My series of human hearts is a body of work that I’ve added to intermittently over 2 years, and is what I consider to be my most intentional work to date. The concept behind these paintings meanders between simple color exercises and a reflection of my preoccupation with love and human emotions. Working on these pieces eventually became a personal discovery for me, as it made me even more aware of how much I overanalyzed and obsessed about this topic. After much consideration and refining, I decided that this was the year to share the work with the world as a completed concept.
Through November 22, The Holland Project in Reno, NV will be exhibiting a collection of my human hearts in their Hallway Gallery. This show, titled Cor Cordium, is particularly significant to me because it is my first solo show since 2016. Here is my artist statement:
When I first conceptualized this series, the idea was very simplistic and immature, which I am sure was indicative of my mindset at the time. After a break, and some life experience, I returned to the idea with a more developed approach. I chose to use human hearts rather than the stylized “Hallmark heart” because it felt more realistic and complex, as love can be sometimes. At that point, the series evolved to be as much about color as it was about presenting each of the hearts as a sort of token to remind people about the act of feeling. Later in the series, I began to depict the hearts with erosion or missing pieces which marked a significant turn in the work.
The title of the show, Cor Cordium, is a Latin phrase meaning “heart of hearts.” As I present this series of paintings as a fully realized idea to the world for the first time, in my heart of hearts I think that the significance behind this process was a way of challenging myself, and the viewer, to be mindful of what is inward. Who are we and what do we truly desire, in the deepest depths of our core? What kind of effort are we making to align the external with the internal?
Gallery hours are Wednesday - Friday from 12-6pm, with an opening reception on October 25, from 6-8pm. For more information, visit The Holland Project's exhibits page here.
I will also be sharing selected works and insights on my Instagram page @tracilturner, so be sure to follow me there to stay in touch!
One of my favorite collaborations in the last couple of years is with my friend John White. He is a musician and songwriter, and I also know him to be a huge fan of visual art. A prolific artist in the Reno community, producing several albums on his own throughout his career, I was so honored when he asked me to do the cover art for a few of his singles under his band, The John Whites. The project was to make three vignettes illustrating different points of a story following a romantic relationship. This is the first time that I'm sharing the work here all at once.
The first two pieces were John's vision, I just brought the visuals to it. The third pieces was where I had free reign to make something that was my own interpretation of the music. I invite you to take a look and a listen to what we were able to do within our respective crafts.
Oil on wood panel. Traci L. Turner
The first in this mini-series was for the song "Love" from the album Music, Magic, Mischief, Mayhem. It depicts a pivotal moment in this relationship with one person appealing to the other to rekindle the connection. Having been on the receiving end of this scenario personally, I certainly could relate to the woman in the painting and I paid special attention to figuring out the expression to give her. Though her face is turned away and showing resistance, her arm is extended toward the man, almost touching. I thought about the hesitation and indecision of a moment like that. When one still feels deeply connected to someone who may have hurt them, and then that person shows intentions to re-enter your life...the emotions are complicated. I definitely had a particular attachment to this piece because it really hit home. I never would've been brave enough on my own to attempt to put a visual to that feeling, so I appreciate being tasked to do it through this collaboration with John.
Oil on wood panel. Traci L. Turner.
The second piece that was commissioned to me was for the single "Our Love" from the aforementioned album. This vignette was meant to depict the couple reconciling the relationship. So yup, he got that ol' thang back. I think this piece was the hardest one because John had a specific vision with different elements that he wanted me to include. It was difficult for me to come up with an image that put it all together in a way that was aesthetically pleasing and held a narrative. I was extremely relieved when we were able to agree on something. For me, this piece is about harmony, togetherness, sacredness and being lost in an intimate moment with someone special. Besides the imagery, which was almost solely directed by John, I wanted to be aware of how to use color to emphasize the intended reaction from the viewer. I decided to go with bright, complimentary colors, using the blues and whites to hint at the skies or heaven.
Oil, silver and copper leaf on wood panel. Traci L. Turner
The final piece in this trilogy is a single for an upcoming album by The John Whites. The single is called "Come With Me," and it is about sexual relations. With this piece I was tasked with creating a painting based off of my own interpretation of the song. It really didn't take long for me to come up with an image, surprisingly! Of course the act of sex is already intense and intimate on its own, but I wanted to do something that explained the intimacy of sex that was outside of the act itself. Two people, vulnerable and nude with each other in a mutual connection was the thought that I couldn't get away from when thinking of the song. The fluid that is shown in the piece was originally supposed to be blood, but I decided to tone it down to be something that represented different bodily fluid instead. Ultimately I thought that the blood was too intense for the song. My mind always goes to blood though, especially when depicting a connection between two people, because I'm fascinated by the idea of being so exposed and entangled with someone that you actually share a lifeforce. Perhaps that's a topic to be explored in a different blog post. At any rate, sharing bodily fluids and being in your most natural and vulnerable state with someone is really what I wanted to share. Nothing revolutionary at all, but it really doesn't have to be. A lot of us know what that's like. It's such a simple and universal concept that I didn't think needed to be framed in an esoteric way.
