Art Show - Part One

Well, I finally got my butt in gear and scanned in/took photos of some of my paintings. My art never sees the light of day. Unless you're a guest in our home, or you're one of a small handful of friends or family I have painted a picture for, you'll never see a Melodie Original. (Except that one art show at the White House Night Gallery, where I had a painting displayed... but that hardly counts.) So please consider this little virtual art show to be a very exclusive privilege. Ha.

But first, maybe I'll give you an introduction to my work. 

First of all, when I draw - which, I'll admit isn't as often as it used to be - I usually go for photo-realism. But when I paint, not so much. Someday I may post some of my drawings on here and prove that I actually can draw quite well. Otherwise, you'd never know it just by looking at the abstracty stylings of my paintings.

I always have a vague idea of what I'm going to paint when I start, but I generally like to let inspiration take hold and direct the paint brush for me. This "go with the flow" method is very against the grain to the way I was raised. My dad is a folk artist (although probably not as much in recent years), and so was his mother. I figure I inherited my love of painting from them. I've also inherited a lot of their old acrylic paints too, when my grandmother passed away and whenever my dad had doubles or was purging from his vast collection of colours.

If you're not familiar with folk art, just go to any craft sale and you'll get an eyeful. Think Country Kitchen type stuff. You know, like flowers and harvest vegetables painted on some form of woodwork (like stools, shelves, plaques, etc.) One of my favourite pieces my dad did was when he ditched his usual wooden canvas, and instead took an old pan, painted the inside all black and then painted a bunch of vegetables in the center. It looked pretty cool... but I guess you kinda had to see it.

Anyhow, there's absolutely nothing wrong with folk art, but the thing that always bothered me was that folk artists generally follow these specific patterns. Dad and grandma owned stacks upon stacks of pattern books. I actually remember my grandma trading pattern books with her next door neighbour, who was also the artsy-craftsy type.  I'm sure these days the internet renders pattern books almost obsolete, as you can just look up a pattern for anything you want, and print it off...

Now, while pattern are fine for some, they were just never my style. For instance, dad had given me some nesting dolls to paint, and instead of following a traditional pattern, I chose to follow the natural wood-grain with a rainbow of colours. I think the end result was a lot more interesting and unique...

So yes, this is more or less my style. Swirly, colourful, and quite often nature or spiritually themed... in a way. I'll let you decide for yourself.

Because my style is so loose and free, I can never understand when people insist that they can't paint.  You don't have to paint the Mona Lisa to be a painter... Just choose a colour, put your brush on the canvas and see what your soul has to say.

Mother and Child

oil paint, 2001

The warm colours were initially a mindless doodle in my sketch book, but when I looked at it, it reminded me of a mother connected to her child. At the time, my sister was pregnant with Josie, so I decided to paint it for her. I had no reason for painting it on four separate canvases, except that I wanted to. (Although I'd like to pretend that it was a conscious decision in order to represent that the bond between mother and child cannot be severed. That sound a lot better, doesn't it?)

I really liked this painting, and so I took a million pictures of it, because something told me that I'd never see it again. Sure enough, when Amy left Charlie just over a year later, he burned everything of hers, including the baby's crib. I know this painting was probably amongst the first items torched, since Charlie hated me and had also complained that I didn't include him in the painting. (I know, right?! What a loser.)

A year later, my mom asked me to paint a picture of Josie for them to give to Amy as a gift. I never took a picture of that one for future reference, but it was done in oils and was more realistic, except for the swirly purple background. The last time I saw it, mom was using it to prop up a different picture on a shelf... :P

Tree Spirit

oil paint, 2002

Not a great picture, since I left the flash on when I took this, but this is all I've got. I left this painting at my parent's house before moving out west, in hopes that they might mail it out to me someday. They never did. I'm sure it's stuffed in their basement somewhere... maybe behind the freezer.

Drawing Down The Moon

mixed media - oil and paper, 2002

First, I will explain that drawing down the moon is a ritual practiced by some earthy religions, like pagans and wiccans, n' what not. While it's not something I've ever personally done, I've always like the idea. In a nutshell, it's a form of meditation preformed beneath the light of the full moon, near water where the moon's reflection can be seen. The intent is that the Goddess, symbolized by the moon, comes down and speaks through the one invoking her, providing insights, etc.

That being said, this picture was supposed to illustrate a feminine figure swirling to earth from the light of the moon. I also included magazine pictures of planets and star charts, instead of my usual swirly backgrounds.

Now, the unfortunate story to this painting - which I'm very reluctant to share, but will anyway because it makes for an interesting side note, even though it simply tortures me - is that my ex gave it a different name, as did all his stupid little friends from work. (I won't beat up on my old roommates Matt n' Chad, because at least they tried to be a bit nicer about it.) So while it still pisses me off to no end, I can't deny the effing ironic accuracy that my intended symbol of Divine femininity, actually does look like a "moon penis". F*ck. 

Of course, when pressed to say what he thought it looked like, bless his soul, Jim opted for a much safer response of "melting bowling pin"... although once I told him the story, he too couldn't deny that it "Yeah, I guess it does look like a moon penis." :P

Jungle

acrylic, 2003

When I was in college, I was really into making collages. (I actually made quite a few during high school too.) So I was always scouring old magazines for pictures to clip up. During that time, I had briefly worked for a cleaning company that did banks, schools, court houses n' such. Anyhow, one day we were cleaning out a school library and the librarian asked if I wanted this huge box of National Geographic magazines. And because I apparently didn't have enough garbage cluttering up my life, I took the box home.

Anyhow, in one of those magazines there was a two page centerfold of a jungle scene. It was a drawing that included every type of plant and animal imaginable. The drawing was too nice to cut up, so I stuck it on the wall. 

Well, I carried that drawing (and that box of chopped up National Geo's) around for years. Finally, it started looking a little ratty, so I decided to paint a jungle scene of my own to always remember it by. Last year, I passed the painting on to Josie, who I thought might like it. Hopefully it won't have a similar fate as the two other paintings sent her way.

Okay... I have a lot of other paintings to share, but let's leave it here for now, and I'll post the rest later. I didn't realize I'd end up doing such lengthy explanations for all of them. (Although a lot of my more recent paintings have been gifts, so they don't really have big stories attached.)