Technical Process: In Process Work

Research:

     At the Malton Gallery I observed the work of a former peer at DAAP, Emily Sites. Her work inspired a lot of things for me involving my sculptural work. She explores metal forging and welding along with the sewing of stretched fabric to her work. 

     Ernesto Neto, an artist I previously did a blog on created a piece which seems to have striking similarities to what I am attempting to create.

How To:

     As I have posted in an earlier blog regarding my forging and welding processes I explained how I created my sculpture representing both a the form of a chandelier and jelly fish. 

    In sewing fabric to metal, first choose a fabric which reflects your intentions and begin stretching and sewing. I have begun attaching fabric to my metal sculpture by using a needle and thread. It is a rather difficult process, the fabric must be stretched very tight or it will cause rippling in the fabric. Around the curves of the metal rods, it is very complicated to prevent such rippling. 

     Furthermore, hemming the edges of the fabric is a very interesting process. The fabric was rolled tightly to cause tension throughout the medium. I stitched with cross hatching creating the hem to form a border.

Behind the Scenes: Research Activities

     In researching new inspirations, I am often found searching out images online of artists which I am already prompted by. By looking at their images online I am able to stumble across more of their work, in turn finding more and more art that I am fascinated with as well as new artists who are similar in style. I have folders upon folders saved on my desktop that hold hundreds of images I have not want to lose.

     Furthermore, another type of research I take part in is that where I physically go out on adventures. These adventures encourage creative thinking to occur. I am able to become one with my surroundings by letting myself become absorbed in my environment. In doing this I am able to appreciate and truly understand my surrounding inspirations.

     Another way I research is by looking at my friends and peers artwork whether it be at school or online web pages as Facebook or blog sites. When at school, I find much enjoyment in walking through the studio spaces of both sculptural and 2D artists on the 3rd and 5th floors of DAAP. When walking through the spaces every several months I am able to see a whole new production of current work. This way of researching art is similar to the way I partake in adventures through a town, city, abandoned building or woods.

Watch This

When you get stumped.... Watch this...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ResTHKVxf4

Artwork for Sale

Here are several of my finished pieces which are for sale. As you can see, my use of media varies widely.

 Dysfunctional Wardrobe: 2010

Plywood and found objects

4 x 2 x 1 ft.

$350

Gargoyle Wings: 2011

Wrought iron, sheet metal, leather and fabric

3 x 4 x 2 ft.

$300

Distressed Door: 2011

Antique door and digital painting

2 x 8 ft.

$200

Sodden Figure: 2010

Acrylic, India ink and graphite

6 x 12 in.

$70 

Bespattering Slumber: 2010

Acrylic, India ink and graphite

6 x 12 in.

$70

Self Portrait: 2010

Charcoal, pastel, India ink and coffee stain

18 x 12 in.

Commission Only

Out of Eden: 2010

Marker, India ink, graphite and cardboard

12 x 6 in.

$80

Beads I: 2010

Digital photography

$60

Beads II: 2010

Digital photography

$60

Paws I: 2010

Digital photography

$60

Paws II: 2010

Digital photography

$60

Paws III: 2010

Digital photography

$60

Jamaican Evening: 2008

Digital photography

$60

Jamaican Waters: 2008

Digital photography

$60

Malton and Miller Gallery

MALTON GALLERY

     Along with Jana Feverston, I attended two different gallery spaces in the upper class area of Cincinnati. The first which we adventured through was the Malton Gallery, sponsored by Summerfair. This commercial gallery is used for show casing and selling artwork of all sorts. Within the gallery was displayed a broad variety of work varying from creatively crafted oil paintings, metal sculpture with stretched fabric, molded bronze, rusted metal plates covered in aesthetically pleasing pigments, antique and vintage jewelry, carved wooden bowls, ceramic maracas, shredded glass paintings and more. The work seemed to reflect a new age style, geared towards drawing in a young audience just graduating from college.

   The exhibition currently on display is titled Lightness of Being, featuring the work of two emerging artists Abby King and Emily Sites. From what I understand, it seems as though the gallery would be very excited to review and possibly even display the work of any emerging artist freshly beginning their career in the fine arts. Emerging artists coming out of their cocoons should apply at the Malton Gallery.

