MEDIA: acrylic on canvas
I guess I call this my "weird art" because I do, at times, come up with some strange subject matters for my paintings. Some of it is that, others aren't really weird in that respect, just maybe more expressionistic than other paintings I've done. Not that I think expressionism is weird, but some art viewers may tend to think so.
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| I titled this one "Frog Soldiers." I came up with the idea for this painting from the history of Shi Huangdi, an emperor of China during the Qin and Han Dynasties (221-210 B.C.). During his reign, the Great Wall of China was built, and he also ordered to bury alive thousands upon thousands of Confucian scholars. When Shi Huangdi died, more than six thousand life-size clay figures replicating soldiers of the Imperial Bodyguard, along with replicas of horses and chariots, were built in his tomb. This underground tomb was first discovered in 1974, and it fascinated me, so I tried to recreate it in some way, replacing the soldiers with frogs. I had to laugh when a fellow student came up to me as I was painting it and said, "Oh, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles!"
MEDIA: acrylic on canvas |
| More frogs. It was my frog year, I guess. I used to have tree frogs as pets, so my husband bought me this ceramic frog, I named him Louie, then he bought me more of the same, all of a different personality and character, but I liked Louie the best. So, I painted Louie in different situations of his life, some alone, some with his true love, Louise. Louie and Louise are together at bottom left, and it looks like Louie is trying desparately to apologize to his sweetheart for something . . . perhaps watching the football game when he'd promised to take her out for a Sunday walk? On the bottom right, Louie is graduating from college, and in the background is the Hamline Law building. Did Louie become a lawyer? Nope, he is now biding his time with Louise on my bookshelf, amidst many scholarly authors, and he seems quite content.
MEDIA: acrylic on small canvas boards, each 4 x 6 inches. |
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Left: A painting of my son, Ryan, so to speak. I sketched a drawing while he was playing his trumpet at a band concert, and I later came up with this painting. He's front left, and when I look at it, I think, "hmm, looks a bit like Elton John." Ryan is indeed a very talented musician.
MEDIA: acrylic on canvas
Right: Title: Slave Hang.
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I titled this "Religon Collage." I never finished it, since I got to the point where I was not happy with it, but I didn't know how to make it better. I was trying to portray a variety of religions in this painting: Christianity, Hinduism, Buddhism, native religions, religions of the past that are now defunct, and others. I see on the bottom left Stonehedge, which I had forgotten I had added to this painting. But of course, appropriate to religion, since most, if not all, of the grand architecture built back in the millineums BC had some connection to religious spiritual beliefs.
MEDIA: acrylic on canvas |
| Another religion related picture, this one titled "Relgion Hypocrisy." I got the idea for this painting from the scandals of the television evangelists of the 70's and 80's, such as Tammy Fay and Jim Bakker's PTL club downfall, and Jimmy Swaggert's attraction to prostitutes. On the left is shown a TV preacher speaking the gospel to millions who are probably saying, "Praise the Lord, Jesus," and emptying their pocket books. On the right is the same preacher at home, sitting in front of his TV watching porn.
MEDIA: acrylic and mixed media on canvas |
| Do any of you recall playing those tile puzzles as a kid, those ones where you have one empty slot to move the tiles around to create a picture or a set of numbers in sequential order? I got the idea of doing a "tile-painting" like that, so my dad made me a "canvas" out of wood blocks that could be slid around. I tried to paint on the blocks something that could be a picture of meaning, no matter how the blocks were placed, and I succeeded somewhat, I guess. I took this painting to a college humanities class, at that time not quite finished, scrambled up the tiles, asked the students to put the pieces back together, and it took them quite some time to do so. When I've rearranged the pieces myself, I often find a new meaning to the painting . . . and thus, I'd put them back together myself, and repaint them. I think I started this painting in 2001, changed it in 2003, and again in 2005. I started with acrylics, changed to oils. So many possibilities!
This painting is loosely based on the west tympanum of St.-Lazar at Autun in Burgandy, its sculptures depicting the weighing of souls on Judgment Day.
MEDIA: oil on wood
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Back to frogs again. This was an assignment in Painting 101, doing stuff with colors, so I got bored and added Louie to the picture. Can you find him? Duh.
MEDIA: acrylic on paper
Right: Shaman
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