Artist Gina Jrel

Welcome to my Loft warehouse / studio, located in St. George, Utah. This is where I do most of my painting.

I believe in making the environment take on the feeling of the works being created. Shown here is a big banner promoting the show. We cleared all of the walls, took all of the rest of the paintings up to the catwalk area of the Loft, and made room for the pieces, and the feeling of this show.

A wall of One-Liners! I wrote out a bunch of these, and put them on the walls of the Loft in the beginning. I wanted the ideas / song lyrics to surround me.

I stretch all of my own canvases, on custom build stretcher frames (thanks Jeremy!). Just can't do the sotre bought thing. Here I am, cutting the raw canvas material to match the size of a wooden stretcher frame. Stack and stacks of unprepped stretcher frames with pre-cut canvas. After we have matched the canvas pieces to the frames, then it is time to iron the canvases to remove any wrinkles or creases. I iron more canvas that I do anything in my wardrobe.

My primary painting pallet, right in the middle of the show prep, and in the full-glory of painty-messy.

All kinds of paintings in the beginning stages. Oddly, this is the stage of the show preparations that I feel the most stressed. I hate looking at them when they are in this stage. THEY DRIVE ME CRAZY. I think that is part of what drives me to finish them.

The work on the One-Liners Show - mental work that is - started years ago. The initial sketch I did for the painting "The Wind Beneath My Wings," was done in early 2005. It's a sketch I did based on the feeling of grattitude I have towards the many people who have helped me with my art career/endeavors. I started out by literally including portraits of many of these friends, clients, teachers, and business associates. But in the end, I opted to go with something symbolic - just beautiful, virbant, swirling colors that -- in my heart -- represent them all. The sketch has been sitting in my sketchbook, waiting for the right time to be painted. When I resolved to do a show based on favorite one-lines out of songs, this sketch all but jumped out of my sketchbook. I knew it was time.

Painting the bright, multi-colored underpainting for the symbolic "wind" in my painting, "The Wind Beneath My Wings."

"The Wind Beneath My Wings" in its underpainting stages. I put this piece on the wall at the Loft, so I could mentally let it brew. I worked on other things for weeks while this image...based on the feelings behind this painting....swirled around in my head and took shape.

From the pages of one of my zillions of sketchbooks, a small-scale study for the painting, "Sweet Dreams." (based on the Eurythmics song "Sweet Dreams Are Made of This...") This sketch was done with a blue ball-point pen.

Workin' away on "Sweet Dreams" at the Loft. I think I have been wearing those same painting britches for 4 weeks now. Ha ha.

A detail shot of "Sweet Dreams" (in progress). Everything done but the face!

"Bird In Flight," based on a line from Fleetwood Mac's song "Rhiannon," in its very beginning stages. Often, if I am unclear about what the piece will look like, I will paint the background a solid color (so I don't have to look at a blank, white canvas staring at me! scary!) I first painted, then used a metallic red varigated leafing, to spice up the surface of the full moon in the background. Then, I stared adding some of the underpainting layers of colors. Here, I am adding under color to the bird.

Okay...so let's get right to the point. SWIRLIES make he world go round, right? So here, I've added lots of wonderful, happy swirlies to the background, to add movement and give the piece a little bit of a whimsical feeling. Swirlies make me happy. Yippee.

"Bird In Flight" finished. This painting is based on the line "She rules her life like a bird in flight..." from the Fleetwood Mac song, Rhiannon. I liked the line because it mirrors my life...the gypsy...the independent solitude aspects of my personality.....the fact I am constantly moving and changing. I don't like to be tied down, I like freedom and exploring where the wind takes me. I chose to add some strings to this painting...to symbolize the "no strings attached" aspect of the song line. I used some textiles from a scarf I purchased at Juniper Sky Fine Art Gallery a while back, made by a talented local artist, Janet Brown. I used selected textiles from this artsy scarf, swirling them around the bird, but not attached it it. By the way...mounting furry strings to canvas: thumbs down!!! I had so much glue on my hands, me, the walls, the floor...wow. Difficult endeavor. In the end I accomplished what I set out to do, but afterwards it was a 409 night at my house...big time. This painting has turquoise and copper hand-painted wood tiles adorning the edges.