doll collection #3

15" x 11"
ink on paper
2008

my favorite in the doll collection series thus far! this and more available at the shop!

winding down...

2008:

graduating from my dream school, CCA, with High Distinction no less!
marking my first year anniversary being represented by HANG
Monster Drawing Rally
A bunch of exhibitions
inclusion in The Counterfeit Crochet Project
moving... yet again :(
getting a poem published for the very first time
opening the shop
final visit to my "childhood" home
applications for grants and residencies
rejection letters
losing a member of my family
getting in contact with an old friend again
starting over
putting things to rest
began writing again
writing everyday
started jogging again
back to work at the frame shop
first white hair
first panic attack
fell in love all over again
learned things the hard way
got rid of half of my possessions
some more rejection
keeping up the blog
making tons of new work
made my first set of curtains
read ALOT!
lost my mind for awhile
found it a little while later
voted
celebrated
recovered

... and after all of that, i am increasingly hopeful. for as much bad as there has been this year, there's also been a substantial amount of good.

on new year's eve, i'll be hiding from all the madness in my little studio. i can't think of a better way to celebrate.

territories 10

stitching, stitching, stitching...

the metaphors are endless...


15" x 11"
embroidery on paper
angela simione
2008


detail

feeling froggy?

then jump on this! my buddy (and one of my most favorite artists ever) Marci Washington turned this painting in to a limited edition print of 25 - all signed, numbered and dated by the very talented Miss Washington herself.



pick it up at Little Paper Planes while you still can!
priced at only $60, these will go fast.

day off...

stayed up late last night drawing and crocheting, woke up late and when i opened my front door i found a package of home-made cookies from my mama! i love the postal system! i think the mail is one of the funnest, greatest things on earth. it's magical! :)

anyway, i'll finally have some new work to post here soon. i'm on an upswing- working hard and enjoying process. i finished a new territories piece last night (embroidery on paper) but didn't get it photographed today. i went on a hike with my dog instead and then spent a few hours at the bookstore. i got the new issue of Modern Painters and will curl up with it in bed soon, gotta keep up with theory and art stuff. and i was happy to see the art on the cover is a redacted document by Jenny Holzer - one of my all-time favorite artists and right up my alley!

i've put off christmas shopping yet again. it just seems silly this year and, lucky for me, my sweetie agrees. we've never really been big on forced expressions of anything. neither one of us enjoy the games that get played during the holidays. not to have too big of a bah-humbug moment but i really hate the feigned i-love-you's and all the lets-keep-in-touch stuff that comes along for the ride: sending cards to relatives you've not seen in years... what for? send cards and love to the people who you see on a routine basis and let them know how important they are. and with money being as tight as it is for everyone this holiday season, i am a huge supporter of a more DIY approach to gift-giving and get-togethers. i want to spend the day with the man i love, our dog, a few close friends, and drink hot chocolate. that's all i want for christmas. i want the day to feel good. i will definitely make sure i pick something up for my sweetheart just because i love him and there's a few things he's been wanting (mostly books) that for some reason he can't bring himself to go get and that i want him to have. other than that, family members and friends will be getting a piece of art in the mail. done. and what could be better than free art! i'd love to get some free art! in fact, if anyone wants to send me free art, please do! :) besides, in times like these when everyone's nervous about money and tense about the economy and unemployment, i think giving a handmade gift is definitely the way to go: from the heart and made with with love - that's christmas.

nerd quotient...

learned a new word today: technophile. as far as i can tell it's a "cool" way to refer to oneself as a computer geek but i could be wrong. i'm open to being wrong. i'm also willing to admit to being quite the nerd in my own right. i mean, i write book reports for myself for no other reason than i want to. it's strangely fun. nerdy? i also read the essays of susan sontag for fun. nerdy? just a little? i also routinely read the dictionary. again, for fun. i think that last one is the tid-bit of self-effacing information that will most likely shatter any semblance of "cool" i may have possessed. :) or having used the word tid-bit. i also just discovered how great the Sisters of Mercy are (20 years to late) and even want to buy a band t-shirt. extra nerdy but i can't help it. what makes a person happy is just what makes them happy and sometimes there's no place to hide from how un-cool you really are. whatever. i'm having a great time in life reading the dictionary and listening to 80's goth. what more could a girl ask for?

