Travis Louie Collaboration!

I am honored to have been asked to do this collaboration with the amazing Travis Louie.

The collaboration will be in his Gallery 1988 show entitled, "The Ghost of Delilah and Other Stories" which opens tonight in Los Angeles. I so wish I was in LA for this one, but if you are there, I recommend not missing this show!

Anden Beskyddare

"Anden Beskyddare (The Spirit Protectors)"
acrylic on board
8 x 10 inches, framed
2010
inquiries: corylou311(at)yahoo(dot)com

Above is the final shot of the painting, and below is when it was finished in black and white. If you scroll down, you can see the earlier progress shots of the painting.

The skull that the falcons are perched on is that of an owl, and the flowers are Saint John's Wort, which symbolizes protection.



This was only my second painting in color, and let's just say that I had some issues with it along the way. That's why I didn't take more pictures while the color was evolving. Those damn flowers were going to be the death of me!

Anyways, I'm really happy with the way it turned out and glad that I made all the changes I wanted to to it, even though it aggravated the hell out of me!

Die Traurigkeit

"Die Traurigkeit (The Sadness)"
acrylic on board
8 x 10 inches
2010
SOLD



As I mentioned in my previous post, this painting deals with the recent passing of my grandmother, Dorothy (aka Grammy). It feels like to me that the mourning (represented by the mourning dove) has a way of unlocking memories that had been dead for a while.

I was surprised to discover that the flower pictured here, the gerber daisy, actually represents sadness in Victorian flower language. Surprising to me because I always thought of it as such a cheery flower. Oh those crazy victorians.

This painting actually started as an experiment because I so rarely paint with colors, but I was really satisfied with the end result and will continue to use color in the future.

Well, the next step will be finding a cool frame for it which I'll paint to match.

This painting, along with two of my other pieces will be in a skull-themed show which I'll write about soon.

Here's some progress shots:

The Broken

(click to enlarge)
"The Broken"
acrylic on panel
8 x 10 inches, framed
2010
inquiries: corylou311(at)yahoo(dot)com


As I said before, this piece is inspired by Coheed & Cambria's song, "The Broken" which is on their latest album, Year of The Black Rainbow. When I saw the artwork for the song (a crow with broken lines in it), it was so similar to my style that I felt I had to make my rival to the artwork, the way I would have liked to have seen it.

I had a really tough time photographing it because it has insanely small detail; the most intricate of which I have ever done. I would consider this piece a miniature because the detail work is so tiny.

As for the symbolism in the painting, I referred again to the language of flowers that was so popular in Victorian times; this painting referencing Rosa rubiginosa (Sweet briar or Eglantine Rose) which symbolizes "A wound to heal".