Breaking Through the Blocks

There is this thing that happens to all artists when creative periods ebb and flow. We  get a bit panicky, we want to rush to create a huge body of work and we lose the focus of the experience for the perception of success in having a quantity. Art is one of those things, like wine, craft beer, catching fish that can not be rushed. And forget the hand painted mass production. If one painting takes 40 hours and you need one hundred to make a profit that is 100 weeks of the same painting. No one has the werewithall for that!

The problem of ebb and flow doesn't just affect the quantity of works. It affect each individual piece. That is some thing that I had not thought possible since I love to paint as much as I do. I know that there is the period between works when the energy has ebbed and starting again is hard. But to have the excitement dissipate mid-work.... that is newer to me. With moving and taking on a new position at work I thought that my dry spell was just because I needed some inspiration. Which I did. I thought it was because all of my creative wells had been neglected... which they were. So I did what I always do. I stuck my head in some books and got myself motivated again.

Or so I thought. I had a stack of periodicals to help me jump start some ideas over at the geeks blog. And then I found a travel magazine that hit on almost all of my interests. And I thought.... I have to paint that. So I started.

And got stuck. It is a new technique. I have paints that I haven't worked with as often as I would have liked since my preferred blend was accidentally left behind in the move. And I was breaking open a pad of watercolor paper that I had not really used a lot. It pills, sadly and that has cause a bit of frustration as I am unsure how to correct for it or incorporate the pilled area into the texture that I am looking for. So I have set it aside so that I can let my subconscious brain have a go at the problem solving.

And I stepped away from the work to do something entirely different. It is a glorious season for photography as you have seen. And anywhere the boyfriend and I go I have my camera with me. There are day trips almost once a week where we explore his old haunts and I am able to go back and take pictures of places that mean something to the family. But I still can't figure out this piece. I am stuck somewhere that I don't know how to navigate.

So I painted something else in a different style from one of our day trips.

And one day while waiting for schedules to gel and deadlines to happen I popped into the library for some instruction and inspiration.

I found a few volumes of Splash. And in volume 2 I found a few answers to the dilemma at hand.

• Step away from the work and get outside
• paint something else and let your subconscious work on the problems. 
• seek advice

And that is just a bit of the advice from artists who have been featured in the yearly anthology have offered for encouraging breakthroughs. But the biggest help is knowing that the kind of struggle that I am going through in this piece means that there is a breakthrough waiting for me on the other side, perhaps a quantum leap in understanding or skill if I will only be patient with the process. 

This 

is the confounding bit of art taken from a NatGeo travel mag with a new technique for me.

With some distance I can see a lot of places where this is working. And still a few places where I am terrified to continue for fear of losing the strength of the line in the underpainting, which was all done in Prussian Blue. The book called for Cobalt but I don't have any in my stash. Indanthrene might have been better but it stains too so I don't know about that anymore.

In a few days I'll be able to sit and paint again.... waiting for the rain to go away and the road tripping to be done for a bit. 

It's been ages, I know

Or how I spent my Summer vacation...


I have not fallen off the planet or been abducted by aliens. In fact, very little that interesting has happened at all. I've been gone because I got a promotion at work and I have been dead to the world tired at the end of every day. It would seem there is little rest to be had for creatives with full time jobs. I have also moved and it is taking some getting used to with this new place and new roommates.

And yes, there is still the boyfriend. He is a very supportive chap and it is hard to not be creative around him. We just see very little of each other and now with Summer here... FINALLY... we are more active outdoors. That is not to say that painting isn't happening. It's just taking longer to get it done.

This is the view from the back porch. It's an incredible view, and an incredible smell with an atmospheric texture that makes my skin happy. It's a very surreal thing. And such fun to be on the porch painting... without getting sunburned if I can manage it.

And this is the reason there is so little going on inside with paints. I really want to be out in this and all kinds of scenic places that the boyfriend knows of. We've been bike riding in Leelanau county, I've been introduced to the wonderful past-time of fishing, we've toured the old farmstead that belonged to my father's family and cruised through the interior roads to find some amazing vistas such as these....

The Empire Bluffs slide into Lake Michigan with a pretty little lake on a channel inlet hiding some where in the mid ground of the picture.

We used to swim in that channel lake every Friday evening and Saturdays if there was not football or baseball at the Civic Center. We could be out there on the dunes for hours, long into the wee hours of the night when you could see the entire sky overflowing with the milky way.

How can you not be out in this?

Uncle Ole Thoreson's farm at Port Oneida.
Part of a Scandanavian settlement, the Oneida community
thrived for many years with the farms shipping their produce
to Chicago and Wisconsin and sometimes to NYC.  A land
dispute with the state and a local resort took the land out of
the family. Currently it is part of the Historical Society's
Renewal Project for the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore.
For several years it had been an artist's retreat.

This is one of the Manitou Islands as seen from the bluffs of the Pierce Stocking Scenic drive. Its rather hazy this year since the water is so cold. The sun starts steaming things up around 1pm so it always looks like it is raining in the distance.

This is one of the few surviving orchards on Stoney Point near Suttons Bay. The BF took me out on the boat to shoot some amazing pictures. And i got to drive for a bit! Pilot. Steer....
whatever.

