My adventure back into making and restarting my studio practice has begun with attaching vintage thrifted trading cards to canvas. These found images create the base of my paintings and serve as a source of information that allow for my unconscious mind to take over in creating honestly. I began these works by applying paint and isolating shapes that are appetizing to me. I work intuitively and organically- using chance and the moment of making to dictate compositions of shapes. Then I continue to layer information onto the canvas through color, shape, line, and form. Organic abstraction begins to take over as recognizable forms become unrecognizable in context.
0 Comments
I first started working with baseball cards within my work when I inherited my Grandfather's collection of trading cards after he passed. It was one way that I found helpful in connecting with him and dealing with his loss in my life because I was working directly with images that belonged to him. I made my own connections to his collection through shape, color, and composition investigations. Within my own studio practice I began to create new visual representations of my subconscious mind. I am extremely attracted to the stylized portraiture of the past that depicts recognizable forms/people through trading card materials. The facial expressions, movements of the body, smiles on the players faces, uniform poses, and the use of props within the images make me giggle as I play with their defined logic through painting.
I look at the work I have made in the past through this honest expression and want to continue to evolve my investigations. I have started making again part-time in Los Angeles. I have started exploring where I left off with this type of making from 2016-2017 when I completed my BFA and showed the begging stages of my investigations with trading cards. I have now started collecting my own sports cards... on my own terms... in Los Angeles, CA from thrift stores and places/spaces in time that hold importance to my life right now. My intentions are set to continue to expand my organic abstraction processes and get back to making. I am concerned with making new nonrepresentational works from representational images on trading cards. In a way, I am presenting visual information as if it is first being seen. Fecundity and metamorphosis are dominant in my work. The 'random nature of things' in my paintings and use of 'chance' are a huge collaborator in what I am creating today. I have been collecting images of importance within my environment both in film and digitally on my phone. They serve as visual representations of feelings, places, thoughts, etc. that I cannot put into words within my environment and would rather use image to express that moment of time. I feel alive at every sidewalk corner. Inspiration is everywhere here in LA. I have been throwing myself into my new environment and trying to expand not only my own knowledge of where I am but who I am within these moments of adventure and exploration. I feel as if I am exactly where I am supposed to be and that is a feeling I cannot let go of- its been awhile since I've felt this way about life and my passion for it. I am slowly but surely gaining stability after being out on the road and am solidifying my routine and my new job so that I can put all my energy towards my studio practice. I had five rolls of film that were sitting on my dresser waiting to be developed for the past four months. I finally had the time and funds to get them processed this past week! I had no idea what to expect and I could not remember what I took photos of... Needless to say I was excited to see what was going to come back to me. These are moments of my life from recent adventures in California since moving to this glorious state in the beginning of 2022. You will see snidbits of a weekend getaway in San Diego, my time exploring Colorado in a pick up truck, a desert sculpture museum in Joshua Tree that I stumbled upon, clips of the infamous Cabazon Dinosaurs, an afternoon at Huntington Gardens, and my Integration experience. I love being able to document the places I've been, the things I've seen, and the people I've met along the way. I just recently moved to Silverlake in Los Angeles. The past four days I have spent my mornings walking to China Town to start my day. China Town is about an hour walk from my house, roughly two and a half miles, straight down Sunset Blvd. I would stop along the way if I saw something inspiring or quirky and would take a picture of it. I found so many different compositions of true grit. I also learned about my new neighborhood and how close all the other surrounding communities are in relativity. I love where I live! Echo Park has so many good vintage shops one right next to the other. When I was exploring downtown, I happened to walk into a Chinese doctor when I was looking for a loose leaf tea shop. She talked to me about my health and my current detox needs. She prescribed me a tea prescription to help with my "low blood pressure" and foot pain. I have yet to make my tea prescription but she informed me that I have to boil five cups of water for an hour in a tea pot with her recipe. This is a collection of film photographs that I took during my experience on the Sonic Slam 2022 Tom Keifer tour. I was able to capture moments of time that define not only the states I traveled through but the people I met along the way. I lived on a bandwagon with nine other dudes, I was the only girl, and got to redefine who I was every single day in every single new city I traveled through. I showed up for myself, got to celebrate my birthday on a show day in Destin-Florida, brought my family to see the band in Akron and Charolette, and got to revisit some venues I had the privilege of working in the past. I documented this chapter of my life through disposable cameras I picked up at random Walmarts across the United States of America. |
Abby JoThis blog belongs to KALE. It serves as a collection of thoughts and reflections inside the everyday happenings of being in the world for Lilyungkale. Archive
April 2024
|