First Video!

I mentioned this large sketch a few weeks ago. I have been a tad under the weather so it was temporarily paused. Feeling better, pause button is off.

I created this painting while my laptop took pictures every 7 seconds. You can view the VIDEO on youtube! Yay!!! http://www.youtube.com/user/katekorroch.

A few points on the painting:

*It is truly mixed media. I used oils sticks (creamy), oil pastel, chalk pastel, acrylic, string gel, and charcoal.
*It is done on roofing paper
*I referenced many collages I have posted on this blog.
*I created no sketches before doing the painting, I just jumped in and painted!
*I had a lot of fun!


This little girls if from You Name It II. Obviously many themes are repeated. One theme you can see here is the onlooking little girl. I also used the wall paper reference here and the jail stripes/wall paper idea on the right side of the painting. Sort of going from innocent to not so innocent.

I need to get some old wallpaper or start drawing and painting my own. My monotype printing class might be the place for that!

This elephant is from You Name It IV. Because I was drawing quickly this elephant kind of because a man. I did not mean for that to happen but I kind of like it. Anthropomorphism, I might get into some of that. We'll see.

The elephant got every different medium I used. This is a nice view of that.

This is from You Name It I. Another thing I would like to work on more is different bodies, more androgynous, pushing it more. Hopefully I can take a figure drawing class sometime soon. Granted, the models are not usually as Rubenesque as I would like. Or just real. I like real.

Let me know what you think of the video! More to come!
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Some news, I sent a very quickly conceived proposal to a gallery/store for a show that I would like to put together and the accepted it! Basically I love the space (Anne is showing there now) but I do not have enough to fill it. Fortunately I know many wonderful artists in Chicago, so i am putting a show together for a few people. This is still in the very early stages but its going to make April pretty busy!

I have lots of ideas. Need to write them down and get them going. More on all of that in another post.

Thanks!

Scrambled Egghead and other sketches

I have not made a ton of new art lately so in this post I would like to share some of my favorite images from my sketch/journal that I had going before I started painting again. I forced myself to draw my feelings and what I was thinking about as I was writing about them. Each page had to have a visual element. If I was in a long, scribbling rant I had to pause and draw what I was feeling. This journal lived my discovery that heartache and loneliness actually hurts, thesis stress is much more fun than bill/rent stress, and its really challenging to make money doing what makes you happy. Drawing from my mind is very difficult for me so this was a great exercise. This journal is a visual mark of my transition into adulthood--a transition that I am realizing never ends.

I am embracing it now. No more wallowing, I promise.

Scrambled Egghead

I came up with this image as I was trying desperately to describe to my dear friend Marty how I was feeling. The words that came out were scrambled egghead. The scrambled feeling was not as fluid as raw eggs so they were scrambled hard-boiled eggs. My mind going everywhere but in a stiff, not fun way.

Fingers Unfurling

The next image is from a poem I wrote a long time ago. Blue balloons have been an important visual symbol for me sense my childhood. Oh, how gracefully they float away from clenched fists.

Vita Cane

Lastly this image shows different stop on my L-train of life. The one I chose in this image is a scary maze! The other choices are what you actually see from the L (above) and cobble stone (bellow). The cobblestone represents my time in Italy, the most peaceful, healthy, and creative time in my life (so far). I plan to get more of that time be it in Italy, another new place or in my back yard. This sketch actually got a name, “Vita Cane” which is “Dog Street” (a reference to the main street in Williamsburg said in Italian).

Well, there you have a quick peak of my journaling mind.

Marty, who I mentioned above has a fantastic wine and food blog that he has started posting on more frequently. Click Marty.

Also, another close friend of mine, Casey, just started posting some of her images she has been working on! Click Casey.

Business Card

Sorry about the wonky format.

Just a fun peak at my business card! Very simple, I don't have a ton of information for them yet. I just thought you would enjoy seeing it.

I have already given one to a stranger. I met this guy on the bus that was an artist. He does graffiti art. He asked me about my art but I had to get off the bus so I just handed him a card. Wooot!

Mer-quins, Body Prints, and Burlap Babes, OH MY!

