I'm Paula Dean, Y'all!

Y'all. I'm like the art version of Paula Dean. I want art in in all my creations, in all its forms, in everything I breathe. Instead of butter, I need art. I'm Paula Dean, y'all. 

So...I've got another project in the works, and it's all about art. Bet you didn't see that coming.

Utah County is sorely lacking in art lessons, so I will now be offering private art lessons and children's art parties to awesome people who love art. I'm super excited! And I made a blog, so just hustle your butt over and check it out.

Artist: Luca Raimondi

Luca Raimondi
Baratti, first light
oil on canvas

I love that this painting looks realistic enough to make me feel like I'm on this beach, but not so realistic that I can't use my imagination. One day I'd like to live right by the beach in a seaside town, maybe in New Zealand or Florida or North Carolina.

Sometimes in art class I ask my students to close their eyes and think of a happy place. I usually imagine a forest full of tall green trees. I think my new happy place is the beach. Where's your happy place?

Artist: Eion Llewellyn

Eion Llewellyn
The Changing
oil on linen

First throughts:

Who are these people? This picture is really blurry. Oh, it's just their faces. I wish I could see them more clearly. The girl looks like a bride. Who's that guy on the right? He feels like a third wheel. The guy on the left looks older than the one one the right. Why is this called The Changing? Reminds me of the changing of the guard. Maybe this girl is getting married to the guy on the right, and the one on the left is her father. Maybe he's giving his blessing. I like the detail on her arm. 

Artist: Yinka Shonibare

Yinka Shonibare
Odile / Odette
Film

I saw this film at The Modern in Ft. Worth when we went to that conference last month. It was playing in a dark room, and the image and sounds transfixed me for a good ten minutes. If we ever see ballerinas in person, they're usually too far away to hear their breathing. Check out the film and focus on the sounds. 

Artist: Steve Payne

Steve Payne

Bill Murray

Photoshop

"Steve Payne uses digital copies of George Dawe’s painted portraits of Russian generals as a basis for his work, incorporating friends, family and celebrities into the paintings using Adobe Photoshop.

George Dawe was an English portraiture artist who, commissioned by the Military Gallery of the Winter Palace, Saint Petersburg, painted 329 portraits of Russian generals active during Napoleon’s invasion of Russia."

Hahaha this is the best. Also now I just really really want to watch What About Bob and imagine Bill Murray in this outfit the entire time.

Personalized Paper Dolls

I stumbled upon this the other day. This Etsy shop will create personalized paper dolls based on picture you send in. How cute is that? It would be a fun alternative to family portraits all over the house. The maker says: 

"Order a playful portrait of yourself, your pets or your family. You provide the photos and choose the clothes, and I'll illustrate a quirky stylized moveable likeness of your favorite animal or person. Custom paper dolls make perfect wedding gifts or modular family portraits. You can always add a new puppy or baby to the set!

The dolls arrive packaged as pictured. For a fun twist on the traditional family portrait, frame them in a shadow-box type frame."

Artist: Michael Vincent Manalo

Michael Vincent Manalo
The Fish Tales II
Digital Photomanipulation

You know what I see? Two beings, stuck in a tempest, who are too afraid to face their problem and figure out a way to fix it. So they just ignore it. 

Artist: Hung Liu

Hung Liu

Lade Gege

mixed media

2010

I simply cannot get enough of this painting. What don't I love? I love her eyebrows, and her lips, that gorgeous monstrosity on her head?! Can we talk about the bird? It reminds me of that part in the Sex + the City movie where Carrie puts a blue bird on her head as a replacement for her wedding veil. What started off as a simple wedding turned into this gaudy, boisterous affair at the NY public library with a crazy dress and gorgeous decorations. After she gets left at the altar and is processing what that feels like, she reflects on how the wedding plans got out of hand. 

"I put a BIRD...on my HEAD."

That was honestly my first thought. 

I love that a piece of art can become so much more than paint on a surface. I enjoy finding connections to my personal life that the artist would never think about, like a movie I obsessed over three years ago.

First raw impressions: 

The pink part looks like cotton candy. 

I wonder what purpose that hat serves.

Who is this girl?

