two left wings

the last six months have been busy...

noreply@blogger.com (jen) — Fri, 13 Feb 2009 18:30:00 +0000

Houston ArtCrawl 2009 has come and gone. As has my attempt at the Hunting Art Prize and Box Show 5 at Bering and James Gallery. I have not been in the studio since November. That's too darn long and it feels really lousy. I have five or six panels to pick up from Bill and can't even get down to Dickinson to pick them up. Obviously, it's time to reflect on priorities.

Even so, I did manage to get a bowl painted for Houston Food Bank's Empty Bowls Project:

remix...the aftermath

noreply@blogger.com (jen) — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 06:25:00 +0000

I'm still waiting for the show in Dallas to come down so I can get my hands on that piece for a good overhaul. In the meantime, here're the results of the first two do-overs.

I salvaged what I liked from the old work and added some new bits. The third one will be longer in process because I sanded it down until I hit the original surface and started completely over.

remix

noreply@blogger.com (jen) — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 16:53:00 +0000

What do you get when you drive home from Dallas with no children or good friends in the car to distract you from your navel-gazing self?

A road hazard.
(and I have the sketchbook pages to prove it)

Not being completely happy with the piece I just put up in the 'Lost and Found' show led me to contemplating 3 or 4 other pieces that I've never been completely happy with as finished work. One was an experiement that I was mostly happy with, except for a part that I tacked on at the end in an effort to disguise a mistake I'd made. Another was a piece I made with someone else's taste in mind...never a good idea. And so on.

Long story short, mad sketching and note-making (while driving...don't tell my husband or my mother) ensued.

For the last few days, I've been happily tearing apart those old pieces and reassembling them in various ways. So far, so good. I hope to post photos of the new pieces in a day or two.

lost and found

noreply@blogger.com (jen) — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 16:14:00 +0000

This weekend I ventured into the place where I have always imagined I might live, but don't. It's called Southside on Lamar in Dallas, and I was instantly enamored of it. Whoever thought to take the old Sears and Roebuck catalogue facility and rennovate it into condos and shops...wow. It's been done well, antique merged with modern in just the right proportion. And the gallery space is everything a gallery space should be: antique wood floors; cement pillars; rough old brick walls; whitewashed sheetrocked walls, rectangular plywood pedestals and moveable walls; and a maintenance man who kindly replaces burnt-out halogen bulbs in the numerous adjustable light fixtures.

I was fortunate to meet Lisa Qualls at the Hunting Art Prize reception and more fortunate yet to have her think of me when she needed some extra pieces for her group's current show called Lost and Found. Melianie and I hauled up some of the work and helped hang the show on Tuesday. Valerie Yaklin-Brown had gone up to help hang the show, too. She, Mel and I made short work of hanging the 2-D work. It was great to see Valerie again (we showed together at Eastman) and I still covet her work.

outside the lines 8

noreply@blogger.com (jen) — Tue, 27 May 2008 15:59:00 +0000

On Friday, I head up to Dallas with Ave Maris Stella (see Feb. 6 post) in hand. I submitted it to the Bath House Cultural Center for jury consideration a little over a week ago, then on Saturday found out it is one of 44 pieces selected for the exhibit.

This is a lot of firsts for me, including first show outside of Harris county so I don't know much about it. I'll post again afer Mel and I make the trek northward.

art car parade 2008

noreply@blogger.com (jen) — Thu, 15 May 2008 16:41:00 +0000

The girls and I made an art date for Mother's Day weekend, heading out to Houston's annual Art Car Parade last Saturday. If you've never been, you've gotta go (even if it's nearly 100 degrees). So many of the cars were fantastic. The 4 year old liked any car that sprayed us with water or threw out beads. The 7 year old's favorite was the ginormous dragon at the end. And of course they both loved Stumper because they've been to ViSKER's studio and seen the amazing creature up close and personal.

We hit Sonic for ice cream on the way home and landed in the neighborhood pool within minutes of pulling into the driveway. It was a fun day.

We were very sorry to hear about the accident involving Tom Jones the next morning. Our family, like so many others, will always be grateful for his involvement with the art cars and the happy memories created for us.

life post-Hunting

noreply@blogger.com (jen) — Wed, 14 May 2008 20:34:00 +0000

Other than it's the last three and half (never-ending) weeks of school, life post-Hunting Art Prize has been relatively normal. Nutty, but normal. Bring on the summer, please.

