Category

portrait

• portrait, drawings, life

  Before their time

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  Before their time
  Pencil on paper
  May 28, 2008

  In art class, my junior year of high school, we were asked to fill up a 100 page sketchbook over the course of the semester. This was the year when I starting thinking seriously (as seriously as a 16-year-old can) about art as a career. I remember sitting at my antique writing desk, staring at the objects on it - a stapler, a pencil, the hinges of the desk flap - as if they would they would start talking and tell me what to enter in my sketchbook for the day. As I gazed intently at them, they began to flatten out. I composed a drawing of these objects completely of shades only - no lines. I was astonished at the photographic rendering when I finished the drawing. I realized that what separates objects visually is not lines, but values. What makes dimension is not the shapes themselves but the proportions, the relationships from one change in value to another, that make up those shapes. Lines have their purpose as a shortcut but they aren’t what really define things. Now that I’m older, I understand how that “Eureka!” moment of seeing - of seeing physical objects and relating them to the mind, which is internal, and processing them back out again to the world as a drawing, something that is experienced externally by others - informs my outlook on life and people.

  I made this portrait of my uncle in the 1980’s the other day to see if I could still draw, really draw. It took about 30 minutes. I’m a little out of practice but what was bizarre was that my proportions were dead on. I didn’t really have to measure anything. Nonetheless, when I double-checked my foundations of the drawing, I found everything was 99% accurate. I think this comes from doing so much graphic design over the past few years that I can now find the middle of the page or line up elements without having to measure them. Of course, I always verify my work by using the align/distribute tools in Adobe, but it’s kind of shocking when I realize I’m only one-hundredeth of an inch off.

  You grow up but you don’t.

• photography, portrait, women, style

  Alter Ego

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  I was invited to be in an art show called Alter Ego. For several months, I’ve had the idea to do some art/fashion portraits of the regular characters I inhabit in the theater of my head. I wanted to show the inner alter egos we all have, how we see ourselves in fantasies, daydreams, and also the male/female anatomy that makes up our psyche that may go unacknowledged. I don’t really express either persona on the outside at all, but maybe things do come out slightly and don’t get fully explained in my words or actions. This show gave me an opportunity to execute these ideas. There was one character I missed but I hadn’t quite thought her out yet, and I didn’t have the right outfit on hand anyways. Everything is completely self-styled, self-shot, and the shirts in both photos are my creations. These photos are amateurish, I know, but I think this gives them an intimate, honest and immediate feel.

  

  Alter Ego I (if I were a guy)
  May 2008
  18″ x 24″ print

  Most of the time I’m not a girly-girl. I call people “man” a lot. I feel more comfortable having male friends than female friends. And I wonder from time to time what it’d be like to be a guy. How would I look? How would I carry myself? Walk? Stand? How would I dress? Would I be considered good-looking or dorky or ugly? I was trying to think of all the guys I know and how they stand and position their arms, necks, shoulders… body language. It was actually physically uncomfortable to stand like a man. I had to mentally push my hips and butt out of the way, and the awkwardness showed in the shots where I was standing. Although I think my choice of pants had something to do with that - they needed to be looser and more concealing of curves. Here I look like a cross between my dad and my uncle (on my mom’s side). It’s weird. Closeup of the shirt is here.

  

  Alter Ego II (the diva)
  May 2008
  18″ x 24″ print

  This is the Diva. Dramatic, eccentric, elegant, bold, aloof one second, loud the next, ultra feminine. I like how the makeup came out. Operatic (female) but also drag queen (male). Detail of self-made shirt here.

  Basic Self/Test Shot

  

  Outtakes

  

  

  

  I’ve been thinking about a shoot like this since last fall, and especially had the idea to wear a small hat or beehive hairdo thrust towards the forehead, but had neither the hat nor hair to do so. Also working against too little time & too much humidity in my non-climate-controlled studio.

• portrait, women, paintings

  Lush

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  2006

  Acrylic and puff paint on vintage fabric, 18″ x 24″

  $175

• portrait, women, paintings

  Giggle

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  This piece is based on a photograph I took of myself in 2003.

  2006

  Acrylic on cloth, 18″ x 24″

  $300

• portrait, women, paintings, life

  I’m So Glad To Grow Older

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  I did this painting coming out of a bad relationship. The title is lyrics from a Morissey song: ‘I’m so glad to grow older / to move away from those awful times / I’m in love for the first time / and I don’t feel bad.’

  2000

  Acrylic on canvas, 20″ x 28″

  $250

art diva studios

about

art diva studios is the home of art, design and commentary by Rachelle Díaz, whose un-pidgeonhole-able aesthetic and amorphous disposition is often mistaken for something else. Instead of dividing her online presence into "art," "design," and "commentary", she classified all three forms into the Common Threads below. This website is best viewed in Firefox.

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