wrapping paintings. packing trailers and suitcases. Will post images of the new painting tomorrow.

Oh, the restrictions on my freedom of speech.... will they never end?!!!

Went to get my car inspected, and was told that one of my bumper stickers covers up my 3rd brake light. Say goodbye to "Those who abandon their dreams will discourage yours"....

Exhausted. Cleaning up wreckage in studio. Will post good images of the finished painting in a few days. Above is my favorite part. (click to enlarge)

Last night I had a dream that Clint Eastwood told me to go talk to "the homeless man who lives under that bridge", because he was the world's greatest actor, and I would learn something from him. That day, I was hanging out with a guy I haven't seen since grad school (really nice, unassuming guy, but never really liked his work*), but he did not want me to go, said it was dangerous. I took the world's greatest actor a cup of coffee, because I could not think of what else to bring him.

*Richard, Sarah.

I have finished my painting. There is nothing more that I can do to it that would make it any stronger. I have dirtied all of these brushes in the last 36 hours.
Tomorrow, I will have to clean them, but tonight, I will sleep.

Glazing is scary.....

I started this painting in March. For nine months I have been researching the art market, fashion, and other luxury objects. I have photographed and gathered visuals for props and figures, taken characters out and added new figures at various stages in the painting, adjusted colors and values, and painted faces in painstaking detail with tiny brushes.
I am thrilled with the way it is looking, and that can only mean one thing: now is the time to start at one end of this 79 x 116" canvas, and cover the surface with a transparent, grey/green sticky mixture that cannot be removed. (I make lists of all the things that need to be done up to this point because they cannot be changed once the glaze goes down.) As many times as I have done this, it still makes my heart stop the first time I put the initial brushstroke of glaze on. I usually set up my brushes and fuss around the studio for an hour before starting, just getting my courage up to start.

But as terrifying as the process is, the effect is always magical, enveloping an entire space in the same mood. In this particular painting, I wanted the yucky atmosphere of a shopping mall... a dark, dead-light sort of interior space. I wanted the environment to be filled with a kind of toxic green gas that envelops everything, with the paintings on the wall glowing like they are the only redemptive objects in the space... as if they are in the space, but belong someplace else.

When Van Gogh painted his Night Cafe (one of my favorites), he said that he wanted to depict "the kind of place where a man might go mad". I go mad in shopping malls.

Before and After Glazing:

(as always, click to enlarge)

This week's horoscope:

"When life gets weird, should you take refuge in decorum and tradition? Should you intensify your commitment to the humdrum? Is it wise to dress more conservatively, act more dignified, and smile more automatically? I say no. When the daily rhythm veers off track into unexpected detours, I say it's prime time to gleefully depart from The Way Things Have Always Been Done. In fact, I advise you to cultivate your rebellious questions and celebrate the unusual impulses that bubble up. They will help you harvest the epiphanies that life's weirdness is tempting you to pursue."

Hmmmm. Helps me answer that "what do I wear to the vernissage?" question....

Again with the tiny brushes....
One of these days I am going to have to concede that there must be something I enjoy about obsessively rendering microcosms in the dead of night....

Still working on the VIP room.....

And, because life is not complicated enough, Kate decides to make a late change before the big glaze....

Can't stop thinking about (and commenting on) the Intrepid Art Collector's post about artist's rights as I finish up this related painting. What to do, besides continue to make art about it?

Hermes cashmere shawl.

....tortured by the fact that my Stella Vine book arrived a few minutes ago, and I have no time to read it.......

After working on it for the last 36 hours virtually (Kevin fed me a few times) nonstop, today I really like my painting and I am making it to bed before the sun comes up. I would call that success.....

More pics soon. Friends were kind enough to feed us Thanksgiving dinner yesterday, so I took a break to fuel up on delicious food that charged me up enough to pull an allnighter. Worked all last night and well into today on painting a big ceiling, tedious and mindless, (exactly the kind of thing that warrants looking for a new studio assistant). Last week, I could not sleep because I was thinking of all I had to do, this week, I won't sleep because I am excited... the end is in sight, and I am happy with the way that it is going, and the part that will really "make" the painting is coming up this weekend! Only had to wait 9 months to get to the payoff!

Just in case you forgot to get a centerpiece for your Thanksgiving table, you can make your own, courtesy of Extreme Craft..... Happy Turkey Day!

Glazing the area BETWEEN the tiny brushes.

Wow. Maybe this is old news to people who watch TV, but someone just sent me this wingsuit video link. I am obsessed with being in the air.... took pilot lessons, skydiving, been on the blimp, in helicopers, gliders, etc., but this is it! Christmas list.

Bottega Veneta dress, vintage Chanel flats. Not only is this dress
one of the most beautiful summer dresses I have ever seen, the skirt + the pose gives us a Degas reference.

Prada faux-fur coat.

The list for the Whitney Biennial 2008 is out, via Artnews.

(click to enlarge)
Today glazed black across the places that needed it. Tomorrow glazing violet & white, and painting in any missing details.

Note "to do" list taped to painting.

In high gear. My husband says that living with me these days is like living with the Tasmanian Devil. Still refining tiny faces with 20/0 brushes.

Blind, white-out, balls-to-the-wall painting... everything going so well today. I feel like I could paint for the next three days straight.... or at least through the night.

