Recent Art Awards and Exhibitions Last Quarter 2012

About Recent Artwork:

A Dream of Sentient Paisley
A work in progress by
Teresa Young.

Well it's been an interesting year, but I certainly didn't get as much painting done as I would have liked! 
I've been experimenting with new techniques lately just to keep the creativity going, so I just finished a couple of paintings in the last week that were acrylic, but used acrylic gold paint for highlighting. It's very glittery and shiny! I like it! Unfortunately, the paintings are so new, I haven't managed to get good photos of them yet. I'll have to include them in a future post.

The Omnia Scroll Worldwide Tour:
Coming up on November 14th to December 12th, 2012, I am one of thirteen artists exhibiting at the Brighton Jubilee Library, a gorgeous venue as the ceiling goes up and up, and there is a wall of windows extending two stories that borders on the street.
My good friend Penelope Oakley, a wonderful artist in the UK and I collaborated on a painting this year that will be a part of this exhibition. As well as the painting image I've embedded above, 'A Dream of Sentient Paisley'. The artworks in this exhibition will be the initial images added in high resolution printing onto a banner that will expand over time called the 'Omnia Scroll'. This is pretty exciting as this is going to be an ongoing projec that expands over time. Penny is in talks to curate further exhibitions in this project path in Italy and Mexico. I'm hoping she manages to get something going for Canada at some point because I'd love to see this come to my home country!
For more details, please go to www.PenelopeOakley.org.

Physical Exhibitions of my paintings:
As I post this, I have artwork in two physical exhibitions, one in Berlin, Germany and the other in a very nice local restaurant in Hubbards, Nova Scotia Canada.
The Berlin exhibition starts on October 18th and runs until the end of the month. The restaurant exhibition, which is at a local establishment called 'The Trellis', is a group exhibition which the local art association I belong to puts on annually in October. It's called 'Home Grown 2012 - A Visual Feast' and started on October 6th and will run until November 3rd. There are some beautiful paintings in there, over twenty artists submitted this year, and as the owner remarked during the hangings, the artwork just gets better every year! Trellis Show 2012




Something To Do With Creepy
Starying Eyes, Glass art by
Teresa Young.

Another local exhibition I have the honour of being included in is occurring starting October 20th and ending on November 3rd, 2012. The exhibition is the result of a local competition called 'Creature Feature', a Halloween show!

Online Exhibitions and Competitions:
 Other exhibitions include the '14th Annual Abstraction Juried Online International Art Exhibition' a group show that results from the Upstream People Gallery's competition that ran last month. I managed to place as one of the finalists in this competition (yay!), gaining special recognition for two of my pieces: 'Chaos Out of Confusion' and 'The Ripple Effect'.




Exhale by Teresa Young

Another competition I entered online and managed to win in a month or more ago was on a gallery site called the 'The Abstract Artist Gallery'. Pretty close to my heart, considering my art style!The competition was titled 'The 2012 International Abstract Art Contest' and contained three separate categories where you could win, as well as an overall winner designation. I was lucky enough to win the best in category award for 'Whispers and Other Worlds' with my fantasy abstract piece 'Exhale'.




Mother Earth is Hiding by Teresa Young

The arts network in Ferarra Italy that I'm a member of had a competition over the summer, and I was a finalist in it! The Vivid Arts Network Conscious Creation 2012 Fine Art Competition had a good response for entries, so I was quite honoured to win special recognition for my painting 'Mother Earth is Hiding'. The really nice thing about this award is that the artwork was included in an article in the Art Tour Magazine October 2012 issue, check out pages 24 and  31 on the preview link here.

Two other competitions that I was recently notified about:



Undersea Fantasy by Teresa Young

Shadows an online exhibition with the Linus Galleries website, based in southern California, US. The online link is in the process of being created, so I have no link to attach to this one. The painting that placed in that competition is Undersea Fantasy, which I created a nice statement for. It's pretty special to me as it was a product of my nostalgia for scuba diving in my youth!
Years ago, I was quite fond of scuba diving in the northern Pacific Ocean, exploring near the smaller islands around the Strait of Juan de Fuca. The undersea plant life in that cool water is quite different from the bright and colourful areas found in the far southern seas.
Since the ocean is so much colder, the colours are muted, and shadows predominate. The diver experiences a subtle, yet dangerous atmosphere, which makes for an enticing and mysterious experience. In this abstract acrylic artwork, a mass of dark patterns and colours dominate to capture that almost forgotten allure from my past aquatic adventures...




Synthetic Sunrise
by Teresa Young

 Open Art Exhibition – October 2012  Online Gallery Light Space & Time. I was lucky enough to receive a special recognition award for my acrylic painting, 'Synthetic Sunrise'.
I really liked doing this painting due to the sunset palette of colours I ended up creating there. It's quite powerful to work with the dark and moody colours to envision a future where our sunrises are something out of a dark fantasy.

