HOPE Exhibition at the Roaring Artist Gallery
HOPE is a themed group exhibition, running through October 31st, 2021, at the Roaring Artist Gallery (This amazing virtual gallery run by the lovely and talented Katie Bradford Osborne), benefitting the L-CMD RESEARCH FOUNDATION. You can visit the virtual gallery and view my piece in the show, or view them on the website. “Sureness” is available for purchase through the gallery.
I’m excited to be participating in this exhibition, and that everyone can experience it virtually, I truly appreciate the thoughtful curation.
I hope you take the time to explore and enjoy all the arrangements of beautiful art in this virtual space, and maybe decide to bring a piece into your actual space as well.
VIDA Open Studio
Scarves, bags, masks, and pillows are available at my VIDA Open Studio. The Eco Repreve mask has been popular, and I still use my VIDA masks with the filters daily. Also, if you’re excited about fall being right around the corner, I think you’ll enjoy the tones of some of my new pieces!
NFT
My first NFT art is available as part of the REMIX exhibition with Playform Studio, on Rarible!
REMIX
REMIX Exhibition promotional by Playform
I’m excited to be participating in REMIX an exhibition by Playform, exclusively on Rarible. The NFT art works will be available on Aug. 9th, and some of the artists, including myself, will be participating in an artist talk. If you want to hear more about making work with no code AI, NFTs, discussion on mashup, and new technologies, here’s the link:
About REMIX
Appropriating, amalgamating and collaging have been prevalent artistic methods throughout history. Marcel Duchamp’s “Fountain '' and Warhol’s “Botticelli” are some examples of re-contextualizing throughout the art historical canon. Inspired by the artistic concepts of sampling and mashup, Playform Studio presents a Studio group exhibition, “REMIX.”
Defining new ways of creating in the age of AI, “REMIX” explores the ever-emerging relationship between technology and art. Works from “REMIX” will also be available as NFTs, exclusively on Rarible.
Featured artists include:
Carla Gannis, Chris Trueman, Andrew Tricaso, Trygve Skogrand, Jen Palmer, Nathaniel Stern, Albert Abdul-Barr Wang, Roxy Savage, Katya Grokhovsky, Irina Raicu, Michael Pierre Price, Yeli Rodriguez, and Witold Riedel.
YOU CAN PLAY TOO!
Play with REMIX Artwork in Playform Stylize
The exhibition release is in affiliation with Playform’s Stylize feature which offers Playform users to apply the style of their favorite artists onto any photo, image or sketch. The final works featured in the exhibition are options of “Pre-Defined Style” within the Stylize feature. Playform users are invited to "remix" their own images with these new styles!
Here are some of the images I've remixed with my own Pro Art Filter! (click to view them in the lightbox)
Screenshot of Playform, featuring an image with my REMIX Pro-Art Filter applied
Screenshot of the Playform Stylize Interface.
You can use Playform from a mobile device or computer. You select your style, then upload your image. You can choose which process, and how much style and composition affect the result. Just go to https://playform.io/jen to check it out! Oh, and share your stylized images with me on Instagram or via email!
Pinspiration Project
I started taking screenshots of my Pinterest feed a while back. I'm not sure what I was even going to do with them, I just was interested in the way the algorithm shows me things that I like, but also creates some sort of connections between the images it's showing me. A black bird. A tattoo of a bird and berries. A berry cobbler recipe. A lady with short hair. A drapey layered outfit in shades of black. An abstract painting with blotches of purple. There is something similar that the algorithm is picking up on. These connections somehow relate to my taste. What is it? What does it say about me? What can I learn from this information?
I've used Pinterest since it came out, finding it a positive space to explore ideas. Using boards to pin my project inspiration, plan parties, collect quotes, connect with people who liked these niche things, or experienced chronic illness.
For this project, I took the screenshots where I found interesting connections, and I separated the images so that the software doesn't implement the grid form of Pinterest - I'm interested in what happens between the concepts of these images.
I fed these 200+ images to the Playform platform, and am currently waiting to see what happens!
Can machine interpretation give us useful information about ourselves? Will it reflect something of my values back to me? My tastes? My interests? What form will these take? ...
Let me tell you about my new romance…
I joined the virtual studio at Playform, and am currently working on a project based on recent collected works. I was truly excited to discover this platform for creating AI art, and maybe have previously underestimated my love for all things digital?