Whoever she is, she can definitely pull this look off.

I wish I were brave enough to wear, truly, whatever I wanted. 

Walking with a huge hat on your head must feel similar to walking in five-inch heels.

I bet you can't play soccer in that outfit. 

Does she want to play soccer? Or is she happy with the hat?

Where on earth would you wear that?

I want to be brave like her.

Handwritten Poems by Nicole Lavelle

Handwriting blows my mind. Can you imagine how many kinds of "fonts" there are in the world? Think of all the people who have ever existed and what all their handwriting might look like. I would love to do an art project about that. I'm also a sucker for colloquial poetry. I like my poems quick and dirty. They need to feel effortless (even if they took seven straight days of toil) and sound like a glorified tweet. Does that make me shallow? I just can't handle poetry that seems too contrived. I guess maybe I should just say that I like good poetry. 

BFF lady friend Jeannette is a poet. I found out a year after graduation that she was a speaker in her college's graduation ceremony and performed a poem about life. She didn't even tell me. She took me to a poetry slam in Salt Lake once to hear her perform. Her poem was about trying to date a guy that everyone she knew approved of, but she personally didn't even really like. I ended up being a line in the poem. In that line she told me something I don't think she could have told me any other way. After that, I never pushed her to date this guy again. 

Want to hear something embarrassing? 

I went through a weird weird poetry phase in high school. I wrote poems about dumb teenage stuff that felt very real at the time. Example: boys. wanting freedom. feelings. more feelings. lots and lots of feelings. I was really bad at it. But I still love poems. 

Artist Nicole Lavelle writes poetry onto large sheets of colored paper in her one-of-a-kind handwriting. The best part is that you can commission her to handwrite basically anything for you. Example: your school's fight song, an old family saying, a really bad joke your grandpa used to tell, a list of every town you've lived in, and more.

PS: How often do I feel like this? : 

Things I Love: Daily Dishonesty

Have you ever met someone and bonded over something dumb with them so quickly, you feel like you were meant to be best friends after five minutes? That's basically what happened when I stumbled upon this graphic designer's site. Lauren Hom has a series called Daily Dishonesty, a daily observation of the little lies we like to tell ourselves. Don't tell me that at least three of these don't apply to you. 

An Education

I'm learning, thinking, processing and translating so much information about art education and museum education at NAEA that my brain feels like it might explode. It's daunting and exciting and makes me want to run the world, but also maybe just curl up in bed for five days. 

Tonight at dinner my colleagues and I somehow got on topics like women in the Church, the nature of God, immigration, how lucky we are to eat food, and how rare is to be an educated woman in America at this time in history of the world. A lot of opinions were stated, but received with an attitude of open-mindedness and a desire to discuss. Maybe it's because I elect to spend a lot of time alone, but I found myself really loving this rare occasion to have an engaging conversation with smart women who have opinions. 

Oh how wonderful it is to learn.

Color Color

I am seriously crushing on Design Seeds. It's a website where you can search for pre-made color palettes for any mood, room, design, or party your pretty little head can think of. You can even search for a specific color, and palettes with that color in them will pop up! 

It's funny how certain color combinations can recall a memory or a person. When I see lime green I automatically think, Weezer's green album. Blue has my mom written all over it. Here are some of my favorites:

  

I think I'm all about bright reds and blues right now because this winter has been so grey. I keep wearing crazy colors to work, and my boss has commented that my outfits feel so fresh and that the colors make her happy. Color is a wonderful thing. 

22 Stairways That Lead Nowhere

What? I keep finding things in the world that don't make sense, and I'm loving it. Who on earth would make stairs that go nowhere? Or did these stairs exist first, and the world just grew too big for them? I don't know. Life...Want to see more stairs that lead nowhere? Check them out here.

Artist: Relja Penezic

Doesn't this painting just make you want to take a road trip up PCH? Man, I miss California. Check out Penezic's artist profile here.

Branding the Presidents

Did you know that President's Day is partly the reason why we have a lot of American holidays on a Monday? Thank you, PD, for all my holiday-related three day weekends...and you know, freedom and whatnot. In honor of President's Day, here's a great project called Branding the Presidents of the United States. Meg Jannott started making quick logos + images to brand each president. Which one is your favorite? I like the gentleman boss.

