First one sold!

Selling 90 paintings project!!

We are beginning to reconfigure this painting project by incorporating it with what we already do in our wood work through Marshall Arts. Thus, Jim will add a message to the oil paintings I completed in 2012 thanks to y'all and then I will add artwork as seen in 1st picture above.



We have processed and have 4 or 5 already ready to go, as can be seen here.

We did finish and sell our first one! At a great poetry/art event at local Artisun in Hot Springs.

Super grateful for all who have supported our art.

This video describes what we're doing:

Who remembers the epic painting project aka 90 paintings in 90 days? Well we are reviving it!!! Stay tuned......
Posted by Marshall Arts on Sunday, January 12, 2020

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!