collaborative pieces...

So in the studio this week, Leanne and I did some non-thesis work and just fun work!


Round One: We attached a 4' x 4' piece of canvas to the wall. Then filled balloons up with paint using a soap dispenser. FYI water down the paint, it will help. also have paper towels ready, no belongings near you, and wear old clothes. Then we threw the balloons on the wall! It looks great plus it was fun but it made a huge mess which caused us to stop... (that's a different story)

So here is the result!

 under the painting it was crazy cool!

Round Two: After crazy mess round one, we decided to approach this from a different angle, down. We put two boards on the floor, filled balloons, and dropped the balloons on the boards which also had push pins. This is awesome and we got some really great results! First layer is black, then after that dried we added pink/red, yellow/orange/salmon, green/blue, and blue.. After this dries we may add more, but so far it looks amazing!

finally finished!

For awhile of staring at this...

I have finally finished it...

This piece is much better viewed in person because there are layers that the camera does not do justice.. But it works!

OTR painting continued

So after my final senior thesis critique, I have decided to keep this painting of just the map of OTR, not using the similar style I did before of painting the faces of the homeless. I added another layer.. I'm going to add more layers of course, but I'm not exactly sure how yet or what technique... One girl suggested that I fill balloons up with paint and shoot them with a gun! That would be awesome except it scares me ha. But I think this would be interesting aesthetically and conceptually.

Over the Rhine is a feared neighborhood in Cincinnati after having a lot of bad publicity. For awhile police also feared it so the community got "ghettoized". It has become this shut out part of town, until recently. They are trying to renovate some of the buildings to make the area become more inviting but that just erases the affordable housing that was once available.

I applied polyurethane selectively, and I was surprised how it turned out.

 I was happy to see how it dried!

Here's a close up of how the polyurethane dried.

new painting...

Sticking to my thesis idea, I am on my next painting.. finally! My idea for this one is more constructed than the last one.. I think. I am first doing a layer of a map of Cincinnati, mainly Over the Rhine. Most of Cincinnati's homeless are concentrated to Over the Rhine because its within walking distance to jobs, transportation, and other services that they need.

Here's my progress to date...

Map of area I selected.

Finished painted on map

Closer view, the blue tape are the street names when I got confused what was what.

disappeared but now I'm back!

So I kinda disappeared for awhile but now I have new work to share!

This year is a really big deal for me.. its my Senior year. So after changing my thesis a couple times I landed on to what my teacher says is a "solid topic.." I am interpreting the way society makes homeless people invisible. I have always been drawn to homeless people, maybe it was their mystery or my sympathy, but I felt it was a topic that I wanted to shake.

So I started taking pictures of Streetvibes distributors in Cincinnati. Its a newspaper that is sold by people who have or currently are homeless. I have talked and listened to some of the distributors. Others are more eager to share some of their stories, but all of them are very interesting to me.

I do need to say that I am not trying to save the world, I just was to help bring awareness of how society often shuts these people out and makes them invisible. I am also not saying that I am a saint because I have tried to ignore the problem as well. Here is my progress of first homeless awareness painting...

 My starting point.. wooden panel 4' x 4' with black acrylic paint scraped on

 Continuing my dripping paintings with new technique of scraping

James Brown, my first Streetvibes distributor, done in oil paint

 Closer view of James Brown

 

 Close up of my second Streetvibes distributor, Raeshawn Gibson

The last Streetvibes distributor on this panel, Ronnie Phillips. This is also my completed (for now) painting. I am going to add more layers to make these men more invisible. 

murals

My friend Leanne and I have become interested in murals! We recently finished our first mural, which turned out really good and wanting to do more! Here are some pictures of our process and the final..

 Me painting one of the lions. We projected it onto the wall which is the outline on the wall.

 We didn't paint my legs, that is the projector.. Lots of people thought I had paint on my legs.

 First lion finished!!! We were sooo proud!

 This is the second wall, finally finished!

 

This is the first wall that we finished. 

 Completed mural that looks really nice!!!

gatlinburg

The past weekend I went to Gatlinburg with my family. I love going to Gatlinburg! The mountain air, the greenery, everything about it! When we went on a hike I decided to bring my camera along... so here are some pictures enhanced with photoshop...

 We also found a bunch of butterflies drinking the sap from trees. It was so cool!!