Artist in Residence at Maui Hands Gallery in Paia every Tuesday 11-2 for the month of November.
Above is an embelished giclee from a recently developed series. All gicless come with a certificate of authenticity and are limited editions of 30. I've put a lot of work into these. I am very tempted to call them originals. They are gilded and changed with individually expressive details. Get your first editions before they are gone. Sea of Serenity, 16 x 16 x 3 inches, mixed media on canvas.
Above is an embelished giclee from a recently developed series. All gicless come with a certificate of authenticity and are limited editions of 30. I've put a lot of work into these. I am very tempted to call them originals. They are gilded and changed with individually expressive details. Get your first editions before they are gone. Sea of Serenity, 16 x 16 x 3 inches, mixed media on canvas.
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Fire and Blood
mixed media 36 x 26 inches I have many titles for this. I want to call it Lilith's Pyric Victory in homage to the sacrifice of the first woman; rejected because she was equal to him, created with him as the Twins, or the Hermaphrodite. The battle of equality still rages, and I wonder if we should continue to try and teach men the truth. There is no peace until we work together. A house divided can not stand. I painted this after realizing how many times I have been betrayed by people who said they loved me. Her crown has fallen, but she will survive even this, turning her pain into strength. |
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Siren
40 x 96 inches (8 feet tall) mixed Media on canvas (Framed) This painting is acrylic and metallic paint over a highly textured canvas. I invented the texture myself. It stands up thickly and is structurally sound. I painted Siren about 10 years ago and have had her in every climate in Maui. It's difficult to appreciate the texture unless you see her in person. |
September 2022 Events
I will be Artist in Residence at Maui Hands Gallery in Paia for September. I will be there Sunday the 4th 11-2pm, and Friday the 16th 11-2pm. I will be giving away free refrigerator magnets. Start your little art gallery with a limited edition magnet print.
I will be Artist in Residence at Maui Hands Gallery in Paia for September. I will be there Sunday the 4th 11-2pm, and Friday the 16th 11-2pm. I will be giving away free refrigerator magnets. Start your little art gallery with a limited edition magnet print.
Color Theory video short 1 min |
Inspirational Artist Words |
Lono Awakens, oil on canvas, 18 x 24 inches (artwork). |
Dancing Aloha, oil and impasto on canvas, 40 x 60 inches. I don't know which gallery she will end up in yet, but she is going places.
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8/25/2022 Thursday Art studio update. I finished Dancing Aloha. Made Moonlit Maidens a bit better. Improved a wave that was bothering me. I also made a quick, very brightly colored nude called Take my Hand. Also finished an embellished giclee of Breezo, actually qualifies as an original, I painted so much of it. I can't help but improve work when the paint is out! So that's actually four, unless I do a nice little nude today. I just might.
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Pele
22 x 44 inches
Oil on Copper leaf.
plexiglass substrate
Pele is the Goddess of fire and volcanoes. She is said to have made the islands of Hawaii. With her digging stick she brings forth lava to destroy and re-create the land. I liken her the Indian Kali.
Here she is in her maiden aspect beginning an island with her "light saber" like digging stick. I imagined wood was too plain for a implement of the Goddess.
Pele is said to be a triple goddess, seen as mother, maiden, and crone. You can find her parallel in every ancient culture in the world. Of my Nordic ancestry her like is called Freya.
I had a series of visions where this Pele was one. She began in a mother form, after my model, a mother, who posed for me. As I painted her she became younger. Not my intention. My paintings, I feel, have some say in themselves, and this Pele wanted to be young, as I now realize is fitting for the beginning of new land.
I wanted her to be untethered, ethereal, as a Goddess's feet do not touch the ground. Her hair becomes smoke and flame.
I applied copper leaf to a recycled plexiglass panel donated by Don, the framer in Lahaina. I made the piece for Brian Jenkins, who is a private collector of my work and resides on Maui.
22 x 44 inches
Oil on Copper leaf.
plexiglass substrate
Pele is the Goddess of fire and volcanoes. She is said to have made the islands of Hawaii. With her digging stick she brings forth lava to destroy and re-create the land. I liken her the Indian Kali.
Here she is in her maiden aspect beginning an island with her "light saber" like digging stick. I imagined wood was too plain for a implement of the Goddess.
Pele is said to be a triple goddess, seen as mother, maiden, and crone. You can find her parallel in every ancient culture in the world. Of my Nordic ancestry her like is called Freya.
I had a series of visions where this Pele was one. She began in a mother form, after my model, a mother, who posed for me. As I painted her she became younger. Not my intention. My paintings, I feel, have some say in themselves, and this Pele wanted to be young, as I now realize is fitting for the beginning of new land.
I wanted her to be untethered, ethereal, as a Goddess's feet do not touch the ground. Her hair becomes smoke and flame.
I applied copper leaf to a recycled plexiglass panel donated by Don, the framer in Lahaina. I made the piece for Brian Jenkins, who is a private collector of my work and resides on Maui.
Mother and Child, 6 x 8 x 5 inches, Feminist Icon, oil and gold leaf, wood and glass, 2015. Private Collection.
The themes that dominate my magical oeuvre are feminism, gender fluidity, and Eco-consciousness.
The equality to be intelligent, sexual, aggressive, and powerful must be continuously asserted. I speak through images. Iconography is important to me as cultural metaphor.
