Now that I have a minute to sit and process...even though it's almost 2am on June 6th...I am going to rewind and go back to June 5th. One of the first things that was significant was checking my email to find that my angel paintings from my first Etsy order made it to Missouri and Nevada- and that they liked my work. (see pic below) More important- the work served as a tribute to their friend. Awesome. Looking at that email, and seeing my work in the hands of the folks that I made it for, and feeling like it really did serve the purpose for which it was created...truthfully? I teared up. I got a little verklempt. I.love.sparkly.flamingo. And then it was on to my adventures in flamingo embellishment, which I wrote about in the previous post. (scroll down) I really would love to go all Sandy Skoglund style and fill an entire room with an entire flock of these fabulously sparkly fowl. Hmmmmmm...maybe I will. I started off really motivated...worked on the flamingos and then, well...there was some lost time. But I did get back into my creative zone, started pretty late, but I made some art nonetheless. Well, let me back track...I figured out what I wanted to do for the next ANE show. It's a Star Trek theme and I had some ideas, but I wasn't 100% sure of what I wanted to do...and I will post more about it later as I start creating the work, but let's just say that the pieces will fit my pinup theme for the month of June. Back to my CED #157. It's done. Found a cool picture of Bettie that really inspired me...and well, here is the work, shown as I worked on it (below) Bettie+ flamingo. While I was working on my CED I had the idea to combine my Bettie-esque figure with the pink flamingo that I worked on earlier today. It isn't finished, but it is well under way. Just something for fun. Or maybe this is a small-scale study for a larger work? Either way, you can bet that there will be some sparkle. And finally...when I was getting my workspace ready I found some old sketches in one of my pinup books. I have no idea what I was planning, or when these three pages were completed...but I felt like I found buried treasure. Even though these may not go with my current projects, I may revisit them for future inspiration for works.
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Just wanted to make a note on a side project that I have taken on. It started with my decision to work with one color for this month...then a fleeting idea to find a blue sketchbook...the actually finding one...then the idea to fill the whole thing up with blue drawings...and so, well, I started it. The concept- fill new blue sketchbook entirely with blue drawings. (Why? Ummmm, I am working with a monochromatic color scheme this month...I chose blue, this fits my theme for the month.) It is so daunting, opening up a new sketchbook...seeing all those white pages. I think I blogged previously about all of the sketchbooks that line my shelf, each started with the same thought, 'wow- I am going to fill up this while sketchbook!'...and then...not doing that. Sigh. Which, there is nothing wrong with, but for whatever reason I like to finish things, to start from the beginning and go to the end, to use it all up..if I am making necklaces I want to keep creating til the beads are gone. If I pour paint I want to keep painting until the paint is all gone. Part of it is some sort of short-range goal setting- I feel a mini-success when I commit to sitting and beading until the beads I poured out are all used. Part of it is because I don't want to waste materials...if I pour out that paint on my palette I am going to find something to paint it on...hey, paint doesn't grow on trees. But for whatever reason, that is how I work, and I respond positively to the idea of using it all up...the pages, the paint, the beads, the pencil. So I am attempting to fill up this entire book, all 100+ pages, by the end of the month. Why? Because I am working with blue....and blue is the theme for the month...and next month will be different..and...well...I just want to. Now to figuring out just what to draw. I decided to go with whatever random thought came to my mind. Whether it be a part of a conversation, and image...just total randomness, and all in the moment. I also made the decision to limit myself to working in 10 minute increments...that way no one drawing becomes too precious, and that should help me get these all done. Interestingly enough, I think this may the birthplace for paintings and drawings in the future, based on what I created this morning...shown in the slideshow below, which shows my CED #140 and the first of the 10-minute blue drawings..enjoy. (front/back) Just a thought about my current sketchbook...well, so here is my thing with sketchbooks in general. I love'em. But I hate them at the same time, for this reason- I want to fill the up, then I get stressed when I don't, I have an inner battle with each page...do I tear it out, do I leave it intact? But wait, I need to fill up every page first! (taking a deep breath...) Flashback to, I don't know- about 25+ years ago. (gulp...that was depressing) Anyway, I loved coloring books. I would color every page, front to back, carrying around my crayons in an old Country Crock butter tub. So what does this have to do with my sketchbooks? Everything. I think from a young age I felt the satisfaction of completing something, a book of my coloring. (and for the record I did like to stay in the lines) It was my own book at that point. And since those days, sketchbooks have come and gone. In college I went through a phase of buying the black bound sketchbooks, somewhere deciding that it would also be good to have a separate one for each course/medium. The result, a row of sketchbooks, lining my shelf...with only the first quarter of the book used. In hindsight, maybe I should have merged all of my ideas into on sketchbook... Somewhere along the way my friend Jason Basden gave me a handmade sketchbook which I loved. I immediately filled the front cover and first page with a collage showing self-empowerment and inspiration...and then that book was stolen out of my car along with this awesome leopard bag I had just bought. Such is life. Then I got into Moleskin sketch books, graduate school I think it was. I like these, they are light weight and they have a little bit off an off-white page color. This is what I took with me to Japan in the summer of 2009, using mostly black colored pencil and some watercolor to draw...but still not filling up the book. Sigh. Another one that I made not too long ago was one for a workshop I did at the Salvador Dali Museum in Spring of 2010. Creating a sketchbook cover was a part of the workshop, we did this prior to arriving. I really had fun creating this piece that I felt showed who I am. I added collaged photos (my own), as well as transferred text and I painted details on top of everything with acrylic paint. The sketchbook was originally white, I painted it to look like leopard print. I wrote down all of my notes from the workshop and also some sketches from the Dali museum. Still have pages to fill in that one... I may post some of the old sketchbooks, just for fun. Will wait til I have some daylight, and also some are in my classroom. That would be neat, for me at least. So now, here I sit. More productive at this point than I think I have ever been...having the same battle with my current sketchbook. I can't remember when I bought this newest one, maybe around January? About the time that I started to do the Creative Every Day Challenge. The majority of the pages that are in the book now are from just msc. figurative work I did in January, not anything to do with the shoes I was making that month. I have been starting my CEDs for this month in this sketchbook, then ripping them out to turn them into mixed media pieces, all the while seeing the thickness of the book slowly disappear, and not sure I want it all to go away and just be left with a spiral binding when its all said and done. So I purchased a new sketchbook with the intent of ripping the pages out as I go and committing to not feeling bad about taking the pages out but trying to use every one. Every page. As for the sparkly sketchbook that has helped me start this new year off right...I will leave the pages intact. Unless, of course, I rip out one of those figures to gift to someone, which I do often. But I will leave the remaining pages for jotting down notes to myself, quick sketches, quotes...anything that I need to keep me inspired. Ummmm...so...that is what has been on my mind about my sketchbook. |
AuthorArtist and Art Teacher
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