Process of Experimentation. New wall addition at The Plaid Peacock, Roanoke TX

Let's just say I did not stick to the books on this one. Quite literally, the name "decadence-n-decayart", may be a type of foreshadowing for its ultimate end. Such is the case with many decorative art pieces. Though, I didn't just arbitrarily slab mediums together either. I took some liberties, and I'm not sure what time will do to this one, but with the drying processes & final varnish, I'd say it's set, for a lifetime, or two. It didn't seem that this concoction of materials was a real common choice in the google-sphere. Yet, there were no abject warnings advocating otherwise either. A true, one-of-a-kind.

After prepping the canvas, I took the remnants of a casualty souvenir votive holder from a vacation to Hawaii. The votive was a glass one a child had gained access to, it contained sand and sea shells (I'm not really betting that they were actually from Hawaiian beaches). Still my sentimentality fused with my creator mentality, and I decided to grind the sand & shells with a mortar & pestle, and blend them into paint. Mortar & pestle, being the nifty stainless steel one my chemist husband proffered to me. Before I started with the paint & paste procedure, I retrograded into crafty realm & secured the larger shells to the canvas with a hot glue gun. (I'm still not sure if the reference to use of a "hot, glue, gun" should elicit scoffing or applause in the art-world or if it is considered a weapon against the fine arts.)

Next, I used some painting modeling paste added to the acrylic paint & folded in the ground up sand & shells with a painting knife. This worked as an effective adhesive to the canvas. Cooling time, and I was off...mixing paints, mixing pastes, modeling each canvas after one of the miniature still-life's adhered to the canvas, i.e. the seashells that were glued to them. 

There were several similar sessions, eventually leading up to this backyard preview, deemed unfinished work. I sincerely apologize for my iPhone photography. It's shameful. But, the process is more for me than anyone else, so pardon the apathy.

All of the sand & shells had been added and utilized. So at this point I switched to acrylic paint, and modeling paste. Followed by a couple more intermittent painting & drying sessions (this basically means days or weeks in which, I just flat out abandon the poor project.) 

After I felt that the colors had construed correctly, I then switched to black india ink. I used it with a small brush, to outline the shell features which I had been highlighting and building out, in various colors and layers. After the india ink dried, they were approved for consignment pending the final varnish. Although it gives a bit of a weathered property, I wanted to use shellac to coat the final product. It has been used on furniture for years. I like the way it creates a glazed look on canvas, without concealing the textural properties of the sand & shells. 

"Seashore I", and "Seashore II", Janelle Jensen Fritz, 2012, 3-D, multi-media paintings

These are available at The Plaid Peacock in Roanoke TX. The Plaid Peacock on Facebook
Oak Street really is fabulous if you have never been. Local Texas dining greats like Twisted Root, Babes, and the Classic Cafe, all nestled in a small-town-downtown walkable street lined with contemporary & progressive shopping and treats.

Happy Birthday Summer!

My family quotes the movie "What About Bob". I know, absurd. It's likely due to repeat exposure which resulted in fits of laughter, and the fact that at any given time, aren't we all Bob?

 "The simplest way to put it is, I have problems..." -classic, Bob Wiley

Who can't relate to that? It was with these ingrained quotes, and self-depreciating sentiments that I picked up this clearanced-out-no-authorship-included Giclee print and personalized it for my sisters birthday. 

So I'll let you in on our inside joke. At no time, ever, in our existence would either of us, ever, utter any of these phrases about ourselves. I can guarantee these thoughts  have never so much as even entered our thought realm. We are too preoccupied fighting off personal demons for such self-congratulatory mantra's. Though enter, my positive self-pro-motive humorist. Many modern women are self critical, about some aspect of self or another. So with a bit of humor and perhaps an encouraging nudge towards at least self acceptance, this is my gift to her. In turn I hope it gives you a boost up the self-esteem spectrum as well, or at least a smile. 

"What a great Pleasure...", 2012
Giclee Print-Original artist unknown, accessorized or destroyed by Janelle Jensen Fritz.
Additions include cardstock, ink, "I feel good. I feel great.I feel wonderful" quotations from "What about Bob", and shellac glazing. 

TGiclee text reads: "What a great Pleasure it must be to have a friend as wonderful as me"

 

 





 

Happy Valentine's Day XOXO

For Today: 

"Conversation Hearts", Janelle Jensen Fritz, 2013

I wanted to try my own at the iconic sweet & sticky, poetry & prosy Valentine favorite, the conversation heart. 
Special props to my friend Aimee for letting me snag a handful of hers for my still-life, so I didn't have to deal with finding sucked on conversation hearts from the mouth of my 2 year old for weeks on end.
I will divide this work up into a group of 3 paintings. The top two split evenly and then the bottom two as a combination. 

Top Left Conversation Heart prose: "Sex Machine. crushing." & "pretty, plain-old fresh, flirty pink flush." Culminating together with "Rev the engine". 

Top Right Conversation Heart prose: "darling, candy-coated, Goddess", "-and guilt-free man candy." 

Bottom Combination Conversation Hearts prose: "cute brute boy-meets-girl", and "Hott, Sexy Lips Pucker". Culminating together with "Happily Even After, For Like Ever". 

For Me: 

 "If you want my body and you think I'm sexy
Come on honey tell me so
If you really need me just reach out and touch me
Come on sugar let me know" ---Rod Stewart, "Do Ya Think I'm Sexy" 

My midwest blue collar upbringing still gets the hots for Rod Stewart from time to time. I'm well aware of the shame this should conduce. Yet, Pandora station? Set. I had to grin at what this fellow fan in the modern day expressed: 

" Back in the day it was a bit edgy. But compared to today’s music it might as well be a Gregorian Chant."---Fellow Rod Stewart Fan 
 
For You & I: 

"The Facts of Life":

"Just as an artist becomes intimate with the ingredients in his paints and learns how they'll interact with his canvas, you must become a connoisseur of your body's capabilities for sexual pleasure with your partner. Even though you've lived for decades in your body, I"m betting there are things you still don't know about its capability for heightened sexual experience and even ecstasy. " -Roz Van Meter

CYA: https://www.facebook.com/coachroz 
(She kind of seems like the personality that Barbara Streisand plays in her character in the movie Meet the Fockers. But she's local, a Dallas gal, but we've never crossed paths.)

