indeed it has. my studio is done and i’m getting the space organized, a small printing press is being delivered today, i’m drawing making photographs and gathering image materials to start some collage work. so … while much is happening, what i have to post is below.
it’s made with paper a very elegant and simple drawing app for the ipad. it’s part of a daily drawing exercise i’ve undertaken inspired by the 365 drawing journal by noah scalin
my strategy has been to cook. i’ve managed to channel the art making energy into cooking. my time abroad recently inspired me to follow recipes for moroccan dishes. i even purchased a traditional moroccan cooking vessel … tagine … and am working with lots of new untried spice combinations. so while i sit and wait for the studio to be completed we’ll be eating well.
one bit of art news … i’m in a show the snowflake salon show curated by the good folks at heavybubble. here’s my entry
this stretch of time not having a studio has been both freeing and frustrating. the freeing part is composed of that feeling of suspended responsibility. the frustration is knowing time is ticking away and i’ll never get that time back. i know this all a bit dramatic, however, the experience has been very illuminating. i clearly know now i have a direction and am eager to start again. i hope i’ll look back at this time and be grateful for this “longest stretch” and just get into the studio and make stuff.
I’m far away from the state and will post pictures when I return.
image processing app –> decim8
so until i have a studio again, i’m just wandering around with my camera snapping images and dreaming of a baby press and a space to work within. having a fixed focal length camera has changed my world. it requires of me a compositional eye that is quite unlike most photographic experiences i’ve encountered … save a view camera which totally scrambles my brain. many image i make are reference images … ones i’ll utilize in the making of prints. below is a pic from this past weekend.
I’ve been away from traditional media for the past couple of weeks and have been tied to a mac using Photoshop for ‘applied’ purposes. This is an experiment with layers and brushes of varying modes.
TB
Fear is the Mother of Behavior, PS
I don’t have anything finished, good or even an interesting in-progress piece of sh*t, cause I’m time-poor. When I have a few moments at the illustration studio, I’ve been playing around with various illustration techniques in photoshop paint mimicry while listening to big-haired, broad-shouldered 80′s pop. . I’m fooling around with various brush presets, here’s a half-finished sketch that is not exactly a piece of brill-effing- ience, but it’s free to look. bla-bla-bla.
Tommy
Human League, scanned pencil and photoshop
… to be in my life. I’ve been working all week (hence no art making) in the city of Phoenix. my take away is how heartbreaking the amount of homeless are here maybe it’s where I am in life, however, i can’t help thinking “it’s simply one step in a different direction and it could be me”. the women and men I’ve seen this trip … heartbreaking … so next time I bitch about not having enough studio time, I’ll think back to this day and quietly know how effing lucky I am
photo taken while walking the streets of phoenix
for long periods is that I forget I’m an artist. I forget I have a creative language and I forget to articulate this language, as evidenced by my lack of anything to share. this is quite alarming. plus I leave tomorrow for a mini vacation …. I also know there’s an element of laziness involved. I’ve made mention of the need to do something everyday … advice I need to be more in line with, clearly. all this said, at least there’s a phone picture to post!
I am taking a sketch book and my oil sticks/graphite case with me. I’m intend (operative word “intend”) to sketch. I hope to forget that I’ve forgotten how to be an artist. I hope to forget that I’ve not practiced my creative language and I hope that this time next week, I’ll have a sketch to share. til then … bon voyage
jeesus … it’s the end of the day and I’m finally posting. I don’t have access to the Internet in the green mountain state of vermont, but I’m back in the fair city of boston so here we go. as you know, I’ve embarked on a project of drawing something everyday. often it’s on the phone, yet I do actually take pencil, oil stick and ink to paper, it’s just that it’s a bit easier to post the digital drawings. I highly recommend this as a way to stay in the game … to make sure your studio practice goes with you so you’re never able to say ” I couldn’t draw because …..”. the notion of the artist block starts to recede when you do something everyday …. it really does make a difference to keep moving along. so here’s my daily drawing ->
so I’ve recently begun using my iphone and ipad to draw. it’s quite different than paper (obviously) and lends itself to casual, free mark making. unlike a pencil to paper, a digital mark is more easily deleted which makes the whole thing less precious. I like it quite but. I also love to make marks on paper as the sound/feel is deeply resonant. right now I’m enjoying the act of drawing something each day. as woody allen – and many many others say – “showing up is 80% of success”.
