Off the top of my head- digital life/analog life

From Model in Life Painting class

This thought just came to me and I had to put it down...so pardon me if it's raw.  But I have this flash of insight about how digital photography and videos have effected art in recent years.  Duh you might think but let me flush this thought out for a minute.

For example, I've been a dancer since I was a little girl and consequently I've done a LOT of live shows.  We used to do shows that were -when I danced at the Tikis- the same show for an entire season over and over and over again.  And the response of the audience had an immediate effect on how much you enjoyed that particular show.  I mean there were no cellphone pictures and videos capturing every moment you were on stage and tagging you with your mistakes and possibly funny faces.  Occasionally someone's dad or boyfriend would make a home movie which they would develop months later when they used up a whole batch of film, and splice the stuff together with everything else they recorded and you might go see it at their house.  Even if you flash forward to camcorders, it wasn't as immediate as it is now...no one was posting their video on the interwebs the very same day.  So the viewing was distanced from the actual performance.  In a way our experience as performers was very intimate and in the moment.  It was more like something the Buddhists talk about, mindfulness.  If the audience was lively and fun you had a fun time, if your fellow performers were in the zone you had a fun time, if things were dead they were not so fun.  But there were none of these immediate videos that we would over analyse with people criticizing themselves and each other.

Something very similar happens in painting and art.  I have been looking at the paintings of the great Alice Neel a lot lately, she died in 1984 so her work was all pre-digital age.  Some of my teachers at CSUCI pointed her out to me when I was in school there, maybe because like me painted the people around her and her friends and family.  Her work is not anatomically perfect, but it shows the full intensity of the model and that is something so much more than just painting a rendition of a photograph.  That's what I'm getting to, that I think digital photography has really flattened the way artists see the world.  Granted there are great artists doing photorealist work and maybe it's just something different than the work of the past, no worse or better, just different.  But I'm trying to understand how it digital photography affects me as an artist.   There is such a disparity of freshness that happens when working from a photograph.  You have to compensate for things that happen in photography when you paint from these cellphone pictures, for instance the perspective on my iPhone becomes skewed.  Things that are closer to the camera become disproportionally larger, and I as the artist must compensate and try to figure out how to make it the way I want it to look.  And foreshortening always looks strange in digital pictures.  I think what I'm trying to say is that I get too distracted with making things look real sometimes and I might miss the intensity of the person I'm trying to capture because I'm not looking at THEM but a PICTURE of them.  Does this make any kind of sense to anyone else?  I will put to paintings in this post one is from a photograph I took the other from a live model, maybe they will show what I want to say.

Painted from a Photograph of my friend in a stage performance 

superimposed on a made up background

All this being said, it is really expensive and inconvienient to get a live model to sit there for you!  I do manage to talk friends into modeling for me and I'm so grateful they do this for me.  I don't know  how I will resolve this imagined problem!

A Change of Heart

Come Together

                  About a year ago I made this screen print.  I’ve never posted it basically because I’m not great at the art of screen printing, but the message embedded here was important to me.  The story of the piece is that if people on the extreme sides of the political aisle would listen to one another they would find had a lot of core beliefs in common.  And now I’m actually questioning that idea. 

It’s more than two years into the Trump administration and I just get more disappointed in the state of the world every freaking day.  Really more than I thought ever would be possible.

During the 2016 Presidential Campaign the New York Times printed two pages of insults said by Trump, you can see it for yourself here:

https://twitter.com/armandoarrieta/status/790554905819934724/photo/1?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E790554905819934724&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.businessinsider.com%2Fnew-york-times-prints-donald-trump-campaign-insults-2016-10

But seriously what good does this do if everyone doesn’t read it?  Trump’s followers don’t read the NYTimes!  They watch Fox News and read Breitbart both of which sicken me.

Ideally I believe that it would be a simple answer if we all listened with open hearts to the other side. But I’m coming to the point where I don’t know if it’s possible.  This week Trump went to the U.K. where the people hate him as far as I can tell nearly as much as I do.  