It always amazes me that we get to live in a place like this. And it frustrates me that I let weird things like depression, anxiety and borrowed neurosis keep me away from these scenes which do so much to elevate the spirit.

We had the dog out on the boat with us and he was all nose in the wind ears flapping while I sat in the seat behind him nose in the wind and hair flailing myself. The smells..... the color of the water.... I've never seen water so deep to look like a puddle of spilled metallic indigo ink. I lived in Marquette for a while but never saw Superior's blue from the surface like I did this past weekend with just Grand Traverse Bay under the hull. Astounding.

As you head out of Suttons Bay for the larger Grand Traverse Bay you come upon the many points jutting into the water. See what I mean about the blue? To the left is points Omena and Northport and to the left is the point of the Old Mission Peninsula. My boyfriend's friends tease him for saying he lives on a lake and that it is similar to Oceanic experiences. They think that he means that it is a lake like the 4 square mile inland lakes everyone has. This is, in fact, considered an inland sea. It is huge and it defines a good part of the culture of our communities. The only thing that I don't notice its influence is in the culinary arts. And that would be in large part to the destruction of invasive species that have been here for the last 35 years.

A view from a farm in the leelanau penisula. The layers are incredible, vineyards, lake leelanau, the rest of the penisula's finger, then lake michigan cuts between the colorful hills and the blue ones in the background. The blue in the background is the Manitous. I love my panoramic camera setting. Have I mentioned that yet?

And this is the view of my father's farm from the old apple orchard. You see Stoney Point in the mid ground, Old Mission is hazy in the background.

And this is how I am spending my Summer. What are you doing?

Welcoming Spring

or rather, praying Mom Nature gets over her crazy phase and gets to some warm weather and focusing on bright things hoping that helps boost mood and dispel the cold.

While foraging with the BF I found the only book in BAM on the subject of Dale Chilhuly. For a nominal price I splurged and got yet another book that I have to move. But it is small and colorful and full of these fun Persians.

These are so very inspiring. You might recognize these from the trip to Fred Meijer With Picmonkey I am able to really bring out the experience of being there and seeing these gems in person rather than rely on my not so skilled photography.

I've plastered Pintrest with them too.


Today is a day for paint and working out the mojo. I've got to move and I've got to sort some things out, look at a few places and keep some things in mind. When the BF came over to survey the collection of junk in the basement the first thing that he told me is that the art studio goes in the living room no matter where we are. No. Matter. What. He's rather look at my supplies and have me paint while he is crafting with his tools in the kitchen instead of locked away in another room somewhere.

Do you know when the last time was that I heard that?
Never.

I think this one gets it. I knew that I got a good feeling about him for a reason. But little by little I am finding the substance behind the feeling.

Time for another coffee and some paint before then next showing.

Swatches: Byzantine Colors

Apparently they are the in thing these days. I find them all over Pintrest. I have to admit, I love picking up paint samples and letting the colors seep into my soul.

Since the interest in Byzantine art is rekindled and I've been drooling over the Alhambra and Constantinople (Istanbul.... Yep. The song is in my head too.) I decided to make a swatch of the bold, beautiful colors used in mosaics and iconic paintings of the Byzantine Empire.

All the tedious research can be done here. If you have the National Geographic magazine from 1983 you are a few steps ahead of the curve, especially if you got to keep the map. Otherwise there is inspiration to be found right here.

The pun is just a bit of extra fluff.

Thoughts Turning to Spring

I know that it is not as bad as the big Winter of '78. Nor is this Winter much different that a two month stretch in '07 that wrecked havoc on my budget with excessive plow bills. But this is a long and annoying Winter none the less. We have been spoiled these last 20 years with little snow fall and the ability to walk around like it is still Fall for most of the bleak white season. This year though, my patience is tried to its last bit of strength.

In a few months I will be moving again. For the most part everything will go back into storage, I'll be crashing with a friend for a while to save some money and with any luck I will not have surgery on those hamstrings. Yes.... it is getting to that point. I'm in a level 3 constant amount of pain in both legs and over the last two days I am losing the feeling in one foot... the one whose hammie has been torn twice. And the back is not cooperating. Every time I get stuck without the benefit of the boyfriend's assistance I do more damage. Oh if only I could stay home when he is not here!

With these trials and constantly numb fingers I find myself looking forward to Spring. Not because I want to move heavy stuff around. But because the color will come back like a slow spreading pinkish orange sunrise. I have the newest issue of Somerset Studio and this is the article that I want to pour over the most.



photo: www.stampinton.com, artist: Heather Jacob. See her awesome blog at www.heatherandlife.blogspot.com
Yes, borrowed without permission and edited like mad to avoid the impression of digi-theft.
Full credit where it is due... this is wonderful.
Seriously... check out her blog there is even more wonderful stuff there. Showing link love on the right too!  

 Oh no, not because I am a scrapbooking fool at the moment. But because I like the way her negative spaces gives you a chance to breathe and dig deeper into the work. It is filled with great bits but the work isn't cramped or crowded. It spreads out a bit.... like a cold tired somebody stretching into the sun after a dark and cold winter.