In thinking about it, I realized that I can trace my digital art-making back to my video painter, and maybe back to those days in kindergarten when we had computer class, and got to make art on the Macs? I'm one of those millennials who didn't have to be tech-savvy - we didn't have the internet until around when I went to college. I didn't even know I was tech-savvy until somewhere in my 30's and I realized I was giving out a lot of help, and it was surprising to me that people didn't understand it. Now, I would definitely consider myself an early adopter. It makes sense that I am because I feel ridiculously excited about the potential I see. Partially because exploring that potential gives me such a sense of joy. I think this is deeply related to radical hope. It's not something that exists here yet, but I can feel its existence. I noted that same sense of joy was frequently present when editing photographs, playing with texture and color, layers, versions...
These explorations are my way of studying, understanding something more. It feels like a word I can't recall, a place I can't remember my way to - It is so strong, but it is also emptiness. The matter is in the relationship, in the space between. The Playform platform is a tool to help me explore this space!
How does it work? There are computers that the platform is connected to, and I uploaded around 50 of my works of art. The computers essentially then learn those images, the forms, lines, colors, etc., and create renderings of new work. Those renderings can be further developed, mixed, and used in ways I haven't even discovered all of yet.
Developing models on Playform
I'm (obviously) enthusiastic about this new digital tool, and how it truly fits into my work.
Case in point - The other day, I was just sitting in my studio, smiling to myself thinking about Arthur Batut and his ideas on virtuality.
"To reproduce with the help of photography a figure whose material reality does not exist anywhere, an unreal being whose constituent elements are scattered over a certain number of individuals and which can only be conceived virtually, is it not a dream?" - Arthur Batut (translated from French)
Ah, so thrilling! Did I mention Batut lived from 1846 to 1918? What would he even think of something like Playform? We can't know the answer, but I'd love to hear yours!
Now available…
Just finished uploading new pieces to the website that are available for purchase! Some of them are below, and you can view them all here. Which one is your favorite?
The #100DAYPROJECT
I’m participating in the #100DAYPROJECT this year!
For my project, I'm choosing to focus on words. It fits with a couple goals I have for the year, crafting a great artist statement, and sharing expressive content more frequently.
Also, I've always found typography enjoyable - from learning to hand letter and create type, to finding the perfect font to fit a project.
I believe that words have power. They have energy and can be used to create or destroy.
I think, because I love them so much, I often over-complicate my thoughts and end up not sharing my own words online. I know that if I want anyone to connect to or understand my work, I need to talk about it, so this is an exercise in sharing my perspective with words.
The power of words is enhanced by their form, just like all art, there are decisions to be made about shapes, sizes, colors, arrangement... it brings me joy to see a phrase perfectly illustrated to fit it's own energy.
I thought about keeping my words only to do with injustices, as this is something in me that has needed expression, but I wasn't sure if I can hold such a heavy focus while I feel so overwhelmed by what is happening with COVID-19. I might need much lighter words some of these days, so I decided to keep it open.
Some artists I'm influenced by who use words in their work:
Jenny Holzer
Barbara Kruger
Robert Montgomery
Here are a few images from my first week of the #100DAYPROJECT:
I’m sharing my project daily on my Instagram stories, and will post them all to a highlight on my Instagram: @jenpalmerart
January What?!
Where did last month even go?
My dad used to tell me that time only went faster and faster as you got older. HE WAS RIGHT. Apparently year 38 doubles down?
Between illness and family things, I feel like I haven’t spent much time on my projects.
HOWEVER - I have gotten into the studio in little bits, submitted work to multiple opportunities, and taken lots of notes. I spent time at a home show for my day job, and found some artists there. We bought a piece from Katrina Vogel and hung it in the living room.
Speaking of hanging, I helped hang the Women’s Work show at You Are Here, which was a great experience, it had been a while since I’d hung an entire room full of art for an exhibition, and Phoebe Walczak at You Are Here was a delight to work with! The show was great!
I didn’t get to record the new podcast episode for the Dynamic Feminine yet, but I managed to work on more than a few things on my 20 for 2020 list:
We got a treadmill, so I’ve been walking more.
I’ve worked on getting 20 good rejections, so far they have either been accepted or I’ve not heard back yet. I’m feeling excited about the opportunities that this is bringing!