Fear, The Spice of Life!

Exhale by Teresa Young

It seemed like such a good idea at the time.

In theory anyway.  I mean really, it's a natural progression, right?  I started off drawing with crayons, just like everyone else in the industrialized world, and then I moved on to pencils, and pencil crayons, and so on...  I've used charcoal, solid graphite sticks, pens, and so on...

But I didn't count on FEAR.  After years of thinking about it in the back of my mind, I finally got up the gumption to go out and buy it...

I did install it, I really did! And then, fear took over, and I put it back in it's box... You know, because it's so delicate, I don't want to drop it, to step on it by mistake, whatever!

I suppose you might be wondering what I'm talking about by now...

It's a natural progression in our society, it only makes sense... It's a stylus and tablet digital drawing pad. And I don't have clue at this exact moment why I thought I could adapt to something so ALIEN to what I've always done when I draw!

But I have a system that seems to be consistent and sort of works for me. I force myself past my own paralyzing fears by plopping myself right in the middle of them so that I have to do something about them... It's how I learn how to overcome a phobia of water to learn how to swim when I was thirteen... And it wasn't a fear, that was a phobia! I almost drowned at five years old, so the phobia developed out of that, I had fallen into a wading pool and cracked my skull open, and ended up unconscious, face down in the water... I don't remember much, but I do remember the ambulance!



Fear of the Future by Teresa Young

So back to FEAR.  I have learned over the years, that the way to force myself into something I want to do and I am really afraid of doing is to get past that wall of fear somehow... Jump in that river, sell that house and move to where you want to be. Huck it all at thirty and go back to school and do something about it!  Just don't let it defeat you.

The really hard thing about fear is that once you conquer one, there's always, and I mean ALWAYS, another one waiting in the wings!

But life would be so boring without Fear!  If everything was easy, then it wouldn't mean a darn thing when you accomplished anything, no personal buy-in, no jump in your endorphins, no fear....

Ah well, I suppose I take that thingy-bob out of it's box soon and try some of the tutorials and chip away at my fear a bit!

New Art For 2012

Also published on www.teresa-young.net:

Confidence In Motion-Feb.2012-
by Teresa Young

Clown College shown at
ARTOUR-O in Florence.

I've been doing a fair bit of drawing and painting this year, getting my feet wet with interacting with other artists online.

I've really found that it can inspire you to create more art to look at what other creative people are up to online!

Something To Do With Creepy Staring Eyes,
Feb.2012-by Teresa Young

Earlier this year, I created a lovely acrylic painting an art contest run by Subaru Canada that finished with an exhibition at the Toronto Auto Show. While I didn't win, it was fun to get my artwork out there and have people see it in a non-typical setting! Confidence In Motion was my entry into the contest;-) I finally finished my glass painting of an eye, had a bit of trouble finding a title for the work, and in fact, I became attached to the working title I had put on it, so I decided to keep it!

Sunrise of Symbology, Mar.2012
-by Teresa Young.

Entubation, Mar.2012
-by Teresa Young.

I was also part of a group exhibit at Artists Haven Gallery in Fort I Lauderdale FL during the month of February.
I exhibited a couple of paintings in a group exhibition in Florence at the beginning of March, Vivid Arts: A Retrospective, as part of the ARTOUR-O Florence 2012 Temporary Museum of Contemporary Art Auditorium al Duomo Via de' Cerretani, Italy.
Lately though, I've been spending time on DeviantArt, getting to know other artists. My site there has grown, and does contain a fair amount of work I don't have on my regular site. As the loading times and storage there seems to be a bit better for usability.

Exhale, March 2012
-by Teresa Young.

A Particular Venom-March 2012,
 by Teresa Young

Well, I think I'm getting overlong here on this post, or I'm really out of practice, so I think I will just add in the rest of my current 2012 art pieces for people to take a look at;-)

Cut To The Quick, March 2012-by Teresa Young.



Dreams of Lothlorien, March 2012-by Teresa Young.

But What Does It Mean?

Untitled Glass Art by Teresa Young

I've often been asked that question by people viewing my artwork, and it's a reasonable question which doesn't really have a reasonable answer...  Art is such a subjective thing, it really depends on the point of view of the person looking at the artwork, and it's even more subjective when you are dealing with abstracted or surrealistic images!
This conundrum is probably responsible for the unsatisfying answers people get from artists, and me in particular when they ask that question.  I can tell you what it means to me at that moment in time, but I can't tell you what it means to you.  The artwork could be hitting you on an emotional, visceral level, which could mean you either hate it, or really like it, and I wouldn't necessarily be able to figure out why it appeals to you. (Or doesn't for that matter!)


Fauvist Fantasy by Teresa Young.

