Spring springs

The crocuses have bloomed and Peak Experience is back out in the elements! ~ May 2011

Ephemeral

Reading about the new work of my former employer Gordan Halloran (Lotus in Motion at the Miami art fair http://lotusinmotionproject.blogspot.com/) I feel inspired to make a few comments on ephemeral art and its value. 

Early this morning I meditated on the concept of aparigraha with the help of Rolf Gates (www.rolfgates.com) and spent a lot of time thinking about letting go of fear. With snow falling outside and an open morning I sat before my modest alter overlooking the river. After awhile I gradually got my mind to stop running in a frenzy and start doing some internal maintenance, some stillness. Over oatmeal I reflected on the disturbances in my art -I mean heart. Afterward I blindly jumped into an emotional cleaning project of manic proportions. I have spent the better part of the day mining through digital photos, cleaning out and organizing my personal digital gallery. 

Sifting through "my pictures" folder has become a favorite past time of mine but the "paint" folder is a different story. It has remained near untouched since its conception. Organizing, deleting, comprehending all of the growth of an artistic practice is intimidating. I try to have a record of every one of my artworks. I have completed hundreds of paintings on cardboard, glass, postcards and canvas and have casually managed to distribute most of them; some for money and most for love. I've moved every eight months for the past five years and can fit all of my valuables in the back of my RSX. I give an art away to someone who has touched my life meaningfully. And when I return for a visit and see a painting of mine displayed proudly in a friend's home it is a heart warming talisman. I love creating works of beauty on materials that can easily fade away because it speaks to my spiritual understanding of the temporality of all things. An artwork's short and unique life makes it all the more beautiful.  

Ephemerality in artwork is a bit of a tricky notion as the traditional art establishment will place a high value on an art object only if its made of archival quality materials that can last many lifetimes... and appreciate in value. Perhaps in the modern day and age where things so rapidly change and grow buyers are starting to consider artwork that more powerfully reflects their own fleeting sense of time instead of artwork that shows and speaks only to history.

Out Door Installation II

Peak Experience makes an outdoor appearance December 19, 2010 at the Nelson Women's Centre Holiday Craft Fair.

A New View of Peak Experience

I visited Alberta for the first time this winter : Banff, Canmore & Calgary all in one weekend. The mountains there are jagged like sharks teeth, bone dry, vertical, towering, haunting, imminent and cloaked in entirely shocking geometry. The setting is lavish, the living is fashionable and the people, the adventure seekers, they hunger for the extreme. Diverse, wealthy, insulated, design conscious, all necessary to the challenging climate of survival.

Peak Experience installed at the Nelson Women's Centre Craft Fair, Dec. 18, 2010

The black mountains in the distance are inspired by my experiences of the Canadian Rockies.

Living with Painting

Coming out as an artist takes years. Nobody thinks pursuing an art career is a good idea though everybody loves to take a peak and then tear apart your desperately hard work. Probably just as difficult becoming a graphic designer. I just spent an hour photo shopping the above montage of PEAK EXPERIENCE anybody want to fund my hard labor? 

Dirty laundry with PEAK EXPERIENCE

I actually began living with my paintings. In my crowded freshman dorm room (that's right three girls one room) the only creative space I had was the smidgen of wall space above my bed. It became the best easel. I question if it is healthy to sleep with your work.  

A New Side

The first thirty five feet of the scroll.

Mix Media

Photoshop is starting to create it's own section in my brain. I cannot get enough of it. Tonight I decided to start an ad campaign for painting. I am inspired by the promotion style of all the snowboard movies I am watching. 

I've set a title for the massive art project, I call it "Peak Experience."

These luscious mountains have yet to receive their distant peaks and seasonal coloration.

I think I will forget it is winter outside sleeping here.

 

Time Changes Everything

The weather has become a mental force unavoidable in the raging den of Nelson. And my painting has begun to transform along with the seasons. I moved its location inside because my hands were going numb working in the cold.

The Final Days of Summer, Rain begins over the city.

Before I began detailing the mountains, I looked for some inspiration from local artist Jennie Baillie http://www.jennybaillie.com/ . I love the way she uses unusual colors to accentuate the shapes of mountains.

Fall arrives.

Listening to some dark electronic music the other morning I began adding in some monstrous mountains in the distance.

The mountains come alive.

 Sleeping in this scene is intoxicating.

Can't Phase Me

P.H.A.S.E. T.W.O.