AND here is my point, Trump doesn’t listen.  He was interviewed on Piers Morgan’s program Good Morning Britain, and Morgan asked Trump about his meeting with Prince Charles.  Apparently HRH talked a lot about climate change, but what did Trump take away from this?  No new insight or wisdom on the subject WHATSOEVER he just used this as an opportunity to spot light how long their meeting was…like that is the point.  That the Prince would talk to him for that long not what the heck the Prince was saying.  He definitely did NOT listen.  I’m including a link here from The Late Show with Steven Colbert if you want to see it.   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NBh3V-6P3kE&list=PLiZxWe0ejyv9j2ulP5zZiE0an8CDtfv3_&index=2

Hmmm.  I’m rethinking my earlier stance.  Maybe it’s impossible to talk to these people!  Maybe it’s impossible for them to talk to me because I’m not going to change my positions either.  I BELIEVE in a woman’s right to make her own health and life choices.  I BELIEVE in equal rights for men, women, people of color, LGBTQ.  I BELIEVE that climate change is happening and it needs to be addressed.  I BELIEVE in using tax money for schools and relief from student loans for the millions that need it.  I BELIEVE in equal access to health care for all.  I BELIEVE in gun control.  I BELIEVE in freedom of religion, and free speech.  I BELIEVE in peace.  So if you don’t like those things and you don’t want to hear about them you’d probably be happier if you didn’t read my blog. 

Sorry if this entry is a downer and you didn't want to hear this stuff.  I will talk about crafts and art next time.

End of Spring

 Myself - Watercolor.  I may be a bit scattered or just interested in lots of things.

This spring was a busy one.  I took a couple of classes at a local community college, because as far as I'm concerned there's always more to learn.  The biggest problem I encounter with school is distance, I really loved going to CSUCI (California State University Channel Islands) for a LOT of reasons but one of the biggest was that it took me 10 minutes from getting in my car to getting out of it.  The community college that I went to is Ventura College and it is at least a 30 minute drive, not including getting in and out and finding a parking place.  So it took a lot of time from my day.  But still I enjoyed taking a Theater class in History of Costume Design, and a painting class Life Painting.

Here are some of the paintings I've made the last few months and a WIP as well as some of my other crafts.  I apologize if you've already seen these on my Instagram feed where I post frequently...I'm hoping to turn things around where I blog first then Instagram later.

 I enjoy doing watercolors because they are fast and fresh.  This one is a portrait of a dancer friend that I ran into at the Renaissance Faire in April, her name is Merryl.  

 WIP- Oil Painting I've nicknamed Modern Minoan.  Perhaps you've seen the frescoes at Knossos.

These first two pieces are of bellydancers.  If you know me you know that is a large part of my background.  I started bellydancing when I was 22 after I had my younger son.  Later when I ran across the art form derived from ATS (American Tribal Style) bellydance known as Tribal Bellydance I became very involved.  All my children had grown up and I was busy babysitting my darling granddaughter a lot of the time.  In the evenings I took bellydance classes from my friend Ayse and later I started teaching myself.  The dance community gave me an opportunity not only to perform and create but also to build community.  I produced some dance festivals in the early 2000's and later produced some stage shows.  Also, I was able to meet a lot of people that I shared many core beliefs with about politics, spirituality, environment, making, creating art and I've made many life long friends.  I'm blessed with this community.  So I'm working on a series of art about the dance community or it's sort of a modern bohemian community.  There are some converging points where we all share commonness, such as Burning Man, Bellydance, Renaissance Faire.  It's about the power to build community that embodies respect and love and cooperation as opposed to personal gain, and power over others.  

This is the body of a sweater I finished.  The pattern is called Zweig by a talented designer Caitlin Hunter.

Along with bellydance I'm very into fiber arts.  I've been working on a sweater currently...I like to use my hands, and be quiet sometimes...knitting provides that opportunity.