Diagenesis is the process of geological changes that take place when one form of sedimentary rock is changed into another over time at lower temperature and pressure. When you break it down to the root, it means "two origins." The term really resonates with where I currently am in my process with these projects. New elements are still finding their way in, but it's a vein I've been working in long enough now that the processes are starting to condense down into something more solid. I have done my wild explorations and have a familiarity with the materials that allows for more considered compositions—injecting some order into the chaos.

Below are two in progress pieces. The hanging piece is much closer to completion, though I'm still working on building up the outer shell of the form. The standing piece is what I've done revisiting that wire structure I made early on in our blog, building up around the armature but it's still in the relatively early stages of construction.

The smaller pieces below are finished explorations. The first playing with both the 3d and 2d surfaces and bringing some drawing elements back into the work. The second, limited color into the work while trying to maintain the delicacy and transparency of the base materials in order to let the colored lights really play across the surface.

My current work is about my re-connection with my home city, Lima, Peru, and how much it has change in the last 15 years due to the economic boom. Huge buildings are invading the city, and the traffic and chaos are inevitable. However, Lima still keeps its charm, at least to me.

From a new series, Tragic Comity, I've recently been working on. The images included are sourced from vintage photographs found online, recombined to create vignettes that are quasi- allegorical in nature. I'm interested in an ambiguity between life and the theater of life, between instincts and social mores and where they meet. The exploration is still quite new and the piece I've included is a very direct work by comparison to the sketches I've been producing, which I'm sorry I haven't included. I want to reserve all of my personal comments, descriptive or critical (of which I have many), so that this work itself may be viewed without a particular slant or bias. Any comments and criticisms, (formal, palette, thematic, etc.) are appreciated. I feel a bit stuck in some ways and feedback would be most helpful. Thanks.

Hi guys,

Here is an image of my newest painting, not titled yet. I have a few ideas of how to finish it but I want to get feedback from you all on it. I don't want to say too much on it for now I think I'd like your pure thoughts first. I have also included a couple detail shots as well as an image of a new small piece. The last image is a finished shot from my last post where I showed the in progress wall scroll as well. 

I really feel like I am starting to discover new things about this subject matter. It is really interesting to continue a series and find out which things you return to and which you don't. I really feel like I am learning a lot. I think practicing in both large and small format as well as different media has helped me understand the subject more clearly. 

Steph

I finally have enough small draw-paintings to start bringing the old and the new pieces together!

I've been naturally grouping them mostly by palette or theme, which still helps me to work more freely with content's line and create patterns.

This is still a growing process so any feedback is welcome!  

 







So...yeah.
 I started getting back into painting much like one gets into a pool. A pinkie toe first, then a leg, then the other leg and finally a giant leap off the steps into the water. Pretty soon you're thinking a bunch of rambling thoughts that are kind like "woah! I'm in the pool!" and "holy crap it's cold but kind of awesome!"
At least that's how it's been for me. 
The pinkie toe is a metaphor for testing out new materials, like the bright pink 'hipster-ish' painting. It was fun and challenging to make this. I used Golden flow acrylics, matte medium for transferring the image (first time I ever did that,) paint markers, Fiber paste, and ink. 
 It seemed that after I played around with new materials I just sort of got going again. 

Anyway, the five pieces that you see here are the most important pieces that have gotten me to start working again. 

The car pieces are my newest pieces. The three of them have transpired over the last week or so. They are about making amends with a past you cannot change and setting it free. 

But they are also about painting a piece of my childhood that has remained vivid. 

I take these car references and appropriate them using images from my travels and memory. I should note that the last truck painting is done in oil, glitter, and Pearlex powdered pigments. Glitter has a magical way of reminding you that it's okay not to be so serious all the time.
The study of the truck is done in watercolor -(I experimented with text but decided against it in the final piece )- and the blue van is a study for my next painting done in ink, sharpie, and watercolor.  
  Another reason why old cars are so fascinating for me to paint is because they are becoming a relic a past. Every year we get a little further and further away from our dependence on oil-ran cars. These cars I remember so thoroughly (I spent a lot of time in them) will be so exceptionally ancient by the time I am an old lady. The century of cars came and went. Sooner or later they will be absent from modernity. Maybe our great-grandkids will never experience them, who knows. 


The next painting is based around relationships of family members with one another and how that changes in a different environment. I like the drawing, but the colors are really aggressive so I sort of stopped messing with it. For now, it is a study for a larger painting. 

The last painting is in reference to Brian's Japan trip. He took an picture of a painted heart while traipsing about in Kyoto. I was so drawn to the cleverness and simplistic beauty that I adapted it and painted my own version for him. 

