This is the End, This is the Beginning...

I have moved my blog to JPMorrisonLans.com Please continue to follow me and my work there. and thank you all for your attention and support. Happy New Year!

Showing in Florida, and NYC!

So this November my piece "The Sibyl Admiring Her Saturday Reflection" was accepted into a show at the Sarasota Design Center, in Florida called The TaTa Gala, which is an exhibit that supports breast cancer research. I drove down to Florida for the event, which was a great drive. Yes, 11 hours of driving for two days, but somehow lovely. I loved watching the trees change from state to state and watching the local color go by. The event was great and I met and showed with some wonderful artists, including Erik Jones, Kip Omolade, Lauren Rusignola, Clint Weldon, Matt Buck, and several others. Then of course there was the beach, I love it so! Here are some pictures from the show:

The other big news in relation to this show is that they're having a second showing in NYC at The Sacred Gallery which I have been chosen to participate in called "The Best Of The Breast" which showcases the 15 best pieces from Sarasota exhibition as well as a few other artists, one being Shepard Fairey (!). I'll be heading to the big apple for the opening Feb. 5th, and you'll be hearing more from me about that experience as well as lots of other big news, soon.

Prints for Sale, Limited Time!

I have high quality 12" x 18" digital reproductions of these original pieces for sale at $40. a pop (plus $5.00 shipping). Email me if you are interested and get them while they last! Thanks!

josephinepearl@gmail.com

"Sphinx"

"Dream"

"preparing to protect you from yourself"

"Water"

"Fire"

Charcoal Erase Studies

these are for something new and special that I will talk about later. I have been getting into laying out vine charcoal on vellum, and then erasing out what I want... it's an extremely satisfying process, totally idiot proof, everything can be drawn back in like nothing happened, they're fast and they require rendering in very high contrast, something my colored pencil pieces aren't great at. I hope you enjoy them as much as I am.

JRB Small Works

"Catharsis" 8' x 8" colored pencil and paper collage on board.

This is "Catharsis" my piece for the annual JRB Small Works Show opening Nov. 5th 2010 in Oklahoma City. It will be hung on a grid with around a hundred other artists creations on 8" x 8" canvas. There is an etymological link to the word Catharsis that is "to shine light in dark places".

I have always been fascinated by the ideas behind the word catharsis. The first time I heard the word it was because it was the title of an art show I attended. I didn't much care for the work, the artist was obviously working through I great deal of pain anger and resentment, something at fifteen I didn't really relate to. The canvases were torn and stitched back together with surgical stitching thread, they were abstract but were very obviously wounds inflicted on the waxy canvases. Perhaps the concept this artist was trying to convey was healing, but to me still to this day it just seemed like fetishizing pain. I think humans often get confused and romanticize pain. It's a very bad habit to get into, it tends to result in suffering hanging around much longer than is necessary.

However since that first encounter with the word catharsis I have learned how much more it means. It is to cleans, to purge often by confronting directly the troubling issue. Perhaps to release through living, to meditate upon what might more easily be avoided. It's rather twisted really, in a good way.

This piece is a little tongue in cheek, humor is the best way to address difficult ideas, issues, etc. It's hard to feel threatened if you're laughing. So this was sort of a first meditation on ideas of self reflection, and confrontation... I've been pretty self portrait-centric lately, I am always telling stories in my pieces, though don't ask me to tell you those stories, so often they are hidden to me until years after I've completed a piece, but I realize that I am telling my own story, through images, sometimes the objects in a piece are true representations of the story, other times the repetitious task of creating the work, the mark making itself is the story... one of me getting lost mentally, emotionally etcetera, in line patterns and drawing rhythms, you'd be amazing how important that is.

so... that's a lot of text for such a wee piece, but it's part of the foundation of ideas that this next body of work will be built on, so... off we go!

Momentum Tulsa TONIGHT

Hi all, so I've gotten in the habit of being pretty 'day of' as far as notice is concerned, tis what it is, however if you're in Tulsa this evening I will be showing my piece "Dryad" in the Tulsa branch of the OVAC show Momentum. Momentum is a group show for artists 30 and under, designed to initiate the newbees and also show that good art doesn't necessarily have anything to do with how long you've been on the planet. There is good music and a fun lively crowd, I look forward to seeing you.

If you'd like to see a step by step photo demo of the creation of Dryad, click me.

and here's a photo from last year, where I received a juror's choice award for, "The Sibyl Admiring Her Saturday Reflection"

Here is a picture taken of me and my work at last years opening, by my friend Jeff Hogue, clearly marked.

12 x 12 TOMORROW NIGHT!