Many stories our culture holds of women hold powerful women in low regard as witches and demons. The only revered goddesses so chaste they are virgins. Here I reclaim Mother Mary's sexuality.
Open Art Studio in Wailuku, Hawaii. 1993 Main Street.
Photo: 1993 Main St. storefront. Paintings by Taryn Alessandro.
I have moved my Art Studio to Wailuku, Hawaii. 1993 Main St.
Hours: By appointment. Call me 808-205-1558.
Hours: M-F, and sometimes also Sa, Su. 10:00am to 5:00pm.
Feel free to drop in if you see the Open Studio sign out front!
If you're planning to visit give me a call to make sure we're here.
I am sharing a store front with Taryn Alessandro. She also works in mixed media, gold, silver, and copper leaf. She also paints people. I am more surrealistic, while her work is more playful. I paint mermaids while she paints surfers. Both of us love people and the ocean.
WWW.TARYNALESSANDRO.COM
WWW.TARYNALESSANDRO.COM
Paintings by Amanda Scott
Photo: Two originals on silver leaf; Secret Keeper (bottom left); Return to the Forest (top left). Top row of embellished giclées: Forest Guardian, Transformation, Day Dreamer. Bottom row: Taking flight (framed original). Embellished Giclées: Daphne's Awakening, Soulmates, and Nature Girl.
I consider myself a Surrealist Portrait Artist. I want to create something more. I stretch the limits so to bring some magic into the natural beauty of the world. I have been painting for the last twenty years. I was voted Maui’s Best Local Artist in 2020 by Maui Times. I am a self-taught artist. I have taken some classes, and I am willing to learn from anyone, but I didn’t bother getting a degree and the student dept that goes with it. To me, if you can make good art that’s all the authority you need.
I am from Salem Oregon. I moved to Maui in July of 2008, right before the crash, and survived here on the kindness of strangers. Panna Speas accepted me into the Maui Hands in 2010. I started with watercolors because it’s easy to fit that medium into a backpack. Jim Lynch built me a portable oil pallet, and I did some landscapes with him Upcountry. However, I didn’t understand the true brilliance of oil until I met Dario Campanile. He told me how to use them, and I took to them like a duck to water. He called me a reborn master. I found my medium in 2012.
Ten years later I can say with confidence that I have mastered oil painting. I like mixing mediums. I have paintings on wood panel with wood burned engraving. I paint on canvas and reused Plexiglas. I use gold and silver leaf in some paintings. I can painting anything, and know almost all the techniques. I can paint in transparent layers and in thick impasto. I even created a medium I can sculpt with on canvas. I am whispering to the essential that lies beneath so much conditioning. As an artist I had to retrain myself to see what is really there. You take sight for granted, but really you have to build up understanding through contemplation. Painting is my meditation, while the painting is the record of my journey. I believe in becoming the best artist that I can. I think that if I embrace my passion that success will flow to me. I am grateful that I turned out to be right.
My paintings are wishes for a better mankind. I mean for them to heal those who look at them. I hope they’re easy to live with and continue to give inspiration.
Embellished Mixed Media Giclées
I am pleased to present a series of unique prints on canvas with hand painted embellishment, that makes each one one-of-a-kind. I print off a limited edition of thirty of the original painting, and then paint over it in Acrylic, Oil, and texture gel, and in some cases adding metal leaf. Using the ancient art of gilding I bring light into the painting that reflects the colors in the room, giving it the ability to belong anywhere. Each artwork comes with a certificate of authenticity. Every artwork is hand signed by the artist front and back. These prints have been personally tested to last in every microclimate of Maui. The sides are ether gilded or hand painted so there is no need for a frame. All are given an additional varnish after all the layers of texture and paint are finished. You can order your favorite paintings printed and embellished. Let your imagination run wild. Don’t be shy. I can make them the size you want, change details in the artwork, and print on any substrate you prefer. Please allow two months for custom orders not in stock.
Art Maui 2020 will be showing at the Schaefer Gallery at the Maui Arts and Cultural Center March 8th through April 3rd.
'The Scream', oil on gold leaf, 22 x 28 inches.
Artist Statement
Before I talk about 'The Scream' I must first talk about 'The Kiss'. The Kiss was created first to usher in an acceptance of death. The Scream is the antithesis; and together both work complete a whole. The Scream is our resistance to death.
At my Open Studio many people responded to 'The Scream' with humor. I think it is the girl's futile resistance, and our recognition that all our plans are in vain like the old joke, “and God laughs.” I'm sure we've all felt naked and vulnerable to fate, and yet are resisting, however futilely.
Voted Best Fine Artist this Year (2019) by Mauitime readers. I feel like I've made it on Maui. Painting is my full time job. I am popular. People say nice things about me behind my back. I run into random fans when I go out. I feel famous. I have been a dedicated, and professional painter on Maui for ten years. People want selfies with me. I've painted over three hundred paintings. I have a painting in Japan.
What is my secret? I am obsessed with making art. Through making art I am looking for truth. In drawing you must see. You look longer than most people. You destroy assumptions. You must. Otherwise your work is distorted. A beautiful painting is a truthful painting. If you are lucky it even has a soul.
