Delusions Installation Views

Delusions: Abbigail Knowlton Israelsen recently closed at the Waldron Arts Center's Flashlight Gallery.  It was a great opportunity to show some drawings in a very unique space.  I had a lot of support from the community and am eager to push my work further.

Water Baby

My recently finished drawing is called Water Baby in reference to my inspiration, The Water-Babies, A Fairy Tale for a Land Baby.  I found this story in one of my old fairy tale books and thought it was inspiring.  At one point in the fairy tale the Water Baby watches a creature metamorphous into a new being when silky dragonflies break through a hole in his back.  The Water Baby is very jealous and wishes he too could change into something so beautiful. 

While working on this drawing I also was reminded of the nursery rhyme Sing a Song of Sixpence, where four and twenty blackbirds were baked in a pie.   

Photographs of the entire drawing will be on my website soon. Or please come to Delusions at The Waldron Arts Center opening May 7, 2010 to see it in person.

Geode Lake and Strangled

Two drawing finished.  Details of Strangled and Geode Lake are shown above. If you would like to see the full images please visit my website. 

More to come.

Three In Progress

I have been working on three large drawings for some time.  I was hoping to have them wrapped up  but I had to spend quite a few days in the hospital with pnuemonia putting me back a few weeks.  I have been taking some time off of studio work to recover. 

This shows the early development of the drawings.  I compose them on tracing paper and then transfer the image to rag paper once the composition settled.

I have been working on these drawings together hoping that they would show some sort of unity in thought and process.  They are all related through the narrative. 

 

They are works in progess, but coming along.  They are brighter than I usually work and make me a little uncomfortable.  I like to push the drawings into unknown territory because at least I know I am pressing myself.  Whether they turn out is another story, but the uncertainty is good.

Beginnings

I finished these three drawings for the exhibition in Minnesota. I was hoping to make more drawings and create an installation. May work more on them later, but they are done for now. I just need to frame them and ship them today! Beginnings 1: graphite, acrylic, watercolor, watercolor pencils, spray paint on rag paper.

Beginnings 3: graphite, watercolor, watercolor pencils, spray paint on rag paper.

Beginnings 2: graphite, watercolor, watercolor pencils, spray paint on rag paper.

I will be receiving some new metal flat files tomorrow. They are greatly needed to organize my drawings and to protect them from little creatures that sneak in from the forest.

Working Again

After weeks and months of feeling ill due to my pregnancy, I am back working again. I am so happy to be making drawings and trying some new techniques.
Emily, a friend of mine from grad school, invited me to participate in an exhibition The Other F Word at the University of Minnesota Morris. I have started work on two new drawings hoping to complete and send them to Minnesota within two weeks. These photos of the drawings are in process and very rough.

Graphite, gold spray paint, and watercolor on rag paper.

My proposal for a solo show at the Waldron Art Center was accepted! In the next few months I will be preparing for Delusions: Abbigail Knowlton Israelsen at the Flashlight Gallery of the Waldron Art Center in Bloomington, Indiana. The show opens in the beginning of May and will keep my mind off of my growing belly and keep my hands very busy.

Inspriations and work space

I have begun a new series of paintings on canvas. It is strange for me to not work on paper as I have done for many years. I want to experiment with these canvases and use them as studies for a larger piece. As you can see my work space is rather messy. I try to keep it tidy, but things keep piling up but I think the piles add information to my work somehow.

My daughter's workspace looks very similar. She also did a painting on one of the canvases. Hers is Itsy Bitsy Spider. Some inspiration for the new work is all around me. There are many geodes and fossils surrounding the stream in my forest. I have become fascinated with these rocks, they are so mysterious and ancient. My daughter and her cousin are standing next to a pile of them that we collected.

I have been thinking of ships again and the traveling that happens in my dreams and nightmares of when I was ill. This rough paint by number is hung in my studio and I reference it often.

The beautiful weaving of roots and plant life that is found in the forest floor and its ever changing nature.