"The Expectant Wife" 12" x 12" colored pencil, acrylic, silver leaf and paper collage on board.

Please come join me and 149 more outstanding artists tomorrow night for the Oklahoma Visual Artists' Coalitions yearly fund raiser The 12 x 12 The event starts at 7pm in down town Oklahoma City at the Fred Jones Industries Building 900 W. Main St. You will have the opportunity to walk away with or more outstanding pieces of art, including mine! Check out all the information, plus pick your favorites in the online gallery HERE! http://ovac-ok.org/Events/events_12x12.cfm

Landscape vs. portrait

I'm trying to decide which way to turn the piece I am currently working on, it just occurred to me tonight to turn it vertically, and it works well, not to mention suddenly it's so much easier to understand the structure of the nose... I don't look at many of them lying down.

I'm rather enjoying all the white background too, this is the danger of posting in process, something I think I've said before, I as well as perhaps you may become attached to the un-finalized piece, the looseness of in process is often charming... I might leave her hair whitish in fact, we'll see... I guess since I'm not putting the pencil down y'all will just have to trust me on this one.

This photo shows it turned vertically, i.e. portrait... I've been working on it for weeks with her lying down, i.e. landscape, it's terribly confusing but you will come across artists using these two terms to describe a composition, portrait = vertical canvas, landscape = horizontal canvas... try to be patient with us... we're creative.

This Years 12 x 12 sneak peak

"The Expectant Wife" *Detail* 12" x 12"

colored pencil, ink, paper collage and silver leaf on board

So here we are again. I have been participating in the Oklahoma Visual Artists' Coalition's annual fund raiser, "The 12x12" for something close to a decade ... An exciting thing about this show is that the work I produce for it is very often some of my most cutting edge stuff. The piece that is the background for the title of this blog would be a good example of such a piece, as well as the one I use on my business card, and this years creation is no exception.

"The Expectant Wife" was created using strictly the impulses and desires of my subconscious. I've been wanting to play with Dali's ants for quite sometime, but have been concerned about the inevitable creepery of such rendering... No longer! No more shall I restrain myself with worrying if something is to "disturbing". It was funny, I was almost through with the piece when I realized that I was making a "subconscious" piece, that was also very pointedly a homage to Dali... go figure. I used myself as the model, because if I'm going to cover anyones mouth with ants it ought to be my own... I may also add some quip to the title alluding to "sweet talking" something ants would be attracted to. Right now I'm just posting a wee detail shot, please stop back by for the full reveal sometime in the next month leading up to the show.

Oh, and it's nice to talk to all of you again, sorry I've been less than active around these here parts... sometimes life gets in the way of art.

Good Girl/Bad Girl

"Good Girl/Bad Girl" 48" x 36" colored pencil, gouache, ink and paper collage on board.

Gifts from fairies are strange.
Rewards falling from mouths?

A good, humble daughter, hardworking without complaint and disinterested in material gain is rewarded for her kindness: with rubies, diamonds and pearls that fall from her mouth each time she speaks!
Her wicked stepsister is only interested in personal gain and gratification. She is henceforth punished for her grandiosity with toads and snakes falling from her lips.

Here the two girls are linked into one, two sides of the same coin. One side exploits the other. The Good Girl, whose immaterial nature is irreverently rewarded with material blessings, her words forever lost in the tumbling forth of jewels. Does this symbolize the value of kind words, or is it just the objectification of a girl whose is now reduced to life as a candy dispenser? The Bad Girl who unapologetically sought this verbal bounty, silently stares at us, confronting our attraction to those who seek their fortune ruthlessly, regardless of the reptilian consequences.

Dryad finished, and the new work.

"Dryad" 36" x 18" colored pencil, acrylic, and paint pen on board
She's hanging at JRB Gallery until the end of the month.

This work in progress, is based on goldielocks and the three bears, the chair is cut out of paper and I haven't decided if this is where it will end up. We'll see! the photo is also in reverse, because I took it with the photo booth application.

All The Way To The End

Tomorrow is my Opening Reception. I have 24 pieces hanging and I cannot wait. I've already had three pre-sales before the opening, and I'm going to feel so good seeing those red dots on the wall tomorrow! Please come join me at JRB.

This is the last piece I finished for the show, I haven't had it professionally photographed yet, but a very sharp image should be showing up soon on my flickr. Until then enjoy this little peek behind the curtain. These photos are a bit dark and yellow, but you get the idea. Why dark? Because incandescence lights are relaxing. And I don't like to make process shots into a big production because that creates too much pressure.

