The Supplemental

Closure

2010-03-05T09:03:00.004-06:00

The Supplemental has now closed.
It will serve as an archive.
There will be no new posts.
Thanks to all who found this more secret place

The Supplemental November 2. 2008- December 6. 2009

Enjoy the secrets...

2009-12-06T21:42:00.003-06:00

only at ddp gallery

Megan Chapman: Small works

2009-11-27T13:35:00.000-06:00

I am very excited to announce that I will have four paintings in the 20th annual exhibition of small and miniature work by selected artists at Aaron Gallery in Washington D.C. this December! I hope everyone in the D.C. area will visit the Aaron Gallery and Dupont Circle Galleries for First Friday Gallery Walk on December 4th from 6-8pm. I am thrilled to have my work selected for this group exhibition. I thought you might enjoy a preview of the selected works.

You came with fire
mixed media on canvas, 10x10" $275
© 2009 Megan Chapman

Behind the Whispers

mixed media on canvas, 20x16" $375
© 2009 Megan Chapman

Implosion

mixed media on canvas, 20x16" $375
© 2009 Megan Chapman

All things fall to the side

mixed media on canvas, 10x10" $275
© 2009 Megan Chapman

In other exciting news, I will be debuting an entirely new body of work at the DDP gallery in Fayetteville Arkansas, during the first Thursday art walk December 3rd from 5-8pm. I am putting the finishing touches on these works, that combine my love of photography and written word. These blocks are a precursor to my 100 flashes of memory series, and I am very excited to share them with the public. Additional photographs will be posted here soon so watch this space for updates as the week progresses. This new project has been a labor of love and a challenge, and very inspiring for me.

This is a wonderful and productive time in my art career and I am glad to share it with you. If you need any additional information about these works or galleries please feel free to contact me or leave a comment.

Make a plan...

2009-10-26T11:39:00.000-05:00

I'm sorry

2009-10-07T08:35:00.000-05:00

Visions of Darkness

2009-10-03T20:03:00.000-05:00

This secret place.

2009-09-25T14:40:00.005-05:00

Another Autumn.
Time is moving at warped speed.
Soon it will be Christmas again.
Then another birthday...
We have to slow this place down.
We have to slow this pace down.
Let's all concentrate really hard.
S L O W.... D O W N....

When I listen to music I lose track of this world
That is why things move so quickly.
Where have I been?
In dreams.

Maggie's World

2009-09-09T20:29:00.001-05:00

I have not forgotten you.

2009-09-09T04:46:00.002-05:00

Things have changed.
Yes, they have.
This was a special place where I shared special things
Now there are newer places where I share special things.
With many people everyday.
Doesn't mean you weren't the first
or that you weren't an epiphany.

Non sequitur

2009-08-05T11:41:00.003-05:00

Just a little inspiration.

2009-07-25T10:21:00.000-05:00

One Hundred Flashes of Memory...

2009-07-11T06:55:00.001-05:00

It's a concept, an inspiration, a hope and maybe even a pipe dream. One hundred flashes of memory is the idea that is keeping me up at night and excited in the studio. It has nothing to do with painting, selling, or anything that I am used to, and this is a wonderful feeling.

As you have become aware if you are still reading this blog, I am enamored with photography and I really want to explore this further. These are some of my ideas of how I will use a selection of my daily blips to create a large body of work and a multimedia experience. It started with the old idea of wanting to invite people into my brain. I think this is a common want among people, to share their unique vision of the world; "If you could just see things like I do." I also think this is an intimate encounter that I want to experience with the viewer, or perhaps I should say I am ready to share with the viewer.

I have started working on 100 3x3" wood blocks, covered in distressed and tarnished copper and silver leaf. My photographs are then mounted atop that, and then wax and resin are applied to make a foggy layer you must see through to find your way back to the image, which usually already has a dreamlike quality. These blocks may also have words or stories written around the sides to shed light on the image or the story behind it.

The small scale of the work is a reaction to/against the sometimes large and overwhelming works found in museums. I envision these blocks hanging in a grid on one wall of a gallery or perhaps lining the perimeter of the gallery as well. The majority of colors for this body of work are shades of black, white, greys and a sickly pale yellow- unlike my richly colored paintings.