I didn't expect fame. If I were painting for fame I would have quite a million times. I wasn't good to begin with. I knew I would be. I was intrigued by what the work was teaching me. I learned patience. I opened up to creativity. I took risks. I was humbled by mistakes. I would have a breakthrough and think, "I am a genius!" Then I wouldn't make anything worthwhile for months and wonder if I would ever paint again. I once made a painting so bad it turned into a sticky trap that killed thee geckos.
Lastly, here is my advice: create what is in your heart. You draw inspiration out of a wellspring within yourself. No one else can use this well. No one else can tell you what to paint. Do not paint in order to fit in and be popular. Those paintings already exist. You are not here to be like everyone. Artist are here to speak truth in whatever voice is their own.
Daphne's Awakening
She was turned into a Laurel tree to spit the lust of Apollo, who had chased her for a long time through the forest. Her father the river helped her, but nowhere in the story does he change her back.
I thought it was time to free her.
For more:
amandascottart.blogspot.com/2015/12/artist-statement-for-daphne-awakens-oil.html
She was turned into a Laurel tree to spit the lust of Apollo, who had chased her for a long time through the forest. Her father the river helped her, but nowhere in the story does he change her back.
I thought it was time to free her.
For more:
amandascottart.blogspot.com/2015/12/artist-statement-for-daphne-awakens-oil.html
12/5/2018
Some intimate details about my Madonna and child. I found the frame at Savers, Which is like a Goodwill, in Kahalui, Maui, Hawaii. It was a battery powered clock at the time. I thought it looked like an antique frame, though I knew from the dinky clock inside that it was not.
At the time I had been looking at Icons. I see Christianity as appropriating the gods and goddess of the ancient religion of the world into their saints. The Mother Goddess became the Virgin Marry. Now the Mother was always fecund. It's just so dis-empowering for women, and ultimately men, to take away the sacredness of sex and turn us against our own bodies.
I create images that are needed to heal the wounds I see in our self image. Here, I have gone back in time to undo the mistake of taking away Marry's genitals.
For more: Here is an article I wrote:
amandascottart.blogspot.com/2015/12/the-icon-of-mother-and-child-reimagined.html
I am voted Maui's second best Artist by Maui Time readers this year. I lost first place by 1%. I feel honored, truly. I felt validated even being on the candidate list. I thought I was good, but I was sure I was too "out there" for mainstream popularity. I had just received feedback from an older person, that in his opinion I would have been more successful had I used my talent to create less weird art. I struggled with that feedback. The problem with creating average work is that it isn't mine, it's already being made, and by the thousands. I like some landscape, still lives, and figurative paintings that are abstracted to the point where the face is missing.
The reason the face is missing is so the viewer can imagine themselves or a family member in the painting. To me, however, it's like a plague of faceless zombies are invading figurative paintings. I have seen artfully missing faces that I like. It's the magnitude of missing faces that gets to me. All these bodies missing personality. What does it mean? It's like people are being represented as things. It reminds me of the increasing disconnectedness of society. Because, when I go out in public, when I am among a mass of strangers, I do not bother to observe their individuality. I abstract them because it's exhausting paying individual attention to every stranger I come across. When I look at a faceless portrait I feel like I am looking at a shallow person, a stranger I am passing by.
As far as giving the galleries what they believe sells, which funnels only acceptable art into the viewership, which further limits their scope, because they are choosing art that is sanitary. If artists cater to the lowest common denominator then that limits the possibility of art opening minds and having impact on consciousness. I want to create something new, something with meaning beyond; here's a bowl of fruit, now here's a meadow. If being successful as an artist means limiting your vision then what is the point? You have become a manufacturer, a crafts person. If I really do stop pursuing my vision then I will throw my hands up and start knitting sweaters for trees. What about a brick cozy? If you are a lover of this kind of work just know I love how silly it is. Making things to no purpose, that's surprising, and colorful...Cool!
For the past year I have been painting houses part time in the hope that at some point I will get mural commissions. There are respectable artist who've done the same before their careers took off. I have found I like getting a paycheck I can count on instead of waiting for paintings to sell. I find that I like painting, even if it's walls. I also like being around people. Painting is solitary. I can't achieve the focus I need when people are around me.
I may next move into teaching. I had always envisioned that I would be a gentile, eloquent, and inspiring teacher. I will start small and work my way up to small classes. Air BnB has these experience offerings. Some artist are charging for people to have the "model" experience, which, I have been one, and it's work. I don't think I will try to con anyone into sitting for me for one to three hours. I could see myself plein air painting at the beach and just having a student along for sixty bucks. I get a painting. They get a lesson and a painting. Sounds fun.
9/6/2018
Autobiography How I became an Artist
Amanda Scott
I took it for granted that I was an artist at an early age. Even when I wasn’t making art. I was inspired by The Little Mermaid. I just drew mermaids all the time. I wanted to be free under the sea. I went to Chemeketa Community College and studied art. I didn’t care about a degree. I took the classes that I wanted to until I had learned everything I wanted to. Then I moved to Portland, Oregon. I worked as a life model for the colleges and learned more. I kept drawing and painting. I started to show my work on the sidewalk for First Friday. As beginnings usually are, I was met with small success. At the time I was only selling nudes.
