Seeing Art in Everyday Life: Instagram Color

Student artwork

Boston in the fog

Frogs in Lynn's pool

Boyfriend in the Summer

Gillian at the fair

Birthday cake

InstaPair

1. Found Typewriter 

2. Lost TVs

3. Marks Made 

4. Marks Found

5&6. Two interiors 

7. Limb with Fasion

8. Limb with Treats

9. Drawing from a Coffee Shop

10. Coffee Shop

11&12. Shopping Finds

Sandpaper Factory

I've been back in the Sandpaper Factory for a month now thanks to Scott Ketcham's artistically generous spirit.  This is the third Summer he has given me rein over the space while he is away at the Vermont Studio Center (I MUST go there someday).

I've been getting tons of work done and am absolutely thrilled about it.  I am also currently thrilled about the opening I will be having in the space on July 21st.  My girl Zheyu will have some work up as well; she has been busy making gigantic things in there lately. Check that link I made through her name in that last sentence, her work is amazing.

 Lots of portraits have been happing.  Originally I started making them as practice for a piece I am doing for a friend, but I've been getting into them a lot more than I imagined.  I'm having a lot of fun working the oil pastels in with the paint and searching for a rhythmic balance back and forth between them.  This portrait above kinda looks like there is a swollen mouth situation going on, but I think I'm over it.  I suspect that my precision in portraiture will increase with more practice.  While I do care a lot about the growth of that precision, I am equally as invested in the compositional quality of each piece.  I want to add another sentence here figuring out that equation and what it means for my paintings, but this is all very new work for me and I am still working on those answers.

Been getting outside a bit too:

And what I feel to be an obligatory "Serious Painter" portrait.

I truly hope that if you are reading this you will be able to come to the exhibition.

"Summer 2012"

July 21, 2012

7p-9p, party to follow

83 East Water Street.

4th Floor

Rockland, MA

Art in Life via Instagram

Seeing art in everyday life is shared and encouraged via the instagram app for iphone.  This is sort of a commercial for them and I'm sort of fine with that.  It is free app that makes quick and easy artmaking accessible for those with the tools (an iphone or ipad).  There are boundaries and freedoms within the mechanics, which is usually a good equation, and seems to be working out pretty well for them and us.

The user is forced to use a square frame, immediately requiring more of a mental focus of the them by taking the typical rectangular cropping device out of play.  Because of this, composition quickly becomes key before you even get into the color adjustments as one cannot thoughtlessly click (or tap) away.

There are 17 filters to choose from to send the photo through if you don't want to keep the original color balance.  There is a black and white filter along with variations that lean towards the respective primaries and also some that will give a vintage look to the shot.

Another app that has come out to help get creative with your photos is Ditpic, which unlike Instagram is not free but pretty cheap, I think it is 2 or 3 dollars.  Using Ditpic the user can photo collage away with templates that have been set up.  There is also the option of altering these templates by dragging the lines between the photos all over the place to change the shape of each piece of the puzzle.

It is so easy to get carried away documenting every second of life, and I'm pretty much doing that all the time.  These apps slow me down just enough to really think about what is happening, and what I want to happen, visually.  

What am I trying to emphasize?  Just above, the orange, and below the glass.  Within those focal points, I'm playing with the contrast between these things and what is hanging out in the rest of the frame.  I can make these decisions very quickly, choose the appropriate filter to bring out the warms, cools and contrasts I'm looking for and share away.

I truly believe that art is anywhere you want it to be and that anybody can make it if they want to.  This app helps us unselfconsciously share the various visual stimuli we get throughout our day to inspire ourselves and our friends.

By the way, I got my Dana Schutz If the Face Had Wheels book in the mail and it has pretty good forward, a great interview, photos of paintings that were not in the show I saw (which rocked) but the photo of painting Licking A Brick was not included!! wth?!  That is the ONE painting that I was anxious to get to it's page as I was flipping through.  Why is there no documentation of this piece online OR in this book??