p.s. new work over at HANG. check it out fellow art nerds!

monday...

rainy day #2. arg! i hate it. i still managed a quick hike with the dog in spite of the weather but now i'm inside with the heater blazing, away from the cold, and trying to find the motivation to clean the kitchen rather than give in to my desire to curl up in front of the television and watch all the reality shows on vh1. a difficult desire to ignore! :) especially since my part-time job at the frame shop has morphed, slyly and without much discussion, in to a full-time commitment. i'm missing my drawing marathon days and midnight painting extravaganzas. no good for a girl that's got a whole bunch of big art dreams and a gallery to be responsible to. it isn't that i've never managed to work around a full-time schedule before and still be prolific, i have. that's been the story of my life for the passed ten years. it's just that's not what i was signing up for this time around. i guess i've got to make a decision about priorities and be clear about what comes first. and art will always come first. it is never sacrificed... it's the thing i make sacrifices for. maybe giving in to trash television is the best idea i've come up with after all? i've been a bit high-strung the passed few weeks and this year has been pretty frigging intense and full of big changes. a night in front of the tube might be exactly what's in order: a tiny vacation, mind-numbing and asking for nothing.

currently...

dressed in polka dot pajamas, listening to patti smith, and painting in between loads of long-neglected laundry. i am back to my beloved black and white and it feels perfect. the other paintings have been flipped around to face the wall so i stop thinking about them for a while.
i've been occupying most of my time with reading and writing though... winter habits, i suppose. not to mention the fact that i have been giving in to the temptation to look through my photo-albums and re-read old letters and diaries. it must be a side-effect of the season: nostalgia and the need for reflection. anyway, i hope i get over it soon. there's so much i'd rather be doing than taking trips down memory lane, waking up old ghosts, and giving in to lethargy. blah. snap out of it sister and get back to work.

so it goes...

the paintings i've been working on are getting harder and harder to resolve and i think the reason for it is that i'm just still so enamored with a paired down, black and white palette. using color honestly just feels a bit wrong right now... like i'm not being true to myself or pushing the work in a direction that it really doesn't want to go. so i think it's time to just take a deep breath, move these canvasses to the back of the studio, and work on something else for awhile. i've been painting long enough to know not to force the issue: if it's not working, it's just not working... and for however hokie it sounds, following one's heart is really the best path to take. the work needs to be sincere, it needs to be genuine... right now i'm just in a head-space where black and white feels right. i know better than to fight it. following where art leads me has always saved me. i've always learned some very valuable things... not just about art and practice, but about myself and the things that matter most in my life.

maybe it's the cold weather or being midway through the holiday season and watching this year wind down to a close, but i'm getting more and more introspective lately. i'm spending alot of time writing. i start and end my day with my notebook on my lap and all the BIG questions floating around in my head. definitely not the worst ritual in the world and i'm glad to be in a place where questioning, as an action, has a huge role in my day to day living. i'm reading tons of anne sexton (the poems and the letters) and art theory, i'm drawing and writing every day, and i'm so glad to be at a place in life where i can cater to those things. i'm so, so thankful that art, poetry, music, writing, reading, ethics and all that heady stuff occupies a seat of importance and that i have the time to nourish those things.

seems i'm still in my post graduation transitional period... trying to navigate my self through a new landscape and a changed identity: no longer a student in the traditional sense, but still trying to learn, question, and consider my role in regard to what i've learned. it's challenging but i never want to reach a day where i'm sick of being challenged. i'm glad to have the opportunity to prove myself. there's been a lot of rejection and disappointment this year... a lot of ups and downs... but i'm glad for the struggle. i pick myself up every time and i keep going, keep drawing and painting, keep trying.