The stark white pages, like our stark white winter bursts with color. This is the article that grabbed a hold of my imagination on first and second look. It has that Boho Chic whimsy and the Shabby Chic simplicity that really speaks to me right now as I contemplate another move. It speaks to me as I am trying to stretch into Spring to break the grip of cold that runs through and across me every day. Even with my Sweetie by my side I feel the cold creeping.... he warms my heart. And he inspires me to be more than I have been in the last few years of conflict and fleeting peace.

We talked about Art. The making of it, the process and the absolute desert that is the home when I am fully involved in a project. We talked about the things that take him inside of himself in a similar way. So we already know there is conflict between Muse and Life, between Egos and Encouragement. And we are already preparing for the eventuality that we will chose to live together somewhere and make our dreams come true. He isn't an artist in my medias, but we shared an art class so he knows how the process becomes entangled. He is an artist in the kitchen. I am a mere foodie in his presence. But I know the rapture of a well executed meal. The pain of plating and the foibles of study that let him become better at his craft even after his 25 years of experience. And he knows that culinary art is the same to him as my media are to me. So we know. But can our egos handle it?

I think so. And somehow... Heather Jacobs' work seems to convey that feeling to me... the growing together and yet independently. The mutual success. The encouragement and the praise for each other. I think that the red so close to the mid February Hallmark holiday may also have something to do with how I feel toward this particular article.

My thoughts are turning to Spring at any rate. There is so much to do between now and then. And so much change coming. Good change. I am actually not afraid like I have been in the past. I think that means that things are settling in my fluttery, little anxiety-riddled heart.

I picked up artful blogging this week too. The cover is a few shades of Winter Blue darker than the persistent steely blue grey skies and lifeless evening shadows outside. Crisp and brighter, this has me thinking Spring again. Still. Also. And with those thoughts, I think of how to make the blog fresh again. To bring it into the Spring season and celebrate the warmth to come. While I think, I shall read. There is a lot of great information in this magazine.  As I absorb and assimilate the posts here will be rather small and scarce.... or maybe just scarce. So get your art fix with the links at the right and see what others are doing.

You'll love it. I promise!

Blast from the Past

So way back in 2000, my stampin friends and I decided to participate in this cool paper study project that Michelle found. It was to be our way to keep in touch as she was off to the East Coast. Note to self: Xmas windows In NYC

We'd only gotten a few projects in when life threw us all into a dither and the book found a quiet nook on a shelf and sat neglected. It's moved with me everywhere because I can not bear to let it go after Michelle went through the trouble of putting it together for each of us. And now.... digging through it again. I want to make this my project to finish this year (2014) just commit to one page a month. I can do that.

It will be interesting to see how things have changed, or not, since 2000.

For Dawn: Thinking of You All

This patchwork of my stargazer watercolors is not quite done yet. So far it's been a two hour process and I am a little stuck. Not horribly stuck. But a little stuck. One of my favorite bloggers is having a helluva time with Life the Universe & Everything™ right now and the "stuck in the process" seems like an important thing to acknowledge as much as trying to brighten up the day for her.

I am hoping that some good news can come her way soon. I know a lot of people in Arizona close to her in geography but no one who can do too much to help her out right now and it is frustrating. To be part of a network that is helpful for the commiserating but not terribly potent in the realm of help is as frustrating as being in the middle of major life issues and having no clue what to do. But Dawn just keeps putting one foot in front of the other.

I guess the important thing to remember in those instances is that, because of the nature of the Universe and it's own healing mechanisms, these are the times when the thoughts count the most. A good thought sent to a hurting friend will find them eventually.... like that laugh that comes out when no one has told a joke. It might be a delayed reaction. But it is a reaction. And it helps. Just because I want to be able to do more, as do all of her friends, doesn't mean that what we are actually able to do doesn't count. And that is where we get stuck as the support team.

And even if you don't know Dawn, or read her blog, when you see this post, think of her and wish her strength, energy and a safe place in her emotional cycle to let out some of the tears that get stuck when you try to stay strong and downplay the stress/grief/etc...

Thanks.

Reblogging: A Change in Policy

Originally, when I started this blog is was to be just for my own art. Spilt Paint was to be about my work and selling it, promoting it the best that I could. It occurs to me that I have been very shortsighted in a way. And by focusing on myself and my work, I've cut out a vital part of what being an artist is: the things that inspire us.

I posted that cartoon from Rhumer. And today I am going to link to a blog that I have been following. And the reason for that, aside from it being well written and an important message to other artists, is because of something that Amelia said:

Being an artist isn't something one does in 3 years anyway. It's a LIFESTYLE; a way of being; a mode of ongoing thinking and existing ad infinitum.

Art is a lifestyle. If van Gogh's life and death, taught us anything it should be that. Artists are essential to the human condition: feeding the soul, healing wounds, being there when there is not an earthly person to depend upon. Since artistic endeavors look so much like play and not much like work artists tend to take a lot of abuse from the people who could most benefit from our passions. And becoming a paid artist is a lot harder than one could ever imagine.


So I am linking to 101 Bird Tales article here. http://101birdtales.blogspot.com/2013/09/how-to-diy-art-school-education.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+101BirdTales+%28101+Bird+Tales%29 and telling you all to go for it. Unless you live in the frozen tundra (which is now melting under your feet) you are not too far away from a resource that will let you develop your natural talents. I am close to the tundra in that there is not much that is close to me that I can afford to attend on a regular basis. But I do have the power of the internet and the gift of serendipitous discovery: I can manage to fuel my imagination.

