JESSICA T. KOVAN
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I Left Trump Behind

6/23/2016

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​My “Shadow Side” show is packed up and taken down from Grove Gallery. Except one. I left “Herr Drumpf” behind.
​
​I painted Herr Drumpf in a whirlwind. He evoked the creative process in me.

The canvas of each of my paintings in my Shadow Side series are filled with words that fit the image being depicted. Herr Drumpf is painted on top of Mr. Trump’s own words. I spent countless hours cutting out Trump’s words from newspaper and magazine articles. The more I read, and cut, and glued, the more his shadow side and image became clearer.

My goal for all of the paintings in this series is to show both the light and dark side of an object or issue being depicted – whether it is the game of soccer or the power of love. That said, I had a hard time finding a bright side to Mr. Trump. Perhaps, instead it was the amusement and satisfaction I felt in using the creative process to communicate my emotions. Other than that, the more I read, the more the shadows emerged. His words are scary.  

Every artist has their own little victories when completing a painting. It might be finally figuring out how to paint a chocolate cupcake to look luscious or experimenting with how not to smear the ink from cut out magazine words. For Herr Drumpf, these victories were on a different level. They were decisions I made about the painting. 

I refused to buy an expensive canvas for Herr Drumpf. He is painted on a garage sale canvas. Reused. Recycled. During my show, Herr Drumpf was placed in the corner on the ground. He was not allowed to hang on the wall with my other paintings. And then during my reception I turned my back on him. 

AND now I have left him behind. 
 
Do feel free, however, to visit him.  And read his words. They are filled with hatred. They are racist, sexist, and xenophobic. They scare me. May we all turn our backs on him.  



To see Herr Drumpf, visit: Grove Gallery, 325 Grove St, East Lansing, MI 48823
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In the corner.
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Curiosity. Creativity. And on-line art journaling.

6/6/2016

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I'm always thinking about creating. My future starts when I wake up every morning... Every day I find something creative to do with my life.
                                                                                                                 ~ Miles Davis

I just celebrated a full year of teaching my on-line art journaling class, Good Morning Creativity!  Each class was 6 weeks long with three prompts per week. I designed the class to help students jump start their creativity but truly it jump started mine!  I created right along with my students. We are all in it together.

Each class consists of 18 prompts as well as tutorials, art tips, links to helpful sites, and a community of students posting and learning together.  It is a great class to teach! At first it was an experiment. I was curious. I took an on-line art class to see what it was like to be on the student side. I talked my sister and best friend (who both live on the other side of the country) to take it with me. Suddenly the world became smaller. We were creating together.

What I found: Taking an on-line class or "workshop" is a great way to fit art into a busy life. You don't have to leave your house.  You can use whatever supplies you want (no one is looking and judging). You can take it with friends and family in far away places. You can fit it into YOUR busy schedule. Need to skip a day (or two or three)? No problem. It will be there when you can get back. And truly, it's pretty inexpensive. $45/6 weeks. Not bad.  

One of my students put it best: "I gained confidence and courage to experiment. I gained knowledge of different processes and approaches, and a new belief that my work is ''good enough'' and it doesn't have to be perfect or sell or even be seen as long as I DO it. Some of the barriers that used to keep me from making art were destroyed: time, tools, place to work. It doesn't take long, anything can be a tool, and the dining room table is a fine place to make a mess with art!"

Curious? It's summer!  Try something new. Create.

The next Good Morning Creativity! class starts Monday, June 13th. For more information, click here.

​P.S. The picture above is from a prompt last November: "
For your art journal page, finish the sentence, 'I can ....' with four additional words and create a page around it."  My sentence: "I can always learn something new."
 
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  • Home
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