and for my next trick!

  The past couple of weeks I have been working on developing some still lives for my next semester painting class.  Below are a couple of my works-in-progress.

  I am awaiting a soviet gas mask for the deer and need to sculpt a face for the monster as well as make a body suit for it and find some stuffed birds to perch on his arms.

  The content for these pieces comes from my dichotomy of being a rural/urban hybrid.  I have been thinking over the past couple of years how to integrate my upbringing into my present work.  I decided to make still lives that combined relics from my childhood and present day art objects (monsters, designer art toys, etc.).  When thinking about my childhood no big pop culture memories stood out.  While this was frustrating, I did remember very distinctly my father as a hunter and helping him skin deer and break the necks of rabbits before they were butchered. 

  And hence the present project: creating these wild creatures that are half taxidermied animals and half contemporary art objects.  They speak both of my upbringing and of my life today. They combine the rural life that made me what I am and the life I have created for myself of my own volition. 

oil paintings

 While I learned lots of handy techniques this fall in oil painting, I don't think I finished a single painting! Hah!  It was like cramming food only for nutrition, not for the sake of taste, which is something I, among other artists, am prone to.  Not necessarily a flaw.  So, here are a couple of the last paintings I worked on, the self portrait being the ending piece.  I have come a long way since my August black and white still live.  woot!

skinning cats

In a few short days I will be hanging Paul Demaree and I's show @ the Firefly for the month of December.  Most of the stuff will be things previously blogged about, but below are a couple new pieces.  They are constructed of Masonite, collage, acrylic, cut paper, wax, and black sharpie.  Enjoy! (and I apologize for the not so great smart phone photos, still living life with out my digital camera)


"The Danger 97's"

"Siamese Dualing Roosters"

Below: This year's Cinema Center Art-a-ment.

again with the collaborations

One more collaboration: This time between myself and the beautiful Laura Brandenburg.

a side note

Here are a few oil paintings from a class I am taking with Justin Henry Miller out at Saint Francis.  Yum! I was unable to finish the second and the third is an indirect painting currently in progress.  It will be layered with glazes.  Yum, again!

a freaking massacre

Hello, fellow bloggers!

The month of October has found me very busy and I apologize to those of you who check my blog everyday for keeping you so keenly waiting.  It has been nice to have at least one or two art shows a week but it has been a bit nerve-racking on top of my regular duties.  Our fair city has kept everyone on their toes the past few weeks.  Last weekend I got the chance to show off some of my new screen printing skillz a the Monster Mash-Up Blast-O-Rama.

"Medusa" a seven color hand-pulled screen print on paper

"Zombie" another seven color (i think) hand-pulled screen print on paper

"Hannibal Lecter Porn Theater" 4 hand-stenciled, hand-pulled three color screen prints mounted on wood.

And lastly here is a six color screen print collaboration I did with Mr. Eric Stine for the same show.  

Winter is coming and hibernation is about to set in.  My poor little camera has lost a couple nuts and bolts which makes blogging even more difficult.  If any of you bodies out there hear of/know of any point and shooter sales give me a heads up!

silkscreen madness

Only two screens left to lay down on my medusa print!

its finally done!! (and some other stuff)

The calendar is finally finished!  Hooray!  After weeks of burning, printing, and scoring it's done. So in love with printing but really glad I get to move on.

My new favorite tool: bone folder.

I've been sitting in on an oil painting class this semester to prep myself for starting graduate school this winter.  It is so nice to be able to go and just paint.
This was the first painting of the class, a simple black and white still life.

me oh my

Started work on my second screen printing project.  So very tasty.  A good start for a long love affair between myself and the squeegee. (2011 calendar is shown above)

I also headed back to the ol' Saint Francis today to start some preliminary painting studies with Justin Miller before I jump into the grad program this spring.  It was really great--the only thing I remember from my undergrad painting class is how to stretch a canvas.  However, I'm not really sure if we were taught much else...I don't really remember.  Being there made me feel old and fat.  Hah! All those young hip art students.

