Shell Games: January 2012

Shell Games

This blog is about the creative process that I engage in while painting. My goal is to clarify my thinking, explore some philosophic questions and get feedback (be gentle!) on my work. I may pose some specific questions from time to time, for example: “Do you think the background would look better in blue or green?” or “I’ve been adding and deleting details for three weeks, is it time to stop?”

The title of the blog, “Shell Games” is the name of a series of large scale oil paintings that I’ve been doing (you guessed it!) of sea shells. I’ve been motivated to explore a range of meanings within meanings, metaphors, and how people view the world and reality or non-reality issues that come up. The paintings are meant to be DEEP, not just cute or pretty, with varying levels of success. You can choose to interpret them as purely decorative, but I’m hoping they have more internal essence than that.

The name “Shell Games” is a double entendre. It comes from old time carnival illusionists and hawkers who would hide a pebble under a shell (or cup, or hat or whatever) and then move the shells around. At the outset, the viewer would lay bets on whether he could follow the action well enough to say where the pebble was when the illusionist was finished. Sometimes, a sly carnie would, through sleight of hand, remove the pebble altogether, thereby cheating the watcher out of any chance of recouping his bets.

In terms of painting, it’s about how you follow the action, what is seen or not seen, what is inside, what is outside, what the distractions are, where you are going or not going. With shells you’ve got that inside, outside and relationship to context that is so interesting. And it has to be playful in some way, too – hence the “game” part of “Shell Games”. It’s not clear if I can get to “edgy”, but edgy would an advancement for me.

Life is a carnival, the Persian poet Rumi would say a Tavern, but the drinking metaphor is too dry for me. I like carnival better. We enter by a gate, there are all kinds of amusements and ways to lose your way or your money, and at some point it is time to go home.

If you would like to see more of my work please visit my website at VictoriaHaskell.com.

Sunday, January 29, 2012

Recent Progress

I have been working hard trying to finish some pieces and have made progress. Some of it is developing an awareness or atunement to the work itself, actually being able to see and put your finger on what is not working. The other part is having the courage to forge ahead and take a risk. And still another part is to just stop dickering with it. And then, finally, you have to let it go. You have to able to say to yourself that this is as good as it gets at this point in time and be okay with it.

My latest struggles are with a picture I think I have been progressively making worse! But I will have faith and keep at it. I may need to use up an entire tube of Crimnitz white in the process, but so be it. I have found that with this series of pictures, that I do not give up on a piece, that there is an educational value in continuing on.

So here it is in its various stages, my barnacle picture. My family has begun giving me shells as gifts. If I had any thought of ending my series of shell paintings, it is quickly evaporating, because more shells and ways to stage them, seem to be coming into my life. It must be Karma.

The above picture is its initial stage, roughed in, with an unpainted background.

Here, I got brave, took a risk, and ended up in the 1960's. Cool man. Psychodellic. The concept was to have an under-painting that would serve as a basis for a more naturalistic approach.

Here I worked quite a bit on making the background look more like the depths of the ocean. It has a richness to it, but there continue to be problems. The shell "pops" from the background and isn't integrated into it. It sits in front of the "water". One solution would be to soften all the edges and make the shell look like it is underwater, something I hadn't thought through when I made the background so blue. It is not the extra work this will entail that is problematic, it is the risk of losing what I have created so far in the shell itself. Another solution, would be to paint out the background, hense that old tube of cremnitz white to the rescue, and return to a "forensic" approach of a shell that is sitting out of the water on a shelf somewhere. But then it would be a specimen and not truly a living shell (which it isn't anyway). Sounds like a good excuse for a tropical vaca and some scuba gear!

-Vicky