I’m back
Clinking Glasses and American Top 40, Acrylic and spray paint on canvas, 48x36 inches, 2024
Install at Delaware Contemporary, Summer 2024
09.24.2024
It’s been way too long since my last post but my goal is to write on a more consistent basis from here on out to chronicle this specific project as well as other thoughts I am having about my art practice. I feel like a productive summer in the studio came and went in spurts due to my stress over finding a new day job and getting used to a new routine with my husband’s new job as well as the possibility of moving in the coming year. I also had a couple of series I started on the side of these Venice paintings which I felt compelled to fit in while the mood struck.
Personal life aside, now that it’s fall and I have started a new day job, I am slowly getting back into a routine of blocking out little bits of time throughout the week to devote to my art practice whether it’s actually painting or doing things like this. The painting shown here (number 9 in the series) is titled, Clinking Glasses and American Top 40, dives further into the sights and sounds of my walk through the streets of Venice over a year ago now on July 23, 2023. This piece combines a peek at the water with various parts of cast shadows and architectural elements I was taking in on dry land. The juxtaposition of various textures coming together here make for an interesting and successful composition in my opinion. When I am planning my compositions after collecting the inspiration images I am not concerned with whether the pieces were found on the ground, at my eye level, or high above… I am simply out to create a painting that contains balance and a way to lead the viewer’s eye around it long enough for them to maintain interest. The yellow spray painted area was a happy accident because the splatter and inconsistencies from the close to empty can actually worked to create the texture of an Italian facade and the acrylic on top to create the “shadow” was just opaque enough in some areas but transparent in others to give a nod to the integrity of the shadow I experienced.
This past summer I had the opportunity to exhibit 4 works in the series at the Delaware Contemporary right here in Wilmington. The paintings were 4 of 10 pieces that made up a solo exhibition called Here & There in the lobby of the museum. The other 6 paintings in the show were about experience here in and around my neighborhood. The through line became my perspective regardless of where I am or what I am experiencing. I received a lot of great feedback and it led to another show there in a smaller space in January 2025.
So now for next steps. When I get a couple more of these paintings completed and photographed I plan on putting together a PDF to use to reach out to galleries in Venice for a possible exhibition in 2026 with the help of Maria at ECA. My hope is to work with a commercial gallery that will exhibit my work without the enormous pay to play cost of other opportunities I have seen over there. And if a show in Venice is not in the cards, I will look for a space here in the U.S. to show the work. And maybe it’s more important that the work be shown together than the location itself, but I hope to have it both ways.
