Suck it.

This site sooooo reminds me of my early voodoo series.

Devaney's Hell

The inspiration for studies in Voodoo

Labels: My Art, Others Art

posted by courtney @ 10:53 PM 0 comments

A good day for the treasury.

No, not our U.S. Treasury - treasuries on Etsy.com.

First, my "Temple Door, Belur, India" photograph from the Architectural Details series was featured in Righteousnightowl's Express Your Secret Self treasury, which was full of fun and funky pieces, including a purse with the Virgin of Guadalupe and a technicolor octopus sculpture that I love.



Then, Missgaylee put together an Esty Ozdessy with pieces that are right out of Oz. My "Yellow Brick Road" photograph from Postcards from Another Reality really stands out as it's the only non-green-hued image in the bunch.

Labels: My Art, Shop

posted by courtney @ 3:35 PM 0 comments

House on a Hill

House on a Hill, Rome

There's something about this photo that reminds me of Arbus's similarly titled photo - A House on a Hill, Hollywood. It's one of my two favorite photos of hers (the other being the Disneyland castle), and the dialogue generally surrounding these photos is how atypical it is for her to have taken more of a landscape photograph, as she normally works in portraiture. Thus, there's a lot of discussion on what this means - photographing a house on a hill, photographing a castle at a theme park. Most often, the thought is she is photographing what is not there - i.e. the content of the house is missing in Hollywood; it's just a shell (read what you will into that). Things aren't always what they seem.


A House on a Hill, Hollywood, by Diane Arbus

The mood of the two photos feel the same to me. Somewhat gray (though in Arbus's work this is achieved via B&W), clouds in the sky, perspective, and what's not there. It's obvious in Rome what is left is a piece of magnificent architecture, and what's left hints at what once was, but is no longer. Whether that be as simple as part of the house is missing, or a great society that has come and gone... well, I'll leave that to you to read into.

Labels: Italy, My Art, Others Art, Rome

posted by courtney @ 8:07 AM 0 comments

Rainy Streets of Florence

Ponte Vecchio, Florence

I had one of the most wonderful, most eye-opening experiences about a week ago. As many of you know I sell my work on Etsy - a great place to find handmade work by artists & crafters (if you didn't know that, you should pop on over to my shop and check it out). CBDImagination - another Etsy shop owner - messaged me to tell me how much she loved the picture posted above, that it brought back many memories for her.

I do love this photo, the way the light pours out of the windows and reflects on the rainy streets. The life that is portrayed down the street, the person in the red jacket who pulls your eye down there.

But as much life as I see in my pictures, I sometimes can't shake the art school feeling. "It's just a pretty picture," they would say, "... it has no meaning, no depth, no insight into something greater." Like everything you have to make as an artist has to make that big, political statement. It has to generate some controversy. And, somehow, any work that doesn't do that, isn't as good.

So, CBD, she made me realize that a pretty picture can be more than a pretty picture. Photographs, just like music, just like a scent, can bring back waves of memories for a person. That's how I feel every time I look at one of my photos - and often how I feel when I look at the work I own from other artists. Photography is documentation of a moment, a particular point in time. And just because something is beautiful, mainstream, doesn't make it any less worthy of the term "art" for some people.

To each their own - their own feelings, their own memories, their own opinions.

Labels: Life Changing Moments, My Art, not just a picture, Observances

posted by courtney @ 10:19 PM 0 comments

the Dragon's Lair

Gondola Detail, Venice

My gondola detail is featured on a treasury at Etsy put together by Simply Suzula. The treasury is full of dragons and has some pretty cool artwork, so go check it out.

Labels: My Art

posted by courtney @ 7:47 AM 0 comments

You must have a good camera!

I just love it when people look at my work and that is the first (or second) line out of their mouth. As if my camera jumped out of my hand, ran back down the street, centered the scene perfectly, focused and snapped the shot, noting that it didn't need a flash to get the best lighting.

My hubbie once said this about a friend, but after some thought (I said nothing, neither did his friend) he came to the conclusion that maybe there has to be a smidgen of talent at least to get the camera to produce a nice picture.

