Cool Cuts!

So, for the past 10 years or so I've cut my own hair. Every now and again I'd take my chances on the skill of someone else's sheers, but I usually regret it and eventually have to 'fix' it myself. I get tons of comments and compliments on my hair cuts and styles (even from strangers) and recently some friends encouraged me to blog about my hair. Earlier this year I even tried going to school for cosmetology. I thrived in the program as a stylist, but the industry just wasn't for me. It sucks when you're really good at doing something but you end up being miserable doing it :(

Anyway, here's some pics of my most recent cut. It's actually what I've been doing to my hair for the last year or so:

I hope you enjoy!

Beautiful View

As a dog walker I offer what I call the Slumber Party Package. This means that when one of my clients goes out of town they can hire me to stay at their house over night with their pups! That way the little one doesn't have to expereience the trauma that sometimes comes with staying in a kennel. I know if I were a dog it would be traumatic staying in one of those places. This way the pup gets to stay in the comfort of their own home. And I get to hang out with my favorite dogs for more than a 30 minute walk! Yaay! 

Anyway, my point in mentioning this is that I recently did an eleven day slumber party with one of my favorite clients, Bella. She's Pit-mix and has an incredibly gentle soul, as well as the goofiest ears I've ever seen on a dog. During this stay, I discovered the fire escape in the hall way and therefore discovered the view and the lovely sunset. Check it out:

"Making It" reception

The reception for the alumni show at Uarts turned out to be pretty nice. I was a little dissapointed that a lot of the show was displayed in a hallway. Granted, that hallway is fairly large, new, and freshly painting. . . I guess I shouldn't complain too much. 

The show was held on the 17th floor of the Terra Building located on Broad St just 2 blocks South of Philadelphia's City Hall. Uarts recenlty renovated this top floor and put in a beautiful new theater. The accoustics are super high tech, so all the music majors can know what it's like to perform in a top notch music hall with all the spunky technical toys to go along with it. And apparently it's a good space for dance and theater performances as well. 

Our show was held in the lobby and hallway just outside of this new theatre. Gina and Anthony and I had fun viewing our fellow alumni work, as well as shmoozing with a couple folks.  Check out the pics below!!!

Anthony, Jerica, and Gina

Me in front of my painting " She Cums Out of the Blue"

Gina with her painting "Elemental Composition of Venus"

I really enjoyed this photo. Unfortunately I can't zoom in enough to get the name of the artist on the tag. If anyone knows who it is, please let me know. 

I really like this! By Leigh Ann Bogner.

"Photocopy Rivers, #12"

Collage

Current Show- Making It!!

Stop by University of the Arts and check out the Alumni show! There, you can see my painting "She Cums Out of the Blue" in person, and a ton of other great art!

"She Cums Out of the Blue"

My Prints and Original art can now be purchased at Ugallery.com and paperwork.com!!!!

Ok, so I said that I wasn't gonna just focus on my paintings, but it's been so darn long since I've blogged that I'm trying to catch up.

Click the link below to buy and check out my limited addition prints
http://paperwork.ugallery.com/

here's a direct link to my print:
http://paperwork.ugallery.com/PrintDetail.aspx?ID=9811

And for original work go to
http://www.ugallery.com/ProductList.aspx?RC=1&Search=ashley+payne

Did I mention that they're all eco-friendly prints?! Pretty cool!

Tea Time with my comrades

Gina Rubinetti (my studio mate) and Anthony Rastelli are a source of great inspiration to me. I was very fortunate to spend an afternoon with them last week, drinking endless cups of hot tea and sharing our thoughts and theories about love, life, art, the many levels of consciousness, and much more. 

Gina Rubinetti ("Cakes")

Anthony Rastelli

I look forward to many moments like this one with my buds!

My Pooch- the destroyer!!

Lydia loves to chew up fabric and in this case the teddy bear gets it good!! She's a little killer. 

Check out the teddy bear guts to the left of her. 

