The Paper Crane

Some work by Dee Clements, this will soon become a new sec­tion in our fea­tures, until then, enjoy a look here…

The paint­ings I have been work­ing on over the past few sum­mer months are essen­tially maps of places I have lived or vis­ited. These paint­ings are abstract rep­re­sen­ta­tions of the mapped places through color and the col­ors are essen­tially the way I felt or per­ceived the place at the time. For instance grey could equal con­fu­sion, green could equal moments of clar­ity, yel­low could equal light and easy, reds, fuschia’s and magenta’s almost always rep­re­sent myself because it is a color I have favored and been drawn to almost my whole life.

The Pool

I painted the pool after a day spent rid­ing bikes and swim­ming at a city pool with one of my best lady friends and my boyfriend. We rode through my neigh­bor­hood to the pool. The day was lovely and sweet. The col­ors are emo­tive reac­tions to my sur­round­ings and my home. In this paint­ing I am rep­re­sented by pink, Eliz­a­beth green and David orange (the col­ors of our swim suits)

Meadville

In Decem­ber 2008 my Father had knee replace­ment surgery and I flew to his home in Penn­syl­va­nia for a few days to help him tran­si­tion from being in the hos­pi­tal to home. One of the mark­ings (to the bot­tom left) is my father;s home fol­lowed by a grey­ish path to the hos­pi­tal that is a few shades of blue and then on again to the next hos­pi­tal where he did phys­i­cal ther­apy (the mark in red and orange.)

Ukran­ian Vil­lage

Ukranin Vil­lage is a neigh­bor­hood in Chicago where I lived in sev­eral (ok 3) apart­ments dur­ing my mid twenties.

San Fran­sisco

I vis­ited San Fran­sisco for the first time this year with my other best lady friend Eliz­a­beth. We were on our way to North­ern Cal­i­for­nia to see Eliz­a­beth. I was taken by the city’s vibrancy and col­ors. I found it amaz­ing the way the fog rolls in in the morn­ing and then lifts by noon to a sun-lit, blue sky. Kind of how I gen­er­ally feel from morn­ing to noon.

Green­pointe

Green­pointe was a neigh­bor­hood I lived in when I spon­ta­neously moved to Brook­lyn for a short time. At this junc­ture I was at a turn­ing point in my art and in my life and wanted to take a risk and find a new direc­tion. I’d thought NYC would be the place for me. It turns out it wasn’t.

Logan and Kedzie

Presently a great deal of my life takes place near this intersection.

Neigh­bor­hood Map

A map of the neigh­bor­hood I live.

The Loop

The Lopp is Chicago’s down­town and up until recently I worked there and fre­quented the art insti­tute and the the­ater often.

Elk Grove

A map of my street.

Blue Lake

In the Spring I spent some time in Blue Lake Cal­i­for­nia with Eliz­a­beth and WHit­ney, my best good pals. It’s a small town sur­rounded by ocean, for­est, red­wood tree’s and water­falls. Eliz­a­beth is in a mas­ters pro­gram in the­ater there. This is a map of some sig­nif­i­cant places in the town.

Palmer Square Recon­struc­tion (work in Progress)

Palmer Square is a lit­tle spot in Logan square that I have adored since the begin­ning of time. I have always wanted to live right off this cute lit­tle park and over the last 3 years it has been under con­struc­tion and is now finally open again. This piece I am strug­gling with and it has many lay­ers of paint under the green. Like the park itself, Some­day it will be fin­ished.
(detail)

A look inside my stu­dio




Gouache tubes, the medium I use to make these paint­ings.




Me and Eliz­a­beth hav­ing fun on the week­end

Posted by Dee Clements on Wednesday, August 5th, 2009 at 12:21 pm. You can follow responses through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.