Angie Reed Garner

series has ended. available watercolors are available

angiereed@gmail.com — Mon, 14 May 2012 04:32:57 GMT

Done with the push on watercolors, have oil paint on my hands again.

I know I told a couple of people to
wait and see what else I might do in this series
before settling on one... ok, now you know.
The watercolors shown below are available,
$175 including shipping. I'll remove any should they sell
so this entry stays current.

angiereed@gmail.com

One still available--

not this water

watercolor #9 "irrigation hose + crane"

angiereed@gmail.com — Wed, 09 May 2012 12:36:13 GMT

watercolor, 25 x 20", on 115# Rives Blanc

Another watercolor, see previous entries.

When it comes to landscapes it's really interesting, what gets
kept and what gets left out.

I was trying yesterday to learn about Japanese garden
techniques for shaping and training trees-- by staking and
propping and roping them-- and couldn't find
many photos online hosted on western sites. The few
I found were by bonsai enthusiasts and hardcore gardeners.

People go to Japan and visit many gardens and take a million
photos and I guess they carefully don't shoot the trees with the gear.

I think the props (and the winter wraps) are considered part of the garden
and are meant to be seen (made of natural materials so as to harmonize).
In some cases the props are never coming off because the tree would not
survive it. If you find the sight of a prop or wrap or rope unsightly,
there's a lot you can't really look at.

Scroll down for some images of what I'm talking about--
eventually you will see photos with ropes pulling branches
down, trees swaddled for winter etc.

http://www.scribd.com/doc/59195009/Niwaki-Pruning-Training-and-Shaping-Trees-the-Japanese-Way

Anyway, it made me think of what gets left off when I do landscapes
about Abu Dhabi. The irrigation hoses! I don't do many cars, hardly any.
I love cranes so those usually make it in.

Since this work rolls and ships so easy... if you want it, $175 sees it to your
door. Paypal or personal checks (US) or credit cards. I'm totally fine with
payments if you want to distribute the pain without the assistance of
Masters Card and Visa. angiereed@gmail.com

I can also offer prints of any of these, assuming I can get better photos which
I think I can.

big file version here for anyone that is shopping/wants a closer look

watercolor #8 "two trees"

angiereed@gmail.com — Mon, 07 May 2012 11:00:13 GMT

watercolor, 25 x 20", on 115# Rives Blanc

Another watercolor, see previous entries.

Tell me what you feel in your room when the full
moon is shining in upon you and your lamp is dying
out, and I will tell you how old you are, and I shall
know if you are happy.
-Henri Frederic Amiel

Since this work rolls and ships so easy... if you want it, $175 sees it to your
door. Paypal or personal checks (US) or credit cards. I'm totally fine with
payments if you want to distribute the pain without the assistance of
Masters Card and Visa. angiereed@gmail.com

I can also offer prints of any of these, assuming I can get better photos which
I think I can.

big file version here for anyone that is shopping/wants a closer look

watercolor #7 "four trees"

angiereed@gmail.com — Wed, 02 May 2012 06:09:33 GMT

watercolor, 20 x 16" approx., on 115# Rives Blanc

Another watercolor, see previous entries.

Mom did a series of tilted city paintings
when I was a teenager. Her tilted city was seen from a squirrel's eye pov
with city partially framed by trees.

The chief function of the city is to convert power into form, energy into culture, dead matter into the living symbols of art, biological reproduction into social creativity.
Lewis Mumford

big file version here for a closer look

watercolor #6 "tilted city"

angiereed@gmail.com — Thu, 26 Apr 2012 13:30:02 GMT

watercolor, 20 x 16" approx., on 115# Rives Blanc

Another watercolor, see previous entries.

Mom did a series of tilted city paintings
when I was a teenager. Her tilted city was seen from a squirrel's eye pov
with city partially framed by trees. Will see if I can find any images...
but that work is long collected and gone.

The chief function of the city is to convert power into form, energy into culture, dead matter into the living symbols of art, biological reproduction into social creativity.
Lewis Mumford

big file version here for a closer look

watercolor #5 fiddle dee dee

angiereed@gmail.com — Tue, 24 Apr 2012 08:01:13 GMT

watercolor, 21 x 16" approx., on 115# Rives Blanc

Another watercolor, see previous entries.

big file version here for a closer look

I didn't have this quote in mind when I painted the above,
but I like it and will stash it here.