I was offered a scholarship at the Portland Art Institute. I turned it down, however; seeing that I was learning on my own. I didn't plan on teaching. In any case the institute had teachers who didn't hold degrees ether. I thought a BFA was supercilious. I can make art on my own. If I go to college I will get a degree in something useful.
When I moved to Maui in 2008, during the financial downturn, I had three hundred dollars in my account. I slept on couches and hitch hiked. There were few jobs, and fewer being offered to new arrivals. I bought a watercolor set for easy transport. I told almost no one about being an artist.
I got into the Maui Hands with my water color portraits in 2010. I explored Polynesian faces in Acrylic. I started wood burning on panels that I had made back in Portland and had sent to me. I colored them with water color, which faded. Then I moved to acrylic for light fastness. I painted a giant, paper mache textured, mermaid on canvas. I was proud of it. Because it was so big I needed a photographer with a better camera. There was a guy coming to my game group on Fridays, so I asked him. I didn’t know it at the time, But I had met my husband, Chris, who introduced me Dario Campanile, who introduced me to oil painting. I had been painting for ten years and finally had found my medium. I started painting in oil in 2013.
Paintings are not things I make, they are journeys I take. I am more interested in what the work is teaching me then finishing sometime for sale. Once I’ve perfected a technique I often lose interest in it. The advantage is that I have become proficient in so many ways to make a painting that I can teach myself all the rest. I look forward to learning more. I’m at lest three artists in one. I have a brand; the surreal portraits that entwine people with nature. Then I have this rebel part that wants to look at secrets hidden away, so I paint a woman goddess kissing a skeleton called “The Kiss”.
My first college class was Life Drawing. I drew nudes. I wasn’t interested in anything else. I didn’t even draw the faces, just the body. I was going to be a painter of nudes. But Americans are so uptight about the body. The body is shameful, the body is sex. When will we stop hating ourselves? As an artist I do not have the power to turn this tide. I worked on my own shame by becoming a nude model for ten years. I worked on my own shame by swimming nude at Little Beach, in the temperate waters of Hawaii. I wish I could give this freedom to others.
Let me tell you the meaning of a nude body in art. It is not porn, first of all. It isn’t about sex. It’s about freedom to see and admire the highest beauty. It is about the acceptance of self. To be shameless, to accept the soft body of your vulnerable self. It hurts me so much that our culture will never evolve to the point where a body will be seen as noble. The Greeks understood. They carved their Gods nude in Alabaster. The Romans hid little penises in baby cribs for good luck. But I, can’t get a nude into a gallery. The repression is excruciating. So, every few paintings I make a nude and hang it on my walls. My house is full of nudes.
I did want to become famous. I wanted my art to support me financially. However, money can not be the motivator for my work. I complete maybe half of what I start, and this is not unusual for artists. When you set out on a path it is sometimes a short one. Creativity takes a kind of energy. To build up creative energy takes rest. I’ve had to create a specific kind of life to nurture me, so that I can nurture my creative yearnings. A painting is not just a painting. It is everything that I am, and that I have done, to make art possible.
12/14/2017
Painting As Meditation
In my studio I haven't found happiness or peace. I do not avoid reality while painting though I paint dreams. I am painting and burning. Burning is the Buddhist concept of awareness as cleansing fire and also the sensation of being truly present. In my studio I am alone with my mischievous and dark thoughts. Insecurity and pain snuggle up close to me. My paintings aren't made with happy thoughts. They are the transmutations of pain into beauty.
If I allow myself to burn. If I do not avoid it, the mud does settle. It takes a day. The first day of the week paining I burn through my fears and losses, the absences of love, the weaknesses of my relationships, the frailty of connection. I go deep where others would avoid at all cost. No one meets me there but me. No one meets me there but myself, but myself and the part of me that is a drop in the ocean.
I will still be an artist even though I don't care to be seen and valued as a great artist. I don't care if my paintings are hanging on people's walls for my own ego. I want to explore. I want to discover. I would like to become aware and whole, and I'd like to have enough success so that I am contributing to others by my existence. I want success in as much as I want to pull my own financial weight.
If I can make people happy with my paintings, or awaken them, then that is good. But I don't control that. I feel sad when I fail to make someone happy with my art. However, the time I spent creating was reward enough. I paint and that is meditation. My meditation may result in beauty, but the paths I fallow don't always lead to beauty. I paint monsters too. Monsters only I can love.
Some intimate details about my Madonna and child. I found the frame at Savers, Which is like a Goodwill, in Kahalui, Maui, Hawaii. It was a battery powered clock at the time. I thought it looked like an antique frame, though I knew from the dinky clock inside that it was not.
At the time I had been looking at Icons. I see Christianity as appropriating the gods and goddess of the ancient religion of the world into their saints. The Mother Goddess became the Virgin Marry. Now the Mother was always fecund. It's just so dis-empowering for women, and ultimately men, to take away the sacredness of sex and turn us against our own bodies.
I create images that are needed to heal the wounds I see in our self image. Here, I have gone back in time to undo the mistake of taking away Marry's genitals.
