These past few weeks have been enjoyably productive despite my spatial restrictions. I just finished reading Sex, Art, and American Culture by Camille Paglia, and am eager to start Vamps and Tramps this week. Paglia is an incredible writer with an unbelievable grasp of history and knowledge of popular culture. (I love her emphasis on the importance of both because they each need and influence each other) She is radical, progressive, controversial, aggressive, and really just interesting to read and listen to. Seriously - go look up some interviews on youtube after reading this. I just discovered her recently, and I really appreciate her value of a genre's need for ongoing self-critique. This is just one of the many issues she has with contemporary feminism.
My good friend Elizabeth Arzani and I are working on a collaborative series and it is really starting to come together. She and I have very different working styles but both of our voices and experiences are apparent in these paintings. Interestingly we will both be moving away from North Carolina at the exact same time this summer and will end up on complete opposite ends of the country. To continue the series she and I will be mailing artwork back and forth. We met this past week to unveil some recently finished pieces to each other. Soon there will be a few pictures up on the website!
On Friday I had the opportunity to attend an opening held for two of my talented friends - Lydia Goldbeck and Morgan Hamer at Baku Gallery. Their color palettes really complement each other well and the show looks awesome. I love that all of my old classmates are out supporting each other. I think their show is up for the rest of February, so if you're in Charlotte you should definitely stop by North Davidson to see it.
