.carolinecblaker.

Oil Paintings, Latex Paintings, Data Art.

Conceptually Driven - Studio

A blog about conceptual art, and its drive in my life as an artist.

  • State of the Studio - 05/05/10

    I'm pleased to say that I have left the 9-5 workforce in favor of making my dreams come true in the ways of creative work and living the American dream. In this brave new world, I'm finding that I'm standing on the edge of something powerful I've only dreamed of getting this close to before. Its not only great, but numbing. Now that I'm here, what do I do? What efforts do I need to make? Where should I focus my attention? How do I go further than this? In looking into myself for answers, I come up remarkably blank. This has been the trouble, however, for awhile. Its nothing new. Same ol' too much to do and not enough time. Same ol' money first, creativity last. Same ol' peripheral tasks that numb my brain and consume my energy. On top of that, a terrific partner who deserves and gets a lot of my quality time. Its not that I don't have time to do work - its more that I'm the type of person that is likely to act on motivation to avoid pain than to derive pleasure or, in the case of m...

  • An explosion of data

    Just a few hours after parting with my family after a lovely Christmas I get back to work, though not on developing my painting into a higher realm of contemporary art as one might expect. NO no no no.. this Christmas handed me a surprise that truly knocked me off my feet - good thing I was sitting down. I had submitted an article to digg and it just blew up. Nearly 1300 diggs in 4 days. 7 new fans. Woh. I have fans? The funny part is that they are not even fans of my painting or blogging. They are fans of what I digg. What I pull out of the internet. What I point at with a cheeseburger grin on my face and say "hey! look what I found!" For those of you who are yet unfamiliar, Digg is a pretty big deal. Its like the ebay of online article popularity. Everyone uses it to cast a vote for "hey that's cool!" or "Wow that really stinks." Anyone can sign up, and once they do, they can submit articles or leave comments for articles that have already been dugg. Any page on the internet can ...

  • Volcanoes and the Christmas Spirit

    Volcanoes and the Christmas Spirit image While Christmas is firmly rooted in my upbringing, I left it at home years ago. This was a solution to the stress of the holiday, and in some extreme fashion, an opportunity to reinvent the holiday and other associated events, stresses, opinions, and griefs. It was one of several items like it that was too cloudy to enjoy, too gilded to love, too wonderful to forget. Christmas mostly used to happen at my home in Southport. There was one year where it happened in my loft in St. Louis, but that was two left feet short of a disaster. Some of those weren't perfect either, like the one where the holiday shopping communication had apparently fallen to an all-time low and the gifts were so mis-appropriated that it embarrassed everyone, particularly my lil sister who drew the short end of the stick. In my early years after leaving home, being poor and having a good, hard look at materialism, Christmas and all of its seasonal eccentricities and ridiculous expectations were decidedly OUT. I did ...

  • Reflections on a Painting

    Reflections on a Painting image I feel both grateful and melancholy to think about one of my very first babies flying the coop to go back home to St. Louis and live with its very first and most devout fan, a lovely woman who has been tracking it for three years. Since the time of our first communication, I have moved to two different states, learned focus in the studio, and slugged around these huge paintings of my early career with me - changing their dressings periodically (really - the plaster "framing" around the edges) making sure they are always hung straight and look their best. An effort like this is not unlike raising heavy, bulky children with needs for maintenance as well as their creators personal growth and expansion of audience and capability, not to mention the drive to continue and finish and start over each effort without reinforcement from the world and without any good reason to keep going. The departure of Reflections on a Gunshot is a signal that what I have believed all along about my efforts i...

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