My Cherry is Now Gone...

First page of damn intimidating sketchbook done! My theme is "Taking flight" which is so appropriate to me and to the journey I have been on for a couple of years/my whole life. I have been waiting on my safe perch thinking about flying for awhile. Well, now, I am finally starting to take flight myself and I am going to try to capture that journey. That is what that scribble of handwriting is all about, and the perched bird is made of lots of paper cutouts.

"He who would learn to fly one day must first learn to stand and walk and run and climb and dance' one cannot fly into flying"  ~ Nietzsche

Completed Coil Project

My coil project has been sitting here complete forever and I am just now posting the photos. While it is far from what I had in mind when I started it, I'm happy I followed through and finished it. The current question is... what to do with it now?

Inaugural Marks Made: Sketchbook Cherry Finally Popped!

After several consecutive days of internal false promises--- I'll start my Sketchbook today. Ok. No, really. I'll start it today. Ummm... today? Maybe tomorrow. It finally dawns on me. It is nearly mid-October! This thing is due in THREE months! And I have an awfully busy fall ahead of me.

After laying around recovering from another crazy, busy day, I finally forced myself to unearth The Sketchbook. Me and Basil, The Sketchbook Project, the daily sketchbook, and a bag full of pencils got into bed together with a glass of wine. There we sat. Why the hell am I so intimidated by this thing? Many minutes spent leafing through the blank pages and looking at the thumbnail sketches in the daily book, and I decided it didn't have to be a cohesive story. I've been getting hung up on that over and over again. I needed to dump some of my self imposed rules to free me up to just dig in. Start somewhere. Anywhere.

Deep breath.

I now have the foundations of three sketches. I will just go down the checklist of ideas I've made and make some sort of progress everyday. That is the only rule in place right now. EVERY Day.

I'm not totally thrilled with the results of those first sketches as they are now, but I am relieved to have the pressure of making that first mark alleviated. Here we go!

In other news, I've gotten together with my fellow artists from this past summer's Art Sale, and we're planning a bigger, better, Give Good Art Sale. We're moving out of the "McFerren-Curcio Mansion" and into a real live venue. A pretty amazing one at that. So effective immediately, I will be heads down, making a ton of pottery for our sale at Mississippi Studios on December 5th! So exciting. The creative juices are flowing again and I'm off to the studio to throw some clay around.

Excuses, Excuses

Where does the time go? So October 1st becomes October 8th... that's not terrible. Is it? Rather than list all of the reasons my project is late (and possibly incomplete), I thought I'd show you through sketches. I've become a bit obsessed with the Sketchbook Project. I carry my personal sketchbook with me everywhere to work out new ideas that I may have about it. I sketch random people for practice. Most of my subjects are sipping a beer, enjoying a meal or reading a book. Occasionally I get ambitious and attempt to sketch something non-human, like the Flat Iron Building pictured above.

A Conversation with an Architect: Corey Martin- lecture series I've been organizing at work. Just a few folks from the audience.

The Basement pub with the roommate (referred to here as "Zaugg"). He stated that the girl on the right was MUCH cuter than I drew her, not sure how this lead to the thought bubble commentary above her.

On the left, a poor rendition of a co-worker during an extremely painful marketing meeting. On the right, drinks with the roomie at Produce Row Cafe. It doesn't actually look like Mike, but more like Ron Perlman. I skillfully drew what I imagine the back of my head looks like.

As for The Sketchbook Project sketchbook... Ugh.

When we last "spoke", I was lamenting about that allusive first mark in the actual Sketchbook Project book. Well, I'm still afraid of that thing, damnit! I did make some marks... super lightly with pencil, but that is as far as I got. I have been working on it though as noted above. When I'm out and about, I chat up my friends about the project, sometimes we brainstorm ideas over drinks. I furiously scribble lists and make thumbnail sketches in the non-Sketchbook Project sketchbook. Here's where I'm at...

Originally my concept was to illustrate all the places your name could appear over the course of your life; from the cradle to the grave so to speak. In the last day or so, I began to envision a different way. It could be drawings of all kinds of people: ethnicity, sex, size, shape and profession. This would be more about diversity and that you could really be anyone. Your name could appear anywhere. Maybe it's a combination of both ideas. I think I have been contemplating the nature of people, their similarities and differences, too much lately. It's spilling over to my art projects.

So here we are. I vote we alter the project plan. Let's post pictures of the sketchbook progress weekly for a bit. What say you, Miss Mandy?

It's In the Mail

I have finally packaged up my unfinished painting to send to Mandy AND I even took it to the post office and mailed it. Have I started my sketchbook yet? Well... not exactly, but the painting is in the mail and that is a good start. I have been sketching fairly regularly and will try to get some of those drawings scanned and posted in the next few days.

Two Projects, One BLog Post

Now that summer is almost behind us, it should be easier to focus on indoor activities, like this whole art-making thing we keep talking about! So a while back we each ordered our Sketchbook from the Art House Co-op and I'm a little embarrassed to report that my book remains untouched. I have taken it to NYC and back with me, foolishly thinking I'd get started there. I did get some sketching in simply for the sake of sketching (in my other sketchbook), but making that allusive first mark in the project book...

So for this month, I demand that we both start work on our sketchbooks! I have concepts and ideas, just need to act. Draw! The fear comes from knowing that this book will be viewed all over the country, without me there to protect or defend it. The same thought also really excites me. So it seems I need a push towards focusing on the excitement. Here it goes- by October 1st, we will each post scans of ten pages. They do not have to be complete but they do have to at least capture the essence of what that page will represent. Maybe when we're done, we can both post them to the Sketchbook Projects' website, as I see other participants are doing already.

Simultaneously, I have another project to dig into: Art Swap! I think this is something that any creative person can relate to- unfinished projects. Whether you write, draw, paint, sculpt, take pictures or blog, I'm willing to bet that you've got at least a few unfinished projects laying around. Sometimes it's really hard to re-engage after taking some time (or lots of time) off. As I mentioned in the previous post, my new studio space is filled with unfinished paintings. Well, if I can't finish them, maybe someone else will!

Here's the plan: I will send Mandy one of my unfinished paintings and she'll send me one of hers. We'll post pictures of them once we receive them and then we will complete each others work. There are no rules, no boundaries or no directive from the original artist other that do what you have to do to make it complete in your eyes. Scary right? I'm actually really excited about this one!

We'll ship the originals out next week and determine the deadline once both paintings are in hand. One last thought- I think we should ship them back to one another before posting the final results. It's always nice to get mail, especially when it is surprise artwork!

The Art of Momentum

I've been wanting to get a move on so many different projects lately; so many ideas, yet so little motivation. My brain starts churning and I literally paralyze myself with this overwhelming need to be productive. I do nothing, and feel even more overwhelmed the next day. Rinse and repeat.

With this in mind, I found myself surfing Facebook, the little voice in my head chastising me for wasting my time doing something so pointless, when I stumbled upon this post- The Art of Momentum: Why Your Ideas Need Speed

So simple yet so true. So I logged off of Facebook and logged in here at the CWP to make this post. Before doing so, I moved my trusty laptop (aka Spendy) into the office/studio, so that all of my unfinished projects are staring me down; in some cases quite literally!

This painting of my grandmother was a 50th birthday gift for my uncle. He's turning 51 in a few weeks.

I will try to do something creative every day this week (yes, I realize it's already Thursday, but I'm talking the next seven days kind of week). Who's with me?

Anyone? Bueller? Bueller?

Ready? GO!