Christmas Cards

Sorry I've been gone so long, but I guess chances are you've also been busy with holiday festivities too. As a little treat here are so Christmas cards I made last week for friends. They are all made with materials that I would have thrown away: scraps from other projects, magazines, a kleenx box, and old cards.

Enjoy and may you have a safe and festive holiday season!

See you in the new year!!

My Web Site is FINISHED!!!

Drum roll please.......

www.jacquelinestark.com

It's up, open, rolling and ready for you to view and share with your friends. I'm still using this blog to post my newest works and little blurbs about them. I see my website as my working portfolio to display my works. And hope to keep the blog up as a discussion and feedback center.

Enjoy and please feel free to leave me any comments that pop into your head.

Chair and Books Oil Paintings

Chair with a Bowl 16" x 20"
oil paint

We had a double session in my Oil Painting class at Art Center this week to make up for the Thursday we lost to Thanksgiving and thus produced two paintings. Wow, I have NEVER done two paintings in one day. The first one, the chair with a bowl, was fun and I had a ton of energy and stamina as I searched for color changes and highlights. We had a break and then switched set ups--to a more challenging mantle like set up (below). It was exhausting. I felt like my eye wasn't as sharp, I was lazy with my brush, and misjudged depths. Considering this class produced my first ever painting in three hours, I think this was expected. It's like a marathon after just completing a 5K. Well I made it, sort of, the second one may be gesso-ed over soon. We'll see.

Mid-Read 14" x 10"
oil paints

What was really interesting this week in class were the artists of inspiration: The Bloomsbury Group, and English group of painters, crafters, and sculptures. We saw portraits of Virginia Wolfe, Keynes (the economist), and of their work from their omega workshops. I didn't even know this group existed--and they did every style--Cezanne, pointillism, Manet, from the previous century that was just tapping into being anti-academic. Their work deeply influenced literature, criticism, and economics as well as modern attitudes towards feminism, pacifism, and sexuality. I highly suggest looking into their works.

Defacement

Defacement of Girl Before The Mirror 10" x 14"
Collage

This collage is the final assignment for my mixed media and collage class at UCLA Extension. The assignment was 'defacement', to change a well known image in our own way. I chose Picasso's Girl Before a Mirror and incorporated photographic images to give the piece new meaning.

Girl Before a Mirror by Picasso

When I first saw this painting by Picasso, I thought he was trying to capture the two ways a person can look at themselves--their own view and the one others see of the outside--as represented with the cut away of the womb and the mirror's reflection of the surface of the woman's tummy. I took this divided imagery and ran with it-as the lady in Picasso's painting almost appears pregnant, I chose to look at the pro-life vs. pro-choice debate. It's a touchy subject and while I believe everyone is entitled to their own opinions and beliefs, I believe that this should extend to women's right to choose. I defaced Picasso's work by making the women's faces more life like, they could be someone you know. I also wanted to use photographs of faces because it evokes more emotions than his original painting. I added a third hand to stand for outside forces or her own wavering judgements. In her womb I pasted a photograph of a young child--the what could be. The dots in the background have been replaced with eyes, which for the most part stare at her womb, imposing their beliefs, criticizing, and ever present.

In the end it's her choice--to be pro-life or not. This right, privilage, and choice should be respected because, to sound corny, Mama knows best.

Fortune Cookie and Onions

Fortune Cookie 17" x 11"

The above is from an assignment for my Collage and Mixed Media class where we were told to get a fortune cookie from a Chinese restaurant and then visually interpret it on an 11"x17" piece of illustration board. When I read mine I instantly thought of magical source powers in jars. I used cardboard and illustration board painted with acrylic paint to look like a wood cabinet of potions. I etched the words, "You have remarkable powers, which you are not using" into the board with an exacto knife. I wanted it to feel like graffiti or writing on the stalls of high school bathroom. The words are there, the writing on the wall, but we may not actually see it and read it. The images represent powers one may have forgotten to use. While I was going to label them, I chose not to, to allow the viewer to interpret the jars themselves instead of imposing my own views on them. What do the jars mean to you? Do you have powers you're not using?

Two Onions 11" x 14"

Yesterday, I made this oil painting in my Art Center class. We focused on adding color to shadows and highlights. For example, not just dabbing a lump of white paint on the highlight of the onion, but instead using yellow if it's a warm shadow or green/blues if it's a cool one. Reserving hot white highlights for shinny metals and the like. I really like how this one turned out and received nice commentary on it in class for its colors, shadows and the wine bottle's transparency.

DIY-crafts

As I just moved to LA, I've been enjoying decorating my crib. Even though it took me two months to find a table I liked (jury is still out on coffee tables), I have made a few DIY pieces which I thought I'd share to help you crafty-crafters if you need ideas. Above are four squares of cork that I painted with simple acrylic paint to add a more personal and earthy feel.