GWTW

Stuart Tarleton: War! Isn't it exciting, Scarlett? You know those fool Yankees actually *want* a war?
Brent Tarleton: We'll show 'em!
Scarlett: Fiddle-dee-dee! War, war, war; this war talk's spoiling all the fun at every party this spring. I get so bored I could scream. Besides... there isn't going to be any war.
Brent Tarleton: Not going to be any war?
Stuart Tarleton: Why, honey, of course there's gonna be a war.
Scarlett: If either of you boys says "war" just once again, I'll go in the house and slam the door.
Brent Tarleton: But Scarlett, honey...
Stuart Tarleton: Don't you *want* us to have a war?
[she gets up and walks to the door, to their protestations]
Scarlett: [relenting] Well... but remember, I warned you.

watercolor #4 "not big enough"

angiereed@gmail.com — Mon, 23 Apr 2012 06:59:33 GMT

watercolor, 25 x 20", on 115# Rives Blanc

Another watercolor, see previous entries.

big file version here for a closer look

watercolor #3 "not this water"

angiereed@gmail.com — Tue, 17 Apr 2012 14:27:53 GMT

watercolor, 25 x 20", on 115# Rives Blanc

Another watercolor, see previous entries.

Since this work rolls and ships so easy... if you want it, $175 sees it to your
door. Paypal or personal checks or credit cards. I'm totally fine with
payments if you want to distribute the pain without the assistance of
Masters Card and Visa. angiereed@gmail.com

I can also offer prints of any of these.

big file version here for anyone that is shopping or really wants a closer look

watercolor #2-- "bad moon rising"

angiereed@gmail.com — Sun, 15 Apr 2012 12:24:07 GMT

watercolor, 25 x 20", on 115# Rives Blanc

Another watercolor per previous entry this morning.

Since this work rolls and ships so easy... if you want it, $175 sees it to your
door. Paypal or personal checks or credit cards. I'm totally fine with
payments if you want to distribute the pain without the assistance of
Masters Card and Visa. angiereed@gmail.com

big file version here for anyone that is shopping or really wants a closer look

[Edit-- images reposted, painting now with properly clean(er) margins, signed/titled etc.]

watercolor-- "troubled waters"

angiereed@gmail.com — Sun, 15 Apr 2012 07:43:05 GMT

watercolor, 25 x 19.5" with margins, on 115# Rives Blanc

Exploring watercolor as a way to turn a sketch directly into a painting.

And wow, I really like how what you see is what you get, compared to acrylics
(which dry dark. Watercolors dry light.).

I am used to thinking in layers to build up color from working in
oils, so drying light is more a plus anyway. I can always add more paint.

Since this work rolls and ships so easy... if you want it, $175 sees it to your
door. Paypal or personal checks or credit cards. I'm totally fine with
payments if you want to distribute the pain without the assistance of
Masters Card and Visa. angiereed@gmail.com

big file version here for anyone that is shopping or really wants a closer look

[Edit-- images reposted, painting now with properly clean(er) margins, signed/titled etc.]

paradigmatic first world problem

angiereed@gmail.com — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 09:50:14 GMT

mixed media on canvas, 30 x 30"

Not much easier. Sigh.

Dubai

angiereed@gmail.com — Sat, 04 Feb 2012 12:30:37 GMT

a real deal!

angiereed@gmail.com — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 10:59:49 GMT

oil on canvas, 14 x 11"

http://www.etsy.com/listing/87887827/oil-painting-by-angie-reed-garner

Here was my original web page for the piece, and it has some detail shots,
but I think the photos in the listing are better.

Collector needs some cashola quick and so she's listed it for a
very nice price. I don't have much any more that
can go for under $200 since I went mixed media/big.

http://www.angiereedgarner.com/treestudytwo.htm

And here's my journal entry about working on the piece. Wow, that was a walk down memory lane.

http://angiereedgarner.livejournal.com/246094.html

I think I understood better what I am doing now back at that particular moment. Funny how artmaking involves so many successive rounds of Lost and Found and Lost Again.

crow sledding

angiereed@gmail.com — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 09:01:56 GMT

My favorite part is the end-- where the crow takes off and takes sled with.

"airshow" (previously "don't talk down") oil on canvas 24 x 24"

angiereed@gmail.com — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 11:24:57 GMT

Set this one aside last May, circled back yesterday.

"home making II" 36 x 48" oil on canvas

angiereed@gmail.com — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 09:22:58 GMT

A detail, two more behind the cut--

two detail shots of "home making"

angiereed@gmail.com — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 12:49:10 GMT

They are web-sized but big. I guess I could have just posted one really big scrolly image, but here you go anyway.

home making

angiereed@gmail.com — Sun, 08 Jan 2012 13:11:05 GMT

home making, oil on canvas, 40 x 30"

black swan event

angiereed@gmail.com — Thu, 08 Dec 2011 05:47:55 GMT

black swan event, oil on canvas, 30 x 30"

I don't exactly mind it flipped, that seems true too. I worked it both ways while painting it. I'd probably show it as above.

