Salvation

"Salvation"

A Soft Pastel Painting.

Everything that enslaves me is inside of me.

That is all.

Darkness Complete

"Darkness Complete"

A self portrait inspired by a friend...


"At some point, all artists want to simplify and get to the raw essence of what they are trying to express." --Donna Cusano, one of my favorite people.

I'm getting there...



Donna' website is at http://www.donnacusano.com/

"Behind the Canvas"

Wow!  It's been a long while since I updated my art blog, I'm really sorry about that.

I've been doing a lot of other stuff lately including changing over my art website to a new hosting, it's still at http://www.artbyapierce.com/ but a lot of the content has changed including the print options.  I've also started a new links page that allows you to get a sneak peak at other artist's work along with a link to their websites, I thought that was sort of fun.

I've also been doing some painting.  Here's my latest...

"Behind the Canvas"

Originally I had decided to do this self portrait to enter into a competition on my old hosting service but then they did something really suckish with my billing account and I cut them loose.  Since I had already started the painting I decided to go ahead and finish it because I'm not a quitter.

The painting was laid out to fit into the contest criteria that the portrait had to be "arguably you".
Previously, with my "Avian Blue" series they were all conceptionally self portraits but they look more like I did 20 years ago.  I call my portraits like that "Selfish Portraits" because they don't accurately portray my actual physical appearance.

So for the self portrait contest I decided to incorporate my "conceptional me' with my "actual me", however, I'm not really ready to come totally out from behind the canvas just yet and expose myself completely. I'm only revealing a glimpse of my naked self, my discomforted hand, my wedding ring, and my bracelet that was made for my by my dear friend Jessica Burnett.

Doing this self portrait pushed me out of my comfort zone but lead me to arrive in a place where I'm finding self acceptence with my personal appearance.

I can't say if there will be more, or more revealing, self portraits in the future...maybe...maybe....

Thank you for stopping by to visit my blog!

Oh and to all the Mommies and Daddie's who fill in as Mommy's HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY!!!!

Much love~
Angela

"Snowflakes"

While it seems like the rest of the country is getting more than their fair share of snow this past week where I live things have been rather unremarkable, maybe even less than average....I'm not complaining.

I've started back to my Fine Art painting and I'm also doing some book illustrations.  Yay me! for getting back to work.

I completed a series of paintings that I titled "Snowflakes" because 01. They are lovely, delicate, fair haired girls from the U.P and 02. I really, really suck at giving my paintings titles...so point 01. Reminded me of Snowflakes so that's what I'm calling them.

Wherever you are in this world and however snow much you've received I hope you enjoy viewing my "Snowflakes" and they bring you warm and happy thoughts.

Stay safe out there~
Angela

A Helping Hand...or Paw

The past two weeks have been two of the most craptacular weeks of my entire life.

So much has happened to me that I can't, and really don't want to, talk about openly.

Some of these things have lead me to question whether or not I wanted to continue to paint anymore, because really I didn't think I did for awhile.  I have actually done absolutely nothing since my last pastel painting of my daughter a few weeks ago.

Things just stopped as I watched my world around me spin out of control.

Fortunately I have some very good friends that have been with me, stabilizing me, and now motiving me.

Today I started painting for the first time in weeks thanks to my friend Jessica. 

This is a simple little gouache painting of her ferret's paw. 

I needed someone to lift me up and Jessica was there for me with a helping hand, or really, a helping paw.

Thank you for being there for me Jessica!

Touched by the Sun

The past two weeks have been weird for me for so many reasons.
All the things that I was normally doing have sort of taken a back burner, including blogging.

I'm sorry I haven't kept up with moderating comments and answering emails.  I'm just really being lame about it all at this point but to me the only hope of catching up is just to let a lot of unanswered comments and emails go unanswered.  I'm sorry.

So in addition to not blogging I haven't really been painting, or drawing, or anything else really.

This is the last project I completed.  It's a painting of my daughter, Abby.  I filmed the work in progress and produced a little 75 minute video of the work.  I showed it at a few private screenings here in Marquette.  I'm not sure what will happen with it now.  Maybe the project will be included in a bigger effort, maybe it won't.  I don't really know.

I don't know if and when I will resume painting on any functional level.

I'm just drained right now.

This is my pastel painting of my daughter....

Apple Series 2&3

I finished the Apple Series. 

I haven't been feeling well so I'm sorry that this blog post is going to be on the short side.

I just wanted to share these two pieces with you...

I won't be selling the originals right away since the exhibition I'm planning on putting them in doesn't end until the end of July but they will be available eventually. 

Currently all three are available as prints through my website.

I've really enjoyed drawing the girl with the short hair, it's quite different than my usual long hair.

It was time for a change, even though it was uncomfortable at first. 

But then again, most changes are uncomfortable at first.

I'm glad changes are going well for me right now because, really, I hate changes.

Thank you for stopping by my blog!

~Angela