It was a beautiful July summer day. I was sitting on the backyard porch, starring at the painting I had started. It was immense. It was daunting. There was only one way to get it done: phases.  If I tried to work the canvas in horizontal sections it would lose uniformity. I was going to build up a massive surface image by painting in color phases. After I would go in and do detail work. 

I colored the distant mountains a watered down mix of copper and deep purple. I filled in the nearer mountain ranges with a watered hooker green, drawing in the forest contours with black and sap green. The rock and land became a dull violet beige. I started adding highlight to the water. And just like that I found my giant project's foundation was complete. Maybe it is not so big afterall.      

The Hundred Foot Painting

I developed a technique of portraying forested mountain ranges back in the fall of 2008. In one night I completed a 5-sketch series from some panoramic video footage I had of Kootenay Lake. The technique involved creating fast grids of inky 'tree lines' (they look like lines on the Richter scale) that intersect at progressive angles. It allowed me to dynamically portray forested mountain contours, fast.

"Kootenay Lake Panorama," Ink on Paper/Graphic Composite, October 2008

It is an essential technique when doing any landscape of or inspired by British Columbia. Especially if it is a very, very big one. 

I am thinking hard before I put the brush to the big white piece of fabric. The first stroke of a painting is the most important. The stroke is voluptuous, it sings a tune of harmony and endless possibility. The outline of an infinite, majestic landscape is revealed with ease and fluidity. The fence painting is luxurious, inspired by the  Chinese literati.

But something is very disappointing. The lines are bleeding out on the cotton from the amount of water mixed into the purple, green, black and iridescent acrylic paint.  The thin curves and detailed trees are becoming blobs. The artwork is totally unsatisfying to me. I hesitatingly ask my house mate johnny if he thinks adding color would ruin the piece. "Ruin?" he says, "definitely not." I begin with my favorite image: the water, I paint it a brilliant sapphire blue. Then I have to take a big step back and take a few deep, deep breaths. I have just begun a One Hundred Foot Painting. 

"I am a mad scientist... I mean artist." 

Chinese Literati Painting

My Chinese Art History teacher in college claimed that Chinese art history reached its zenith of design and visual sophistication some six hundred years before Manet, Degas and Picasso began transforming the world's view of fine art from traditional to modern.

artist: Zhao Mengfu

Wang Shuen-Hao
"In the spirit of Hermitude"

Literati is a term that implies intellectual or well read. The Chinese literati painting tradition began with emperors who dismissed their trusted advisors into exile (technically this was illegal but when you're emperor I guess you make the rules). Wandering the vast and remote mountains, contemplating the futile meaning of life when released from service these intellectuals would complete paintings as meditations on the landscape and the true nature of things or Qi (chi). Sometimes these paintings were seen as indirect criticisms of society, the mountains being representative of the ruler and his separation from the people being evidenced by great distance and fog. Often these paintings were given as gifts to friends or kind strangers who offered shelter to the haggard, wandering intellectual. 

The main distinction of Literati paintings from other art work of the times ( 600 - 1600 A.D.) was an exploration of imagery that went beyond decorative. Calligraphy theory was an important part of such a work and the first brush stroke of any painting was considered the most vital. The lines of these paintings explore how to 'truly' represent nature, how to capture the essence of what is being depicted rather than a realistic portrayal. The landscape formations play numerous visual tricks on the viewer. Utilizing scale, perspective, and thickness of line the literati painter created a world of infinite contemplation on his scroll. Generally these paintings were black and white and were accompanied by a meditative poem. The red seals are stamps from each of the owners the painting belonged to.         

Make Art Not Fence

I have been a painter all of my life. One of my favorite childhood memories: my parents decided they were going to remodel the kitchen, a wall was going to be knocked out and my mother gave my sister and I permission to draw on the wall before it was destroyed. We drew huge and grotesque nude figures and reveled in the freedom of "tagging" our house. Later we would work on murals together upon bedroom walls; painting ocean scenes and flowers.

Now, my roommate and I need a fence. We are tired of not having any privacy from our neighbors next door. After much debate on materials we decide to stretch a piece of white fabric across the gap. I come to realize I cannot stand the color white. As an artist, if I see something white, I feel it is my obligation to make it interesting. And so, I have begun a 100 ft. painting in our back yard. I have chosen the 14th century Chinese Literati landscape painting technique to inform me on my enormous project.    

"B.C. Montage" 100' x 3' Acrylic on Cotton, Nelson, British Columbia, Canada.