Wall Art for Sale

I now have a Society6 page where you can purchase prints of my work!
Check out the link below!

http://society6.com/KaraNelson

Inspirational Images

Paper Towers

One of the towers has toppled. I set down the largest of the two towers today, and it fell over. I hadn't noticed that it was leaning. Rather than use a dowel to steady it -which would use more material- I think I am going to try and build it sideways. Experiments are exciting, and get me ramped-up for more studio time.

Sketchbooks

     It is widely know that Sketchbooks are a lifeline for us creative types. They serve as a place to jot things down, and develop ideas. Personally, I cary one on most day.  I have one in my bed side drawer, in my studio, at my boyfriends house, in my purse, and in my car. Having multiple books is departure for me. When I was in college I had one, and I carried it with me everywhere. As a result it also served as a journal, and a class notebook.  My older books chronicle my life for the time each was with me, and it would have been blasphemes to start a new one, before the last was finished.
    These days however, I don't carry a book bag, and it is not as easy to lug a large book around. I recently came to the realization that my habits have changed to fit my life, and these five books help me keep track of everything I am thinking. I brought them all out and looked at them together. The images on the pages are now covering a wider range of content, and they are not the cohesive book that I wanted them to be. No sadness was felt though, because they still reflect what is happening in my head: a million different things.

One Gallon

In a desperate attempt to rescue myself form never painting again, I started to stalk paper together, one piece of mail at a time. I glued them together to create a little manolith. It felt pathetic at first, sitting in my studio, not drawing, just gluing piece by peice. Now it is a tiny structure. I want to make a second one and see where it goes. It is subtly beautiful when you hold it up and look at all the different kinds of paper next to one another. I ran out of glue so I bought one gallon to make sure it won't happen again.

New Hope

I went on a trip home form my Mom's birthday. The hope I had for this trip was to see the pacific northwest and to have a renewed sence of confidence in my paintings. What I was not expecting was for it to happen on the plane ride there. A rush of ideas hit me as soon as I pulled out my tiny sketchbook on the plane. How wonderful, and over due. I have been feeling stuck for most of the year, and to finally have some motivation is refreshing. Hopefully over the next few months I will be working on a few projects at a time. There is a fabric project, a paper, and of course my paintings.  Hopefully they will all start to inform each other and my work will begin moving forward.

Stuck

Alright, alright I will admit it, I am stuck in a rut. This rut feels as big as a ditch. Painting is becoming impossible. I simply hate the paintings I have started, and it isn't getting better. After months of looking and making small moves no improvements to the paintings have been made, and I am greatly discouraged. The small collages I started don't feel like they are helping. At least they keep me in the studio and my hands moving. The one breakthrough (if you can call it that) I have had is I now know what is holding me back. It turns out that I don't know what kind of landscape I want to make. I seem to be stuck between the Northern California landscape I see everyday, and the Pacific Northwest landscape I want to continue to paint. When I figure out what I want to do, maybe I will be able to work successfully (I hope).