 Happy Birthday,
Jessie Prugh! ...my art friend, teachin' friend, fellow fan of glitter and all things that sparkle...and my artistic inspiration! 
...blog will be abandoned for a couple of days, but I will still be makin' art. Follow me on Instagram @artinw_damuse to see works in progress and tales of sparkle!
 Yesssssssss! ...it's here....SPRING BREAK! I am 'screaming' with excitement! (haha, snort, laughing at my own art joke) Today was a good day, a long day, but a good one. After teaching and cheer practice (yes, I am still practicing in late March...we have the final pep rally on April 5th and I want my team to look great!) and parent conferences...the clocked hit 8pm and that was it- spring break. After the drive home, of course. I feel like I got a good start to spring break, so far anyway. A major task that I battle with is my self-imposed labeling, inventory and filing system for my artwork. Seriously, I obsess over it...and if it is not complete I carry a level of stress with me...now, I can finally breathe a little easier. I entered my December 2012 pieces tonight and I am caught up with all of my work from 2013 thus far. It feels like a weight has been lifted off my shoulders....until I glanced at my picture files on the laptop...yikes! I need to sit down and go through those as well. But not tonight. Maybe next week.  (Left) Labeling some recent pieces after spraying with fixative (Right) FINALLY adding my December 2012 pieces to my inventory My daily piece is complete. I selected one of the chipboards I prepped earlier this week....looking at it today I thought of Vermeer's Girl with a Pearl Earring...and...just started to sketch. That was just a fleeting image from art history that danced across my mind when I first looked at the board....then I started thinking...this gal is going to be sassy...and...maybe I will use the edge of that newspaper I collaged on the board to make a high collar detail...and...well, I just draw, and this is what happened:  My daily piece...started during lunch and finished after school... I am really enjoying working on these chipboard pieces. I have a few prepped boards left....after that, not sure what I want to do. I am sure it will come to me later. For now, I like looking at each piece, trying to think about angles of the face that would fit in the paint and collage shapes I already added...and I do in the back of my mind make those initial choices thinking about the bigger shapes within the piece, but I really don't know what will happen with it until I sit down with my black colored pencil and start to pull the figure up from the background...that is the only way I can think to describe it. I am looking for shapes, angles...dark areas that could be shadows...lightly sketching lines...then adding gradually adding darker lines...light washes of watercolor or acrylic...pulling areas out...pushing them back by painting over them with washes of white paint...I really like the process. They are starting to take me a little longer, but I have spring break now so I have more time to work on these. Should be an interesting week.  Classroom Studio is closed til April 2nd. I am hoping to work on some more fashion illustrations this week, some art licensing pieces for my contact in CA, and work on some type of fiber and/or beading project. I think those are pretty reasonable goals for the week.
I am also looking forward to a trip to the keys and maybe Disney...Jessie's birthday and a visit from my sister-in-law, we have a wedding to plan! So...bring on the break! Hooray!  Meet the artist....wait, it's me! I am posting before 11:30pm, yay! Doing an excited dance because I think I might get more than four hours of sleep tonight...fingers crossed! I finally took the final pics of my pieces from March 18-19 and I also completed CED13-79 from today, that is posted as well. I also updated my 'Shows and Exhibits' page on my Facebook Art page...I need to add more pictures but I did add at least a few and I organized them, so I feel like I accomplished something. And...I went to the Opening/Meet the Artist Reception for the Palm Beach County Art Teacher's Association show at the atrium on Florida Atlantic University's Jupiter campus.  PBCATA Exhibit Flier...my painting is on there! My work was featured on the flier for the show, which is pretty cool! Yay! The pieces had to be large, so I submitted the acrylic painting that I 'live-painted' at the Art Hive Magazine launch in October 2012. Me being the total art nerd that I am...I wore purple and black to match my art. Yeah, I am that girl. Wow. Side note...I haven't really done a painting on canvas in a while...maybe I will do one over spring break. Another side note...maybe I should try to do a REALLY BIG DRAWING....hmmmmm....will add that to the spring break agenda. Along with my quest to organize my life, take naps and make everything around me sparkly. Hey, a gal can dream can't she? Yep. 
