Baker Artist Portfolios

Works on paper created during the 2020 lockdown

Begun in 2020, this new series is trompe l'oeil chalkboard paintings. People have been afraid to touch them, thinking they will be smeared. An interesting part for me has been to research the math to be sure it is correct! A bit of whimsey.

Compositions are digitally modified photographs combined as multiple images or collages. They range from enigmatically representational or comprehensibly abstract.

I've always been intrigued by shacks and shanties set in various locales. I become obsessed over how the human spirit lived and/or worked in such unique, tiny spaces.

Watergraph was a term I invented that came from taking photographs of water reflections that have been turned upside-down. Depending on environmental factors like the wind, debris in the water, and the color of the sky, each inverted reflection created a painting in its own right framed by whatever was surrounding the water. This is part of my serendipitous quest of water reflections that range from little puddles to large bodies of water. To see how the images were originally discovered, turn your head (or your laptop, tablet, smartphone) upside-down.

“Just Desserts” (2013-2014) is a series of watercolor portraits depicting adult women in the act of eating dessert. Some of the subjects are blissfully absorbed in the act of eating, while others confront the viewer directly, with expressions ranging from coy to defiant. On a literal level, these works discuss the contemporary American woman's complex, often fraught relationship with food and body image.

Dimensional Paintings.
Mixed Media; wood, wire, muslin, miscellaneous found materials and acrylic paint.

It is my intention that the colors and irregularities capture the power and intensity of the music itself.
I would like to demonstrate that portrait painting is not always a prudent image but can also be seen as a history of ideas that stem from expressionist painters, California Funk art, and assemblage artists of the 50s.

In the course of study, I tried my hand at painting in the style of Luis Melendez, an 18th century Spanish still life painter.

The aim of these exercises was to understand this artist's techniques, then to go on and incorporate parts of this style into my own works.

In the later paintings, I have endeavored to show movement in still life. This is proving to be a popular idea.