focus. balance. create.

Here’s the info once more in case you forgot:

Title: motion/vision/transition
Concept: http://www.haastyle.com/mvtshow/
Host: Chicago Art Department
Artists: Nick Haas + Nate Winter, Kurt Kreissl, + Shellie Fiocca
Date: Friday, June 26, 2009
Time: 7-10PM
Location: 1837 South Halsted, Chicago, IL
Google Map

Notes: There will be wine and beer provided, but you may also BYOB if you’d like something special.

It’s just about that time…time for the opening -  FRIDAY, JUNE 26.  I’m so excited that I can hardly contain myself.  This is definitely up there with one of the coolest things I’ve done in life – I can remember wanting this back when I was a kid.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m exhausted from working full time and going to the studio about 20 hours a week for the past few months…but I’ll be smiling big next Friday when everything is in place and looking good. :)

There will be great art, drinks, funky + fun beats from DJ Tapedek: Chris Hales, and just an all around fun time to be had. I’d really love it if all my close friends and family could be there to celebrate this event with me – I know thats a liiittle lofty of a goal, but hey the more the merrier!

A big thank you to everyone who has supported me throughout my side-life as a fine artist – thank you to all my friends and family who support me, thank you to all the peeps at Chicago Art Department and Mike Nourse always reminding me that I can do this.  Maybe one day I’ll have a gallery of my own. :)  xoxoxox

Another note: Jen Rosenthal and Chris Hales have their artwork displayed at Simone’s down the street and if anybody feels like keeping the party going after 10PM we’ll head on over there.  Directions from CAD to Simone’s Bar

The studio is a success! This is my second week going there and I’m finally getting into the groove of working there. It’s quiet and perfect to actually relax and concentrate on making art…..this picture above is from my iphone but one of my newest pieces that I’m quite happy about. Cross your fingers for me – hopefully by June 26th I have a whole room full of these. ;)

Today was awesome. Bobby and I woke up and walked over to Rush Street for some yummy food at the Original Pancake House. It was 72 degrees, sunny, with a little bit of breeze…I had strawberry crepes with whipped cream and Bobby and I did some serious people watching. lol. It was so relaxing to just sit and have breakfast and not have plans for the rest of the day.

After breakfast we walked over to the lake and sat by the water and talked and soaked up some sun.  It was literally the most relaxing day I’ve had in 3 months.   I hope everybody else out there had a chance to get outside today. :)

I’ve been thinking about renting out a space to work on my art for the past few months and finally did it. :) I had been looking for options on craigslist and other art resources online – had a bit of luck but not really finding exactly what I wanted. Bobby and I went to see the Fulton Street Collective and I was pretty set on renting there, but I wasn’t super pumped about the location. In the process of making my final decision on that, I randomly did one more search on craigslist and found a someone at The Splat Flats that needed a subleaser from May-July – perfect!! So, last Thursday I got the keys to my new studio and its smack dab in the middle of my old neighborhood….love the location, its a perfect size and the nice girl left me some furniture and a drawing table. I’m seriously thrilled about this opportunity and I can’t wait to get started…I’m going to be so productive now! Yipee!

This piece was inspired by the striking look on the woman’s face and her particularly strange environment (sitting backwards on the stool on top of the block platform).  I’m totally attracted to her strange-ness and wanted to make her into a drawing.  She looks as if she has expectations and has lost a little faith in someone.  Have you ever felt like you have an attraction to a picture like this because somehow it reminds you of parts or pieces of your life in history?  I do and that is what makes it special to me.  Enjoy. :)

I find that fashion magazines are quite far from real life that I live.  The pictures and ads are truly opposite of reality for me yet these pictures invade my mailbox and interact with me physically.  I like to pick out pages here and there that speak to me aesthetically and use them as backdrops for my life story.  I like the idea of manipulating the “image” within the image to make it mine.  These drawings are a short story that I can relate to, something that pleases me…movement, energy, geometry, negative/positive space, angles, shapes, stop-motion, symmetry, humor…

all images copyright shellie fiocca

Hello!