And for the record, I do have a nice camera :-) I also have some others that might not be qualified as nice, but will produce some fantastic results if it's the effect you're looking for. Because in the end, the camera is just a tool that the entire world has access to, just like paint, pastels, pens, and clay.

Labels: Florence, Italy, My Art, not just a picture, Observances

posted by courtney @ 8:00 AM 0 comments

You can now buy my prints at Etsy!

After many years of procrastination I have finally taken the first step toward getting an online shop up on this site. I've listed my photos on Etsy because it's easier than building my own storefront (at least for now), plus I get a lot of extra eyeballs, and you get to peruse others handiwork. I only have a couple of series uploaded for now, so if you see something on this site you would like to buy and it's not there, let me know and I'll list it.

So this means now, when you click the shop link above, you no longer see a "Coming Soon" notice :-D And the Madd Hatter's home page has been updated too. Oh happy day!

So pop on over to the Madd Hatter's Lab shop on Etsy and check it out. Heck, throw caution to the wind and buy something even!

Labels: General Info, My Art, Shop

posted by courtney @ 7:52 AM 0 comments

Slowly reworking the portfolio

The portfolio section is slowly getting updated with some new work. It's about time, huh? Ba-by steps...

Click on that portfolio link above to go there - the one in the menu bar -- next to that shop link that's been coming soon for a year...

Labels: General Info, Italy, just a picture, My Art

posted by courtney @ 9:14 PM 0 comments

Quick - n - Crazy

One of the many present reading materials is the Yellow House, a book about the nine weeks Van Gogh and Gaugin spent living in the south of France, painting together, collaborating, drinking, philosophizing (I'm sure that's not a word, but you get the idea). And, oh yes, let's not forget frequenting the cat houses of Arles.

It's an amusing book, and very insightful if you are interested at all in Van Gogh. He seems to be more the primary focus of the book. Though I do like the system Gaugin introduced for budgeting their money. It was like something I had read as a child on how to budget your money. You have a little box for each fund: one for paint and canvas (the most important), one for food, one for drink, one for tobacco, and one for the whore house. It was funny to see the priorities - I believe food was actually further toward the bottom. Those weren't actually the categories I read about as a child, but you get the idea.

One thing that really struck me was Van Gogh's work style. It gives me hope for my own. His more successful pieces were done in very short time periods. Whereas Gaugin would take days or even weeks to complete a painting, Van Gogh would turn one out in an hour or so. He would attack the canvas, painting with a fury, then be done, very rarely going back to correct or edit. It's not to say all of his paintings were done in this manner. Just many -- the good ones :-)

Why does this give me hope? Because occasionally people think I'm not doing anything, or, gasp, I am procrastinating - when really, I am (doing, not procrastinating). I'm thinking, and planning, and plotting, and then, in the moment, when it feels right, I execute. Lightning fast. Whether it's a trigger finger on the camera, or my fingers typing furiously at the keyboard which sounds and feels like 1000 wpm. And then it's done. Just like that. Bam! There might be a correction or two, but for the most part, I've captured it, whatever it is (and there's your eBay plug for the day). And if there was a deadline there, I met it (I've never understood the idea of an extension).

So the book gives me hope. It makes me realize everyone has their own style, and my style just happens to be similar to one of the most famous painters of all time who was crazier than a redneck saying, "Hay guys! Watch'is!" (hmm, maybe that's just stupidity over crazy -- you can insert your own "crazier than..." statement). Just because I don't obsess and toil over the minutia doesn't mean I'm not giving something my all. Truth be told that planning and plotting has the minutia already embedded in my brain.

Labels: Books, Influences, My Art

posted by courtney @ 4:25 PM 0 comments

reverse rayograph embellished

Man Ray was and is by far one of my favorite influences. While enjoying a glass of wine and a good book on the porch the other day, I stumbled upon something I'd been looking for... a more abstract way to show spirits. What I was doing previously is quite boring to me. I guess that's why I haven't done a whole lot with it and just drank my wine instead of playing with it.

