I am looking over my work for the upcoming show at the Guardino Gallery - opening 6/28/12.  This work consists of my other series "Toile," about women's' roles in society...or at least reflections on how those roles are the same over time.  The original Toile was made in France in the 17th century with an instructive goal of communicating middle-class mores, but the most famous images are about romance and the harvest.  Heck, I don't want to get into a history lesson here, what I wanted to show was how it is important as an artist (and my students know this) to be honest about the work. 

I had a piece, "Mother and Daughter," that I liked, but suspected did not "work."  (I am still unsure, if the "Toile" format is worked out or I have more struggling to do?  Of course the "struggle" is stressful, but is the real fun and challenge of making art).  I worked on "Mother and Daughter,"  trying to define the weaknesses.  I decided there was some awkward rendering and the overall piece needed more structure to be unified.  Of course it took some time, question posing, thinking and step by step revisiting, diagnosing, and proposing solutions...all to myself, but I am very happy with the current result.

So I thought I would post a before and after version of the piece, just because I find those examples interesting to compare.

 

 

 

BEFORE

 

 

 

AFTER - rough photo

photo I took 20 years ago, that I love and has resurfaced several times in my work