Gillian King: Busy Beeeee

Even though everyone's complaining about the weather here (I kind of like it - overcast skies and light rain remind me of when I went to Scotland) we all know that summer is just around the corner! With school ending I feel like I'm running around like a headless chicken trying to finish everything up but there have been some pretty exciting opportunities I wanted to share with you...

First off! I'm running for Painting Representative for Fine Arts student council! Once elections are over the new council will start this April and go til April next year. I'm very excited about the possibility of representing 'The Painters'! Voting commences Wednesday and Thursday March 18 & 19th in the Fitzgerald Building at the U of M so if you are by chance around there - cast your votes!

Second! I'm in the midst of looking for a studio to share and paint in for the summer (this will be my first studio)!! Since the beginning of Fine Arts I have dreamed about my own studio somewhere in the exchange - with sunshine streaming in onto massive canvases and the smell of coffee and oil paint wafting through the space...

Third! I am in a show at Outworks Gallery from March 19- March 24 for U of M Fine Arts Painting and Drawing Majors. I'm still not certain on which painting I'm putting in but I do know that there's going to be a mass amount of amazing work (there are A LOT of majors with BIG work) so if you are in the city you should check it out! Opening night is Friday March 19th at 7pm so if you're in the city head down for snacks, bevvies, and art! I'll be sure to take lots of photos share :)

I also thought I'd share a new artist that was introduced to me today by Dominque Rey, one of our visiting artists at the U of M. I'm working on about four paintings at once right now and I am very happy with my latest one. A few weeks back, I started thinking about why I'm painting nature and I realized that I think about sex and food more than I think about nature so I should paint that! So that is what I am doing now and it feels great - I'm not done yet but here's a sneakpeek of a small section of the canvas...

Dominique suggested I check out Dana Shutz's work because she often paints food and has a looseness to her paint that I can relate to. So after reading a few articles and cruising her work she is one of my new faves...