Moods and Patterns

acrylic paintings, art, contemporary, contemporary art, contemporary painting, contempory art, female artist, Figurative art on canvas, studio visit

A visitor to my studio:
“I look around at every painting of yours and don’t see a glimmer of hope.”

Ha-ha.

The joke is, I’m happy as a clam when I paint. The minute I enter my studio my spirits lift. Even in the face of a difficult painting, I’m ecstatic!

So what does an artist make of what people see in her paintings? Do people see what they want to see? Do they see what they don’t want to see?

Some of my favorite shows recently (and best of all, I was INVITED!):
Art & Words, Emerge Gallery — I wrote poems to my paintings and poets wrote poems to my paintings and then I did a painting inspired by a poet.

344 Second Street Troy — the curator and owner, Jean Tansey, herself a wonderful artist, selected a bunch of my paintings to exhibit, especially the larger ones, especially happy about that am I, since I’m painting really, really small lately. (I prefer to think I’m squeezing big ideas into small spaces.)

Albany Center — an email out of the blue invited me to exhibit in this beautiful space in the heart of downtown Albany surrounded by soaring brutalist architecture.
And… upcoming

The one and only Saugerties Open Studio Tour — visit me in my studio August 12 and13,
STUDIO #3 c’est moi ! Visit me, visit me. I love studio visits.

Art as Therapy, “Branding” or not?

acrylic paintings, art, contemporary art, contemporary painting, female artist, figurative art, portraits, portraits of women

One visitor to my studio remarked (or was it a complaint?) that I have “too many ideas” — I should stick to one idea and develop it. I got the same advice (or complaint) in art school. One of my art professors was a painter of directional signs. His work was shown in one of NYC’s best galleries. I recently looked him up online to see if, forty years later, he was still painting directional signs. Yes! There they were, painting after painting of arrows. Arrows pointing up, pointing crossways, pointing down, etc. So, he had a brand — to borrow from corporate marketing — easily identifiable, uniquely his. And me? Do I have a brand?

Child Looks at the Dance of Life (Munch) 16 x 24 inches

Give him flowers (studio view) each 10 x 12

Me? I start from the inside. I focus on whatever’s bothering me. Or what intrigues me. The past year, for example, I was faced with an upcoming court date and constant, nightmarish anxiety. How to alleviate my anxiety? I was tempted to throw paint against the canvas – expressionism!

Instead, I discovered a simple therapy: I focused on details, tiny intricate shapes, dots, triangles, stripes, using my trusty ink pens and fluid acrylics and acrylic markers and occasional watercolor pencils. Will I go on “developing” my “patterned” paintings? Probably not.

Like the Mirror when Nobody’s Looking

acrylic paintings, art, contemporary, contemporary art, female artist, male portraits

It’s as if you’re dead and looking at life through a veil, someone said to me at my recent solo show of my work.

Not a bad analysis — because I don’t paint from life.

My companions in my studio are fluctuating moods and passing thoughts and squelched memories bubbling to the surface.

I paint because I like being off-balance.

Teacher

Leave your sleepy rivulets to trickle down my wrist,

Teacher. Put up a mirror for an answer

so I can ask the same question

twice

Seal shut last year’s envelopes, your lesson’s feral cabinet,

Say, The mirror is facing the wall, your secrets are safe

Don’t ask me,

“Dear little cobweb: why so brooding, mysterious, and quaking?”

Don’t say, “I’ll seize this and this and this”

Leave everything alone as is

like the mirror, when nobody’s looking

Studio Visit, Q&A with me and Sarah Butler

acrylic paintings, art, contemporary art, figurative art, political art, studio visit

STUDIO VISIT: JOSEPHA GUTELIUS

Studio location: A garage (without the car!) semi-attached to my house. The only natural light is west, which makes for interesting shadows, ideal for my purposes.

How long working here? I moved in early August this year, so the studio hasn’t been mucked up much. I’m still trying to keep it clean and neat. Give it a few months.

THE SPACE

One advantage: I can paint large, larger, largest and cart the canvas out the garage door. Of course, having a new studio feels like a fresh start. I finally have more floor space—my method is to work on the floor, kneeling.

