Heather Syren, Artist of Sorts

This painting has evolved in meaning for me in quite a few ways. At first it was a celebration of beauty of the female spirit. Now it is that as well as a celebration of the freedom of self.

My very first model was Kitty, one of the coolest women, mothers, gardeners, hairstylists, and all around kind human beings I have ever met. I used to teach an after school program (albeit not well, nor happily) and she is the mom of one of my best behaved and talented students. When we first met I was struck with her grace like a bouquet of roses to the face. She carries herself with such strength and dignity, she is the woman everyone turns to see. Even after a couple of years we stay in touch as best as our busy lives allow and when I started painting she was one of the first people I asked to pose. So she came by and did yoga for a while and I snapped away.

Now if you don’t know me (or maybe even if you do) you know I was raised by a painter. This means I was raised with complete and utter love for the human form. I took the picture and decided to make it a nude.

Here you can see the digitally altered image and the contour line painting.

One of the things about choosing the colors on this one was that I really wanted to reflect her personality. I chose vibrant purple for the royal way she carries herself with green highlights to infuse the way it comes to her naturally. Plus Kitty makes me think of gardens and rock show lighting when either situation is in full bloom.

Skin....

Then came the hair.

Knowing Kitty is one of the best stylists here in Lincoln, NE, I really wanted to do it justice. I started with what I thought was a deep, bright red. It turned out to be a glaring hot pink. Now, in the original picture you can see why this just would not do. I figured, what the hell, I’ll try something new. I dragged some black through it, just tiny drips with tails, like night itself was turning into comets. Within the time I placed the black and found my camera (about 5 minutes) the black had spread leaving only highlights of the pink…

Funny how art and life make up their own rules...

One thing I really want to impress with this last picture is how the order of events can affect the way it turns out. I started with the body but did not do the face. Sometimes the dried glue helps create the borders for the next layer. I realized after I had started that the hair really should have come first. Painting on glass with any medium consists for painting backwards. With paint on canvas one usually paints from the background, middle, then foreground. Glass is reversed since you’re looking at it in reverse. The hair is the thing that would be closest to the viewer, then face and body, then background. After I had seen my mistake I stopped painting the skin, finished the hair, then added the face.

Close up of the finished figure.

I was very fortunate that my plan worked and it all came out relatively seamless. Now i just had to think of a background.

Since the colors on the figure came out so wonderfully bright I wanted something duller to offset the whole thing. The color wheel dictates that yellow is the opposite of violet. Hmmmm… background, yellow, dull… The only thing I could think of was Mars, the planet… I started in with the yellow-gold shining down upon her…

Yeah, so it's a little dark but you can see what I was getting at...

At this point I could really feel my expectations of self letting go and I just started to have fun with it. Since the yellow was like so much light from above I decided the next colors should become darker…

What is that? Pink? Orange? Who knows!

I had fully decided that I wasn’t going to worry about how the end color came out. I mixed what ever tickled my fancy. The yellow base, a little red, touch of green here… After it had set for a minute I swept my brush through the two colors to make little drags here and there. Some of the unmixed red exploded to create their own striations. Then, seeing I only had enough room for one more color, I grabbed brown from a previous painting. What could be more dull than brown?

Messy love....

I wasn’t really trying for neatness as you can see by all the drips, drags, drops, and squiggles. So far the painting has mostly painted itself. Why stop now?

To emphasize the ray of light idea I decided to do another experiment. With Woman on Fire I saw how Elmer’s Glue straight from the bottle spreads to create cracks. I wondered what would happen when I did tiny lines from one of the itty bitty bottles?

What's the point if you're trying something new?

The next day I was elated to find out that playing is the best way to learn. All of the experiments I had tried led to this, and I couldn’t have been more pleased. Now it just needed a name.

Like I said, the meaning of this work evolved to me. At first it was just a celebration of beauty and femininity. When I saw the finished piece I could see how the figure was walking into the light, hand sweeping to the side as if waving off some trivial thing, a journey began through a trial ended. Walking Home to me means walking into the home of self, the real person each one of us constantly strives to be.

Walking Home, finished, unframed. Thank you, Kitty.

When I first started this I was so worried I wouldn’t have enough to paint. I want to paint some of everything. I want to do a series about love, one about pets loved and lost and loving and living, about mistakes, I want to paint a whole series of yoga poses, of herbs and fruits and vegetables, and one of children. However, I have no idea how many of these ideas will work. I decided to try out a few for the first show. This is about my first painting of a child.

