Bridgett's Journal

A Long Time Away!

2008-01-26T16:15:00.000-06:00

Wow, it's been a long time since I posted here! Just updating my website now, with the help of a friend. I'm just starting to get back into painting in acrylics (my greatest interest). I have been taking a break with lots of drawing, writing poems, reading... Other things not requiring quite as much movement. I've been sick lately, but hopefully I'll be feeling better soon.

I need to prepare a new painting for a local art show. I need help getting the wire attached, though. I'm really bad at crafty stuff.

Preparing for Alaska

2007-08-21T19:34:00.000-05:00

Well, I'm going to be going on a trip to Alaska fairly soon so I'm trying to finish a lot of things up. I saw House on the Rock recently and might do some paintings inspired by that... I also need to do some more finalized photography that would be useful for slides. Tomorrow is my last acrylics class of this session.

I'm still reading a lot, but that's just very calming to me, no matter what my mood.

I really need to update the pictures on this website and maybe edit a few other things. I hope I have time for that soon.

2007-07-03T15:15:00.000-05:00

Sorry I haven't updated in so long!

So I did take my art class and signed up for another. I'm learning a lot about color theory and different panting techniques, so even though it's stressful to try and complete a painting in a short period of time, in the end it's beneficial. I might eventually put up my still life "studies" up on my website. I do try to make them at least somewhat "complete." Some objects in the still lifes turned out to be harder to paint than I anticipated. I'm going to see if I can keep these art classes up, because there's always more to learn. Maybe eventually I'll move on to classes focusing on portraiture.

Ophelia

2007-04-13T23:38:00.000-05:00

I've been having difficulty signing into this, for some reason...

I'm starting a painting of Ophelia from Hamlet because she is one of my favorite literary characters. It should be good practice in painting female figures (I'm sure I'll end up using myself/pictures of me as a reference, as usual). I haven't planned it out yet, though. I want to at least do a sketch first. Usually I only have a vague idea of what I want to draw or paint and I just see what happens and intuitively add and alter things as I see fit. I don't usually have much of a finished idea in my head. I won't this time, either, but I do intend to do a bit more planning than usual. It would probably help advance my technical ability, which is an important goal for me.

Ending of the Long Winter

2007-03-14T16:21:00.000-05:00

I was sick with food poisoning this weekend. Lately I have been slowed down a lot, and hopefully that will change with this spring. I have a list of things I hope to soon start accomplishing. I also hope to sign up for an acrylics art class at the art league near where I live. That would just be something in April-May. I've been trying to find someway to do volunteering, but I can't find something that would be realistically possible for me so far. I get overwhelmed with too much stimuli and I don't have a lot of "practical" skills. Hopefully I'll find something soon.

I did manage to finish my second editing of my latest novel, but I'm still deciding on a (temporary) title. I need to do more research on literature genres because I have a very difficult time expressing to other people what I write. My style is largely based on what I find interesting, what I would like to read, and the language and interpretations are what matches the kind of things that really affect me. A lot of it is relatively stream-of-consciousness and incorporate areas or human traits I find interesting, though I often have a lot of mutual interpersonal misunderstanding.

I'll try to update again sooner. This winter has just been very unreal, dreamlike, and somewhat depressing to me. I dislike night-time.

Paintings of Female Faces

2007-01-26T18:37:00.000-06:00

I have been sketching and have some more charcoal and conte to do some drawing, but I haven't been painting as much as I would like. I intend to do two more acrylic paintings of female paintings, with different color themes. My mother felt that two recent female portraits I did looked like "autumn" and "winter" so I want to create one for spring and one for summer as well.

I still have yet to experiment with prints. There are still a lot of things I'd like to learn about art, that I never learned officially due to taking very few art classes. Maybe I'll look up books on some of those topics.

Experimenting with Painting Different Subject Matter

2006-12-06T21:06:00.000-06:00

Well, I haven't posted here in a few months, unfortunately. I have been experimenting with painting people more, since I don't have as much experience with that. So far it's going well. I also tried a seascape for the first time, and I like it, though it will take practice. I wish I had people to model for me. I guess there are a few people that could, provided they didn't get bored:-)

I've been very tired and lethargic this season, I assume from how dark it is all the time. I'm glad it's finally snowing; it makes things much more cheerful.

Trying to Get Started Again

2006-10-01T02:42:00.000-05:00

I've been sick a lot lately. I'm still reading Kierkegaard, as well as a lot of other books. I'm working on painting people still, but I'm also including a variety of other subjects. Hopefully I'll start a new painting tomorrow, at least the planning stages. Sometimes the hardest part for me of any creative project is getting started. But I haven't been well lately, and I couldn't do any art or writing or reading while recovering from eyelid surgery. I hope I can get back into my good work habits.