The ideas expressed in this work will be about the ability to make ones day or life into a series of stories. There are multiple ways to view life, and many of us use stories to get us through it. There are also multiple versions to each story, especially as the viewer brings there own stories to the work. Some of these stories will be "true" and others fiction- no one will know which are which. Some concepts I plan to explore

longing
love
loss
inside my brain (an invitation)
broken happy things
waking dreams
childhood
strange environments

Stories to explore:
a black and white plastic guitar with red plastic strings singing songs for the dead
crawling under the table to listen to the earth move
white gloved hands motioning in the night
there is a chair with a skeleton sitting attached to the moon and it keeps turning

I also hope to use spoken and recorded words and stories, with music inspired (or fitting) these concepts or blocks. I have been talking with Swedish musician, Af Bellinde about creating certain pieces of music for a block or two or for the blocks as a whole. His music has always inspired me, and I think his sounds would add to the inner dream world imagery that my photography mostly explores. He has agreed to collaborate as his time allows. I am very excited about this potential collaboration. I may have ipod stations set up through out the gallery that would correspond to certain blocks so that the viewer can put on headphones and go deeper into the experience of the isolated block and the sounds inspired or associated with it.

So, this is what I have been thinking and dreaming of, this excites me and reminds me of the past, specifically of my BFA books project. It has been ten years since I have been out of art school and here I am still working, still painting, still growing, still exploring.
This is what is it all about...

One hundred flashes of memory...
I will keep you posted as this progresses.

pictured above Hover ©2009 Megan Chapman

Take this literally.

2009-06-22T15:06:00.001-05:00

It's a wonderful life...

2009-06-17T05:18:00.000-05:00

can't get there from here

2009-05-31T11:42:00.002-05:00

"Glad to be weirdly close"

2009-05-30T15:54:00.002-05:00

there is no place like home...

2009-05-18T23:01:00.004-05:00

I want to live here.

2009-05-15T10:01:00.000-05:00

Hauschka - Morgenrot from Jeff Desom on Vimeo.

I've seen it all...

2009-04-11T07:34:00.000-05:00

Foiled again

2009-04-08T16:17:00.003-05:00

Rejected as I have been every year for the past six.
This time I even had to ask for it..
thank you may I have another....
actually no - because I am done.

You will not get my submission fee on year seven.
and that's a promise.

Ocean's story...

2009-04-07T09:46:00.008-05:00

and the story continues...

I adore you...

2009-04-05T21:27:00.003-05:00

saturday

2009-04-04T20:26:00.000-05:00

Stories for another day...

2009-04-03T12:30:00.001-05:00

they say a watched pot

2009-04-01T15:23:00.001-05:00

won't ever boil...

so many faces.

2009-03-31T12:01:00.001-05:00

inspiration like a rocket.

2009-03-30T03:36:00.002-05:00

My feet are gold
I dance in chalk
I shake
I shake
I shake.

New ideas for a new series of etsy paintings.
"Stories"

Sunday Smile.

2009-03-29T07:11:00.001-05:00

I am trying for one.
(and yes I have posted this before but that won't stop me from doing it again)

Neglecting you.

2009-03-28T20:39:00.003-05:00

Hmm.
I've been neglecting my "secret" blog here a bit.
What do you want to know..
What can I say?
I've been busy.
This upcoming Friday the studio blog comes back.
I am not sure what that will entail.
I just don't know if I can give advice anymore..
Right now I feel like taking all my art off of myspace and replacing it with my photographs.
I don't know what has come over me.
I have been so busy and now I am not but really I am, it seems I am always busy, because I am always blowing something off that I should be doing. So then it is always lurking in the back of my mind. Oh well that is life.
Here is a music video. I hope you enjoy it.

Armed with a list and she means it.

2009-03-24T10:16:00.001-05:00

Notice how it does not say anything about putting my studio back together.
Hm....
Laundry is in..
What's next.

In boxes

2009-03-23T15:22:00.003-05:00

The studio is out of the gallery
but not yet up the steep stairs
It is in boxes, in pieces, and all around me.
Today- I am paralyzed.
So many things I should do but I just can't seem to move.
I will allow myself this today.
and begin again.

That's a promise...

filled with secrets

2009-03-20T19:03:00.003-05:00

The freshest...

2009-03-18T18:14:00.007-05:00

These new works were created while working in my studio installation as part of my current exhibition Selective Evidence at the ddp gallery.

