Going Backwards

Since I no longer occupy a 1,000 sq. ft. studio art studio and am now working inside our rather small diningroom, I decided to back tracked a bit and start working small once again. Also, I'm now teaching art at a high school in South L.A. and that takes up most of my time, so small works seem to just make sense to me right now. I'm also collaging a lot lately. Back when I was about 13 or 14, before I knew how to draw, I would spend hours making collages. I would utilize found images, paints, glue, ink, string, sewing/craft supplies, etc. But once I learned how to paint (about the age of 16) I stopped making collages as much. However, I never stopped collecting images and trinkets that interested me. Now, I'm feeling driven to work with them and I'm really excited.

I'm traveling right now with my fiance' so I'm just going to post the image of my small drawing that I recently worked on. Once we get back to LA I'll take some pictures on my collages. Although, come to think of it, I don't know if that work qualifies. I might adopt, for the time being, the word Assemblage, and  therefore dedicate some of my process to the late great Robert Rauschenberg. I can only hope to make art as wonderful and adventurous as he.

Anyway, back to that small painting. I think it's about 9"x7" on canvas. I'll measure more accurately when we get home. Aaah! Using travel as an excuse to procrastinate. Gotta love it!

I hope you enjoy! And thanks for joining me :)

Below is the large scale painting that I've been able to work on since moving to LA. This is about 4ft x 5.5 ft. 

I'll share with you the almost finished version soon. 

Here's me feeling sleepy:

And this is me as my drag character Jean Aquafine:

And this is me and Puppett (my fiance) as her drag character Silver:

And this is Puppett after taking off the first layer of make up:

Art as life and life as Art. 

Good night. I hope you enjoyed!!!