ALL MEDIA 2017 SHOW: backstory & process

This year I was honored to be a part of the All Media 2017 Show at the Irvine Fine Arts Center. It's always exciting to be part of a show, but especially when it was as diverse as this one was. You can see for yourself in a few pictures i snapped below at opening night. It featured everything from ceramic sculpture to installation art, painting, and photography. The painting with the hand over the girls face and the last image with the dots were a couple of my favorites. And both won prizes that night!

My contribution to the show was this canvas sculpture:

24 x 36" canvas, oil, acrylic, thread, glitter

back of canvas detail

front of canvas detail

I had been working on it, on and off, for the past three years. But let me explain where the idea first began.

​At the end of college I became interested in the canvas as an object, a sculpture in itself, rather than just a surface to paint on. Looking back, I think my curiosity was sparked when a professor asked the class who painted on the edges of their canvases, which essentially wraps the painting around the frame. There were only a few people who raised their hands. And I was one of them. After that I wanted to see how I could push this idea further. 

I first experimented by cutting into and sewing the canvas. The idea was to create inside of the painting rather than to have something protrude from it. Almost like it is unveiling what is inside of it. I made these three mini canvas sculptures during my senior year:

​Cut to my last semester of painting class. I had an oil painting that flopped in critique. It didn't come across the way I meant it too. My prof called it kitsch, which was not at all what I was going for. After I graduated and moved back home I eventually cut that painting up. I wanted to experiment on a large scale what I had done with the mini canvas series. 

I never thought it would take me so long to actually finish this piece. Most of the time it sat with just the middle piece sewn into it, like in image 2 below. Turns out sewing into a 2 x 3 ' canvas is kind of hard with short arms. I also accidentally stabbed myself too many times to count, haha. I eventually got a thimble. 

About 8 months ago I looked over at the half-sewn canvas propped up behind my door. I knew that if I didn't start back on it then, I would never finish it. So i gave myself a deadline to finish it and submit it to an LA gallery show focused on textiles. I eventually finished it in time, May 2017, but didn't get into the first show I applied too. Luckily, the Irvine Fine Arts All Media 2017 show came along, and I was accepted. 

Some of the ​stages: 

Dec 13, 2013 original painting that got cut up

cut up / sewn pieces

July 11, 2014

Oct 23, 2014

May 3, 2017: almost done

​When there are so many projects going at once that it can be overwhelming just looking at everything that isn't finished yet. There's always a moment you have to choose to work or leave it looming. I hope that this would encourage you to finish something you once found exciting or curious. Sometimes its worth it to see something through. You never know what ideas it could spark next.

​


​
Music listened to while working: 
Joni Mitchell: Blue, Clouds
Ben Howard: I Forget Where We Were
The Avett Brothers: I and Love and You, Magpie And The Dandelion
Laura Marling: A Creature I Don't Know, I Speak Because I Can