This collaboration with John White was the first time that I ever did anything like that! For some reason I didn't think much about how I could use my skills to illustrate or coincide with someone else's idea or work. Matching the visuals to the music was a challenge that proved to be beneficial for me because it pushed me to think more about how to tell a story in my work. It also challenged me to think about how to make more than one figure relate to each other. Normally I focus on just one figure in my pieces, so I appreciate that I now have some paintings that feel like a bit of an expansion upon the humanistic ideas that I already use in my work.
Now that you've checked out the visuals, go listen to the music! Visit The John Whites' website and purchase the music wherever you prefer to hear your tunes.
I recently realized how long it had been since I posted here! Earlier in the year I had my hand in a few creative things here and there, and I was fairly consistent with posting videos. I had been doing some practice paintings and painting exercises that for some reason I missed out on sharing here at the time, but over the next few blog posts I will get you all caught up on those pieces as well as other projects I've neglected to mention. Even though I had built up a fair amount of momentum at the beginning of 2019, eventually I fell behind myself and I let it happen because I just wanted to chill. It wasn't burnout, at least not in the way that I had always known it. I wasn't exhausted or struggling with my morale at all. I just decided to take a break to enjoy my friends and enjoy life. The transition felt pretty natural, surprisingly. I ditched a schedule, scrapped all of the over-thinking and did a lot less "planning." It felt great to be able to choose to be more leisurely with my time. I spent a lot of that time recalibrating, learning, observing and gathering ideas. I suppose we all have to change gears every once in a while. Also, I took a few months off from certain social media platforms, for reasons that I'm not going to bore you with on here. To be honest, sometimes it's not much fun for me to be online and go through the rigmarole of marketing myself and sharing shit. I probably should care and push it a whole lot more, but it can be hard to get myself in that mindset. I think so much of it is ridiculous, and the measures of success (or whatever you want to call that) are unreliable. But I digress. At any rate, Now I'm feeling ready to hop back on the horse and talk about my creative life again. So in this post and in the next two or three to follow, lemme gone 'head and get you caught up.
R.A.W Magazine Feature
R.A.W stands for "Real Artists Wanted" photo credit: Mason Taylor for R.A.W Magazine
The first really cool thing to happen this year was that I was asked to be featured in R.A.W Magazine for their Winter 2019 issue (that's not me on the cover). It's a quarterly online and print publication that features artists and working creative people from various backgrounds. I answered some thought-provoking questions ranging from my creative process to who inspires me. Take a look and let me know what you think! Follow your nose to the article here.
"Hoops n Hood Culture" @ UNR
Part of the crew that made the night a success!
Back in February of this year, I helped lead a painting group at the University of Nevada as a part of their Black History Month celebrations for the students. It was organized by the wonderful folks from The Center, an on-campus cultural diversity group that supports the students. I certainly don't consider myself a teacher, at all, but I tried to figure out a way to make the project approachable and customizable. I had to choose what I wanted people to paint, and come up with a supply list. If there was ever a moment where I could say that I felt "official" it was sitting in a coffee shop deciding what supplies I thought were appropriate to lead a group of painters with a wide skill level range. The night of the event was a blend of fine art and a touch of "hood culture" by way of classic and new rap music. I have to say that it was the most fun event that I've done so far this year! I chose a piece by Washington, DC artist LlanaKila whose work I thought was perfect to share because of her color sensibilities and the way that she depicts her black female figures. The particular piece that I chose allowed the attendees to use it as a template to either replicate or personalize it with their own vision. I was so pleased with what everyone was able to create.
"How to See Color and Paint It"
This will be a separate series of posts, but I thought that it was still worth mentioning. I had started doing painting exercises from a book called How to See Color and Paint It, and sharing my results on my YouTube channel. I only made it up to about the 4th project so far but I am going to return to it. My goal is to finish all of the exercises by the end of the year, but we'll see how that goes. The lessons in this book are very technical and specific about how to translate the color you see to the color you are able to mix with physical paint. It took me a couple of exercises to get used to the process. It's simple, but challenging. Be on the look out for updates on that series of projects, but if you want to see how I've done so far, you can see my videos here.
All the rest...
There is much more to share but again, I'll be breaking it all up into separate posts. I just wanted to do a introductory check-in to reintroduce myself to writing/sharing in this space again. I know that it's been awhile and I'll still be slowly trickling things out right now, but if you haven't already, I invite you to find and follow me on all the other spaces where I share things. I don't want you to miss out:
