2013 Mural Project: Day Six, Seven and Eight

Detail Mural Project
copyright KKMarino 2013

I can hardly believe that I have not posted since Monday! I have been immersed in this project, to the point that I have completely forgotten to take any photos. The past 3 days I have painted about 25 hours total, including 13 hours on Wednesday. This is a new record for me.

The photo above is detail of the painting at the step on on Monday. I am very pleased with the final painting and look forward to everyone coming out to indi go gallery in Champaign tonight at 6:00 pm.

I will be posting final photos in the next few days.

2013 Mural Project-Day Five & Six

Mural- Day 6

Time is flying by! Only 4 days until the opening. I'm in the gallery 8-9 hours a day right now. Still much to do. Tomorrow the real colors come on board.

2013 Mural Project: Day Four

“If you have only two pennies, 

spend the first on bread and the other on hyacinths for your soul.”

–Arab Proverb

Day four went very well. Color has arrived at last! 

Today I was thinking about how making art creates community. Art is a jumping off point in any conversation. Agreement is not needed, just a desire to share your experience as a viewer. 

I spent time with several people I did not know and very much enjoyed engaging them in conversation about art. 

It was not required that they liked my work. I appreciated that they enjoyed art.

2013 Mural Project- Day Three

No painting today, the under painting was still too wet. Very humid again today, but tomorrow color for sure. Here is the palette I am thinking about. A friend of mine gave me this paint color swatch a few years ago and it has proven to be so valuable. I can look at color families instead of just a single color.

Quiet, peaceful day at the gallery. Had several good visits. One week from now is the opening. Much work to do.

2013 Mural Project: Day Two

Mural Project  Underpainting
copyright KKMarino 2013

Day Two of the project went well. I completed the under painting of the mural. I now have a feel for the values in the piece. I planned on starting color tomorrow but it has turned very humid which is having an effect on the paint drying time. So we will see what tomorrow brings. I have another painting in mind so if you drop by you may find me working on something else if the mural is too wet to continue on.

I find it very relaxing working on this piece. I painted 7 hours today which was terrific, though I am a bit out of shape for standing that long. But the peacefulness of just me, a little music and the work is great.

2013 Mural Project: Day One

indi go gallery, champaign, illinois-upper level
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indi go gallery, champaign, illinois-lower level
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indi go gallery, champaign, illinois-lower level west
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I am settling in nicely at the gallery. I'm excited about the project now that the prep work is complete and painting is imminent! 

I am happy with the Exhibit of my Recent Work that went up last night.  

I completed the mural pencil drawing and the glue drawing prior to my arrival at the gallery. I am ready for the under painting-a step that I enjoy very much. It allows me to get acquainted with the painting as I work through and make decisions about the values, shading and overall composition. 

To visitors, it is an unexpected step and they wonder "where is the color anyway?"

But, a very relaxing step for me, a good place to be on day one.

2013 Mural Project: Providing Balance

"Providing Balance" 8"x 8"
Copyright KKMarino 2013
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Here is a small painting that I recently finished for the show. I am excited about this color combination. I prefer unusual color schemes. My grandmother was a quilter and she had a keen sense of color. Her combinations always worked, but were at times most unexpected. I learned from her to take a chance, try new ideas with color.

Two days until I move the work to the gallery. 

2013 Mural Project: A Torrent of Visual "What-ifs"

Untitled, detail.
copyright KKMarino 2013
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"Drawing is the artist's most direct and spontaneous expression, a species of writing: 

it reveals, better than does painting, 

his true personality."

Edgar Degas-

I am doing preliminary work for the mural and should be ready to make the drawing on canvas this weekend. 

A big step. 

I always feel hesitant to make the first mark. Of course pencil is easily erased, but for me the first marks on a canvas are important and set the tone for the entire piece. 

I do not work out the entire painting before hand and then transfer the image to canvas. That would be nice, but its not my way. My process involves "intuitive drawing."

Most of my preliminary work is mental. I work through images for weeks or months in my mind--thinking and comparing, imagining and discarding ideas and marks, reworking and formulating. 

A torrent of visual "what-ifs". 

I tend to write more than draw as I get close to starting a piece- my line drawings are kin to writing. Letters and words give us the image instantly, my lines demand more. 

When I do start the drawing on canvas it is a flurry of action: 

a watch-out, get-out-of-my-way type event.

One motion. 

Then I see the image for the first time, all the pieces and parts that I have been imaging are now made real.

If Degas is correct in his assertion that the drawing reveals the artist's most direct expression, his true personality, then what does my drawing say about me?

2013 Mural Project: Once Again with Feeling

"Once Again, With Feeling" detail.
copyright 2013 KK Marino
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“Laughter and tears are both responses to frustration and exhaustion. I myself prefer to laugh, since there is less cleaning do to do afterward.” 

