New American Paintings: Midwest

I just got my latest New American Paintings in the mail and it is the Midwest edition. Usually that is my favorite because I feel like there is always a lot of exciting artwork happening in the Midwest. I'm not just saying this because I live in the Midwest. Full disclosure, however, I was rejected from this issue. No big deal though. I'm nothing if not resilient. I will send them new slides this year and hope for the best. Meanwhile I wanted to share with you a few of the artists in this edition who were my favorites.

These first two pieces are by Casey Roberts. These are cyanotypes with gauche painted on them. These two pieces are not in NAP. Aren't they gorgeous? See tons of more beautiful works at his website.

The next three pieces are by Nathan Vernau. Again these are not the actual works in the publication. Nathan has tons of great pieces at his website. They are silly and intense all at the same time. One of his pieces made the cover of NAP!


I also love these quirky pieces by Lee Piechocki. The bottom piece is in NAP but the top two pieces are older. See more of his work here.


New American Paintings is out now. Check your newsstands to see more great work!

Please RSVP to my Pity Party

originally uploaded by jackie young..

I'm feeling a little depressy today so indulge me for a sec? Yesterday I was getting myself really worked up and bummed out about some stuff happening that is really unfair. I feel like I'm expected to just smile and say "No, it's fine that that is really unfair and not what was supposed to happen. I won't get upset at all. Thank you." And that is mostly what I did/said. But we all know I secretly went home and cried for a bit and got hurt feelings and everything else that comes with it.

Finally yesterday I remembered what any adult would say to me when I was a little kid and would whine "...but it's not faiiiiiirrrr!!" and their response was always, "life's not fair." Which would usually just cause me to scream and kick and yell longer. But it's true. Life's not fair and you just have to deal with it. I privately screamed and yelled and kicked and I'm still pretty upset but whatever. When I put it in the whole perspective of what people in the world are dealing with I'm still ultimately the three year old child throwing a temper tantrum and no one likes a temper tantrum. So I'll buck it up and deal. Have any unfair situations to share? How do you get through them? Please tell me I'm not the only self-indulgent private temper-tantrum-thrower slash pity-party-haver.

On a less depressy note. Saturday I submitted work to New American Paintings for the first time. It's always been my dream to get into this publication and with the lack of self esteem I've been feeling these days it would really be a nice boost. Could you take a minute to cross your fingers for me? Every little bit helps.

Thank you for allowing this pity party if you are still reading. If you quit reading as soon as you saw the word depressy I totally understand. I'll be back tomorrow with better cheer!

2010 is a nice even number

Happy New Year a little late...! Only four days late. I only know today's date because my milk expires tomorrow. That's pretty crucial. I hope you are all enjoying the beginning of a new decade... or the end of a decade? Glass half full/ empty? I've been thinking hard about my new year's resolutions. Normally I pick things that are not very obtainable so I don't take it too seriously when I declare them. This year I'm in desperate need for organizations so I'm considering being a little more serious about the whole resolution thing. This year I resolove:

1. To actually use my planner. It's really cute so I should want to use it.

2. Make To-Do lists and actually do the things on the lists.

3. Cook more.

4. Exercise more.

5. Love more.

6. Worry less. I let too many things get to me. I worry about the unworriable. I make up elaborate scenarios just so I can worry. I want to stop doing this.

7. Write more paper mail.

8. Learn how to use my sewing machine.

9. Graduate.

10. Not freak out about graduating.

Okay, there you have it. There are plenty more I could add but I think I'll leave it at ten.

Something I'd like to do with my blog is promote more artists. The other day I was cleaning up my studio and I found this amazing list of artists. I'm always writing people's names down in whatever notebook I'm carrying around and at one point I compiled a huge list from all those notepads. Some of the artists I was completely unfamiliar with at the time that I wrote them down. Often they are names suggested to me by professors to look at, other times I ran across their work somewhere and wrote their name down to check them out. Some of those artists have already been featured on my blog.

So, daily I'd like to feature one of those artists from that list. Today's artist is Jon Rappleye. I first discovered his work in New American Paintings. I'm so thankful I found this list because I forgot his name and have not been able to look him up. Here's a couple of pieces, check out the link for more. Have a happy 2010!

Yummy Art

After having a lot of critiques last week I found an artist I really loved thanks to a teacher's suggestion. I'm using a lot of collage in my work right now and I was told to check out Michelle Wasson's work. When I looked up her page I realized I'd seen her paintings before in New American Paintings. I love those but I also love these collages. I like how she uses different elements to build each image. It's so hard for me to not want to fill a whole page with information. These are a lot more stark and pretty powerful. Check out her page for more work.

These paintings below were part of a collaboration Michelle did with one of my faculty members Nina Rizzo. I really love these.

Diana Behl

A few years ago while looking through a New American Paintings I discovered the work of Diana Behl.  I loved her mixture of drawing and collage and her sense of composition. I found her work at a time when I was desperately trying to figure out my own collage aesthetic.  It was a way I always wanted to work but for some reason it was making me too nervous to just dive right in. I carried around that New American Paintings so much it was practically like a baby blanket.  I looked at Diana's work for motivation.  So at Frogman's I had the absolute pleasure of meeting Diana and she's an absolutely neat and lovely person.  She was on my bowling team and it was so fun getting to know her.  That's one of my favorite thing about frogman's, you just never know who you are going to meet.  I've been a fan of Diana's work for so long so to finally meet her was very exciting.  While looking for images to show on my blog I found an interview with her here.  Check it out.  Diana's website is here.  Go discover more of her work!