But I can not do it if I am only focused on myself. Look at every artist out there. They belong to some kind of a community. My friend Michelle is constantly in contact with other artists. They feed her and she feeds them. I do not know it musical artists do the same thing... I assume at some point they must, Sting and Dominic Miller being one example. But I do know that without constant immersion in art the well begins to run dry.

That is most likely the root of my current dry spell.... in addition to a profound discomfort in working conditions. There are things still brewing, fleshing out the Unverwundbar and Unendlich inspired pieces is taking a bit of time. Honestly, I don't usually plan pieces so carefully. I mostly work with a slight concept and work the kinks out as I go. This time is different. Still.... I need more art to fuel my own ideas because that is how the process works.

So I think it is time to spice up the Spilt Paint blog with a bit of the things that I find inspiring. I see being immersed in all things BBC has given my writer's imagination some fire for creative thinking over at 6°. So it is time to see what I can do with this one.

Visual Treats: Chihuly Persians

I am not sure what I can really say about this next set of photos from my vacation.  I am glad that we decided to get expensive food to revive us for the rest of the viewing at the Sculpture Park. If we had not then we would have missed the awesomeness that was.

ME: (stumbling and nearly lethargic) Where is the café?
ROOMIE: (staring straight ahead and pointing at the wall markers) It says this way.

[The low ceiling is dark on such an overcast day. Feels like a cave.]

ME: I'm dying. (eyes flitting shut as body temp has risen to an alarming degree)
ROOMIE: We should have had more coffee or breakfast.

[Suddenly the ceiling height rises, sunlight fills a pool of tile on the floor, attention shifts from body pain to....]

ME: OMG!!!!!!!!

IT'S A CHIHULY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


I frantically dug out the camera took this shot then walked into the café proper. And what did my wondering eyes behold?

 

 

 

A ceiling full of Chihuly Persians. Never in my wildest dreams did I think that I would get to see these in person. The visual feast that is his murano processed glass is something that you just have to see in person. A Tacoma, Washington native and resident near Seattle, Dale Chihuly brings color to the art scene in more ways than one. His work is shown around the world. If you are a fan of the show Frasier then you have seen Dale Chihuly's work already.

 

I snapped tons of shots of the ceiling's rainbow assortment of Persians. And after six hours of near non stop photography I killed the batteries with the last photograph. I would have to buy more batteries to finish the indoor gardens.

 

I could wish for sunshine all day long. I think it would have made everything in the park stand out more. As it was we had overcast skies and there is little that I can do about it. What I like about his work is that it is radiant in spite of its surroundings. There is just no mistaking a piece of his glass for anything else.

These pieces found themselves somewhat better lit by virtue of artificial lighting. The one shot that I wish I had gone back for, no matter how sore my feet were, was the shot underneath the chandelier. How I would love to have laid under it to look up into that medusa form and feel smothered by light.



 





Visual Treat: The Horse

Sometimes it is good to get away and see things that challenge or update your own ideas of what is and is not art. I had a lot of that on vacation. It was a spur of the moment thing, we weren't really planning a full out minute by minute itinerary for this trip. My house mate said Grand Rapids and I said "OK." Even when she mentioned the sculpture park I wasn't too enthused. There has been a lot of that lately. But when we got down there I suddenly remembered "THE HORSE!!!!"

da Vinci modeled a horse for the Sforza clan for a commission by the Duke of Milan. The whole statue never was built. The clay model ever got beyond the construction of the horse before it was used for target practice when French soldiers invaded Milan. A few centuries later an American named Dent decided to have it built. The process began in 1977 and was completed just before I went to school in 1999. The story was huge. Every paper carried full page spreads of the newest installation at the Frederick Meijer Garden and Sculpture Park. And I was even more excited to get to art school than before.

Life gets in the way the way that it does and it is 2013 before I even think about getting there to see it. When I remembered that he was there... this great war horse of da Vinci's, I felt the fire for art that I haven't felt in a while. I needed desperately to connect with something outside of myself again.

And so....

Looming over a piazza built for him, the stallion is an awesome and fierce looking thing to behold. He can be seen from many vantage points within the garden park. Thankfully my zoom let me get up close and personal for this shot.

 

 

It was a hazy day, incredibly overcast with threats of a good shower. Amateur photography is difficult on a day like today because I don't know how to compensate. Just now, while uploading this photo I noticed the rays in the shot. Glorious!

 

 

 



 

 

 

There are three models of the Horse. Here the littlest and the biggest stand in the same pose and the same direction and look like a father teaching a son about military precision stepping. The tiny horse is meant to be touched and enjoyed. The large one can be "hugged" if you are so inclined. I was a bit overwhelmed by the sheer size of the thing and got a small case of vertigo, so I kept my distance.

 

The medium sized horse sits perpendicular to the others. One should not "ride" the horse but it is of a size in which one might; though, I think it is still not enough hands high for a proper wartime mount. But for the purpose of photography the medium horse is still a magnificent thing to behold. You can get much closer to the details in the mane and face than with the behemoth in the piazza. And, if you go up around the wall enclosing that part of the piazza, lean a bit against it to get your bearings then you can see this....

