Pencil Shavings

Pack Your Bags, We're Moving!

Yup after many years here at Typepad I've made the big leap to my own website with a full blog, webcomic and store.

The Webcomic launched yesterday and is here: My Gratitudes

And the new blog is here and is still called Pencil Shavings

The new site is still having some hiccups.  The developer of the tempplate my designer is using had made some interesting choices in optimizing it for IE and thusly kinda screwing it up for Chrome and Safari.  

We are working through the bumps (although it would be easier if the developer would actually reply to our emails) and things should smooth out nicely in the new year.  Meanwhile feel free to browse around and stop by to say "Hi!"

Healing

The younger child is healing up via reading. In my experience a book is nearly always the best medicine.

Preparing to Re-boot.

The school term is essentially over for me now and I am focusing on my goals for the winter break.  First of course is the gift buying for my kids’ birthdays and for Christmas - because  no matter what else happens if you screw up birthdays for your kids they will never let you forget it.

 But, along with that is the launch of my new website and the launch of my webcomic, My Gratitudes....  I’m insanely excited about this new project and I am really loving working with Alison Meeks at AM-Graphix in getting all my vague (and perhaps unreasonable ) ideas into a form that will work online and not just in my imagination.

On top of that I have some art work that I need to get started for a show at the University in February.  So many fun and exciting things to do in the next month.... can I get it all done?  Place you bets here!

Reworking

My daughter was horrified to see me tearing out all the crocheting I did over the last week.

I  decided that the infinity scarf I was working on was too long and I didn't like it, so I pulled out all the stitches and re wound the wool to start over.

There is no shame in reworking something that isn't right, in fact it can be a key creative process.  As we work creatively there is a communication between us and the work we are doing, and sometimes things change drastically in between.

The large piece I'm working on for painting class is an example.  The painting is called Elephant Skin, and it's supposed to look like the skin of an elephant (big surprise) but I also wanted it to look like a landscape, giving an indication of our connection to the land, no matter what species we are.  

But the painting wasn't working completely for me.  I loved the skin texture, and the build up from the canvas I was doing but  the dark night sky seemed more like a flat dead space, or worse a  dark hole.  This wasn't the image I was trying to convey.

So after consulting with my professor we did something else entirely.

We turned the canvas upside down.

Now the drips from the application of the rice paper onto the canvas look like radio towers in the distance, and the dark blue is going to be a lake.

It's still Elephant skin but now it speaks even more to our connection to the land, and how our development is crowding species at risk.

Now the lake needs to be adjusted with some colour and reflections, but reworking, and relooking at the painting is making it more meaningful to me.

Back to the crochet.... for me sometimes the process of creating something is more important than the final product.  So restarting something isn't so bad.  

Related articles

ASCII Art and Stranger Things

This Guy's Stuff is So Awesome, I Think I'll Steal It.

This Guy's Stuff is So Awesome, I Think I'll Steal It.

My inspirational quote for my diary  today was "This is not a pen, it is a prayer"  Sadly it is unattributed.  Even documents devoted to writing seem to have trouble with proper attributions. 

The actual quote is, "This is not a pen, it is a prayer, one must have compassion for that.” - Fyodor Dostoyevsky

It seems to me that now more than ever we are living in an age when knowing where something comes from, and to whom it belongs is irrelevant.  As someone who has large pieces of my creative output digitized on the internet I can say honestly, it's not irrelevant. 

Fairy by All Natural Arts

This is why I don't use Pintrest, which seems to be devoted to unattributed stealing of other people's pictures, artwork and writing.  A few weeks ago a beautiful picture of a tiny clockwork sculpture appeared on my Facebook feed.  It took several of us many hours of following  Google Image Search and many broken threads through Tumblr and Pintrest to finally track the sculpture right back to Facebook and the creator of it.  If you were someone who wanted to buy that exquisite piece how much time would you spend trying to track it down?

 

If you are an artist you need to mark your photos with your name or website so even if people steal your picture without credit your name is still on there.  This is important for so many reasons, not the least of which is copyright, and clearly if you are an artist trying to make a living having your art tagged with a way to find you can give you sales.  And I don't know many artists who couldn't make a few more sales.

