Maps of the Night: The First Fourteen

Working for hours and late in the studio on the Maps of the Night

These are the Maps of the Night. There are currently fourteen but soon there will be twenty. These works will debut during First Thursday at the Fayetteville Underground on February 3rd in the back vault gallery and in my studio. You, as my blog readers get a special pre-sale treat, an advanced virtual showing and a chance to purchase/reserve these works a week early! Works will be sold on a first come first serve basis and all non local sales will go through paypal and include shipping and handling. Fayetteville residents can reserve pieces by emailing me and paying for them at the Fayetteville Underground on First Thursday Feb 3rd.

These pieces are mixed media on paper and are 24x 36" with approximately a 1.5" border on all sides of the painting. The edges of the paintings are not kept pristine and one can see some of the process left behind in the inky stains and drips.

I am very excited to share these works with you. I will always remember this series with a fevered passion that I hadn't felt in a while. These works are about me and my life and my current story, but I hope you will find yourself within them as well.

I believe in the power of original art and I am glad to offer these affordable but important, original works to collectors at just $100.00. If you are interested in a particular piece for your collection please email me at megancha@gmail.com with the name of the piece and I can send you a paypal invoice or information on how to make a payment or reserve the painting if you are local. I love shipping nationally and internationally, and these works can be safely shipped in a mailing tube to your location.

Thank you for your support and interest in the Maps of the Night. If you have any questions about any of these works, please don't hesitate to email and ask.

As always, keep fighting!
Megan
megancha@gmail.com
click on the paintings to see them larger

roots pushed down under their feet grounding them to this uncertainty
there would be no hiding this time
mixed media on paper 24x 36"
© 2011 Megan Chapman
Sold

strangely she let the words get stuck in her throat
mixed media on paper 24x 36"
© 2011 Megan Chapman
Sold

When he went under the waves she could feel it in her sleep
mixed media on paper 24x 36"
© 2011 Megan Chapman
Sold

there is a line that runs between them under the ocean
mixed media on paper 24x 36"
© 2011 Megan Chapman
Sold

they knew all along but for how long is any one's guess
mixed media on paper 24x 36"
© 2011 Megan Chapman
Sold

wire like lines broke above them in the sky, whipping around, they were unscathed
mixed media on paper 24x 36"
© 2011 Megan Chapman
Sold

a strange language grows like vines in the night
and I think I would rather learn your words than any others
mixed media on paper 24x 36"
© 2011 Megan Chapman
Sold

their static radio voices whispered as they sang their secrets
mixed media on paper 24x 36"
© 2011 Megan Chapman
Sold

they jumped the gap and slept in the shadows
mixed media on paper 24x 36"
© 2011 Megan Chapman
Sold

it all points to an expertly crafted myth
mixed media on paper 24x 36"
© 2011 Megan Chapman
$100.00

after pages and pages of infinite risk they had their brave moments
mixed media on paper 24x 36"
© 2011 Megan Chapman
Sold

she was good at hiding in the light, he would come alive in the dark secrecy
mixed media on paper 24x 36"
© 2011 Megan Chapman
Sold

on distant shores they bury their fear
mixed media on paper 24x 36"
© 2011 Megan Chapman
Sold

he watches the sky and gives his cloud report
mixed media on paper 24x 36"
© 2011 Megan Chapman
Sold

The Maps of the Night were photographed by Don House.

Like vines in the night...

maps, works in progress © 2011 Megan Chapman

This has been another exciting week in the studio, the maps of the night are starting to solidify in concept and execution. I am compelled to keep working on them as they gain their own momentum and pull me along for the ride. There are now eight complete maps of the night. I am still hoping to have ten to twenty of them created by the First Thursday in February.

I am really enjoying the quality of the paper and the size as well. The paper is 24x 36" with approximately a 1.5" border on all sides of the image. The edges of the image are not kept pristine and one can see some of the process left behind in the inky stains and drips. I like this quality of the maps as well, a sense of immediacy in execution and in the need to get them in front of viewers. The surface of these paintings have a drawn feel and has been fully considered, yet there is still plenty of room for the viewer to wander throughout the map. The words and stories within the maps are personal to me, but also convey universal themes that many can relate to. There are brush strokes left plainly visible below the surface, which is something that rarely happens in my work. I love how these strokes create ridges within the piece where at times the charcoal is allowed to darkly gather or perhaps a flash of blue, a faint tinge of orange or a vibrant green is left to linger, taking the piece away from the stark black and white. These pieces are still linked within the larger white series but are the start of a new direction.

I love the tactility of the paper- it begs to be touched and I invite viewers to handle the maps, not only to touch them but to also hear them. The paper crackles and lowly rumbles as it is moved about and picked up and read. As I stated last week, these works will be extremely affordable at only $100 a painting, and due to the nature of these works they can be affordably and safely rolled and shipped in a tube all over the country and the world.

I will leave you with one of my favorite lines from my latest map and some more of the recent sounds inspiring this body of work.

"A strange language grows like vines in the night, and I think I would rather learn your words than any others..."