A Small Map of the Past
20x20"
mixed media on canvas
Megan Chapman 2009
(sold today while drying in the gallery window!!)

Desire Suspended
20x16"
mixed media on canvas
Megan Chapman 2009
SOLD!

The Connection is Sealed
24x30"
mixed media on canvas
Megan Chapman 2009
SOLD!

A Promise
30x24"
mixed media on canvas
Megan Chapman 2009
SOLD!

sunday never ends...

2009-03-15T19:17:00.001-05:00

Revisitation

2009-03-13T09:06:00.002-05:00

"Oh, how I love you
And in the evening, when we are sleeping..."

you will find me in this heaven...

2009-03-11T19:26:00.001-05:00

tonight is just fine...

2009-03-10T20:26:00.002-05:00

"If you want something don't ask for nothing,
if you want nothing don't ask for something!"

Selective Evidence: The opening

2009-03-09T12:08:00.003-05:00

if you want to see it bigger

How much happiness can you take?

2009-03-09T09:13:00.003-05:00

Daffodils from my front yard, grown from the bulbs I planted.
I picked myself a bouquet as I returned from a morning walk.
Soon I am going to the coffee shop, then the gallery, and then I will paint while I listen to only the best music and plan my next move.

What is your next move?

It's glorious...

2009-03-08T11:08:00.002-05:00

sun, rain slicked roads, birds singing, flowers blooming, trees budding out, people buying art, another year older, and for now, today, yesterday, and the day before this is the ticket. I hope tomorrow will bring more of the same...

a good feeling and more to come.

2009-03-06T14:05:00.002-06:00

I tried to drown my sorrows, but the bastards learned how to swim, and now I am overwhelmed by this decent and good feeling.
-Frida Kahlo

This is art.

2009-03-05T10:23:00.002-06:00

"I'm not a drowning man!
And I'm not a burning building! I'm a tumbler!
Drowning cannot hurt a man!
Fire cannot hurt a man. Not the Government Man.

All I want is to breathe [Thank you. Thank you.]
Won't you breathe with me?
Find a little space...So we move in-between
And keep one step ahead of yourself."

a talisman of sorts...

2009-03-04T17:46:00.002-06:00

this used to work...

for you...

2009-03-03T10:46:00.003-06:00

White Chalk

2009-03-02T10:11:00.002-06:00

Today I clean and gather up the 15 pieces of "Selective Evidence" for my next solo exhibition at the DDP gallery in Fayetteville Arkansas. After I take the work over there today, this evening I will move two easels, two light stands, my paint stand, my cubby (where I keep my supplies in order) and I will to the best of my ability recreate my studio in the galleries space. It is all about stories; people love stories. They want to see the tools, the paint splattered, they want to see into the little window of my soul. They want to see that place where they usually are not allowed. Step into the process. From then on when they see my paintings they will remember my paint encrusted easel, the brand of oil paint I use, the blotter paper scattered on the floor, the music that is always in the air. They will have a picture and a story. I hope they take paintings home too.

There will be pictures of course later. Practicalities.
Pieces of Evidence scattered across the ether, because you need a story too.

I am just...

2009-03-01T13:38:00.010-06:00

I am just smeared mascara
bruises and a bottle of beer
Something you can log in and out of
Something to help you disappear
(as I disappear too...)

All that's left of me is fiction
Just a flicker on your screen
Just a far away story
Just a lonely person's dream

In the dark the glow won't save me
In the dark its all the same
Another day another tomorrow
Another story to keep you entertained

I am just
too much time
I am just
a list of chores
I am just
a phone I will not answer

wake up wake up wake up!

2009-02-28T09:34:00.007-06:00

Dreamy snowy day.
but it is time to wake up.
get things done.
so many things...
WAKE UP.

Happiness is ...

2009-02-27T09:49:00.008-06:00

1.a great blip
2.paying the bills (mostly)
3.feeling useful
4.feeling creative
5.a pot of coffee and no where to go
6.a good walk
7.a free movie
8.a good book on my shelf to read
9.a library of music
10.brilliant friends

I am also happy the breakfast club get to dance to a good song.

Note to self...

2009-02-26T06:17:00.001-06:00

To bring you my love...

