I am that red, roiling thing.

Je suis la femme-fénix, tordue, épouvantée. Effrayante en sa splendeur, ses ailes enflammées, exténuées. Je n’ose pas, alors je m’envole…nulle part. Les murs m’entourent, il n’y a que des murs. Partout, partout, des murs sans portes, des portes sans toi. Toi, tu pars. Moi, je reste. C’est toujours comme ça. Ces ailes ne volent pas. 

Well, a great deal of things have happened, but alas, not that much art, at least in traditional mediums. I have been thoroughly absorbed in my pursuits as a trapeze artist, but you might start seeing more oil paintings from me as someone has most generously allowed me to take over a spare room as my painting studio. It’s small, but way better (and healthier) than trying to do an oil painting in my bedroom, which is what I did for this little still life here (which I completed last fall): 

Hmm. I thought I wrote an update some time ago in the fall, but I guess imagined it. Anyway, what the hell have I been doing since last summer? Well, basically I now work as a trapeze artist. Here is my website. I decided to fully commit to this career last year, when I came back from Paris. I had always been a bit on the fence about it and wasted a lot of time pondering the possibility. Then I finally realized that if I didn’t give it a shot, I would regret it for the rest of my life. One of the things that helped me reach this decision, silly as it may seem, was this comic. 

Wow, so it has been a busy few months. I got back from Paris mid-June (can’t wait to go back) and spent the month of July as a studio assistant to Patrick Earl Hammie. This was a challenging but incredibly instructive experience that I would recommend to any artist at any level. Art is so highly personal, and every individual has a different way of working, so it can be both frustrating and difficult to come out of one’s artistic shell, to break away from one’s creative habits. 

So, it has come to my attention that the About and Contact sections of my website are not working at the moment; I’m not sure what’s up with that, but I’ll try to get it fixed soon. In the meantime, my contact info can be found here:

camille [dot] swift [at] gmail [dot] com

Twitter

Also, I might as well take the opportunity to explain why this blog is so quiet right now: I’ve been working in Paris since February! I am doing a digital painting at the moment, but 95% of my free time is spent in trapeze training. I went to a great art event last night, though, and was inspired to do this sketch: 

So, I did a commission for a friend in exchange for his making me a bullwhip. I’m thinking a trapeze act combined with whip-cracking…somehow? Here it is: 

After several people told me I needed to work more on the face (among other things), I made some revisions. It may…possibly…be done now. 

So, a friend of mine convinced me to get a Moleskine sketchbook…bearing this new acquistion in hand, I’ll try to post more studies and sketches!

A new iteration of Little Red Riding Hood: