Large painting finished.

Photos in progress

 

Picked up the photo prints. The colors look awful and the paper is bad quality.
I'm waiting on an order of large format Epson luster photo paper to arrive to reprint the photos.

 

 I have all of the stuff for the framing! 

(The matte boards are actually black, they are just upside down in the photo)

Large painting: progress.

Here are some picture of the large painting is progress! Sorry about the bad lighting. I didn't have time to correct the white balance.

Paintings

 

Updated Artist Statement

I became a mother at an early age, long before any aspect of my life was ready to accommodate the needs of a child. As a result, the continual struggle of raising my daughter informs my everyday life and my work. I find the interaction between parenthood and childhood, how they influence and inform one another, fascinating. As a child, we learn almost everything from our parents, and as a parent we learn a great deal from our children. As I watch my daughter grow I remember things from my earlier years that I had long since forgotten. Childhood is not only a time of discovery and imagination, it is also a time marked by a lack of empathy and a larger understanding of the world. When you peel back the seemingly simple surface of childhood you are left with a slew of complexities characterize by feelings of apprehension and isolation. Loneliness is a common human experience and the process of coming to that realization is not an easy one. This, as well as the many other simplistic complexities, keeps bringing me back to images of childhood in my work. I explore these ideas by documenting ritualistic childhood experiences in my daughter’s life through photography. Sometimes I turn those photographs into paintings while other times I feel the photograph is the finished work.

Painting Progress!

I started 9 more of the 6 in square paintings.  I thought I would experiment with painting her beloved animals just to see how it works with the paintings of Zoey so two out of the nine are of Zoey's two favorite stuffed animals. The other seven are of Zoey. I actually ended up painting over a couple of the ones I had already started because they were so messed up that I needed to restart them.

Here they are, nine new beginnings!

My artist's statement. In progress.

Original stream of consciousness:

"In my work I examines the interaction between parenthood and childhood. I am completely fascinated by these points in someone's life, the reason being because the interaction between these two stages in life has the greatest impact on all other life stages. As a child, we learn almost everything from our parents, and as a parent we learn so much from our children– or at least that is how it should be.

Having become a parent early in life, way before any aspect of my life was ready to accommodate a child, it has greatly colored every aspect of who I am. I have found the process of being a parent and constantly observing childhood very enlightening. I have since remembered aspects of my childhood long since forgotten and now see everything through new eyes. I want others to remember too.

My daughter is my masterpiece. I will never be able to make anything with my hands even close to the perfection that is she however I am constantly in pursuit of it. In the meantime I try not to ruin the work that she is."


The artist statement first draft:

I became a mother at an age long before any aspect of my life was ready to accommodate the needs of a child. As a result, the continual struggle of raising my daughter informs much of what I do today in my life and in my work. I find the interaction between parenthood and childhood, how they influence and inform one another, fascinating. As a child, we learn almost everything from our parents, and as a parent we learn a great deal from our children. As I watch my daughter grow I remember things from my own childhood that I had long forgotten. Childhood is not only a time of discovery and imagination, it is also a time that lacks the understanding of the commonality of everything and the resulting feeling is one of isolation. This and many other aspects of childhood are what keep bringing me back to it in my work.
 

 The artist statement second draft:

I became a mother at an early age, long before any aspect of my life was ready to accommodate the needs of a child. As a result, the continual struggle of raising my daughter informs much of what I do today in my life and in my work. I find the interaction between parenthood and childhood, how they influence and inform one another, fascinating. As a child, we learn almost everything from our parents, and as a parent we learn a great deal from our children. As I watch my daughter grow I remember things from my own childhood that I had long since forgotten. Childhood is a time of discovery and imagination, however it is also a time when we all lack the ability to step outside of ourselves in order to better understand the commonality of everything. Not yet realizing that loneliness is a common human experience can cause many children to have deep feelings of inadequacy and isolation. This as well as the many other simplistic complexities in childhood are what keep bringing me back to it in my work.





Please let me know what I can do to improve this statement. Have I left anything out? Did I include too much? Any and all input is greatly appreciated!

Also, since I can't seem to force myself into one medium... should I mention that I use a variety of mediums to explore the aspects of childhood? Should I mention that it is the image of my daughter that I use?