To satisfy a few curious friends, suffice it to say that I didn't win or sell anything at the gala. That aside, it was a fun evening to visit with the other artists and eat really good and ubiquitous food (maccaroni and cheese made with truffles, anyone?). Those of us whose pieces weren't large enough to warrant our own easel-space were hung together on what we affectionately named 'the kindergarten wall.' This wall with its pieces mounted 3 and 4 rows high and separated by few inches was the night's definite low point. Lower still was the fact that my piece was hung at the bottom right corner of this wall, barely a foot off the floor. However, on the bright side, it was hung near pieces by friendly talented people so the conversation was great. I met Lisa Qualls, Joe Pena, Gail Siptak, Chris Miley and Katie Maratta to name a few from the wall. I also met Jayne Lawrence heading for chocolate, coffee or creme brulee (all of which were located conveniently near the kindergarten wall) and had a some more enjoyable conversation. I also accosted Howard Sherman in the process of trying to find out where the registration table for the artists was located because Eddie and I showed up a tad late. He was gracious enough to come over and visit in a more normal manner later in the evening. I'm looking forward to his show in Beaumont. Wendy Wagner won the evening. Look at hers and the rest of the 100-something pieces at the gallery. I think this is a new feature at the Hunting Art Prize site and it's cool to browse through.

Eddie says I'm not allowed to enter anything smaller than 7 x 7 next year.

inspector 7

noreply@blogger.com (jen) — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 19:59:00 +0000

I'm donating a piece of artwork to my 1st grade daughter's school's spring fund-raising auction again this year. I finished it Monday and showed it to her yesterday before taking it over to the PTO President:

Is that it?

Yes, what do you think, Sweets? Will it work?

I don't think it's appropriate.

Appropriate? I'm not sure what you mean?

Mom, the little kid is naked.

Oh right. That.

a bit of news

noreply@blogger.com (jen) — Tue, 08 Apr 2008 18:27:00 +0000

There's been no time for blogging lately, but I wanted throw a quick update on here.

I've changed the look of my website. If you knew what it looked like before, I'd love to hear what you think of the changes.

My family is in the midst of gathering up support for our annual walk to raise funds for cystic fibrosis research. My oldest daughter Chloe and my step-daughter Olivia both have it, so the effort to support the research of the CF Foundation is very important to us. If I haven't already hit you up for help, but you'd like to get involved, visit the website below.

http://www.cff.org/Great_Strides/JennyPascual5351

Lots of people have been asking about the Hunting Art Prize, so here's where I'm at with it so far: I've been sent my invitation and am allowed to take one guest. I RSVP'd last week for Eddie and me. Next, I went on a wild goose chase with the girls in tow last Saturday to deliver my work to TYArt who preps it for the second jury. I had a three hour window, left the house with plenty of time according to my mapquest directions, and proceeded to get it there with only 20 minutes to spare. There's a pretty good story in there, but no time for it today. The gala is May 3rd and that's the next time I'll hear anything new...(side note: I wish you all could have seen the amazing pieces lined up against the walls of that warehouse. Breathtaking and humbling. I recognized a couple from the Lawndale's Big Show last summer.)

Hunting Art Prize 2008 Congratulations

noreply@blogger.com (jen) — Thu, 14 Feb 2008 16:40:00 +0000

"We are pleased to inform you that your submission has been selected for consideration by the second jury in the Hunting Art Prize. During this stage, jurors will view the original piece represented in the digital file you submitted. Additionally, your work will be displayed at the May 3 gala in Houston."

This is the opening paragraph to an email I received yesterday. I'm so excited. I've called everyone. Just to be considered for this prize is beyond my comprehension. Plus, it's the closest I've ever been to a gala.

in the round

noreply@blogger.com (jen) — Wed, 06 Feb 2008 21:45:00 +0000

While I was at the ArtCrawl last fall, I was approached by a gentleman selling wood panels for artists that he makes and markets at bbonham.net. In November, I ordered two of his 12 by 12 inch squares and 3 of his 18 inch rounds.

I ended up giving one of the squares to a really good friend of mine. She proceeded to paint a big, colorful, lavishly textured sunflower on it and then take it home with her to Canmore, Alberta. The other square still sits unused. But, I've worked on two of the three rounds and just ordered a few more because I love them. The quality to the unfinished boards is remarkable.

Here are the two newest pieces that will show this month at Eastman Gallery.