Babbles is the daughter of my friend and fellow musician, Ian. It came about when he was showing off pics of her one day and I told him to send me one to paint. She’s a doll with dark, crazy, curly hair and eyes that make Disney animators jealous they didn’t think of them first. The picture he sent me was a deadpan look at the breakfast table. It killed me.

Babbles, contour painting

When I started painting this one I didn’t even realize there was a mess from a previous painting in the lower right corner. I wasn’t sure that I cared yet either. Kids are messy, why should the painting be vastly different?

As I began painting with the glue I noticed one thing: it’s kinda creepy looking for the first couple of layers. When you have blank dried white eyes and blobulous, wet, pink skin staring at you it’s a little unnerving.

Dry eyes, wet skin...

Now you see here how this skin is pink, right? Like a little kid? Well, this painting is the one that taught me that the glue and food coloring are the things that decide the final color, not me.

Dry skin, day one.

This is after the first day of drying. Now, I hope you’re paying attention because by the end it’s totally different.

Well, this is the point where this becomes a Mother’s Day story. To hear Ian talk about his family is wonderful. His wife and daughter changed his life in the biggest of ways and he couldn’t be happier about it. It was March when I started Babbles and I had a great idea: Ian could give this as a Mother’s Day gift! I immediately asked him about his wife’s favorite color so I could incorporate it into the painting. I was told lavender and yellow. This is awesome. I am good with yellows.

The shirt came first, then the chair and the dishes.

Every color required a day to dry before adding the next.

Now the brown hair was a problem for me. I didn’t want to chance getting it either too green or too red or too mud. Browns I am not so awesome at making. Brown too often means mud when I’m painting. I went with a pre-made brown from Wilton’s with some black added to it. I left some bubbles in her hair, like some stars got caught there and she hasn’t combed them out yet…

Now I have a girl.

Now came the background…

See, for this whole series the background is the hardest part. It takes the most creativity as I’m trying to incorporate part of the subject without distracting from it. The figure is fairly simple in comparison. I mean, I’m just trying to stay in the lines, right? I knew I was going to keep the messy splotch on the front. So I sat, and thought, and came up with a bunch of nothing. As I mentioned previously, Ian is a fellow musician. So I grabbed the two albums I have with him on it and set it on repeat and just started going. It was somehow helpful to have him ‘here’ while I was working on this.

Kids are messy, so am I. Best painting mantra ever.

Since I was doing lots of layers of different colors I could experiment more with the fan. I left it on for the first half of the blotch layers and then left it off for the rest. I noticed on Michael that when I turned the fan off in between layers the glue became very rippled. I formulated a theory: When the surface dries faster than the inside of the glue it then buckles. If the glue is dried at a constant rate it dries smooth except for where it is pulled taut around a previously dried section. I wanted to see if I could get some of those ripples to stay while keeping other parts smooth.

Wiggles here, ripples there...

My theory seems to be correct, at least in practice. I’m not a science major or anything so I can’t tell you why the chemical properties create these effects but I can tell you that it works!

I couldn't wait for it to dry to take a picture!

As you can see, the blobs that were exposed to the fan have a deep ripple to them and the rest was allowed to dry naturally giving it a smooth texture. Also, you can see how impatient I am because it was only about 3/4 dry at this point. All the milky parts dried clear, just as Elmer’s Glue All is determined to do. Also, notice the skin tone. It’s gone from pink to tan to this. Oh randomness of the universe!

Now the next part I am sorry to say I never got a really good picture because of the same impatience. This was my first piece to have framed. It was a gift and couldn’t be allowed to be left undone in any way. Andy Essink (see link to the right) of AE Custom Guitars was kind enough to do a 48 hour rush job. It took him less than 24. I took the picture that night using my ceiling lamp for ‘sunlight.’ Then the next day there was great light but I was in too big of a hurry to clean off my fingerprints and water splotches from the front part of the piece and then touch up the contour painting to have it dry in time for Ian to pick up while he was in town. I promise a good picture with the frame properly lit from the show in three weeks.

Babbles, framed and in the light

Today I got a few texts from Ian. The first one read, “She. Loves. It.” Another one said, “You didn’t sign it!” Argh! Oh well. I will.

So to Ian’s wife and all mothers everywhere (especially my own), Happy Mother’s Day. I am truly glad you like the painting. Thank you for letting me paint your precious child. I am honored to be a part of your day.

That’s right! It’s all confirmed and barring some unforeseen misadventure (aren’t all misadventures unforeseen?) or devastating event Jake’s Cigars & Spirits and I will be hosting Syrentology, my first solo art show and celebration of my 32nd birthday as well.

