Veronica Reeves

painting the post-natural

Art Work

Cave of Intuition

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Finding my way through this painting was a struggle. In an effort to challenge my creativity I have been starting paintings with a very minimal sketch at most. This makes painting take longer because each move is discovered along the way rather than pre-mapped. I may still add some small changes and final tweaks to Cave of Intuition, but it is very close to being finalized.

This painting started out as Seven Sisters, in reference to the Pleiades constellation and mythology. Many creation stories point to the Pleiades as the origin of humanity, or humanity’s celestial ancestors. It doesn’t take much internet research to reveal there are communities of Earthlings who have identified which Pleiadian star they most resonate with and have ancestral ties to.

Aside from our cosmic lineage, I am also taken by the thought of seven sisters helping each other through life’s ordeals. I often look for ways to depict the power of the divine feminine, and for this I wanted to depict a group of effeminate figures collectively loving each other. Some figures are lost in abstraction, while others are more apparent in this celestial cave where womenfolk would gather to heal and create magic with each other.

Terraform Necromancy

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painting by Veronica Reeves
Terraform Necromancy

Sometimes people ask me what my work is about and my gut reaction is, “I have no idea!” Depending on the piece, there is more or less tension between myself the creator and the piece as the creation. Terraform Necromancy is one of those pieces that continues to resist giving up its meaning to me so easily and this creates a psychological tension that I enjoy.

What I can say about this painting is that it began with a fascinating story I read about craters that suddenly appear in the Earth but without an impact event. Earth trauma and Earth processes are underlying themes in most of my work, and while painting Terraform Necromancy I wanted to juxtapose a feeling of innocence against a crater-like landscape. How do we heal planetary trauma? My heart is unsettled by the idea of terraforming other planets when we should focus on healing our own. It seems extractive, and an extension of rape culture, to consider terraforming Mars so that we can mine Martian resources to further human insemination of space. There must be accountability for our actions, a cosmic ethics. Bringing life to Mars is much like necromancy, Mars would be undead, which leads me to the title of this painting.

What a mural project teaches us!

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The 4th, 5th, and 6th grade students at Otto Petersen Elementary school in Scappoose, OR collaborated on a community mural which is slated to be officially presented to the public on June 21st, 2017! The mural contains 9 owls, a raccoon family, earthworms, canines, a rabbit, a mouse, a horse, bats, and even a Pegasus. This mural of 570 tiles, 6″ squares, represents efforts from students and artists Jennifer Hanson and Veronica Reeves (myself), who guided this project.

The students, teachers, and other members of the Otto Petersen Elementary community all shared in the experience of collaborating in an intention to enhance their community and their neighborhood. I hope there are many more projects like this in the near future for Scappoose!

While the broad goal of the mural project was an art experience that resulted in an aesthetic fixture for the school, let me tell you what students (and maybe even adults) learned along the way!

At the very start, we asked students to submit designs via a call for mural design proposals. This introduces students to what professional artists experience when looking for opportunities, along with some other professional vocabulary such as:

Materials, Media, Mural, Ceramic, Collage, Concept, Submit, Proposal, Landscape, Multi-media, Texture, Line, Contrast, Dimensions, Proportional…

and Collaborative!!!

We discussed the definition of collaborative and then, we experienced it! Except in a few cases, participants had to work together, lining up their tiles to make sure the image was coming across just right. This was why it was very important to start out by sketching in pencil first. Sometimes the sketches did not line up so I would ask the students how they wanted to fix that, which they were able to do. Sometimes students would place their tile in the spot on the mural and compare it to the tiles around it and decide they wanted to alter the color or add more details.

These are some of the important lessons learned during collaboration:

  • working in a group means being flexible (finding ways to compromise, trying new things)
  • working toward a similar goal that includes everyone (allowing for differences)
  • doing your part for the greater good of the whole (every tile represents an individual’s participation)
  • being considerate of others (the importance of encouragement)
  • problem solving is easier with a positive attitude (pencil is erasable, we can paint over that, try again, make it work)
  • taking your turn as a leader and a listener

Because this is a public mural it is important to consider the participation and collaboration as members of a community. The most specific, main goal was for this mural to represent the Otto Petersen Elementary school community. This is why Jennifer and I were very careful in how much guidance and structure we offered. We asked students to consider their identities as a part of this community during the design process, and they came through with fantastic observations of their/our community. In the submissions for mural designs, students conveyed these cultconcepts:

  • other life in our community (animals, plants, trees, flowers, insects, invertebrates)
  • architecture (barns, the school)
  • landscape (Mount St. Helens, Mt. Adams, Mt. Hood, farmland, fields, forest)
  • monument (Scappoose Peace Candle of the World)
  • planetary view (clouds, moon, stars, atmospheric qualities)
  • personal expectations and education (report cards, graduation hats, books of learning)

Here is a list of techniques and materials that students experimented with in the art laboratory:

  • Painting – tempera paint, watercolor, oil pastel
  • Drawing – colored pencil, pastel, crayon, marker
  • Collage – textiles, handmade paper, yarn, beads, glitter glue, moss, feathers, magazine, plastic grass, felt, crepe paper, and more…

I wanted to know how the students felt about art, so I interviewed some students about their experience with art while they were working on the multi-media tiles.

Q&A

What is art?

What does art do differently?

Why do you like art?

“Art is enjoyable because you get to take your mind and throw it out on the paper.”

“It’s fun. I like to do it. I like to draw.”

“It’s really how people can express how they feel. Every color has meaning. There’s no right or wrong answer.”

“I like art because it is a way to express your feelings.”

“Art is like a way to help you through tough times.”                     “I can put down on paper what I like and I like to do.”

“It’s fun to do. You can do whatever you want with art!”

“Art is adventure.”

