"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!