And I have wall space: that’s amazing! The first thing I did when I moved into the new studio, I hung up about 30 of my paintings, it was like seeing them for the first time.

Challenges: Electricity? Yes. But no plumbing: no sink, no toilet. So I do a lot of trudging back and forth.

THE WORK

I tend to work on several paintings at once and revisit old paintings accordingly. And especially now with the fresh new context of the studio, I see everything differently. I’m thinking I want to go toward interior scenes. Figures, of course. But I haven’t done much with objects, and I plan to.

Recommended Reads?

Ross King’s The Judgment of Paris. Immensely detailed, with a sweeping perspective on what King calls “the revolutionary decade that gave the world Impressionism.” King’s starting point is Meissonier, the Andy Warhol of the 19th century (and coincidentally Salvador Dali’s favorite painter). A brilliant illustration of the relativity of the canon.

Another seminal book: Lothar Lang’s Expressionist Book Illustration in Germany, 1907-1927. I’ve pored over that book for years—the drama of the line, the black/ white contrast, the spare use of color as “gesture,” an art of protest. Raw and brutal stuff; those paintings can’t be tamed. The basics for me are content and drama.

And the inimitable Lucy Lippard, the art shaman. I don’t necessarily like the art she likes, but I love looking at art through her eyes. I See/ You Mean is a phenomenal novel.

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New work

acrylic paintings, art, charcoal drawing, contemporary art, female artist, feminist art, figurative art, portraits of women

40 x 24 new version 18 x 24 new 20160517_113533-1 45 x 23 45 x 23 Robot 36 x 24 20160601_074943-1

School Days

acrylic paintings, contemporary art

I used acrylic markers for most of these paintings…

School Days (Museum Trip), 40 x 23

School Days (Mirror, revised version), 28 x 17

School Days (Dads), 35 x 40

School Days (Going on 13) new version, 17 x 14

School Days (Comicon), 20 x 16

School Days (Wall), 26 x 26

New Paintings

acrylic paintings, contemporary art, figurative art, Figurative art on canvas

Push to Open, 26 x 19 inches, acrylic on canvas

Watch, 20 x 17 inches, acrylic on canvas

Marilyn at Walmart, 19 x 15 inches, acrylic on canvas

My Girl, 26 x 20 inches, acrylic on canvas

Using acrylic markers

acrylic paintings, contemporary art

A strange, new departure for me (okay, not strange for most people), but:

Buying canvas (rather than stretching it myself) and using acrylic markers (rather than finger painting, which is my usual method) — something about those combinations… well, the result is a patchwork style that’s a little off the grid for me. And maybe way too familiar to others.

This one is probably unfinished. No title even. And why are these so small here? Sorry for that.

18 x 36 acrylic on canvas

These two, titled “What the Astronaut Saw” — belong together as far as I’m concerned. But probably unfinished. I’m inordinately proud of the sheep on the right though.

What the Astronaut Saw, 16 x 20, acrylic on canvas

(More) paintings revisited, retouched, and two new

acrylic paintings, contempory art

Fall is slowly arriving in the Hudson Valley, and the splash of colors I see from the windows of my studio inspire me to add my own splash of colors. Slight differences between the old and new versions of paintings — old, meaning in my case a few months’ old, since I only started painting in January this year.

And also, two new paintings… Berlin Celebration (below) may need a few splashes of color — but for now I like the white-on-black and hint of red and yellow. This painting would not be possible without the inspiration of Gerhard Richter’s early amazing monochromes.

Berlin Celebration, acrylic on canvas, 28 x 26

And Street Art Berlin (below), hmmm…. this really is a slightly altered depiction of wall art I saw on my last trip to Berlin — a lot of famous artists have added their splashes to the buildings in Berlin, and this could be one by the infamous and wonderful Richard Prince (note the “U R So Porno Baby”), which would be perfect, considering he borrows from others as I am presumably borrowing from him in this painting. With all due respect. He follows me on Instagram. And he lives nearby. Howdy, neighbor. I should tag him. Oh, yes, I’ll do that.