Art Girl

New Studio, New Body of Work

Since the stroke in 2000 I take a lot of medications.  In my daily reality, these help me be pleasant, sane, and reasonably reasonable.  I've been gathering all things to do with these drugs for a couple of years but the initial stages of visioning this self-portrait work eluded me until this month.  Two days before I got the keys for my new studio I thought of the first piece.  From top to bottom the pictures below show the evolution of this first piece.

Layer 1: arranged prescription stickers

Layer 2: lines, shapes in ink on tracing paper to size of canvas

Layer 3: (in 3rd picture on wall behind canvas on easel) gouche on tracing paper

Layer 4: oil & oil stick on canvas

Layer 5: (not shown) more oil

I'll take a less bleary picture this weekend.  Stay tuned for the process of the next piece!!

Unfinished. Wait, What?

Total of 6 hours in front of this model.  Realism and subtlety take forever!  Oh yeah.  AND I'm a bit retarded.  No, really.  

But clearly, I learned a lot in just and 8 week period.  Well worth the money.  More classes at Gage in the future.  And definitely from Geoff Flack!

First Day at Toots & Moxie Studios

Keys!

Lease signed and notarized.  New key weight on key ring.  A very happy artist indeed.

Idaho Road Trip 2009

Just a few pics from last week.  The ones I'm in, I didn't take.

Suspension Pieces

These are cloudy to white in some areas because they're not dry yet.

1. 2nd Layer

2. New One

3.  New One

4.  4th Layer

Needs Peer Feedback

I'm thinking the mixed media boxes are pulling ahead of these grave rubbings/figure pieces.  But I gave it another go this weekend.

Here are some close ups and some practice frames and the new drawings.

30" X 40"

So there's this show.  At this gallery on Long Island.  And I've entered it.  I have 30x40 inches to fill.  I'm working on two projects for it, many pieces in each, in hopes that by July 1, one of them will jump ahead as The One.

In the winter I started this mixed media thing.  I suspend drawings/found objects/clippings in acrylic medium (self-leveling, cloudy wet then dries transparent) in deep, old frames I find at Good Will.  I'm having fun with this one.  A bit of a sense of humor, whimsey, promiscuity.  That's project A.

Project B involves the following: grave rubbings and figure gesture drawings.  I've been a bit fascinated with rubbing old stones for quite a time but haven't done it.  In October I bought a cheesy "rubbing kit" and pulled it out, finally, a few weeks ago.  I spend one to two days a week now filling 40"x24" sheets of fabric and paper with non-Biblical sayings, relationships (neighbor, nephew, daughter), titles (woodman, sportscaster, fishguard) and more.

In a conversation two weeks ago it dawned on me to combine the rubbings with my beloved figure drawing.  Since then I've cut the rubbings in half and drawn figures on them.  Not hit upon the right combination yet.  But going forward with this project feels right.

And so, at the moment, neither are greatly exciting me nor shining as fabulous pieces.  Here are a few early pics.

Stacy Marks

I attend 3 hour open studios throughout the quarter to practice my new skills.  But the day I made these, I decided to throw it all to the wind and see what came out.  I felt good after that drawing session, having made drawings with what I consider "Stacy marks" instead of trying to make something real.

The Technicalities of Figure Drawing

April through the second week of June I'm in an Intermediate Figure Drawing class at the Gage Academy here in Seattle.  They teach realism.  This means correct portions, more exactness, etc.  I've never received this level of technical training in this area.  All I care about is that now I can do it if I want.  But I gotta tell you, I won't choose that often.  I love body parts all out of proportion, skewed but fun compositions, leaving body parts off the page/canvas.  It's way more fun.  But for now here's the kind of drawing I've been practicing this Spring.

Thinkin' about these...

The UW show is closing in!  Due June 12th.  Even though it's an eclectic mix instead of cohesive, I'm thinking of entering these three pieces, plus the one they're using for the advertising...

The first one is ink wash on paper with a poem/letter on vellum over it.  The second is traditional Japanese Katazome (rice based dye resist) on linen.  The third piece is big, 6' x 4', and is mixed media on canvas, entitled, Anticipation.

Shows & Workspace

I started to panic today.  Two shows in July!  Ahhhh!

And no space in which to put finishing touches or pack them to send to NYC.  My plan is to rent something ASAP thru the end of June in order to just prep for those shows.

Here's the page for the July UW art show, "Recreating Me: Exploring & Healing Through Artistic Expression."

May Flowers

May flowers come in the form of art projects blossoming.  

I'm visiting a studio or so a week now in this initial stage of looking for a work space.  RS, my future studio mate, graduates in June so am looking for a July 1 move in date.

Exhibition:  Something Different, APW Gallery, Long Island City, NY, July 17-August 23, 2009.  I signed up for it, paid my fee and will send in my art works late June.  I'll keep you posted on this event.

Figure drawing class at Gage Academy going really well.  Learning tons.  Drawing live models approx. 9 hours/week.  Pictures up when I have access to a working dig. camera!!

Reserved studio not going so well, but to be expected after a 9 month break from drawing models & painting in oil.  Pics up when there's something to show...

Confession. Again.

Alright, alright!  I haven't been idle since the end of February.  But you know how it is when you break the digital camera you've been handed down like the klutz you are and nothing you're doing is truly exciting enough to document anyway.  Don't you?

Promise to eventually show all the stuff I have been doing.  Even promise MORE to document my new classes at Gage Academy of Art starting next week:  Reserved Studio, Mondays, 9:30am to 12:30pm (same pose all quarter, thru June, every week, drawing then eventually changing into an oil painting) and Intermediate Figure Drawing on Thursday nights from 6:30-9:30pm.  OMG.  I can't contain my excitement!  I'll be working again!  For real!

And Rachael (future studio partner) graduates from Western in 2 months and 2 days (day by day countdown to launch soon).

Back to backing oatmeal chocolate chip cookies buzzed!  How fun is that??

Wax IV

This assignment involves building up a thick layer of wax on a surface (in this case glass).  The next step will be to gouge out a drawing.  I'm using a gesture drawing from a while back.  The final step involves pouring a contrasting value of wax into the negative space you've cut out.  Clearly, this is step 1!

Oooops, Here's Wax II

From 2 weeks ago...

Wax III

Inspired by a Celtic design from an assignment and contributions from my Women's Words & Symbols book, four hours of work and confusion and uncertainty and more work produced this:

Of course, the colors are better and truer in person.  I'm somewhat happy with it.  On to the next piece!

I get to spend the day at the library tomorrow studying, drawing and gaining inspiration!

Encaustic Methods, Round II

My second Encaustic class this weekend yielded a redo of last week.  I threw caution to the wind and decided to apply some serious heat to my first piece.  It feels way less paint-by-number-y.  But it's still not at the next level, nor may it get there.  This week I had a Rothko/Mondrian/Rosevear abstract all worked out to produce but that got waylaid by some peeks at some impressionist pieces.  And so I'd say that the second piece below is in it's second stage of four? five stages?

First Encaustic Attempts

I'm not sure about this painting with wax thing.  Like any other form of art, I'll have to just do it a lot in order to know the medium's limits and possibilities.  Lots of experiments.

As per my usual, I used a lot of wax right out of the gate.  Not shy.  Yet it doesn't behave the way I expected it to.

Here are my first two attempts from class today:

Obama Day

A pic of our festive, yum-filled table below but better ones on Sprizee's Flickr file.