Potential Wood for New Turner Project

I am as I had stated before prospecting the possibility of working on a new Turner reinterpretation on wood. The painting to be done is called The Burning of the Houses of Lords and Commons 

This painting in particular looks like it has a very compelling history. It was not part of my original 93 because it does not belong to the Tate collection, being instead housed in Philadelphia. Gives me something to look forward to, if I'm ever in that neck of the woods.

Now I have to sample the sorts of wood available for the project

We picked way many more than were necessary, but figure a choice is a useful thing to have at times. Clearly due to the nature of the medium, the shapes are a bit weird, but there it is. I will label them all by number so they can be referred to in that way. Warning also that it tends to look pretty unappealing when it' not appropriately prepared, but that a lot of potential is available. The wood really is best when seen in person, no getting around that

1) clearly a piece of barn or something 47" x 7.5"

2. This one has a nice eye in it, as well as ragged edges 31" x 10"

3. this piece of wood has 3 nails sticking out of it! It can be removed, of course
It also has a very rough working surface - 28"x 7"

4. this one has a light blue coat on the back of it - 2 are like that, actually - 28"x 7"

5. this has a very promising shape but posibly too long - 24"x5"

6. this one has great texture, and is bowed on the other side - 29" x 7"

7. This is a very special piece of wood. It stands on its own. and is a pleasing round shape. Measurements are for biggest area - 15.5" x 13 x 5.5

8. This one is really super special - it is made of weathered plywood found in the river, which has created great shapes and colours to it. It actually has sort of a burnt appearance. At one point Jim burned a poem onto it: "Any man who hides secrets in the closet of his soul will have a basement full of terror in his psyche - to soar his life to the heights of his dreams, he must somehow set his secret free." It is very subtle and almost invisible, but it is there. 22" x 16"

9. This is a fun wedge wood - I love working with these round shapes. The dark is moisture stain as opposed to fire/charred. Still some bark attached to it. 15" x 11"

10. This one has funny fissures and is not quite flat. Also in general a smaller canvas. Fun to work with, though, probably. 17" x 6" on longest edge.

11. This is the 2nd one that has the blue paint on it. Also a fun fissure on the short side. 28" x 7"

12. This is a great one that is probably too square, but is old barn wood. 11" x 10"

13. This is another fun one that stands on its own; it also has a flame-like shape. 10" x 12" x 2"

This is the best of what we could find to be available.

Lots of Weird Turmoil, a Change of Pace, but Always the Art

This blog looks remarkably sad right now, but a series of unfortunate events beset me sometime between December 9th and April of this year - in no particular order

1) user error meant I ended up deleting a chunk of photos which I used both in this and the art.aliciaraya.com blog - this is what happens when a person relies too much on Google +

2) a house fire the day after my birthday meant that the hard drive where the photos were stored, as well as the paintings themselves, not to mention the stuff we need to live day to day, ended up a bit sooty though blessedly undamaged, and now is all housed in a storage disaster area

3) a weird winter frost made our car drive off a cliff and, aside from almost losing life & limb, we almost lost a vehicle. Blessedly, neither of the above was the case.It was not fun times though. From what I hear, many people had ice/winter misadventures this year

4) the various venues where we were doing our art selling, throughout 2014, dried up or went away - and that includes Hot Springs. Meanwhile while this was occurring Jimbo & I transitioned to making a living off writing, which all became a convenient segue that the writing came in just as the art was heading out. I made a halfhearted effort to create & promote an Etsy site, but my heart & talents do not reside in the promoting realm, so I was happy to let it go. One of the last places we sold was the Marshall Farmer's Market, and even though I still am in charge of the website upkeep, the distance has made us not sell again there this season.


Some good things too, though:

1) as stated, we were able to successfully produce various writing pieces for a project of Guardian Media, Contributoria, thanks to reader support. Our very textual, political, and informative output can be found here and here

2) a wonderful patron came to visit us a couple of months before the fire and bought ten of our larger pieces. This is a wonderful art collector who used to be established in Asheville but has been living in Portland for some time.

3) we have found a wonderful new home in a commune situation in Bat Cave NC where I have once again found an opportunity to explore nature, gardening, etc.

4) in spite of having been the world's worst promoter, I have received interest from the internet in viewing the Turner project!! Very exciting, just to hear from a new friend of art, and to know that there's hope and life for a project I had placed in the back burner, though not completely abandoned.

5) in a wonderful full circle/closure to living in Marshall, Elizabeth Topper, the artist who bought some raw wood from us a couple of times & the first time right at the time of this Turner painting project, came the very week we were vacating the blighted property at Riddle Farm Rd/Hwy 25/70 for good, and purchased more raw materials.