For more: Here is an article I wrote:
amandascottart.blogspot.com/2015/12/the-icon-of-mother-and-child-reimagined.html
I am voted Maui's second best Artist by Maui Time readers this year. I lost first place by 1%. I feel honored, truly. I felt validated even being on the candidate list. I thought I was good, but I was sure I was too "out there" for mainstream popularity. I had just received feedback from an older person, that in his opinion I would have been more successful had I used my talent to create less weird art. I struggled with that feedback. The problem with creating average work is that it isn't mine, it's already being made, and by the thousands. I like some landscape, still lives, and figurative paintings that are abstracted to the point where the face is missing.
The reason the face is missing is so the viewer can imagine themselves or a family member in the painting. To me, however, it's like a plague of faceless zombies are invading figurative paintings. I have seen artfully missing faces that I like. It's the magnitude of missing faces that gets to me. All these bodies missing personality. What does it mean? It's like people are being represented as things. It reminds me of the increasing disconnectedness of society. Because, when I go out in public, when I am among a mass of strangers, I do not bother to observe their individuality. I abstract them because it's exhausting paying individual attention to every stranger I come across. When I look at a faceless portrait I feel like I am looking at a shallow person, a stranger I am passing by.
As far as giving the galleries what they believe sells, which funnels only acceptable art into the viewership, which further limits their scope, because they are choosing art that is sanitary. If artists cater to the lowest common denominator then that limits the possibility of art opening minds and having impact on consciousness. I want to create something new, something with meaning beyond; here's a bowl of fruit, now here's a meadow. If being successful as an artist means limiting your vision then what is the point? You have become a manufacturer, a crafts person. If I really do stop pursuing my vision then I will throw my hands up and start knitting sweaters for trees. What about a brick cozy? If you are a lover of this kind of work just know I love how silly it is. Making things to no purpose, that's surprising, and colorful...Cool!
For the past year I have been painting houses part time in the hope that at some point I will get mural commissions. There are respectable artist who've done the same before their careers took off. I have found I like getting a paycheck I can count on instead of waiting for paintings to sell. I find that I like painting, even if it's walls. I also like being around people. Painting is solitary. I can't achieve the focus I need when people are around me.
I may next move into teaching. I had always envisioned that I would be a gentile, eloquent, and inspiring teacher. I will start small and work my way up to small classes. Air BnB has these experience offerings. Some artist are charging for people to have the "model" experience, which, I have been one, and it's work. I don't think I will try to con anyone into sitting for me for one to three hours. I could see myself plein air painting at the beach and just having a student along for sixty bucks. I get a painting. They get a lesson and a painting. Sounds fun.
9/6/2018
Autobiography How I became an Artist
Amanda Scott
I took it for granted that I was an artist at an early age. Even when I wasn’t making art. I was inspired by The Little Mermaid. I just drew mermaids all the time. I wanted to be free under the sea. I went to Chemeketa Community College and studied art. I didn’t care about a degree. I took the classes that I wanted to until I had learned everything I wanted to. Then I moved to Portland, Oregon. I worked as a life model for the colleges and learned more. I kept drawing and painting. I started to show my work on the sidewalk for First Friday. As beginnings usually are, I was met with small success. At the time I was only selling nudes.
I was offered a scholarship at the Portland Art Institute. I turned it down, however; seeing that I was learning on my own. I didn't plan on teaching. In any case the institute had teachers who didn't hold degrees ether. I thought a BFA was supercilious. I can make art on my own. If I go to college I will get a degree in something useful.
When I moved to Maui in 2008, during the financial downturn, I had three hundred dollars in my account. I slept on couches and hitch hiked. There were few jobs, and fewer being offered to new arrivals. I bought a watercolor set for easy transport. I told almost no one about being an artist.
I got into the Maui Hands with my water color portraits in 2010. I explored Polynesian faces in Acrylic. I started wood burning on panels that I had made back in Portland and had sent to me. I colored them with water color, which faded. Then I moved to acrylic for light fastness. I painted a giant, paper mache textured, mermaid on canvas. I was proud of it. Because it was so big I needed a photographer with a better camera. There was a guy coming to my game group on Fridays, so I asked him. I didn’t know it at the time, But I had met my husband, Chris, who introduced me Dario Campanile, who introduced me to oil painting. I had been painting for ten years and finally had found my medium. I started painting in oil in 2013.
Paintings are not things I make, they are journeys I take. I am more interested in what the work is teaching me then finishing sometime for sale. Once I’ve perfected a technique I often lose interest in it. The advantage is that I have become proficient in so many ways to make a painting that I can teach myself all the rest. I look forward to learning more. I’m at lest three artists in one. I have a brand; the surreal portraits that entwine people with nature. Then I have this rebel part that wants to look at secrets hidden away, so I paint a woman goddess kissing a skeleton called “The Kiss”.
My first college class was Life Drawing. I drew nudes. I wasn’t interested in anything else. I didn’t even draw the faces, just the body. I was going to be a painter of nudes. But Americans are so uptight about the body. The body is shameful, the body is sex. When will we stop hating ourselves? As an artist I do not have the power to turn this tide. I worked on my own shame by becoming a nude model for ten years. I worked on my own shame by swimming nude at Little Beach, in the temperate waters of Hawaii. I wish I could give this freedom to others.