There's a lot coming up in the next few months...two collaboration shows in October, two IHE events in October, Artlink Regional is due soon, a show with Paul @ the Firefly in December, plus the holiday feeding frenzy.  At least six of my friends are either getting married or poppin' out babies by November.  Madness.

xoxo

salivating with pavlov's puppies

Some illustrations for The Green Dog on state street.

where the heck did the summer go it's still hot outside

It's late and I am wondering why I am still awake and dreading the five a.m. wake up call.  Even though waking up early is a nice thing to do for yourself.

I got a commission from a local eco-friendly pet supply called Green Dog for wholesale magnets and cards.  I never knew there were so many different breeds of dogs, and all from a single wolf. So weird. Here are a few drawings I'm doing to get my mind and fingers in dog and cat mode.

Pugs have got to be the weirdest things ever. They can't breathe or give birth without surgery via a human.

And I am pretty much a dog person now. Since Zeus has come into my life I have learned to be a pack leader, let go of (ie empowered) Ezra a bit by encouraging him to defend his own peanut butter sandwich, quit smoking/started taking three walks a day, and finally understood what it means to be a follower and the needs of a follower.

Here is the devil himself.
I am deeply devoted to my child and now my dog, yet I still wonder if I was ever meant to interact with other living creatures and if I will ever figure out how to be at peace outside of my work.  To live is to suffer, unless you're a dog.







This makes me salivate. Ready to go!

military wife

2011 Calendar

Working on some sketches for a project I've wanted to do for several years all morning...now off to the pool!

no news is good news

I don't have any new drawings or paintings...been taking a bit of a hiatus the past couple of weeks and enjoying some swimming sessions with the friends.  I have, however, been reading a very interesting book titled Masks and Mirrors by Anselm Strauss on identity and socialization.  It will prove to be very valuable in my future art works.
Here is a quote:
"Dedication to individualistically oriented purposes involves equally durable motivation, and equally firm beliefs as to where one belongs-that is, what one is." p. 41
I gave myself two years to settle down and figure things out- what's going on inside myself and what the heckery I am doing around here.  I'm glad to say that half way through I'm already ahead of schedule.

Self Construction @ FWMA

I've got a few pieces up at the Fort Wayne Museum of Art now through August 22.  If you're in the area, go check it out!  Other artists include: Audrey Riley, Amanda Elizabeth Joseph, Alethea Gerardot, Emma Downs, and Holly Hardin-Clabaugh.

Here is an info link: Self Construction

I think guest curator, Dan Swartz, did a lovely job of writing about my work.  Here is what he had to say:

"Rebecca Stockert's highly intimate and symbolic portraits are simplified versions of the basic building blocks the personal traits in the people around her.  Stockert's conceptual practice his partially a response to her recently acquired identity as a mother.  Additionally, it has a base in these few simple tenants:
-People are the most important things.
-We are based on socialization.
-Socialization is expressed in our images.
By using these tenants, Stockert avoids the distinction between portrait and self-portrait; to her, they are both just reflections of humanity through the artist's eyes.  Each image evokes the universal human feeling of being an innately social creature, yet paradoxically finding oneself in an experience of isolation."

Top Secret

"Lube Tube"

"Bad Romance" unplugged

This video is amazing, these dude's put on a WAY better performance than lady gaga. There is a special place in my heart for choreography. This is so great I had to share it twice.

Bust A Move

herakut

I just found this amazing collaborative effort between two artists.  Amazing works.

Indieana Handicraft Exchange

works in progress

headless cats

jesus tribute

Oh man, I love finding random stuff at the thrift store, especially stuff like a Jesus statue holding a kid with it's head broken off.

One of the perks (of many, of course) of having a child: mutating their old toys into weird art objects.

sobald ich geboren war

Firefly mural est finis! For now.  This is the beginning of a long, intimate relationship with me and a wall...

...and a mixed piece.  Watercolor, ink, collage, and wax on Masonite.  If I were Bob Ross I would call it "a happy accident," but since I am not it's called a fuck up that somehow turned out to be a really cool piece.