I'm such a baby blogger

So, I'm gonna do my best to start really adding a lot more to this blog. Not just what I'm doing with my art/paintings, but also with how I live my life. I realize that we all strive to live passionate, inspired lives and that in many cases the lives of artists can be so free and inspiring. I know this from my own experience living closely with many artists, reading artist biographies and just by seeing the way that people respond to the way I live my life. I want to share my philosophies, my experiments with life, my fears, joys and outbursts of creations! I hope these posts will be accepted kindly and enjoyed by many!

I'll probably end up giving a ton of visuals. I'm still not sure what kind of voice I want to have with this thing.
Ok, enough chatty chatting! Here's some pictures. . . some candy for your eyes. . . :)

About six years ago I started a painting of my sister and I. This was a few years after I first started to really learn how to paint. I've always made things, but this was the time in my life that I began really creating visual imagery that reflected life as I saw it. My sister and I have a rough past, we went through a lot together as well as apart. We pushed each other away and then held on tight. Today, we're still holding on tight to each other. The bond between us is unbreakable and beautiful. When I began this painting (with the little technical skills I had under my belt) I wanted to explore the joy as well as the hurt that we experienced because of our own adolescent stupidity and clumsiness as well as the connection that we have as blood relatives, as sisters. A powerful union that has the ability to last through out many many lives.
I started the painting in Florida, where I grew up and I recently asked my dad to ship it to me. . . I was finally ready to finish it. It's gonna take me a while to get through. Maybe 6 more years. Which I'm fine with.

This is the painting in its original state, the way I left it several years ago:

And this is my progress so far: 

I don't usually paint like this now, so I have to be in a special mood to paint this way. That's probably why it will end up taking so long. But it's worth it. 

Here's a pic of my space and the other paintings I'm working:

Hope you enjoy!

Queer Art?

AxD gallery queer artists and gallery directors.

The Artists

I've been very fortunate this month to participate in Q Fest. Not only was my work in a fantastic group show, but my best friend Rae Drew also performed in the Queer Memoir Salon the other night. It was an intense night of queer writers being totally ballsy and telling all about they're experiences. The theme was Sticks and Stones. And as most anyone growing up as glbtq or even being in close relation to someone who is, sticks and stones can be quite prolific and extremely painful. These folks got on stage and told all and told it with pride. We got to hear about these painful experiences and at the end of each story or performance it seemed everyone came out of it just fine. The warm fuzzies were running rampid, but not in that Full House, cheesey kinda way. This was heart felt, genuine personal and spiritual growth.  It was a wonderful and empowering evening.
Unfortunately I haven't gotten pictures from the show yet, but I'm working on it.
Above, though are pictures from the Queer Art? show that I was in.
More to come!!

Current Show

To see the painting below in person go to AxD Gallery located in center city Philadelphia. It's up till the end of the month.  You'll also see lots of other great work by 10 other artists!

 For more info go to:
http://www.a-x-d.com/gallery/current

The Demure Doctor

This painting is approximately 4.5 feet by 6.5 feet. Mixed media on water color paper

Thanks!

Hi there,
If you're checking out my blog, thanks for spending the time to look at my stuff. I've been thinking a bit how my work might affect others and why it has relevance. My work is highly personal to me and it's always so thrilling when I'm able to witness someone seeing one of my paintings for the first time. In my work,  I'm not commenting on anything outside of myself and yet it can still affect someone other than me. I'm aware of how deeply we are all connected, how universal human emotions and desires are. And I think that is what makes my work relevant. For me, the art that seems extremely personal to the artist is usually the art that speaks to me in the most powerful way. If you make art, I'd love to see it. Please leave me a link to your work or follow my blog so I can follow yours too. If you know someone who might appreciate the work you see here,send it to them. I'd love to be connected with more folks!
Thanks again!
Ashley

May works in progress

I have 3 new paintings in the works. I've been juggling a lot right now outside of the studio and I seem to be running out of time to finish these paintings. I've given myself the rule of having to finish my paintings in 3 weeks or 21 days. I thought for these 3 I would do the 3 weeks rule, but have found it difficult. I don't want to go back to the 21 days where i just tally the days that I spend with them. I want solid deadlines for my process. But since I can't be in the studio full time I'm considering changing it to 5 weeks. That way a good portion of the time can still be dedicated to thinking about, sitting with, and meditating on each painting to the full capacity. I want to be pushed with a time limit but I want to also lack the stress and anxiety that might otherwise force something to come out in a reckless manner. I'm okay with things looking as though they came out recklessly, but I want to feel harmony within myself when I make these paintings. And by that I don't mean to imply that my mood or persona, when painting, always has to be calm and peaceful. I just don't want to constantly be chasing the clock. We do that enough in our daily lives as it is.

