CMAppleton

MAX 21 Christmas Show

These are my "Color Cubes," I did 20 of them. They start as photo cubes then I cut up old paintings (using a small matt cut to size to find the compositions) and put a small painting on each of the six sides of the cube. It's fun and a way of getting rid of old paintings! (There are always paintings that I like parts of but not necessarily the whole painting, so this way I can still enjoy the parts I like and never again have to look at the areas that didn't work.)

This painting is called "www.breathe." (Not a good photo, there is the shine from the sunlight and the color is deeper, not so raw and bright.) I suppose the title came from my feeling the time crunch of getting ready for a show, getting ready for travel, keeping up with the regular stuff, and Christmas around the corner. But also it is a little bit of a snide comment about today's world as it goes faster and faster, gets noisier, time seems to shrink, and at the same time there is so much talk about things like 'meditation' and 'smelling the flowers' and 'finding your center' – but it feels like just another marketing gambit from whoever makes money selling the books, the classes, the incense, the retreats, etc. We are so managed by the media that if it continues this way ten years from now we will live in a world where Oprah could be elected president and Paris Hilton could be the secretary of state.

Soap Box

This painting was in the Artwork's Gallery "The Box" exhibit. Everything in the show was in some way related to the box theme. There were 18 artist's represented, some made paintings from box parts, or assemblages. Some painted on the outside of cardboard or wooden boxes. One person made a box of glass that looked like a bat, the wings opened to reveal the inside. There was one that was a statement about marriage by an artist who is going through a divorce – the outside was frilly and pink and sentimental but when the box was opened it revealed a dark bleak space. It was a good show and interesting to see the varied interpretations of the theme.
My painting is mixed media – watercolor, collage, pen and ink, crayon, not sure what else. I started out wanting the 'soap box' theme to be preachy, but preachy in that I wanted it to be anti-politics. I did most of the work on it during the recent election campaign and I got so tired of all the mudslinging on both sides, that I decided I needed to separate myself entirely from politics, and this painting would be an opportunity to express my disgust. But as I continued to work on it and the 'issues' kept rearing their ugly heads, I found that my feelings became clearer as I put the ideas in my painting. There are many ravings in support of choice for women, gay rights, gay marriage, animal rights, women's rights, children's rights, etc. etc. etc. There are also some snide comments about government and politicians. In the process of creating the painting I became the mudslinger I complained so much about when I started.