First, I updated my website. This blog is now back to graciekendal.wordpress.com while my website kristineschomaker.net is now pointing to a new squarespace site.

I will be blogging from that site now, so if you would like to continue to follow me, please sign us to receive emails from that site. Thank you so much for your continued support!!!

I have a few exhibits taking place.

This one is in Sweden!!! Wooot!!!!

___________________________

Opening February 21st, I have paintings in an exhibit in Tarzana, California called “Sudden Impact.”

___________________________

And also with an opening being held Friday February 21st, I have a solo show at UCLA’s Kerckhoff Hall Art Gallery. “This event is presented by UCLA Cultural Affairs Commission ’s Art Series and Student Wellness Commission’s Body Image Task Force as a part of I My Body Week.”

The title has a couple different meanings. First, it is based on the specific type of paint I use. It is called ‘interference’ paint. “An Interference color is laminated mica pigment that “flip-flops” from a main color to a weak complimentary one. The phenomenon is similar to naturally occurring light interferences such as gas or oil on water, or a butterfly wing. The position of the viewer and the direction of the light source create interesting visuals. In direct light, the main color, such as Interference Gold shines beautifully, but with indirect light, a translucent blue color appears.” (From the GOLDEN website)

Second, It  has to do with a shift in direction for my painting style. As you know, normally I paint in really bright vivid colors. I love color. But I feel I have to challenge myself and try new things, go in different directions. So I am interfering  (interrupting) my regularly scheduled program to bring you something new and exciting.

This series is about the act of looking. The act of ‘seeing’ art and beauty. Lately when I walk into a gallery, sometimes I turn around and walk back out, because I don’t see anything of interest. So much art is conceptual right now, I want to see it. I want to look and examine. Almost, but not really touch it. Hence my interest in the luscious, sumptuous, delicious leap into physical depth of painting. I am also attracted to the beauty of painting. Well really, who isn’t?? My other work, the new media work is conceptual. My paintings are about beauty, about enticing the eyes, about giving sensuality to the surface, so much so that you want to touch it… but can’t. (Well not unless you own it, or are the artist)

I am reposting my reply from comments in my last blog post  because I think it is important and  continues this conversation…

My work on body image has always been about a universal dialogue. While I may use myself as a subject, I am discussing issues of feminism and female representation that have been going on for years and years. I am just using my work and myself to keep the dialogue going. I didn’t mean for this post to sound like it was a jab at my own self esteem and self confidence. It is definitely not that. I feel I have more confidence in myself now than ever before. These are more observations and examples that I am using to continue this dialogue about women’s roles and representation in society.

I am pretty content with who I am right now. I am happy wearing jeans and sweatshirts one day and a dress and pink wig the next. While I talk about dating sites and men not ‘falling’ at my feet, I mean it more generally. I actually don’t want men to fall at my feet. I am pretty happy in my life being single. I have dated enough to know what I want and don’t want, and I am content in the place I am in now. I love where I am. I am not lonely because I have amazing friends, both men and women who I see and hang out with regularly and who keep me on my toes. I have tried dating sites because I thought that was what I wanted, it took the boredom and meat market mentality to realize, that that is not what I want.

I guess when writing this post, I should not written it in the first person, but in the third. Sometimes my thoughts just get the best of me and I use this blog as more a stream of consciousness sketchbook. I struggle with the universal way women are and have been represented on a daily basis. How they represent themselves as well as how they are represented by the media and culture, AND how men see women.

I will say this, I DO NOT believe that women have to be traditionally beautiful on the outside to match who they are in the inside. I believe, like so many friends have commented over the years, that inner beauty projects and is reflected on the outside. Plus, beauty is in the eye of the beholder. I am beautiful though not in the traditional ideal way that society has perceived. I believe my inner beauty does get reflected in my smile, my eyes, my confidence and my heart. BUT in today’s visual culture, that isn’t enough for some.

Please understand, I know there are a lot of men who can look past what the media has deemed is the ideal for femininity and attractiveness. BUT as the media continues to use that ideal in Advertising and TV shows and movies, etc, both men and women are at risk of falling down the rabbit hole of ideal representation.

I also wanted to just mention the idea of labels. What is feminine and masculine anymore anyway? They are labels to keep people in certain categories. In today’s society these labels, these lines are being blurred more and more. There is no black and white. With postmodernism came the deconstruction of these words, these categories. (Thank you Betty Brown!!) It is only because the media (and society) continue to project these black and white labels our culture is still tethered to this way of thinking.