We still have lots and lots of the coolest wood on earth for sale, of all shapes, sizes, and for all purposes. We are storing the raw wood with a friend in Madison County, but will most likely soon consolidate it all towards a storage unit somewhere

6) I have had the opportunity to work on two barn quilt successfully already - these are those lovely quilt blocks one sees on the outsides of buildings now & again. Am successfully finishing my 2nd commission of these. The fun thing re working with these is that they are very geometrical, therefore all the creativity functions in terms of colour combinations. I also like that a predetermined set of lines, and established patterns speak to a larger quilt canon. This is my convoluted way of saying "I enjoy working on these, y'all!"

As can be seen, I am still in the drawing phase. This one will be 2x2, and I've yet to hit on a colour scheme, but I hope it ends up as lively and interesting as the other one.

I am charging $250 for this, and I have found that my prices are very competitive because I do not place a limit on colours or patterns available. If anyone is interested in having their own quilt barn - or in buying wood, as mentioned earlier - please leave a comment.

One of the last times Jimbo and I had an opportunity to set up as Marshall Artists (which is the rubric under which we had been operating, as many in Hot Springs and West Asheville know) was at a recent fun event organized by Move to Amend & REAL Cooperative, called the Corporate Person Birthday party - we made one princely sale though, probably more importantly, we got to share our vision and message with plenty of likeminded folk. Some pictures to follow (until I manage to delete my G+ folder again, ha ha)

minding the booth

a very interesting bus

happy birthday corporate personhood!

Jimbo with his epic hair!!

that interesting GMO car I've been seeing around town for years

So, in the end, it has been a fun & interesting time. Hope that everyone's doing great, and would love to hear from some folks!

Updates on further art adventures involving driftwood

Greetings to all!

As mentioned earlier, I am still actively producing, and participating in the production of art on driftwood. Basically, as has been true for a good couple of years, I  have not been doing a lot of oil painting, mainly because I find myself spending so much more time on creating art that we sell, through Marshall Arts, with husband creating words, etc.

This process has allowed for a richer diversity of shapes & expressions through wood - we are able to use all sizes and shapes and manifestations of three dimensional pieces of driftwood - each are essentially an individually decorated, illustrated, and drawn sculpture. The starting-off point for these woods are the words that Jim feels as emanating from the wood - things that then I illustrate. I mainly do the drawings and he paints, though I've been known to participate with the painting as well. Mainly, all the little intricate drawings take up so much time that I'd have little time left to paint!

Our facebook page for this artistic conjunction is here. I am currently off Facebook personally, though I still visit our Marshall Arts page.


The piece I am sharing at the beginning of this post today is an oldie we sold months ago, but I have been recently spending some time unearthing old cell phone photos of these, and Photoshopping them as best I can so as to create something akin to a portfolio!


The words on the following piece are:

The Concept of Solidarity, Seemingly As Fierce & Tangible As a Rolling Wall of Flame, & Yet No Easier to Manifest Than Levitation Among Jupiter's Moons, Does Rest on Twin Foundations Both of Which Are Indisputably Accurate & Concrete, First, That the Vast Majority of Earth's Inhabitants Are Working Class Folk, & Second, That Every Human Being, Without a Single Exception, Is Either Cousins or Even Closer Kin

Here are a few other pieces

On another note, came back from a groovy art fair in South Texas this past weekend. The show was called the Starving Artist Show at La Villita in San Antonio, TX. A main reason we went was to visit some of Jim's family, who partially sponsored our participation. They are wonderful people and I was happy to finally meet them.

The event itself was incredibly fun and moderately successful sales-wise, in spite of the unexpectedly bad weather. I had never been to that area of the world, so I was very happy to visit and participate in an art sale so far from home.

 This shows our actual setup - as can be seen, we sell wood, photography, and some of my oil paintings on wood - though none of the Turner project! Those are special

We have created a book format for all the poems written on wood! We have at our booth hard copies available, but also we have a Kindle edition, for sale for $6. Inquire if you would like a copy but can't do Kindle, for some reason. We are also happy to mail the hard copy, though this would cost $10 + shipping.

Speaking of Kindle store, other writings by Jim are available at our Kindle store.

Some more images of our setup, and the surrounding areas. San Antonio is a lovely town.

This trip did entail a rather grueling 30 hours, cumulative, in a car, though, from Southern Appalachia to South Texas, so people can imagine how I feel now, LOL. Needless to say, saw a lot of coffeeshops.

