Important Announcement: I can now scan in slides! Yes, I said scan. An old school scanner and some film are making this happen to appear on the internet. This opens up a whole ‘nother world for future postings here on carolkroll.com. That’s all I’m gonna say for now.

Today’s Studio Closeup #12 refers to last week’s post about art that was shown in NYC in 1998, but also perished in 2018's flood. Looking through my slides this week, I found the piece that also attended that 1998 show. Unfortunately I did not take any closeup slides of the individual panels that make up this triptych so it's hard to see the details. Did I title the slide? No, so I do not have a title or dimensions on this one I'm afraid. What I "can" tell you, however, is that this was the first piece I did about the drawbacks and perils of drinking. I also know that this triptych was in the show Morgyn and I had at her warehouse in 2000. I’ve included some photos of the two of us from that show and as you can see, good, good times.

The one cool thing I hadn't considered when I embarked on The Carolaoke Collection [let's call it that] is getting to really "hear" the music being played by the musicians in these karaoke versions. I really noticed the instrumentation going on within June Carter Cash's, "Jukebox Blues" when I was singing to it and it's fantastic. Please enjoy my scratch track version of this lovely lady's music.

I’m sure I’m not alone in saying that these last couple of weeks have been brutal on the heart, soul and mind. I’ve had trouble “getting it together” and focusing. The outside world certainly isn’t helping and it’s (always) hard to stay motivated. I am now just starting to recognize that when I start feeling like this, it’s time to unplug, run down the rabbit hole and get back to center.

Despite the noise in my head, I have been working on several pieces that still have a ways to go; I’m trying not to nag and berate myself about it BUT THAT IS SO HARD TO DO. And sometimes I don’t want to do the inner work to get where I need to be. And then I slip into old coping mechanisms and before I know it, it’s Wednesday again and I have to post a studio closeup. Speaking of that (deadlines), I’m also learning that art is a creative process and sometimes linear time and deadlines don’t make sense in that world. Creativity doesn’t care what day it is because it’s a feeling and everyone knows how fleeting feeling is. Add that I’m newly getting acquainted with my feelings after so many years of trying to ignore them, well, you can imagine it gets overwhelming sometimes.

So for today’s offering I post a little something from the time capsule section. I entered this piece (and another triptych) into a juried competition I saw being advertised in the back of Art In America magazine and was my first glorious experience of showing my work in SoHo, New York. Especially given that at the time I was starting to paint in a way I never had before and was leery of its outcome and reception.

Speaking of reception, I was able to attend the opening of this show in SoHo in person(!) - my first time ever in NYC, a place every artist dreams of with the additional euphoria of having my artwork hanging on a wall in SoHo. It was just an incredible experience that I certainly will never forget.

The triptych that was also in that show, perished in the flood, I’m afraid. I do have slides of it however! And I am looking into how to make slide film magically appear on the interwebs, so please stay tuned.

Title: Tricky Decision - Diptych
Year: 1998
Media: Acrylic Paint, Paper Collage & Canvas Board
Total Dimension: 5.5” x 15.5”

Today I present to you my scratch track version of Patsy Cline's "She's Got You".

I'm all tapped out for stories today but what I can tell you is that I plan on visiting other female vocal biggies from this era in my magical musical covers project.

Please enjoy.

This piece was super hard to photograph and I still don't know why. I loved doing the piece! But I've always been a shitty photographer and I'm certainly not set up for taking professional photos or slides of my artwork at this moment especially using my iPhone. But I'm not letting that deter me like it usually would. My first three reactions when things I make and present are not up to my standards of "perfection" (a funny word and concept) is to:

1-Throw it away or burn it
2-Halt all creative progress on anything else I've been working on
3-Just forget it, I'm never doing any of this shit again

I felt all this mounting up when trying to take these photos of my piece for today. Just the photos for it - I was having a pretty serious little tantrum and ready to close up shop. So this time, instead of never hearing or seeing anything from me ever again, I forced myself to work with the concept of "Good Enough For Who/What It's For". A saying my Mom's father (also an intense perfectionist) would say a lot that later my own father (who is also an extreme perfectionist) later adopted and said for probably HIS own mental health and well being.

At any rate, here is another portion of the Butterfly Museum Exhibit to take a peek at. There will be lights inside so when people look at this piece in real life, they won't be struggling to see what's inside.

"Progress not perfection" is a very hard concept to put into action AND accept. Like, SERIOUSLY.

Title: The Museum Series: Butterfly Museum #2
Year: 2020
Media: Acrylic Paint, Paper Collage & Wood Panel
Dimensions: 6" x 6" wood panel