Arabian Jackalope I

angiereed@gmail.com — Fri, 28 Oct 2011 14:39:25 GMT

It's done I think.

Arabian jackalope I, mixed media hinged diptych, 16 x 24"

Since it is hinged, it can sit on a shelf as well as go on the wall.

A detail--

progress shot-- "black swan event"

angiereed@gmail.com — Tue, 25 Oct 2011 08:53:53 GMT

30 x 30"

This one has a ways to go, but I wanted to see it fresh.

A black swan event is, well, here is wiki's explanation.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theory_of_Black_Swan_Events

If I only seem to post progress shots lately... that's kind of how
it is, I have a lot of not-finished works... easily a show's worth.
I'm not very patient with my process but having to be that way anyway,
or else I'm refusing to finish for obscure psychological reasons.
Probably the latter.

Out of most forms of alkyd medium, must resupply.

back from the vets, mulling middle-class-ness and the marches on Wall St.

angiereed@gmail.com — Mon, 17 Oct 2011 08:04:46 GMT

Heefy just got his annual shots and we did a consult on pain and anxiety management.
There's a new doggy antianxiety medication just out the last 18 months to try,
we have been using benedryl. I bought two weeks' worth and have not yet steeled self to look
at the itemized vet bill to find out how much it is per dose.

He has anxiety before storms and when boarding, though I think the true issue
when boarding is sleep deprivation rather than anxiety per se.
After three days of not sleeping, imagine what state
a 4 year old child would be in-- imagine one in a kid daycare 24/7.

From there he does stress
licking and is prone to acting out. When GSDs act out, it's kind of a bigger issue
than when a 15 pound dog gets cranky and snappish. Squabbles and displays of
teeth and hitting other kids are not forgiven. Nor should they be... the point is
that GSDs never get a break on the exact same behaviors the little dogs of Yap routinely
exhibit.

Anyway, the vet said just looking at him, he seems like a nice young GSD and
she would have to check the records to know he's 10.

We do everything we can think of to do for his health, mental and physical. He
does get massively spoiled and we don't realize it because in him it
manifests as, well, switching the letters d and g in the word dog.
He gets really assholishly noxious if we dare to change
the routines, break one of his commandments, or otherwise ask him to do something he
does not expect to do or want to do. To fix we make him do a bunch of obedience
work before he gets fed and petted for 2-3 days and then his head is right-sized again. Until the sense of entitlement creeps up again.

Paying the vet bill was as always a chance to reflect on the absolute luxury
of owning a pet and providing for it as we do. I painted about it a couple of years
ago.

roses are red, oil/mixed media on canvas, 20 x 64"

The newsprint forming the worker housing is from the local paper, classified ads
to rent labor camps.

I wrote about it for the show I just had in Louisville.

roses are red 21 x 64” oil and mixed media on canvas

roses are red is about living alongside and participating in the extreme income disparity in Lahore and in Abu Dhabi. The same extreme disparities exist in the US, but they are harder for most middle class people to see. Since the Great Depression, we’ve become quite good at hiding away our poor people.

I give my dog a better life (good nutrition, health care, physical safety and emotional warmth) than many are able to provide for themselves and their children no matter how hard they work. In the UAE and South Asia, they work in conditions that would drop me in half an hour (50C/122F heat kills). In the UAE, anyone there legally has health care, and most people are there legally. I do not see people who are sick and not treated, or homeless.

Manual laborers mostly live in unadorned concrete labor camps outside the city and are bused in each day to work. When I first moved to Abu Dhabi, they napped at midday in whatever shade they could find. I’ve seen four men curled around the base of a road sign, sharing what shade they had. A road sign at high noon provides not much.

I imagined one such man prayed to Allah for strength and miraculously sprouted sunflowers which shaded him and gave him rest. The better miracle is what actually happened. The Abu Dhabi government this past summer forced a midday work break, 12:30 to 3:00 June through September, and required employers provide shelter, cooling and water. And they are inspecting, and we are watching too.

I look at this painting and a small and not-nice voice inside says, well,
there's one more painting that is NOT going to find a flipping home. Do I have to paint such paintings SO DARN BIG?

I am 100% committed to doing and showing non-commercial work, and doing it
just as big and as well as the pieces I know will easily find homes.
It's just hard sometimes.

When I was working the gallery in Louisville a grifter came in and did his con, and after
we got it sorted that I already knew he was't repping a legit charity but
I also wasn't going to scream at him, he really wanted to discuss this painting. I think I wrote
about it when it happened.

