Late night...decided to start a piece inspired by Klimt. Also thinking of some bee imagery...saw a picture of a lady from a couture jewelry advertisement and started thinking...what if I gave her a bee hive...and then what if their were some bees a'buzzin'...and it just progressed from there.
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The man. The myth. My muse. Today it was all about birthdays. John's cousin, Hannah, had a birthday party. Lot's of fun hanging out with family, eating cake and watching an impromptu dance party unfold. We also celebrated his Aunt Nancy's birthday, and Hannah's other grandmother, Esther. In addition...in related birthday news...today is the 150th birthday of hands down, my favorite artist- Gustav Klimt. The figure, the use of pattern, the glitz...total fan. Love it. I finished my CED #196 earlier, started it poolside this morning and then completed it after we came back from the birthday party. Continuing with the gold halo and the bling. Today's chica is a sassy gal with a short pixie cut, but her eyes are closed and she looks serene. Maybe she is meditating on the awesomeness of sparkle. Now...I am thinking I might create a Klimt-inspired piece, just for fun...hmmmm..... ...short and sweet today... ...I don't know where the day went.... ...but I did finish up CED #194. ...more sparkle to come... A fairly productive day...feeling better by the way, so I will count that as being productive.
I did some cleaning and organizing...and also worked on my personalized planner pages. The pages are ready to go, I will be printing them this week and going to get the cover laminated and everything spiral bound...going to wait to post the PDFs until I can do a mini tutorial in case anyone else wants to make a planner as well. Nothing too crazy, anyone could print these out and follow the instructions to make this planner, or at least that is my goal. I am pleased with the pages so far, I really tried to leave lots of empty space for artin' and making notes, and also create pages that can be used from year to year. If nothing else I am excited about my personalized planner for my own use : ) I also finished up my CED #193...and added some crystals. (Yay, sparkle!) I never really know what I am going to do when I start these, but I am trying to maintain some consistency in the overall series, so I am just taking small steps so that there is a good overall transition from one work to the next. Does it matter? To a normal person, no. To me- yes it does. I just...obsess. I really like to work a certain way, I like a bit of routine in my work...like, starting off each piece with the Graphitone figure...working with the female form...I like to have this consistency and then branch out, even if only a little bit at a time...that is how I seem to approaching these, and most of my works. Just a rambling observation. Psssst.... Hey you. Yeah, you. Shhhhh...don't tell...I think I am starting to feel better again. Well, kind of. More like normal..slightly sparkly but with a few aches and some crazy congestion and coughing but it's a little better than yesterday. Don't want to let the word out just yet because it might end the nice soups, teas and general TLC from the husband. Hope you can keep a secret. Poolside drawing...CED #192... Well, now that I have shared that...it's 2am and I am winding down from down from a day that really didn't start to get underway until after my late afternoon nap. I made it to the pool to start CED #192 once things cooled off, and that is the first time I have really been out since I got sick, and I think the fresh air was good for me. Might do that again tomorrow, weather permitting. (storming outside as I type this) Back to the art...went with my usual 'art start'...flipping through a magazine to find my 'model', just a picture that captures my attention, which I use that as the basis of my drawing, changing the proportions and, well, whatever else I want to make it work for the image that I already created in my head. I finished the figure poolside, then after a trip to Michael's (been a long time, friend) I started working on the halo, painting it with acrylic, then adding gold pigment, then a dusting of fine gold glitter, then 'drawing' with a clear glue and adding tiny gold beads and then more sizes of gold glitter for variety. In my head I see these 'halos' progressively getting more embellished, and then maybe changing in size and their importance/role in the overall composition and in relation to the figure. But I want to continue to work with graphite/Graphitone. I love drawing. Love it. I think there might be a slight digression...here it is...Something that I started yesterday and hope to complete tomorrow is creating my own custom planner. Being the total nerd that I am, one of my favorite things to do every summer is to search for the perfect planner. I love to plan. I love my planner. This is a major search for me every year. A few years ago I made my own and I think that was the best one I had. I feel like I have specific things that I want in a planner, the basic monthly and weekly view, but then also areas for goal setting (short and long