 

 At this vantage point you are part of the sculpture. You are on one horse and looking at the horse of your opponent in battle. You are about to lose your shit and it feels like there is very little you can do about it but muster some strength to fight like a Klingon or

piss yourself and go home.


And I wonder... if the Trojan horse was not this magnificent why the hell would they let the thing into its walls. Any thing less than this is not a gift but an insult. Troy should have known better and since it did not it got what it deserved.

If you would like to see these animals for yourself there are two options. Grand Rapids Michigan at the Frederick Meijer Garden and Sculpture Park or the Hippodrome de san Siro Milan.

Heart Chakra

 snippet of acrylic/mixed media assemblage

Another series still in the works. I have no doubts that it will be finished. There are only 7 paintings to this series to illustrate the chakras. This is the first one that I did because it was the first one I needed to work on. Odd how that works.

I've updated the photography since I have a camera that is way better than the first one that I started posting with. And slowly my camera skills are sharpening. Photo editing software still has to help me soften up the rough spots  and compensate for some limiting lighting issues. And I really wanted to be able to do macro shots of the "cool" parts like they do with Somerset Studio. So this is a macro shot.

This is one of those things that I know I won't finish without Photoshop which is *mumblecough months away from happening. I have a very specific project in mind with the set. So while I am saving up for the software I have plenty of time to figure out what the other 3 Chakras have to say to me about their nature.

Guadi for the Holidays

India ink and watercolor on Bristol board

Have I mentioned that I love the architect Guadi's work? And that when I get to Europe, the only place in Spain I want to go is Barcelona to look at the buildings that he designed? One of his buildings, a church, is still under construction... an over 100 year old project. It is gorgeous, wild and fantastical.

After Kurbisshaus, that I posted earlier I wanted to make more houses. I've been drawing and redrawing and burning through erasers like crazy. There was something that wouldn't work about it. And no matter what I did it didn't work until I took a day off and decided on a plan.

Instead of cramming a bunch of halloween motifs into one house, I decided that each house should have a theme. And this one, because I fell in love with my spiderweb stainded glass windows, would be just the spiderwebs. The gourd suggested a Guadi influence when I got to the top and put a 70's styled bump out. After cruising through some pumpkins on Google the turban squash seemed the best topper which then suggested the entry way. In keeping with the theme the grille is either a web or a spider with a problem; stuck in his own creation.

As with the other one, this is watercolor on Bristol board. It does not have Radiant pearls... yet. Instead, I used another technique to add interest. Liquid masking is a wonderful tool. When you have your drawing rendered you can use a pen or a paint brush to apply the liquid to areas that you want to remain white. When dry you can paint right over the top of it. The mask resists the pigments. The result is rather stunning. Just look at the next photo.

Add caption

The red mushroomy poof is washed in three or four shades of red over the liquid mask. Here the mask is removed. You can see the white is pure. Could you imagine how hard it would be to have to paint around all those shapes? And the horrible thing about having to work that way is that it leaves ring marks instead of the smoothness of a wash. I had shaken the liquid mask so that I got bubbles and was hoping that the micro dots would have left tiny little dots of color inside the white marks. But alas... I didn't get them.

The only problem that I have now that it is mostly colored the way that I want it is how to landscape this one. I could do the whole curly tree thing. But I don't really want to lock myself into a pattern. Then again a forest of oak trees is going to be a bit redundant. Still....

Oh and when it comes to scale, I screwed up and the house takes up the whole page. So there is not a lot of room for landscaping. And this is most likely not going to be the last version of this one. I really enjoy this house. I said to a co-worker today that I would live in a house like this.

Oodles of Doodles

It's a rainy Northern Michigan morning and I am having a hard time getting my German radio station to load. Apparently the rainy season makes everything a little sleepy. I am no exception. For the first time in I don't know how long I slept a full 8 hours. But I woke at 11 to grey clouds after a brilliant dream. This always leaves me a little melancholic. The dreams I live in during sleep are vivid in texture, color, sound and lighting. Reality has a hard time keeping up.

This morning when I logged on to Facebook I made a comment from a Seuss quote about it being to wet to play. And then I popped over to google for some mail and such only to find a brilliant Google doodle about Little Nemo. Instant love. So being the geek that I am I went on a hunt to learn more about it's creator, Windsor McCay.

from today's google doodle
used without permission but
with the request that you guys
start to credit the animators who
create these amazing
bits & bobs.
~Thank you~

First I love the name. Windsor and Newton are my favorite watercolors. And, though spelled with a C instead of a K, the name McCay will always invoke David Hewlett's scientist extraordinaire Rodney the raging egomaniac from the Stargate franchise. But what I love the most about this man's work is the the strength of the drawing and the delicacy of the colors. Created in the early 1900s, the Art Nouveau style is very apparent in his work. The first thought that I had when I saw them was of Maxfield Parrish and Alfonse Muscha.

The second thought that I had was "Who puts that much work into a Sunday comic? Of course, I grew up in the 70s and 80s where the most complicated Sunday strip was Prince Valiant. And our animated cartoons were those of Disney and Warner Bros. While Disney cartoons have a great aesthetic, they are simple things. Detailed and yet uncomplicated so as to make production easier, there is still a flatness to the films.

