I've Moved

I've finally setup a website for my works and you can find any new blog posts there too. This page still functions so feel free to peruse, but new work will be at the website, CindyKShawArtist.com. See ya there.

©2014 Cindy K. Shaw All Rights Reserved

Hustle and Flow

Hustle and Flow 1
Acrylic on canvas
6x10

Hustle and Flow 2
Acrylic on Canvas
8x10

Hustle and Flow 3
Acrylic on Canvas
8x10

Typically I don't produce for the sake of production, but sometimes you gotta produce. At the request of a good friend, who also happens to be an art broker, I produced some small works for an upcoming show in Nashville. I've been steadily working on a large piece that I wonder if I will finish by year's end. So...it's nice to start and finish something. I wanted them to be exercises in energy. Just let it flow and see what happens. So here you have it. Three small pieces that I just let emerge on their own. A little hustle and flow. 

©2014 Cindy K. Shaw All Rights Reserved

Head Space

"Head Space" Pastel on Paper (12x16)

Most recent. Could say something. Could say a lot of things. Will say nothing. Something new. 

©2013 Cindy K. Shaw All Rights Reserved

Broken

"Broken" Acrylic on Wood (24x36)

Paintings…Acrylic on Wood. I’ve mentioned before that I hate acrylics…right? It’s a lot of work to get them to do what I want them to do what oils do naturally which is flow and flow and flow. (Yes...run on sentence was deliberate.) I learned a lesson with this piece. Stay small when working with acrylics. Small small small. Regardless, I’m a believer in working in other mediums. They challenge in ways you can’t anticipate. 

Party of One

Party Of One
Oil on Wood
(8x42)

Yep, It's been forever. Some paintings take forever because they just take hours and hours of work. Some because the outside world is an intrusion, a constant intrusion. 2012 has brought seemingly stable employment along with months and months of persistent, intense physical pain. A little good a little bad. All of which has made time at the easel quite the challenge. Sometimes you just gotta battle through. I had intended to post this with a written companion, but the written piece is a convoluted mess hampered by all the starts and stops of getting "Party of One" finished. I'll spare you the tragedy. 

So here it is: A victim of starts and stops and mistakes and mistakes while correcting mistakes, but I'm pleased with the final outcome. The best part is that my mind and easel are free to start something new. ©2012 Cindy K. Shaw All Rights Reserved

Changing Minds

The last several weeks...months have been a flurry. I had a significant step up in contract work that started in August of last year. Then juggling this with some part-time work at the local LGBT community center. All this juggling of various part-time work came with long hours and a crazy schedule. Lots of work. Some money. Now, full time engineering work. More money. Lots of engineering brain time. Not much rest. Not much easel time. Not much artist brain time. And yes, it is as difficult as you might think to shift from my engineering brain to my artist one, especially when stress starts to run amok. Changing minds is never easy. 

Anyway…I started a piece while working on Requiem. Steps 1 and 2 were great and had me excited about where it would go. Steps 3 and 4 basically fucked it up and left me stumped. I spent weeks staring…trying to find a pathway to rework the disaster zones until I finally resigned that I just needed to paint over the trouble. So I did, but that tub of white paint I grabbed wasn’t primer. It was bright enamel. A fuck up to correct a fuck up that took several layers of paint to get back to a workable…paintable surface. We won’t discuss the other two items that were improperly “primed”. Those await my attention for a later date. 

So, I promise a finished piece is coming soon. I’m down to the nitty gritty details and am happy with how things are progressing. The photo is a little tease…a proof of life if you will. 

©2012 Cindy K. Shaw All Rights Reserved

Where There's Smoke

"Where There's Smoke" Pastel on Paper (12x12)

My little fingers have been itching for a little grit and grime that is the joy of working with pastels.  

It's been months since my last piece...like since January.  This was in part because both of my easels were occupied with paintings and I felt like I had begun to repeat myself.  Sometimes a little break is a good thing. 

A little time, a little cleared space and a blank sheet of paper.  There you have it.  ©2011 Cindy K. Shaw All Rights Reserved

In My Lair

"DragonFire" Watercolor and Ink on Paper (9x6)

A sucky day full of sucky memories
So I hide in my lair...head down...hand on brush
Avoiding direct connection...to pain...my pain...your pain...our pain.
Pain of bewilderment...collective loss...grief
The school yard bully unleashed.
A decade of fear and hate has...unraveled us all.
I fucking hate this day.
©2011 Cindy K. Shaw All Rights Reserved

Requiem

"Requiem" Oil on Canvas (42x72)

Here it is.  This painting and I have been working together since the end of May. Really much longer, since early February when I had the dream that has become the subject. A dream I remembered, which I rarely do.  A dream that had me twisted about. A dream that needed to be studied and painted so I could release it.  

Nervous Energy

Cabinet Door 6 - "Breathe"
Acrylic and Spray Paint on Wood  (16x27)

Yesterday was an antsy pantsy kind of day.  Far too much nervous energy to be trusted on the large painting that is down to the nitty gritty fine details.  The angst energy evident in yesterday's post loomed from the very first waking moment and I was in a "must make art" state all day.

These are the days that I most like being in my metal workshop where I can bang away at some steel, be loud, aggressive and get absolutely sweaty stinky filthy in the process. Alas, I've been without a metal workshop since unloading my house last year so this is what I did. I had to do something. I had to. 

It all started with spray paint...a medium that I still pretty much suck at, but love. This is also done in acrylics which I generally hate using, but they are fast and allowed me to push and fight without a consideration to any patience whatsoever. I have a very limited array of colors of low quality paint and really crappy brushes. Who cares? Right? I'm the artist. Not the paint.  Not the brushes.

I "finished" things up today. Even still, it is a rough, thrown together painting frenzy and I fully intend to leave it that way. ©2011 Cindy K. Shaw All Rights Reserved