2009-02-25T07:55:00.004-06:00

In a series of stories

2009-02-23T10:15:00.010-06:00

She said do you remember before you blogged or networked or regularly emailed "strangers?"

Do you remember before myspace, facebook, and all the other various profile pages? Do you remember before you had an international audience? Do you remember before the love festival of receiving and returning online compliments? Do you remember before you compulsively checked your emails and posts to see if anyone cared? Do you remember sleeping through the night?

She said do you remember being lonely and watching bad TV instead?
Do you remember answering your phone and calling your friends?
Do you remember not being a voyeur and not expressing yourself in sound bites and witty catch phrases? Do you remember being private and guarded? Do you remember when you didn't have to remember a dozen passwords and aliases?

Remember the wind on your face and the sun at your back?
Do you? How did it feel? Does this feel better?
She said she didn't remember...

secret worlds

2009-02-22T23:34:00.000-06:00

thirty minutes too early...

All is quiet

2009-02-22T12:57:00.009-06:00

New Dawn Fades...

2009-02-21T08:04:00.002-06:00

"A change of speed, a change of style.
A change of scene, with no regrets,
A chance to watch, admire the distance..."

"I am not the monster I used to be..."

2009-02-20T10:08:00.006-06:00

"I am awake again and put upon"

I'm sorry but I'm in love...

Where I work

2009-02-19T11:15:00.006-06:00

I love the steep wooden stairs at 3am.
I love the slanting cracked and peeling walls that make me work for space and distance.
I love the old creaky oak floor splattered with paint.
I love the two windows that face east and west.
One day I won't work in this space but today I celebrate it.
All the painters that came before me working in their attics understand.

last night I slept until 6am...
just like a baby.

Silver pictures move so slow...

2009-02-17T10:45:00.009-06:00

Tabula Rasa

2009-02-16T11:54:00.006-06:00

"Have fun" you say...

but what is my project, my goal, my mission,
my expression now?

I'll take some time off, read and just watch films and try not to catch myself in the glare of the monitor. I will try to lay low, re-group and disappear for a while.

I feel a warm longing creep over me.

What comes next?
Not knowing is best.

A Sunday Smile

2009-02-15T17:31:00.001-06:00

Seventy five miles an hour...radio active

2009-02-15T08:26:00.003-06:00

"This ramblin' and rovin' has taken it's course..."

Fire and Noise Opens TONIGHT!

2009-02-13T00:00:00.000-06:00

Tonight is the night!

Fire and Noise
Friday the 13th.
River Market ArtSpace
Little Rock Arkansas
Opening reception 5-8pm.
The show continues though March 7th.

I am excited, a little anxious and very ready.
Thank you all for everything.
I hope you will enjoy my Vlog!(I kept it under 3 minutes!!)

Love,
Megan

visit www.meganchapman.com
and www.rivermarketArtSpace.com
for more information.

I feel like this...

2009-02-12T08:02:00.003-06:00

"and I'll gamble away my fright
and I'll gamble away my time..."

keeps raining all the time...

2009-02-11T08:55:00.003-06:00

I met you in 1995

2009-02-10T11:38:00.003-06:00

and when I find you again you always take my breath away and take me to somewhere I want to go. So happy to see you and share you.

The Abbey in the Oakwood
(Abtei im Eichwald)
Caspar David Friedrich, 1809–10
Oil on canvas
110 × 171 cm
Alte Nationalgalerie, Berlin

Mind over time...

2009-02-10T04:52:00.008-06:00

Strange Arrangements
This (mostly) secret place

I am up in the dark waiting...
They are 3.5 hours away on a dark downtown wall waiting...

I have so much to say but instead I'll just keep...

Calm...

2009-02-09T09:41:00.004-06:00

Spies...

2009-02-08T11:00:00.002-06:00

"See what you've done to my heart..."

Painting done, the show is in place.
The house looks like an atom bomb hit it.
I look like an atom bomb hit me.

Sunday morning coming down...
In my cleanest dirty shirt.

and for the moment I am content.

Studio Chaos. Midnight Chaos...

2009-02-07T07:40:00.003-06:00

My studio table.
littered with studio debris.
The work is boxed and ready for travel.
After a sleepless night
I am like a live wire in water.

Is this a game or is it real?

