this week i am feeling so completely uninspired.
 i love this painting called The Lining by Matt Connors because it is totally relating to the grids I am making in my cake painting but in a completely different way. I feel all types of pressure to get that done but it seems like it is taking for-ev-er, it just makes me question what I am doing.

The Lining, Matt Connors 

I made a few sculptures this week: 

They were made with plaster, I am happy with them the second time around. 

I'm just feeling blah in general, I think it's because no one else is working so it's hard to have motivation when your peers are kind of slow at working and every time I go into the studio its empty. well hopefully next week will be more exciting?

the kake and rebekah

this week has had its up and its downs, i have finally moved into my studio.

the unavoidable :

i have started this cake painting and im kind of scared of it because i barely started it and i have put in around 7-8 hours already and it looks like i have not done anything, but at the same time it reminds me of something beautiful. this painting is more of like a practice for me to start to understand the meaning of slow. for so long i was making paintings that were taking a long time because of the many layers and abandonment of each layer -- i guess it was slow for my own satisfacton. now i want to make something that is going to be a slow process because of the viewers appreciation of slow. things are changing quite a bit in my studio, im going to try to be a little more disciplined by spending more time on specific imagery rather than eluding to imagery that i make up in my mind. this is the start to my cake painting, although it looks like i've done nothing.

the bad : also i made a failed attempt at sculpture this week which was pretty embarrassing not to mention exhausting. i may be able to salvage it during the weekend. my instructor hannah was busy today and still took the time out to help me and make me feel less like a failure when i approached her during my crisis.

the best part of this week:

being matched up with my mentor, Rebekah Callaghan who is a second year MFA student here at Mason Gross and she and I are going to be meeting up throughout the school year to talk about work and I guess anything that happens during the time from now until thesis. Rebekah's paintings are really nice, and she seems to make a lot of work.we both value materials in a similar way. She uses tempera and oil paint in her paintings which is awesome. They are radical and I can't wait to learn more about them, so i can talk about them in a smarter way than I am now.  I think we are going to be an awesome match and we both are willing to put forth time in order to get the most out of the experience. ( in all seriousness). Also it is going to be nice to have someone to validate my thoughts and fears as an artist.

Rebekah Callaghan  Edouard?  "11 x 14" tempera on paper

interview with painter Dana Majana a fourth year student undergoing THESIS  :

what type of artist do you consider yourself?
definitely a painter, a sculptor trapped in a painters mindset. i am totally obsessed with materials, and using the materials to create a setting that is significant to my personal life.


sculpture ?
yeah, sculpture because every piece that i make has a material aspect to it, its a build up of space. I had one ground breaking piece for me that made me feel like I had actually made something worthwhile, something jaw dropping.  i spent around 3 hours making a huge apparatus out of chicken wire and then a good amount of time making over 200 pieces of handmade unbleached abaca paper and then used some home insulation foam and spray paint to make this massive piece that made me feel like I did something special. I would say this was the first time I had really dabbled into making one of my paintings a sculpture. That was the last real piece I made, maybe I'm just still excited.

how would you describe your process as a painter?
each painting is a slow work in progress, each painting is a result of impulse. i can keep a painting around for months before i figure out exactly what it needs, it will never look the same. nothing is planned which is exciting and annoying. making aesthetic decisions is important and i can't find the time to make them, sometimes i'm fine with that.

do you stick to one color pallet?

"BabyLips" Oil on Canvas Spring 2012 

definitely not, i do  love pastel colors and especially pink but i normally have a connection to the colors i choose for each painting and why i chose them. a recent painting is of the lip glosses made by Maybelline "BabyLips" and the reason I bought all 8 lip glosses is because of the colors attracting me to them. I could not pass them up, so I made a painting about them. Colors are important, they help you to remember a time, I know they help me remember a time and place and its a sensory thing for me. When I look at this painting I won't forget crouching down to the last shelf of the beauty aisle and picking these babies up. It was important and significant.

do you limit yourself to a certain aesthetic? 

not necessarily, I used to make small paintings around 5X5 or 8X8, only in square shapes but I vow to never limit myself in that way ever again.

can you name one painting that changed your life ? 

P. by Charlene Von Heyl

P. by Charlene Von Heyl at first i thought the shock from seeing it would linger away and I would find something I loved even more, but nothing comes close. It just has this amazing presence that makes me love the idea of painting in general. This weird form that is made of familiar things like acrylic paint and crayons can make you laugh and make you feel. All it is is a surface thats brought to life and given a personality by the viewer. I love it, it reminds me of a creature that is bigger than me, but doesn't scare me. 

something that has stumped you recently?

I was out at my best friends 21st birthday party, she's not much of a drinker and her mom had made her this birthday cake in one of those throwaway aluminum tins. It had pink icing and sprinkles and 21 holes for 21 years living and I can't stop thinking about how weird and strange this cake was. Its things like those that make me want to paint and interpret them, I just think that I haven't been specific enough in the past and this cake told me. Now I have to paint this cake?  Strange right ? I guess I have been telling myself not to share so much information but its time now to do this, and to not be afraid. I think I've been too vague. I wanna tell people about what bothers me. I wanna show them these bizarre things. 

what's the most interesting thing about you?
i'm not really interesting I'm just very consumed by people, but want not to portray them. i have a big italian family and the way they are coping of the loss of my grandmother is really hard. Its been years but I have been picking up on these certain changes and adjustments ever since 2007.