as I started the new year, i felt it important that i have a disciplined small project to keep me on track. I bought a new sketchbook and commanded myself to draw something everyday. as the new year approached, i was excited and kinda nervous. drawing was out of my comfort zone. i’m a photographer. maybe my self imposed limits needed to be stretched. my good fortune came through twitter where @stelth opined “should I do a drawing a day?” to which I replied ”yes and I’ll join you”
i am using the iphone and paper based drawings in this project. it’s a terrific exercise for me to open up and play. it’s helping to be part of a group … accountability.
todays sketch has yet to materialize, however here’s a link to the project and yesterday’s sketch
so this is the day that good ole chris columbus invaded the native peoples lands, brought all manner of disease and claimed ownership of said property. sounds like our financial industry! so in honor of that, i’m going to close my bank of america account and find a credit union, get outside and embrace my liberation … and not celebrate columbus’s rapacious ways.
yes. it’s a lot more energy consuming than i thought. while i’ve been going to my new studio digs, getting in a groove is proving to be a wee bit tricky. not that i’d imagined it to be a seamlessly scripted tv show kinda event. y’know what i mean … show opens, something happens and by the 22nd minute (excluding commercial breaks) everything is resolved and folks live happily ever after. not so fast little girl….
what i have been consistiently doing is taking pictures with my phone, then over-proceesing the shit out of them and having some fun. it’s my one consistent attempt at staying in the game. the camera phone has proven to be a worthy sketching device. a handy tool to use when all you wanna do is keep your head in your art. i’ve even found a few worthy of printing and sharing.
so, let me start again… good day fair folk. here are some pics i made while waiting for the other artist side of me to get her studio shit together .
I’ve got nothing. I’ve been busy doing other things than making art the past couple of weeks, like making some sort of a living, so I apologize for being a kill joy.
Here’s some erotic toe-sucking :
I am working the same source image as last week and am about half way through this one, two runs through the press so far, and at least one more to go. I have realized recently that one of the real benefits in using fabric is that it can be soaked and re-soaked as many times needed without breaking down, an option paper doesn’t offer. What I am learning is that because fabric is more selective about what ink it wants to grab multiple printings gives me an opportunity to build values slowly and gives me more decision making options. So far I like where this one is going, hopefully I won’t fuck it up.
In other news I was contacted the other day by the friendly people over at The White Square Project, a fun participatory Tumblr blog. Every two weeks they give people a new theme and a 250 x 250 pixel square to fill. The current theme is color, and this was my contribution*:
I chose a digital piece, but they accept all mediums, so come on over and play!
*confession – I wish i knew how to quilt like JD because I would totally quilt the hell out of this pattern.
Ok, yeah, this is an ad of sorts , but its entertaining and I got nothing right now.
Here’s something I was messing with this week. I think it turned out alright. Of course, what does it matter, the world will be gone in a couple years anyway.
Honey-do Apocalypse, digital collage, 8″ x 12″, 2009
I wanted to use pictures that I took for this is a digital collage. Most of them are nature shots from around my home. I tinted(tainted) all the pics with clippings of internet porn. I like playing around with source material especially with digital stuff.
Unhappy Home, digital collage, 11″ x 5 1/2″, 2009
Agora Gallery - the proud sponsor of the Chelsea International Fine Art Competition, which offers contemporary artists the opportunity to show their original art at one the most acclaimed juried art shows in Chelsea, New York’s art galleries district.
Tom Bennett
darteboard
galinatodorova
Jason Gray
jdhastings
laelia e. mitchell
probrucer
ssstephg
Toni Tiller