Here you can see the first three layers of the piece, the conté sketch, green pencil for shadows and blue for the first of the face paint.

Below I have added the yellow and pink pencil for the face paint, as well as finished laying in green for the shadows.

Jumping ahead, below I have finished the skin tone and have moved onto sketching in the background patterns. If you would like to read more about the layering technique I use to create my skin tones, check out this entry: In Process...

Below, I've gone ahead and thrown some underpainting into the piece so I can see past all the white, I like to think that underpainting will all be covered up so I don't get to precious, however I often like the results and end up using some of the underpainting. In this case I kept the yellow in a great deal of the piece but totally painted out the green in the dress.

Here I've masked off portions of the background design, (see the video below for removal) and I've started adding the background details, this was all very intuitive and happened very quickly and naturally. After that I worked very slowly and over thought almost everything to avoid messing up all that was already good. I haven't sat and just stared at a piece this much in quite sometime.

Below you'll see more background details. I added the vines around the edges and settled on an under paint color for her dress, grey, which I also worked into portions of the background to tie everything together. Not only are designs in the background masked off, but so is her skin and hair so that I can paint more freely. All the splatters on the skin are actually on a layer of frisket.

Below, the background and her dress are finished, consisting of many layers of translucent acrylic paint, drips and outlines of paint pen.

Here is a video of me taking the frisket off of my piece, I'll go back into the blank spaces with paint pen. I also use frisket to block off the skin and hair, so that I can freely paint the background. Why not paint the background first you ask? Well, because I don't like to, and I find that the finished personality informs color and form in the background more.

My wonderful studio engineer and father applies the high gloss varnish to the background. He's much better with sprays than I am. *Note that the colored pencil of her skin and hair are still masked off with frisket, I will removed the mask later, revealing the pencil.

The finished piece! hanging at JRB Art At The Elms.

"Dryad" 36" x 18" colored pencil, acrylic, gouache and paint pen on board

Event TONIGHT!

Come see two of my pieces, "Sphinx" and my collaboration w/ tribalbot, "Unwillingly Wilted" tonight at City Arts Center there will be wining, dining, great music and wonderful art from some of the best artists in the state. I hope you can join me.

Event Happens,

@ City Arts Center in the OKC fairgrounds,

from 5:30 to 8:30pm Feb. 24. 2010

Check out the link for full information:

CityArtsCenter.org

trepanation

"Attempts At Seeing Into The Future"

graphite, acrylic, colored pencil and marker on board.

This piece was a quick choice kind of experience, it went from idea to execution within a matter of hours. I am happy. It is a raw piece, not in appearance but in feeling, there is a lot of my mind in it, a lot of what I am experiencing in my life right now is tucked into the corners, so to speak. Sometimes the best choices are the ones you make when you are not aware there are choices.

Holding Together Our Existence

These are the first two in a series of elementals I am working on.

You can see these first two in person at the JRB Show this March.

I am going to create Earth and Air over the next few months.

!!! excited artist here !!!

"Water" 18" x 14" colored pencil and acrylic on board.

"Fire" 18" x 14" graphite, colored pencil and gouache on board.

a first go at it

"Better Than Her Bite"

7"x 5" colored pencil, gel pens and gouache on board.

Terrible Photograph. Blurring and a little Flat.

good enough for some blog-age.

So. I've been drawing mouth hats for... well over a year now, and I love them, however I love them very stylized and graphic in my sketch books, and that esthetic has been the rock to my realistic renderings hard place. Did that make sense? I have been sitting on my hands trying to figure out how to marry the two, and been a totally chicken about it. Until now. This is the first study, I just went for it, and I'm fairly happy. I didn't allow myself to think about it much at all for fear of once again over thinking, and just dove in the with a model I liked from the 40's (thank you flickr commons) and some ink. It's very bright and carnival. I want to play with harmonizing the mediums a bit more, and get a little darker and bring the hats a bit more into the third dimension. So, now that I've taken the weight of doing it once off my shoulders, doing it again and again seems... no longer daunting, but exciting.

ray gun girl

"still working on the right title for this piece..."

24" x 18" colored pencil, graphite and paper collage on board.

This is my friend Alex, I took the source photo at a gathering that after the fact came to be known as the white face blue nose party ... baby powder/pool chalk. We all talked in Russian accents all night. I got several great shots that night, I'll be using another one soon. The collar, gun and goggles were all created by my friend Daniel. Lovely metal work, they're radical. During this particular shot and the ones surrounding it Alex was interacting with a poster of Edvard Munch's "The Scream". It was great. in fact, here's one from the set, so you can see for yourselves.