Flies & Octopi: It's Been Awhile

Oh man it's been a couple weeks since I have updated my blog. A lot has happened I guess. I turned in work for the Lindquist Scholarship two weeks ago, I think. Today, I put my portfolio up for the Art Major Departmental scholarship. I think I have a pretty good shot at winning some kind of scholarship. Hopefully I will anyway. That would be sweet if Nicole and I both won one or the other :)

I have been working more on my little masonite paintings. I don't know what to call them, and earlier I referred to them as my "littles," so maybe that is what I will title them. They are partially organic and partially mechanical. I showed my first four during BFA crit last Thursday, and everyone seemed to like them okay but I think everyone could see that they were pretty early in their development. Angelika really wants me to break out of the square and to shape the paper that I am actually working on. There was a consensus that paper was favored over masonite...but I like the way the masonite feels also. Maybe it doesn't read to everyone one the way I perceive it, but I like it. I made three more "littles" yesterday (Tuesday), and hopefully will get some more done before the week is out. I like where my work is going, I just need to keep pushing. These smaller, more intimate paintings have given me the chance to reflect on myself. This is the first body of work in awhile that I have actually thought that it applied to my relationships and personal life. Of course, it all applies to me because it's MINE, but you know what I mean. I think I am embracing the void of a white and empty background, kind of like I am struggling to embrace the emptiness I sometimes feel in myself. I like to control situations that are out of my power sometimes and I try to create organization out of chaos. I may be over-analyzing my work, but I really think this is why I am doing what I'm doing. I'm seeing connections to myself and it's not just random forms that come out of my head. It's something more. I just have to keep digging.

Here are some pictures of my "littles" and of "Pegasus' battle of the egg," or whatever I'm calling it (abandoned/completed). Bad photos, but here ya go.