Pop Goes the Artist!

Who Should Paint You: Andy Warhol

You’ve got an interested edge that would be reflected in any portrait You don’t need any fancy paint techniques to stand out from the crowd!

No, I didn’t engineer it to tell me that.

As usual, even though I don’t have the space or materials to work on very many projects (and painting and pasteling are totally out of the question), my brain is working on overtime to churn out ideas.  So, on the agenda for the (rather distant) future:

* a pencil still life.  This is not so unreasonable for now, except that I don’t know why I want to do it.  I hate still lifes.  It’s probably just that I feel like I need to do more work from life (which is true).

* a small (9×12) black-and-white self portrait in the same sort of style as my portrait of James.  I even have the photo prepared, but alas, I have neither paint nor brushes nor canvas board.

* a painting on James’ guitar case.  Not sure why I want to do this, exactly, except that working on such a non-traditional surface sounds fun.  The only problem is, I have no idea what to paint on it.  Minor detail, right?  My first instinct is to paint a guitar as realistically as possible, since the case is already guitar-shaped.  That could be sort of cool, although I know I don’t have the talent with a paintbrush necessary to pull of the sort of trompe de loeil realism necessary to make that subject work.  Suggestions on subject matter greatly appreciated.

* more altered book pages!

Not really fine art per se, but also:

* a scrapbook of high school.  Particularly I want to devote a section to track before I lose all my newspaper clippings.

* a scrapbook of James and me.  Sort of a lazier and less artistic version of the altered book I made him.

This sudden desire to scrapbook stems partially from the fact that I have three empty scrapbooks sitting in my basement.  I bought them the summer before senior year, when I thought maybe I would make scrapbooks as graduation presents for people.  Hah.  Anyway, spender’s guilt seems to be catching up with me and I feel like I really ought to at least try to do something with them.  Even if they were only $4 apiece.

Occasionally, while cleaning my room or moving heaven and earth looking for something, I find notes I’ve written to myself.  They originate late at night, when I have to get something out of my head so that I can go to sleep, written on whatever paper and with whatever pen comes to hand.  Then they disappear, until months later, when I’ve all but forgotten what I wrote and why.  I just turned up one of these notes.  I do remember the context of this one.  I had just bought a copy of Somerset Studio magazine on the recommendation of a group of altered book artists on WetCanvas.  The magazine was my first real taste of the wider world of altered books and other similar arts.  This was my reaction:

Despite my increasing interest in altered books, I remain, at heart, very much a traditionalist, with a passion for clean lines, bright, pure colors, and minimal “frou frou.”  Certainly this explains my attraction to Lichtenstein and my rather intense dislike of nearly everything post-medieval and pre-Impressionism/ expressionism.  (Exception: Vermeer.  Genius, beautiful colors.)  Many of these altered books, while beautiful on one level, are painfully monochromatic, and even dull, busy, pretentiously “artsy”, incomprehensible, and largely lacking in any sense of fun.  Cluttered.  Maybe I’m too much a teenager, but please, don’t take yourself too seriously.  And not everything needs a brown glaze on top of it.

Needless to say, I have not purchased another copy of that magazine.

I realized, last time I was over at Christie’s house, that I hadn’t taken a photo of the pop art painting I gave her for her birthday more than a year ago. I did it the summer of 2004, which means it was right after our junior year. The likeness on this one is not outstanding, which I attribute to the crackpot method I used to get the line drawing. (Don’t remember exactly what I did, but I know it didn’t involve gridding and pencil sketching a photo, which is what I usually do.) So anyway, here it is. (acrylic on canvas, don’t remember the size. 18×24″??)

Last night I finally finished this portrait of James playing guitar that was his Christmas gift. I gave it to him this morning and it was a hit. I have to say, I’m really happy with the way it turned out. It’s the biggest thing I’ve painted so far and it was a major challenge to take a (rather poor) 4×6″ photo and make it look all right at six times that size. I’m continuing to refine the style I began in Mrs. Carpenter’s painting and the Lucy painting. It’s kind of exciting to have a “style” that is distinctly mine. I mean, it’s not a completely unique way of painting, but at this point, I’m not sure there are any of those left. Its official title is “James” and it’s a 24×36″ acrylic on canvas. Woo hoo.

In other news, I’ve decided that when I am a fabulously wealthy artist with my own custom-designed studio, I will have a servant whose sole task is to clean my palettes for me. Failing that, I’ll have a sink that comes up to a normal standing height, so that after I’ve finished scrubbing half-dried acrylics out of the corners of two palettes, I’ll still be able to stand upright. I mean really–if it kills my back this much when I’m 18, imagine how it’ll feel when I’m 45.

Next up on the projects list: Finish up the painting of a VW Beetle that I’m working on, then start on a set of acrylic gouache/watercolor/calligraphy prayers to donate to my parish and my middle school for their upcoming silent auction fundraisers. I also want to use the last of my Border’s gift card to buy a book on medieval calligraphy and manuscript illumination.

Next on my list of new skills to learn: gilding (especially in the context of illumination), paper making, and silk screening (which, yes, has been on this list for years). Also possibly bookbinding. I’ll have to read up on that.

Feeling like this is going to be a very good year, art-wise.