Pencil Shavings

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.  

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ASCII Art and Stranger Things

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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.

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.

The Long Summer Ahead

I love summer holidays with the kids.  Traveling all over the city, mostly by train but sometimes driving.  Doing lots of drawing and painting and of course taking care of the garden and enjoying our outside spaces.

Because of our delightful proximity to the Rockies we also will get in lots of hiking and exploring.  Summer really is a great time for me and my girls.

I am sad that tomorrow is my last day of work though.  Actually I have mixed feelings about the last day of work.  I've learned a bit too much about the petty viciousness of university politics.  But I have also made some friends and feel like I have contributed in a positive way to the department.

I also discovered way too late about doing these stipple ink drawings on the bus and the train.  I could have filled a sketch book over the spring while I was going back and forth, but instead I only have a few drawings to share over the next few days.  But I do think that this is a valuable exercise and I will try to do it at least a few times a week when school starts again in the fall.

The thing about drawing people on the train or the bus is the North American taboo of making eye contact with strangers.  It's much easier to draw on the train than in a park or somewhere else, because you are in close proximity and no one wants to look directly at you.

Also a lot of my commuting is in the morning so people are sleepy and in their own heads, not really thinking about what is going on around them.  This is a good time to observe.

Not that I always get away scot free, today I had I guy sitting next to me with his head practically on my shoulder watching me pull a face from the blank page with just tiny dots. At least he didn’t feel compelled to offer any commentary (besides being way inside my personal space).

 

You look Bovine

Having lots of fun with the cow print I'm making in silkscreen class.  I'm on my third layer and I have 3 more to go... 

It's still a struggle to print for me, I'm not sure I'll ever be great at it, but this is the first class I've taken since I came back to school that I have had fun in with every image that I made.

These cows are a great example of that... they are just fun and I've loved playing around to make them what I want them to be.

Even though I'm making fun images I'm still anxious for this term to be over.  I have some really fun plans for my art time once school lets out.  But, Shhhh, it's a secret.

On Being Grateful: #3 - Art Shows.

I got some really great news this week, My C3 Van Gogh digital painting is going to be in a digital art show at the Little Gallery (Little Gallery, 6th Floor, Art Parkade, University of Calgary) over the Christmas break   

My Media Arts instructor said that I have a bright future as an art forger wanted by INTERPOL .

I think that's a compliment.

I think the show starts on December 21st but I will post again when I have confirmation of the dates.

The University is really quiet during that time, but I would be really grateful if you could plan to stop by between rounds of gift shopping.

Stage 3: Fungi

In a desperate attempt to save my print I did an aquatint over the whole tree trunk to darken it, and then burnished the mushrooms up so they were lighter.

Adding in lots of hand wiping to lighten the whole open side and mushroom shapes and I came up with this.

It's still not totally what I had in mind, but it's a lot closer.  And I'm out of time to make a lot more changes to it.

I editioned this one and decided that it was good enough.  I have two more prints to create and edition in less than four weeks, so this has to be good enough.

Stage 2: Fungi

So I did a "sugar lift" and aquatint to get my bark texture.

But the print came out all wrong.  The mushrooms are falling back into the  bark and the shadows aren't working at all.

I was so frustrated.  I did print an edition of it anyway just in case I mess it up totally by trying to fix it, but this is not what I had in mind for my project.

NaNo-NaNo

A few winters ago I participated in the NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) with the idea that over the month of November I would compete to write a 50,000 word first draft of a novel.  I completed the draft with a few words to spare and was happy to be done.

This year, for some absurd reason I feel like I should be trying it again.  I have no novel outline, I don’t have a vaguest idea of a plot and I certainly don’t have the time.  After all I’m a full time student and the work load for November is already looking unbelievable.  And I do have the Tiny Terrorists^TM to tend to.

So why do I have this nagging desire to start writing again?  It’s not that I’m not being creative.  I am majoring in art for god’s sake.

But there it is, I can’t deny it, I’m hungering for the feeling of keys under my fingers and worlds spinning out from my imagination.  There is something there that I can’t shake.  I really need to write and the more that I try to push it away the less I want to do of my other work. 

I know that I cannot complete the NaNoWriMo, but I am going to try and get a few creative bits out of my system before the end of the year.  After all there are some lovely writing contests to enter in the new year, and it would be great to have a short story (or two ) to fling at them. 

Meanwhile there are still several assignments waiting for my attention.