Off and and running with my new painting series! It’s a series about memories of my clothes. I remember events in my life and the clothes I was wearing at the time. Doesn’t have to be a special occasion. It’s just a little filing system I have going on. Mention a time we were together or a place I visited and I know exactly what I was wearing.
I have finished the first painting. I was humbled and honored when, once again, Jerry Saltz, Senior Art Critic for New York Magazine “liked” the painting on Instagram. I was thrilled! He has 160K followers! How could it be possible he really liked my painting? I continue to marvel at that thought.
Above is the first painting. It is 26″ x 36″. Acrylic, oil, paper, sharpie and charcoal on canvas.
A dear blogger friend of mine believes that every work of art needs to have a title. She is not the only one. A lot of people believe this is necessary to guide the viewer into the work. For years, I was vehemently against this, spewing on and on about how visual art is a visual thing and a title would be contrary to the experience, etc. But recently I had a change of heart. I thought, if I make up my titles at the computer when I am about to send my jpegs off to a juried exhibition or grant application, why not have a little fun with it? Not just “Yellow Flower” (as I am scrounging around in my brain for some written connection to what I am looking at on the computer screen.) I am making up the title anyway.
This first painting’s title is, “Dress Me, I’m Your Mannequin.” I got a smile at the computer! And maybe the viewer can see the abstraction with thoughts of hangers and clothing in mind.
Love the title! Glad you working on the series!
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Hey Marjie! Yes, the title has some spunk. Yes I am working. We have to talk. Someone from your lineage got in touch with me. You know, we Scandinavians have to share these things.🙄
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Now that we talked, Marjie, you know the scoop on the Scandinavian guy. Not all of us have to stick together. Ha!
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I’m loving the title, Hollis😉 this is is such a brilliant idea for a new series, I’m looking forward to watching your progress. This first piece is great, I shall come back and study it again but my first impression asks – where were you when you wore that little pink collar?
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Jenny you are so clever. Firstly, I couldn’t say the origins of the brilliant idea for the series too. And secondly, that pink collared item was originally a sort of rust color. I got it at Marshall’s, an outlet type store here. It is linen and is a jacket and pants. I loved the price for it. It was only fifty dollars for linen and it was a designer piece. Well, I NEVER wore it. I tried it on a lot. And it just looked too stodgy. Well, you asked!!! 😁
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You know, I had a thought today: Perhaps I will “grow into” the stodgy outfit. Always a possibility…
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Oh, I don’t know about clever….
We’ve all made purchases like that. I have a lovely navy blue linen dress hanging in my wardrobe and I’ve only ever worn it once. I’m much more a jeans and tunic kind of gal these days – hides a multitude of sins 😆
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What a great series this will be, Hollis. I always wondered why I remembered the clothes I wore at certain times in my life. Beautiful piece!
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I owe this brilliant idea for the series to Jenny. The post she did called something like, “And Now For a Few Good Nudes” was a winner! We all talked about our clothes. Thanks for the compliment.
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I remember that, Hollis. 🙂
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Hollis, I really do find your new work to be really exciting. Huge kudos to you also for catching the attention of critic Jerry Saltz w/ your latest work! I have a similar “memory thing” as you do w/ what you were wearing at a given time. In my case, it’s who our servers were in a restaurant or a fun outing! For some reason, their faces and names never leave me, to an almost photographic detail. Anyway, I honestly can’t wait to see your next piece in this series. Hope your holiday weekend has been great!
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Thanks Patricia! I am catching up on blogging and such. It’s wonderful. I guess its because we are visual people to have those kinds of memories, right?
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Wow! There’s so much texture in your painting! I love the idea and the title. That’s interesting you remember what you were wearing at any given time. Sadly, I don’t. Actually, my memory is pretty pathetic in general. Maybe that’s one reason I write … in a way, to remember. I wish you the best with your series, and hope it gets the attention it deserves!
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A fairly long time ago, Marie, I took a fascinating painting class, fascinating not at the time, but the teacher, being wise, knew it would pay off for us in the long run. During the critiques, the teacher and students would go through each of our pieces, and although it was a painfully long time with each artwork, we would analyze if we moved one element to the left a quarter of an inch how would the work be affected. The entire class fell silent during this imagining. With each piece. But this sort of scrutiny helped me so much. Years later, I am grateful to this man, Tom Francis, to this exercise, as well as so many other things he brought us to realize.
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I love it when we today experience the fruits of something we studied a long time ago 🙂
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