Free Painting #5 - Frostmourne

This painting was done for a friend of mine, he kept asking for "Ffrostmourne", so here it is. As part of the free painting program, most of the free paintings are done Alla Prima, and in a modern art style. I drew inspiration for this piece directly off of the notorious PC game Warcraft.

1. You email me a request for what I should paint you.

2. I paint one request a week.

3. I mail that painting to the requester for FREE! (Not even a shipping charge).

4. I post each painting to my Instagram.

------------One painting 8"x8" painting of your choice. cedricalessandro@gmail.com

Free Painting #4 - Weeping Willow

The Wilow tree, requested by Kimberly N. the original request is below.

"Hi Cedric,
I came across your website today through Twitter and I see that you do one free painting per week. I have an idea for a painting if you'll consider it. I am obsessed with weeping willows and how magical they seem to be. I would love a painting of a weeping willow, maybe in an open area, or near a pond. Just an idea anyway.
Keep up the amazing work! I LOVE Dream 15. Everything about it.
Thanks,
Kimberly"

Painting a free painting every week can get quite complicated. I haven't painted a willow tree before and this seems like a good enough request that I can paint it on a small canvas, and I can paint it in a few hours. Overall I am satisfied with this painting.

1. You email me a request for what I should paint you.

2. I paint one request a week.

3. I mail that painting to the requester for FREE! (Not even a shipping charge).

4. I post each painting to my Twitter and Instagram.

------------One painting 8"x8" painting of your choice. cedricalessandro@gmail.com

Oligarchy

“The rule of law has slowly been replaced by giant idiosyncratic bureaucracies that are designed to criminalize failure, poverty, and weakness on the one hand, and to immunize strength, wealth and success on the other.” - Matt Taibbi

Becoming successful is like cheating at monopoly.
----If you want to be rich marry an heiress.----

"If you work hard, if you meet the right people, if you focus on your craft. One day it will come".

They tell us at youth, about the importance of school, how we need to work hard and get good grades, and one day we will be happy. We struggle our whole lives doing what we are supposed to do. It felt like a church gathering. Like god telling his servants to repent, and making promises of an afterlife.

******Shake THE hand correctly, shake THE hand! Make THE eye contact, be friendly to the right person. Learn the pecking order and stick to it. -------The truth is: it is people like YOU that make people rich and famous.


*********Daily Rants provided to you by Cedric C.***********

The importance of artist statements.

I remember putting up my first painting on eBay. I heard a story about a person whom sold a fly on eBay for $50, because he wrote out a long biography for the fly. I mimicked this for my first few sales, then I started experimenting on other methods. I went to an art show yesterday. I donated a large black and white painting to a charity that helps Burmese refugees. I dressed up in a nice suit. Because these were nice people. I had arrived a few hours late and didn't plan on staying for long. I went from painting to painting until I landed on mine. The event was a silent auction, and the prices on every painting were soaring. I witnessed a woman place a $1800 bid - as the first bid. Except mine... Mine had no bids. It hit me again, just like that fly on eBay. "Art does not sell itself", wise words from artbusiness.com. The context, the artist statement, the environment are all more important than the art.

Dream #24

Dream #24

View it here 

Dream #25

Oil On Canvas

20" x 30" x 1.5"

This painting was painted via a reference photo I took at the birdseed fashion smash benefit show. This is a portrait of Steffany Cook. The original photo is below. I am proud of my photography; I use a Canon 60d with a prime lens to literally take shots in the dark.

A few changes in the final painting meant it was ready for viewing. Though something didn't feel right. The background was to bright. So I changed it. I started adding a dark green background to the painting, letting the figure pop. I couldn't stop myself as I continued to add classical ships, and impressionist lighting. This came natural, as most of my work is very organic.

After letting the piece dry, it was finally ready for viewing, and honestly one of my best works. I enjoy the ships in the background, and the way the lighting feels like a classical painting.

The Artist Delusion: How NOT to sell your art.

"The Lovers" 

Acrylic, Oil pastel and Oil paints. 

36" x 24"  

Cedric Chambers

Dear Artworld,

Everyone knows someone whom calls them self an artist. The title "artist" represents some higher idealism. In the broad sense, anything man-made can be art. The artworld has this delusion of grandeur; where everything made by the artist is unique and revolutionary. In my opinion the idea of transcendence is mentally preventing artists from progressing in their work. 

