Moving from Salt Lake

It is time and I am shedding paintings from the past. Trying to find homes for those paintings who need visual love and confection (that's right confection not affection).
Had a yard sale this past weekend and sold a few for cheap, they just need homes instead of lazing in the corners of my studio wondering when they will venture beyond the land of lost (toys)...art.
Here is the deal. I saw an interest from a visual crowd I didn't intend to attract. I have a slew of wooden supports I was keeping to paint over: I had chopped old paintings down. now they appear as abstract works of art.

Fracture creation. Unintentional attraction. Art's imperfection perfected.

Preliminary Photographs: The Dawn

I was told by a good friend of mine that I needed to document the stages of my work. He said he was impressed by the phases my work went through in order to be considered (I add... "some what") done. So to further my mission to focus on the life of a painting, or just art in general, I think his input is quite important to getting my point across. With that said.....

My loving husband gave me a canvas for my birthday almost 2 years ago; bought it and walked it home because it was too big for the car (Bless his heart). It actually reminds me of walking canvas' across Fort Collins, Co to campus for class or a show. Awwwww.....the memories. I was seriously considering selling the beautiful blank support when it began to call to me. I know that sounds like a bunch of mumbo-jumbo-artist-cr** but it is very true. Shortly after thinking deeply as to what the image was that was configuring itself in my head I decided I needed to get to a florist for some dead flowers.

Now those who have followed my work over the years know that this isn't anything short of what I have been doing for a matter of time now. It just never dawned on me that I could walk into a florist and ask for their dead flowers. This is because I always enjoyed watching the bouquet next to my bed curl as the green life was sucked out, moisture lost, the 'Vanitas' being apparent. I know that might sound a bit morbid but thus is life....nothing lasts forever (except: I believe that love does indeed last forever if it is true....I would like to add that in here). In short, I headed to Whole Foods down the street to get my loot, knowing that they have one of the best selections of flowers beyond daisies, or whatever, and roses this time of year. I think I walked out with about a hundred dollars worth of Tulips and Lilies that day, brought them home, and let them continue their journey.

That evening I sat down with my son's crayons, which I like far better than my own Crayolas because they have a better mark and consistency to stroke, and drew what I saw in my vase. Plus, Has anyone let lilies become over ripe in their home? The smell is sooooooo intoxicating, and for me not in a good way, so I was hot to get those buggers in the compost. It has always reminded me of an elderly woman's perfume that she has owned for centuries and saves for special occasions, yellowing the glass inside the bottle and clogging the spritzer with it's oils. That, and a baby's bottom back when Johnson and Johnson baby oil was popular. Oh, and women's deodorant but after you have sweat too much and are on the verge of smelling like a dirty litter box. Here is something about me: hitting puberty I always hated that smell when I got home from school and have worn men's deodorant since....it works better...and I feel perhaps, when it comes down to women's deodorant, they need to come up with a different formula. Anyhow, the blooms had to go and quick.

Here is what that evening produced. Stage one of a process. The dawn of this piece's life.

This is to show how light the actual marks are...

This has been put into black and white, and contrasted to bring out the image.

Bottom of Canvas.

Top of Canvas

Detail 1

Detail 2

Detail 3

Detail 4

Length, detail 5

Enjoy!

"After French Toast"

*Clamp*
Gesso, Crayon, Permanent marker, Absorbent ground, Acrylic, Permanent marker, Acrylic, Acrylic, Permanent marker, Gloss Medium, etc...so-on-and-so-forth...
RAZOR BLADE

