Art & Process

Where I’m At

Ayin EsLeave a comment

Just touching base to let you know where I am on the new Chance Press book. I have to do a total of 19 pieces for this thing, and as of now, I have 5 1/2 to go. I’m very nearly done with the page I am working on now. It’s 16 pages in all, plus a collaborative piece, a small 5″ x 5″ and one that is just pen and ink. The pages are each 7 x 10 inches and they are mostly watercolor and ink with a little bit of colored pencil on some. God, I wish I could show some of them off, but I can’t. I’ve also been working on my new website and I can’t show any of that either until it launches in full. I am really hoping that will be by January 1, 2013.

Other than that, I’ve been actually having a little bit of a difficult time with approaching a newer direction with my paintings. I say that, but maybe I’m not having a hard time at all, I just think I am. I have about four mapped out – I just always worry about the idea of running out of concepts. This is something I have always had going on, but I don’t ever run out of ideas, so I don’t know why I worry about that at all. It’s stupid is what it is.

What else is new? I have been going to art shows. I should have mentioned them right after I saw them, but I didn’t. The best one was Leigh Salgado at Coagula Curatorial. I also saw Richard Bruland‘s solo show at Lora Schlesinger, and Ed Moses at Patrick Painter. Richard’s show was beautiful. He always does wonderful work. And there were a few amazing things at the new gallery that opened in Venice at Shulamit Gallery. The space there is simply stunning. A lot of stairs though. It just keeps going up and up and up with little rooms and galleries on each floor. Very creative space. Some of the work was truly inspiring, but I don’t really know which artist did what. I was taken with the photography most of all. I saw a few other shows too, but I guess they are not worth mentioning. No offense to the artists. Oh, I did like Gary Baseman‘s show in Chinatown. It was not his paintings though. It was all his reference materials and collection of old photographs and I really enjoyed that.

I am trying to get my “Little Sister” to come to a contemporary art museum with me. I have to talk her into it because she hasn’t had the best experience with museums in the past. I want to take her to the Blues for Smoke show at MOCA. I hope to see it with her on December 2nd.

Waiting for Jordan

Ayin Es2 Comments

I have been hard at work on a new book for Chance Press. I think it’s going to be the shit, the fo’schnizzle, the bomb, and the cat’s meow. The only problem is that I can’t announce who I am doing the book with quite yet. It’s me and another artist who is actually one of my most favorite artists working today. It’s going to be a dream come true for me, but I have to tighten my lip for now about who it is. I am waiting for Jordan Hurder from Chance Press to give me a green light, as he is not announcing who it is yet either, so I’m waiting for him to broadcast it before I go letting the kitty out of the cat bag.

Not only that, I will be withholding the 16 works on paper that I am doing for the project. So why am I even saying anything at all? Because I am excited! If you’re not seeing new paintings up as soon as you’d like to, just know that I am still here working my butt off; I just can’t let you see what I’m doing exactly. Bummer, right? Not. What the hell do you care anyway? You probably have more important things to do than check out my blog, or sit and wait for new art to appear. Unfortunately, I am obsessed with making things and posting them. Come to think of it, I am just obsessed in general. If I don’t accomplish something arty every day, I feel like some kind of looser. Like today for instance. I sketched in my sketchbook, wrote about three paragraphs in my novel, and I painted the watercolor on the 5th page of the new Chance Press book, but I feel like I didn’t really do much today. I went shopping, and went to the pharmacy, and just put on a load of laundry, but I am still lacking a sense of accomplishment. I also worked on some computer bugs as well: since 1993, I have been keeping my entire mailing list in a Microsoft Works database, and it wasn’t until today that I finally imported the data into Access 2007. Welcome to the new millennium, for Christ sakes! …So that was my day.

What is wrong with me? I’ll tell you: It’s never enough! Never enough art. I don’t think I will ever feel as accomplished as I fantasize about. I am forever neurotic.

Stuff!

Ayin EsLeave a comment

So I’ve been working a lot, but haven’t gotten around to writing. Actually, I’m writing by hand a lot in the new sketchbook exercises, as that it part of the process. It is friggin weird to write by hand when I haven’t done it in so long. It’s foreign to me now, when once upon a time it was the only way I wrote. But that was sooo long ago! Even before I got my first computer, I used a Brother word processor that had a 4-line screen and saved everything to floppy disks. Remember those?

Here are a few of the drawings that have come about from these exercises. I thought I’d share some on the blog, and also post the last couple of paintings as well…

Carol Es

Carol Es

Carol Es

Carol Es

Carol Es

Carol Es

Carol Es

Two Girls, 20 x 16 inches. Oil on canvas.

Two Girls by Carol Es

The Devil in Me, 24 x 24 inches. Oil on canvas.

The Devil in Me by Carol Es

And this one is practically finished:

Held by Sheer Willingness, 20 x 20 inches. Oil on linen.

Held by Sheer Willingness by Carol Es

Two Finished

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I feel like these last two have nothing to do with each other. Well, they don’t. The first one, “The One with the Snake,” I started over a year ago and it just sat on an easel as two circles for the longest time. The circles were dark, one brown, one a dark-blue-green. I hadn’t decided where to go from there, but I did know that I wanted to somehow incorporate a stuffed snake on the outer edge, so I got one from the zoo and turned it inside out. That too sat in my office for a long-ass time.

Slowly, it came to me to add the collar patterns. I knew I was going to paint them darker colors as well before sticking them onto the canvas. They were bright colors of blue, green, red and pink. It wasn’t until months later I had the idea to paint a thin layer of white oil paint over all of it and scratch out lines with a toothpick to reveal the darker colors underneath. I mixed that white with a good amount of Liquin so it would go on slightly transparent, then I had to scratch with the toothpick while it was still wet. Liquin makes the paint dry pretty fast, so I did that all in one day.

Then, it sat there for even more months because I couldn’t decide if I wanted it to be completely abstract or not. For years I have wanted to go more abstract, but those little characters keep haunting me to be part of the paintings, so they finally came in, and it wasn’t all that long before I finally finished the painting. I worked on a bunch of other stuff and did not give this one many hours all at once, which was good because a lot of it was dry before I’d come back to it. I had the freedom of laying my hand against the canvas while I painted it.

Yesterday I sewed the snake on and suddenly it was done. 36 x 36 inches. Oil, patterns, pencil and stuffed snake on canvas:

The One with the Snake by Carol Es

Just days before that, I finished this new one called “Edith,” 20 x 16 inches, oil on canvas. This is one from the very different ones I started a week or so back.

Edith by Carol Es

I am going to work on the ones that are figurative over the next few days. That will be odd, but I’m having fun.

I’m also really excited about the sketchbook exercises that Ellie gave me to do. Some great compositions are coming to light that I feel great about!

Art Giveaway!

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I started a giveaway on Facebook where someone will win an original artwork by yours truly! All you have to do is “Like” my esart.com page and give me your email for my mailing list. Mind you, I send emails out infrequently. I have a seasonal newsletter, and I will send out show announcements very occasionally. I keep it simple like that.

Even if you are already on my mailing list, you still need to enter if you want to win one of these pieces. It’s easy, it’s generous, so go do it.