Living up here in Seattle, WA has been an entirely new experience for me. There are so many art opportunities for me, and I've been working as a Design Consultant for a slab and tile company Showroom since I moved here. I am becoming extremely inspired by the different slabs, it's a new type of art for me. my work has become more fluid, expressive, and free. I've been exploring the landscapes in my mind, and painting them without thinking throughout the process. I'm trying to keep my former professors' words of advice in mind: "Shannon, don't fully neglect drawing and painting to explore 3D art. Do both simultaneously, and let them compliment and influence each other." Working full time has lowered my energy stamina, but my drive is still the same. I have updated photos of my newer work on my website: shannonstarv.weebly.com, so please check that out.
I have been entirely unimpressed with the art I've been seeing in cafes, restaurants, and galleries here. The museums are sort of a disappointment, too. I must say, it looks as though art is becoming lazy, rather than truly conceptual. I do have to say though, my work is non-representational most of the time, and I am trying to be open-minded, especially since I'm trying to allow my work to reach a large audience.
I found an artist named Alex Turco. He is what's called an "interior design artist." He creates large panels, as large as I'd love to work if my studio and storage space would allow, and they look like precious stones, some are dripping, and they're all created using different elements and minerals like graphite, apoxy resin, aluminum, etc. I'm going to explore this as well because- let's face it- artists are THIEVES! With pride, right? This will be an excellent way to utilize the skills and knowledge from my interior design job, while maintaining productivity in my medium. I am curious to see the outcome- it's difficult to find my niche, but then again, the saying goes, from all well-established artists I've met such as Ann Weber, Steve Kaltenbach, and a few others, "It takes a decade after graduation to find you voice as an artist." Beautiful, tragic, depressing yet inspiring, and, I'm sure time will come to reveal- TRUE.
Here's some of Alex Turco's work:
Well that's it for now, next show I go to and next research I do, hopefully will inspire my new work even moreso! I'll be posting about this new experimentation once I've got a finished result to show for it.
