Inspiration: Shanan Campanaro

 Shanan Campanaro is a distant relative of mine who is an artist in Brooklyn, New York. I love her work--her prints are beautiful and clever. She started her own company and sells her work through Eskayel which is a company that turns her paintings into awesome wall paper, prints, fabrics, etc. If you want to know more about her, about her business and success, you can listen to an interview with her at 2modern blog.

Bali Stripe Bay wallpaper

Inspiration: Mark Schwartz

I am 100% a shoe  girl. Always have been, always will be. I stumbled past Mark Schwartz's work one day and I fell completely in love! He's a shoe designer AND artist. His renderings are beautifully painted and quite inventive. He also uses one of my favorite mediums--india ink!

You can check out his stuff at his website, High Heeled Art, or you can check his work out at this DailyPainters.com

Mark Schwartz
Dream
16" x 20"
Watercolor on Paper

Mark Schwartz
Fluid Ballet
12" x 16"
India Ink on Plexiglass

While I love his artistic renderings, I have a book of my own where I design shoes for fun. I think I should start doing more painterly renditions instead of drawing it like I'm mapping it out. On the other hand, I like the fact that each one of my designs comes from a sketch book and looks almost sterile especially with my little notes thrown in on the sides. 

These are some of my designs:

Current Work In Progress

Part 1
4' x 6'

I've started an attempt at the largest painting I've ever tackled! I'm planning on using a process where I do many layers of painting on top of what I have previously painted and allowing windows of the under paintings to show through. 

This first layer has been somewhat therapeutic for me. I think it will be the rarest part of the painting. I've thrown paint at the board, hit it, scratched it, and graffitied all over it with representational colors and words. The first layer--the most hidden layer-- is about my battle with my Fibromyalgia and how the physical and emotional pain I feel every day affects my everyday life, my relationships, and how I feel about myself. 

Part 2
4' x 6'

For this next layer, I ended up going in with no plan. Instead, I just let loose. I let my hands and body do what they wanted and I let my eyes choose what colors I wanted. I tried using some paint thinner over parts of the painting, but it ended up getting muddy. Clearly, I need to apply the paint thicker!

Part 3
4' x 6'

I have started yet another layer. Once again, I'm not going with any plan--just going with my mood and letting the movement of my arm make the decision. So far, I see these rock formations covering up all the feelings in the background. I believe this will have a greater meaning when the piece is finished. As you can see, i'm planning on leaving parts of the under painting show through in the middle formation.

Part 4
4' x 6'

I've scrapped away little sections and slivers of the underpainting and I've painted some blue waves. I get a lot of inspiration from organic forms, textures, naturally forming material, etc. I feel like this is my version of an abstraction of a cave with tall rock formations and streams weaving through it. Not to mention, I feel like I subconsciously wanted to cover up the underpainting. I think I mimicked something I do all the time--how I pretend that I'm okay and I hide what really ales me. Maybe this is my way of breaking through all that.