In these days of sky-high art auction prices (where everyone but the artist gets a cut of the profits), it is the perfect time to ask, "Do artists need a union?" Lisa at The Intrepid Art Collector ponders the issue, and brings up some great points.

The 2007 United States Artist Fellows are announced. Blissed out painting day.... today I love my painting. Sorry, no time for anything else.

Beautiful day. Windows open. Head cold. Listening to Frieze lectures while painting. Have to tackle a Hermes printed scarf and Chanel flats today, then just glazing away....

That time again.......

I have not yet read the catalog from the Extreme Embroidery show, only looked at my page. My long-awaited copy of Learning to Love You More came today, and I flipped through it for 1 minute, then put it on the stack. All but the most critical mail is piling up on my desk. The house is starting to look like hell. Kevin is beginning to take my turn cooking: when he doesn't offer, he gets a 15 minute dinner. I need to sit down and write about ten thank you notes to the various players from the last week. And the emails....
I will not be able to sleep tonight, as I am at that point in the painting when all the groundwork layed in the past six? seven? months becomes the springboard. The point when things start to happen, the point when I begin to glaze and it becomes one of "my" paintings.
All I do when lying in bed is think about what I am going to do next to the painting, so I might as well be doing it.

The beginnings of a Bottega Veneta dress. Smocking.

Chanel dress. Sequins.

A Long Day at the End of a Very Long (and exciting) Week

Hit the ground painting today upon returning from New York, ending a five day trip that brought me much more than I ever expected. We stayed in Manhattan to be close to the museum for the first few days, then moved to Brooklyn so that I could get some "niece time". We arrived Weds, and the Member's opening was Wednesday night. I was so excited I could barely breathe in my cab ride from the hotel to the opening (or maybe it was the leaf corset). The show was unbelievable, as I expected. The catalog is gorgeous, and, much to my delight, they have also reprinted the previously sold out catalog from a recent exhibition: Radical Lace & Subversive Knitting. (Everyone I know is desperate to get their hands on one... they were recently selling for big bucks on Ebay). I met lots of great artists at the press conference, and then did the opening thing. They served us a dinner at the museum following the reception. My sweetie offered to take me out afterwards, but I was so beat we went back to the hotel. I believe that every important day in my life thus far has been preceded by a night where I slept less than 3 hours.

Thursday during the day, I went around to see some Chelsea galleries. As I signed into each book, I noticed that the preceding name was Tyler Green, the Washington, DC-based author of the Modern Art Notes blog: I must have been a few paces behind him. Thursday night was a round table discussion and the public opening. Met some friends for drinks afterwards. Friday, went to 31 Grand Gallery to see the space (I will be showing work in a group show there in January!), and to check out Adam Stennett's awesome show before it came down.

In addition to this surreal week, there is the specter of a monumentally exciting and disruptive possibility that I cannot yet disclose...

Starting to get excited now.... spent the last few days getting as much painting done as I could before leaving. Head to NYC tomorrow for the opening of "Pricked: Extreme Embroidery" at MAD.....

keeping my fingers crossed that they don't lose luggage containing the leaf dress!
(this time I am wearing it with a short jacket, as it is going to be chilly)
Blogging may be a bit spotty for the next few days....
Here is a list of the artists involved in the exhibition:

Ghada Amer (Egypt)
Stephen Beal (US)
Karin Birch (US)
Mattia Bonetti (Switzerland)
Susie Brandt (US)
Michael Brennand-Wood (UK)
Lou Cabeen (US)
Morwenna Catt (UK)
Judy Chicago (US)
Sonya Clark (US)
Orly Cogan (US)
Annet Couwenberg (the Netherlands)
Ana de la Cueva (Mexico)
Andrea Dezso (Romania)
Marcia Doctor (US)
Tracey Emin (UK)
Angelo Filomeno (Italy)
Sabrina Gschwandter (US)
Paddy Hartley (UK)
Petter Hellsing (Sweden)
Kent Hendricksen (US)
Emily Hermant (Canada)
Cindy Hickok (US)
Sybille Hotz (Germany)
Hella Jongerius (The Netherlands)
Dafna Kaffeman (Israel)
Maira Kalman (US)
Nils Karsten (Germany)
Shizuko Kimura (Japan)
Kate Kretz (US)
Nava Lubelski (US)
Christa Maiwald (US)
Ray Materson (US)
Mark Newport (US)
Clyde Oliver (UK)
Laura Owens (US)
Maria Pineres (US)
Elaine Reichek (US)
Tilleke Schwarz (The Netherlands)
Carol Shinn (US)
Laura Splan (US)
Tamar Stone (US)
Berand Strik (The Netherlands)
Miriam van der Lubbe (The Netherlands)
Paul Villinski (US)
Benji Whalen (US)
Davin Willburn (US)
Simon Withers (UK)
Xiang Yang (China)
Inez Zust-Gericke (Germany)

Really enjoying listening to the whole series of Frieze Talks while painting.

Been so consumed that I missed a great post at Ed Winkleman's yesterday: he gives his take on the insightful Dave Hickey lecture at Frieze. Most of it is printed at The Art Newspaper, or if you are a "primary source" type, you can listen to the podcast at Frieze Art (scroll to the bottom of the page and click on Dave Hickey Lecture). I listened to it twice while painting this afternoon: very entertaining observations about the art world, and his conclusion is quite heartening for those of us who just keep on trudging, through this age of art market insanity.