Storm (and other violent distrubances of the pintoresco)

Storm (and other violent disturbances of the pintoresco), charcoal drawing, 2015, La Vaughn Belle

 

I have been working on a new series of drawings on charcoal. Over the past few months I have returned to 2-dimenional works after years of working in video, installation and performance. It has been a very interesting process for me predicated by the time constraints that I have to be in the studio. A lot of the work I have been making is work that I can get immersed into quickly (and leave quickly as well) and that contain repetitive marks or actions.  I am also really examining this idea of returning to this kind of image-making and what that means to me, from this region and space and time, and what I would like to interrogate. It's almost become taboo to work with beach scenes and palm trees and I wanted to challenge myself to do that while at the same time questioning the same archetypes and stereotypes, looking for what could I add to that narrative.

What I most enjoyed and that came as a surprise while making these works was the tension between the fragility of charcoal on paper and the resilience of the image. I often work with a ceiling fan on and that in addition to the pieces getting blown about while hanging on the walls created a literal windswept effect. I was almost tempted to see what would happen to them if I left them out in the rain and wind. Another day.  There is a tension between the pristine, the elegant and the sublime in the midst of the violent chaos of the storm. 

So far the series is 16 of these drawings. I will be showing them for the first time on Thursday, November 19 as a part of Art Thursday event (5-9pm) in Christiansted at my studio located at 18B East St. Come through.

Found this shirt and it reminded me of my painting

chaney "ware"/"wear", La Vaughn Belle, October 2015

I found this shirt and it remind me of my painting, the Chaney series I've been working on for about a year now. Up until now I have been focusing on the blue chaney but would like to explore other colors too. I also have been curious about what these patterns would like like on the skin. This shirt gives me a little bit of an idea.