Let me tell you the meaning of a nude body in art. It is not porn, first of all. It isn’t about sex. It’s about freedom to see and admire the highest beauty. It is about the acceptance of self. To be shameless, to accept the soft body of your vulnerable self. It hurts me so much that our culture will never evolve to the point where a body will be seen as noble. The Greeks understood. They carved their Gods nude in Alabaster. The Romans hid little penises in baby cribs for good luck. But I, can’t get a nude into a gallery. The repression is excruciating. So, every few paintings I make a nude and hang it on my walls. My house is full of nudes.
I did want to become famous. I wanted my art to support me financially. However, money can not be the motivator for my work. I complete maybe half of what I start, and this is not unusual for artists. When you set out on a path it is sometimes a short one. Creativity takes a kind of energy. To build up creative energy takes rest. I’ve had to create a specific kind of life to nurture me, so that I can nurture my creative yearnings. A painting is not just a painting. It is everything that I am, and that I have done, to make art possible.
12/14/2017
Painting As Meditation
In my studio I haven't found happiness or peace. I do not avoid reality while painting though I paint dreams. I am painting and burning. Burning is the Buddhist concept of awareness as cleansing fire and also the sensation of being truly present. In my studio I am alone with my mischievous and dark thoughts. Insecurity and pain snuggle up close to me. My paintings aren't made with happy thoughts. They are the transmutations of pain into beauty.
If I allow myself to burn. If I do not avoid it, the mud does settle. It takes a day. The first day of the week paining I burn through my fears and losses, the absences of love, the weaknesses of my relationships, the frailty of connection. I go deep where others would avoid at all cost. No one meets me there but me. No one meets me there but myself, but myself and the part of me that is a drop in the ocean.
I will still be an artist even though I don't care to be seen and valued as a great artist. I don't care if my paintings are hanging on people's walls for my own ego. I want to explore. I want to discover. I would like to become aware and whole, and I'd like to have enough success so that I am contributing to others by my existence. I want success in as much as I want to pull my own financial weight.
If I can make people happy with my paintings, or awaken them, then that is good. But I don't control that. I feel sad when I fail to make someone happy with my art. However, the time I spent creating was reward enough. I paint and that is meditation. My meditation may result in beauty, but the paths I fallow don't always lead to beauty. I paint monsters too. Monsters only I can love.
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"Loyal Sparrow", oil painting on wood with wood burned etching. Measures 9 x 12 inches. Can be found at Maui Hands in their Makawao Gallery.
I really love the slowing burn of the pyrographic pen on wood. I like the smell, the deliberate slowness that burning requires, I like the natural burnt umber to sienna color that results. Each line is expressive in depth and width of the scorch mark. I do the the lines of the illustration with the hot pen. As for shading I prefer oil paint. It's slow drying time allows for subtle blending. If you look closely at her face there are many tones and heightened color to add excitement to the plains of her face. |
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10/23/2015 "Lily Nude Bronze Sculpture
I created this over ten years ago at Chemeketa Community College in Salem Oregon. I had to get special permission to get into the class because it was my first sculpture class. Everyone was blown away when I completed it. Someone offered $2000 for it. I'm glad I kept it. I've struggled to survive as an artist and this piece reminds me what I'm capable of. Basically, art makes sense to me. I don't have to take classes. I get an idea, do some research, buy the materials and figure it out. The Process 1.create a sculpture out of wax. 2.create the armature out of hard wax(the channels the bronze will flow through). 3.apply the mold(plaster) there are 3 layers of this from fine dust to grit, and then a final wrap with burlap reinforcement. 4. melt the wax out of the mold. 5. pour in molten Bronze. 6.remove the cast 7.clean and polish the bronze. 8. Add the patina. |
You Can Make Art Now
First of all, if want to make art you can be an artist. At every level of skill there is a type of art you can make professionally. All artists cheat where their skills are lacking and in order to save valuable time. Talent is a myth and a word you can replace with skill.
To be an artist you must love images, be a daydreamer, and enjoy spending lots of time alone. If you're a highly social creature you can create art in public. If you're shy you can position yourself so that very few can look over your shoulder. The only art you can't make in public are nudes.
Making art is an experiment that may fail. You will make many attempts to create a work and make something unexpected. Go with the flow of the work and adapt your purpose. Creativity will save many a mistake and some say that their works are in fact a series of mistakes.
The more art you make the better you will get at it. Paint a hundred paintings and by the end you'll have a few that impress. Even if you make ugly art there is a market for this. Even if you don't like your art someone will hang it on their walls.
First of all, if want to make art you can be an artist. At every level of skill there is a type of art you can make professionally. All artists cheat where their skills are lacking and in order to save valuable time. Talent is a myth and a word you can replace with skill.
To be an artist you must love images, be a daydreamer, and enjoy spending lots of time alone. If you're a highly social creature you can create art in public. If you're shy you can position yourself so that very few can look over your shoulder. The only art you can't make in public are nudes.
Making art is an experiment that may fail. You will make many attempts to create a work and make something unexpected. Go with the flow of the work and adapt your purpose. Creativity will save many a mistake and some say that their works are in fact a series of mistakes.
The more art you make the better you will get at it. Paint a hundred paintings and by the end you'll have a few that impress. Even if you make ugly art there is a market for this. Even if you don't like your art someone will hang it on their walls.
