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

Melissa, more than words.

Melissa Lloyd uses more than just words to communicate. Like many artists Melissa communicates through her artwork. One thing I love about Melissa is her passion for art and her ease at portraying her thoughts to others through art.

Melissa's love for art started at a young age. She loved finger painting in the first grade. Art classes always came easy for her. She always understood her art teachers and hated other subjects like Math and English.

Melissa loves painting and sculpting. She looks for the medium that speaks best for the subject she is ready to portray. She says sometimes it's easier to paint and other time to sculpt. Melissa started sculpting with wire in 2006. She started by using old wire coat hangers. Her first two were a foot and a human skeleton. What drew her to wire sculpting was re-using, being resourceful, making, creating and reproducing. She enjoys working and thinking at the same time.

She enjoys sculpting trees because they have a lot of personal relevance. The grounding of life, root system growth, strong, a support to others, and enrichment to life. As far as plans for the future she hopes to go far with wire and make it more than a hobby. She stated, "painting is a therapeutic journey for myself. It brings me comfort and helps resolve things. I hope to one day share that with people." Melissa is also drawn to industrial design. She'd like to bridge the gap between art and functionality. When asked what she would like to say to her fans she said, "I have fans?" and then went on to say, "follow your creative ideas and see where they take you. It's not as highly recognized as the academic world but it has a lot of personal development qualities."

watercolor for grandma

This painting was my first finished watercolor and at times I never thought it would end. I started a few others before this but I guess my attention span wasn't long enough to finish just one at a time.

When I began the wash on this I was in Flagstaff, Arizona at my friend Cinda's house. Her mom and aunt and been my genius teachers prior to this painting and the skills they taught me have stuck with me painting after painting. I started this wash like any other wash, lots of water, a little paint. I started out with good intentions and then got frustrated and threw it on the floor, in my mind I was done with this. Cinda walked over, picked it up and told me it was fine I just needed a break. So I took one and several long ones after that. I finished the face while in Flagstaff.

I moved back to Utah a month or two later and began working on it some more. At some point in the beginning I talked to my grandma on the phone and I told her I was painting her a picture (at the time I hated it and figured she had to love anything I did, afterall she was my grandma). In Utah I completed the hair which is when I started really liking it, but it was too late to keep it I had already promised it to my grandma. A few months after that I moved to Idaho where I had nothing but time and I completed it.

When I was back in Utah again a few months later I gave it to my parents and they took it to my grandma who was residing in Wyoming with them. My mom told me that my grandma was planning on getting a frame for it at Walmart but when she saw it she said it was the most beautiful painting she had ever seen. She took it to a frame shop and got non-reflective museum glass and a fancy frame.

My grandma hung it in the cabin where she was living. When she moved she took it with her to St. George Ut, Quartsite Az and Omaha NE. When she was about 89 she gave the painting back to me. She wanted to make sure I ended up with it. I thought she must have gotten sick of it because I didn't think she was near death and I was right. I went to her 90th birthday party and she was doing just fine. Later that year she died and the people she was living with wouldn't let the family in to get her things. Maybe she knew how things would end up and maybe she didn't but I'm glad I ended up with it.

This painting has traveled many places and I hope it travels many more with me and maybe even future generations. Thank you grandma for inspiring it.