When I viewed the picture above, one of the first things that came to mind was "reverse rayograph". I've loved creating photograms since I was a child and was always amused that Man Ray took this technique, tweaked it, and put his own name on it.

For shits-n-giggles I inverted the piece so it would look like a regular photogram. Not nearly as spectacular. I love the brilliant shine of the red pinot in the first photograph. Luckily, summer is lurking and there'll be plenty more sunny days to experiment with this new idea.

Labels: Influences, My Art

posted by courtney @ 2:59 PM 0 comments

Devaney's Hell

I wish I had the original story for this set of images. Devaney was an art history professor that I loathed. She taught a freshman class that was a survey of "modern" art. Devaney fancied herself a formalist, and therefore, didn't have to tell us anything interesting about the meaning or concept behind the art.

For the first month, I really tried to listen to this woman's drivel -- I tried to absorb what she was saying about perspective, lines, circles, etc. It was more like middle school art class than a college course on art history.

So at this point, I checked out. I made sure to bring a copy of the most recent Pitch to class so I would have something interesting to read. She didn't care for that, though, so I turned to writing stories. The original story was a good three pages long, front and back. However, I have since lost the original and just remember the highlights.

Devaney is sucked into a Miro painting -- at least I think it was a Miro. I haven't been able to find the painting since, though I remember it vividly in my mind. However, given the fact I wasn't paying attention in class at this point, I could have just dreamt it. It may have been Ernst, or some other artist she didn't care for. Anyways...

Devaney is in a Miro painting. Along comes the bird, and more birds follow. She is tied to a stake at this point, and the birds peck at her, eating her flesh, all the while chriping "Blah-de-Blah! Blah-de-Blah!". This is a long process, and it takes her a while to die.

When she enters her personal Hell, she watches the de Chirico train run over her father over and over again.

She didn't enjoy de Chirico either. I really wish I could remember the rest of the story, because it cracked most of us up -- well, those of us with a sick, sick sense of humor.

Labels: My Art

posted by courtney @ 9:12 AM 0 comments

The inspiration for studies in Voodoo

Many times people ask me where the interest in voodoo came from. It was born from a period much like the one I'm in now. My creative mind was stale -- I had no thoughts, no originality, no will to produce or create anything. For 4 or 5 weeks I had done nothing, which was a long time for one semester at college. I had produced no work, shown nothing in class. I was barrelling toward crits with nothing to show.

And, as much as I hate to admit it, and try not to be this way, I'm a hater. No, that's not street slang for anything. I just let hatred build up inside of me. I've done it recently with my job, and I need to do something to purge the hatred from my body. This is how the original voodoo series was born in 1999.

I decided making voodoo dolls of people I didn't like would be fun. I always had a knack for creating stories of the perfect death or ultimate punishment for those people -- creative stories. Nothing simple, like, "I wish they would die." No, these stories went far beyond.

So I set about collecting what I would need. Barbie dolls, sculpty, paint, props. I decided to create diptychs and triptychs showing what happened to the doll, and what happened to the person as a result. I figured I would get grilled in crits on voodoo, and there would be some know-it-all there who would shred my series to pieces, so I set my sights on the library to get all of the answers I would need.

The library didn't have what I needed. Turns out voodoo doesn't have much to do with cursing people -- it was an actual religion/way of life, and it was about the same thing all "religions" are about -- the golden rule. Do unto others...

This was all well and good; it actually piqued my curiosity and made me want to learn more about voodoo, which is how the voodoo series you see today on my site came to be. But, it really didn't help my present situation.

Long story short, there was no voodoo know-it-all in crits. Ironically, this series was one of the most well-received I produced in my time at KCAI. The most controversial piece in the entire series was a picture of me, the curser, having my spells turned back on me: I was in a YoYo Courtney box (which is one of Skipper's friends from the Barbie empire). It sparked a fierce debate that ended with one of the professors leaving the room in tears.

More to come soon on the original voodoo doll series. Pictures, stories, FUN!

Labels: My Art

posted by courtney @ 4:46 PM 0 comments