Santa Casilda

Ave Maris Stella

A.R.T. by W.H.O.

noreply@blogger.com (jen) — Mon, 17 Dec 2007 16:07:00 +0000

stands for "Antiretroviral Therapy by the World Health Organization." Last summer while pulling pages out of magazines for a new collage, I picked up Vanity Fair's "Africa" issue. I was really struck by the images of people before and after receiving antiretroviral therapy for HIV/AIDS and this collage followed:

Since I didn't alter the faces of the people much at all, I pulled most of the rest of the pages for color rather than add more images. However, when I came across the buterflies in a print by Damien Hirst, I felt compelled to add them to the piece somehow.

Trying to come up with a title, I knew I wanted to reference "antiretroviral therapy" but was having a hard time doing it in any way that was at all interesting. In frustration, I googled "antiretroviral therapy" and came to a wikipedia article that abreviated it as ART and one that also shortened "the World Health Organization" to WHO. It seemed to me as though the title had existed well before the artwork and was just waiting around for me to find it.

Now, imagine my surprise last Friday as I flipped through the latest issue of Vogue pulling images for a new collage and spotted an article about the lastest project by Bono for Project RED. It is a collaborative effort with none other than Damien Hirst. The two have organized an auction of artwork (somehow tied to the idea of "red") by famous contemporary artists in order to fund continued antiretroviral therapy to the people of Africa.

Full circle.

woo-hoo

noreply@blogger.com (jen) — Tue, 20 Nov 2007 16:57:00 +0000

I did ArtCrawl Houston last weekend. Basically a big warehouse district party with Metro supplying the transportation. It was a whole lot of fun.

Here are some pictures of my little space in the Atelier Jacquinet and the lovely bouquet of flowers (possibly more popular than my artwork) that KK sent for the vernissage:

busy, busy, busy

noreply@blogger.com (jen) — Fri, 19 Oct 2007 20:10:00 +0000

I committed to the Houston ArtCrawl as part of a group that will be showing at the Atelier Jacquinet. Signing on with them didn't turn out to be as much work as I expected. The group is cleaning up a few hallways and rooms that have been used as storage in the old 'Tony's Tortilla Factory' downtown off I10. The task looked daunting initially, but enough people are involved that it has gone much more quickly than we thought it would. I now have a really funky little space with walls and a floor in which to hang my art. If you happen to be in the vacinity over the weekend of November 17th, you should come by just to see the building--the art, poetry, music, food and drinks will be a nice bonus feature.

As a by-product of getting ready for ArtCrawl, I have finished a website and (via Flickr) discovered a really fun way to get my own full-color art on mini calling cards through Moo.com. A few of us have ordered sets of 100 to use like business cards for the show and the quality of the color printing has been excellent.

I also submitted a piece again this year to the Hunting Art Prize. If you're an artist, I recommend taking a look at the submission requirements. You never know...

where I am

noreply@blogger.com (jen) — Tue, 18 Sep 2007 20:26:00 +0000

My collaborative group and I are still in the middle of putting together a prospectus for M2. Max has the gallery booked through April, so the very earliest we could show there would be May. So close, yet so far...

A couple of us are kicking around the idea of showing some work at Art Crawl Houston in November as a way to stay motivated and get some work out into the world.

Here's the latest piece. It's a 24 x 30 inch mixed media work. I have some touching up to do on it, but here's what it looks like for the moment.

the big show is a no go

noreply@blogger.com (jen) — Tue, 03 Jul 2007 05:12:00 +0000

So I didn't get in the Lawndale's Big Show. Neither did smootchgirl. When I was picking up our work today, I asked Jimmy Castillo about the number of pieces they got in over the weekend and he had it all written down. Here's what I remember without having written it down: four hundred eighty-something artists submitted one thousand forty-something pieces of art. All were juried and 114 pieces were selected representing 85 artists. Wow, eh? Just about 1 in 10. I can't wait to see what was chosen. Unfortunately, I will be in Indianapolis for an educators' conference on the day the show opens, so I will have to wait a little longer than I'd like.

and another one down...

noreply@blogger.com (jen) — Thu, 28 Jun 2007 13:20:00 +0000

Today I embark on completing goal number 2 of 3 that I set for my summer. By 5 pm, barring a Divine veto, I will have entered another recent piece in a juried show, The Lawndale's Big Show. This collage, too, is 16 by 20. I call it Flower Piece because it is intended as a tribute of sorts to the Dutch floral painters like Van Huysum. Those pieces fascinate me, all the little bugs and water droplets.

