly because of the lemon in the broken cup. I liked painting it for some reason and left it until last to add the details to. The only thing that I would change is the top right. I swear that I am not making excuses but it was really flat... and difficult to exaggerate. Although, I was able to pick my own composition... there was more to the set up so I could have jsut as easily moved my perspective down about 3 inches and gotten a more interesting upper half.

2010

I DID decide to enter the 2010 Bakersfield Arts Festival. Unfortunately, my body did not agree with me because I went through some sort of anxiety - based weakness freakout. I am not sure if I was finally adjusting to Bakersfield's crap air quality or if I was freaking out because I was working and taking Chemistry and Calculus and Computer classes and I am too anal for words... but alas, I was freaking out and missed the deadline for submission because I wanted to go home and nap a bit.

I think that this only proves my deep rooted desire to become a painter of things. Here are the forgotten works, nonetheless. One is a diorama - yes, like the shoebox things you used to make in school. It is of the Owl and the Pussycat, my favorite poem growing up. I made it in a cigar box because that summer my old man was super in to these cigars that taste like honey and coffee and are super fancy. Those boxes were amazing to do crafty crap in.

Kickoff

I am going to try to document - from the beginning - my attempt to build a legit resume for my "art" or "body of work" or "portfolio" or whatever you choose to call it. My first entry on what will some day be my resume will be the Bakersfield Visual Arts Festival 2009. Here is what I entered:

I called it "Fibonacci was in the Latin Club". It was a small works show so you had to buy the canvas from the museum. This one, and the other entry that I submitted was 8" x 8". Both are acrylic on canvas. I really like this one... and it follows my current work a little more closely than the other entry that I had. I actually submitted 3 paintings but they only chose 2. Which I am pretty ok with, because I think they only let, like, 75 out of 300+ applicants into the show and 2 of those were mine. Jawsome.

This one is an image from a messed up children's series that I wanted to write before I was forced by income and boredom to get a job. The show was pretty cool, although I wasn't really proud of my stuff after seeing the winner. the theme of this show was "roots"... to which I obviously applied my best interpretations. Anyway, I didn't feel jazzed about it when it was over so I didn't really continue to apply for things. 2009: End scene.