And then when we get into the realm of Saturday morning cartoons there was the Adventures of Tarzan, Johnny Quest and later Wizards and Warriors to fill in the details of realism that the others left out. And I wonder now if simplifying the cartoon to appeal more to children might have been a poor choice. Not wrong or bad but poor. I love animation. I fell in love with it the first time I ever saw a cartoon because I recognized it as art. However, I know that as I got older, 8 or 9 maybe, I wanted there to be more substance. The world was not overly simple. The rush of images that pass us in our daily lives get noticed when we are kids. But we may not always have understood what we saw. I think that is perhaps why Japanimation and Anime have taken the world by storm. It does not filter out the complicated or the bad and the ugly in human or anthropomorphic behavior. And I can see all of this in the things that Little Nemo encounters in his dreams.

The comic was hugely popular in its time. And it was one of the first animated films. Not THE first, but one of them. I think that the popularity of them is because we all know that we have dreams in which we live the action. There is evidence upon waking. The drug our body uses to paralyse us in sleep is weak or wears off and we thrash about. This is the dream life of Nemo. And I think that part of the appeal is that the child who can not tell his or her parents what the dream was about and is confused by it will see this comic and know that they are not alone in their adventures. Kids encounter the complicated things of life all the time. But not many adults take the time to help explain it.



borrowed again
 

And the popularity of his work among adults would be, perhaps that the real world textures and layers now have a dreamy quality that puts a little more color into the Industrial Age in America. You know, I look at this next illustration, gleaned from the net most inappropriately, and I see that the era of Steampunk began in the 1900s. It doesn't take us back to the beginning in the manner of homage; it has always been with us... just hiding a bit.

The illustration to the right juxtaposes the modern 1900s with ancient architecture and some fairly, in 2012, fanciful ideas of hydrogen power. I see a city that would never have been built because of the clash between the modernity of convenience and the grace of traditional living and a city that will never bu built now because exterior ornamentaion is a colossal waste of money and material. And certainly the irrationality of fanaticism would prevent such a wondrous place from existing in the future. Purists would pale at the thought of Asiatic and Roman design commingled in a single structure such as the shadowy building on the left. I am certain the upon seeing this there must be a few 14th century Italian architects bristling at the thought of Roman viaducts and duomos being the foundation of such a conglomerate monster such as the central building cluster. Which, may I point out, looks very much like it could have been cut and pasted onto the cover of any fantasy novel of the 1970s, especially the cloud cities of Marion Zimmer Bradley's worlds. Shoot... if Tolkein's Lorien elves were all about building in the open this could very well have been one of their spired cities. Behind the blue dome, fading in to the mist I see something that would be comfortable on the Klingon home world.

I think in all of this mornings travels, the thing that most entertained me about McCay's work is this last photo. Because the first thing that I thought when I saw it is the first thing that you are thinking...

 

Thank you, Google, for the excellent doodle and teaching me something that I didn't already know. I almonst take back what I said about book research being better (in the aesthetic sense) than a Google search. What a great way to spend a rainy morning/afternoon.

 

Refocus

I do not know when I will have another chance to work on artwork of any kind. The Summer Tourist season is ramping up and my hours are intense... to put it mildly. In addition to the work schedule I am having some issues with housing again. So I am half packed and ready to go. Now I just need to have the money to move.

As I was packing, I found my jewelery supplies had become disorganized and jumbled in the container. It took a while to sort everything out. These were 3 separate tubes of beads that burst during the last move. I like how they spilled together to make this combination. It goes great with a few of the large focal pieces in my stash. What a visual feast!

I may have to take a few hours to bead something in the coming weeks while I am in limbo. But what?

I have also taken up a new blog on another platform. It feels like cheating... which is why I slipped it in here instead of making a full blown announcement. It isn't that I don't love blogging with blogger. And it is not that I haven't enjoyed sharing here. It's just that I am in a new place in my life. After months of wrestling with my relationship status and my living conditions, I have finally embraced where I am. And that has been something to blog about.

It is a frustrating thing to be reduced to living in a hotel room as a semi-permanent or permanent resident. There are tricks to making it bearable. And there are things that people need a little encouragement dealing with. So that is the focus of the blog. And unfortunately the focus of much of my writing.

Talkies

Two hours and a few wet into wet layers yields a good start in
for this portrait of a talkative little crow.

Crows are famous for being the bearers of mystic messeges both good and bad. Sting's food for a crow lyrics tell the story of forseen doom. But the bird never really says anything. He just sits and looks. He shows up at the wrong time before a battle begins. Isis's bird Tut always seemed to be able to hunt down the missing kid... better than an RFID tag. Poe's talkative feathered friend is late to the party and never seems to shut up. Granted, the dark winged visitor doesn't say much. What little he says he seems to say it a lot.



And it is that irredescant crackle that is the subject of so much fascination for me. I've always been fascinated by the prolific little buggers. Crows and starlings seemed to love our garden more than any of the other birds that hang out in Northern Michigan in the Summer. Like cats, their timing is flawless so that it seemed that their cawing was part of a conversation with their surroundings. Eerie.

So when I found Poe again and decided to participate in an call for artwork on the theme of Poe, I went right to the Raven. And somewhere in the back of my mind, there was Johnny Crow and his garden. So this crow is dressed for an evening visist with velvet violet pantaloons.