     The interior of the gallery appeared both professional in some areas and also amateur. At the entrance of the gallery was a small cubbyhole like room which held about ten showcases displaying jewelry and small sculptures. The lower floor of the gallery was very open with an extremely tall ceiling casting excellent lighting down on the pieces. There was plenty of room for walking about and easily viewing the work which both hung on the walls or stood on pedestals. Some of the framed pieces on the lower level were very carelessly framed and mounted which detracted the value of the work. After walking into a small opening on the side wall, the viewer walks up the stairs where on the second floor artwork is cluttered about the small balcony. Some of the framed work sat on the floor when it could have been easily hung on the surrounding walls. The showcase boxes, walls and hand rails were chipped and dirty. It was a drastic change of space from the bottom floor to the top.

                         

     The Art Design Consultants Inc. at adcfineart.com, records a short history of the gallery.The Malton Gallery has been in business for 37 years and specializes in the best of contemporary fine art and sculpture. Malton Gallery represents over 100 local, regional, national and international artists. Malton Gallery has earned the reputation as one of the premier galleries in the area and was voted best sculpture gallery in the Midwest by Sculpture Magazine. Malton Gallery recently moved to their newly built, light filled location, designed specifically to showcase art. The outdoor sculpture garden showcases large scale sculptural works in a variety of mediums.

     Here is the information necessary to show work at the Malton Gallery. If you are an artist looking to display here you must contact Sylvia Rombis to gain further instructions:

Malton Gallery
Owner: Sylvia Rombis
3804 Edwards Road
Cincinnati, Ohio 4509
(513) 321-8614

srombis@maltonartgallery.com
maltonartgallery@zoomtown.com.

http://www.maltonartgallery.com/

MILLER GALLERY

     The second gallery space Jana Feverston and I explored was the Miller Gallery in Hyde Park.

This gallery, similar to the Malton Gallery, is also used as a commercial gallery, showing primarily large scale paintings and several smaller sculptures made of bronze and aluminum castings. Much of the work displayed is figurative consisting of both human  and animals. The work seemed to reflect a romanticism and realism style of painting geared toward those whom appreciate a traditional style of creating art.

I had A Vision

28" x 60" 

Oil on canvas

Johanne Cullen

     The interior of the gallery was professional and made good use of the space and small divided rooms. The medium sized rooms allowed for careful walking throughout the gallery to view both work that hung on the walls or stood on pedestals. All of the work was very carefully and intricately framed this was a big difference from the Malton Gallery.  The walls and pedestals were pristine clean, without chips in the paint or smudges of dirt.

     Along with all of the traditional paintings, there was also work such as that by Bruce Riley who is a florescent abstract painter. He uses large scale canvases and resin in his innovative creations. By layering both mediums he forms three dimensional patterns within the canvas.

Bruce Riley

Headlong

2011

96" x 48"

Mixed Media

     http://deltaskymag.delta.com/Destinations/Cincinnati/Shopping/Miller-Gallery.aspx is a website describing local activities and events in the Cincinnati area It states of the diverse selection of art from 60 local, international and emerging artists, will appeal to those who appreciate works of contemporary realism and abstraction. The range and the pedigree shown here are impressive, culled together in Cincinnati’s oldest gallery.

Miller Gallery
2715 Erie Avenue
Hyde Park Square
Cincinnati, OH 45208
(513) 871-4420

Monday, By appointment
Tuesday-Saturday 10-5:30
Sunday 11ish-2ish

Contact@millergallery.com

http://www.millergallery.com/

Anyone who creates work which reflects the traditionalism of this gallery should apply. If interested in showing your work at Miller Gallery follow these instructions:

Co-Owners: Gary Gleason & Laura Miller Gleason
Gallery Director: Rosemary Seidner

1. Emailed submissions are preferred.

If you have a website, please include the URL.

If you do not have a website or images accesible online, please send small image files.

Submit to: contact@millergallery.com 

Use artist submission in the subject line, or your email will most likely be deleted along with our daily spam.

2. All portfolios/slides/ materials submitted that you wish returned MUST include a self addressed stamped envelope with the proper postage.

3. Please include pricing, sizes, mediums, exhibition history and public and private collections as applicable. Any personal information and philosophy as it relates to your work is always interesting and reviewed.

4. Please include gallery affiliations, past and current with contact information.

Audrey Kawasaki: My Creative Inspiration

Audrey Kawasaki: Biography

The themes in Audrey Kawasaki's work are contradictions within themselves. Her work is both innocent and erotic. Each subject is attractive yet disturbing. Audrey's precise technical style is at once influenced by both manga comics and Art Nouveau. Her sharp graphic imagery is combined with the natural grain of the wood panels she paints on, bringing an unexpected warmth to enigmatic subject matter.

