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: A Torrent of Visual "What-ifs"

Untitled, detail.
copyright KKMarino 2013
click to enlarge, refresh to return

"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
(Click image to enlarge, hit refresh to return)

“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
(to enlarge click on image, hit refresh to return to post)

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
Click to enlarge, hit Refresh to return

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...

There are times in an Artist's life...

Note to myself from the paper covering my painting table, October, 2012

“There are times in an artist’s life that are life-changing. Some are mere moments and others more significant. Regardless of the rest of my journey, my time at PrairieCenter of the Arts will stand as a unique gift that greatly impacted me as an artist and the course of my work.”

Kim Kissinger Marino, 2012

O Studio, Studio! Wherefore Art Thou Studio?

"When are you going to get to work?"
Zoe, Studio Dog Extraordinaire

As you can see this is not a photo of the finished painting from the residency that I have been promising for several days. It is instead the boxes of supplies and gear from the residency, that remain unpacked.

So what gives?

I was spoiled by my residency studio. It was large and airy with good company:

"The Caribbean Vacation of Studios". 

Now I feel closed in and uncertain about where to land.

I have this space which includes my office and those naggy life things like files and bills and other major distractions. Or I have an unfinished location above the garage where the temperature is now a balmy 32 degrees Fahrenheit. 

Humm. My plan is to land here in the office/studio and then plan my next move....as you can see my faithful "Studio Dog" Grandma Zoe doesn't really care as long as "her" chair is part of the mix.

Home

Arrived home Wednesday.

It is amazing how quickly you return to the push and pull of life. In short order I began making lists, handling work questions and headed down the slippery slope of
life over-consumption.

My fine diet of art, art, art the last 30 days has opened my eyes to the negative sources in my life- those life draining situations that zap your creative and spiritual energy.

Its "house-cleaning" time for me both figuratively and literally.

I will publish my final residency painting in the next few days when it is complete.


Until then:

"What we think, we become." 

- Buddha

Residency-Last Day in the Studio

Prairie Center of the Arts-Last Day in Studio, 2012

Today is my last day of residency at The Prairie Center of the Arts. 

This blog will continue but the residency is complete.

I can think of many things to say, but none that accurately describe this experience. 

So I will default to a word list:

Life-Changing

Art...

               

"Art does not reproduce what we see; rather, 

it makes us see."

Paul Klee 

4" X 4" Drawing: "Together" (Shown 2 ways)
Copyright KK Marino, 2012

Completed New Work-Yellow Waterfall

Yellow Waterfall
18" x 18 " Oil
copyright KK Marino, 2012

Click photo to enlarge, hit refresh button to return to blog

Here is the final on Yellow Waterfall. As you can see the addition of the black lines change the piece completely.

Being an Artist

Blankness 

There are times when I am stuck-solid.

The past few days have been like that.

The more I thought, the less I knew.

The more I pushed the less I moved.

A wise person told me that if you just stretch out on your bed and don't get up until you have made a decision about your problem, then you can move forward.

Even though I did not physically do the exercise, I mentally did. That is, I thought about my creative blankness from that point of view and it worked!

I made a decision that allowed me to move forward.

The goal is to always move the work forward, deciding how is the hard part.

A-R-T

A studio mate of mine mentioned Morris Code the other day while looking at my work and I thought it would be fun to play with it a bit, since
I am a dot-a-holic!

Here is the word A-R-T

A very visually interesting language.

Orange Riot

This is the view from my window. I actually don't care for the color orange but this riot of color is making its way into my work.

I find myself drawn to yellows, golds and oranges-colors that have never been in my work before. It is amazing how an environment can influence you.

New Drawing 10-10-12

Drawing 10-10-12
copyright KK Marino , 2012

Here is a new drawing from this week. I am moving the work forward in this direction. Drawing is rendered in marker and colored pencils.

Change Is a Comin'

Untitled -12" X 12" Acrylic on canvas board
copyright KK Marino 2012

After a week of focus my imagery is definitely changing. This painting shows a new direction in my work. Still very organic, but a move towards more simplification. My figures have now taken a new form, resembling some of my earlier work with trees only the shapes are new. The black lines are directly painted, not drawn with craft glue first. I am very interested in these figures particularly the two that are joined. What is the relationship here?

Everything starts from a dot. 

-Wassily Kandinsky