Ideals

Evening Raga, www.janhuling.com

spotted this amazing sculptural piece by Jan Huling on my walk home from brunch one wkend and was completely enamored by the precision and intensity of the b/w lines and colored patterning. another piece I want to own -in part because I can imagine it playing lovely melodies a la "deep into the forest" by Michael Nyman... in part bc it would be my first real sculpture...

Christina's Closet

fashion show, Sept 11 @ the Tent, Bryant Park

found amazing new vintage store near apt from which bought KILLER leather skirt with gold buttons (sorry did not take out gold pen - shoes have sweet gold chains, too)

Sweet Talk

Santa Conversazione - a theme I want to explore:

"Oddly enough, the group was beautiful. Mr Beebe, who loved the art of the past, was reminded of a favourite theme, the Santa Conversazione, in which people who care for one another are painted chatting together about noble things -- a theme neither sensual nor sensational, and therefore ignored by the art of today." -- E.M. Forster, A Room With a View

Christina's Closet

American Apparel casting, 429 Broadway

She Paints Me Blue

ketubah - "it is written"

spent the weekend working on a piece for a friend of mine who is getting married this weekend (yay!!!) - it is a ketubah, which is a Hebrew tradition presenting marriage contracts in an artistic way as a keepsake for the bride and groom. as my friend is not of Jewish heritage, though, I've written it in English opposed to Hebrew. her wedding colors are mostly sapphire blue and silver- so i went abstract and used blues/purples and a touch of grey.

the words she chose are beautiful, my favorite line being the quote -

"I am my beloved and my beloved is mine."

ah, i love romance!

Christina's Closet

hailing a cab, 8:56 am, wednesday sept 2nd

"He does dress better than I do, what would I bring to the relationship?" - Clueless


i love illustrating -- but i haven't really been keeping up with it. thus, beginning today, I'm going to start sketching my ensembles - a "What I Wore" archive. perhaps other subjects will emerge in the future- as long as they will be willing to model! - but, for now, solely moi.

Etch-a-Sketch

Sweet Talk

"I didnt go to see the city

I went to see it around you"

Chris Garneau, Relief

She Paints Me Blue

the inspiration: Cinque Terre

Stop! Dimentica, Oil on Canvas, 2009


my latest work - finally finished.

though odd, I paint like I read: a novel that's thought-provoking and serious, like Gladwell's Blink, is followed by the most indulgent fiction I can find - i.e. Twilight. In the same sense, a contrived, poignant work is succeeded by it's antithesis: something airy, bright, and seemingly devoid of depth. The former's essence, the emotional background, creates the beauty; it's the exposure, the underlying vulnerability, that is the art. However, it is the latter's technique -- the strokes, the color combinations, the vibrant patterns -- that form the art.

art = the why vs. the how; the planned vs. the spontaneous; the deep vs. the shallow

One may not probe to uncover what this piece of mine signifies as there is little ambiguity. I've replaced secrecy with honesty, for, unlike many of my works, this landscape is a landscape in the purest form. Without a story, nothing is clandestine; tragic romances don't linger under the guise of fair maidens and guardian angels in this scene. Rather, the natural mood of the setting is created by how it is painted - not what it is about.

...and I need both forms of expression: the direct & the elusive. one mode grants me serenity, allowing me to focus on the actual piece, clearing my head of its intangible congestion. The other brings me closure - I twist the feelings I've suppressed into fanciful narratives as revealing as diary entries; once they're on the canvas I'm in control. the drama, though relived, becomes less of a reality and more of a fantasy - a work of fiction. one cannot stay so attached to a story. and that, in essence, is how i let go and start over.

despite the differences in motives, i actually am always thinking about how i feel --there always is meaning behind my work. the difference is that sometimes I intend to be thinking and other times i do not. but whether i'm exploring the theories of Nassim Taleb or merely learning the rules of Quidditch, my thoughts are there. waiting. withheld but disclosed; hidden but shared; locked up but set free.