I envision the idea that maybe he stopped by Edgar's after the evening opera or symphony. Maybe the music or an actress reminded him of Lenore and that is why he decided to torment ole Edgar.

When the portrait is finished it will be incorporated into acrylic canvas in the style I am acustomed to working in. I do not want to do the whole thing in watercolor because I want to be able to use rubberstamps. So that means there will be a trip to the photo booth. And some cutting. I hate cutting. But I kinda don't have a choice with the plan I am following. You just can not brush gel medium on watercolor without it running. Bummer. :)

I have to admit that I am scared to add the next layers to the portrait. One mistake with the black and hours of work go down the drain. I also have some layers of mica infused watercolors to use in this one. I am excited about that prospect.

Now.... to finish this without a lot of tap tap tapping tapping on my door....

six hours into the portrait and things come to
a head. Colors are dark and jewel toned. Greys
and black come next.

Necessity

It would seem that there is no way to continue to do the things that I love to do without getting more involved in the world that we live in. I will have to have some version of photoshop. For one, I now know that I can make some of my own props for the game that I play and create some very stunning realities in this special universe. Um... I should probably show you a picture.

It is very "boyish" in its sterility.  Utilitarian.   And to me not the slightest bit comfortable. But with the application of in game tools you can create just about any reality that you can imagine. And you can pay someone who has more time and skill than you might have to bring your vision to life. I suspect that some HTML coding knowledge would make me so much happier in this reality. As I am sure that it will make me happier in the real world. It makes more money than I could ever make in the laundry room. And building tools for people in a game is a lot less drama than all the crap that I have to deal with in the laundry room. But I digress. After you get done playing with the tools to add color and images you get something truly amazing... if you do it right.

And you can build just about anything. Of course it isn't like a 3D Google like replica of anything. It is a little closer to an 8 bit reality because of the cartoon quality. But I do not need super realism (says the girl getting frustrated because the Christmas Wreaths aren't quite real enough. Pardon me while I choke on my hypocrisy) but it is good enough to convey the thought and the feeling of a place. And really that is what using your imagination is all about. The imagination fills in the gaps and lets you make the place real to you. As you can see in this next shot.

These two pictures are so very different. This is all light and expansive. And there I am in the middle in a designer gown I could neither afford nor would be caught dead in were this the real world. And the dress was free. This was designed with two thoughts in mind: one it is very different from where I live in the real world. And with the right music plugged into this room it will help the seasonal effective disorder tremedously.

My other thought was that since the game world is a place for people to explore their own nature and test limits that the homes I have here need to be somewhere safe for me to feel comfortable being something other than a tomboy. It isn't that I have a philosophical objection to fancy gowns and a nice hair style. It is that a fancy gown doesn't get much accomplished in the real world... other than as a decoy in a Bond game of Spy v. Spy. The gown in no more utilitarian than the whole of the Roccoco period. I happen to like a lot of fluffy decorations on my cakes and old buildings but not anywhere that I am responsible for cleaning. There is beauty and grandeur in the places that serve as models for this stained glass manse. And there is very little grandeur in me.

This is a place where I get to be the princess that I want to be (Danielle in Ever After). Maybe later I will explore the Anna in Van Helsing part of me since everyone here seems to want to live a vampiric life. But for now I am just playing Barbies with the complete freedom to play how I see fit and build my own game without being told I was using my imagination wrong.

But I still see that for this and other art projects that I want to do, Photoshop is going to be as essential to my artistic growth as a trip to Germany.

The Next Great Studio Purcahse

I do not know when this will happen. But it needs too. At only 92.00 I can't NOT get this one. It is the Leechwood Convertible Easel from Dick Blick. It looks like a great thing to have. Especially since I only have small spaces to work in.

If I ever get anywhere with a lot of space then I can have a couple going at once right?
Well... spent today sick as a dog after being sicker than a dog. All I managed was to unpack a few bags of supplies and set out to deal with the Poe challenge at Somerset Studio. Do not know that I will make the deadline. But will endeavor to do so.

I started out the same way that Mr. Trapp had us set out to study a poem. I made a thick margin down the right hand side of my page to make notes later. Then set out to copy "The Raven". I did not remember this poem being so long! Anyway. After the poem was copied I went back and wrote in the large margin the key things from each stanza that stuck out to me. And added any other pertinent notes from the treasure trove of information tucked into the nooks and crannies of my mind. Boy are there a lot of crannies!

Next I made the sketch.
What I want to do is going to require a great deal of math on my part. Harlequin windows for my interpretation on the latticed window through which the bird entered. YIKES! All kinds of math involved in this. I am not happy about it. But I can not think of any other way to get some kind of movement into the piece. And... it gives me lots of opportunity to bring rubberstamping into the project. The other thing that I am worried about is the process that I have decided on for setting the leading in the window.... could be problematic.

Anyway.... I'm off to ponder, weak and weary,
over many a quaint and curious episode of ghost hunting lore.....

A Crow for Sting

I got up today thinking that I had to work because I always work on Wednesday. And I was a good little cog in the machine and covered shifts in an emergency so I thought that I would still work with a few hours of over time as my reward. Imagine my surprise when I got to work and found out that I wasn't supposed to be there. Not unusual for things to change and people not tell me. I am after all I am a good little cog in a not so vast corporate machine. But still...

