It ended up being a pretty productive day. I used my rotating schedule to try and touch on a variety of things that needed to be done, and early on I was able to stick to my allotted time periods. My trip to PBSC wasn’t as fruitful; I wasn’t able to pick up my artwork. ..maybe later this week. I spent the majority of my ‘art time’ working on the round canvas, although I did manage to complete sketching in the hair/text elements on all of the paintings. I wasn’t sure what color to use to fill in the hair/text on the round canvas; I finally decided on white with just a hint of turquoise. The piece is still in progress…and I started painting more on the oval painting towards the end of the evening. (Right; 'Love', in progress... around 4:30, I had just started to fill in the text on the left side) One thing that was a big inspiration to me today was the opportunity to participate in a painting session with a former student via Skype. He had posted a piece on Facebook, I mentioned that we had both been painting at the same time and he had the idea to set up a Skype session. What a great idea. I haven’t used Skype since I went to Japan in 2009, so I had to install it again, find the camera…I never resolved the microphone so we had to use cell phones to actually talk. We ended up painting for about an hour and a half, what a great experience. One thing that is unique about making art now is that I am usually creating my work alone. My husband may be in the other room, but I am in essence working by myself, maybe with my Ipod or Pandora playing on the computer. There is a lot to be said about having access to other artists as you work, made me think of my time in the weaving studio, or working in my drawing and painting classes. Yeah, I focus when I work by myself, but it also gives you certain energy to work around other artists. What a unique experience to be able to work alongside a student that I taught almost ten years ago. It was awesome to catch up, to talk technique, to talk aesthetic, to talk about just feeling like you have to create. Amazing. (Check out his work; https://www.facebook.com/jonathan.schwager) So all in all, good day. The oval and round canvases are in progress, with the latter being close to completion. The other four rectangular canvases have at least been sketched out, so those will be waiting for me when I am ready to start adding color. (Below; I moved the set up back to the kitchen 'studio corner'...the rectangular canvases are sketched and ready...the other two, well underway after a great painting session via Skype)
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Woke up this morning, early. Too. Early. It amazes me how I cannot sleep in. I was up til 2am painting last night and still woke up at 7:30. Now I didn’t say I woke up completely motivated and ready to start the day, but awake nonetheless. Sigh. Awaiting me in the kitchen, last night’s projects. One oval canvas, one round canvas and four rectangular canvases all white and ready to be painted upon. Six surfaces, waiting for some sort of resolution. One thing that I struggle with is maximizing productivity on my days off. If I don’t watch out, hours will pass by and leaving me wondering, ‘hey, where did my day go? And, more importantly, what did I accomplish?’ It is a constant battle to make time for art, to clean and organize around home, and to get things done for school. (Notice I didn’t include spending time with John in this list because he always supersedes any item on any list, awwwwww) One thing that I have started to do is to work in ‘rounds’, rotating my activities in timed increments. I even set the timer on my phone. I will work on my art for x-amount of time. The alarm rings. I will move to cleaning up for x-amount of time, etc, etc. I know that this seems very regimented, and it is. But when I can be disciplined in this way, it works for me, and I don’t re-awaken from zoning out on the couch and find that I was wasting my time watching a Real Housewives marathon. (Yes, guilty.) So far so good. I really like to document my progress. This helps me reflect on how I work, and make assessments on my productivity. As for today, off to a good start. I have six pieces in-progress. Still working with the face going off the bottom of the picture plane, still exploring specific words layered and intertwined to form hair structures. Love. Life. Truth. Self. Laughter. Inspiration. Just some things on my mind. Started to experiment with exaggerating my favorite facial feature, the eyes. Definitely inspired by the artwork of my friend, Jessie, who is an amazing artist and a big motivator for me right now. Now, a trip to Michaels (of course) and trip to pick up my work from the PBSC show could derail me, but I am hoping I will be able to get back on track, so to speak, once I return from these errands. |
AuthorArtist and Art Teacher
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