Coloring Outside of the Blog

I'm feeling sort of pensive this evening so I'm channeling those thoughts into a post here. I'm two CWP projects deep and have nothing new to report. Mandy's "Bloom" painting got some love last week while I was on stay-cation (or clay-cation as one friend dubbed it). I'm actually quite satisfied with the direction it's heading. So far, I've kept the colors the same, but have inflicted my pseudo-pointillist style upon it. I love the sense of movement and texture applying the paint this way provides. It's back in the holding pattern for now, but I'm close to the finish line on it for sure!

Sketchbook Project? (Deep breath) Let's not talk about that right now.

So, if the aforementioned projects have received minimal creative attention, what have I been up to, you may ask. Well, I have rekindled my love affair with clay. I finally sprung for a shared studio space with twenty-four hour access so that I can create anytime I feel the urge. At first I was skeptical of the artists co-op environment, but after two weeks of spending many hours a day there, I'm happy to report I think it's fantastic! While working at Lonesomeville was a lovely experience, there certainly were creative restrictions. Working around other clay artists gives me ideas and the opportunity to learn new tricks. So far all the folks at Radius have been great.

I worked diligently all last week, throwing mostly 2 lb. plates and bowls, with a side of giant platters and smallish vases. I also have two cake plates ready to fire and I'm curious to see if either of them survive. There was a third that cracked today before even getting near a kiln. The nature of the beast with clay. With the Give Good Art Sale a mere 12 days away, I'll admit I'm a little nervous about the outcome of my clay creations.

Tomorrow, all that greenware (around 50 pieces, last I counted) is heading for a bisque firing. Think of me fondly as you eat your Thanksgiving dinner, chances are I'll be headed to the studio to unload that kiln. Will it be like Christmas morning or more like that time my brother ripped the heads off of my Barbie dolls and threw them in the pool? Your guess is as good as mine. Stay tuned...

Contemplating Mandy's Painting and Other Anecdotes

I was so excited to see how Mandy altered my Mosquito watercolor to finish it up in a way I would never have imagined. The story behind that painting and why it was left unfinished goes a little something like this:

My last boyfriend was a writer and had written a book that took place in a fictitious (?) town in florida called Mosquito Key. He had visions of his book cover consisting of a squashed mosquito, that looked more like a Rorschach Print than the pseudo realistic bugs I kept painting. Now, I have at least 20 renditions of this concept; in water color, colored pencil & acrylic lying around the house and no clue what to do with them all. So it was fun to see how Mandy approached it.

I did receive Mandy's painting several weeks ago and promptly placed it on the easel with the other two unfinished paintings, that sits in front of yet another almost completed canvas that hangs on the wall behind my closet door. At first I was nervous about working on it, so we've been engaged in a bit of a staring contest- stalemate sort of situation here.

There has been so much happening lately that I have felt creatively drained by the time I had time to work on my own projects: busy at work, new roommate, moving all the art crap back into my bedroom from my "studio" (aka Mike's new bedroom), oh and planning for the Art Sale! Whew! I am thrilled to report that I have taken the next week off from work and will be making art all week long.

My first creative mission of today? Get some of my own paint onto Mandy's painting. Here it is as she sent it to me.

Finished Nicole's Painting...

This was such a daunting task, taking someone Else's art and finishing it for them. A very cool concept, but hard as hell. What ever to do with an other's idea without offending them to much?  We sent paintings that we didn't really care what happened to, but I still felt weird adding to something someone else did. So, what happened? It sat taunting me for weeks before an idea hit me. During meditation I was thinking of webs, spirals and wormholes and I thought how cool would Nicole's bug be with a Yantra behind it! I forgot to take an extreme before pic, but here it is before paint..imagine it with just the bug and that is the "before".

Then I just kept adding paint,which I continued in watercolors to keep with the theme. This is a challenge for me anyway because I am not one with watercolor. Check out this pic and my Crayolas!

Then the final product..

What Ya think?

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?