Big Sketch, 3 x 3 1/2 ft., acrylic, burlap and collage on mdf

Okay, this is not a finished piece by any means. Every few Saturdays (ideally) my friends Julie, Andrew and I get together to share our creative endeavors. Andrew is a friend I met while studying with UGA in Cortona, Italy and Julie is one of my closest friends from IU and coincidentally my RA from freshman year. Long story short, Andrew paints and creates fun new things out of old things (stationary, earrings, etc.), Julie writes. Click their names to see some of their creativity that has made it to the web! It has been a quite a privilege to see the wonderful things they are working on and get their feed back on my work.

Speaking of their feedback, back to my point. I shared this piece with them on one of our first days together. I knew the piece wasn't congealing at all but I really enjoyed each part I had done. Andrew suggested that my large piece of mdf is just a large sketch pad. Amazing. So, in my mind, this piece contains many potential paintings and ideas that I would like to share with you.

This is not being presented in order of layers which is burlap, body prints, collage/painting.

Mer-quin

The mermaid reference can be seen a bit better when viewing this section in the whole piece. I love the billowy bottom half of the figure. I had a wonderful time integrating the collage pieces which are from a screen print I did a little over one year ago. You can view that print, Edna, on my etsy page. The two pieces melded together in regards to subject and color scheme way before I knew it. Man, are we creatures of habit.

The screen print was one of the first times I started dealing with subject matter and figure instead of just figure. It is really the first piece where I started dealing with the female figure, mannequins and kitschy wall paper schemes. These three elements are overall what I have been dealing with the last few months .

As you look at the painting you can see that I used the test pieces from Edna for the wallpaper in the background.

May I also mention that two pieces of literature Kate Chopin's novel The Awakening, Edna is the main character in this book. I have also been influenced by Charlotte Perkins Gliman' short story The Yellow Wallpaper. Thank you high-school English.

Body Print

Over the last few months I have been experimenting with body prints on and off. It is risky because you have to completely rely on your own body strength and simultaneously hope the paint will work the right way quickly. Its really fun to do. This photo is altered so you can see the melon colored print. This print has been my favorite full body print I have done. The mermaid's bottom half was also a body print but I covered most of it with paint.

Burlap Babe

This part is a quick drawing I did with strips of burlap from old coffee bags I got in MI this summer. I really like the way it came out aesthetically. On another level this burlap made the body prints pretty uncomfortable. Which i think is good. There is intended irony here and the discomfort i experienced justified it and brought it to another level.

I'll stop beating the horse and let you think a little and make it something for yourself.

Burlap Babe's waist

Action and texture. Yes please.

Burlap Babe's hemline (or something like it)

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Let me know if you have any questions about these sketches. I am really enjoying them and questions make me think.

A small piece of news, I did do a video of an improve painting. I have not finished the painting due to a silly cold that i can't quite kick. As soon as that is gone I'll finish the painting and share with you the first of many videos of my painting process!

Whole Earth Woman

Whole Earth Woman, 24 x 24 in., acrylic on board

I did this painting one day when my painting class was canceled. Usually I try to work on a lot of collage and alternative uses of media during class. This particular day I had already been painting quite a bit so after some unsuccessful collage brain storming I leafed through my last resort collage mecca--The Whole Earth Catalogue.

This amazing antique store find is kind of like an old Sear's catalouge for hippies. It has weird remedies, odd how-to's, books about tribal education. Just think 50's quirk gone hippie crunch. This image is from a profile of a woman in my catalouge. I do not remember the context, I clipped it before I paid attention to its surroundings.

Detail 1

The style of painting is very similar to the portrait sketch series I did while living in Perugia. You can view a handful of those on my etsy site. These paintings are all quick sketches meant more as color and shape studies than creating a perfect resemblance of the subject. The others were done in oils instead of acrylic so it too a little bit of adjustment. I did end up going at a drying area (the lips) with my palette knife to rub out a mess before it dried. Acrylic just dries SO fast.

Detail 2

I like the drips. I like the translucent washes. I like the blue/purple. I like the woman and I think I can do more with her. I get hooked on subjects. My poor friend Bettylou has the most interestin face and she sat as my model for hours in Perugia. I talk about that more in a description of a portrait sketch of her on etsy.

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Some News:

*Chad and I made my business card!
*I have a potential space to hang but I need big paintings so I might be filling my TINY apartment with very large canvases.
*Chad found a program that takes still shots every (name increment of time). He suggested I have my computer film me making a painting and then post it on youtube. It took me a minute to digest the idea but now I am really excited. I'll post it once it happens.

Now that I am posting all that I have to stick to it!