...worked on my piece from yesterday...think I resolved it more...the figure relates more with the background...started a group of backgrounds for the pieces I will complete this week...collaged... painted...will just pull one out each day and look for the face in the backgrounds...started today's piece sitting next to one of my 8th grade students in my smallest class...everyone in this class works independently on a specific thematic body of work, modeled after the AP Concentration Portfolio......one of my favorite classes because it is like a mini-studio and more like a high school class....today's piece isn't dry yet, it is sitting on the drawing table...will post final pics tomorrow...wait to late to update everything, per usual....zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.....
 CED13- 77...abandoned...for now... I decided to try something different.
I am not 100% happy with the result. The piece is on my drawing table, unresolved. I will look at it against tomorrow. I went from bristol board to chip board. Right now I feel the figure is to seperate from the background. I think I may need to gesso over the whole thing, even if its a watered down layer. Not sure yet. Just what I am thinking right now.  Much to write about...and...per usual...I wait too late to post...and then it is already time for me to go to sleep. Sigh. Well, my art is posted to my recent works...and to my FB page....and I did update Instagram all weekend. The main thing to mention is...it's awake. That crazy, fiber fever is alive and kickin'. Jessie brought out a bag of vintage embellishments, appliqués lace and trims...and...I think I might have lost consciousness for a few minutes. Once I regained my senses, all I could do is stare and touch these new treasures and dream of all the projects that I want to create. I have always loved sparkly things...I remember dabbling in textiles and not even knowing that was what I was really doing in high school. I had made this batik...it was a mess. So I ended up stretching the piece of fabric out with some yarn and then hand beading two zebras on the fabric. I know I have a picture...somewhere, will have to find it. That was my first time beading. I wish I had that piece now. In undergraduate I really got into textiles after my first survey course...I ended up taking five weaving studios and I think about the same number of surface design studios. I loved everything- the texture of the yarns I used for dressing my loom...using my screens to create surfaces...dye work. I would usually add some kind of embellishment to anything I did, from really fine glitter to beaded details...and for a while I was more into textiles than drawing...oh, that was until I took Mr. Elmore for painting one summer, then I remembered I loved to paint, too... Sigh. So much that I love, so much art to make! ...in graduate school I rediscovered my love for beadwork. I made many beaded pieces, from abstract works, to narrative pieces, beadwork on my own digital images...and finally my beadwork on the surface of fabrics I hand dyed and fused together in a mixed media collage that I combined with my paintings on paper...below are some examples...and yes, every single bead is hand stitched on the fabric. Every....single...one. I am crazy, yes, I know. I haven't done this type of work in a while...I think it is because in the back of my head I know I start to obsess over it...  Works from grad school...bead by bead, stitch by stitch...I fell in love with handwork. Okay...let me reel myself back in....back to the back of awesome fibers that Jessie shared Saturday....on Sunday, after my weekly trip to Barnes and Noble to work on some fashion illustrations, I headed to one of my 'bargain spots' and found a dress for $10. (I seriously love this store, always find a ton of stuff) I think I will wear it to a wedding that I am going to in April...but...it needed a little more sparkle. So I started stitching the large blue appliqué to the center of the dress just to get it in place...going to add more beadwork...maybe some more appliqués...that I want to make from scratch. I actually did this, made my own appliqué I mean, when I was in college. I serious loved it. It was tedious work...but I really enjoyed it. For that gown, I will try to find a picture, I bought a simple navy gown at goodwill and then created a very detailed beaded and jeweld appliqué piece that I attached to the center of the gown. It totally transformed my thrift shop find. So that was kind of my thought process with the blue dress I bought today. Then...I saw the red vintage lace, with small sequins on it and I remembered I had a red dress in my closet I bought a few years ago and decided to give that a new look...and there are so many other thoughts going on in my head for things I want to make...I took a trip to Joanne Fabrics today...I think I was in the store two hours. It is a slippery, sparkly slope folks.  Scenes or sparkle...me, covered in vintage fabrics and trims, freaking out....and...my first two projects...in progress.... And...I worked on my daily pieces...finished up those two Gucci illustrations...and made a new drawing based on a photo by Nathaniel Goldberg in the April 2013 Harper's Bazaar. The pose....just so striking. I love the angle of the figure, and the contrast of the fabric against the background...that is what caught my eye...so I drew it. Ummmm...wow, I need to go to bed, I have to get up in a little over four hours! Aughhhh!  |
AuthorArtist and Art Teacher 
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