The figures she paints are seductive and contain an air of melancholy. They exist in their own sensually esoteric realm, yet at the same time present a sense of accessibility that draws the observer to them. These mysterious young women captivate with the direct stare of their bedroom eyes.

Kawasaki studied fine art painting for two years at the Pratt Institute in New York City, but left after two years without completing her degree. She cites the emphasis in the New York art scene on conceptual art, an approach at odds with her figurative, illustrative style, as among the reasons she left. As of 2006, Kawasaki is considered a rising star in the Los Angeles art scene. In 2005 Kawasaki designed the cover art for Alice Smith's For Lovers, Dreamers & Me. In 2011, singer Christina Perri was tattooed with Kawasaki's painting, "My Dishonest Heart."

Alone
oil and graphite on wood 6.5″x29″
Space Yui in Tokyo
2009

Daydream
oil and graphite on wood 9.5″x28
Space Yui in Tokyo
2009

"Blue" ブルー
oil and graphite on wood 8.5"x11"
"Hajimari"@Jonathan Levine Gallery in NY
2009

Oyasumi
Oil on wood 10x19
Chubby Bunny - Gallery Nucleus
2006

I'll Stay Here
mixed media on wood 9.25"x11.25"
Art Basel Fair with Thinkspace Gallery
2008

Lili and her Ghosts
oil and graphite on wood panel 24"x24"
Merry Karnowski Gallery "Restlessly Still"
2011

Mayakashi
oil and graphite on wood panel 12"x12"
"The Next Generation" group show @ London Miles Gallery curated by Thinkspace Gallery
2010

Overlap
oil and graphite on wood 28"x14"
Outre Gallery
2009

Saying Goodbye
oil and graphite on wood 26"x21"
Space Yui in Tokyo
2009

My Little Secrets
oil and graphite on wood panel 24"x24"
Thinkspace Gallery 5 year Anniversary Group Show
2010

She Entwined
oil and graphite on wood panel 16”x20”
Outre Gallery. Australia.
2010

Superstition
oil and graphite on wood 16″x16″
Space Yui in Tokyo
2009

The Way She Likes
oil and graphite on wood 10.5″x28″
Space Yui in Tokyo
2009

"Warabeuta" わらべ歌 a child's song
oil and graphite on wood 21"x32"
"Hajimari"@Jonathan Levine Gallery in NY
2009

"Yuuwaku" 誘惑 allure
oil and graphite on wood 20"x26"
"Hajimari"@Jonathan Levine Gallery in NY
2009





My Similarities to Audrey Kawasaki:

Similar to Kawasaki's artistic preferences, I myself find that I am very discouraged and uninterested in the pressure from both professors and peers attending DAAP, attempting to persuade me that art must be conceptual. I am disgusted by the pressure they force upon me. Allow me to create because I enjoy my innovative inventions which do not have a conceptual background.

Silence thy knave mouths and allow me to proceed upon my own merry way.

Furthermore, I do have a passion for combining both innocent appearing fingers while also adding a twist of disturbing imagery.



How My Art Differs from Audrey Kawasaki:

My art differs from Kawasaki's work in the way I approach my medium. Like herself, I use planks of wood but rather than using oil paints, I explore digital media along with some multimedia two dimensional surfaces, acrylic and watercolor paints. After scanning the physical piece of wood with all of its two dimensional mediums, I bring the image into Photoshop and digitally paint directly upon the scanned surface.

Kawasaki places her figure on the wood surfaces and often times they are unrelated to the wood grain. I myself prefer to to enhance the wood grain by submerging the figure within the grain of the wood. Which causes the figure to be both engraved and protruding from the surface.

In my first image, I created the collage and scanned the image into Photoshop. The square surface seemed to be non-reflective of the organic and natural form and twisting wood grain. My teacher Daniel Leonard encouraged me to push my passion for the organic further and use an actual plank from a tree limb. I find this method of working to be more aesthetically pleasing to my passions and interests.



In Progress Project I and II:

Project I

Step 1

Step 2

Untitled
Beads, lace, fringe, paint, wood and digital painting
2012




Project II

Step 1

Step 2

Step 3

Untitled
Wood and digital painting
2012