Odarley

Artist interview with shoebox LA art! January artist interview was a great experience. www.shoeboxart.com 

many thanks to the Shoebox Team

photo by Tracy Mackenna, The Museum of Loss and Renewal, 2022.

find shoeboxla on instagram 

This association is for creative women in my area. We are hoping to grow into a powerhouse of support and networking!

Its been a busy few months getting this association off the ground and officially running and we are slowly building our base. My goal is to create a strong group of women so that we can all gin incomes being professional creatives in the Basque region of France. It's an honour to be one of the founders of this group and here is to dreaming big and creating amazing and spectacular events that will include art exhibits, workshops and classes and networking events!

If you live in our area I hope you will join us, as a member, a partner or a cheerleader. If you don't live in Pyrenees Atlantique, France please keep updated with our events on our website or through our social media platforms. More to come as we roll out the red carpet and support the fantastically creatives who live in our area!!

Go to their blog on https://shoeboxarts.com under features to see Round 1-14 online exhibitions of Call and Response to get an idea of how artists worked together.

I will be participating in a 3 week collaboration with an artist in the US! We will finish the 11 September 2022 

How it works: 

Artist #1 will create an original piece of art within 24 hours and send a digital version of it to Artist #2.  It can be poetry, it can be photography or video. It can be painting or drawing, collage or sculpture. It is about sitting down and being creative and interacting with someone. 

Artist #2 will then have 24 hours to create a response to it in any medium and with any tools available to them. They will in turn send a digital version of it back to Artist #1 who will create a new work in response. In the end there will be around 14 pieces from the collaboration.

This will be included online to Shoebox's online gallery and I will be happy to make available prints for sale if you like what I do! I will add each one that I do on this blog. We start today 22 September, I am artist #2 so I am waiting to receive my first piece:)

This July started in Collemacchia  🇮🇹 Italy in an artist residence at The museum of loss and renewal. Headed by Tracy McKenna and Danica Maier. It was a group residence program where we explored place people time- drawing into being 

We walked in the mountains, looking and listening, drawing and talking. It was an incredible experience and the perfect way to kickstart getting back into my practice. 
 

I explored materials and embraced my multidisciplinary abilities. I got to dance, sing, paint with plants, tune a guitar! For those of you who know me, this is my life lane!
I came away feeling more centered in my practice and confident that I could fully  embrace the concepts I explore. I had to be reminded but I am grateful that I was!!

Happy June to everyone! 
I first have to start by saying our internet in our lovely mountains has been not very kind to me being able to share with you all but as luck would have it, I can share in this moment. 
Things are swimming along and my newest project, Faces is nearly complete. 
a little highlight here and a little shadow there. I will get a proper post up as soon as our wifi is reliable. All the best  and don’t be shy to check in 

I’ll just be patiently waiting for my new and improved internet and painting daily

The past few months I have traveled a bit and worked on a personal project Faces, which I will blog about when it's all finished. But I also had the pleasure of creating a large commission for a client. I was given full control for the subject and a little nudge of what colors and themes the client liked. I have a backlog of public domain photos stored away for rainy days, photos I would like to someday turn into paintings and this photo just called to my clients wishes.

The portrait of Henri Groulux with his chicken, cir. 1920 was taken in a Parisian studio. I attempted to do research on how this photo came about but found very little, so I created my own backstory. This also aided my idea to do a mixed media piece and create a background of newspaper clippings about the circus, Charlie Chaplin and even some articles about the writer Proust. This painting turned out to be 75 x 75 cm in acrylic paint on canvas. I am happy with the end result as is the client!

Visiting North Carolina, March 21 in downtown Wake Forest. 

So I wandered into this shop and discovered a collection of wonderful handmade art and cards. Ranging from quilts and pottery to paintings and jewelery, I found some wonderful pieces that were inspired and truly different!

What a joy it is to wander into a small town shop and see that artists are supported by their local community.    

Don't forget to support your towns local artist hub, even if its at the coffee shop! Buy local Art! 

February has come and gone!

I am starting a new project, faces, three photos of famous African-American woman superimposed with my own. These images were created long ago when I was at university, studying ( of all things) conceptual information arts! We used computer arts- sound, visual and film, to explore how we could bring art to technology. At the time, in 1997, this was really progressive!

I made a self portrait using three African-American women, Shirley Chisholm (a political activist from the 1960's), Mae C. Jemison (the first African-American woman astronaut) and Billie Holliday (singer). I was interested in exploring identity, mainly my own because I was mixed.

 I began painting these images and started a vlog to document my technique with all of you on Instagram #odarleyart

happy painting

Last summer 2021, Baigorry Market

After a successful Summer Season, I took some time off for a major renovation at my home. Instead of painting landscapes and portraits, I was painting walls and ceilings. We completed work in November and I was ready to get back into the studio.

The first week of December our village was hit by a storm that flooded our village, including my studio. It's taken a few months to clean up and dry out the space, 5 paintings were unsalvageable. The lesson learned; pick up and move forward.

I marched down to the local soap shop and asked if I could sell cards of my paintings, it's been nice to have community support. The cards are of Baigorry, town center and an old famous roman bridge, art of my Village Series from 2018.

The flood reminded me to seize the day and start new projects. I will share these adventures in the months to come. I certainly look forward to what 2022 has in-store. 

This moment's mantra: Full of FAITH and trust your GUT.

Busy summer with lots of markets and expositions. Starting this week!

I have focused on projects for the markets, still painting mountain landscapes but with a new twist. I’m having fun with acrylic painting and oil painting techniques. 
Newest mindfulness mantra is interwoven throughout all the pieces, because my process in painting them took time and thoughtfulness. The month of July has been focusing on patience and letting the little stuff go. So my paintings are not perfect but they are thoughtful. It will be interesting to see how this will affect future portrait paintings! 
thank you for joining me on this journey and for your continued support and inspiration. Happy July!