If you have the urge to share something that you like, don't be a dick, make sure that you link back to the site where you found it so they can get some hard earned traffic.  This isn't just for pictures and art, but for everything that you want to share including quotes (which are also subject to copyright).  Just add a link or a name so you aren't denying someone their livelihood.  Making something "go viral" is only awesome if the person who created it gets the credit for their brilliance.

ASCII Art and Stranger Things

     Well another week of classes has gone by without much to show you in the way of art.

I did finish my ASCII art assignment, about 5 days later than I wanted, but hey, at least it's done. Superman (the Christopher Reeve version) was my inspiration for this, and let me tell you, ASCII art is way harder than you might expect! (and clearly I have an issue with symmetry)

This is what happens when your kids bring home the back to school plague and insist on sharing with you.  I didn't miss any classes but I was way too tired when I got home to do any extra work.  On the plus side that whole being a idiot and not actually laying down when you are sick managed to lose me a few pounds.  So, you know, yay plague as a diet plan. (OK not really)

Next week involves a lot of painting and trying to get a few pieces entered into a show for the middle of the month.

I'll be sure to let you know how things go on that front.

Sundays

Sunday Mornings.  That's another thing to add to my gratitude list.

We've changed the way we work weekends around here, well I changed them.  Sundays used to be the chore day and I would be doing laundry from dawn to dusk then I would wake up on Monday feeling completely ripped off and even more tired than I was on Friday night.

So now Saturday is the “up and at ‘em” day around here.  Do chores, run errands, get the clothes clean.  Then Sunday mornings I wake up with very little on my plate to accomplish.  Get some groceries, go out for coffee, make a nice dinner (that will hopefully have leftovers for Monday) and get a handle on what has to be done for the upcoming week.  I also work on homework projects that might be coming due.

It’s still not a day of rest, but the mountain of housework and laundry are behind me so it feels like an easier ramp up to the activity of the week.  I think that making my headspace feel better helps the rest of me feel better too.  

Now if I could just get rid of the back to school plague my kids gave me this week everything would be great.

 

Her Master's Bidding

I am in that state between sleep and wakefulness, that time when I want to reach out to my dreams and pull them closer to me so I can stay sleeping a little longer.  But I know that can’t happen.

Intruding into my dream has been the rumbling sound of the morning in the form of my cat pacing around my sleeping body purring hopefully.  And now it must almost be time for the alarm to go off.  How she tells time is a mystery to me.  She has braced her front paws on my hip as if ready to shove me into the day as soon as the alarm sounds.  Her purr is mixed with barely audible chirps as if she is muttering to herself about this lazy chimp she has to rouse everyday to do her bidding.

And then there it is, music streaming from the tiny box on my dresser, calling me to my duties and yanking the last veils of sleep from over my eyes, and magnetically pulling my feet out from under the covers and setting them on the floor.

Still groggy I shuffle through the house.  The cat, though desperate for breakfast, seemingly has no qualms about tripping me, and potentially breaking me, as she winds her way between my ankles now demanding with loud meows.  Another reason to shuffle the feet.  

Coffee is ready in the kitchen, and my husband watches as I pour my first cup, ignoring the howling at my feet and the paws reaching up to try and open the cupboard herself.  One sip, a selfish act I suppose in the eyes of the furry. Then to work.  Fresh water and the opening of the can that sends her into agonized circles, turning around and around with the occasional paw poking up as if willing the food dish down by use of the force.

The plate is on the floor now and she gobbles the food down without so much as an acknowledgement for the creature that has delivered it for her.

Now, I turn slowly around the kitchen and start to make a plan for lunches for the rest of the family, and plan my day, while reaching for my coffee cup.  

And I notice the cat curling up on her cushion ready for sleep.... I place a toe on her hip and give her a nudge.

The End of the First Week

The first week of school nearly always comes as a shock to my system.

Getting up early and making lunches for the whole family.  Attending classes and thinking about new things.  Walking a lot more with a nice heavy pack on my back.