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10/22/2015
Here is a video with time lapse photography of my process. A picture is taken every one minute over the 100 hours it takes to create the piece. The purpose of this is so that the viewer can experience the painting as I do. For me, the finished product is only a fraction of the beauty of creation. I want people to come into the painting with me, to experience every layer. As time passes nature builds and destroys. Through all this exists the pure and infinite moment. First you will see the under painting Each brushstroke contains half oil medium, with Liquin as a dryer; and Sepia paint from the tube. This painting is on plexiglass, which is an oil based support that insures a strong bond to the oils. I sanded the plexiglass, sprayed on gesso, sketched out the composition, gilded the negative space in silver leaf, filled in the tree shapes with grey paint. In this video I will be layering transparent color so that light can shine up through the layers to bring life to the flesh. |
Morning Solitude, Oil & Gold Leaf on Plexiglass
8/9/2015
I've been too busy creating to visit my site in awhile. I've developed a technique, with the help of Dario Campanile's critique. Though, I am accomplishing the virtue he suggests through a different avenue. You see, he taught me to paint the subject by mixing the exact color and tone correctly, applying it, then using a blend brush to mix the value one with value two lying beside it on the painting. The only downside is that it tends towards being flat. What I need is to create subtile layering for the volume of rounded flesh. I did an under-painting in layers of tone, like a watercolor painting, where you build up shape using the white of the paper shinning through to achieve jewel tones. I suspect that Dario knows about this, but hadn't told me yet. Once the under-painting is complete I add transparent layers of color for the flesh.
Anyhow, I can now paint a portrait so it looks like a real human in the flesh. I don't use as many layers as are on the Mona Lisa, which are around 50 layers of paint. I accomplished this painting in about 12 sessions, so there are 4 layers of paint. Building up layers is the secret to a masterpiece. Though, I do not recommend layering for layer's sake. Unless the artist can see where another stroke is needed they must wait.
I sometimes turn my paintings up-side down, or leave them out of sight for a week. I also like to bring someone in to see it. Just having someone else's eyes is a big help. Whatever it takes to shift my perspective so that i can see the painting afresh. And when I can see the painting in truth I can find the next stroke, if there is one.
'Morning Solitude' is my first success of this new method for me. I will paint this way from now on. Tonight I photograph her. She is so shinny I have to photograph her at night using a special light, and a technique requiring layering in Photoshop.
I do like to make Icons in the old world style, flat areas of color with hard outlines. They take much less time, 8-12 hours. At some point i will exhibit these re-imaginings of the Gods and Goddesses in a show dedicated to the theme. I have painted a tiny Madonna and Child who exposes her vagina. I haven't even photographed it, it is so secret. Just this week I made a Kali. She is death and life all in one image. And she is blue like all Hindu gods.
I've been too busy creating to visit my site in awhile. I've developed a technique, with the help of Dario Campanile's critique. Though, I am accomplishing the virtue he suggests through a different avenue. You see, he taught me to paint the subject by mixing the exact color and tone correctly, applying it, then using a blend brush to mix the value one with value two lying beside it on the painting. The only downside is that it tends towards being flat. What I need is to create subtile layering for the volume of rounded flesh. I did an under-painting in layers of tone, like a watercolor painting, where you build up shape using the white of the paper shinning through to achieve jewel tones. I suspect that Dario knows about this, but hadn't told me yet. Once the under-painting is complete I add transparent layers of color for the flesh.
Anyhow, I can now paint a portrait so it looks like a real human in the flesh. I don't use as many layers as are on the Mona Lisa, which are around 50 layers of paint. I accomplished this painting in about 12 sessions, so there are 4 layers of paint. Building up layers is the secret to a masterpiece. Though, I do not recommend layering for layer's sake. Unless the artist can see where another stroke is needed they must wait.
I sometimes turn my paintings up-side down, or leave them out of sight for a week. I also like to bring someone in to see it. Just having someone else's eyes is a big help. Whatever it takes to shift my perspective so that i can see the painting afresh. And when I can see the painting in truth I can find the next stroke, if there is one.
'Morning Solitude' is my first success of this new method for me. I will paint this way from now on. Tonight I photograph her. She is so shinny I have to photograph her at night using a special light, and a technique requiring layering in Photoshop.
I do like to make Icons in the old world style, flat areas of color with hard outlines. They take much less time, 8-12 hours. At some point i will exhibit these re-imaginings of the Gods and Goddesses in a show dedicated to the theme. I have painted a tiny Madonna and Child who exposes her vagina. I haven't even photographed it, it is so secret. Just this week I made a Kali. She is death and life all in one image. And she is blue like all Hindu gods.
4/18/2015 Saturday
I have been writing a journal about my thoughts on Art. I thought I might as well write a blog to make myself accessible. So many artists don't share in writing, and if they do it's vague. I suppose they are afraid of rejection. I want to inspire others to pursue their dreams. I want to give everything I know away. I will share myself with you. I know there are trolls who enjoy bothering others. And I am forever weary of the jealous who's dreams were thwarted. It's easy to lose your way and hate the happy. However, I will be daring. However irrelevant my perspective may be to some, it will at lest reveal one artist's journey in the world. A world not built by or for Artists, I might add. If it were it would be more gentile and everything would be free.