― Kurt Vonnegut

I'm not sure I have ever had an art exhibit without a little bit of Drama leading up to the show. I am not by nature a "dramatic" person, though I certainly have exercised my right to pure self-indulgence in the art of drama in my younger days.

Right now I just don't have the time for it.

So I am now in the last week, the runway up to the exhibit and the mural project. 

And it begins. 

Just when I thought I had my schedule worked out, here comes life: the final frontier. A Big Roadblock, not a little stumble, a significant crack in my well made plans. So I readjust my schedule and replan my time again and move forward.

I am by nature an organized person. My lists have sublists and I have even resorted to little check box squares by my tasks to give myself a reward for having completed something. But sometimes I can't find my lists, so I am a true contradiction in organization. 

Sad right? Probably.

So I paint and plan and plan and paint and rewrite my lists.

I am looking forward to the laughing phase which is undoubtedly coming later this week, when I just throw up my hands and say "Okay,okay I got it-I need to work harder to make this happen".

And then I do.

2013 Mural Project: Clarity at Last

I decided to paint, and paint and paint and paint
copyright KKMarino, 2013
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I am very excited about this mural project as it has been on my mental radar for over two years. As an artist I find that one of my biggest challenges is patience. (possibly in life too).

My conceptual process involves "waiting" which I am very bad at. I'm not patience, whether in the grocery line, an appointment , in traffic or when I am problem solving. Especially when it comes to my work.

I want all the ideas now, totally resolved or even yesterday would be better.

This mural has been a blank canvas, just fragments of ideas, thoughts, lines and desires. Now is the time that I need the image. So I am impatience.

Since I am not new to the business of  being an artist I have learned that I need to get out of my own way on the creative process.

And so I did.

I decided to paint, and paint and paint and paint and to let the pressure of the mural image go. Give it up and just do the work, day after day after day.

And sure enough this morning 4:00 a.m. there it was. I woke up and the concept was there, the image was emerging and even the title!

Now the real fun begins!

2013 Mural Project: About Being a Painter

Work Table 9/4/2013
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I have always been a painter, but not always a practicing painter or even a happy painter.

As a kid I loved drawing, it was a way that I could create my own world. I was the "arty" one, the different one.  Kids don't see the world like we adults do. There are no limitations on creativity until someone puts it there-even a small helpful correction from an adult can turn the tide, stifle a thought or stop a direction.

I was trained in watercolor. At the time I detested oil paints. I tried oil, but it was laborious, hard and unforgiving. Watercolor was fluid, fun and lovely.(cue the music) Like a walk on a spring day, but oil was the coldest of hard winters freezing me out. Locking me down, stopping me in my tracks.

Now many years later I am in love again, but this time with oil. Its buttery consistency and wonderful blending capabilities thrill me. And it is patient, dries ever so slowly or at the rate that I determine. When I returned to painting three years ago I knew I wanted to conquer oil painting. My old nemesis.

So I set out to learn. I taught myself. Early attempts...well, not so pretty, but eventually I began to figure it out.

Seems I should  I should write something lovely here like: "Oil Painting fulfills me, it inspires me to be a better person or it allows me to express my view of the world".

Well, Okay. But, not really.

Its actually very simple.

I am an Artist. I Create. Painting is just along for the ride.

2013 Mural Project: And so it begins...

On-Site Mural Painting Project
September 18- September 30, 2013
Artist on-site Daily (Sept 18-27)  9:00-3:00 pm
indi go gallery
9 E. University Ave. Champaign, Illinois 61820

September 2, 2013.

I have 17 days of preparation left for my On-Site Mural Project and Solo Exhibit at indi-go gallery in Champaign, Illinois.

For two years I have been contemplating this project. It is one of those "Go Big or Go Home" adventures for me.

In the past few years I have enjoyed interaction with viewers of my work during exhibits. In many ways the work is not truly complete for me until it is seen.

Otherwise it is just me and the art-which is a bit self-involved.

So here's the plan:

10 Days: Sept. 18-27th I will be painting a 3' X 12' mural on-site at the gallery.

Solo Exhibit will be up
Music playing
Art making will be happening
A mini-residency of sorts for me
A goal will be accomplished

On Friday, September 27, 2013 at 6:00 pm there will be an opening for the Mural and the Solo Exhibit. Exhibit will come down on October 1, 2013.

Now blogging again.
Blogging art projects for me is like creating an online work plan + performance art via in the internet. I enjoy the discipline of the day to day documentation of a work. It keeps me on task and since I am not a performer by nature it allows me to be one. Sort of.

So I begin...I have been painting furiously completing work for the accompanying Solo Exhibit. I have a terrific collector who is encouraging and nudging me along the way. We had a studio visit this week and his enthusiasm was greatly appreciated.

Seen above is the promotion photo that will be used for the project. Much work to do to get all the pieces together.

So I end this entry with my plan for the day:

“The best preparation for good work tomorrow is to do good work today.”Elbert Hubbard, American Writer
And So it begins...