Me, about 10 minutes  ago

My hair has been short for about a year and a half now. I had it shaved for an art performance in which I was challenging media’s distortion of beauty as well as society’s perception of gender and stereotypes.

I am a woman. I am a heterosexual woman who likes men. Why should I have long hair, wear stilettos, short skirts and wear caked on make-up to attract a man? I just don’t get it. Or, actually, I do get it, It just makes me sad, so I try to ignore it. I would love to think that guys would be falling at my feet because of my beautiful… personality, my lovely… sense of humor or my big…….  smile. To be honest, this isn’t the case. I shouldn’t have to wear a low cut blouse so men look at my breasts rather than my eyes to understand who I am as a person.

I was recently on 5 different dating sites: Plenty of fish, OK Cupid, Match.com, Geek2Geek and Soul geek. Yea, I know, cute, huh??? Hey, for a gal who loves Battlestar Galactica and Dr Who, I thought these geeky sites would be perfect.

I can’t really write this  blog post and say I didn’t get any hits. I did get a few messages. ALL of them were about sex. ALL of them. What’s up with that?? The only guys who contacted me, wanted only sex.

I feel like this is a jab to the age old conversation of women being seen as objects, play toys for men. That is what I felt like anyway, getting these messages. Now, I understand, some of them were probably spam or bots. But, still.

Sometimes I wonder if guys aren’t falling at my feet because… (not that I would want a guy to actually fall at my feet) of this very feminist subject that I am challenging. Are they threatened by my work? Maybe my career as an artist or even my independence? Or, is it really because I am overweight with short hair and because of that pervasive stereotype that I am possibly a lesbian? I guess that would turn most guys off. Btw, I have been teased lately about being a lesbian (by a guy). Trust me, some of my closest friends are lesbians and I love them to death. The only issue I have with the  label, is that it is just that, a label. It doesn’t show beautiful character or amazing personalities. It pervades long held stereotypes.

I am thinking about growing my hair long. I mean, really long and I am going to lose weight and get fit. There is a climbing gym with fitness equipment and yoga opening where I live. This would be a new performance. How will I be treated differently? What will it prove? We will see.

Here are some photos of me with ‘longer hair,’ younger and  thinner.

My work using Second Life as a vehicle to talk about identity and ideas of beauty, has really made me consider how the media controls our perception of ourselves. As a tall, thin, blond in Second Life, I felt more powerful. I felt more  beautiful. I DID have guys falling at my feet.

I am currently working on a project called “Paper dolls.” It is work that will use projection, performance, photography and  video to talk  about the ideal and the real, the physical and the virtual, power and beauty.

I would love your thoughts.

This is Gracie Kendal today:

And this is both of us…

I consider myself very lucky. I have most everything I could have ever dreamed of. I get to wake up ever morning walk a few feet and paint. I look up at my 30 foot wood slat ceilings every day and thank the universe for giving me this life. (Ok enough of the mushy stuff!)

I am sure most people (especially creatives) can relate to this. I go through such roller coaster days of motivation and  inspiration. Some days I just have nothing in me at all to work. Other days, I start on 5 or 6 paintings. The last few weeks I have been on the up part of that roller coaster. I starter a new series, which I am loving. I finished 8 pieces already and I’m working on 6 more. I also have 6 more “old” painted canvases I am going to reuse. So exciting to know I am going to have a great body of work I can shop to galleries.

These are already available for sale.

I am going to have them photographed and make a portfolio and get them out there. Because of the paint I use and the texture, they are pretty hard to photograph. You may see a few different versions to get the many nuances of the pieces. Hope you like them!!

I have been painting!!! I mean really painting. It feels great. I haven’t painted like this in about 3 years. I have done small stuff like my “Hiding in Plain Site” series and the Avatars and I have also done Mixed media work, but this is different. This is on canvas. I know, it shouldn’t make a difference but it does.

I am so excited about this new direction. I am diverging from my usual color palette into something a bit more subdued. While I say that, I look at the paintings and they are anything but subdued in composition, texture and pattern. I am really loving  these.