Upstream People Gallery Pictures, Lack of Focus in Writing

2006-07-17T16:12:00.000-05:00

I'm going to be on the Upstream People Gallery again, this time for August 1, 2006 until September 30, 2007 for the "6th Annual International Online Juried Art Exhibition." The address is: www.upstreampeoplegallery.com

They will be under my name, Bridgett Mahoney, of course.

I've been running into a lot of problems writing. I'm just really distracted and I don't like where my computer is currently located. I'm not sure there's much I can do about that, unless I go back to writing on my laptop. I'm still not sure I've moved everything over from my laptop onto my new computer. I was doing so great too, for awhile there.

I'm reading Either/Or by Kierkegaard, which is fun, because I love Kierkegaard. I also was reading a lot of Madeleine L'Engle books, as she's one of my favorite authors:-) The general atmosphere of her books is something aesthetically pleasing to me, and her characters I can either relate to in some degree or I just wish I knew people like that.

New Art Photographs Taken

2006-06-14T00:38:00.000-05:00

Wow, I haven't updated here in awhile. I've had some professional pictures taken of some paintings, so those updated pictures should go up fairly soon. There are a couple exhibitions I want to apply for in the near future. I'm still working on a new novel, but it's going to be pretty long, so I have aways to go. The weather is nice, and I'm reading many books (both fiction and nonfiction). I'm really working on making myself more organized, because that will clear up more time during the day to accomplish things.

No Exit and Waiting for Godot

2006-05-10T23:38:00.000-05:00

I need to update my website really badly, but I am terrible with technology so my friend/website designer will do it when they have time.

I'm falling behind in some of my writing for some reason. I think it's just where I am not sure how much time to spend on certain aspects and how many scenes to include between more major points.

I two days ago I read two plays, Sartre's No Exit and Beckett's Waiting for Godot. The various ways of interpreting Waiting for Godot are interesting, but it was kind of difficult for me to follow. I liked No Exit much better. I liked how at the end, one of the character's says "hell is other people." I can relate to the sentiment even though I generally like people. People are just really chaotic and make too much noise and move around too much. I feel like I'm going insane if I sit in a room with a lot of people. I don't mind moving through crowds though, really... I just don't like feeling trapped with people and the fact that a lot of people are impatient, rude, or emotionally volatile.

A Painting of Hands

2006-04-29T19:41:00.000-05:00

I've been working on a new novel that suddenly struck me about a week ago. I'm almost 30,000 words through the first draft. I have a bunch of ideas for the editing too.

I'm going to be doing a painting of hands trying to capture a hummingbird, because I find the different tones of color difficult to capture in hands. It will be an educational experience, I'm sure. I'm practicing colored pencil and watercolor now and again, but still focusing on acrylic. Eventually I want to be able to paint photorealistically, but I don't think that will ever be my preferred style.

I've read so many books lately, often on psychology. I'm in the middle of The Wind -Up Bird Chronicle by Haruki Murakami, which is very surreal and I love it.

Books, Watercolor Painting, Spring

2006-03-31T23:57:00.001-06:00

I've been reading a lot about Kierkegaard lately; he's my favorite philosopher. I need to go to the library, because I haven't been reading as much as I usually do. There are a lot of things I want to get, such as Anna Kerena and Jane Eyre. One of my favorite books is The Brothers Karamazov.

I've been doing some watercolor painting lately, so that might go up on my site soon. I'm probably going to have to take slides sometime during April, since one of my paintings is being sold and picked up in May.

I'm very glad it's spring; spring is my favorite season. It's so bright and cheerful and sunny out. I feel like I can accomplish more with the longer days. It will make painting easier, since I most often paint in the sunlight.

Faces Online Gallery

2006-03-24T14:14:00.000-06:00

I forgot to mention this, but four of my paintings are on display online in the "8th Annual Faces Juried Online International Art Exhibition." After March (which is almost over!) it will all be archived, but still on the site. My paintings are under my name, "Bridgett Mahoney."

http://www.upstreampeoplegallery.com/current/default.asp

Psychological Types by Carl Jung

2006-03-09T19:42:00.000-06:00

Well, I finished reading Jung's "Psychological Types." I feel like I better understand the concepts the Myers-Briggs test is based off of, but really, I also am more confused. Thinking and Feeling I think are easier to understand than Intuition and Sensing. Intuition is largely comprised of ideas and insights related to the other three functions (Thinking, Feeling, and Sensing), and since Sensing is Intuition's opposite, an Intuitive person could have Sensing compulsions and even numinous Sensing experiences, whereas a Sensing person could have very overpowering intuitions due to the archaic nature of their intuition. The fact that intuition is largely drawn from the unconscious, no matter how differentiated the Intuition function, makes it confusing.

