Photo Shoot [ Fun ]

my amazing.beautfiul.freespirited.talented. friend, kathleen, and i had been talking for months about her photographing me, and in exchange, me painting a portrait of her.  it more recently occurred to me that those images could potentially be my new branding for Amaryllis Truth... and thats when my ideas ran wild.

last night as i was returning from painting down at the water, i got a call from this beautiful spirit, kathleen, frantic.  "allie, can you be dressed and ready to go in 10 minutes?! i'm on the way, we can't miss this light!!" so, off i went in a whirlwind to find my favorite dress, and find the most perfect place at the farm we live on to shoot.  fortunately, you can't tell in the photos that i'm covered in paint, with not a stitch of make-up on, nor a piece of hair curled.

but nevertheless, the images are AMAZING.  and are exactly what i have always wanted for Amaryllis Truth.  i'm only posting a little sneak peak and a few bloopers.  she's going to edit our favorites before i use them for my official banner and buttons.

let me know what you think!

isn't kathleen incredible! she's working on her website, so in the meantime if you would like to contact her for any work you can e-mail me for her info.  she is based in the annapolis, md area.

i love evenings that you think will be a boring movie and leftover pizza nights, that turn into such magical experiences.  hope everyone's week flew by as fast as mine did!

going home this weekend for a crab feast. YUM!

[ Inside the Studio ] Mid-Term Critique

Not totally finished (hands holding flowers, and Avery's Power Ranger Logo on Sweatshirt)

In-Progress Artist Statement (oh, the joys of art school... )

My brother died when I was nine years old.  He was six.  When asked of my earliest memory I am immediately drawn to that night, looking out from my front window at the array of emergency vehicles illuminating our yard through the downpour of rain.  As a painter of photographs, it would be easy for me to say that from that moment forward, pictures were all I had left of him.  But as our lives continued and our houses changed, these photographs slowly made their way into boxes and, until recently, never made their way out.  Instead it was specific memories (our last conversation, the sound of his voice, his laugh) that took up the space in my memory and home.  The gravity of these moments, and the effort it took to preserve them, was just too great to allow room for anything else...

But I still find myself left with questions, doubt:

Shouldn’t a photograph last forever?

Aren’t memories constantly tricking and evading us? 

Which can I trust?

Which is more tangible?

Which holds more power?

Which is more fragile?

Which is forever?

My paintings, evolved from individual pictures, set out to navigate this uncertainty as I struggle to articulate my own relationship with photography in the wake of my brother’s death.   My images are blurred, smeared, or altogether empty in an attempt to reiterate the collapsing and reassembling of a moment and it’s inevitably fleeting nature. I use the element of focus and visual clarity as a transcription of memory and progression of time.  I allow my wood supports to show through, as the image disintegrates. My panels are oversized and my figures - life-sized or larger, in an attempt for the emotional weight a 4” x 6” snapshot print inevitably lacks.

As a whole my work is a self-contained world of my history, a nostalgic realm in which my photographs and memories coexist. They exploit the painful absence that is the result of the presence of the image, and are the physical evidence provided for a moment against the otherwise haziness of my history.  My paintings are an attempt to assimilate the contradictions and hesitations that remembering creates, and provide a sense of honesty amid my otherwise fraudulent past.

So... what do you think?  Too much?