A Girl For All Seasons

Exhibitions, Figurative, Fragmented Fabulosity Series

I constructed this mosaic mirrored painting based on my A Girl For All Seasons calendar, in order to actively engage the viewer. While looking at this piece, the viewer not only sees the art work, but also sees their own self- image reflected back, therefor, in essence, becoming part of the painting. Perhaps the viewer will contemplate what it means to be “A Girl For All Seasons”? This piece is beyond “Pin Up Girl” ideal/ objectification malarkey, rather, it is about what I consider to be the true meaning of “A Girl For All Seasons”… Can you rise to the occasion and be your best, no matter what the circumstances? Do you engage with people and really hear their stories? Do you feel connection and empathy? Are you a spring chicken even though your “spring has sprung”? What do you do over the ‘winter of our (your) discontent’? Can you pull it together during the off season, open season, party season, swimsuit season, giving season, hurricane season, high season, IN season, and for everything that there is a season …?

48 x 54, Mixed Media on Wood Panel, 2019. $2000

A Girl For All Seasons

HERstory, Photography, Portraits

When I was 22, attending college at Washington University in St. Louis, I took several photography classes. For my final Color Photography 2 course, I created a “Pin-Up Girl” calendar featuring myself! Ha! This was super difficult technically, because I was using a 35 mm Canon camera that I had to focus using formulaic calculations regarding the background and middle ground, and then set a timer, pose, and repeat– not knowing what I captured (if anything!!!) until I developed the film…. Super Old School! But also, as I have mentioned in previous HERstory posts, I already had an issue with the “actress/model type”, who are exactly the “sort” of women from which “Pin- Up Girl” calendars are made. So by placing my 5’3″, on the stocky/strong side- (certainly NOT the usual “Pin-Up Girl” type) – I was challenging what exactly it means to be a “Pin-Up Girl” or as I say, “A Girl For All Seasons”. This project was also inspired by Julie London’s album Calender Girl, and the photographer, Cindy Sherman’s amazing work as a self-portraitist…. Finally, there was one other ulterior motive for my creative project, and that was to convince a man (through art) to choose me instead of another woman… It is so messed up, but I was young and very much in love and also, as people like to point out, that I did “get my man”… AND, so it is true- my creative advertisement- worked, I did “get my man” for almost 22 years until… but, well that is another Fish Tale entirely!

Anyway, I made Christmas presents for my family and friends of my A Girl For All Seasons 1996 Calendar. It features 13 fabulous self-portraits of myself- complete with holiday accouterments, but also 2 poems (laminated in the finest plastic KINKO’S offers!), one by the poet/author Robert Graves, Uncalendered Love, and another, written by “Anonymous”, (spoiler alert: written by the man whom would become husband and the father of my 3 children), entitled Times’s Mistress… Calendars are really important to me – I like to keep several paper ones on hand, each dedicated to recording “time” based on different criteria that I have set… I like to cross off things and move forward in time… It’s a thing.

Unfinished Fun

Figurative, In Progress, Portraits

The gloriously fun and fabulous ancestors of my children — a 10’ x 7’ “unfinished” (or is it?) canvas that hangs like a tapestry — I bring it out for Fundraiser Galas that are located in unsightly venues and most recently, for my daughter’s wedding. I met some of the people in the photograph, but with just one look at those amazingly awesome people, I knew I must capture their likeness and their spirits as best as ever I could!

This is the song Tennessee Kamanski wrote about my daughter Sophie, her great friend when they were girls. Tennessee preformed Sings to Snails at my daughter’s wedding feast 3 years ago. It was a very low budget but super fun party.

Mnemosyne

Portraits

I created this painting based on an old photograph that I bought at a thrift store, in fact, I bought the entire family album for $2.00. It dated back to 1912 with really wonderful photographs. This woman went from being a new bride to a grandmother over the course of the pages. I admire her spunk and spirit, so clearly evident, she seems like she was a really wonderful gal. This photograph, in particular, really engaged my interest. It is so very intimate — of a woman sitting in bed, hair undone and shoulder exposed…. It is timeless and beautiful and sad. She is Mnemosyne the Greek goddess of memory.

30 x 40, Oil Pant and Oil Pastel on Canvas, 2019. $800

Garden of Earthly DEE-LITE

Exhibitions, Still Life

At Midnight, National Competition, Art Catalogue Publication, Art on 30th. 2020 $2000

This painting is a homage to the late great San Diego artist Manny Farber, but also a “Still – Life” representation/ portrait of myself and my existence … 4 panels all with objects that resonate and embody aspects of myself or my life — look from the top right, then top left, bottom left and bottom right. The painting becomes less realistically rendered and more sketchy as you progress in the order I have described… I occasionally asked if I’m going to “finish” these rudimentary areas. This painting is a self portrait and when I created it my life was different and so was my “storyline”…. the last panel is barely a sketch – with a question mark drawn with charcoal …. and so is my life still — All that I can offer is that I have one foot in the past and another in the future and I’m trying to balance in the present tense as best as I can!

Pandora’s Box

Exhibitions, Sculpture

Juried into the Mixed Media Madness Exhibition, this sculpture features a rotating fish and the faint musical sounds of Carmen’s Polka. I had been wanting to create a 3D sculpture for awhile— but for this particular sculpture required a Musical/ Mechanical/ Kinetic Mechanism as well! It was very challenging but fun to create. 50 x 12, Mixed Media, 2020. $800