Tuesday, October 29, 2013

The Dreaded Artist Statement

I hate the Artist Statement. I don't want to explain my art. It should speak for itself and the viewer should be able to have a personal conversation with my art that doesn't include any influence from me.

With that being said - I still wrote the dreadful thing. The statement after all is a powerful marketing tool. It should wet the whistle of the viewer making them want more.

Here are the guidelines I used to create my statement:

 Your 1st sentence should grab hold and make the reader want to continue. Start off with a bang! Be short and sweet, explain your painting style, subjects and themes. Use unique fascinating verbiage. Talk about what your art does for you not what it's supposed to do for them. Use "I" not "You", keep the tense active, using "is" and "are". What is the purpose of your art? Why you create what you do. Make a list of words that describe your art and use them in your statement.

Sound much easier than it is. It took me weeks to write this:

Judy Grupp Artist Statement

There is a box of 64 crayons in every one of my paintings. Those crayons are my first memory of making art, of going down the rabbit hole and giving life to my imagination. I've continued to maintain my studio in that rabbit hole, creating whimsical, colorful paintings that always tell a story, the yin and yang in every secret garden, and the wonder of whimsy.
 
I am a mixed media artist in the truest sense. My painting style is a blend of realism and abstract, with an illustrative quality. Acrylic paint, colored pencils, and collage ephemera are my favorite materials, but I am open to using anything from vintage door knobs to antique music paper and buttons.
 
My paintings are conceptual, coming from the ideas living in my head transformed into my art. Even though my paintings are planned and methodically created, it is still my imagination in the rabbit hole leading the way. My art is everything I wish I was in real life. I am the crayon box and my art is the magic that lives inside.

Friday, October 25, 2013

nakedTRUTH paintings

I decided these collage paintings needed some tweeking -
I was seeing FLOATING HEADS that required some anchoring. Star Man wasn't too bad, so I just added a few curly q's to hold his neck into the painting.
 

 Garden Lady however - she really is lost in that collage.
So I added some daisies at the bottom to pull her back into the painting. These are original ball point pen drawings, not copies,
and the green leaves are colored pencil.

The photography is deplorable and I apologize.
5:30 in the morning obviously
 is a bad time for me to take photos!!

Tuesday, October 22, 2013

nakedTRUTH Art Exhibit

DRAGONS 

 
These are the smallest paintings in my group,
but I think very striking.
 
Now for the hard part - bring all the paintings into the studio, and prepare them for hanging. Hammers and screwdrivers, I much prefer brushes and glue!!

Friday, October 18, 2013

nakedTRUTH Art Exhibit

Two more small collage paintings and I'm calling it quits.
Ball Point drawings of dragons - I love these - I insist they be in the show.
 

Tuesday, October 15, 2013

nakedTRUTH Art Exhibit

The Man Who Wished on a Star
 
Her Garden Was Her Life


Two more finished paintings for the exhibit. These are smaller, 10" x 10". I wanted these drawings to almost blend in with the other collage material. That way the viewer would have to get close to the collages to actually see the detail.
The element of surprise.

Now that I stand back and look at these collages, I think they're not done. They're not as good as they could be. Back to the studio . . .
 
 

Friday, October 11, 2013

naked TRUTH Art Exhibit

I need to create a few more paintings for this exhibit. Smaller ones. And still using my own drawings as the collage material to keep the paintings cohesive.
I've prepared a wooden box support, painted it black, and added collage papers - phone book pages, tissue paper, fabric and painted tissue paper.
 
These are the drawings I want to collage

 

Tuesday, October 8, 2013

nakedTRUTH

NUDE BEACH
 
Finally finished, the Nude Painting for the nakedTRUTH art exhibit. The name of our exhibit suggests paintings featuring nudity - so I feel I have satisfied that promise. We never said what was going to be naked. I thought the naked truth was enough, but this painting should seal the deal!

Friday, October 4, 2013

nakedTruth Art Exhibit

I've renamed my Naked Painting, I'm calling it -
NUDE BEACH
If you saw that title in the program, wouldn't you want to see it?

Everything is glued down. 
 
I've added a sand castle,
 
and colors to the umbrellas, 

 
and shadows from the sun. 

Tuesday, October 1, 2013

nakedTruth Art Exhibit

The Naked Painting

I've placed the Kewpie Dolls on the beach.
Sand  Surf  Umbrellas
Nakedness
I  need to decide on the composition. So I moved the
dolls and the umbrellas around and had my friends vote
on their favorite arrangement.
 


 
and the winner is . . .
 
now I glue everything down on the canvas . . .
 
. . . turn it upside down, and weight it down with anything at arm's length.
 

2022

   Merry Christmas