BLog Post Two

What does a day in the studio look like?

Currently, in my MFA Low Residency program through SAIC, I have two studio spaces set up. The studio spaces are medium specific; I have a painting and sculpture space within the SAIC 280 building and a jewelry studio set up in my personal space within my apartment. The 280 studio space doesn’t allow for the majority of the tools and chemicals I use in jewelry making such as a torch, hand saw, boric acid, and flux chemicals. I also need a dark space when soldering which the 280 studio space does not accommodate. Having an in-house studio allows for me to get out of bed and start creating right away, avoiding the hassle of having to gather all my things, walk to a new space, and then re-motivate myself to start creating.

Current state of in-home jewelry studio.

Although I have not had my studio spaces for long, and regardless of the convenience, I often find myself ignoring my in-home studio and running off to my studio away from home for a fresh environment and new mediums to play with.

I usually set aside a time on one of my free days to go into the studio. I have to be in the right headspace with a task I want to accomplish for that day otherwise nothing will get done.

I always walk into my studio by dramatically pushing the entry-way curtain aside. My headphones are always on and playing the background music to my life, which as you can imagine, helps the dramatics of this entrance (think O Fortuna 2:38-2:43). I then stroll over to a table in the far corner of the room to set my things down and look over at all the unused painting tools and materials while pondering over what I could possibly do with all of it, and when exactly I acquired so many brushes.

What are you currently working on?

In-Progress Painting.

Just as I have a variety of studio spaces, I have a variety of ongoing projects at the moment across photography, sculpture, jewelry/small metals and painting. I am currently most excited about my painting project (show above) which I walk you through my creative process for below:

Step One: The Idea

All pieces start with inspiration and an idea for some type of subject matter. My work has always revolved around a focus on femininity and aesthetics; my paintings in particular discuss the portrayal of feminine aesthetics as assumed by society. I decided on painting the face of a female crying (in traditional pop-art culture) and including a text box with an ironic quote that was said to me by a guy who had broken my heart and in an effort to make me feel better (I suppose) the words: “you’re too pretty to cry” left his mouth. What a strange thing to say to someone who you have single handedly brought to emotional destress- I thought, and so I decided to make a piece about it hoping others would also see the irony or rather ridiculousness of the matter.

Step Two: Planning

After the idea was settled I jumped straight into planning, making a sketch and running over to the wood shop to make stretcher bars for and stretch my canvas. I decided on the size 40”x 40”- there is no significance on this matter other than I wanted the painting to be large, but not too large. The square shape also emphasizes the comic strip aspect of the pop-art style I have chosen to create this piece in. After I had a canvas, I put a nice wash of Burnt Umber over the already primed surface, let in dry and then jumped straight into creating a grid for my underdrawing. I took a photo of my face replicating how I wanted the face in the painting to look.

I always use my own face for reference- not because I’m a narcissist, but because it is always there, accessible, I already know what it looks like and I don’t have to worry about someone else complaining that it doesn’t look like them. I don’t always paint my face exactly either, it is more of a reference point for a general face.

Moving on, after I had my photo I took it into photoshop to add a grid and started drawing with a graphite pencil.

Step Three: The Painting

For the sake of time and word-count here, I think the title is self explanatory.

After the piece is painted it is complete and ready to face the world as well as it’s critics.

Ciao!