So the Girl Series: what's it all about? It's about women. Yep, I'm clever (c'mon I've told you that before). Ok, ok, what is it really about? There are many levels to it. When it comes to my fine-art endeavors (the so called 'paintings', which are really mixed media pieces), I have been preoccupied with a premise for quite some time now: 1) levels and 2) the revealing / stripping away of those levels. Levels: both in terms of technique and the meaning and 'psychology' of the work.
I'm not going to write about meanings, the point of an artists' statements, or theories on explanation in the grand scheme of the art world, but I will give you some thoughts on how these things relate to my art.
I could come straight out and tell you exactly what this piece (or any I've painted) means to me, and I probably would if you asked me to, but I won't post that here. Why? Because there's no fun in that for you. Non-art people sometimes get too bent on what the artist meant by the work. You don't need to know what my complete thought process was to enter into my work. My work is usually quite narrative and it's naturalistic (yes, it is quite stylized sometimes, but it's still naturalism.). [For the non-artists: that means the objects and people that make up my paintings generally look "real" and that one could put together a story rather easily from the work.] If my painting is successful, by my standards, I shouldn't need to explain all of my thoughts on the work. It should be there. With some consideration, you should be able to figure out my general intent for the piece, if not the specifics. While you might never arrive at every one of my thoughts on why I created a particular painting, you don't need to. At some point, looking at art should become about you and not the artist, about making your own decisions and assigning your own meanings.
If you said this painting was about _____, would you be right?
-Women, yes.
-Interaction with women / an attempt at interaction / a lack of an attempt at interaction, yes.
-A personal observation about the objectification of women, yes.
-Allure, desire, sex, feminine power, yes.
Is there more to it than all of that? Most definitely.
Posted at 8:29 PM on Friday, December 26, 2003
A brief update on the tiger tattoo: a flash of color was added to the eyes and tongue as a finishing touch.
I've decided that I'm going start back into to the Girl Series. What is the Girl Series you say? It's a series of five paintings that I began in 2000.(I call them paintings even though they are really mixed media.) Wait a minute...2000?! And they still aren't done?! Yes. What can I say? I hinted at the fact that I work on a lot of commissioned projects, so that combined with past lapses in productivity makes for a series that spans four years. That's almost a piece per year- maybe I shouldn't finish the series until 2005 just to keep things square! Ha. I think not (I hope not).
This is the fourth of the five in the series. (The fifth is only an outline of the concept scribbled on a piece of paper in my sketchbook.) More on painting number 4 in the next post- I'll let you speculate for awhile.
yup.
A brief update on the tiger tattoo: a flash of color was added to the eyes and tongue as a finishing touch.
I've decided that I'm going start back into to the Girl Series. What is the Girl Series you say? It's a series of five paintings that I began in 2000.(I call them paintings even though they are really mixed media.) Wait a minute...2000?! And they still aren't done?! Yes. What can I say? I hinted at the fact that I work on a lot of commissioned projects, so that combined with past lapses in productivity makes for a series that spans four years. That's almost a piece per year- maybe I shouldn't finish the series until 2005 just to keep things square! Ha. I think not (I hope not).
This is the fourth of the five in the series. (The fifth is only an outline of the concept scribbled on a piece of paper in my sketchbook.) More on painting number 4 in the next post- I'll let you speculate for awhile.
yup.
Posted at 9:42 PM on Thursday, December 18, 2003
After some quality time with colored pencils in hand, the tattoo drawing has been finished. As you can see it's green, white, red from left to right to match the Italian flag. Since there's quite a bit of white involved in this tattoo, using Photoshop, I very quickly threw in a 'generic skin tone' around the tattoo sketch for viewing clarity.
I left the thickness of the outlines as they were from the last entry, although I might consider making them a bit heavier, but that's a personal preference. The artist can change that very easily if the recipient chooses to go with a heavier outline weight. Here's a scan of the flames before the tiger was placed. Lastly, I'll mention that the edge around the tiger appears a bit 'rough cut' upon close inspection because it has been cut and glued over the drawing of the flames: two disparate images pieced together for the purpose of display here on the site. Of course the actual tattoo will be seamless because the outline will be created as one continuous drawing.
I'll add this into the Tattoo Gallery section soon and hopefully when the tattoo itself is done I'll get a pic to post there as well.
So that's about it for this week…where does the time go?
This project is: Private Commission – G. Cesario – Tattoo design
Time this session: 2.25 hrs. | Total time on this project: 9.25 hours.
After some quality time with colored pencils in hand, the tattoo drawing has been finished. As you can see it's green, white, red from left to right to match the Italian flag. Since there's quite a bit of white involved in this tattoo, using Photoshop, I very quickly threw in a 'generic skin tone' around the tattoo sketch for viewing clarity.
I left the thickness of the outlines as they were from the last entry, although I might consider making them a bit heavier, but that's a personal preference. The artist can change that very easily if the recipient chooses to go with a heavier outline weight. Here's a scan of the flames before the tiger was placed. Lastly, I'll mention that the edge around the tiger appears a bit 'rough cut' upon close inspection because it has been cut and glued over the drawing of the flames: two disparate images pieced together for the purpose of display here on the site. Of course the actual tattoo will be seamless because the outline will be created as one continuous drawing.
I'll add this into the Tattoo Gallery section soon and hopefully when the tattoo itself is done I'll get a pic to post there as well.
So that's about it for this week…where does the time go?
This project is: Private Commission – G. Cesario – Tattoo design
Time this session: 2.25 hrs. | Total time on this project: 9.25 hours.
Posted at 7:09 PM on Friday, December 12, 2003
Now we're back on track with the regular update schedule- the last update was a little off because of the Holiday. Anyway…the last post was the final entry on the Farewell Society CD design and it's already been sent to press. I'll mention it here when it's available for purchase.
As for the tattoo design, the flame outline has been adjusted and is done and the tiger has been placed. His size is set in relative proportion to the flames. Someone inquired as to the size of the tattoo. It's 9.5 inches high by 7.5 inches wide at largest points and I believe this is near the size that it will be tattooed. Of course the artist can always change the overall size by reducing it on a copier if the recipient decides to go with a scaled down version. So now all we have left is the fill within the flames.
I'm not sure what's next project-wise, while I love commissions, it's nice to be able to devote some time to studio projects. I may try and get some more of the galleries finished as well.
This project is: a TTH Studio Project – Girl Series: painting 4 of 5
Total time on this project: unknown
Now we're back on track with the regular update schedule- the last update was a little off because of the Holiday. Anyway…the last post was the final entry on the Farewell Society CD design and it's already been sent to press. I'll mention it here when it's available for purchase.
As for the tattoo design, the flame outline has been adjusted and is done and the tiger has been placed. His size is set in relative proportion to the flames. Someone inquired as to the size of the tattoo. It's 9.5 inches high by 7.5 inches wide at largest points and I believe this is near the size that it will be tattooed. Of course the artist can always change the overall size by reducing it on a copier if the recipient decides to go with a scaled down version. So now all we have left is the fill within the flames.
I'm not sure what's next project-wise, while I love commissions, it's nice to be able to devote some time to studio projects. I may try and get some more of the galleries finished as well.
This project is: a TTH Studio Project – Girl Series: painting 4 of 5
Total time on this project: unknown