Who told me I need to draw ugly things???

Summer happenings....

It's been a LONG while since I've been on here and posted anything. Lots has gone on - a wonderful trip to Northern Cal that helped begin the healing of my back (again, sheesh!), some fun outings with friends, the wedding of a GREAT friend (gorgeous bride Julie Rais!), some sun and beachiness, and my 1st ever true gallery art show!

The Sylvia White show went so well...it's still up for the rest of the month, and I'm really hoping to sell something (a girl's gotta pay the rent, you know). Two pieces got accepted into that show...you can see them all on my website (www.racheledwardsart.com). If you go to the Portfolio section, you can see all the work I did this last semester of grad school, including the rest of the pieces from the last post on here (the triptych). The 2 pieces that got into the show are Don't Look At Me and Stage 1 of the Creation/Destruction triptych. :) Yaaaaay!

As for NEW stuff??? I've been asked to be a bit more experimental and to let the DRAWING PROCESS show more in what I do - to not be SO meticulous and to let spontaneity rule a little more. So - I thought of something that is related to my main thesis interests (body image and how it affects us, roughly) and went with it - these are all images of women post-plastic surgery. I drew in NON-erasable materials (crazy, i know!), spray painted over things, drew them back in, ripped parts out, drew back in, etc.....basically any time I felt myself getting comfortable or liking something, I drew over it or got rid of it. What, who is this person? It's not the Rachel I know, haha! The point is to let the drawing process reiterate and support the subject matter. (for example, these are all women post-plastic surgery, so I was aggressive with the paper - ripped it up, erased, cut into it - just like the surgery is to these women.

The first 2 pieces are done on Duralar, which is this transparent but frosted looking plastic paper-like drawing surface. It lets you do LOTS of fidgeting and will NOT rip or tear or anything. I spent two days on each of these, working simultaneously on both, a little here, a little there. The other two are on doubled up paper (just 2 sheets glued together).....each one was done in under 3 hours.

I like the 1st and 3rd ones the best. WHAT DO YOU THINK?????? PLEASE comment!!!!!!

THANKS SO MUCH! xoxoxoxo