"After French Toast I-IX"  Jessica Kamp 24"x30" 2011 Acrylic

A photo shoot from 2008, I have made countless drawing and preliminary paintings and attempts to paint this model; finally materialized. Lesbanna I think you will be most pleased, you are on canvas.
I think it took me so long to paint her because of the beautiful nature of our friendship...it is true that a photograph and even a painting cannot achieve how one perceives another: as humans we 'see' so much more. For she is one of those very instances where so many art forms do not do her justices.
I am sure there are questions, like:
Why is there a dead moth in the foreground? ...because it was there, now what does that mean to you? Let me ask if one always sees the forest of the trees....
Why is it titled 'After French Toast'?... Before the photo shoot she made me Texas french toast with berries on top. I am so very special.
Why is the piece split in 9 pieces?...A nonatych is a nine paneled piece of work. It became apparent to me that large scale work, the way I used to paint, is currently difficult for average Jane/Joe to obtain. This saddens me as I feel art should have no connection to how many coins your pocket has. I am sick of the incredibly affluent being the only ones who hide art away in their storage areas or crowd it on their walls. And in addition a large piece is difficult for some to house...I don't care to paint smaller but it seems it has to be done. Furthermore, who is to say a whole piece is amazing, that every corner is perfect....some famous paintings are 1/3 a solid color...still that one spot could be the space [in time] the viewer falls in love with, the reason they want the piece for their own. OK so with that said, panels I-IX are sold either together or separate. Sure, someone may purchase the bottom-middle panel of this piece and BOOM the piece takes a different shape.

"After French Toast (Panels I-IX)"

 

 

 

Why are your under drawings still showing? ...I heard someone once tell another artist to 'admit to her materials' in lue to allowing her pencil marks to show... I agree, show how you arrived there. This filters into my theory of art having a life. Here, another comment on this piece being a nonatych (**I agree: say it ten times fast and it sounds like you are saying nonsense**), think of the separate pieces as being traveling pieces. How about that for a life of a painting, eh?

Why is there shininess in some areas and not others?...Frankly, I believe acrylic to be a dull, flat paint on its own. I can't have my highlights boring people. Illuminosity isn't just a fake word.
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Note on the current way my work is going: for years I have been painting with the thought that a piece changes over time, that there is no way to make something completely archival; perhaps, except in ones mind. There are preliminary images, lines, marks, etc. that will show or bleed into my paintings over time depending on the environment that they are exposed to and the care they are given. This I understand turns some people off to my work however if one were to understand that somethings in life can not truly be forever than the thought of co-existing with change is less painful or less likely to be eluded.


As a request from others I will be posting progression stages of my work...keep posted for that when it comes along.

Adventures in Acrylic-land

As my son is unloading the acrylic mediums into neat stacks on the floor, I browse the unfamiliar world of polymer paint additives at my local art store. Mind-boggling names, in-discriptive labels, all in neat white tubs lined perfectly on the shelf. I think:
"is this what it has come too....?"

My narrow use of additives late in my oil painting years, included candle wax (Yeah, I was going for the stuff the flakes and cracks off the canvas to re-view what hides shallowly beneath the surface) and coffee grounds [with a 8:1 ratio in scolding water]. There was not much else I wanted to affix to my process.....but that is where all of this start.

Candle Wax and base of Preminition i

And this is where I left off when I was with [my first] child. I struggled for 8 months trying to find alternative ways to paint with my oils, not breath the fumes, protect my skin. I changed my palette to include those colors least noxious, hated my new palette, failed to embrace the colors vomiting on my canvas.....and then:
I decided to try and search ways to make paints that wouldn't have the potential of strangling me in my sleep.

I went to spice shops, herbal apothecaries, natural food stores, art supply stores with personnel inept to help me find the tools I was looking for [a glass muller]...the drug store. I gathered my loot and started mixing spices with rubbing alcohol in small dropper bottles. And then I had my son.

Turmeric, Annatto, Indigo, and Black Onyx Cocoa Dyes in Breastfeeding i

My feet were found somewhere below me at the art store where I purchased a few goody mediums to start off with. It is time. I am ready to paint. I am ready to portray the quality of feeling that was once seen in my work. Because no matter how hard I tried to rebel against my professors I graduated a progeny of their teaching...no matter how momentary.

I am starting to feel like the time I spent in a University was purely a stage likened to that in the womb; And now birthed into the world it is time for my wings to unfurl.

