Art Donation

I have another first coming my way, I will be donating a piece of my art for auction!  The proceeds will benefit the 1947 Partition Archive, helping them discover shared histories and preserving the last remaining memories of Partition of India which led to the creation of Pakistan, where a lot of human rights were violated.

About Partition

1947 was the year that marked the end of the British Raj in South Asia as well as the birth of India and Pakistan. The newly Partitioned boundaries and self-governance came at a cost however. Over a million lost their lives and many millions more were displaced from their ancestral homes as Muslims migrated to Pakistan while Sikhs, Hindus and others migrated to India, making it one of the largest mass displacements in history. During the ordeal, over 100,000 women were abducted and countless children orphaned.
 
Arjunels, the event coordinator contacted me, discovering my art from my etsy shop Elven Grove.  He expressed that he was impressed with my art and asked if I would be interested in donating to their cause.  I had never donated a piece of my art before and thought it could be a great opportunity to see how much my work might auction for.  It's also another way to get my work out there, the event will be featured in the New York Times, radio press releases and other various publications and of course it'll be great to do some good in 2013.

The event deets:

• When: April 6, 2013
• Where: Berkeley Skydeck in the Penthouse Suite, directly above Downtown Berkeley BART Station
• What: The event is an auction and lunch where donated works would be auctioned off .
• Who: High profile audience, who will be charged $100 a plate, and later be opened up to the general public.  High profile members include world famous professors and archeologists, corporate sponsors and Steven Spielberg is also one of our possible attendees. (I get in for free for donating)
  

If you happen to live in the bay area and want to come to this event, during the open public section which is 3pm-4pm along with lectures and food after 4pm, come on out!  I'll be there ;).

Piece I am donating, Titled: Britt

Heartbreak

I feel a little funny writing about this for all the interweb to see, okay maybe not all, my blog isn't quite that popular, but odd putting it out there none the less.  I'm going through some heartbreak right now, my boyfriend and I of two years are no longer.  It's called "break" for a reason, you feel the shards inside you, it may heal overtime but I believe if you truly love/loved someone there will always be a scar.  You are never quite the same.

Why put this out there?  Because we can't have the good without the bad and I think it's important to say hey, we're all human, we've all been through this (unless you're 5 and have yet to experience a relationship), we've been in deep dark holes... Why hide it?  Though it must be remembered there is a fine line, it's good to let it out, feel what you need to feel but don't let it overcome who you are.  Instead learn from it, grow from it, take something good away from the bad, lemons into lemonade as they say.

Now don't get me wrong, I'm not suddenly leaping through flowery fields splashing lemonade on my face, I'm still healing.  However I have been able to squeeze one lemon, with emotion comes inspiration.  The artistic gears in my brain are turning, my emotions are wishing to come out on the canvas... My next art series is a brewing.

Feel the pain but turn your tear filled eyes up to the sun, this is not the end, there is more to come.

Friends & Strangers

This is my newest art series, a bit of a departure from the style and mood of my last series "Love, Paint & Dance".

Friends & Strangers was inspired by the people in our every day lives, people we know, friends, or those we walk by on our usually day to day events, strangers.  Although sometimes the rolls can be reversed, our friends can be strangers and strangers can be friends.

Laila

Friends: We have many different types of friends, close friends, acquaintances, distant friends, friends that are neighbors.  We can know many different sides to our friends, although no matter how close you are to someone we can never truly know everything about them, who they are to the core.  Such as, something as innocent as lying about liking a present you gave them to spare your feelings.  Or something as deep and dark as abuse in their past... We all keep our secrets.

Blue

Strangers:  These are the people we pass by on the street, we bump into them on public transit, we purchase our groceries from them.  We don't personally know these people, we don't know their name, where they grew up, what their favorite color is.  They are strangers to us.  Although these strangers can be friends as well.  A stranger walks by and compliments your dress, you slip and fall on a side walk and a stranger stops to help you up.  That person you walk by on the street just might have more in common with you than even your best friend, but you will never know how good of a friend they can be.








We all have layers and many of us judge each other on those first few layers.  In this new series I have painted images of people I know personally and others I have never met.  I could go on and on about the many layers of this series, which is exactly how I painted these images, with layers.

1. Illustration board
2. Layer of Gesso, painted with different types of texture and designs, whatever came to me when looking at the image of the person I know or a strangers image I chose.
3. Before Gesso dries, I wrote words into it that I felt described the person, either by just looking at them, first judgements, or if they are a friends, things I know about them personally.
4. Layer of Gouache, usually two colors.
5. Lift out and find the face beneath.

Take what you will from this series, but I definitely encourage you to look deeper and develop your own interpretation.

Happy 2013!

Happy 2013!!  I hope you all have had a wonderful New Year and are excited for the year ahead, I know I am!

Since my last post I have been lucky enough to have two more art shows and 2 more planned for this year!

Art show #2: Lansplitters Pizza in Berkeley
This was such a fun and successful art show... Well for the most part, but I mustn't get ahead of myself.  The show opening was a blast, there was free pizza for all my guests as well as half off beer and wine, this of course was a big help in getting people out!  Which it did, quite a group joined me that night and it was so much fun to discuss my new series, munch on pizza and drink some beer.

Now the "well for the most part" part, sadly the show was cut a bit short because of a plumbing problem and they had to close the restaurant early.  However this was a blessing in disguise as the woman in charge of booking shows apologized as well as promised me another show at a different Lansplitters after the new year!

Art show #3: Addis Habana Dance and Art Studio in Oakland
This was my least successful event of the 3 I have done this year.  It was a nice space to hang my work, however the turnout wasn't as great as the past two I had.  Those in charge of this studio, nice people, however it wasn't the most pleasurable experience working with them... That's all I'll say on that.

I know every artist has their ups and downs and not every event will go as smashingly as my first two.  I know I am lucky to have had two great events in which I actually sold some of my work and I will learn from this experience.

For these two events I developed a new series of work titled "Friends & Strangers".  More to come on that in future posts, but until then here is the Original painting that inspired it all.

Wishing you all fun, happiness and success in 2013!  I look forward to sharing my art world with you though out the new year! :)