last one for awhile...

.


Lineage 5
48" x 36"
oil on canvas, 2010


she's been waiting patiently for months while i moved off to work on other things. a few weeks ago, i looked at her hanging in the hallway, so close to being done, and felt like a total asshole. so i took her off her nail and put shadows in the aprons, deepened the black, and gave her a name. she is happy and soft and beautiful. she's the last one for awhile. the maid series is definitely one i'll come back to. i can feel it and it feels like such a right and true image for me to work with, but i think i put too much pressure on them and on myself. i want to back away from them for a bit and just let them be. love them on their own terms: without expectation.

possibly... maybe...

i'll stare at them a bit longer... a couple more days. and i might realize i'm getting ahead of myself but today, out in the cold and with the pain in my stomach, it feels complete.

somehow... a bit more somber than the others.

maybe it's the light. i'll have to snap a better picture once the sun comes back.



Lineage 5
46" x 39 3/4"
oil on canvas
angela simione, 2009

continuing...

i met my maids first thing this morning. the shadows and highlights in their aprons want to dance today- slow and specific... intimate, delicate, just a hint and a nudge, a feather on my wrist.

this is when painting feels the most natural, the most powerful- when you can see, with complete assurance, what the piece is asking for, the direction it wants to go...

this is when i am happiest. when all my heart smiles.

happy...

the day started the most wonderful way it possibly could-

i made coffee, lugged the canvas outside, and sat and stared at the thing for the first hour of my morning. i tried to find something to scrutinize but i just couldn't. and then that big, warm wave came. the one that whispers, "you're done. it's finished. now smile." haha! :)



Lineage (4)
44" x 38"
oil on canvas
angela simione, 2009

on a roll...

3 more little apron paintings in the bag, a ton of work on the next maid portraits (soon. very, very soon), and these:



this is one of the mono prints i made for the SJICA last month. i'd spent hours working on the very first one and, after pulling that print and a few ghosts, i painted back in to the original plate with sepia and black ink to get this piece.




and this is one of the ghost prints, touched up with a bit of black gouache. yum.

both pieces:
untitled
22" x 15"
mono print
angela simione, 2009


the top piece is available now at black fence.

after a long day of painting...

i'm finally feeling like it's appropriate to give the title "done". after much ado, struggle, and the annoying back and forth dance that is process, i give you Lineage 3-


Lineage 3
44" x 38"
oil on canvas
angela simione, 2009

done! finally!

Lineage 2 (Hush)
48" x 36"
oil on canvas
angela simione, 2009

heaven...

oh, oh, OH! yesterday was a total apple of a day- crisp and sweet and jui--uuu-cy! it's been about a year and a half since i've had access to a print shop and, even though i've been able to do some printing of my own here at home, there's nothing like turning the wheel of a big french printing press. OH! NOTHING! i have so missed the SMELL of a print shop- the inks in the air, the paper, the soft sweat. and the whole space was given over to us 4. we spread out and made messes and worked, worked, worked and the day flew by so so fast.



jose areanas hard at work.


we were at san francisco university. the art program there is only 6 years old! not just the printmaking program, the ENTIRE art program. wow! i didn't know universities could go without the arts! nevertheless, the space was warm and friendly and, to me, there was no place better in the world to be yesterday.



my set up


i spent the first couple of hours making a painting on an aluminum mono printing plate...



my plate


and then the next few hours making lovely ghost prints that looked like lithographs(which i'll photograph once they're dry and we get some sun). i painted back in to one of the prints and then pulled a print from THAT- paper on paper! experimentation! YUM!

but this is the print i gave the institute-






i wanted to give them something graphic and that had more technical flourish than the more ghostly, conceptual prints i pulled. it's actually the very first print i made yesterday. ha! sometimes you hit the nail squarely on your first swing, i guess. :)



"Lineage"
22" x 15"
mono print
angela simione 2009


(image courtesy of The San Jose Institute of Contemporary Art)


and i'd like to extend an extremely appreciative "THANK YOU" to Susan O'Malley who facilitated all this goodness. she swung through yesterday to check on us and make sure we had all the things we needed. she is such a warm and beautiful and happy person, i felt honored just to meet her. i had a wonderful time. there's no better way to spend a drizzly san francisco day. :)