I've had eighty year old grandmother's love my artwork, so much for traditional likes and dislikes. And I can never predict who will. It seems to have a pretty broad appeal though, so I take that as a good sign.
Now that I've expressed my opinion on art and how subjective it is, and how anything I say probably doesn't apply to you, the viewer anyway, I'm going to go ahead and tell you with some of my pieces what they mean to me...  Which is really just a snapshot in time anyway, depending on my mood, the meaning could change for me as I see something different in an existing painting.  Art is just like that, it's somewhat dynamic, which I think is part of it's appeal!


Sunken Treasure by Teresa Young

Take Fauvist Fantasy above, I was experimenting with glass paints and the creative urge took me in a very red, red, and blue direction. I was feeling very happy and enjoyed the beauty of the world around me that day, and I think that carnival feeling came out in the artwork. It's merely an emotional celebration of painting in itself, and how it makes me happy to do it.
Sunken Treasure on the other hand, goes back to when I used to scuba dive in my late teens and how I really loved the feeling when I was under the water below thirty or forty feet. When I took my scuba ticket there was this little octopus less than a foot across that swam near me, I played with it under that water until is squirt ink and swam away! 
The ocean has always seemed magical and like another world, sort of a treasure trove of beauty that most of us never get to see. I felt honoured to have been able to experience that beauty, and it really came out in this painting!


Emergence by Teresa Young

This is sort of fun, I'm going to do another!
Emergence is pretty obvious, if you had happened to know where my life was in 1998 when I painted it. 

I was in the process of divorcing and the feelings of learning to be independent and forging my own identity again were really at the forefront of my psyche. I like the way the woman is pushing up through a semi-formless muck to emerge into the light!

I was living on the west coast of Canada at the time, and that's why you can see a mountain range in the background. The really interesting thing about paintings is that they are often like the written word. They can have layers of meaning, like metaphor in stories, that I am often not aware of.


Figure Frog by Teresa Young

What I mean by that is the parallel in Emergence about is that on the surface it has a clear meaning, 'divorcing woman finding her identity', but it has a second meaning for me as an artist as well. I was in the process of developing my style, moving away from realism and into abstraction, using surrealism as a sort of intermediate step.

Sunken Treasure was also a 'crossover' piece for me in that it started out as a realistic piece that flowed into abstraction over time.



Cat's Emotions by Teresa Young

Figure Frog came about in the same timeframe, I think I sort of felt like I was leap-frogging ahead into the future. It's pretty nice to realize how bright everything can look to you when you are starting on a new path!  I think that why some of my pieces from the late nineties make me nostalgic.
Later on, my art started to change, as everything alive does, it evolves over time, which is why I can say I never paint that same thing twice!  I used to be a realistic painter, and did portraits in my youth, but I don't think I could settle down to realism again. It's like being nailed into a rigid box for me, I couldn't do it!


Carnival by Teresa Young

Cat's Emotions, another crossover piece, is actually a surreal watercolour painting with ink drawn into it. You have to get close to realize it's not realistic. I was expressing how much I loved cats and identified with them as a source of love and connection. Cats are pretty independent as well, so I think I admire that in them as well.


Escape by Teresa Young

Carnival is one of my favourite acrylic paintings. It feels like a roller coast ride of greens and blues to me. I see waves of light and joyous feeling, which is probably why the title of the piece...


The Wheels Art Turning

Escape, on the other hand, even though it doesn't seem like it, is an expression of frustration in the life I was living in the mid 2000's. 2003 or 4?  I was stuck in a corporate job with lots of responsibility and no voice. I was pretty close to starting a downward trend that ended up with me leaving the job I held for over a decade to start over in a new location. Like a lot of people in the IT industry, I was dissatisfied with the pressure and anxiety I experience.


Queen of Thorns

I felt like I really, really wanted to escape. The painting expressed that desire for me. And probably, it also expressed hope for a more serene existence somewhere out 'there'! That meaning applies to a lot of the artwork I did between 2002 and 2009, actually.  The Wheels Art Turning was about the feeling of being trapped and powerless in my job. I actually felt like no one was listening to me, and it sure came out in that painting!


Undercurrents

 Queen of Thorns, I painted after I put in my resignation and just a few days before I left. I sort of felt like I was letting a few people down, leaving the job and it's responsibilities behind. But I also felt that it was something I needed to do for my personal growth and well being. So I was being a queen, and pretty prickly about the decision!


Pushing For The Sky

Undercurrents was about moving on and the undercurrents and emotional overtones that are never expressed out loud. We sort of swim through these currents and never truly acknowledge what is really going on out there in the 'real' world.  I was trying to show the undercurrents of our everyday world with this rather large painting.
Pushing For The Sky is from this year, very recent, and it's about growth, life and moving forward.  Reaching for the sky, not trying to be too trite here!
I think I'm back in a 'trying to find my footing' or identity cycle again. I'm not sure we ever really find out who we are, because like the artwork we produce, we are constantly changing. And sometimes, we go through similar cycles in our life as we learn out life's lessons...