Not complaining at all. I like surprises like that. It's just that rather than work til I hit my 40 the big cogs and the control arms decided to short me 6 hours on my schedule. Now the upside is that my " further any big picture" paycheck is only short 3 hours since I did get paid for 3 hours of overtime last week. So in the grand scheme I am not really too far behind in earnings. And I do have a day for me and my projects that no one knows about. Which means no one can commandeer my free time with demands of their own. And it feels like rain.

It has been so incredibly hot that this cool 68 degree morning feels like a breathe of Heaven. It is the perfect day for painting watercolors at my favorite cafe table with a small collection of my favorite Schlagerkunstlern (German pop music artists). And it is the perfect day for working on the motif that has been in my head before the real fall weather gets here.

Crows.
Not just any old run of the mill "Nevermore" spouting crows or counting crows. But the whimsical "make it your own" stuff that I am leaning to these days. A crow with a pun... ya know cause it bugs the Jeebus out of Old Uncle Willie*. A crow with that "gypsy soothe-sayer familiar" kind of familiarity that may or may not end up wearing a Mr. Clean ear piercing. A crow with uncharacteristic "Don't shoot the messenger" contrition. And a crow for Sting.

So since I skipped all sorts of headaches in learning figure drawing I had to find reference material. And I did. Oodles and oodles of reference material. And I accidentally found the blog most recently added to the list: junipurr. Please go have a look. This is a spectacular print making blog. And I wonder why this person is not designing rubber stamps. I would love to have some of her work to create with. But that is for another post.

So I have decided that the crow theme either means I am looking forward to Fall or feeling murderous... I think I will let the augury tell me which.

How Cool is This?



I was doing a bit of research for another project and discovered

this which jarred my memory.

I lifted this from a wikipedia article. The cylinder is a rolling stone stamp. The rectangle is a piece of clay that was stamped with the roller. This particular example is in the Louvre.

I'm thinking a lot of things right now. 1. There really is nothing new. This art form is thousands of years old. And while the article doesn't say it specifically I'm thinking that if you want to do a frieze or a border around a central figure and don't have a lot of time to do it because some Babylonian overlord with a whip is being an asshole about finishing a temple.... this is how you are going to get the job done. Slap a layer of wet clay over the substrate and roll for a ll you're worth. Granted the story is only going to be as long as the cylinder is in circumference. But if you are going to hit the highlights and have a great artistic design.... what more do you need?

2. I'm thinking that what I love to do with a passion was high art back in the day (3500 B.C.E) and now is relegated to puffery.

3. We are unimaginative idiots to think that someone almost 6000 years ago stood out in the hot sun and carved these things with crude tools on the wall surface. Why would you not build task specific tools to do your work? I mean holy carp Anne Bagby carves her own rubber stamps to do the same kind of thing in her artwork. Why do we think that ancient people wouldn't do the same? There is a uniformity in the work back then that defies the many hands concept of construction. Sure... Dale Chihuly teaches his apprentices his techniques and they build the pieces he designs. It would be insane to think that one guy can blow all that glass by himself. Just like its insane to thing that one guy carved all those walls. He built the tools that the workers used to decorate the walls they built.... I think.

4. Most importantly and positively in this pondering : We rubber stampers come from a long and proud and awesome tradition. Yea us!

Prelims

I am working on something for a friend that could not more clearly illustrate the process of inspiration. This friend is really a decent guy who has a lot of traits in common with the big jungle cats of south america. There are times when he seems really relaxed, even at work. In fact he seems so relaxed that you could probably sneak a freight train passed him at about 80 MPH. But don't bet on it. In nano seconds he springs into action and you are toast. Which is great when you are about to dump a 25 pound box of cleaning product on your head cause you are the idiot that put it on the top shelf anyway. Not so great if you are attempting a practical joke as K can testify to. So I am trying to define this quality in him and the only thing that springs to mind is the Central American Jaguar. And it hit me... a mayan glyph.

He is fascinated with the mayan calendar and the whole ancient culture. Normally he goes to Mexico on vacation but things in his personal life put the kibosh on that this year. He is qiuet; doesn't talk much about how he feels.... so like a guy. But you can tell by how much he smokes in a day how bored or emotionally stressed he is. So.... in my head he is the smoking jaguar. And I have a great glyph started.

I can't wait to use this in a birthday card. We've been doing special birthday things besides the corporate cake at lunch. I just don't know if it should be a private card or a group signed card. He is soooooooo hard to read on these things. The last time I gave him a hand made card you'd think I'd set of the auto destruct on the X303. Sheesh!!!!!!

But I am excited. The organic progression between thought and execution was really astoundingly clear. And the bit of research involved was a lot of fun. Its funny.... now that languages are on the top of mind it seems a lot easier to understand how foreign languages go together. Not that I will ever speak mayan or write it coherently. But the way the glyphs are put together make so much sense. Maybe it is the whole "latin based" thing. And even more than that... latin was such a spartan language that it is possible that the old langauges and latin share only one essential thing for communication..... simplicity. Which also fits my friend.

There is elegence in simplicty.
My friend also.