Since this day really started with George and Abe, check out a virtual tour of George Washington's Mount Vernon (my favorite is Nelly Custis's bedroom).

Happy Valentine's Day!

a story of love

This is my first Valentine's Day as a married lady. I'm gonna be honest, most of my Valentine's Days have been spent "alone", pining for the day when I would have someone special to share it with. You know, that's just how it went.

My V-Days didn't get good until Matt came along. Lesbehonest, I was just happy to have someone awesome to spend time with. But he went all out to make me feel special.

These past two years, Matt was on his mission in the Philippines. The first Valentine's Day was spent hoping this guy I was going on dates with would call me (he didn't) and the next one was spent pranking people around Provo with my roommate and a mannequin head on a broom stick painted like David Bowie. Let's just say it was a weird two years.

I don't know what this year will bring, but I'm happy to have an excuse to reflect on why I love my husband and other special people in my life. Here are some links I found to help you guys get in the holiday spirit:

A tribute to 19 years of being single on Feb 14th: 10 great things about being single on valentine's day

diy chocolate heart wall (I would love to walk home to this any. day.)

"I love everything about you" color-yourself printable

a printable chalkboard valentine

Plus, in case you missed it, a post about what no one tells you about being engaged.

And...some quotes on love:




"Surround yourself with the dreamers and the doers, the believers and thinkers, but most of all, surround yourself with those who see greatness within you, even when you don't see it yourself." - unknown

“All I understood was that she was the girl I sat up every night thinking about, and when I’m with her, I feel happy to be alive. Like I can do anything. Even talk to you like this. So that’s, that’s what I think is love, mom. When I’m better because she’s here.” - Cory Matthews, Boy Meets World

"I wish never to be parted from you from this day on." - Mr. Darcy

"Never allow your happiness to depend on a relationship. I think it's a very special thing to find love. It's beautiful. Nothing can match it. But make sure you find other things in live that you love besides...your love." - unknown

"A reporter asked the couple, 'How did you stay together for 65 years?' The woman replied, 'We were born in a time when if something was broken, we would fix it, not throw it away.'"

"And them my soul saw you and went, 'Oh there you are. I've been looking for you.'"

"Those who love you are not fooled by mistakes you have made or dark images you hold about yourself. They remember your beauty when you feel ugly; your wholeness when you are broken; your innocence when you feel guilty; and your purpose when you are confused." - Alan Cohen

"'I was waiting for the longest time,' she said. 'I thought you forgot.' 'It is hard to forget,' I said, 'when there is such an empty space when you are gone.'"

Artist: Mariah Llanes

Check out her website here.

Artist: Brooke Shaden

When I first saw this image, I thought it was a painting. It's a photograph! She does some amazing work with photos that makes them look like dark fairtytales. I love that she photographed this girl in this amazing dress, but left her hair messy and snapped a shot when her hair was kajangled by the wind. It's nice to see something unexpected. Check out her website here for more photos.

Artist: Norman Rockwell

Every time I see a Rockwell painting, I have to look at it for a few minutes to appreciate the details of it. Most people only look at a painting for about 4 seconds before they move on to a new one in museums, but if I were to go to a Rockwell exhibit, I'd probably be there for days. I love that he painted people doing everyday things, like The Lineman. 

Without thinking too much about it in specific terms, I was showing the America I knew and observed to others who might not have noticed.

—Norman Rockwell

Edit: I just found out that there's a whole museum founded by Rockwell himself. What a cheeky fellow. Click here to see an interactive timeline of his life.

Artist: Fernando Botero

Ok...I know this painting is not the most pleasant thing. I realize that it's a picture of a bull rider dying and going to heaven. I also realize that most of you might like to see something a little more upbeat. 

But...this is a manifestation of one of my favorite things about art. I love that art is a medium for emotion. All kinds of emotion. In life, we do not always feel happy or pleasant. We experience death and weird things, and I like any kind of art that makes me feel something. 

Plus, I've never seen a painting that shows someone's body + their spirit together on the same canvas. 

So here it is, folks. Weird, fabulous, emotional, real art.