By way of update for those of you who did not receive my giddy phone call last Friday evening, Lite Cardio was accepted for the Light Show. It was a rather traumatic event in that at close of business on Friday I was under the impression my piece had not been accepted because nobody had phoned to tell me otherwise, which is the standard operating procedure for these things I've learned of late, and Smootchgirl had found out the day before that one of her two entries had got in (Yay!!). But, when my friend stopped by to pick up Lite Cardio and Smootchgirl's other piece, mine was on the list of those accepted. Woo hoo for me! I'm terribly excited. My first ever artist's reception will be next Saturday evening at M2.

light show

noreply@blogger.com (jen) — Mon, 18 Jun 2007 21:08:00 +0000

Well, I did it and here it is.

It's called Lite Cardio and is about 16 by 20. It's a themed exhibit, which is my excuse for the title in case you're wondering.

The "light" show is juried and I won't know until Friday if my piece made it in or not. That said, hauling my butt and my piece down there on Sunday afternoon was a huge step for me (and my 2 other friends whose arms I twisted until they consented to take the leap with me). The 3 of us (and possibly a 4th) are currently psyching ourselves up for the next deadline on the 27th for the Lawndale's Big Show. Feel free to wish us luck.

"the damned art niches"

noreply@blogger.com (jen) — Tue, 15 May 2007 13:57:00 +0000

Here they are. Finally completely finished and hung.

Because I said I would

noreply@blogger.com (jen) — Mon, 14 May 2007 20:30:00 +0000

For the 4 or so people who are actually checking on my progress, here is the update I promised. I'll post some actual photos very soon.

This Mother's Day weekend was VERY productive. Though I don't have a finished painting for the M2 show yet, I have a large one started and everything I need to finish it with in place. Barring natural disasters or another round of kids-with-viruses, I should have it finished within a week or so.

To finish it I needed to get some water-soluble conte pastels and so turned this small errand into an artist's field trip with the girls. So we packed ourselves up and drove down to Jerry's Artarama on 1960. I'd never been there, but I've been getting some flyers in the mail advertising some extraordinary prices. It was time to check it out.

Wow.

Those ads were no joke. I got my pastels, 6 16x20 gallery frames, two paint-by-numbers (their choice, not mine) sets for the girls and some other small things for less than a hundred dollars. The frames alone were worth that to me because I haven't been able to find anything reasonable that would work for a set of six paintings I made for our house. They've just been sitting in a corner getting dusty.

We also made a stop at Barnes and Noble where the prices were not reasonable but I bought 2 books anyway. Then lastly, Wal-Mart for a roll of cork. My studio needs a bulletin board, so I unrolled the cork, mounted it on cardboard from the box my husband's lawn mower came in and hung it on the wall. Perfect.

Now the studio is better than functional, my painting is half-way to complete, and the damned art niches along the staircase are filled satisfactorily.

I also found two open calls for artists, the deadlines of which I will try to make. One is for M2's "light" show and the other for the Lawndale's Big Show. Wish me luck.

But of course.

noreply@blogger.com (jen) — Fri, 13 Apr 2007 15:41:00 +0000

Here's the link to Johnny's blog (he's student-teaching with me right now).

Go there. Get kicked.

He also has really good stuff at Flickr.

Ahem...

noreply@blogger.com (jen) — Wed, 11 Apr 2007 20:22:00 +0000

so much for picking up the blog in November.

Anyhoo...

Over Spring Break, I was exploring galleries in the Heights with another artist-teacher friend of mine. While we were wandering through M2, one of the guys that owns it approached us, asking if we were artists. My answer was a halting, "Kind of, well, I teach it." This response, for which I was later scolded, led to further conversation and an invitation from Max for the two of us to show collaboratively sometime in the not-to-distant future. We left promising to get a proposal together by the end of summer, since that would theoretically give us enough time to get our crap together so to speak.

After we left, my friend said to me, "We're going to have to use the term 'artist' at some point, you know. We may teach it, but we make it, too."

Point taken. To that end, I have a couple of good friends who have agreed to check on my progress for our presumed show via this website. They both live far away so this method will let them see what I've been up to as well as let them harass me unmercifully by phone and email in the absence of posts showing new work. Perhaps this way, come next fall, I can more comfortably call myself an artist because will have what amounts to a "body of work" and will have had at least one show.

Thus far I have done four pieces using the collage process I would like to show next fall:

This is the first. I gave it to KK for her wedding. Sorry John.

The next was a demonstration piece for my students. I call it "Caesar," although he looks like he could be related to my dad.

The third is "More Than They'd Seen." It's from a photo of my oldest daughter during Halloween at the Houston Zoo last fall.

And the last is this one called "Free Falling." I gave it to my daughter's school to put in a silent auction at the spring fund-raiser. If it sells, it will be the first piece of art I've sold outside of college ten (or so) years ago.

