New Painting: Moon Eye [tentative title]

Moon Eye

12'' x 48''
Acrylic on Stretched Canvas

Greetings to you!

I'm happy to share with you my latest completed painting which is yet to be officially named. It was started back in early/mid 2009 and was set aside for quite some time with a few other paintings that are unfinished.

Now, I love sharing the back story of my paintings with you, however for this one, I can't really remember what sparked the idea [click here for a little more insight into my memory]. At the time, I was working on pieces that were all different from one another so this is the only painting I've done in this style.

I Did It Because I Wanted To Do It

Though I don't remember what it was inspired by, I can tell you how it was done. I took a picture of myself with a fan covering half of my face. The fan was what I had used as part of my Geisha costume for Halloween back in 2007. I liked the picture but I wanted it to be different but using some bright colors as if it was a negative of a picture. With a little GIMP magic, I altered the original photo by introducing some blues and greens.

Full Moons

Doing that also created an option for what to do with my eye. I originally thought I would paint my eye as is but quickly realized that the negative of something black/dark brown is something very light. Then what came to mind was the moon. There are evenings of the full moon when it is incredibly bright in the dark night sky. So why know paint my eye as the moon!

I tucked my other eye away behind the shadow of the fan. With all that, here is a really cool painting (in my biased opinion :-))

If you want to, you are more than welcome to let me know your thoughts on it (info@hunterart.com)!

Until the next painting announcement, I wish you all the best and a Happy and Joyful New Year!!!

Best regards,

Michelle

Special shoutout to Mr. Chuck Lau for taking photos of my latest completed works! Check out his photography portfolio by visiting http://chucklau.smugmug.com/

New Painting: "Don't You Remember?"

Don't You Remember?

39'' x 16''

Acrylic and Wire on Stretched Canvas

With this third painting in my Brain series, I explore memory.

How's your memory?

I know mine isn't as sharp as I would like it to be. Sometimes I remember something with little effort yet most of the time, it takes several links being connected for a memory to come back. There are times as well when I wouldn't recall something at all. I know at least that I have plenty of company when it comes to such things.

Trying to concentrate on the task at hand.

The composition for this painting came together fairly quickly. Minimal colors or distractions. Painting the brain as wire and including my hands were always in the original idea. Hanging the brain from a wire freed up my hands to work on connecting remaining wires.

Sometimes recalling one instance can lead to similar memories surfacing.

I've represented the brain using wire. Real wire is actually incorporated into the piece as well. The twisted wire is attached from the top of the canvas and ends at the top of the brain. I chose to represent the brain with wire because I feel that connections need to be made for a memory to surface. Showing that wires are linked or bonded together is done by painting 2 or more wires twisted together throughout the brain structure.

 Friends give clues, I try to make the connection

You'll see that there are parts of the wire that are not connected. I chose to include my hands trying to connect those wires. This is how I'm representing the effort it takes for me to recall some things. Places, dates, people are some clues that help remind me of something that happened. 

There is a reason the wires are disconnected at the bottom part of the brain: Temporal Lobe

The temporal lobe, houses the part of the brain that controls memory called hippocampus. It happens to be located in the southern hemisphere of the brain. Therefore that seems like an appropriate area to have the wires disconnected. Of course my paintings are not trying to be anatomically accurate but it's interesting to learn more about how the brain works during the progression of this series.

As usual, here are some in progress shots:

Brain series (so far):
Painting 1: Past, Present, Future or Dreaming
http://hunterart.blogspot.com/2010/08/new-painting-which-image-matches-your.html

Painting 2: Caffeine Headache
http://hunterart.blogspot.com/2010/10/caffeine-headache.html