What an incredible concept. That all of us can only move up the ladder in this realm. Honestly, who wouldn't want to improve on sex, & ecstasy, regardless of their skill level!?? 
"No thank you sir, I won't have another.... I appreciate the offer for notching up the pleasure spectrum, but I think I'll just hunker down where I'm at. I can't imagine consenting to increasing the intensity level."
 
Are you kidding me? I think not. As if that has been said by anyone, anywhere...where it applies to consensual, actual love-making, joint climaxing endeavors. 

So cheers to what we don't know in this realm, when it applies to sex within the appropriate parameters. I wish us all a few notches forward towards "pleasure town". 

Veronica Corningstone: Take me to Pleasure Town!
Ron Burgundy: Oh, we're going there!

(Quotation from the movie "Anchorman" with Christina Applegate & Will Ferrell )


For your little ones:

This is a classic children's song. Love Grows One by One. This version cracks us up because it sounds like some breeding hybrid of crack-baby Chipmunks and the speed was accelerated so it only lasts 1:25 min. It is cute & catchy.

 

 
 

 

FOR ME-FOR YOU-FOR YOUR LITTLE FRIENDS

FOR TODAY:

Art is. 

There are so many interpretations and directions this conversation leads. I tend to gravitate towards plain and simple definitions. Take the definition of aesthetics.

aes·thet·ics

[es-thet-iks or, esp. British, ees-] 

noun ( used with a singular verb  )

1.the branch of philosophy dealing with such notions as the beautiful, the ugly, the sublime, the comic, etc., as applicable to the fine arts, with a view to establishing the meaning and validity of critical judgments concerning works of art and the principles underlying or justifying such judgments.

2.the study of the mind and emotions in relation to the sense of beauty.

CYA: 

Copied & Pasted from Dictionary.com,  http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/aesthetics 

"The principles underlying or justifying such judgments", the way I see it art is worth more than just its aesthetics. I resonated with the following reasoning:

 "There are as many proposed definitions for art as there are artists and art-lovers in the world, but I can’t help but feel that they all refer to the one core meaning.  To my mind, art is always about causing change—big or small, personal or global.  That’s its value, its reason, its purpose, and its complete definition.  Of course, not everyone agrees with me.  Here are some other definitions of art and why I think they all point back to revolution..." 
 http://www.gwennseemel.com/index.php/blog/comments/definition/

I often produce art to cause a change in myself. A paradigm shift in my emotions. Whether it be an elevation of spirit or a purging of discontent. The beauty of  aesthetics is that I can purge away my disconsolate emotions and someone else can come along and be emotionally elevated by the same product.  At least that is my hope & prayer, that my art is a shift towards the greater good, verses a backslide into a downward spiral towards the pit of decay.

FOR ME:

 "For we pay a price for everything we get or take in this world; and although ambitions are well worth having, they are not to be cheaply won, but exact their dues of work and self-denial, anxiety and discouragement."
- Lucy Maud Montgomery, Anne of Green Gables

FOR YOU: 

 “Love Trinity “, 2010 Janelle Jensen Fritz

Entitled after the three Greek definitions of love. Philia, Agape, and Eros. Ancient Greece defined love within the context of these three individual, yet adjoining contexts.

The left painting represents Philia. I list this first, as it is the love of brotherhood, friendship, and companionship. Johnathan and I began our journey together from Philia. As teens we rode together in an morning carpool to “early morning seminary” (A religious institute for high school students held at 5 am, that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints encourages for their youth.) Buckled next to one another in the backseat, we initiated the beginnings of our friendship. Bantering, questioning, and talking. Neither of us aware that we were forging the very foundation of our life-long/eternal journey as the dearest of friends. An aspect of our compatibility that would transcend even the darkest of times.

The center painting conveys Agape love. The God-like, unconditional, encircling, and committed love. Whether or not any of us are mortally capable of this in its completeness is questionable. Yet it is evident that we hold the capacity to exude many of the virtues of Agape love, especially when we look to a loving Heavenly Father and Christ for that bestowal and affirmation. Our imperfect partner will inevitably fall short at times, yet, we cannot allow that to diminish their valiant attempts to achieve this in a compromising and giving manner.

The outer right painting encapsulates Eros. The fiery love of passion, eroticism, and sexuality. This is the intoxicating, origination that propels us to overlook imperfection, dismiss weakness, and hold an imperfect being on an idolatrous pedestal. Eros seems to be a constituent to the love trinity that tends to ebb, flow, and wane. Although, if dismissed entirely, this aspect requires some type of accreditation & vindication, and if ignored can adopt quite a “rebel yell”.

"LOVE TRINITY", Janelle Jensen Fritz, Photography by Ian Williams

"PHILIA", Janelle Jensen Fritz

"AGAPE", Janelle Jensen Fritz

"EROS", Janelle Jensen Fritz

 FOR YOUR LITTLE KIDS & CREATURES: 

♥ My lil boys loved PopTarts, cut with heart cookie cutters, for Valentine's Day breakfast last year. Sugary decadent treat for them. Easy Peasy for mom.

♥ Little 4lb. Japanese Chin, Moo-shu, loved her conversation heart. Decadence for her. Easy Peasy for me. JJF. xoxo