Tuesday, tuesday...

con't...

 

this weekend it rained a lot... it made for a cozy, cold, hazy, dreary time... my favorite :] i love the FALL. 

Last Thursday my Dad got home from Japan.  He was there for 10 days.  I don't know if I would want to go to Japan.  It's so far.  I can't imagine being on the plane that long.  I would love to see all the cool designs + art though, but there are so many other places I want to go.  He brought me back an awesome camera:

 

I also received an e-mail from a Memphis College of Art student wanting to write a paper on me.  He had to choose an artist exhibiting locally and he liked my work.  Pretty cool.  Here's a little list of what I wrote...I thought you might be interested...

I was born here in Memphis.  I went to the University of Memphis for my BFA.  I graduated in 2007.  Beth Edwards (http://www.bethedwards.com/) was my first drawing teacher, and continued to have a huge influence on my work.  She was also my painting teacher.  I really enjoy her work and processes (http://www.vimeo.com/1993042).  She has introduced me to so many great artists.  Abstract painting was one assignment for her painting class- from that point on, I worked abstractly.  Before that assignment, we had been working outside abstracting landscapes.  I took a trip to Hawaii that same time frame and when I came back my work was an explosion of vibrant colorful abstractions.  Mel Spillman (http://www.melspillman.blogspot.com/) was also one of my teachers; she introduced me to watercolor.  I fell in love with watercolor, and that semester I changed my major from Art Ed to Painting.  Beth and Mel have affected my work and life as an artist greatly.  These are also a few local artists' works that I really enjoy: Erin Harmon (*love*), Bobby Spillman, Jed Jackson, Hamlett Dobbins, Elizabeth Alley, and Susan Maakestad.
 
I get ideas for my work from a varied collection of sources:

• children's story/fairy tales (Alice in Wonderland's a fav)
  
• childhood toys/ideas
  
• spirographs
  
• botany charts
  
• Anthropologie (http://www.anthropologie.com/anthro/catalog/shopbycatalogentry.jsp) catalogs
  
• feminine patterning (doilies)
  
• fashion/home magazines
  
• fabric and textile designs
  
• flickr http://flickr.com/  photos (these can be great for finding color and matching color palettes later on in Photoshop)
  
• nature/everyday objects
  
• lately I get so much inspiration from blogs like these:
  http://dearada.typepad.com/dear_ada/(great to find new artists)
  http://abeautifulmess.typepad.com/
  http://www.theblackapple.typepad.com/
   

Here's a list of artist I like:

• Ivan Albright (saw his work when I was a teenager @ The Art Museum of The Art Institute of Chicago and loved it)
  
  
• Egon Shiele (also an artist that I really liked early on)
  
  
• Martin Eder (amazing with watercolors!!!)
  
  
• Amy Sillman
  
  
• Martin Mull
  
  
• Lisa Yuskavage
  
  
• Ernst Haekel (multi-colour illustrations of animals and sea creatures "Art Forms in Nature")
  
  
• Rex Ray
  
  
• Beatriz Milhazes
  
  
• Marlene Dumas
  
  
• Yolanda Sanchez
  
  
• Jennifer Sanchez
  
  
• Julie Evans
  
  
• Audrey Kawasaki
  
  
• T.L. Solien


• 
  
  • Finding new artists on blogs and New American Paintings magazines
  
  
  
  

Tomorrow The Memphis Flyer comes out.  There should be a blurb in there about our show.  I can't wait to see what gets in.  I also wonder if Beth has seen the show yet.  This sat. I'm going to take my dad to see it; He hasn't seen it since he's been in Japan.  I'm going to take him to eat breakfast/lunch/brunch @ Quetzaltoo.  Mmmm...good.

Next Tuesday before Thanksgiving, work is having a big lunch.  They are frying turkeys and I'm going to bring dressing and sweet potatoes.  I've never made either.  I've always wanted to though.  My grandma makes them AWESOME!!!  so...I'm going to try to use her recipe even though she really doesn't have one.  It's just add a little this...do a little this...cook it about this long... :]