Now for the rest.

Apparently, I cannot teach and blog at the same time.

noreply@blogger.com (jen) — Mon, 13 Nov 2006 15:31:00 +0000

At the beginning of every semester, I turn all of my compulsive energy on the unwitting children who by computerized happenstance make their way into my classroom. Poor things.

As Thanksgiving nears, I start the disentanglement process because I will lose them all to the flip of a calendar page in a few short weeks and will have a whole new group to get tangled up in come January. Here I am in the interim.

her mother's daughter

noreply@blogger.com (jen) — Sun, 06 Aug 2006 00:52:00 +0000

This evening after dinner, my girls were swinging in the back yard while I pulled weeds from my small garden between underdogs. My husband had been sent to the store for milk, and I was postponing bedtime for a few more minutes until he returned home. It had been a long day and should have been an early to bed kind of night. And it would have been had the five year old not heard the ice cream truck.

I'm not the kind of mom who keeps a purse full of change; getting me to buy ice cream from the ice cream truck is something even the two year old gave up on long ago. However, today I had drug them around the Heights all afternoon on a fruitless bout of garage-saling and did, in fact, have a purse full of change for a change. No sooner had we heard the tinkly music and I nodded at the five year old in a vaguely positive manner than she leapt out of the swing and ran through the gate to the front yard to flag down the truck. I grabbed the two year old and went through the house to get my purse. The whole time, the two year old was chanting, "ice cweam, ice cweam, ice cweam, yay..."

But upon reaching the front yard, I faced a terribly downcast eldest child coming back toward the house and saw the bumper of the ice cream truck as it rounded the corner and headed down the side street. I couldn't let it end like this, so I said, "Well, hurry. Go get it." And off she went after the ice cream truck. I grabbed the two year old I had put down just seconds ago and who had changed her tune ever so slightly to "hurry, hurry, ice cweam, ice cweam...," and we were off too, though at least half a block behind the five year old by this time.

Three and a half blocks later, we reached my girl pointing victoriously at the ice cream truck parked by the curb. One Great White Lemon Ice/Mississippi Mud Pie/Dora Sundae with bubble gum eye balls later, we walked the three blocks home. My husband had returned home with the milk by this time and joined in the fun, which culminated with ice cream kisses on his head and an arms-akimbo-two-kid-carry upstairs to the bath tub.

Dora--the early stages

Dora's eyeball--the aftermath

As I was tucking her in for the evening, the five year old was ruminating on her day and waxing philosophical as she's known to do: "Mom, on a different lemony day I'm going to get the same kind of ice cream again. Okay." My guess is she'd run five blocks if she had to.

work with me, people...

noreply@blogger.com (jen) — Tue, 01 Aug 2006 00:53:00 +0000

I have spent my summer dodging real estate agents. We listed our house at the end of May and have shown it 30 times since then. Everyone one says that 30 times in two months is good, but I say I still own it. That said, I've been a good sport, willing to leave my house as pristine as possible on the very shortest of notice. Afterall, the goal is to sell it, right? I need to work with these people. But with two kids--one who is known for her love of projects that usually encompass an entire floor of our little house--our game plan is just not to be in the house if at all possible between the hours of 8 and 6. I've tried staying until we get the call from the listing agency that tells us to get out, but I make both my children and myself crazy with my constant cleaning and barking of imperative statements: "Don't get that out. Pick that up. Just watch some more TV."

Today, we left the house at 9:30 and had a plan involving doctor's appointments, shopping and swimming at the Y that would successfully keep us out of the house until 6 pm. Generally Mondays are not days our house gets shown anyway, but for the girls' sake I thought better safely out and about than home dealing with a neurotic mom. We had almost made it through the day when my cell phone rang. It was 5 and the listing agency was calling to say that our house would be shown between 6 and 7. We were waterlogged and had planned to leave the pool at 5:30. Since that would put us home exactly when we were supposed to still be out, I swung into action with our emergency contingency plan, which is to pick up pizza and crash in on our neighbors until it's safe to return home. They are very gracious people who enjoy a free pizza now and then, so it worked out.

At 7:15 we were home and settling in for the night. The girls were exhausted, and the two year old was in bed and alseep 15 minutes later. I had just got the five year old set up in her evening wind-down routine when the doorbell rang. It was a very perky real estate agent and a lovely young married couple standing in my doorway looking at me like I was rancid turkey on their brunch plate. The agent said, "Didn't you get the call. We made an appointment for 6 to 7. " Um yes, actually, I got that one. Here, let me show you to the front room where we keep our clock.