It all wears me out.

I take comfort in knowing that I will be fully adjusted in the next couple of weeks and won't think twice about all of this.

This weekend I didn't have to do homework becuase I worked hard this week, and got everything done by the end of the day on Friday.  So instead we did domestic things around the house, did some shopping for art supplies (which is a constant thing in this house) and harvested the rest of the veggies in the garden and cleaned up the planting beds.

My plan is that cleaning up now means a lot less cleaning up in the spring before planting.

My mom and step-dad are coming over for supper tonight.  We are having a family dinner, with the ulterior motive being to have leftovers for suppers during the week next week and easing off the cooking burden a bit for myself as well.

So really the end of the week was pretty great.

I also cleaned out my ArtFire Store this weekend and got rid of a lot of stuff that just wasn't selling.  Clearly you can make some fun things, but if they only appeal to you then leaving them in a store for 3 years to sell is just taking up space.

I'm going to recycle, or reuse those pieces for something else - probably at school.

I have started to list some of the really beautiful prints that I made last year for sale.  They are very limited editions (either of 5 or of 10) and I love them, but I can't house a hundred prints in my space.  So I'm selling them in the hopes that they will find a new home, and that I can buy some more art supplies with the proceeds.

One of the first ones that I have listed is this really fun print called "The Moon is a Harsh Mistress" that is an etching using two processes and a collaged piece from the book of the same name by Robert Heinlein that I found about to be thrown out because the binding had given out.  So I made space ships out of it.  It seemed fitting.

This piece was made for my husband, but once again, how many can he hang in his office?

So, week one is done.  Week two starts in 15 hours.

Naturally I'll be keeping you posted.

Back to School

It's been a great week.

I love being at school.  I really am a life-long learner, but being at university really gets me exctied about experimenting with new things and challenging old ideas.

This term I am taking New Media Art, which is basically things you make with computers, as well as Drawing and Painting.

Yesterday I spent three hours doing perspective studies.  Which was actually a lot of fun.  But I did make the mistake of choosing some of my perspectives to be from a sitting position on the hard concrete floor.  That wasn't so much fun.  And my hips yelled at me for the rest of the day after that.

Then we were mixing promary colours in an effort to get a neutral black.  Which is pretty challeneging of you have ever done it.  I managed that in a reasonable time, but wound up not mixing enough... trying to mix more to match that exact black is even more challenging than trying to make the original.

Another nice thing about returning to school is that I am also commuting again, which means the return of the commuter sketches.  This girl had a really refreshing (although disconcerting) way of looking directly at people on the train.  I'm sure she knew I was drawing her.  Every time I looked up she was looking directly at me.  She had an amazing face.  I kept thinking that she should be a comic book heroine.

There Are Days

Today is another painting day for me, which is a joyous thing.  

I am by nature a lazy person, except when it comes to painting.  I have a way of managing to put everything else aside when I have a painting to work on. Everything except my children’s demands.  I just can’t paint when they are doing other things around me.  

It’s kind of like the phone ringing, and as soon as the sound is heard the children come running out from where ever they are hiding to ask me loud questions while I try to talk to the accountant or whoever is on the phone.  When I get my paints out and wet the paper my children suddenly appear, jostling my elbows, asking questions, sloshing juice in glasses precariously close to my paints and paper.

So these days are really nice, when the kids are at summer camp and I have space and time.

Unfortunately Mother Nature is turning out to be just as demanding and distracting.  Yesterday was so humid that my paint was drying in the way that I’m used to.  Actually it was hardly drying at all.  Today it is cold and rainy and I am fighting the urge to turn on the furnace, but have instead found fuzzy socks and long sleeved shirt (and a big pot of coffee.)

The worst part about spending all this time painting is that I can’t show you what I am doing.  This is a child’s portrait for a private client and I don’t have permission to post it, which, by the way, I totally support, but it does mean that I have no artwork in progress to show you.

But we both need patience.  I need to finish this piece and get it delivered, and then I’ll have something new to create and show you.