i finally got down to updating my website yesterday. it took 5 hours (in a freezing cold studio with no heat) to make a few changes and i know there's still a lot of work to do in it but i started this process and that makes me incredibly happy. i had been stalling this for so long, finding excuses to not do it but i'm ending 2009 with a fresher website. in the next weeks i will keep updating it until it's in the shape it needs to be. right now i'm working on a new artist statement and in organizing my work and documenting it.

so yay for this! htttp://www.chioflores.com

more info can be seen here

i wanted to have a version of this portrait with me so i put a xerox of it in a frame. the frame has aids virus floating on it. i like it.

i like looking at this and thom yorke's portrait together, i think they're having a nice conversation...

I firmly believe that my art and my life cannot be separated but for the purposes of this blog I will. Somewhat. I have been thinking on what is the next move for me and my career as an artist/what I need to/want to achieve in the near future. Here's a list in bullet points because I like bullet points:

• Finish bodies of work: Text boxes, Pain Boxes, Body Bags, Portraits and not start any new series unless I'll die if I don't.
• At long last build my portfolio and send it out to researched gallery list.
• Re-write artist statement.
• Update website.
• Go to more gallery openings and do more schmoozing when I go, see this as part of my job.
• Decide if I want to take my 'other creative endeavor' aka etsy, to another level.
• Publish 'What do you see here' zine.
• Start writing my book on art education.
• Get a better camera to document my work and continue documenting my life.
• Prepare to leave to my new destiny by the end of September.

All of this demands discipline, but I have it. It also demands not getting distracted with life, not letting it get in the way and that is the part that I'm worried about. The last bullet point is particularly scary.

i know that it doesn't seem like i worked much today but i did, adding this detail has taken a while to do. i'm still working on it but taking breaks to do other things. i like working that way. i'm now taking a break to read for a bit, will work on it some more later.

okay now that i see the photo in the post i'm convinced i need to get a new camera and some lights to get the real colors in the photos. this is not good...

p.s. i love jellyfish, i think they're weirdly beautiful, just like thom yorke...

i started this portrait of thom yorke today in between feeling really sick. it's part of the same series wojnarowicz's portrait belongs to, g calls it the 'heroic portraits', i like that. like i told g, this is the weirdest portrait i've ever done, i really, really like what's happening with it and again, it kinda happened by itself, it's barely started but i'm feeling too unwell to keep working on it today although i would love to. on saturday i will try another version with ink in the background, coffee and some turqoise ink.

i managed to finish the piece before my work meeting and these two are better photos then the dreadful stomach ache ones i took yesterday. i'm really liking this piece and the possibilities it has opened my work to. i'm getting trader joe's bags today. i'm not sure i will leave the piece like this or if it will function as a background, we'll see.

(download)

Click here to download:

body_bags_on_whole_food_bags_p.zip (2.89 MB)

i have an awful stomach ache now so i'm only going to post the photo of what i worked on today for several hours. it's a really bad photo so this one is only  a placeholder, my stomach hurts too much to take a better one. hopefully i'll finish this piece tomorrow and post a decent photo, provided my stomach stops acting up.