Syrentology flier, courtesy of Beth Sachtjen

Thank you to Beerorkid.com for coining the name and to Beth Sachtjen for the poster design.

Everyone has that one friend who they have a deep, personal connection to that defies explanation. It is instant, intense, and irrevocable no matter what happens. You may not have much in common, if anything, and you may not ever really see each other but that connection is always there. They’re the one face you look for when you get to the party and the last hug you get before you leave. This connection doesn’t have to be romantic and it’s quite often befuddling but you can’t deny it.

For me, that connection is Mikey.

Mike did his shoot in between school, work, family, rock climbing, and ping pong. Yeah, he’s a little busy. We met at work and although he’s too terrible busy to stop in much, or for that long if he does get the time, I love it when he’s here. I only took about ten photos and it was actually hard to choose which one I wanted to use. So far this whole thing has been about experimentation, small figures on large abstract backgrounds. I wanted to break out of that.

I tried to capture the shape and shadow of his neck at first...

So I chose a photo of Mikey’s neck and tried to focus on the shapes and shadows therein. Just one problem…

Oh hollow. Without detail I have no detail...

See, the way this whole series has been set up, indeed the media itself, it that all detail comes from the black acrylic outline. Without this I am solely dependent on my knowledge of the glue paint. My knowledge=not a whole hell of a lot at this point. I wasn’t confident I could achieve the shading necessary to complete this painting as it was in my head. I’m ok with admitting I don’t know enough. I will someday and I’ll come back to this concept with my own soul cheering me on.

Ok, so now what?

I used high contrast lighting thinking I would be able to utilize the shadows.

Like the caption says, I thought I’d have the shadow thing figured out fairly quickly but, alas, I did not. However, this was a figure I could use, in it’s entirety, with a large background therefore keeping in with the format I was already using.

Yeah outline! And yes, his hair really does do that in real life.

This is the first take of Michael's body...

Now this is where it gets a little odd. I know I took a bunch of photos of the progression of the figure but I can’t seem to find them. As you can see here the original plan was to have a nice plum colored body with green shadows. Well, when it dried it was more mud brown than plum and the green had vanished. Yeah, I wanted to start over. Not that I didn’t want to continue with the Zen concept of accepting mistakes it was just that I was looking for something very specific and I didn’t get it. I was ok with accepting this dissatisfaction instead and accepting the fact I was starting over. In fact, I was excited to learn how to erase!

Now that may not sound hard, I mean, I’m working with glue, right? Well think about this: remember when you were in grade school and at the end of the year you had to clean your desk? Remember the dribbles of glue on your desktop? The tiny deflated circles? Ok, now do you remember chipping it off with your tiny little fingernails, pushing until it gave way, jamming into the soft part where the nail and finger meet? Well, imagine a HUGE circle and instead of a Formica desktop you have a piece of glass. Yeah, erasing is not easy. So I put a towel over it, soaked it down, and waited two days until the glue was reaquafied enough to scrape, peel, and scrub off. After a little work with glass cleaner (Seventh Generation All Purpose, baby!) i mixed up a different batch and got back to work. I used a tan skin color, dark brown with black strewn through it for the hair, and gave him a pair of green khakis. Oddly enough it was the spitting image of Mikey.

One thing I learned with Touhy was that when I photograph someone I know, love, care about, admire, etc, I really want to capture a piece of that person, even if it means you and I are the only ones who know what it means. Mikey is a rock climber and to me he has always represented that bit of outdoor adventure I’ve never really had in my life. You should see him, really. You can watch a guitar player and admire the nimble fingers, look at a painting and see the detail, watch a perfect pass in a football game and see the artistry in the snap. Well, rock climbing is just that art-like when you watch Mike do it. So in my head he had conquered some cliff and was standing defiant above it. I thought of the bold sun and the heat and life that radiates from it. I thought of the green of the wilds and its purpling shadows. I thought about how Mikey always radiates love and caring and how thin he spreads himself in order to try and accommodate all that he loves. The only answer to all of these things was to start at the middle and work my way out.

Radiation...

I started with plain Elmer’s Glue All, used a warm yellow next, then started adding a bit of green between each layer. I had the fan on it the whole time and waited varying amounts of time between rings. For the edge I still wanted to include the original plum color idea (I have no idea why but I was obsessed with finding a place to put it) so I mixed up a bit and slapped it on. Also, since nature is messy, I purposely added a messy edge by adding extra water and dribbles.

You can see my little clip fan and workspace here...

Then I had to wait… again…

Michael, finished...

As you can see it was worth the wait.

He usually is…