Chattanooga, TN

San Antonio, TX

Baton Rouge, LA

Tuscaloosa, AL

Laurel, MS

Atlanta, GA (this was fun - was my old hangout from way back)

HOPE ALL are having a great weekend!

Greetings from Long Ago & Far Away

Hi All!

Wanted to write a quick update as to what I have been up to, artistically and whatnot. I feel funny being so brief and perfunctory after such a long absence, but in the end, this attitude is what keeps us from communicating to begin with. So... a brief post and an invitation for anyone out there to say 'hi' back!

1. Giant Drawing - my first and foremost update - the Giant Drawing which was promised such a long time ago.

   

   Epic Drawing, now

   I am pretty ashamed that I STILL, after 2 years, failed to get that out to people. The problem stems from the fact I never felt the drawing was perfectly finished - that it looked undeveloped still. The other problem, and I would love anybody's feedback, if anyone is still interested in receiving this, is whether it would be OK to send a postcard of the entire drawing, or whether it was still preferable to receive cut up pieces of it.
   
   I like the theory of cutting up a giant drawing and mailing each individual piece as a postcard, but clearly it is a hard thing to fathom doing - cutting up a piece of art that one has spent time on, and trying to guarantee that each individual piece is a worthwhile piece of art in its own right. Clearly I should have just done SOMETHING to fulfill this reward months ago, even if it were just any old thing - but somehow I wanted to do something nice and meaningful. And it;s taking a while.

   

   Epic Drawing, as of Feb this year

   I have kept adding to it anyhow, since last time I wrote about this issue, as can be seen from the image here and in old post. I will keep adding to it. 
2. Ocean Painting Commission - I am happy to announce that a wonderful and exciting painting commission came out of my time working on the Epic Painting Project!
   
   It was for a large portrayal of an ocean scene of my native Chile - a 2 x 3 foot painting of ViNa del Mar. This took most of my winter and spring - not just painting it, but sketching and conceiving the idea. I used layering methods (linseed oil) to try to create depth and the proper hues in the ocean
3. Marshall Arts (wood art and outside sales) - and now, expressing a reason (excuse? haha) for my long absence online - the work I do alongside Jim as Marshall Arts!
   
   One of the most exciting offshoots of the Epic Painting Project has been that the funding of this project has really allowed us to flower as viable artists, creating work on wood.
   
   
   
   
   
   Firstly, the generous funding allowed us to purchase necessary wood processing equipment. Secondly, it allowed me to spend much time and energy learning great ways to work with the medium. Thirdly, it allowed us to develop this new way of interacting with the medium, even in different ways. Jim began adding words, and I images. Fourthly, the funding of the project became a platform for announcing our artistic existence to the world. We had begun this process somewhat tentatively before the Epic Painting Project was even conceived of, but I guarantee that the successful completion and funding of the project is what provided the springboard for its success. We actually are managing to make sales of these wooden pieces, which range from necklaces/earrings to large sculptures! In addition, we sell photography, and some of my oil paintings as well. The effort involves setting up 3 to 4 times a week in venues in Asheville and Hot Springs. The rest of the time goes into actually producing the art!! The above piece took over three days to produce, from start to finish. Multiply that by the approximately 90 pieces that we have on display at all times, and folks can see how much of my time and Jim's is spent in production mode! So... half the week producing wood pieces, half the week setting up to sell --- I hope folks can come to undestand how easy it is to fall off the radar. If anyone were interested in reading/experiencing more about this artistic modality, one can go to our facebook page, or to marshallcommunityarts.com (also not updated in a long time, oh dear!) You can also send me a message and I can add you to our mailing list - once a season I send a communique.
4. Epic Painting Project - so far, I have any further developments regarding the project itself on hold. Next steps include seeking to photograph the work better, seeking a venue for exhibiting, etc.
   
   In the end, the reason this effort fell through has been mentioned above - making art through Marshall Arts and selling it has become both a primary breadwinning vector, as well as incredibly time comsuming! It quickly takes precedence, and everything else (including pursuing Phase 2 of Epic Painting Project = the promotion) goes on the back burner.
   
   But any time anyone comes visit us, we are more than happy to show them the fruits of my labour! After about the 50th one, people begin to cry uncle! There's only so much art one can take all at once, but in the end, even though I have yet to find a proper venue, I am satisfied in viewing the wonderful work and I recall how it was--- one of the most memorable and enjoyable chapters of my life. So... to everyone, thanks so much as always, and I do hope to hear from everybody at some point.