(I love, LOVE that moment when efforts at deception fall away but the person is strong
enough not to run. I live for them, actually. So much of social life (for me) involves
me laboriously pretending not to see through such deceptions because the other
person cannot handle being seen for what they are. I do think artists are not exactly
positioned to judge small scale grifters. Wall St. crooks are a different matter,
those most artists can judge with impunity.)

Of the 30+ pieces I had up in the main gallery, he zoomed in on it like it was framed
in three shades of blinking neon. "Did YOU paint that dog sipping wine in the lap of luxury?
While that man has to sleep in the street?"

(I never know who is the real audience for
something I paint. I don't know who will feel understood, comforted or uplifted by it.
It's not my business, literally or metaphorically. I do the work and put it out in the
world. It's what I have to give. And some people have money to give me and some wall space,
and it works out. It has been working out since '95 through all kinds of art markets
and there is no sign it's not going to keep on working out.)

And then Mr. Grifter asked for a buck for coffee, which I happily gave.

"for the Moirai" work in progress 36 x 48"-- 5th progress shot?

angiereed@gmail.com — Fri, 14 Oct 2011 12:45:00 GMT

personal blather about social media etc, available works page on garner narrative

angiereed@gmail.com — Sun, 09 Oct 2011 11:57:44 GMT

For those of you collecting from/near the US, I put up a page with some of the
pieces available at the gallery. It's not complete-- for starters, it has none of the
work from my last show. And it probably never will be more than a tiny
portion of what is inventoried at the gallery... but I will attempt
to keep it updated and add in new pieces (especially if they can be shipped
affordably).

http://www.garnernarrative.com/available.html

If you are on Google plus and we aren't already connected, I'd
welcome it.

https://plus.google.com/116555083386520176296/about?hl=en

Ditto facebook-- I'm as frustrated with it as anyone, but it is the best way
to connect to too many people I won't be able to find any other way.

I am using both fb and google plus for certain kinds of content
that I don't always get blogged. I try
to remember to cross post and I really can't complain that it takes
too long because I'm fast... still, increasingly, there is certain content
for facebook, certain content
here, and certain content for google plus.

Maybe it makes sense because it's not the same
people and not the same format. Community should evolve and how I engage should
reflect that, it would be strange if it didn't.
Different audiences pull different things out of me.

It makes sense for example to have a container garden circle on google-- nobody
has to read and look at my struggles to grow things on hot tile in the desert
unless they are really interested and I know that they are interested
because they told me. And I am eager to applaud every cherry
tomato and recycled trash-into-flowerpot.

(I know filters ~can~ work like circles on lj
but for me those were always tools of exclusion. There is a difference
between sharing content with you that I know you want vs. cutting certain
people out of the possibility of connection. I've seen them used
so... punitively? For social control. Maybe google plus circles
will end up feeling the same.)

Oh and. There's a lack of dignity? in having one's fb posts mauled by fb algorithms.
One painting is wildly popular just because fb put it into top stories feed, while
another gets maybe one comment if I'm lucky because one beloved
reader actually clicked over to my fb page and read down.

This is way too crazymaking for paintings around which I'm even slightly vulnerable.
And if I am painting the way I should be, I should be at LEAST slightly vulnerable
around all my pieces while in process.

I don't know, maybe the fb feeds make sense, but in a lot of ways
the algorithms too much resemble the whack kinds of
thinking from which I need to shelter my studio
practice. My head doesn't need people voting on my works in progress with the like button,
and more people getting the chance to vote because other people already did.

I think I just figured out, no more works in progress posted to facebook?

Yet, DottieAlice left me one of her brave questioning comments there
just the other day... one of those comments where I promptly changed the painting
for the better and that could not happen were she not part of the process
and that's where she is.

FB is an easy place to share once the paintings are done.

I guess I don't really care if I post without knowing
who will see something over there, every so often I do win the popularity
lottery and know it's not all going into the void.

Why do I have to care this much about facebook?

If I limited my art community
to in-person contacts, my life would be so much the poorer. So that means
taking community and problems with it seriously.

All I want are dreamwidth values paired with google plus functionality
and facebook reach.
Not much to ask. ;)

So this post isn't only blather, here's a snapshot from my hot tile rooftop
container garden. I named her Sabrina. Her kids eat bugs in my kitchen
so I don't have to live with ants. I see the kids if I have insomnia and go
for a 2am cup of tea. I see her sometimes when I water the plants.

If you don't think she's breathtakingly beautiful... go away. ;)

"for the Moirai" work in progress 36 x 48"

angiereed@gmail.com — Fri, 07 Oct 2011 07:08:42 GMT