Ran a marketing campaign (towards growing my email list - it’s gotten me more scam emails so IDK)
Did preliminary research on multiple things on my list - reading, listening to podcasts, writing, observing, planning…
I’m also feeling pretty good about how I’ve handled the pop-up demands on my time and energy: like, family needs, or OH CRAP, I need something to wear this weekend and have to go shopping (I don’t have spoons for that!), or getting a new doctor this month and dealing with some urgent health things. I also started a personal Instagram because I’m missing my friends and family on my feed @jenpalmerart. So now, you can find my personal account (sure to be full of my animals and family) on Instagram @hey_jenny_wren. Keeping connected with people I love is the reason behind my wanting to get my addresses and birthdays in order, so this was a step in the same direction.
Curate is definitely the appropriate word for the year! What are you doing to embrace your passions, goals, or theme of the year?
How was your January? Let me know in the comments or send me a message <3
Delicious and dreamy and only a little spooky...
Be still, my pastel goth heart. I was working for hours the other night, a little on one piece, a little on another. Starting some layers on a bigger canvas, but not really getting into the flow of any one thing. That’s just how it is. Sometimes, I like a piece, it’s not finished, but I’m sort of afraid to ruin it because I’m not sure what it needs yet. So I let it sit, and think about it, and see if anything ever becomes overwhelmingly evident.
I knew what I wanted to do with these when I started them, but they were so pretty in their sherbet and salt water taffy colors that I knew I needed just the right thing to seep down through. I’ve really been liking the fluidity of alcohol ink, and how it can move around the textured forms more freely, and transparently than the other fluid mediums I’ve been trying. But the seeping couldn’t be taken back… but I did it, and it was exactly what I wanted. <3
These paintings remind me of the deep dark nights of summer in my youth, sharing my grandma’s sherbet, with it’s sweetness and refreshing tartness. The warmth and the cool coming together. The damp grass, the lightning bugs (in Noctilucent). As an adult, the breeze and heat and sand on Tybee Island, eating organic peach sorbet from the farmer’s market - just before I had a major breakdown. (in Sherbe(r)t Nocturne). These pieces contain the physical sensations of moments of joy, and the contrast that is brought by illness, pain, and the intermingling of these that define family and being human.
Art Release!
Inspired by the fluidity and layering capabilities of this medium , I kept thinking about the micro/macro aspects of life/energy/material, and it’s constant changing.
Nothing is solid, and everything is energy. - quantum physics
These 5x7 original works made using alcohol ink on yupo paper are available now for purchase at $50 each.
If you’d like to know more about any of these pieces, you can email me at hello@jenpalmer.art, or comment on this post.
Alcohol Ink on Yupo Paper.
In the flow with alcohol ink on yupo paper.
Oh my gosh, I’ve been really enjoying making work with alcohol ink on yupo paper. I’d only previously used alcohol ink with encaustic medium. I liked it then, and have missed making encaustics, which is one reason why I wanted to try working with these otherwise. My encaustic studio has been out of commission since we moved here - just before Christmas, and this will be the 3rd Christmas here - clearly, I need to figure something out to get my encaustic studio space going again. (Rental - carpet- and I get wax EVERYWHERE)
In the meantime, I’ve heard buzz about yupo paper. I was all, what now? But it’s this synthetic “paper” that works really well for alcohol ink. It doesn’t absorb the liquid, and you can just keep working on it. I made the mistake of using my regular heat gun - too hot, don’t do it - a hair dryer is just fine. I see why everyone is all yupo, yupo!
Over the past few years, my work has developed to have these lines, that are usually informed by the shapes of the paint under them. I got really excited about the way the ink moves to the outer edge of the shape with alcohol ink, and the way you can put the alcohol on it to make it spread out more, carrying it further. There’s a lot of play with alcohol, and a lot less ink than you’d imagine. So, I’m getting these shapes that are part of my language, with a new medium. *SWOON*
LACHRYMA LINEAGE
I KNOW I’m this super-sensitive, emotional creature, but sometimes, waves of emotion still take me by surprise, which is what happened with a few of these pieces I’ve been working on. I hope that you’ll feel them too. <3 I’ll be releasing this series, along with the one featured above, to my email list first - they’re all affordably priced 5 x 7’s, so get thyself on that list below!
Do you like to try new things? If you’re an artist, have you ever worked with alcohol ink or yupo paper? Tell me about your adventures in the comments!
Works on canvas.
Sharing this collection of work on canvas - these are currently available. Contact me if you want to know more about any of them. <3
FEATURED POSTS
