Emergency Working Artist Project Grant
Emergency Working Artist Project Grant
Emergency relief funds for paint time.
Tara Makinen: Executive Director of Itasca Orchestra and Strings, musician; Amber Burns: choreographer, dancer, actor, middle school art teacher; Tammy Mattonen: visual artists, co-founder of Crescendo Youth Orchestra; Kayla Aubid: Native American craft artist, writer, employee at MacRostie Art Center; Kathy Neff: musician, Director, Fine Arts Academy at the University of Minnesota-Duluth; Ron Piercy: jeweler, gallery owner; Emily Swanson: arts administrator at Oldenburg Arts and Cultural Community.
Amber Burns: choreographer, dancer, actor, middle school art teacher; Kendra Carlson: writing and theater instructor, University of Minnesota Duluth; Carla Hamilton-Eisele: visual and multimedia artist; Karen Savage Blue: visual artist; Moira Villiard: visual artist.
ACHF Arts Access
Funding of this particular painting would allow me paint for myself and to push the limits of color, line and technique. It brings together many of the ideas and themes that I've explored over my many years of painting. I've always been intrigued by portraiture. My portraits range from highly realistic to extremely stylized. I love working with both techniques. This would be a painting that would allow me to paint highly realistic and very stylized, mainly because of its size. My goal is to achieve a highly realistic, surreal vision and enter it in a portrait competition. I would also like to enter it in the 2021 Minnesota State Fair. Another goal would be, to find a venue to display this painting along with a few others of mine with this theme. I paint to create a revenue for my living and I paint to create a passion for painting. Every painting that I work on has to have a level of excitement and challenge. The funding would also allow me to help pay for competition fees/framing. In the past I have worked on numerous projects with very tight deadlines, public, private and commercial. There are less, distractions in my life, not completely gone, but definitely less demands from when my kids were little. I have the freedom to create my own schedule and have a vehicle (that I share with my kids), but is available to travel the areas I would like for my plein air paintings and studies. I manage my time well and have always completed my deadlines on time. I feel that I've given myself enough time for this painting. In case there would be something unexpected to come up, I would still be able to handle the deadline. Also, there would be no concern in any delay of supplies. I can purchase them locally in Duluth or order them on-line. Another reason I am very confident this painting will be completed on schedule is, I am working alone. There is no other party that I would need to rely on. I have a very good work ethic and am driven to create paintings for myself. For myself, when the painting is finished and I know that I worked on it to the best of my ability. As far as a tangible way of being successful, it would be accepted in the Minnesota State Fair, maybe even win an award. Although, I would be very satisfied if it would be accepted and find a large audience. I would like to think that my art would also be an inspiration to other fellow artists young and old. It would be a success to be given a place in a competition and further my career as a serious portrait artist. I want to be able to show people there are no limits to portraiture. There is always room for a traditional portrait, but then there might be someone that needs something that stands out and reveals something unknown. Some of the realistic styled paintings that I feel are most successful aren't the ones that can paint subjects most real, but the ones that can create an awe. The lighting, color, composition and technical ability all have to support the painting as a whole.
Artistically, I feel that my goal has been achieved. My sense of composition, color and painting technique was improved. My main subject (human) looks directly at the viewer. I want this to have a look that people will not be intimidated to continue to look at and want to see themselves in the image. I did this by intentionally making the eyes two different colors and the persons gender ambiguous. Each eye color represents variations of the human race (blue/green and brown). The larger scale was a challenge and I learned how to change the tools accordingly. As I mentioned before, my composition improved, by realizing I could say more with less. Even though it didn't place in the portrait competition that it was entered in, I still have hope it will be accepted in the state fair this year. I'm currently still searching for a venue, but now that things are improving rapidly, I'm very hopeful I will be able to display it publicly soon.