What does an artist have to do to sell a painting? Every artist already knows the answer: a commercial style. Does commercial mean become a sell out? NO. Simply put it means; "cut the crap". No one cares about your love lost, or how deep you think you are. An artists purpose is to create nice status symbol that represents a lifestyle. Artwork with any kind of obvious interpretation, scares away the general public. If you try and create artwork that says something; keep in mind that it just might.

The stereotype of a romantic artist who somehow has a glimpse of truth. Is an egotistical art world delusion; it is pathological lying. People can see right through the fake idealism you project onto others; the semi-deep fake quotes from  "lacan" or your favorite poet; comes off as corny. As intelligent as you may think you are. It's not that people don't understand your work. It's that people don't want the message that your work conveys, or is trying to convey. If you can't sell your artwork, it's because people don't want it.

Thank you,

Cedric C.

Trying: who knows what that means???

I'll do what it takes and try my  best to get commissions and work. Often resulting in NO work. I'm a little spammy, a little impersonal. Just like other situations in life, you only get better by trying. 

NOTE: You can not get better at dying.

We all see this, people try and sell their tweets, mentions in blogs. I get strangers off the street saying I should be in their gallery, or art something, trying to sell me stuff, overpriced prints, expensive thousand dollar colored pencils, tickets to events; trying to convince me it'll pay off. No one should ever have to convince you of anything. 

There are a lot of  awards you can buy, for example. You can get published in artbooks from $60-$2500, depending on how well they hide the bought space. A Raw artist nomination will cost you about $200, a lot of social media promotion, in the end, you look like an idiot at some event desperately begging for someone to look at your work. (My experience was a line of signatures, photos, and facebook friend requests, and of course being overly drunk)

There are lots of events and award ceremonies that do nothing for your career. Resumes are useless, experience isn't. Do what it takes... even if its cold calling, or copy-pasting some generic message all over the freaking internet. Trying is getting your hands in the freaking dirt, and pulling something good out of it, never giving up. Just doing it. It's no days off, no rest, no concern about people's opinion of you.

Thank you for your time,
Cedric C.

Questioning Beauty in Art

ANEMOS DREAM:

OCEANIC DREAM

42" x 79" x 2"

​

Local figure painters, and my professors. Began critiquing my ability to paint the figure. They told me what was wrong with my figures. Along with what was wrong with my model. They said stuff like; “she’s a bit tubby" and “you seem to paint only what you think art is”. I rationalized this for a bit.  Like a plastic-surgeon, I outlined the muscle groups. She was crying about her weight, and the art community was concerned about her proportion. Do we take a ruler, and measure a girls limbs? Is this how we decide, that yes indeed, she is beautiful?  

The problem is not beauty or rules of beauty, it’s the excessive need to pursue it, to punish someone for wanting it, and also for not having it. It’s desired over anything, even happiness. I painted her, vulnerable, over the ship-breaking yards in Bangladesh. She was posing for one of the Anemos Dream paintings. This is the definitive moment, when, by pure accident, I caught the raw emotion of her breaking down about her self-image. 

Thank you,

Cedric C.

The Charity Racket!

The portrait above was a mixed media call for entries, where the theme of the show was based around photographs of 3rd world children in Southeast Asia. I answered the call to artists without expecting to be accepted. I was told to pick a photo, and to paint it. I chose a nice bokeh image of a child on a dock, painted it black and white, for the mixed media part, I used crushed jelly beans. The opening reception was being held at this beautiful gallery.

I started mingling, and quickly realized, that I didn't fit in. They had italian Hors d'œuvre's and a harp player. A coat check. I was stuck by the keg talking to some guy about his 6 month Vacation, and traveling the world. I rarely get the opportunity to tell people where I have gone, people just assume I have never been outside the U.S. Likely because there are no photos of it on facebook... 

So I went to my studio space, found some good friends of mine, one was an ex-convict, whom quit his life as a "pisa" to take up drawing, painting, and art. I mentioned the event, and the steak Hors d'œuvre's we treked up the street. I was surprised, the people there didn't exactly make us feel welcome. I can only imagine a tattooed "pisa" wasn't exactly whom they were expecting. 

I thought that the entire event was comically ironic. Here we have a room full of world travelers, with really nice jobs, really nice cameras. Traveling across the earth to help people. My guess is that it is part of their residencies... In reality, they went across the earth to take pictures of starving children, THEN attempt to sell the pictures to their philabtropist friends. The saying "take a picture it last longer" is ever so true here. 