Can Too Much Information Prevent Unique Individual Expression?

 

I went through a somewhat traditional gamit when I was learning to express myself as an artist, I started drawing at a young age, found I had a talent for realism and portraiture, and then focused myself on learning how to draw from life...  I went out and took lessons, looked into reference materials on how to do different things and learned the proper ways to execute a portrait, draw a still life, paint a landscape, use of different media for art...  In other words, I relied heavily on input from authority figures on my subject of interest, art, and pretty well took it as gospel.

When we look through art history at people that never followed any type of traditionalized art training they are often called 'primitive' artists.  What this means is that they weren't influenced by any one art school or artist in particular and their personal style evolved in isolation.  There are many pros and cons to this approach, one of the pros being the art is new and distinct unto itself.  One of the downsides is that often the composition of their pieces are off kilter in some subtle or even a major way, and it can be uncomfortable for the viewer.  But in a way, that's pretty cool as well, because if it disturbs you, it can reach you as nothing else can!

All of this verbal meandering has a point to it, as I'm edging towards a personal philosophy about artistic expression that I've been forming for myself over the last couple of decades...

When I was fourteen years old, I changed the style of my paper works by trying something new.  Basically, I left my own comfort zone and reached for a different style of self expression.  I must admit I was probably influenced by Dali and Gervasio Gallardo, but I was trying to develop something more personalized in the process. In light of my favourite artists, and for the lack of better categorization, I called my new stuff surreals...

I tried to chuck everything I thought I knew about art and rules of engagement and cleared my mind and went for it! Probably, after years of rigidity to get things just so, I wasn't truly able to do that, and the final result was a mishmash of everything under the surface of my consciousness. While I was only partially successful in what I set out to accomplish, it was a start into an evolution, and over the course of many decades, I did develop my own distinct style!

It's my belief that if you don't leave your comfort zone and push the envelope, art can become a chore and no longer have the life and passion we need to nuture ourselves as artists...  Not to mention that it can really contribute to some interesting new developments in art if enough of us do this.

Over time, I've revisited this idea over and over, and it's taken a bit of a different turn for me.  If I needed to shuck what I knew in order to develop a different style of self expression, did I really need all that training in the first place? 

Which brings me back to the primitive style of artist... Perhaps in many cases we are interfering with something unique and valuable on it's own when we introduce a training path for artistic expression.  Couldn't we be delaying or preventing the invention of some of our own more unique styles and genres by directing them into a path where teachers tell them how things work?  A lot of abstract styles are about pushing the boundries and crossing borders. If the artist isn't aware of the borders and boundries, he/she might never even visit that territory!  They might develop something unique on their own that is highly personal and distinct within itself.  If you look back at history a bit,  it seems to me that unique genres used to pop up much more regularly.  The communication network around the world was a lot less efficient and more people were discovering their artistic expression in isolation from their peers.

Thinking that over, I think that we might be exacerbating this process by the introduction of so many sources of input, IE: television, computers, the internet... 

On the other hand, maybe not.  It might just create new art forms as an end result, as there is so much information out there the confusion tends to drown out the component messages.  It's hard to treat what's on your screen at any particular moment as the last word on how you can approach doing something when there are literally dozens and dozens of dissenting opinions on it. 

This can apply to just about everything, actually!  Say you do a search on something you want to do using Google...  The search results will rank the data returned for you (thanks Google!) but it's using numbers, not any specific criteria of qualification.  So if you pore through those results, you'll be looking at a gamut of answers.  I sometimes find that figuring things out for myself ends up being less of a headache and I go that route!

My writer friend and I have many discussions on art, it's a somewhat hot topic for us and the ideas we end up bandying about can be way out there.  I'm leaning towards the idea that most of us crave artistic expression and the introduction of rules and criteria can interfere with personal artistic expression for the everyday soul...  Maybe if you don't have to make what you draw/paint look like something, you'll enjoy it more and continue doing it when you're an adult.  Why does art have to be an achievement instead of a passion? 

Personally, when I tried going my own way with art, I found that I did it more often. I had been subject to painter's block sporadically for years and found that pursuing a new direction definitely alleviated that problem.  On top of that, it was very freeing to finally be at the helm of my own personal expression journey, and it created many new ideas of where I wanted to go with it. 

Images by Teresa Young:

1. Still Life Sketch - 1980,  2. Portrait of a Boy -  November 1997,  3. Cats Emotions - August 1998,  4. Rebecca's Gaze - February 2004,  5. Closeup - Fields Of Flurry - January 2010,  6. Emergence - September 1998.