New Work, Vol II: Lamp and Rug Designs

Happy Monday dear readers!  Hope you had a great weekend.  I had a ton of fun taking my teenage nephew and his friends to a haunted house.  So not my scene, but had a ton of fun being a chaperon. Teens are so funny and smart, and I learn so much from them.  One thing I learned - even though I love instagram, I really don't need an iphone.  Another is that I dearly love gangster rap. Actually, my night with the kids was merely a reminder, I've loved it since back in the day of Sugar Hill Gang, Ice T, Big Daddy Kane, Public Enemy.  Give it a chance, it's poetry.  And, in case you didn't know it, Dr. Dre is a genius.,

Sorry, I digress.  I wore my new spike hat (bought in the hood for a song).  The kids were calling me Auntie Minaj, which thrilled me.  Cuz as you know, Nickie Minaj is the shizzz.

My nephew and I both had black hats and matching boo boos.  Ha!  He's totally awesome!  I thank God every day for my family.  And speaking of blessings, as you know the muses have been talking to me a lot lately.  So much so that I can't keep up!  Here's some more of my new work.

Help!  My name is Peggy and I am a lamp addict.  I can't stop designing lamps.  Here is a lamp prototype made of poster board and electric tape.  I am currently seeking manufacturers for some of my lamp prototypes.  I'm planning to make this into a hanging lamp.  I know it's not perfect.  But, hey, I get a lot more done when I let go of perfectionism.


I've also been designing rugs.  I'm thinking of experimenting with buying a big piece of burlap and painting it. I haven't been much of a rug fan, but I am falling in love.  I miss the wood floors of my previous places and I love a rug to define an area.  Just have to do it on the cheap.

Here's another rug design I've been working on.  I am really into geometric shapes - and hot pink (as you know)!  This design is part of my quest to prove that pink can be a thoroughly modern and edgy color, and is not strictly girly.

Here's the second version of this design.  With some cut out paper, and painted squares.  I used some of my fabulous nail polish to paint a couple of shapes.  Nail polish is coming in such fab colors these days!  In fact, I am sure the Fall of 2013 will be known in history for having the most beautiful colors ever!  We will be talking a lot about color in the next few days.

Here is the third version of the rug design.  I just couldn't stop tweaking it.  Here I tried to make it look like an actual rug, with actual stitching and a border.  I used neon and invert features in Picasa.  Thinking of submitting this design to CB2.  Not sure how that actually works, but I'll try to figure it out.  It's funny how much I do, yet I have no idea what I'm doing!  :)

Hope you have a great day!  And, as always, thanks for reading!  xo

What I've been working on

I have an exciting announcement.  I will be taking part in a pop up gallery tonight! My good friend Haley selected the works that will be shown.  They will be showing four of my paintings and four of my photos, based on a theme.  Stay tuned for more details.  In the meantime, I'd like to show you what I've been working on.  Even though I've faced several limitations recently (allergies and no studio space), I must create.  In my never ending quest to find a clean medium, I've been doing more digital work lately.  Here are a few of my paintings which I have enhanced with digital processes.

This is actually a digital enhancement of my blotter pad.  I'm always fascinated by the random patterns on my blotter.

I am having these printed on large canvases.  I've always been fascinated by multi-media, multi-processing and meta-communication.  Remember my post about photographing toys?  A 2D image is rendered 3D by the miracle of plastic, then photographing it renders it back to 2D (see previous post here).  It's the same sort of thing here.  A canvas is processed digitally and then reprinted again.  Meta art.  I plan to push the boundaries of this art form.  I like to experiment digitally to help me decide what art to hang over my sofa.  I am also having some of my photos printed on large canvases.

This is one of my photos.  I'd love to have it enlarged.  I don't even mind if it loses resolution, in fact I think that would be kind of cool.  I'm into imperfection and low tech.

