I missed another day. In missing that day, I had actually convinced myself that no one but me cared about this project. I had told myself that creating a painting *almost* every day would be ok because I was the only person that was viewing the project as it progressed. I mentioned this in passing to Gary... Gary said he cared about the project and that he thought I should continue and paint every day. Then my former student, Alex, sent me a facebook message stating; "I love your kachina series!!! Please don't stop <3" which totally threw me for a loop. Then Lauren, a fellow Artworks Board Member, told me he was really interested in the series I'm creating and that they were very good (exact words unknown, but that was the gist). The external validation and acknowlegement of my work was a big motivator. So here is my day 16. Kachina is resting on the tufted bench that sits in my guest room. He looks rested, and I am now going to rest as well. I'll try my best to paint every day. Fingers crossed that I can manage my goal and my
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This is a horrible painting. The composition stinks and the painting itself is really sloppy in a bad way. But, I painted today and that is more than I can say for yesterday when I failed to meet my goal for a second time. I'm not going to apologize for missing yesterday, I will however apologize for the offense to your eyes that this image is causing. I'm so sorry you have to look at this, it is horrible. I promise to do better tomorrow when I have a bit more time to allot to my project. I started a few different compositions tonight but nothing felt right. In frustration, I sat on the floor, saw the circular file and tossed kachina in the mix. I'd like to say I had some big moment of conceptual brilliance where I consciously placed kachina in the trash to represent the evening's failed attempts, but I didn't. Today is Monday. I last posted on Saturday. This means that I skipped Sunday. For this I am very sorry but there was no time to paint yesterday as I was having a meltdown trying to prepare my syllabus for the college class I will be teaching in a few short weeks. I am actually still having said meltdown today - to the point where I discussed abandoning the project until another time when there was not an external deadline over my head, but I managed to calm myself down enough to paint this piece today. Four tomatoes, two avocados, a watermelon and a kachina all walk into a kitchen... I painted the image, now you can make the joke from here. As for me, it's time to chop up the avocado and tomatoes for some guacamole! Again, I am sorry about skipping yesterday but there was no time. I spent my entire day at Artworks. Most of the day was spent working on a collaborative project by myself... Yeah... no one showed for this free, open to the public, no skill required, fun, community building, artistic entertainment. As you may guess, I was a bit annoyed when I returned home only to turn around and man the membership table during the AbOmInOg opening. I really didn't think I was going to have energy, motivation, or time to paint and post today but I skipped the post-opening party and went home to start painting at 9pm. Though I was tired and should have stuck kachina somewhere simple, I decided to stick it on the windowsill looking through to another window and into another room. I gave myself glass over glass and a number of layers of linear elements to deal with before kachina ever got touched. I feel like this composition was a challenge on a challenge on a challenge! I am sad to post this photograph. The photograph does not come close to representing this image accurately. I *really* like this painting, and I rarely LIKE anything I do. So, stop by, see "Day 12" and tell me what you think! I've spent most of today at Artworks working on a community/collaborative project. I'm not sure I'm going to have time to paint tonight so... I drew kachina and added him into the project.
The "Group Draw" will continue at Artworks on 8/17 and 8/4 from 1pm until 3 pm. If you are interested in this project, please stop out and collaborate with the community. I go back and forth with my level of ambition. Today was not so ambitious and it shows. It also shows that I need to use a straight edge to paint straight edges or else there is no such thing as straight. I will admit, I like how kachina looks when I am looking down on it. Maybe I'll draw it from above one day... Any suggestions on where kachina should be painted next? Your thoughts may not come to life in today's painting, but I'm open to suggestions (within reason!). Leave a comment - tell me what you think and I'll try to make it happen.
Today I am 1/3 of the way through this project. Each day I find my attitude toward painting is different and each painting has presents a different set of challenges. Today, painting was a needed escape from my own ill mood and I was challenged by those damn stripes. Kachina is wrapped in a bandana, but not just any bandana. This is a special roller derby bandana that represents the Philly Roller Girls "Heavy Metal Hookers". I have this bandana because of my very good friend, Allison. I miss her a ton. Our lives are both so busy and full of great things that it is really hard to connect. So, I painted this and thought of her. Love you, Allison. Today, out of sheer laziness and personal comfort, I chose to paint in acrylic. I blame laziness because I didn't feel like cleaning up the mess of oil paints. I mention comfort because I didn't feel like breathing the stink of oil paints their related and solvents. My studio is in my house and is poorly ventilated [aka, not at all ventilated] so the stink is strong. I *think* I know what John is going to say about the composition of this one so I will say it myself first. The power strip should be lower on the canvas. Also - the parts of the power strip are drawn at a conflicting angles and thus looks just plain WRONG. Though the absence of stink was nice and the ease of water-based clean-up was pleasurable, I hated painting with acrylics. I work wet-on-wet with oils and the acrylic paint dries way to quickly to achieve the mixing I enjoy with oils. I also found the acrylic far more opaque than the oil, making it difficult to layer washes of thin color that allow the wood grain to come through. So, tomorrow I will be back at it with the stinky, dirty oil paints. Perhaps I will open a window, or better yet, take this show on the road to save my lungs a bit... |
Lora Marie DurrDuring my undergraduate studies, I spent a great deal of time in the painting studio working with traditional oils. Teaching middle school art for the past 12 years has taken me away from those roots. This "one a day" project is aimed at re-inspiring that creativity and technique. Archives
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Other "one a day" painting blogs to check out:
Hannah Phelps Kellie Marian Hill Carol Marine Lisa Daria Darren Maurer Carol Aust Karin Jurick The usual Subjects |