Nigh the end.

Hello, fellow interneters.

Ok, maybe life is a big circle and there is no beginning nor end.  However, the end of my academic/student career at USF is close.  Yesterday I presented my thesis to a hollering panel of three and demonstrated my prowess with a power point presentation.  It was all pretty anti-climatic.

My thesis show opens on June 15 at USF in the Ian and Mimi Rolland School of Creative Arts building.  Everyone is invited, even Ian and Mimi.  As soon as the show opens my diploma will be activated and I will become a magical master of arts.

Now for a picture:

   

This watercolor was originally going to be an oil painting.  But due to the raw state of my nervous system and sake of time, the oil painting was abandoned and I made this nifty watercolor instead.

As promised, my thesis will be on public viewing on the contact page of my website.  You can link to it here.  This paper is very revealing.  It speaks to my life and my art making and how I arrived at this moment in time.  There are many topics touched upon in this thesis, each them could have their own thesis written about them (and perhaps they will). However, the paper is a good survey of my life as an artist.

Q: "What are you going to do next?" A:  "10 years of indentured servitude to the public."  There is a nifty program the government has in place that forgives student loans after 10 years if you work in public service.  For example: a tax exempt non profit may qualify, such as Artlink.  (Deb is a little too excited about this.)  I hope to YHWH I am able to bust this popsicle stand before the end of my 10 years, but who knows.  I will be 40 years old and Ezra will be 15.  

On Being a Woman Artist.

I was invited to participate in a "Woman's Work" exhibition that opens next weekend in Roanoke at Katharos Art.  They asked me to write a paragraph about what it means for me to be a woman artist.  I hope they don't regret that decision. Hah!  I'm posting the piece and paragraph(s) here.  Enjoy!

On being a woman artist:

“We believe that feminism is a transformative philosophy that embraces the amelioration of life on earth for all life-forms, for all natural entities.  We believe that all oppressions are interconnected: no one creature will be free until all are free—from abuse, degradation, exploitation, pollution, and commercialization.”  --Josephine Donovan & Carol J. Adams in Animals and Women: Feminist Theoretical Explorations

As a professional woman and artist, I am thankful for all the women that came before me and worked to bring the issues of women into the national dialogue.  That being said, I am not interested in being known as a “woman artist” and I have only the ladies who fought for feminism to thank for that.  I wish for my work to be viewed as good art, nothing more or less.  I feel privileged that gender does not need to be considered in the evaluation of my work, nor should it be for any other artist working day to day.  I believe that Feminism stretches far beyond women in general.  Feminism needs to fight for all creatures that are oppressed, as the highlighted quote from Josephine Donovan and Carol Adams expresses. 

There is still a bitch or two left in the fight for the rights of women and I am happy to be one of them.  Though we have been gaining ground, there is no time for rest.  The level of power our birth right affords us is dangerous.  I think this same danger is posed to women of my generation: what will we do with the power and comfort we did not earn? I believe we need to continue to work for the rights of all creatures, regardless of gender or species. 

And with that: a few lines of the poem “Song” by Edward Hirsch: “Listen, this song is for you even if you can’t listen to it or join in, even if you don’t have lungs, even if you don’t know what a song is or want to know.  This song is for everyone who is not listening tonight and refuses to sing.  Not singing is also an act of devotion.  Those who have no voices have one tongue.”  

Life Painting

I did my first portrait painting from life last week!  I think it is pretty good for my first time.  It's 5" x 7" on board in oil.  I am pretty excited!  It only took an hour and a half.  If anyone is interested in trading a 2 hour sitting session for a t shirt or something, let me know! xoxoxo

works in progress

headless cats