Starting the Year off Right

I'm pretty proud of myself so far with getting on top of my new years resolutions... I've learnt how to pickle, have started the process of building my own stretchers/canvases, have been sabotaging my paintings, and I am doing the dreaded of all dreaded activities later today - going to the gym to get a membership and... cough... work out. I have always hated working out but realize it's something that needs to be done in order to be healthy later on in life. But I have a plan! I'm going to combine something I hate (working out) with something I love (knitting and reading art magazines)! The knitting on exercise machines make take some time to coordinate - I expect it will be a bit of a juggle like rubbing your tummy and patting your head at the same time, but I hope to become as skilled as this woman...

I also went to McNally yesterday (BTW poor McNally - I love it there) and picked up my usual paintings mags (Juxtapoz, Border Crossings and Hi Fructose) as well as some newly recommended ones (Modern Painters and Frieze). And I think I am in love. I had too much coffee before bed last night and wound up devouring Modern Painters when I should have been sleeping. It is THE BOMB. First, I found it hilarious that Pharrell was on the cover (haven't seen him in a while - or atleast I don't think he's been around - I don't have cable) and its full of great up and coming and established painters as well as criticism and theory. So my plan is, until I get on my feet knitting and being on exercise machines, I will read Modern Painters front to back, side to side, inside and out while I work out.

Flipping through it yesterday I discovered Carroll Dunham. I love how her work is both graphic and painterly and I dig her use of simple shapes to depict the human body sexually. She is also THE BOMB.

I thought I'd also show how I have sabotaged my latest work. I spent about 8+ hours on a painting before I got pissed off with it and decided to smear bright red paint all over it and scrape it off with a palette knife - this is how it looked after the scraping.

Then I thought I'd cover it with beige and I started to bring back the weird 90's colouring from underneath.

As of the beginning of class yesterday I wasn't very pumped (this is all apart of the process) but by the end of class I was starting to get into a groove and I now like where its going. It's far from being complete but I am happy with my sabotaging thus far.

Alright, signing off!