2009-02-06T15:06:00.005-06:00

Tomorrow morning I take the works to the gallery.
It is already 3pm here.
I still have this to do.

1.Paint all the sides black (on the canvas paintings) one more time.
2.Sand any paint spillage on the sides (on the clay board paintings) one more time.
2.Sign the paintings.
3.Hanging wires on all.
4.Clean and pack up all the work.
5.Fetch a painting from local gallery.
6.Clean out the car for transport.

Time to move forward- no time to stall or waste.
My show opens a week from tonight!!
Shall we play a game?

Subtext Machine

2009-02-06T04:29:00.002-06:00

For those of you here for paintings
please visit www.meganchapman.com
Fire and Noise is ready for you.

Strangeness abounds.

2009-02-05T13:36:00.004-06:00

5 Things You Need to Know about Artists from Ray Deck III on Vimeo.

Today has been so odd or off or both.
I've been working through the oddness in fits and starts.
Cutting onions and crying.
Putting labels on postcards.
and then looking up strange stuff on the internet.

The above video I found while doing that. I am not a religious person so I wasn't looking up ministry related things. I was trying to understand the artists brain I guess. What do you know? I found a list of how to deal with artists and 5 things you should know about this odd species of person.

I watched it like a zombie looking for answers; white noise filled my ears when the word ministry came up and I just chose another word.

What the hell am I doing?

Threads...

2009-02-05T07:09:00.006-06:00

I remember painting you so well, while listening to "Threads" (hence your name) on repeat over and over again, just a few 3am sessions and you were here. Thank you, bon voyage and enjoy your new home!

5 minutes

2009-02-04T12:40:00.004-06:00

my hands are cold
and things are moving along quickly
I have an odd feeling wedged behind my heart

this too will vanish

thoughts while working

2009-02-03T12:30:00.004-06:00

"Drop everything.
Drop Dada.
Drop your wife, your mistress.
Drop your hopes and fears.
Abandon your children in the corner of a wood.
Drop the substance for the shadow.
Drop if need be a comfortable life, what you have, for a better future.
And set out on the open road."

by Andre Breton 1922

Stop breakin' down...

2009-02-03T09:21:00.003-06:00

"It'll make you lose your mind..."

Action please..

2009-02-02T09:31:00.005-06:00

A week caught in a vortex
and my work ethic has vanished
I've got to scare myself into action
and I will but just not yet...

I need this...

2009-01-31T17:28:00.000-06:00

"...This film is on
On a maddening loop
These clothes
These clothes don't fit us right
I'm to blame
It's all the same..."

slow giants

2009-01-30T18:37:00.003-06:00

ice covered trees
lumber in the wind
like slow giants

cracking, bending, breaking
falling apart around me
taking my nerves for a ride

green flashes in the sky
frozen transformers erupt
as they explode
they drone

I pace by windows
I cover my ears

Lets not talk of such things...

2009-01-29T16:08:00.007-06:00

the tree tops resting on the roof
that bend down to look at me through the glass door
the dark silent house that waits
the batteries on the kitchen counter that have run down
and the candles and the fire wood that I don't have
Sh...

2:37 a.m.

2009-01-27T12:39:00.003-06:00

wide awake
under a yard sale blanket
on a hand me down couch
in a five year old sweater

caught between the disconnect
in the silence of this night's ice.

Evaporate into sound...(I'd like to)

2009-01-23T00:00:00.001-06:00

That's why they call it art...

2009-01-22T00:00:00.000-06:00

This too will vanish

2009-01-21T03:26:00.002-06:00

3am, sometimes 2:52 in preparation (so it won't come as a shock)
She comes round again
These days I try to shut my eyes tight and forget
My body heavy like cement unmoving
My brain sparking fires
Thousands at a time
Trapped within
I know what I should do
but I don't

Standing on the shoulders of giants

2009-01-20T16:21:00.000-06:00

ocean of noise

2009-01-19T14:16:00.003-06:00

Sometimes it doesn't even look like you...

2009-01-18T11:43:00.004-06:00

There was a party last night. The kind where I got to go back in time.
I got to dance and sing and wear my old clothes and remember myself...

This isn't about art

2009-01-17T10:21:00.003-06:00

it might be about living...

I wish I was in that movie where I just wake up and suddenly come alive.

It's that scene where the lead has decided they have had enough of their current situation and they somehow have the power to rise above and start taking action.

