Stranger in a strange land

Introduction to the mirror world (acrylic and graphite on canvas 5x5")

This week I have become a sort of visiting artist, or more exactly photographer, as I spent the week preparing for a photography exhibition in Fayetteville, Arkansas. That show, iteration/span, will run through May at the Fayetteville Underground and is now more or less ready, which meant there was time to make a painting for an exhibition in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Called 5x5, the show is a fundraiser for the Tulsa Artists' Coalition which also runs throughout May and is made up entirely of 5x5" paintings, all selling for $55 and opening in May 5th. My piece for this show reflects on the dislocation and strangeness I have experienced during my first week in Fayetteville, in a world that is at once familiar and yet often subtly different.

Still some hitches

With just a little too much to be doing and thinking about right now, painting seems to have slid down my priorities a little. Not that I didn't paint at all. I worked on two different pieces from February that were unfinished. It seemed, when I began this, a good idea, a way to ease back into painting. However, it proved to be rather frustrating, as I tried to work these paintings out of their dead ends. Right now, my efforts seem to have done little more than simply move materials around the paper, so that rather than fix the existing problem pieces, I have merely changed the problem.

With hindsight, I probably ought to have warmed up with a few small pieces first. That, then, may be the plan for next week.

Slow (re)starter

It has been yet another slow art week. An unexpected hangover from the intense month gone meant that painting was not really on the cards this week. However, I did spend some time with my finished paintings, looking at the marks and the shapes and just generally being amazed that these works actually came from my hands. After the recent darkness, it was a welcome reminder.

I also made a first attempt at naming the four finished pieces this week. So far, this has only been successful on one painting. More time just sitting with them will with luck cure that problem.

Almost there

Last weekend, sadly, art did not happen. After another long week of uninspiration, I came down with yet another office-related bug and spent far more of the weekend on the sofa that I had planned to. Today sees my last day in that buggy office and so from tomorrow onwards, I return to a more creative and free world (also one that has considerably less income, but you can't have everything). Quite how this will mesh with the body of work I was creating when I began this four week sentence is hard to forecast. My intention is to let events and my hands move as they will and to try not to worry about it. Wish me luck!