THANK YOU to everyone who signed up for my blog. As of Monday I had 19 but now I have 20! I am so appreciative of all the support!!!!!

You Name It IV

You Name It IV, 16 x 7 1/2 in., acrylic and mixed media on board

This piece I created a few months ago. My plan was to keep adding into it but I kind of like where I stopped working. It was partially inspired by You Name It I, I was on a collage kick and this was part of the result. I am still on the collage kick. I started with just the the boy and girl pieces. Those collage pieces are from a stereo type embracing coloring book I found at an antique store. I tried to integrate the pieces enough so that the paper to board edges were not to in your face.

Detail 1

I used a lot of sting gel for the red layer of paint just to keep the translucent effect going. A nice way to integrate the collage stuff.

Detail 2

Detail 3

I added the to bring the two sides together. The elephants untie the boy and girl across the board. Visually. Subject matter?

Detail 4

The Brevarian boy's dog and the elephant's hind side.

Okay, so my intention in this was to mock the coloring book. Stick the two stereotypes together. I ended up visually unifying them with elephants in a compromising position. Red, in the middle of the elephant's chest in the middle of the painting right between the the boy and girl.

What do you think?

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THANK YOU to everyone who has signed up. I have almost reached my 20 person goal! Keep spreading the word! I think I need 7 more. Your interaction with this blog will keep me excited! Thank you, thank you, thank you!

You Name It III

You Name It III, acrylic and mixed media on board, 21x13 1/2 in.

This piece I started about two months ago. I loved the beginning but I went about it with no plan and now I am stumped. I have added a bit of color to the collage and ink markings I made the first day. If nothing strikes me soon I will just continue to add washes to the piece. Leaving it ambiguous will be great for everyone making the piece something unique to their own imagination.

The board, by the way, was found in Sam's Wine and Spirits by Marty from the back of a wine case. If you look closely you can see the map of the region etched into the wood. Thanks Marty!

Detail 1

All of the collage elements in this piece are form a book called Patrick's Dinosaurs by Carol Carrick. I am a tad guilty of not only being influenced by the images but also the story that goes along with them. That being said, Detail 1 shows the little boy, Patrick. I like the idea of him being dumped into whatever is going on in the painting.

Detail 2

This detail shows how I integrated the collage pieces into the board. I adhered them to the board and then continued the lines from some of the images onto the board with ink. I used varied lines for to make the hard edges less apparent.

Detail 3

Let me know what you thought of this piece. Tell me what your first instinct was regarding the subject matter. I love to hear what people see and your ideas might help me finish this piece!

Please sign up for my blog updates by clicking the link at the bottom of the page. My goal is to have 20 people signed up by next Monday. Help me do that! Thanks!

Fetal Breasts

Fetal Breasts, mixed media on canvas paper, 12x16inches

This piece is from my first day of my intuitive painting class. The assignment was to explore with materials and make a piece about a dream or about your day. I rarely have dreams so I had no choice but to visually describe my mildly traumatic day. My day consisted of me feel sick, then having to go to Planned Parenthood (where I had already had a unsettling experience BUT just a disclaimer, despite Fetal Breasts, I support Planned Parenthood and I think it is a wonderful organization. So, with Planned Parenthood issues on my mind (abortion, pregnancy, reproductive anatomy, rape, etc.) I went to get peanut butter at Jewel. Trader Joe's does not have my favorite peanut butter. At Jewel I watched a mother and child screaming at each other, then hitting, beating, running, more screaming--it was terrible. Then, I went home, ate some peanut butter and went to my first class.

Detail 1

So at first this was a fetal image sagging over a pile of ragged spikes. Piles. Like the mom and kid fighting on the floor. I realized that my interpretation of a fetus is kind of wrong anatomically so it kind of became breasts. I used pumice (like humus for painting) to add some shape and rugged texture to the fetus/breasts. The the cord, not sure which cord, kind of becomes a neck.

Detail 2

I mocked the black and gray fetal image with pink wall paper like stripes. Counteracting. Irony. Kitsch. The striped of wallpaper are also like jail bars. Again, who is trapped? Mom? Kid? Both trapped together? Trapped away from each other?

There is a lot to this piece. It was one of those days I could have spent the whole day journaling. I just dumped my journaling onto paper via shaped and color and texture instead of text.

Let me know if you have any questions.

Also, thanks again to everyone who has signed up. Please let me know if you have not been getting email updates. Thanks.