Prints from last fall.

Watercolors

I'm learning watercolor this spring. It's been tough-I'm having trouble getting out of the mindset of oil painting. Here are some examples.

Chilly Weather Time!

It has been a bit since my last posting and the photo is not one of my own. It is a picture of a boy in Iowa milking a fake cow, which I did not see with my own eyes but wish I could have! My days have been busy with goings on and my nights with sleeping. I can't seem to go on the few hours of sleep I used to. So now, like a real human being, I must sleep my eight or nine hours OR ELSE. I am now gainfully employed by Artlink Contemporary Art Gallery and feel like I have found some kindred spirits. Artlink will be moving in a few weeks and I have my own show in the Saurteig Family gallery and am getting my work around for that. Art 4 Sale has accepted me into their ranks this year and grad school is keeping me very busy. And, since I am a glutton for punishment, I have dove into a few other projects as well. EEK. There is so much I want to do and so little time. And my little boy Ezra is so irresistable.

flashy new website!

Check out my new website, folks. 

http://www.rebeccastockert.com/

It has a small archive of some of my work all the way back to pre-Ezraian times.  That is hard for me to comprehend, or imagine my work with out his influence.  I suppose he was still there, hanging out in the ovary.

upcoming show!

Alright boys and girls, this will be the last Artlink show before the big move to Main Street! And I'm in it!

summer portraits

Here are a couple of the portraits I have been working on this summer.  They are oil on board. xoxo

The idea I am working on this summer is that of the connection of rationality and the soul.  Western historical philosophers have pointed out that men are typically more inclined to rationality and women are more inclined to be nurturing and instinctual.  This was all fine and well, until some religious philosophers decided that rationality was an indicator of the soul, and hence women, children, and animals (in connection with nature) have been grouped together as an identifiable 'other' in western society due to their apparent lack of rationality and hence, a soul. 

These ideas are centuries old and so integrated into our culture that we rarely recognize them unless we look very hard.  Something very interesting happened during the Surrealist movement at the beginning of the twentith century: as men were connecting women to nature and the child, women took the idea and ran with it.  Surrealist men decided that woman was the gateway to creativity and because of man's lack of instinct and connection to nature, they needed woman as a key to the unconcious.  These women, who were sometimes also artists, were often socially inhibited by these ideas (again, being seen only valuable as a tool for man).  However, in the end, these women used their instinct to create many wonderful pieces long after the end of the Surrealist movement.  I feel like much of the creative liscence I have today can reflect upon the men and women of surrealism and their drive to tap into universal creativity. 

Anyhow, here are a couple portraits that are almost finished in relation to these ideas.

New Etsy Items!

I uploaded some new items to my etsy shop this morning. Some super-fab new prints and whatnot.  There is a link to my shop on to the right! Check it!