at the end of the day, that is what matters most to me... the fortitude to keep trying. i hope as the year winds down, with all the worry over the economy and pressures to succeed, that we all hold on to our fortitude. i was in a conversation about the economy a few days ago with a customer at the frame shop who commented on how quiet business seemed to be. i said that even though this time is scary and unpleasant, the silver lining is that right now we all have the opportunity to really consider what matters most to us... it's a chance to really find out who we are and what we're made of. and that's a good thing... it's definitely got me thinking about my own needs, desires, and goals. i was happy to see someone spending money on art. personally,i'll gladly go without a lot of things if it means i can afford to keep contributing and supporting the art community. it made me so happy to see someone else (not an artist) doing the same thing. wherever you are, thank you!

up early, drinking coffee, and getting ready to go to work...

yesterday was pay day and as a small reward, i went to the grocery store after work and picked up all the stuff to make a big delicious bowl of guacamole. :) i forgot how wonderful it is to collect a regular paycheck versus the feast or famine budgeting of a working artist. i mean, of course it's really nice to not have a boss or a schedule and all that goes along with having a day job, but i actually really like having somewhere to be, something to do when i get there, and make money at the same time. plus, i get to be around other people which is the aspect of the day job that i most love. i've never been one of those despondent, brooding artist types who crave constant solitude. i love being out in the world and i genuinely LOVE people. hiding in my studio isn't something i've ever really done and, more often than not my studio is really just a storage unit for art. i'm usually drawing in the living room or in bed or with other people at their house.
anyway, it's about time to get my self out the door. have a great day everybody. work hard and be well and make beautiful, scary art while you're at it. :)

yay!

i had such a wonderful day yesterday! i spend the majority of the day hanging out with my buddy eddie at his art studio in oakland, just laughing and catching up on each other's lives since graduation and talking shop. eddie's a wonderful artist and super smart so i'm always all ears when we're together. in the evening we headed on over to the city to make the rounds for first thursday and by the time we worked our way up to HANG, was pleasantly surprised that my gallery had the most traffic of any of the other galleries we'd visited. YAY! i'm sure the cold weather was the culprit for the smaller art-going crowd this week but i was happy to see that it didn't effect the turn-out to the opening at HANG. it was great to be out and about, checking out tons of new work, and talking to new people. wonderful! and just what i needed to counter act the funk i normally find myself in during the winter months. damn seasonal depression. it's the big reason why i could never live in a place like seattle. over-cast days make me a seriously dreary girl. i am entirely thankful to live in sunny california.

dolls...

YAY! a partially sunny day! i've been needing to get photographs taken of new work. here's one of the most recent - a throw back to The Paper Doll Project. i've been seeing more and more how closely tied the project is to my "regular" art practice. so close in fact that there's beginning to be almost no distinction between the two bodies of work. both deal with issues of loneliness, isolation, being lost in the masses, and the attempt to find some sort of comfort. in the case of The Paper Doll Project, the comfort that comes from copying an ideal...


doll collection 2
30" x 22"
ink on paper
2008

drawings like this actually take a pretty long time to do. each doll is hand drawn. i did not use a stamp. it's important in this work to have tiny variations between the dolls so that it's more an exploration of the ATTEMPT to copy... and the failure of not being able to really do so.


detail

i'm interested in how the attempt to copy (and the failure to to get it perfect) guides identity construction. we all have role models to look up to, heros, and ideals that we strive to meet. when the model is based exclusively on gender, what is lost in the process of trying to copy or conform? a standardization takes place and complying with that standardization is a loss in and of itself. that loss becomes a significant part/influence of a person's identity and their view of the world.

WORN OUT!

man... between the holiday and going back to work in the custom framing industry i am one super tired girl. i am yawning right this very second. but it's good having a schedule to keep to, preventing me from indulging in my tendency toward night-owlism, and hey, the extra cash is pretty nice too. :)
i hope everybody had a great Thanksgiving and is getting a lot more sleep than i am. i should acclimate to my new schedule by the end of the week and not feel as worn out as i have these passed two, and be back on board with frenzied painting and my beloved black ink drawings.
i am endlessly thankful for coffee and sugar.