“It’s vibrant, colorful, cheery!”

“Art is the only way I can express my emotions and feel what I want to feel.”

“It’s something people do for fun. It doesn’t have to be perfect. You can be good at it. Art is never wrong.”

“I don’t know why I like art. Maybe you don’t have to know why.”

“[Art is] a place you can let your emotions out. It’s yours and nobody else’s.”

“[Art is] something you can do whenever.”

“Art is more fun. It’s not boring.”

“I want a piece of tile on the wall forever.”

“Art is something for people to get their emotions out.”

“I like making up my own people. I like mixing colors. It started when I was real young and I thought it was real pretty.”

“It’s a way to put things on paper to show your love for others.”

“I like working in different materials.”

“Because you don’t really have to think and you can’t ever go wrong.”

“Art is different from other subjects because you can do whatever.”

“Expressing your feelings with no instructions and no one can tell you what to do.”

“Art is fun!”

 

Otto Petersen Elementary Mural Update

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We have received almost all our tiles back from FinishLine Graphics and are seeking a tile contractor to perform the installation on an exterior wall! If you know a professional who may be interested, please let me know! This will go on the north facing exterior wall at Otto Petersen Elementary School, the opposite side of the bike racks. It will be an engaging visual when you approach the school with different layers of enjoyment. From a distance, you see the landscape, the animals, the school, barns, Scappoose Peace Candle, trees, and mountains. As you get closer to the mural, you see more and more detail. You see brush strokes, textures like yarn, textiles, sequins, glitter, pastels, and you see unique qualities in the treatment of each tile. You can see how each student, teacher, staff member, volunteer, or community member who took part responded to the mural design with their unique decisions. Mural collaborators worked on 6″ paper squares in different media of their choosing, then these tiles were digitally scanned and printed to ceramic tiles with a heat press. This is called a sublimation ink transfer process. Here is a video that explains how it works!

I’m so blessed to have been a part of this process! My hope and intention for this mural is that it radiates happiness, curiosity, and wonder into the community that helped create it.

Most recent picture of the tile mural! We are just waiting on a couple more tiles! Here is a gallery of detail shots:

small originals available

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My series titled Bright Spots is almost sold out. These small, original paintings act as miniature sanctuaries for the mind, great for tiny homes, office spaces, or mini collections. 50% of sales from these small paintings go to Oceti Sakowin camp water defenders. More of these paintings are waiting for you on my pop-up Etsy store. These pieces will not be publicly available after February 2017.

Bright Spots

An asteroid crash lands on a planet conducive to life. It is carrying proteins, seeds, spores, and data from another world that faced a cataclysmic event. Through layers of masking, spray paint, spills, and hand painting techniques, I visualize places of post-dystopian sanctuary and sacred spaces. Pulling from aesthetics of digital games, visionary art, images of outer space, and earth processes, Bright Spots hints at fragments of new life slowly unfolding against the odds. As long as there is RNA, and DNA, it’ll be okay.

This series was curated at Flickerbox, Portland, Oregon by Verge PDX, art consultant and curation solutions.

 

Leland Iron Works Group Show

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I will be participating in an upcoming group show, Breaking Ground,  including artists in residence for 2015 at Leland Iron Works! The opening will take place on First Thursday 6pm-8pm, Nov. 5th, 2015 at Pacific Northwest College of Art in the Innovation Lab. Please join us!

Arlene and Harold Schnitzer Center for Art and Design
Innovation Studio
511 NW Broadway
Portland, OR, 97209   [map]

Free and open to the public Tuesday – Saturday 11am – 6pm

First Thursday 6pm-8pm

My work in the show…

I will be displaying the largest piece of art I have ever attempted, approximately 174″ x 74″.

I am interested in working on mural sized projects, however, this piece was something I wanted to create in a more intuitive and responsive way. Unlike past work, I let go of the sketching process and instead began by working from observation on location. My goal was to capture the sensations and sights that I experienced at Leland Iron Works, known for being a small forest in the middle of leftover farmland. Lee Kelly and his late wife Bonnie Bronson planted most of the trees that now age 50 years. Their intention, Lee says, was to undo some of the damage of over-farming. The result is a magical oasis tucked away amidst disintegrating rural properties destined to become suburban streets and neighborhoods, the rate at which things are going.

This place has an aura of healing in spite of loss and destruction.

While I was in residence, a tree was felled because it had shallow roots and was too near Lee’s studio. Last year, a tree crashed into his studio, wiping out the large deck, since replaced. The limbs and top of the 50+ foot tree were split and chipped. When asked what he would do with the remainder of the major body of the tree,  Lee answered that he would let it be a nurse log. He had left a nurse log that had fallen in the middle of the residence a few years back, and now all that remained was a long mound with an abundance of ferns and other vegetation growing across it.

The sense of life and growth is tenacious at Leland Iron Works.

The question that I came to Leland Iron Works with was ‘what does it mean for art to be a part of an eco-system?’ I sat with the many sculptures that inhabit the place and as I drew them narratives came to me. I wrote down these ideas to present along with watercolor pieces and I think the verses start to speak to my question.

While creating at Leland Iron Works, I became enchanted by how the lacework of tree branches, the shadows and dappled light, and the brilliant spider strands slung across my every path, all interrupted my sense of self. The light passes through the canopy of leaves, with its new tinges of gold and maroon, and vibrates off of everything dancing, crawling and composting below. I was surrounded by living material and became conscious of decomposition as transformation into new life. I carried large pieces of unstretched, raw canvas around Leland Iron Works, painting while tuned in to feelings of verdant abandon, of the audacity to thrive, and to create despite, or maybe because of, a great potential for loss.

Veronica Reeves pouring paint on raw canvas supported by branches.
Veronica Reeves pouring paint on raw canvas supported by branches.