My wife and her art.

[urbpan]

In this journal you have learned much about my wife Alexis. I feel blessed by our happy life together, and the fact that we share many interests. You know her love of dogs, interest in lichens and fungi, and her unyielding desire for warm sunny weather. She is also a talented artist. While her skill behind the camera was indispensable during the 365 urban species project, her ability with a paintbrush has only recently come to light on this journal. Early on in our marriage, we agreed that we would help one another with each of our creative endeavors. The balance of this agreement has tipped so far in my favor that it is an embarrassment to me.

Many readers of her journal, and this one, expressed interest in Alexis' paintings, reminding me again that I have done little to help promote her art. I have put together, somewhat hastily and sloppily, a small gallery of some of her paintings, to share with you. I used my camera, which has a built-in wide angle lens, which distorts the edges of the canvasses, so these images are far from perfect, but they are better than what we had before. There are more paintings that need to be added to the gallery, and I need to put up a proper website for them, with information about titles and prices for them.

Please take a look at these paintings! I hope you love them as much as I do.

http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v165/cottonmanifesto/paintings/

Comments

[roaming.livejournal.com]

As a person who went to professional art school in Manhattan (okay, okay, I confess to a wee bit o' snobbery), I can say

REALLY REALLY *GOOD* paintings. As professional as many I've seen.

[teratologist.livejournal.com]

I'm especially enamored of four and seven.... wow.

[sin-agua.livejournal.com]

1, 4, 6, and 16 are my favorites. I'd love to know prices.

Seriously, these are excellent - I've done art (see my flickr gourd set) and hung out with aspiring artists, and most of them (sorry darlings!) sucked big time. Not our Alexis, however. Did she graduate from some art program?? Or was she just born made out of awesome?

I love the geometric natural forms and her use of color. Man, have you got an awesome woman there or WHAT?

:D

[urbpan.livejournal.com]

I should have pointed out that 16 is unfinished.

Alexis has taken art classes but not gone through any kind of program. She's mostly self-taught, intuitive, and has a great eye. She's all kinds of awesome.

[http://users.livejournal.com/_cassette_tape/]

I wish i could paint that beautifully.

[ninthraven.livejournal.com]

I really loved cottonmanifesto's attention to detail in the photos, but these paintings are WOW!!!

I especially liked:





Again, WOW!!! Thank you for sharing these.

[guaharibo.livejournal.com]

#9 is by far the most intriguing of the paintings. Formal training means a whole lot of nothing if you've got natural talent, and clearly she does.

[broken-angel.livejournal.com]

These are beautiful! I especially loved 9 and 16. I'm waiting nervously to read the prices :S

I'm always extremely envious of those that can paint so well as I can barely draw decent stickmen.

[cordelia-sue.livejournal.com]

These are wonderful. Thank you for sharing.

[evadamnit.livejournal.com]

Wow, these are amazing. I love how she incorporated so much biological imagery. She should consider setting up a flickr and/or deviantart account if she hasn't already.

My favorites were:





I like her art ranges from realistic to abstract to almost comic style. But does she not title her works?

[urbpan.livejournal.com]

Once I set up the real gallery site, I'll find out what the titles are.

[belen1974.livejournal.com]

hi jef, we totally need to have an website building weekend. i can either show you some html basics so you can build alexis´ site or i can build it for her (not to mention yours!!!!). it´s the least i could do with all the free art she´s given me. we´ll have to talk when i get back. let´s have a business lunch. and how come alexis hasn´t posted the prices yet? does she need to be shived by a TP holding bolivian woman?

[urbpan.livejournal.com]

I absolutely agree. I know pretty much what I want--very simple really. I wish my pictures weren't so crappy. thanks for being eager to do this!

[http://users.livejournal.com/purplebunnie_/]

I don't think any of us could love them as much as you do. *I'll look when I get home from school and don't have to use IE anymore*

[in-lieyw-of.livejournal.com]

They're GORGEOUS. Wow.

[bezigebij.livejournal.com]

Wow! Gorgeous colors and forms. I love how her interst in mycology and botany is so evident in many of the paintings.

[urbpan.livejournal.com]

I'm glad you said that. It's totally obvious to me, but I'm not sure that the average person looking at them could tell.

[janetmk.livejournal.com]

Thanks for putting these up. I like them a lot. 1, 6, and 15 are my favorites.

[apathy.livejournal.com]

aww.. yes i was very surprised to see your wife's paintings - didn't know she painted! and theyre lovely to look at !

[antarcticlust.livejournal.com]

That's wonderful, thank you! I absolutely love 1, 3, 8, and 17. I'm a sucker for semi-organic, semi-geological abstracts. These are lovely, lots of verve and life and definite ability. I wish I was close to Mass so I could buy one!

[miz-geek.livejournal.com]

Those are AMAZING. Very cool. My favorites are 1,7,8, and 16. I love the biological/medical imagery.

[harrietbrown.livejournal.com]

I loved #13 (though all of them were great, of course!). Let me know price when you can.

[cottonmanifesto.livejournal.com]

$50 plus shipping.

[lavenderjones.livejournal.com]

I am not normally into "modern" art, but these are great! Number 13 especially floats my boat.
There are others I just couldn't take my eyes away from, as grammatically incorrect as that may seem.

[brush-rat.livejournal.com]

About time. I really enjoyed the pieces I saw last time I was backe there and I'm delighted to see more. What was that crazty thing about spouses helping each others with creative endevours? That shit happens? Damn!

[cottonmanifesto.livejournal.com]

shocking, right?

[ms-vanilla.livejournal.com]

4 is my favorate, the colours are very subtle and beautiful, and I love the shapes too. Painting in green isn't easy!

[mellawyrden.livejournal.com]

EXTREMELY BEAUTIFUL WORK, has it ever been published, or gone to any galleries?? It is gorgeous and very professional! What medium are they in?

When you put up a gallery site, it would be very much worth the investment of making postcards/posters for sale as well. I don't know off the top of my head if there are "cafe press" type places for postcard/poster reproductions of art. This would be for people who love the artwork but can't afford the original (or if you don't want to part with the original!) You would sell HUNDREDS of them.

Not only is there a great deal of skill in the execution of these paintings, but cottonmanifesto's passion for her subject matter is clear. Passion for subject matter is so crucial in art!! and when it's there, it's really tangible. When the website is ready I'd love to show it around to a couple of gallery people here, if cottonmanifesto would like some shows!

Paintings

[peterharbo.livejournal.com]

Alexis, we liked these paintings so much! I now see where the composition in your photographs comes from, but the color range exceeds the vocabulary of your nature photos.