Hands & Pants collab : Many ideas, one outcome

My friend John Casey has been doing a specific collaboration with artists from all over for years that he calls "Hands & Pants" because that's what you get when you participate: a hand and a pair of pants. The rest is up to you. I had the opportunity to do this last April when I received a 8.5" x 11" pen and ink drawing of a hand and pants. With the composition and size, I was sketching, sketching SO many ideas. I went to the several boxes filled with collage pieces and thought, "Oh this would be fun" since I hadn't done a collage piece in a while. Well, the piece I chose, the flower headdress, extended far beyond the paper's edge. After hemming and hawing for a while, dabbling with a few other ideas, I made the (in the back of my mind, a possibly regrettable) decision to cut the being out and adhere it to a watercolor piece that I had been working on around the same time. I think it turned out nicely.

Thank you to John for the experience. The next Hands & Pants show will be in the Fall 2019 at Faultline Studios.

Inktober 2018 - 28/31

 

 I endeavored to do my best with Inktober this year. I missed 3 days in total, so not too bad. There are a few of these I really like, some are concepts that I'm now turning into actual pieces (like the mermaid), and some are...eh (my Idi Amin Crododile didn't turn out so great). Will attempt for all 31 days next year!

Spirit Flowers

These are small - 5.5"x 5.5" - pen, watercolor, and colored pencil spirit flowers. I do these sort of mindlessly, working out different color pallets/combinations, designs, and just general warming up. I did these at work where I don't have a compass so I used a paperclip and a pushpin.

Nailed

Another heart. I think about this piece now, months' after its completion, and I see the representation of a "total feeling," a complex physical, psychological, and emotional reaction. This was especially agonizing but even from the sketch it felt good to do. In a lot of ways, art works are some sort of picture diary. I'm letting you read pages  fom mine.
In life, we take the hammering because it is unavoidable, and after a certain amount of time one tends to acquire an extensive collection of nails.

Sometimes I feel more of the nails than others. Being sensitive will do that. Also, I find with huge failures, all of those plans, those beautiful dreams, the peaks and valleys, so much energy and work, all became nails driving into one spot, knocking the wind right out of me. And the big ones take longer to hammer in so it's a protracted and shocking process.

Now that I'm an adult, a good portion of the time I'm doing the nailing. Whether it's about perception, expectations, rules (including moral and ethical code), or personal character traits, I'm making most of the decisions. You hold the hammer, life just provides the nails.

Or maybe it's  just me? Wouldn't be the first time that's happened.

Nailed: DeScaibled: 2016

Mixed media gouache, ink, and colored pencil on prepped chip board.

Birthday Creation - The Gatekeeper

After what I have termed my "Wayward Girl" summer, I finally got things squared away and with that, a glorious shot of creativity. And the first thing I wanted to do was something special for my very inspiring, generous, wonderful friend. Happiest of birthday, Dwawn!

This is a 9"x 12" mixed media painting entitled, "The Gatekeeper."

Skull Still Life

Found this still life I took several years ago while clearing out some old photos. I took this on a Huawei Mate. It's a top view of a deer skull underneath what I believe is elk antlers over top.

Ink: Forgotten Shaman

This is a surreal ink splatter piece made from two separate pieces and merged digitally.

The Power of Surrealism: Laundry Clairvoyant

This piece was created from two very different times with no thought of them ever being one project, one piece.
The canvas surface was one I had used in school, most likely for an oil paining still-life study or some sort(I can't remember now), which I had gessoed and then affixed old black lace. I gessoed it again and then put acrylic paint on top. Once it was dry, I placed  it in a dark place and didn't think about it for at least a year, if mot more. Much later, I was tearing through an old Nat Geo mag and there was a photo of a village that did laundry. I tore one page and the rip was awkward, not straight along the binding. I looked at it then I stuck it on my wall and continued harvesting.
I saw a face in the laundry. A stoic, sad profile.
And the two separate pieces finally came together. Quite remarkable when you witness that.

 Laundry Clairvoyant

Mixed media collage and paint

9"x12"

Pink Week..."Ouch"

 

This is a post card sized piece of artwork for Sacramento's "Pink Week" where artist send in art where the dominate color is, of course, pink. This is entitled "Ouch" and was done in watercolor, ink, gouache.


 

Long Time No See

If you are reading this, fantastic! With all the blogs and bullshit to read, I appreciate you reading mine.

The Good News is a large commissioned painting is done. The varnish has cured and will soon be shipped to its rightful owner. It was a test in patience and self-love and I will be sad to no longer have it decorating my walls.

Universe Energy Conduit (Yggdrasil still lives) 36"x 24" mixed media

Song of the moment: "Pay No Mind (Snoozer)" by Beck

Color obsession: Black

Fun word: superfluous

Moments in Between the Noise

I'm messing around on a collage piece in between working on a commissioned painting which has been a bit of a struggle for me. Having something fun and with no preconceived outcome is a good way to reset my mind and get out of my own way. Kind of like meditation...the silence in between all the noise.

I enjoy collage much more than painting. I'm always fighting in painting...fighting the image, all the training I received backed up on loop in my brain and at some point stop and say "fuck" really loud and drawn out because it's not what I want to have done at all, and always, always fighting myself. It's very rare that I get joy from it. Collaging on the other hand, I've had no classes for. There are no rules save for the copyright infringement, so basically it's completely free. I can do whatever I want how I want. No one can tell me how it's done is wrong because it's just opinion about a working process. The energy is so rewarding that I am probably never going to do traditional paint-only works again after this commission is done.

Below are some photos of the new piece.

This will be a hand holding special objects

The head of a transformative being that has no permanent shape

She's working on building the one thing she lacks, a functioning heart

So that's that, as they say.


Color Obsession: French Gray
Song Obsession: "Sol" by Zwan
Smart Words: Supinate

Red Mask Beading: A Pandora's Box

So if you follow me on facebook, you'll have already seen these in progress photos on the red mask, but I post them here because now I can talk for a bit.

Look at Gary II. Now I feel he requires a hat of sorts, if only so accentuate his fine sculpted bone structure ;-).
This beading...this insane beading with seed beads has created some issues. One, it's seed beading, which is ridiculous. They are 1/16, super small which equals a very time consuming task. You lose them quickly if you drop them(or a whole strand. Curse words abound!) and are patience-testers. They are what they are and their qualities are much more appreciated when you are not working with them. I took a box home filled with all the beads I want to use and spent a few days beading at home, after work, on the weekends, before bed. But after figuring out how to strand them with efficiency, I now want to do more of this with other masks. So, there's that.
I don't know why I choose to do this to myself. (Insert blank face here)

Also, I've also been working on/ignoring somewhat a new website and will be blaring that all over the social media feeds as soon as it's completed. Which needs to be soon.

Anybody else's To-Do list seem never-ending? I feel I should just refer to it as my Mobius Strip instead. More accurate that way.

Alright, enough. I need to get back to the studio and work.

Color obsession: dirty plum
New song obsession: "Death of Me" by Gojira
Vocabulary improvement: verisimilitude

posted from Bloggeroid

Digital Peacock Weed

Peacock Weed has been a design I have done previously. I have imported a recent weed growth into Illustrator for a live trace and then into Photoshop for messing around with some color. Although I am not one to work this way, or to be fair, enjoys working digitally, the ease of which color comps and value studies are accomplished makes this process useful.

Also, exciting news! I moved into an art studio on Chinese Lunar New Year. This will be my first studio that I wasn't also my apartment. I feel like such an adult. ;-)

Color: Poppy orange

Song: "Night woven of Snow, Winds and Grey-Haired Stars" by Drudkh

Word: Atramentous