The painting is made with acrylics. It is also heavily textured and layered with strips of cardboard and recycled paper. 

Oil on Canvas 52"x36"

Starting with a run of drawings all from live model sessions, this painting is an attempt to bridge the gap between my figurative drawing habits and a practice of painting that is tending more and more towards the abstract. All of the previous drawings and subsequently this composition have been built spontaneously over the course of a three hour short pose drawing session. As poses built up, I began to edit, narrow my focus, and try to feel out a sense of movement and gesture throughout the image. Parts of the image that were stable remained stable, those that changed were allowed to flow and sweep and change scale and location to serve the composition. The challenge I face in creating a painting based on this idea is rooted in keeping the vitality of the drawings intact. When laying out a composition on canvas, I didn't try to copy the original...more or less just translate it's essence and general flow.

Realizing that the process of painting could take an unexpected turn down the line, I figured that as long as the basic infrastructure was there the rest might somehow hang in place. Another consideration is that the sketch is monochrome, and not wanting to lose the structure of the drawing in a sea of color, I have been careful to keep my color choices toned down. The palette at this point, is essentially primary: transparent orange ochre, scarlet red lake, cobalt blue, lemon yellow, ivory black and titanium white. Starting with a grey toned ground, the under-drawing however, was done with paint pens in a few colors. I started this way in order to give myself a direct link to the original drawing method. Using multiple colors, mostly neutrals, I was able to set up some initial depth as well.

In concept, the work is still an experiment. It's an attempt to see how one of my more spontaneous practices translates into a longer studio painting. It's an observation of an expanse of time, maybe illustrated. It's specific form, but seen briefly, and then more. Lather, rinse, repeat. As I near completion on this piece, I wonder what will survive of the initial joy of the moment or if, as in other works, the nature of the paint itself will become too seductive. I'll take my cues from the cubists on this one. See shallow forms, observe edges, resist extravagant color; document space rather than illustrate.

But first, MORE BABY LAMP!

I think  I love this one even more than the first. But don't tell Baby Lamp 1...I don't need my art children getting jealous of one another. Though it is currently in the middle of a facelift and expansion. So who knows...it could win me back.

This is the piece that I put together for Noel's Little Marks show, and these tiny pieces are such a fun way for me to experiment in different ways of making mark through drawing, sewing, cutting, materials...but then I need to get back and apply that to the larger pieces.

I have been working on two new larger lamps as well. Both are currently in middling stages of development, though I did include them in Awash, the installation that I did out in Venice, a couple weeks ago. I've been playing with repetition, using the same forms on different scales, or on the same scale in different materials, as well as combining warm and cool light sources.

The installation was a fun, if a bit crazy beast. Working in an outdoor location was a new experience, and I loved having the different levels and architectural elements of the staircases, railing, walk ways, and doors to work with. Started setup Wednesday evening, finishing touches Thursday after work, show, and de-install immediately after—36 hours all told. Some of you may recognize a lot of the old paper elements that are getting to make one last appearance. I rescued a whole bunch of my "paper burritos," relics from my final semester at CSULB, from my mother's garage the weekend before the installation. I thought they'd all been sacrificed to the spider gods, but it turned out the infestation was superficial. So after a good hour of sweeping and careful shop-vac action, I found myself unexpectedly paper rich. There wasn't much time for modification in that period, but the deconstruction process has started, and while I love these pieces and the transformative period they represent for me, it is time to let go and move on. It was nice to give them one last hurrah before that happened though. Having so much base material made the composition process very fluid.

Once again, I find satisfaction in the balance between very large, immersive, physical, almost frenetically created work and small, intricate, and involved pieces. I'm at my happiest when I can make the latter jewel-like focal points within the former.

Happy Summer Solstice crit crowd!

So I've been sinking my teeth into my new series, I have a few more small pieces and a large in progress one. In terms of critique I could use your thoughts on the overall direction of this series(since I have been on it for a bit) as well as your thoughts on the in progress one. The big one is going to be a wall scroll, I have dowels that I plan to sew into the top and bottom. 

I also have a short statement that I wrote for the series if you guys have thoughts on this:

"This series of work investigates the nature of diagrams. Diagrams translate a visual truth to us; they explain organisms and the way that they live through dissection and careful consideration of parts. By examining the question "What would an in progress diagram look like?" I explore this visual language of finding my own truth within line and form. My influences include Richard Diebenkorn and Agnes Martin as well as the drawings of Rachel Whiteread."

Anyhow take a look :)