The fact that Introverted Sensors are often disconnected from physical reality and just use the sensing stimulus as a springboard to their own subjective responses also makes the Intuition vs. Sensing issue feel ambiguous. After all, intuition has some kind of outside stimulus as often as an internal stimulus (especially Extraverted Intuition). I suppose an individual trying to figure out their own type could figure it out a bit easier, but when I think about people I know, I start questioning my original thoughts about whether they seem more Intuitive or Sensing to me.

I will have to think about this some more.

Retaking Photographs, Reading Books

2006-03-02T19:01:00.000-06:00

Well, I just had my wisdom teeth out yesterday. I just retook a few badly done photographs of my acrylic paintings, so hopefully those pictures will be up soon. They're already on my Deviant Art account. I think I'm going to do some watercoloring soon too, because I don't do that very often. Watercolor can be more stressful to me because you have to be very careful and aware of all the paintstrokes. With acrylic I can just paint over something I don't like; I find it very relaxing.

I'm also have read a couple more autobiographies by autistics, which is always fun ("Lucy's Story" and "Songs of the Gorialla Nation").

I'm currently reading "Psychological Types" by Carl Jung. I love personality typing. On the Myers-Briggs test (based off of Jung's work), I'm an INFJ. It's a pretty long book, with a huge part of it just Jung critiquing and discussing personality studies done in the past. I find the whole topic of personality interesting. People have such different ways of viewing things and going about things.

Persephone

2006-02-21T19:17:00.000-06:00

Well, I've been painting still, but some more of my recent paintings still need to be put on my site (they're on Deviant Art already). Eventually better photographs will be taken by someone with actual photography talent/experience. I'm trying to work on a small series of ballerinas and another one on lily pads.

I've been reading about mythology lately and thinking about which characters from mythology I feel most connected to. Persephone is one of them. I feel my whole life, all my feelings and internal experiences, mirrored the myth of Persephone's abduction. The fact that I'm so emotionally sensitive probably has a big influence on that. I always liked Artemis a lot, too, even though there were elements of her I didn't like (the fact that she could be so harsh/dangerous, for instance). I always saw Artemis as reflecting a kind of childlike innocence. She loved animals and was very carefree, but also stubborn and unable to see how her actions affected others (at least on an emotional level). I've always been really attached to the moon, too, and since Artemis is a goddess of the moon, I felt extra empathy for her.

I'm thinking someday I might want to paint a Persephone series, too...

Measuring My Paintings and Photographing

2006-02-15T21:29:00.000-06:00

I have just finished measuring some of my paintings. Apparently some of the measurements I took before were incorrect. I hope to take some more photographs of my art soon. I love painting and drawing, but I hate all the work you have to put into getting your work out there. I have some type of motor control problems that make it difficult for me to do carpentry work, so making my own backed canvases is not possible. I like working with acrylic because it's familiar. I get confused if there's too many different or new elements I have to deal with.

I've been taking my own photographs with a digital camera so I can post them online. I've had a professional photographer take slides of my work before, but I've also taken some myself. Photographing my work can take a long time because I'm not a photographer. Anything to do with complex technology does not interest me. I also won't do digital artwork for that reason. It seems really popular for people to edit their art with photoshop, do mixed media, or do their art completely on the computer, but I'm very disinterested in that. I also have a lot of difficulty with technology (I tend to always mess up something), so I worry about something going wrong. At least with my basic canvases and paints I know how to fix something I don't like and I don't have to worry about accidentally erasing or destroying something unless it's through a flood, the wood backing of the canvas breaking, etc.

Overview of My Love of Painting

2006-02-11T19:02:00.000-06:00

Well, my more personal journal is unico_love at LiveJournal. I will probably use this blog mostly to cross-post things about art, writing, and some of my special interests.

I have always really liked drawing and painting. As a child I would draw all day long in total silence. Even now I hate being distracted from it, though my interests have been expanded. It can be hard for me to break my concentration and I hate leaving things unfinished. I zone out completely in a completely nonverbal state; when people interrupt me, it's frustrating. I'm forced back into a world too quickly, against my own volition.

I use acrylic paint most often, because that's what I'm most used to. It dries quickly and it gives really bright colors. It's not too stressful because if you mess something up, you can simply paint right over it.

I want to do more with watercolor, too, though. Maybe not so much in the traditional ways watercolor is used, but I do enjoy working with watercolor.

Welcome to my Blog

2006-02-04T17:27:00.000-06:00

This is my first posting here.