Salt Lake City

I have relocated to the Salt Lake City, UT (SLC). Fair well, Colorado I love you dearly. And within the move I have realized it is time to shed some of my work. I am searching (slowly) for a gallery I think will receive the viewers I aim. I have a handful of work big and small needing a home and I don't much mind what it goes for.

The search has begun......

Let me know if anyone is interested.

Wedding dresses & Flamework

I don't believe in limits for art: what art can be, what it is, what is and isn't art... so here you may not be surprised that I sew on a regular basis and recently finished a hand painted wedding dress of dupioni silk.
Made from inspiration driven by the Wadada Movement, by African and Rasta roots, the modern bride, and use beyond a wedding setting, I created a piece for now Christine Harrell of Longmont, CO. Made from Dupioni silk and satin, embellished with hand-painted Ethiopian-inspired green/gold/red design down the seams of the dress, embroidered lines and ankh on the top, and embroidered lines on the golden veil.  In addition, I created a similar one piece dress for her daughter, Sekara. Same material, same Ethiopian design, yet a bit different and created for a young lady. Enjoy.

Christine Harrell's Wedding Dress and Daughter Sekara's Ceremony Dress J. Stoker 2011
Dupioni silk, satin, acrylic paint

Yesterday, my amazing husband set up a very early birthday present. For years I have wanted to learn how to work with glass. I received a taste of this experience. Thanks to Glasscraft in Golden, CO.
I learned a quick 4 hour introduction to hard glass and already my mind is swimming with the things I feel I can make with just the few techniques I learned.

I have to say, working with a new medium is liberating and I hope I can learn to do more. My thoughts have been filled with building a studio in my backyard to do flamework.

2 boro white leaves, 1 color leaf, 1 color and boro white tear drop pendent

Painting hasn't gone to the wayside by any means, I am taking his time to put aside the things I have learned in my undergrad and create my own thoughts, break my own rules and views as to how things must go.

Where my shadow laid...

...Before, I realize is far from where my shadow traces the ground now. The number of things that have changed have lost the fuel to describe themselves. My current locale seems unknown, but I know where it came from...

Compositionally I am concerned with the emotions of line, specifically diagonals. Diagonals: the emotions, relations, dynamism, stability and instability of line and therefore composition. This is important to the stationary aspects of a still figure in that it helps move the eye and keep the painting alive.

I work with figures, and more specifically women, because I can relate as a woman. I am concerned with how women portray themselves. Often there is talk within the art world, and more so since the rise in feminism which has sparked the revision of (art) history, about the "male-gaze"... How women are portrayed is part of the "male-gaze." Well, maybe these women want to portray themselves in this way. Because they think they are beautiful. That's my point.

Flipping perspective. Further dynamism is given through perspective. My figures are foreshortened, the perspective is exaggerated. One will notice that there is usually an object large in the foreground, this object would be better perceived in detail but to flip perspective I make the color shapes pixilated. The objects in the furthest back are usually more detailed. Variations of this process are used to flip perspective. Just like the flip in perspective of the male-gaze.

My paint inspires me. I paint the figure because mankind has lost its connection to the rest of life and the human form is all we can relate and communicate to/ with. When I get a figure interesting enough, the inspiration takes wind; but the paint, and what it can do, and what I do with it, is the inspiration.

I use personal, historical, and theoretical references in thought to keep my paintings alive. I use many of my sources from the woman-life that I have lived. The life I have lived growing up with a quad-generation of women in my family. From these women I learned the tools to apply to my life. Independence. "Don't have anything done for you that you can't do yourself." Strength in the end. I apply these tools, putting my whole life into my painting, my paint, my relationship. The piece lives through me. To me Art is living.

I find perfection in imperfection and prefer to work out of the box. One will find most of my work is framed by this imperfection in that the actual frame has paint on it, therefore becoming part of the process, becoming part of the painting, it is the painting. It is my relationship. Perfection in imperfection. What the viewer finds imperfect reflects her or his misunderstanding of the ‘ability to be perfect,’ forcing imperfection to oust out the existence of perfection, permeating into more imperfection until there is a balance, resulting in a ‘perfect balance’ with what the viewer sees....