I Broke the Chains
Mother: Saint or Sinner?
My newest couch painting "Nashville Skyline"
Telling the stories of my paintings
Future couch painting?
Playing "Karen's Art Game"
Last Saturday, I had such a wonderful evening. Encouraged by my daughter's piano teacher Sara Samuel, I hosted a "salon" evening with a small group of ladies in my home where I showcased and talked about my painting and life as an artist. I collect work from other artists and usually hang my daughter's amazing art along with my own, but for this evening, the walls were covered "salon" style with my paintings, from my most recent to my earliest family paintings in black and white. I even devised a game to occupy the ladies while I tended bar making apple martini's. I gave prizes and talked about my life as an artist and the inspiration and stories behind my paintings. Much of what I showed was work that rarely sees the light of day as it is more personal than the cow and "people on the couch" paintings that I am known for. Some are memory paintings (Mother:Saint or Sinner?) some were couch paintings with deeper stories in them such as "I Broke the Chains" which depicts myself on the couch with my parents in black and white, each of us wearing the broken chains of dysfunction on our wrists. I got a lot of wonderful feedback, comments and suggestions for future work and feel inclined to start re-entering older pieces in gallery shows. It was also great because as I talked about each painting and reflected on what I had done, I was able to step outside of myself a little bit and see what others might see in my work. We had a lot of fun, yukking it up for the camera and taking turns snapping "couch" photos- future fodder for more paintings perhaps. Several commented that I had also inspired them to open up more and explore new medium or work. All in all, it was a fun and inspiring night for each of us.
Wow! Life has really been busy for me and resulted in my being missing in action here on my blog and in my work for the most part in general. My darling daughter graduated last week and my life has been all about helping her get there and planning a big bash to celebrate her achievements.We are very proud parents indeed. :0) I did also have that commission that I was working on that I had to keep on double secret probation as it was a gift for someone who follows me on facebook. Now that it has been given, I can unveil it here to show everyone what I have been doing artistically. This is a take on my people on the couch paintings. Mom wanted a couch picture filled with all the things her daughter loves-pets, Gilmore girls, music, theater etc. Some of these things were a challenge to paint- like I don't do animals other than cows that much and the Glee poster hand and cats gave me a little trouble. I am very proud of this painting though, I like the composition I was able to come up with and how I solved the problem of having many browns in the working photos. Mom and her daughter were also very pleased. The other things I have been working on as you know are clay. I have remained addicted to this new medium and I think you can see my quick progress in the pots below which i made recently. My daughter and I think they are reminiscent of Egyptian canopic jars. I really like making them and I think I will top them with some kind of icon of my own, giving a nod to those Egyptian vessels.
