May 11, 2016

The Story Of A Severed Penis

If you follow me on Facebook or here on my blog, you know that I have been making body of work that I call "Knitting in Art" - I add knits or fiber to my acrylic paintings. CLICK HERE to see an example of one of my pieces in my last post.

Just like any other artist I think about my projects all the time. It doesn't matter where I am. I can be walking in the woods with my husband or I can be shopping in the grocery store. Simply, I think how I will execute next canvas or a clay board or whatever I am working on constantly. On many occasions, I caught myself either painting or knitting in my head even when I was talking to people!

Today, I would love to share with you the process of my latest project, which was (originally) supposed to be an abstract depiction of someone hiking.

After the last exhibit I've been thinking about how to make my "knit art" a bit different. I thought that if I introduce a torn out paper into my next knit-painting it might be more interesting.

First I knitted my fiber pieces. Then I gathered few other items I was considering to use.  I prepared my paper, which I painted with a water color. After that I tore my painted paper into couple of shapes. I also dyed my string that I decided to use for sewing my paper shapes together.








In the image below you can see my next step - sewing the shapes together




I painted my clayboard in an abstract style that would represent a nature. It looked a bit boring to me so I decided to add some scratches to make it more interesting.




As you can see in the image below, I started to "play" with the prepared shapes on my painted clayboard .




I moved my shapes and knitted pieces around. I tried to find out what would be the best possible combination and best possible visual layout for my project. For some reason I just thought it is not working out.




I went back and forth while playing with the shapes, then again back to playing with the knits. It was going nowhere. Not happening. I could not figure out what was bothering me about the layout.




I thought it was perhaps the shapes that were bothersome. 
"Should I use only knits instead?" I thought. 
So, for a while I tried to position the knits and my left over string around on the clayboard in various ways.




In the end I decided that I will use only my sewed up "tear-out". Before I placed it on the board the way I wanted it, I toned down the background with my brown paint some more. I decided to outline the shape on one side and add pencil and ink marks to give my painting more dimensional look (which actually looks more like hair instead). Finally, I glued my shapes to the board and signed it. 

After about 20 hours of my labor, I asked my husband what he thought (he is the most critical critic). He liked it and said that it looks like John Bobbitt's severed penis
So, I decided to call this painting "Bobbittized".

"Bobbittized"
mixed media
20" x 16"
$395

BTW - anyone interested in purchasing "Bobbittized" can contact me via message on my Facebook Page "BronislavaArt"


Apr 2, 2016

April 2016 - AQUA show at the Maritime Garage Gallery in Norwalk, CT

Bronislava Slagle, Aqua, Acrylic/Cotton, 20"x16"
I have been very busy in the past several years. Not that I do not want to post to my blog anything - I just do not have time. An artist have to create art, and I also have to make "artsy craft" (knitting and crocheting) - because I am so called Youtube Creator - which requires videotaping my work, editing videos, taking images and editing them too, downloading, uploading, marketing, blogging about the videos.... Let me tell you - it is a lot of work, but I LOVE IT. My handmade/rukodelky is giving me a lot of pleasure, just as much as my art. And I also teach - I have a fun group and we work on many projects.

So that is why I have been neglecting writing about my art life.

But tonight, after I returned home from Manhattan where I saw Patti Smith's (yes the very talented singer) photo exhibition (at Robert Miller Gallery ) and who read from her book "M Train" (which was great and everyone totally enjoyed her reading) I checked my e-mail and...... I found out I was yet again accepted to another show. So, I am very excited, because this is what I read at 11:30pm -

"Hi Bronislava 

 Congratulations on being accepted to the AQUA show at the Maritime Garage Gallery. We had a large turnout of work and your pieces 'Aqua' and 'At the Beach' have been accepted. Art drop off begins Monday April 4-6 9am-4pm at the Maritime Garage Gallery 11 North Water Street. 

Please be sure your work is correctly wired and ready to be hung. The reception is scheduled for April 13th 5-7 and we will be sending out more information with marketing materials for you to share with your people soon. 

 Thank you for participating, 

The Garage Gallery Team"

So before I go to bed, I decided to make a quick post. If you live near Norwalk CT - come  see the show!!
Good night.  Zzzzzzzz   :-)