Until next week, keep fighting and be sure to come back for a preview of my completed maps.

Imaginary maps of the night

work in progress...

I've been painting a bit more regularly again and this is a relief. Wednesday I felt a bit lost and clueless when I started working in my studio. I knew I had a kernel of an idea, but I just could not seem to make it come to the surface. I had new paper and gesso and a new album to listen to and I wanted to work. I wanted to paint and create something badly. It had reached the point where the desire/need to create was really under my skin, just itching away. If you are an artist, you know the feeling, everything is just bubbling up and everything has this urgency and perhaps you might explode if you don't get it out. For me this happens right before inspiration strikes, weeks of inactivity create an intense pressure and if I don't release it, look out world!

I hatched a concept about a week ago, and as mentioned above I started out with some good, new paper. I had an idea for a series of larger works but as soon as I started painting, I knew that the paper was too small and too precious. This was not the paper for exploding, it was too regulated and proper. Luckily I explained my paper dilemma to my dear studio mate Jennifer L. Fay and she gave me a lovely stash of paper, some nice and some not so nice. I took the papers back to my studio, and quickly pulled the fancy stuff off my wall and replaced it with this newly gifted not so nice paper and suddenly, things started to happen!

I put the debut album by The Soft Moon on my headphones at full blast and I managed to disappear for a while, it was heaven.

Words started coming to my brain quickly- a complete flurry, as in the past I had to quickly scratch them down on the wall. Flashes of concepts, ideas for titles, poems, phrases, all just rising to the surface. When the words come, I know I am on the right track. I know I am listening to the right music, and I am using the right materials. It is a bit like being in a trance, tears will come to my eyes, my hands will shake, I bounce up and down on my toes, and I can't write the words down fast enough or get the paint on the paper as quickly as it demands. Things get knocked over, drips run down the wall, the floor is stained new colors and I throw rags and pencils across the room. In the studio there is a frenetic pace and energy, my brain is running at full tilt, as more words, more ideas flow, quick, quick, quick!

Stories like theatre, dreams, and thinly veiled memories explode to the surface. I think about how much I can say with out giving it all away; what to give and what to hold back. There is a type of pained freedom as I control this.

So, now that I have given you this hyper snap shot of my brain during the creative process, I imagine you are wondering just what the hell I am going on about...

I have decided these new works are an interim series. They are related to the manual for living, but due to the size and paper these pieces have more of a weathered map quality and feel more like a blueprints from a dream rather than any sort of manual. These pieces are comprised of white gesso, walnut oil mixed with charcoal, faint blue and orange washes over the cracked and textured surface. These documents tell a story, one that is loose and dreamy and very much open for interpretation. These papers may tell of a new reality, one that is in the process of becoming true. This papers may also point to a finely crafted myth, and there are no guarantees.

I have some creative ideas for displaying these works in the back vault gallery at The Fayetteville Underground, and my short term goal is to create ten to twenty of these maps/blueprints by February's First Thursday. I am also excited because these works will be affordable, probably priced around $100 for a fairly good sized piece of original art. I am guessing they are around 24x30" in size. (I will measure the paper today at the studio and update this later). I am excited about creating an original body of work that is more accessible to a larger audience.

I am eager to work in the studio today, to paint and tell more stories. These works are spacious and dark, filled with distance, guarded optimism, and longing. These are the imaginary maps of the night and the blueprints with no guarantees and I can't wait to share them with you...

She lives. She paints. She breathes...

something big in the studio (we will talk about it later)

Happy New Year to all my lovely blog readers, lurkers, and others. I hope your year has begun in stellar fashion. I know mine has. I have been back in the studio this week and it has been wonderful! I am enjoying coming home with paint on my hands, it had definitely been too long. Again, I remind myself that not painting is not an option. Some might call it relaxation or taking a break to refuel or whatever, but it is not that way for me. Plain and simple, not painting is a form of self torture and there has been enough of that.

Besides working in the studio, I started the year by taking a chance and entering a juried competition, it will be a while before I know if I got in or not, but I am glad I entered. Each year I tell myself I will not enter this competition because I am always rejected, but I do it anyway. Hope springs eternal.

It has been great being back in the studio and reconnecting with my fellow studio mates, we all seem excited to get back to work after the holidays and for what is in store at The Fayetteville Underground for 2011. I am still so happy that I decided to get a studio outside of my home, it has its challenges, but its advantages far out weigh those.

So, what will 2011 hold in the studio? I am not sure. Will I continue the white series? Will I revert back to color? Will there be more manuals? Works on paper? At present your guess is as a good as mine. I am okay with that. I know inspiration will strike, and the work will emerge and it will inform itself and let me know the way it needs unfold. I think words might stick around and I think large works on paper are a good possibility. We will see. When it hits me, it will hit me with a bang and there will be no turning back. I just have to be patient and I just have to keep showing up and working.

I hope 2011 is a wonderful year for us all. Good luck and best wishes in all your endeavors. Keep fighting and keep coming back here, because soon... this place is going to teeming with fresh art.