introduction to personality theory hehe

She covers three slides, I move on...

looks like me from behind (before i cut my hairs)

girl with a bob in a sweatshirt

dude

zipper

as big as your seat

looks like a fat john lennon

On my mind...

I started this on a 16x20 panel (I think) a couple summers ago (self-portrait as a snake. it doesn't quite look like me, and i only had prussian blue, hansa yellow, titanium white, and alizarin crimson). I think it should be the next painting that I start, or perhaps one that I complete over the summer. I have a 28x40 canvas free that I could do it on.

ANNE STAHL interview. new painting.

For ARTP 499 we had to interview an artist in order to prepare for a presentation about that selected artist. I chose the artist Anne Stahl. I'm posting here the interview with her because I think her work is awesome, because it was cool that she did this for me, and also because she had some interesting things to say.

RE: Was your education helpful to your career? If so, in what way(s) has it been helpful?

[Anne Stahl] Yes, very much so. The college I attended was focused on teaching us useful things like: knowledge of materials, technique, philosophy, discipline, critical thinking, other art exposure, art history, etc... The ART would have to come from us and it does.

RE: What has been easy about getting where you are as an artist; what has been challenging?

[Anne Stahl] I have been blessed with an endless supply of ideas and visions. It is hard to make a living and survive poverty, lack of support and culture.

RE: In terms of your career as an artist, if you had to do anything differently, what do you wish you had done?

[Anne Stahl] Not so much done, but I know my work would be much more known and exhibited and bought, if I were more outgoing of a person. But I'm a bit of a hermit and don't like to talk and network at all.

RE: What is the process you take in finding galleries and other places to exhibit your work at? That is, do you research on your own, rely on others, or is it some combination of the two?

[Anne Stahl] Unfortunately I have been ripped off by the majority of the galleries I have dealt with thus far, and so no longer pursue gallery shows. I do enjoy working with agents/dealers who are - in my experience - more professional, courteous and do not hold any of my work. Contracts seem to give artists nothing but responsibilities, because at the end of the day if the other party is not fulfilling the contract, do you have the money to sue them? No. So, THEY can get away with breaching the contract while the artist generally can not.

RE: In your statement you mention working with conservation groups and biologists to learn more about the subjects for your work—could you elaborate a little on this for me? Do you contact them with questions, attend lectures, read articles on/offline, and/or etc.?

[Anne Stahl] Yes, I like to get non-art related opinions and information. This has been very helpful in the past as scientists are often creative people but not visual. Hearing their ideas and thoughts can provide me with triggers of visions that I would not otherwise have had. I believe that science and art are very closely related and find fact are at the source of much of my work.

an assortment

I want this kind of life...
"Fortunately, I am a member of an academic community where I enjoy (not suffer) the privileges (not rights) of rank and tenure. While I never think I have enough time for my own work, in fact I am able to go about painting on a fairly regular and intense basis. I am paid well enough to stay a bit ahead of my debtors, to travel, and to give modest support to causes or projects which seem important.
Moreover, as an artist in an academic community, I have the opportunity to rub ideas daily against the ideas of colleagues and students. Despite the burdens of administrivia and the irritations of committee work, I teach courses in subjects I value. At least a certain amount of my time can be given honorably to the preparation of material for those classes, for thinking about interesting problems, for looking at paintings or sculpture that i find compelling. in short, I am able to earn my living doing something I like very much to do. Be it bias or faith, I believe my lot in life a good one, a pattern that might be equally engaging and stimulating for other artists."

In the University by Lee Hall

Art and sexual politics; women's liberation, women artists, and art history.

Tonight I'm starting a new painting. I've made new compositions that are closer to what I was doing before when I was working on the round paintings. I'm trying to make them so that they make more sense as "landscapes". By doing this I hope that they will give the viewer more of a sense of how (I think) microtexture images can look like the landscapes in which they [the rocks] might make (at any given perspective, close or far). I hope this goes well. I think it will. I feel like I'm lacking some direction with all of this this, however, it seems like my feet are appearing closer to the ground now. This is all just trial and error.

Over spring break I finished an acrylic drypoint of a Jade plant dad's growing in my room. This accomplishment made me feel wonderful, and strengthens this longstanding idea that I work best if I'm working directly from life and not from a freaking photograph. I think I'm going to do more drypoints of plants, but on zinc... maybe. I do like the ability to have a fractured matrix, and using acrylic makes that easy. Anyway, more plants. FUN. I'm going to hit up the greenhouse on campus. This week I'm attending a screen printing demo--we'll see where this goes, if anywhere (could be exciting).