Cork Board 10" x 10" each

Second, here are two magazine racks given a personality make over. They started as clear plastic with no zip. I covered them with monochromatic cut outs from magazines in blue and green with mod-pod. However I have recently found a new medium: Gel Medium, used as a thinner for acrylic paints, but unlike mod-pod it is water proof once it dries. I use it on all my collages.

Two Magazine Racks

On a final note, I went to the Felt Club Craft Fair today. Wow. Some many creative people out there. I highly suggest supporting the handmade movement this Christmas instead of boring everyday strip malls. I picked up some coasters and note cards. I also hope to get into some needle point again. Hope you did something creative today.

Morandi Haunts Me

Bottles 24" x 18"

The last week and half's themes have oddly coincided in two, soon to be three of my classes. Last week in my drawing class we looked up Giorgio Morandi as our weekly artist. Known for his numerous paintings of bottles, jars, and boxes, he painted until he was he died at age 74. He never married and lived with his four sisters, who I guess never married either. He would go to his studio and day after day set up still lifes of bottles, which he had painted to remove their transparency, vases and cubes. The drawing above is in vine charcoal and kneaded eraser on a large sheet of paper. I started with the two bottles on the left since I didn't want to risk smudging my work with my dominant hand. Glass is difficult for almost everyone. With it's highlights not only reflecting but bouncing inside of it, it can be difficult to get just right. It also have refracting properties which distort the images behind it, such as the table top line on the cluster of two bottles had one bottle with a higher table line and the other's was lost in the glass. This study is growing on me and I feel satisfied with how the top of the bottles look.

Primary Objects 14" x 11"

Last Thursday in my oils workshop, I was surprised to find a Morandi step up. (and honestly a bit disappointed, I didn't really like his work. I like still lifes of objects ect, but I couldn't believe Morandi didn't go bonkers doing the same thing for decades) But I mixed it up a bit and added brighter colors than Morandi, who stuck to muted hues of grey and brown, and used a palette knife to paint instead of a brush for the objects and the foreground. This forced me to use 3x the amount of paint and focus on the main shapes since knifes as big as the one I was using are hardly accurate. The background wall was done with a Bristol brush. Click on it for a zoom in.

Values Study 18" x 24"

Finally, he is a value study from two weeks ago that I half forgot about. I was drawn to the long shadows and how the light peaked over the sphere onto the top of the Styrofoam cups.

Learning Dreamweaver

Here is a link to the site I've been working on the past seven weeks during UCLA extension's online Dreamweaver I and Interface Design Basics class. Check out the homework page for a cool use of image maps and rollover images. This is a tedious class, primarily because it's all online, but I'm hoping that teaching myself most of the material will make me understand the program better and remember all the processes better.

http://jac-attack.tripod.com/

Tripod is a free hosting server, however, as you can see from the link, there are a fair bit of advertisements. You get what you pay for, or in this case, what you don't pay for.

To everyone who has posted or e-mailed me comments, THANK YOU so much for your support and for mentioning me to friends and family looking for design and web work. I'm planning on getting some Holiday items up soon, so check back soon and order for little gifts and cards. I am also taking orders for personal pieces (perhaps a watercolor of you and your mother for a gift, restoring those old family pictures that are yellow and torn (yes Photoshop can do this!), or not having to stress about your holiday card design just send me the photos). Pricing depends on time and materials spent, but remember I'm green, cheap, and won't finish til I give you what you want. Plus how cool would it be to say a friend made them, not some factory in Taiwan?

Pumpkin Chop

Pumpkin Guillotine 20"x 16"

For my second oil painting from Anne Saitzyk workshop, I was allowed two more colors: Indian Yellow and Red Terra (Red Earth) as well as a little Burnt Umber. This gave me so many more colors to work with! Again, I was shocked I was able to finish this in three hours. I think I finished the knife in 15 minutes. Anne said the knife has some Manet qualities to it, please click on the image and zoom in. Below is a close up if it's not available.



I especially like the way the half pumpkin turned out. It was the most challenging because of its shape and all of the seeds in it. I had to focus to ignore the details and the urge to fall into my old traditional style of painting. Instead I conciously pushed myself to look for the large areas of color and shadow.

Dream Associations

Dream Bird 18"x 11"

As a few of you may know, I have long been interested by the ideas of dreams, memories, and thought. This was a large reason I decided to specialize in the Neuroscience field while attending UCLA. I wanted to know how they worked. Sadly my friends, there is not clear answer, so without a fulfilling scientific reason for their mechanism, I am back creating art revolving around their personalities. The Dream Bird is a product of the animal assignment from James Fish's collage course at UCLA extension. The only guideline we were given was to make it 3D, an animal, and to use our imaginations. So let me introduce you to the Dream Bird. He is a metallic blue to hide in the night as you sleep. When not on the job, he sits on your grandmother's candle holder. Here he is just about to take off for the night. His wings spread you can see the association of a dreamer: images of childhood, connected to barn houses, trinkets, birds and pin up women.