 My real question is this. 

From a purely artistic perspective, what was the need to recreate the portraiture onto canvas to begin with? Weather its painted or photographed shouldn't matter.

The problem is not the charity part, the problem is someone attempting to build an artistic career off of the real life suffering of people in less fortunate situations, children nonetheless. Then re-creating an elitist environment, where, legitimate people in need; aren't even invited.

 Apparently, Charity is the new product on the shelves.....

 Thank you,

Cedric C.

The Art Hoarder

I remember going to art school, and having it drilled into my head, that everything I create could be valuable one day. I was told to sign everything, and keep good documentation of all my work. 

This is crazy talk, I was determining the current value of my work, like a hoarder determines the value of garbage. MAYBE someone somewhere will pay MILLIONS of dollars for this scribble on a napkin. Maybe yes, likely no. All I ended up doing was hoarding tons of bad drawings, paintings, and studies; stuff that I didn't even care about. Wasting my time taking pictures, and pretending I was doing something productive.

I would go to art shows and attempt to talk to gallery owners/artists (at their own shows mind you) about MY unprofessional art, in an unprofessional way. I realized I really looked desperate carrying around a hard copy of my portfolio, even if it was only in my car. I would have done anything just to say that I was represented by someone. 

When I dropped out of school, you know what I discovered, NO ONE CARES about my portfolio! They only care that I have one. What I did in art school, is not what I want to be showing off anyways. Going to school only proves that you are dedicated enough to do something with your life. It's a sentence on first dates. 

I see this nearly every day. I fell for this trap too. When I started off in the artworld. I was conditioned to think that someone somewhere is buying art. When you can't sell your work, or get into a gallery, you think that just haven't found the right person.... Though, you probably still have that derranged hoarder artist mindset, where all your work is worth millions...I personally have always had a good sense of time, my peers often try and get away with some ridiculous stories for why their work is priced so high. Trying to say that their charcoal portraits took some ridiculous amount of time to complete and that they can't sell it for less than two grand. Either a veteran or a brand new artist: the piece in question is a very personal piece, and the buyer is lucky that the artist isn't accounting for school, gas, and gallery fees.

Everything I made in art school was overpriced nonsense, valuable for learning, and at the time I thought it was pretty good. My recommendation is when you're done with artschool. Destroy burn or giveaway, all of your old artwork. That painting that I did in college that had so much "meaning" attached to it, is about as deep as a bathtub. 

When I attempt to create art that I'm not excited about, the art comes off as forced. This happens with all of my work eventually. It serves the purpose of being therapuetic during the time of creation, like the Greeks say, " Memento Mori", remember we will all die. 

As much as I like covering my house with my own artwork, and I think of all the hours that I've spent creating my artwork. I have to remember that I never created these works for money. Now while I would love to make a living to creating artwork. Often I find myself just attempting to recouperate costs so I can paint even more.

Thank you for your time,

Cedric C.

Darth Vader, Christ, and The Rubble of the World Trade

This being my most popular work, (for explainable reasons). People often ask me "what does it mean". This painting was based off an idea I had where Darwin is putting Christ to rest on a pile of bones. The conceptualization was too obvious. Not dynamic, boring, so I switched Darwin to Darth Vader. 

The relationship between Jesus, and Darth Vader is a messianic one. Both are prophets with similar aspects; virgin births, self-sacrifice, magical powers. The world trade centers are a result of religious fervor, and the interpretations of the Prophet Muhammed. All Prophetic cultural reactions; synthesized historico interpretations of Christ, represented at vastly different periods of time. To me this piece represents the battle between good and evil, in a way that accepts that they may be one and the same thing.

Inspiration for Oil Painting

The day we broke up, I quit my job and dropped out of school. I began devoting my life twoards painting. You don't need an education to understand art. What ultimately matters, is not the bio, not the education, not the pricetag. What matters is the art.​

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The Anemone, is a wild flower, found in the middle east. The flower is often confused with the poppy. It fits as a symbolic critique of religion and love. Anemos is Greek for wind, which represents change. Anemones are associated with legends of despair, death, and disease. When Aphrodite’s lover, Adonis died. It is said that the anemone burst through his heart, as her tears touched his body. The flower is said to have been at the feet of Jesus's cross when he was crucified. In China it represents death. In Europe it represents disease. It is The beautiful dissipation of hope. ​​