July 21, 2008

The Toothache
2002
acrylic on wood cutting board 24" x 18"

Sorry that I have been negligent in my daily post but a reaction to a bug bite has kept me down and out. Several years ago I had a similar malady with a tooth gone bad thus prompting the painting "The Toothache". I'm not sure if this will warrant a painting but promise to be back to speed tomorrow with a more insightful post


Peace Always

Sharon

July 19, 2008

I have been going to a shrink fro many years now with great success. She is a new-age gal though to meet her you would think otherwise. She has a Educated English accent, quite pleasant to look at, a small diminutive and is quite un intruding. She listens, she talks, I listen, I talk.

One of the things I had been unable to grasp was a concept she used of "asking for what you want/need?" and the universe will provide. It took me a while but eventually I have time and time again tried it. It's been my limited experience that this philosophy is absolutely true. That being said however delivery is never via the means you thought it was to be.

For example. I have been having a physical summer with lots and lots of gardening, hiking and yoga. The house was being cleaned from the inside and out, laundry caught up, the garden bursting with food to carry me through the fall.

But I though for one week it would be nice to do nothing.


I pictured staying in a cabin with no electricity in the woods alone with my dog.

or an private beach reserve that I could just take photos of shore creatures all day

Knitting on a porch at Cape May, New Jersey (maybe a nighttime beach walk)

Well as I knew I got that week via an allergic reaction to most likely an insect. First my neck swelled and hurt, then the sides of my head, then forehead and now my eye are so puffy that it's hard to see when I go outside and squint in the sun.

I have spent the week, napping, reading, watching tv and videos, nighttime sitting outside. I managed to continue laundry and dishes but other than that little else. My canvas is wrapped on the kitchen table waiting to be stretched when this vacation is over.

Peace Always

Sharon

July 18, 2008

Big Gulp aka Soft Machine
2008
acrylic on organic cotton and hemp
38" x 38"

The Big Gulp

was created after a conversation with my daughter about her first term College English class. She was studying Science Fiction and was attempted to read William Burroughs' Soft Machine. I have read many of the beat authors and their books but I had as of yet not read this one. When I asked her to explain the book to me she said it's a book about nonsense-nothing in it makes sense.

Even though I feel there may be more to it than that, after this conversation I thought I would make a painting that had no real pre-conceived direction. The goat on the top right is an "homage to Picasso" and also a greeting to a friend of mine who told me a story of his youth. He had a goat who broke his leg and he begged his parents to fix the broken limb and not put the goat down.

On the bottom left is a "beetle" which was also a "howdoyoudo" to another friend who made me a stained glass piece with four beetles to honor my love of John, George, Paul and Ringo. The female body on the top right I painted after discovering the multitude of variations of a woman's hoo haw via movies.

On the bottom right is a "woman" being eaten by piranhas, which to me represented life eating away at one.

The two dogs are Bella and Sophie. Bella is the upside down dog (she lives next door to me and is my dog's best friend). The blue and white dog is my dog Sophie a Border Collie mix.

With some of the leaves on the bottom I tried to capture the muti-coloredness of leaves.

The chicken is from my daughter youth. Her name is Belinda and she was my daughter's best friend for a short time when my daughter was young.

July 16, 2008

Blah,Blah, Blah
2007
acrylic on hemp and organic cotton
38" x 38 "

I painted Blah, Blah, Blah when I first became a vegan and was excited to share all the information I was learning about the way foods are being processed and animals mistreated. The woman a the top is visually based on my daughter which represents those who don't listen but look away. In her case it is assumed that she is reacting by an outside source looking at her. The person to her right (our left) is visually based on my neighbor (a friend). This figure represent those who can absorb information but notable to process it correctly and implode. In this figure's case we just see the beginning with a crack throughout his head and his facial expression of pain.

The books in the protagonist's (me) arms are Vegan Freak by Bob and Jenna Torres and Animal Rights, which is a made up book based on Podcasts by Gary Francione, Eric Markus and Collen Patrick-Goudreau

I had seen a barred owl in the woods during the time I way creating Blah, Blah, Blah, felt it was a special few minutes and wanted to mark the occasion in this painting.

The symbol that the owl is siting on is "Om" which seems to have many meanings, I've seen it used in several different cultures. In sanskrit I believe it represents original (first) sound but most recently here in the U.S. is known to represent yoga.

The mountain, ferns and trees are all inspired by the area I live in. The animal at my feet is my departed dog Jackson (he was blind when I painted this as you can tell from the color of his eyes)

July 15, 2008

7 Rays
2006
acrylic on canvas
38" x 30"

7 Rays
1. Freedom
2. Unity
3. Understanding
4. Harmony
5. Truth
6. Goodness
7. Beauty

The Seven Rays is a song written and performed by Todd Rundgren. For actual (not abridged lyrics click here)

The painting "7 Rays" is a simple a vignette of me and my daughter in bed at night-she sleeping and me trying to figure out the lyrics to 7 Rays. The cat to the left is my cat Malicia and the dog on the blanket is my dog Jackson who has passed on. Not sure the intention of the American flag on the right. To me the layers and layers of paint indicate that there was the beginning of an alternative painting underneath this one.

July 14, 2008

Photo by Sharon Lee
Old Main Frame Shop

Last week I found out that three pieces of mine (Big Gulp, 7 Rays and Blah, Blah, Blah) were accepted into the Artists in Our Midsts show at the Southern Alleghenies Art Museum in Altoona, PA. This is nice regional show to do as the museum, though small, is a good space that is climate controlled and has good lighting. Of the three pieces, two needed to be framed so today amidst the reconstruction of downtown State College after an event that brought 125, 000 into a town that houses only 40,000 I headed to "my" frame show.

Old Main Frame Shop is in downtown State College. The retail part of the business is a rather tiny affair-generally only one or two people are working "out-front". The walls are lined with fat strips of velcro to which corners of frames are attached. The frames are about 1 foot in length from the corner to each side.

Today we had three people (a clerk, the gallery manager and myself) working on choosing the correct frame for my paintings. It is a delicate balance of texture and color-some frames work only if they're smooth and some need texture to duplicate the indication of texture in a painting. Depending on the depth of the stretchers, only certain frames visually work. One of the paintings took us over an hour to figure out because we were looking at black frames and the color that worked was gold with red hues and black scratches.

I like going to get my work framed. It visually brings the painting into the fore front. It can add or take away emphasis. It make the painting feel complete.

July 13, 2008

Photos by Sharon Lee
Beaver Chewed Tree
Pink Poppy
Pink and White Flowers
Two Brown Mushrooms

I've been thinking lately of additional ways to earn income and still keep the free-lance flexibility that I would like to hold onto so I can create art when my creativity is highest not necessarily when the clock has been punched out. For the past six months or so I've been taking nature photographs in the woods as well as in my garden. Each day I attempt to get one or two successful photos taken. This does not mean I only take 1 or 2 photos but perhaps 20 or more. Right now I have about 30 fairly successful photos and I hope to take 20 more before I start scaling down the photos to the absolute best and start the printing, matting, framing process in hopes of selling these photos in several art fairs.

I am often intimidated by the quality of my photographs. A few weeks ago I was watching a documentary on Cindy Sherman and fell in love with the way that she set up photos to tell a story. Some people are brilliant at capturing interesting light, some photographers travel to exotic places and take interesting photos of other cultures and some are remarkable technicians. I feel honestly I have not mastered any of these skills. Then one day I realized that color is my thing as well as nature and I could find my photographic voices through these two things.