I am interested in how unlikely images are associated with each other during a dream. When something you saw briefly was stored in your subconscious and then comes out fully in a dream. The images a printed on tracing paper and shrinky-dink paper and connected with colored wire or thread. His wing bones are made of chop sticks and colored with bronze ink while his body is crayola air drying clay painted with acrylic. White feathers pipe out of his head and wings to give him a more bird-y look. I wanted viewers to see him and devise their own reasoning for why the images are connected they way they are. What is the story of this dream? How do you interpret it?

Jumping into Oil Painting

Skull 14" x 11"

This is the first painting I made during Anne Saitzyk's workshop at the Art Center Collage of Design in Pasadena during the school's night classes. I was only allowed three colors to work with: titanium white, burnt sienna, and ultramarine blue. It was very challenging especially since I love painting with colors and adding reflecting light. However, this study allowed me to focus on values and get back to the basics of painting. I also finished this painting in three hours! This never has been even a possibility before. Anne's style of 'direct painting' is fast paced, limited pallet (but typically more than 3 colors), large brushes (size 10 or bigger, which is about an inch wide), lots of paint and no turpentine. There is not time consuming study of the subject matter before, we just jumped right in.

Updating the Local Deli

Many a Burlingame local have come to love CJ's Deli for their extensive menu of over 100 sandwiches, laid back atmosphere, and mom & pop shop charm. Or if you're my brother, it's the Texas Tri-Tip that seals the deal. However charming you may think this little shop is, they do have an identity issue.

Outside:South Side Shot
Christmas/Italian color pallet

Front Awning
Color and lettering is in accordance with rest of shops in building

Inside the Shop
Crowded, overwhelming amount of menus, text and in need of one uniform design

Here are the final designs below from my process book. I chose a red, white, and black pallet to keep true to their Italian history without making it look like a seasonal holiday store. The font is similar to the outdoor awning to be consistent. The 'gourmet' is in red script to add emphasis and remind customers of their 100 unique sandwich choices. The simple sandwich logo adds a 'cute' element and in its singularity, it looks modern and chic.

Business Card (front & back)Letter Head and Envelope

If you would like to see the entire process book (brainstorming, early ideas, and research), please let me know and I can e-mail you the pdf.

Little Stories Make Up a City by the Bay

Golden Gate 16"x 24"

Here is a photograph of a collage I made for our landscape project in James Fish's UCLA Extension course. Click on it, you may be able to see it in higher detail. It is made entirely from paper cutouts from magazines, catalogues, bills, and fliers. I am very interested in how little stories make up a larger one. The pieces of a puzzle and layering both in a physical way (vertically and horizontal as I glued piece on piece) but also in a metaphorical way. Cities are so appealing to me because there numerous people living there, separate from each other, but they are all connected. I tried to visually create this by taking objects you wouldn't think would fit in a city scape, but actually do fit in. For example, the potato and muffin on the left side of the bridge. They both are not 'mountains' but by their coloration they fit in. From far away, they are not noticeable, but from a far (or in your case my cyber friend, zoomed in you can see all the little pieces that make up the story of the city).

Welcome

I'm a lucky girl.

If you had a year, starting today, to do anything, what would you do?

Then ask yourself, why aren't you doing it right now? Don't give yourself the answer you have rehearsed for cocktail parties. Ask yourself really, why not?

This is what has lead me to this year, my "Bohemian" year. After a migraine took me down for a week two years ago, I began to re-evaluate my life. As a junior at UCLA with two more years of difficult neuroscience courses to complete, the answer to the question I just posed to you was obvious: because I was on the wrong track. Unfortunately this realization was not as easy as reading the next sentence. It took a year and half of talking it out on the phone, over lunch, in hallways of industrial blue carpet, between study sessions, and going to Italy for a summer to convince myself that this was my calling. This I hope was the hard part.

Now, after blaming Los Angeles and it's smog, traffic, and Barbie bimbos for my unhappiness, I'm back in LA to give her a second chance and to figure out how I can turn what I enjoy doing into something I can do everyday. With this blog, I not only hope to keep my friends and family updated on my latest endeavors, but also to learn to articulate my artwork verbally as well as see how my work effects people. While I currently do art for the process: the pushing of paint on a canvas, feeling that 'zone' feeling I can only compare to the mental state I feel ten minutes into a long run, and the intense rush as ideas spill into notebooks; I want my work to connect with people: for my still life's to have a mood, my portraits to look familiar, my design work to have feeling, and for people to see that art is every where.

With this said, I hope you check back, see what I'm up to, and leave a note of your impressions.