Traveling Show

While at the opening reception for the "World of the Wild" I found out that I was chosen for the traveling show put on by the Salt Lake Art Center!! I don't know very many details except that my piece will travel around for 1 year after this show ends. I'm so excited!!!

World of the Wild Art Show

I entered Utah's Hogle Zoo's annual art show. It is a competition/exhibition intended to encourage diverse artistic interpretation of the natural world. I found out about it a few days before the entrance deadline and got to work on a few pieces. I got the email from the jury last night and one of my pieces got in!!!

Here is a sneak peak of the one that got in.

It's called, "Warbling Twinspot".

For information on the show go here.

Commissioned

Well for now I'm going to hold off on doing a painting a day. I have been commissioned to paint for two different people! Who knows how long they will take to complete, I imagine months, but meanwhile I'll be working on some smaller paintings partially for practice and partially to break up the monotony.

Hope these still work.

A Painting A Day

Lately I've been thinking about doing a painting a day. Cara introduced me to http://www.newdressaday.com/ a few weeks ago and i've been checking it out ever since. In 2006 one of my college roommates knew a guy named Justin that did a painting a day and was published in the New York Times. I really liked looking at all his little paintings, still do. This is him - http://justinspaintings.com/ . This is the New York Times article
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/31/fashion/31online.html . It also has some other artists doing the same thing. Here's one more lady that I found and like http://carolmarine.blogspot.com/ .

So the big question are:

Would my attention span be long enough to keep this up?
How long would I do a painting a day?
Could I make that kind of commitment?
Has this already become too popular?
Would I forget I was doing this on occasion?
Would I be able to keep coming up with the necessary supplies?
Does it always have to be a painting, could it be a drawing sometimes?
What if I lost touch with the internet for a day here or there, would my adoring fans riot?

Ok so I'm not actually worried about that last one, well the rioting fans part. So I guess I'll think about it and we'll see what happens.

Devin's Painting

Devin requested a painting a few months ago. It's the least I could do, after all he built me a tree house. I asked him what he wanted it to be and he left it up to me, no hints of what he had in mind. The only discussion about it was the size. He bought a 5'x 5' canvas and after it was stretched turned out to be 4'8" x 3'6".

I've been milling it over for a while and have had several ideas but nothing seemed right...and then one day it started coming together. I wanted something abstract and thought that was going to be the whole of it but then when things started piecing together I threw in some detail too. It's pretty much complete in my head but here's what I have so far.

Why a painting is like a pizza.

I've been browsing through the book, "Why A Painting Is Like A Pizza" by Nancy G. Heller and thought I would share some of the thoughts on this. Nancy says that, "both depend on visual balance for much of their overall appeal and, though both can be judged by established standards, pizzas and paintings must ultimately be evaluated in terms of individual taste." I believe this to be true. While my personal individual taste for pizza is cheese, just plain cheese, my individual taste for painting takes on a much boarder range.

In chapter 4, Paintings that people love to hate, she talks about comments that people make like Marcel Nicolle, a french journalist, and his response to a group of radical new paintings. He says, "What we see here has nothing to do with painting. Formless streaks of blue, red, yellow and green, all mixed up, splashes of raw color juxtaposed without rhyme or reason..." Sounds to me like he just likes the cheese pizza of the art world. She goes on in this chapter to talk about artists such as Jackson Pollock, Joan Miro and Yves Klein and the creative and talented way they portray art.

If you're looking to broaden your horizons in the modern and abstract art world than this might be the book for you. Then again I can't be certain of that as I only skimmed through it.

Melissa Speaks Out

Melissa has decided to share her feelings of childhood trauma and how the atonement has been applied in her life through this series of paintings and poem that she wrote.

The pain I feel is with inside
It pulls me and slows me down to shame again
Oh how I wish to purge this out
And rid myself of this trap

I can’t believe he still calls me to Come Unto Him
I have such a heavy burden and struggle that I hold and carry deep within
Does he know and understand that he’s the only one
That extends his hands with love and care

Can I trust? Do I trust his love?
That he will catch me once again

Oh how I have tried and tried to offer a broken heart
To a man who caught me with his hands of care
I feel his hands and his heart can I trust that the healing will start
I give my will with my heart to my Father I shall not depart

I lay at His feet my fears, defeats and doubts
And trust to take his hand to the promised land

Oh what joy there is to have in a Brother that will lend his hand
Whom divinely sent to do His Father’s will
To succor the heart of men To Follow Him

Where pain and struggle had once resigned
Is now flushed and washed aside
With the love and peace that is offered only by He

He the Father, He the Son, He the Holy Ghost whom guide my life once again

With this I devote to return to my Father’s presence again
To open my heart and trust again
To serve and love as He has done for me
To pass this on to all that need
By stretching out with our reach and share the love the Lord has to preach

Atonement and Devotion
by Melissa Lloyd