Bobby and I (and Kurty) had a great time I had this weekend with Mom + Dad Fiocca! They were literally only here for 1 day but it was really nice to see them and hang out.  They stayed in a corner suite at the Dana Hotel and Spa looking down State Street with floor to ceiling windows…it was pretty cool (more pictures here).  We spent the day walking around the area and eating good food.  We came back to the hotel in the afternoon and watched a movie. haha.  It was really fun and I’m so glad we spent time relaxing and hanging out because that’s exactly what I was hoping for. :)

The photo to the right is us standing on the bridge near our new condo building on Saturday. We took a cab over there to show my parents and they were really excited to see it.  I almost forgot how excited I was 2 months ago when they pushed back our closing…but since we went back I’m super excited again. :)  We are literally a week away from new closing date. WOO HOO. Lets see if we really get to close this time! ha!

It’s Sunday night and I just got done emailing a few artist studios…I’m officially looking for a space to spend about 10-15 hours a week working on art.  Space in my place is way too cramped to make progress and I really need place to be alone and focus.  So…I’ve gotta find something ASAP.  So far I’ve contacted the Fulton Street Collective, The Splat Flats, and I’m looking at the Cornelia Arts Building nearby Orbit.   If anyone out there has other ideas for artist communities in Chicago, please let me know.  Wish me luck, I need to find something fast so that I can get everything ready for the show in June!

Alright well I’m off to bed, I’ve got a big week ahead of me.

So I get home from a stressful day at work last Monday and sort through all the mail, try to put my emotions on a leash when thinking about our mortgage situation and all the hassle and unfortunate circumstances we are in and I see this box from amazon on my desk.  I open it and to my surprise is this book, Outliers – which I distinctly remember hearing about from Justin at Mike Nourse’s Opening and also subsequently remember adding to my Amazon wishlist at some point weeks earlier.  I’m thinking, “Oh! I mistakenly clicked the ‘1-click ordering’ button on the right hand side of the page and accidentally bought it.”

But then I look at the receipt and it says the billing address is from Justin Winget – um, awesome!  I couldn’t have known it at the time, but now reading half way into the book and spending a little more time with myself lately for some quiet time, how much I needed some inspiration and a great book to read.

I was reading the first chapter and thinking, I’m not sure I’ll get through it – since I usually have to read certain types of books to keep my interest – I’m not sure what I mean by that statement, but mostly I lose interest with my incredibly short attention span.  This one starts out telling the story of a small Roman city called Roseto – and I’m thinking to myself, “My ADD is totally going to wipe me out and stop me from finishing this book.”  But, and I must say I really have to take that back.

The book is about the lives of “outliers” – people whose achievements fall outside normal experiences – whether they are peculiar or logical they all seem to give me a better understanding of life and human potential.

There are so many excerpts that I want to share but one in particular that I read today on the train ride to work was, “There is complexity, autonomy, and a relationship between effort and reward in doing creative work, and that’s worth more to most of us than money.  Work that fulfills those three criteria is meaningful.”

Yeah, I know that sounds like something we’ve all heard and understood before, but the stories Gladwell uses to expand on that theory really bring it to life and make you think, “I never thought of it that way.”  It makes me happy that I chose a creative career even though it is sometimes stressful, painstaking, difficult, and definitely not making me rich – because at the end of the day its fulfilling.

Thank you Justin ~ I’ve gotta hand it to you, you are making me want to read more. ;)

Got a call while I was making dinner tonight that Bobby was a couple of streets over at Northwestern Memorial Hostpital’s ER…he was playing in a volleyball game with co-workers and came down from a spike on another guy’s foot. He is getting X-rays now to see if its broken or sprained. Cross your fingers that its only sprained! *sent from my phone… :/

**Okay update – he’s got a severe sprain (no fracture – although they said he may have to go back in two weeks and get another Xray to see if there are any minor fractures.) My poor Bobby – I know how he hates to be restrained from moving around and doing his own thing.  Hopefully with a lot of ice, ibprofen, and elevation he will be back to normal in 3-4 weeks.