Hashtag Life - Works by Kamilah Gill - March 2, 2012 @ Dewclaw in the Circle City Industrial Complex, Indianapolis, IN.

I've been procrastinating about this announcement... I'm not sure why. Anyway, I'm having my first small solo show this Friday, March 2nd, at Carla Knopp's Dewclaw space in the Circle City Industrial Complex in Indianapolis, IN. Find out more details here.


I'll add more photos of the space after the event. This is just a sneak preview of one corner of the installation.

02-29-12. "Adult Elephant", a 2010 painting by Ivette Zighelbolm.

02-28-12. Inner tube water polo.

02-27-12. Cabbage patch (with a mutation).

02-26-12. Svintus power strip concept with 17 snout outlets.

02-25-12. "Icicle Intervention, Victor, Idaho" by William Lamson (as seen on 20x200).

02-24-12. My teeth.

02-23-12. Gravestone for a relative of one of Harold's ancestors.

02-22-12. A Clarice Cliff cornucopia vase.

02-21-12. My ballpoint pen.

02-20-12. A stick of gum from a pack that I bought today.

02-19-12. A squid.

02-18-12. DNA dog toy.

02-17-12. Motel sign in a photo by Charles Biddle.

02-16-12. A hanger from one of our closets.

02-15-12. Contrails over Virginia.

02-14-12. Lollipops.

02-13-12. "Alphabet Soup" by Pete Beeman in Albuquerque.

Merostomata (Green Shadow) [SOLD]

"Merostomata (Green Shadow)", oil on canvas, 20x24 in. (51x61 cm). $300 on Etsy

This painting is about the word "shadow". This is my third painting about this theme. This one is different from the first two. It still focuses on a pair of objects, but this time my interactions with them and reasons for choosing them were different. There are two layers of randomly selected objects. Most visibly, there are two ingredients of Asian cuisine, rice vinegar and soy sauce. Less distinctly, an extinct sea scorpion and a horseshoe crab float on their sides on another layer. These two animals are representatives of the biological class Merostomata, hence the title of the painting. The condiments and the animals are completely unrelated, but I have joined them into what I hope is a harmonious design. Together they cast a green shadow.

The two condiments are from my own kitchen. The animals are based on internet photographs.

I randomly selected the topics by using websites and smartphone apps. My goal was to simulate what it's like to surf from topic to topic on the web. It's so simple to hop from one unrelated subject to the next. Usually, all that this does is fill my head with mostly useless facts. The painting freezes in mid-jump between ideas and gives the viewer a chance to stop and think.

02-12-12. An opera singer at the University of Oregon.

02-11-12. Puppet at Peewinkle's in Indianapolis.

02-10-12. Detail of Virgil Marti's bully wallpaper.

02-09-12. Abandoned garden gnome.

02-08-12. One of our Missoni for Target pillows.

02-07-12. Roller skates.

02-06-12. Bust of a cranky old man.

Self-portrait with a Sandwich on My iPhone (Russet)

"Self-portrait with a Sandwich on My iPhone (Russet)", oil on canvas, 16x20".

I'm trying to collapse several realities onto one plane in this image. My portrait looks realistic, complete with an illusion of depth, but then on the edges it crumbles, blurs and pixellates. The random online image of a tutoring session shows through, or overlays me like a reflection on glass. Meanwhile, I hold up my phone displaying the random image of a sandwich. I look a little dissatisfied, I guess. The sandwich is pretty and crisp, but I can't eat it. I'll probably never meet the busy people in the photograph. The whole painting is just an image, anyway, which most people will only encounter as another random jpeg on the internet. I would say that it's about dissatisfaction with virtual realities, and blurred boundaries. Maybe it means something different to you.

This painting won't be for sale right away. I have to use it for something (which I'll tell everyone about later). When I do post it for sale, I'll let everyone know.

02-05-12. I like peanut butter on rice cakes.

02-04-12. Puget Sound, as seen during our October 2011 trip to Seattle.

02-03-12. My tongue.

02-02-12. One of our luggage locks.

02-01-12. "Middle School Bunnies" embroidery on Etsy.