So, with that said, my process must evolve and change with the times and demands of my current lifestyle. I'll keep you updated.

My Studio Mates New Painting

After working on her last painting for 9 months, Gina has now started a new paintings. The last one she did was the chemical elements of the moon. She paints the chemical elements that make up the celestial matters in the universe. (I know I messed that up.) She explains her work much better than I do. The jist is, she 's color coded every chemical element in the periodic table. Below is her new painting in progress.

Check out her blog too to see more great work: http://ginarubinetti.blogspot.com/

"The Energy We Create is Both Magical and Iridescent" 80"x42"

Details:

My Newest Painting

(I finished this a couple weeks ago and finally photographed it.)

Titled: She Cums Out of the Blue

42"x84.5"

Work in Progress

Because I only allow myself 21 days to start and finish a painting, I now have 6 more days to finish the two below. Today, working in the studio was extremely productive and exciting. I was able to just work on both paintings with out pausing or questioning. There was a wonderful, even flow of communication between me and the work. The first one is going to need a lot more attention before my six days are up. But the one underneath is pretty close. I hope you enjoy!

Blind Drawings: Something I'm thinking of doing again.

When I was working on my process for these paintings I did a bunch of really small ink drawings that reflected the first stage of my paintings. I did this as an exercise to figure out what it was that I wanted to do with these paintings. I needed to see a small version of what I was thinking of doing before setting out to do the full, life-size ones.

The excursive:

I would have a stack of small sheets of bristol board sitting on my lap, pen in hand, timer to my left. And in front of me would be an engaging enough movie. I would set the timer to about 10 minutes and while keeping my eyes on the movie I would draw these lines. I would later, in the studio, ad color. They turned out to be really beautiful. I did several bristol drawings and filled a sketchbook with them. Since then I haven't really done anymore of them and have simply focused all my energy on the paintings. I plan to change that. I'll be starting a new series of small blind drawings. I'll keep ya updated!

Current Paintings

Title: Zainy Brainy Beany Baby Shelf 42"x65"

Title: Near Death or Any Cockle Do 42"x63.5"

Title: The Diver 54"x42"

Title: Something About Sea Creatures 42"x87"

Little Fish Swallowed 42"x108"

Title: Fairies Don't Have Tails 84.5"x42"

Title: My Poison Lung 97"x42"

Artist Statement

I am interested in the impulsive response. I believe that when an action or response is done out of spontaneity and impulse it tends to be more honest, less censored and more pure, nothing is held back.

This is why the surface ground is so important in my paintings. With the energy that directly reflects my mood, I create the ground using continuous gestural lines that look like doodles and scribbles. On a large-scale sheet of watercolor paper I use different colors and mediums in order to build up a surface ground of several layers. In order to make these lines purely spontaneous and uncensored, I blindfold myself and allow a limited amount of time to make each layer (5-15 minutes). As a result, the lines that are produced become a visual map of my subconscious.

After creating this ground, I remove the blindfold and respond to the new surface as impulsively or instinctually as I can. Images appear and develop in the order that my subconscious responds to the lines and shapes on the paper. When an idea comes to me I do not allow myself time enough to question it. If I realize fast enough that the new idea or ‘response’ feels natural or even brings a smile to my face, I try it. This forces the painting to evolve and grow, because then I end up responding to that previous move or mark that was just made.

In my work there is a constant struggle to trust my instincts, impulses and initial desires. The images that appear in my paintings become a sort of metaphysical conversation. In the end, whatever exists on the paper is a manifestation of what is going on within my psyche.