range) keeping up with my art, teaching and cheerleading commitments and room to doodle and dream. So, that is what I hope to finish up tomorrow. I will post PDFs of what I come up with in case there are any other planning-obessessed folks out there reading this. But that is tomorrow's task. If I can't complete it I at least want to work on it. (End Digression) Inventory Madness. Tonight I worked on inventory. My word...I have made some art since January of this year. I literally have piles of it everywhere, despite my giveaways and work sold at shows. There is art everywhere. And sometimes I can't remember when I made it, or where it is...so last night I decided I needed to create an inventory of everything. So I did. Well, I started it....quite an undertaking. And tonight, I finished it up through June. I am about to fall asleep on the keyboard here, and my hands hurt from typing, but I did it. I inventoried all of my work created since January of this year. I will post a sample of this tomorrow, but I basically made notes for what the themes, etc. were for the month, then listed every piece that I made with details about materials, subject,size and the location of the work (i.e. 'In Stock' vs. 'Sold' or 'Collection of...') I am looking to update my Etsy shop, and upload work to my Society6 account and I have got to get a better handle on all of my work. It was getting out of control. I do not work well when I feel that things are too chaotic, and that is how it was starting to feel. ...literally falling asleep. Here are some screenshots of my inventory, more details to come tomorrow...its, like, 13 pages right now. Holy cannoli... Just for fun...while I was working on my inventory tonight, I posted a link to the slideshow I made for each month as I completed the inventory. Here are all of the links (below). It was kind of fun to revisit the work that I have made, each monthly series has its own personality, and so do the slide shows. Make sure your volume is on and enjoy! January 2012...'New Shoes' February 2012...'Hearts' March 2012...'Mixed Media' April 2012...'Sweet Thangs' May 2012...'Monochromatic' June 2012...'Bettie Page' CED #190...gold, gold, gold! ...Day 2 of feeling a little sick...sore throat was pretty bad. Wait...did I mention that I am feeling a little under the weather? Why yes I am. I particularly hate to be sick during the summer...and especially when I am on break from school...when I actually have time to get stuff done that I want to do. (stomping foot and crossing arms in disdain) I do not feel that I was particularly productive today, but I did complete my 190th Creative Every Day piece...and I just went ahead and went for the gold. Why not? I will probably need to photograph this one again when I have better lighting. Or stop being lazy and scan my work. Lastly...before I go rummaging through the medicine cabinet for something to make my throat and head feel better...today is my sister's birthday. She turned 26 today. Happy birthday, Morgan! I love you! So...started CED #189 today by the pool before the weather got too hot...and just finished it up. In this piece, I am looking to make the transition into the use of some gold on the round form/halo behind the figure. My first impulse was to go straight into painting a gold circle behind the figure, but I like to try to have some transition from one drawing to the next, especially when I see them side by side in the CED post. Instead of going full-out gold, I went with a little bit of an outline in gold acrylic, the line thickened in some places and softened with a light wash.
I am thinking that the pieces that I complete this week will continue to build on this use of gold...and maybe even get a little more embellished inside the circular form. Another thing that I have been thinking about is maybe getting back into some beadwork this month. It is tough to commit to my beaded projects because I know that means tons of time and achy hands...when I start stitching...I can't stop. However, I haven't done any beadwork since April so I think it might be time. Maybe I will incorporate some elements in my monthly self portrait? Another idea I had was to just create embellished circle-shaped appliqués to sew onto a garment...or a bag...or even some type of necklace construction. This of course is in addition to the to-do list I made myself yesterday...lot's to do! For now...its time for the daily nap. I. heart. summer. Ed and his fiancé Sarah, went back to New Jersey today. After a fun week hosting out of town friends, fourth of July festivities and general merrymaking...it is quiet here at casa de Gironda, except for the occasional meow from one of the cats. By the way...posting in purple in honor of Ed, a fellow ECU grad (Go Pirates!) Visitors or not- I still made time for my art, and I am proud of that. I just finished up CED #188, and now I guess I am deciding what to work on next.... Some things that I have been thinking about...
...so that is just me, kind of creating my little list of what I need to do...not sure what I will start on first... |
AuthorArtist and Art Teacher
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