I paint images in my mind during the day while I'm bored. I would say I only make 1% of what I think about. It takes seconds to imagine what takes a week to make. I am not a famous artist and may never be. However, I am an artist not as a hobby, but through and through. I will never stop. No one can stop me. If a master tells me I have no talent, even that could not break me. Sounds dramatic doesn't it? Why should it matter so much? If I had chosen knitting for my hobby it would be funny to talk like this. But I'm not talking about knitting. I am talking about freedom. Image making is a language to me. How would you feel if you couldn't speak?
My subconscious is obsessed with nature and the beauty of women. The world needs more influence from both to restore balance. I probably paint what is missing from culture. Though I can find images that resonate with my message. Am I needed as a creator? Perhaps not. I create because the process is rewarding. I enjoy the energy. When I complete a work I want to sell it to pay for my time. I want to be in creative energy because I feel free there. I want to do what fulfills me and live without fear of bills.
I think everyone wants to stretch their limits, test their wings, fly high. But there's this fear of failure and of success. It is a biological imperative to fit in and be accepted. So always the push pull of freedom V.S. fear. Think for yourself or assimilate what the group thinks. I think the cultural mind is too far from how I see the world for me to find a sane compromise.
I am not sure culture was defined by the people. It may be that we are living in a story told by the conquerors. History is a story told by the strongest voice. In any conflict there are many perspectives and which one's do we hear? Who chose the version of the story we all believe? Crazy thoughts, I know.
But we see with our mind and culture shapes the mind.
Am I wrong or right? Ether way, why not think about it?
Art, writing; these are forms one can use to explore thought that goes unsaid in conversation. I began making art because the culture could not meet me. I needed someplace to put my perceptions and yearnings. I think this is one reason why imbalanced people are often creative. It could be that creative people are perceptive and wouldn't or couldn't dull their senses like everyone else. Being able to see what everyone else is, at lest, pretending doesn't exist would drive any mind a little bonkers.
However, isn't it human to lie? It is human to tell the best story. Whichever version suits your self image, justifies your actions, is the story you will tell yourself. Seeing through the illusions of others is a necessary skill.
I see both sides. Logic can only do so much. I chose to believe that I am sane and that I am an Artist.
5/21/2015
I have found an inspiring Artist, Brad Kunkle, who works in New York. He works on canvas with gold leaf. His subject, like mine, is the female as Goddess of Nature. Leaves swirl and uplift, both obscuring and creating these powerful and seductive creators.
I have been writing a journal about my thoughts on Art. I thought I might as well write a blog to make myself accessible. So many artists don't share in writing, and if they do it's vague. I suppose they are afraid of rejection. I want to inspire others to pursue their dreams. I want to give everything I know away. I will share myself with you. I know there are trolls who enjoy bothering others. And I am forever weary of the jealous who's dreams were thwarted. It's easy to lose your way and hate the happy. However, I will be daring. However irrelevant my perspective may be to some, it will at lest reveal one artist's journey in the world. A world not built by or for Artists, I might add. If it were it would be more gentile and everything would be free.
I paint images in my mind during the day while I'm bored. I would say I only make 1% of what I think about. It takes seconds to imagine what takes a week to make. I am not a famous artist and may never be. However, I am an artist not as a hobby, but through and through. I will never stop. No one can stop me. If a master tells me I have no talent, even that could not break me. Sounds dramatic doesn't it? Why should it matter so much? If I had chosen knitting for my hobby it would be funny to talk like this. But I'm not talking about knitting. I am talking about freedom. Image making is a language to me. How would you feel if you couldn't speak?
My subconscious is obsessed with nature and the beauty of women. The world needs more influence from both to restore balance. I probably paint what is missing from culture. Though I can find images that resonate with my message. Am I needed as a creator? Perhaps not. I create because the process is rewarding. I enjoy the energy. When I complete a work I want to sell it to pay for my time. I want to be in creative energy because I feel free there. I want to do what fulfills me and live without fear of bills.
I think everyone wants to stretch their limits, test their wings, fly high. But there's this fear of failure and of success. It is a biological imperative to fit in and be accepted. So always the push pull of freedom V.S. fear. Think for yourself or assimilate what the group thinks. I think the cultural mind is too far from how I see the world for me to find a sane compromise.
I am not sure culture was defined by the people. It may be that we are living in a story told by the conquerors. History is a story told by the strongest voice. In any conflict there are many perspectives and which one's do we hear? Who chose the version of the story we all believe? Crazy thoughts, I know.
But we see with our mind and culture shapes the mind.
Am I wrong or right? Ether way, why not think about it?
Art, writing; these are forms one can use to explore thought that goes unsaid in conversation. I began making art because the culture could not meet me. I needed someplace to put my perceptions and yearnings. I think this is one reason why imbalanced people are often creative. It could be that creative people are perceptive and wouldn't or couldn't dull their senses like everyone else. Being able to see what everyone else is, at lest, pretending doesn't exist would drive any mind a little bonkers.
However, isn't it human to lie? It is human to tell the best story. Whichever version suits your self image, justifies your actions, is the story you will tell yourself. Seeing through the illusions of others is a necessary skill.
I see both sides. Logic can only do so much. I chose to believe that I am sane and that I am an Artist.
5/21/2015
I have found an inspiring Artist, Brad Kunkle, who works in New York. He works on canvas with gold leaf. His subject, like mine, is the female as Goddess of Nature. Leaves swirl and uplift, both obscuring and creating these powerful and seductive creators.