If they were stuck at a dead end job they leave it or they suddenly are kicking ass and taking names and every one notices and they make their job amazing for themselves and finally get the respect they deserve.Or the dowdy unhappy girl with no friends suddenly becomes the knock out and has more friends and admirers than she knows what to do with..

That is how those movies usually end, but the part I really like is when they are home alone making the changes to get them there. Suddenly they have this drive and they are moving forward and making things happen, and we watch the fragile transition and we cheer for them just a little.

Like Kevin Spacey in American Beauty (yes- that turned out badly), but before then he quits his job, starts working out, smoking weed and having a fantastic time coming back to life(until the unfortunate end).

Sometimes I just wish there was that camera there, and the audience watching as I come back to life.

A very detached eye...

2009-01-16T14:10:00.006-06:00

scanned proof and notes from photography class 1999 Oregon.

I want to create a world of filth, but this filth is very beautiful in the volumes it speaks. I want to fill in the gaps and tell more of this grey world of lost and frozen time.

It's now 2009 and I still want to do this.

caught here

2009-01-15T11:55:00.011-06:00

Now in this space
Things are done but not quite.
Things need my attention but I have none to give.
I want to keep working but I stop frozen.

It is bone chilling cold and I feel so strongly
I feel like making something
but I am too frozen
to move forward just yet.

I hear songs, see photographs, and I look at my hands.
They want to move, they want to make, they want to thaw.

this (mostly) secret place

2009-01-14T11:26:00.005-06:00

What started out as a place to keep track of my inspirations for fire and noise has turned into another project all together. Still fewer words and more images, always of inspirations or past remembrances. The Supplemental has morphed into a much needed outlet for finding my way again. I am always excited to visit this place. Some people know about this and many more don't and that is how I like it.I don't reply to comments as regularly here, because I like to fade away into the background a bit more but please know that I love sharing this place with you and your comments are always appreciated even when not directly acknowledged.

and now it is time for me to fade away again...
thank you.

self absorption studies

2009-01-13T09:28:00.007-06:00

So I said come I'll show you my staples.I took the girls into the bathroom to look at the blood crusted metal. I was a star.

Of course I had my zebra sweatshirt on. We were getting ready to drive home and leave grandma in Little Rock. I was feeling sick, just worried about the trip home.
I looked bad.
I remember having the snap shot made at the kitchen table with my mom in her borrowed floral robe. My friendship pin gleaming.
I almost got sick.
Then we drove and when we stopped for gas at the station, I had a hard time moving.

Foggy voices telling me to come out
telling me to "squeeze my thumb"
"come on you can-oh goodness you're strong"

Ice chips followed...

What else is there...

2009-01-13T06:48:00.003-06:00

"flashlights, nightmares and sudden explosions..."
-Royksopp-What else is there..

All I Ever Wanted...

2009-01-12T08:26:00.003-06:00

Then the fear grips me and I wonder what have I done?

6:52a.m.

2009-01-11T06:52:00.001-06:00

"Unimpeded by other schemes, this hint of things to come takes time to expand in the new morning light, and we attempt to watch it unobtrusively, with deep concentration. The night has begun to open up at last. There will be time until the next darkness arrives..."

After Dark by Haruki Murakami

Strange arrangements

2009-01-09T20:59:00.018-06:00

I awake at the same time each night
In a dark room with ruby red carpet
I look across the floor and there they are again
They are pale, almost as if in white gloves
The hands.
They hover just over the floor
I don't cry, I just watch
As they make strange arrangements in the dark
Am I dreaming?
No.
Every night like clockwork motioning to me
In a dark room with ruby red carpet

She talks to rainbows...

2009-01-07T14:06:00.007-06:00

There was nothing she could do about the visions as they came at her on all sides. She could only accept them and the ringing in her ears...

one of those mornings...

2009-01-07T06:52:00.004-06:00

focus and just paint
focus and just paint
focus and just paint

just paint...

and while waiting for the paint to dry, I enjoy the inky morning eastern sky...

Interupting all programs...

2009-01-06T04:43:00.004-06:00

Radio Radio...

2009-01-05T12:20:00.003-06:00

these hands...

2009-01-03T16:05:00.002-06:00

I do battle with these hands
and watch them turn into
monsters.