Hmm.  I always like the more minimal, simple paintings in my decor.  They may be simple, but are not easy to execute.  Here is one of my paintings from Sans Electric Chair series (see previous post here).  It has been sold, but this photo makes me want to do another version of it.

from drab to fab

Dear readers, as you know, I am addicted to pottery.  I love simple forms and I love experimenting with placing it like sculpture in my home.  Below I wrote about my love of painting and upcycling vases.  I'm obsessed.  I go to the Goodwill and I want to buy all the ugly, orphaned and unloved vessels.  I have a limitation though.  I'm not very good at spray painting, although I love it (see previous post here).  And I don't have a studio space right now so have no where I can make a mess.  So I am limited to vases that are porous in texture because they can be brush painted.  This is the story of how one orphaned vase became two new fresh pieces of art.

I found this vase for $.99!  Perfect shape, perfect texture.  Horrible color, horrible press on flowers.  This little vase is in need of a face lift.  I sandpapered the flowers.  Then lovingly applied neon pink paint.

Here is the after.  Much better!  The vase is fresh and new.  I love it.  I also created a digital art piece from the photographed flowers.

Here is the little vase taking a place of prominence in my apartment, along with other vases I painted.  I love it.  I'm hooked.  Now I am on the hunt for other vases I can paint.

Here's a little experiment with the digital art over my sofa.  Hmm.  Maybe I'll have it printed on a canvas.

Day 3 of Painting Project - Letting Go of Perfection

Yesterday for my painting project I wanted to paint squares.  With rounded edges (like the Smeg fridge).  I wanted to do something that looked kind of mid-century, but updated.  Only thing is I felt a little tired so didn't feel like the precision that I prefer in a painting.  I even thought about skipping painting.  Instead, I decided to just go with imperfection and have fun.  Painting should be fun, right?  So here's my painting for Day 3 of my 30 day project.

Untitled, 2011, 24" x 24", acrylic on canvas.  Just an exercise in freeing creativity.  Still finding it difficult to paint on the floor.  Once I buy an easel, I am sure my painting will improve.  Here's the same painting digitally enhanced.  I am enjoying manipulating my paintings digitally.

Posterize

Have you ever used Picnik? It's fun! I'm hooked on the posterize effect. This is a posterize of my previous bedroom. Of course I love all the pink.

What I've been working on, Vol. III

I love experimenting with double exposure.

The original images for this work are my first Sans Electric Chair series, and the back of Toofly's Dunny for the Fatale Series.

The original images are not my own. One is from Hashai and one is from Happy Mundane. For some reason, that groovy lamp and neon duct tape fit together in my mind. That's how creativity works, it doesn't always make sense and it can't always be explained.

What I've been working on, Vol. I

I have an interesting opportunity to be part of an art show in Chicago. I will be making a formal announcement soon. For now I'd like to show some of the work I've been doing and my thought processes leading up to the show. Do you remember my post about Andy Warhol's Electric Chair series? (see previous post here). I've been having a lot of fun reconsidering those works and have done several digital mock-ups of a new series based on this work.

In considering the work, I thought about politics. Artists continually grapple with how political to be in their work. When you are political you run the risk of rejection and cruel silencing techniques. Some people just want to see pretty pictures. I can't argue that I am a lover of beauty and I find nothing wrong with beauty for beauty's sake. And while I may find a challenging piece interesting, in my home I like beauty. Beauty is always a factor in my art. That said, I maintain that artists have a certain responsibility to be political because of their acute sensitivity and perception. Indeed, all art is political. In my opinion, art is a balance between beauty and politics.

With the new series, I examined how far I wanted to go with my politics. I personally do not believe in the death penalty, and considered my reasons. The obvious - killing is wrong. Two wrongs don't make a right. Cliche, I know, but that doesn't mean it's not true. I have found arguments claiming the death penalty as a deterrent utterly unconvincing. But my main objection - what if an innocent man is put to death? I would rather see 100 guilty men go free than see one innocent man executed. My thoughts then turned to innocence. And what's more innocent than a child? I began to experiment with double exposures, using an image of my nephew and my first series of Sans Electric Chair paintings. Here is what I came up with:

Sans Electric Chair, II, 2010, digital renderings. I am pleased with these works even though they won't be part of the art show I am participating in. I like that he sort of looks like a butterfly emerging. My sister-in-law loves these so much she is going to have them printed on canvas and is commissioning me to do a series featuring my other nephew. I'll be sure to show you photos of them hanging in their home. For more of my fascination with Warhol, click here.

All images by Peggy.