My process of painting goes something like this. I have an idea, I want to paint in all “white” tones. I want to play with the different variation of tone and hue, texture and depth. Like Hans Hoffman, I want to see the push/pull of all of these elements and how they interact with each other. Especially how the eyes pull apart each element and puts them back together again. While I am thinking about all of this, I am also considering my love of the Baroque and Rococo. As an art historian, I wasn’t partial to the Rococo era in art. I taught it, but it was the period that was short and sweet. As the years have gone by, I have fallen in love with the design, the sumptuousness, the luscious exuberance of the period. Especially after watching Sofia Coppola’s Marie Antoinette and going to Versailles personally. I love the damask and the silky, velvety stunning wallpaper from that era. I use the various designs and textures in my mixed media work.

It’s funny, I am not a flowery person by nature. My clothes are normally solid and darker colors, but I just adore anything with these wonderful patterns and designs.

One of my greatest influences as a painter is Gerhard Richter. There is a piece at LACMA that I used to sit in front of and meditate on for hours. The depth, layers, luscious paint application and colors were my art porn. Recently, Richter has been working on something new. I had no idea and accidentally came across a new book of his work called, if you will, “Patterns.” I was blown away. This artist who I have long  admired for his skill with paint has been working on… one of my favorite things.

Tell me if this isn’t amazingly beautiful…

It’s funny when you get this epiphany. My art gesture, my own signature style has been about circles, drips and these cool curving, snakelike patterns in my work. While consciously admiring beautiful pattern and design, I have unconsciously been creating my own patterns. I love art!!!

Most of  my work, builds on work from the past. I mean both literally and metaphorically. I am actually using old paintings and starting fresh by painting on top of them. They have  been sitting in storage, unsold for years now. I look at them and think, they are old, outdated and I need to move on. Out of necessity and lack of money, I had to do what I had to do. I have done this through the years and  realized, this is the basis for some of my greatest work. Building on the textures, patterns and colors from the past, has been an ongoing story in my painting career. I hardly know what to do with a blank  canvas, so to speak.

My new “White” series really isn’t white at all. The closer you look, I believe there are more colors to see. Of course photos don’t do them justice. You totally have to come for a studio visit and see my new work.

I am currently working on 4 new pieces. 2 are completed. Each piece will have 20-30-40 layers before it is finished. Whenever that is. If ever, right?

The photo below was taken this morning. I just put a couple more layers down and now to let it dry. It normally takes 2-4 hours depending on what medium I mix the paints with. Right now, I am setting my schedule to paint drying. Did I say, I love art? When I work, normally noon to midnight, I put a layer or two on when I wake up, then right before I leave for work, and again when I get home at midnight. Perfect drying times. This is my life.

I know, I know… I KNOW, that I need to work. I just need to create. I don’t know what is stopping me. Work, money, life?

Why am I procrastinating? Where is my motivation, my inspiration?

I need to clean my studio. Oh wait, is that a form of procrastination?

Hmmmm

I am kinda lost in the creativity void right now. Maybe too many administrative things? Maybe Saturday night gallery openings will help with the inspiration.

My view today…

In October I opened my studio for the 3rd time for the Brewery Artwalk. As always it was such an amazing experience. I met so many new people, caught up with long time friends and made great connections for myself and the Brewery Artwalk Association. Oh did I tell you? I am now the President of the Brewery Artwalk Association!!!

Help me raise money to continue my project “A comfortable skin.” I want to buy 11 more mannequins, plus size/full figured women to make an installation of beautiful women. I am applying for grants but because I can’t count on those, I would like to sell my art to help raise money. Have you seen my video “A comfortable skin?” 

Check out the “Little Abstracts” which are the little paintings made from the excess drips from the Avatars. My newest works, the mixed media pieces, other assorted paintings and even the Avatars…

____________________________________________________

Mixed media pieces 12×12 inches on cradled panel board $200 each

____________________________________________________

Little Abstracts, Big Personalities (This is the remaining inventory of little abstracts)

Perfect for gift giving!!

All framed, signed and dated

$40 each

2 for $70

3 for $90

4 for $100

5 for $120

____________________________________________________

The Avatars

Lila Rhiadra $2000

Maggie Dezno $2100

Sophie Allegiere $1900

Paige Adagio $2100

Zoe Pegasi $1900

____________________________________________________

Drip paintings also created from the Avatars

12×12 inch on cradled panel board $200

12×24 inch on cradled panel board $400

____________________________________________________

Other paintings…

Inquire about pricing kristineschomaker@gmail.com