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Saturday, August 19, 2006

sweet sunflower



August 16th would have been my brother's 45th birthday. Sunflowers were his fave. Happy birthday, Christopher Robin.

Monday, August 14, 2006

on the way



Feeling a bit less exhausted t'day. Me big feeler me. The above is 6"x4".....I am trying to learn how to let shadow speak and less hard outline. It's an interesting study. And I feel kinda raw and rough so I'm letting my prints and stuff be a little more like that (than usual :^)

Also, as forecasted, a bit of perversity.

It's no cake walk, okay? So watch yourself.

Sunday, August 13, 2006

here there back again

I'm exhausted. Perverse just didn't play out much in my art the last few days. Believe me, I'll try again. In the meantime........






Wednesday, August 09, 2006

while



Let it be known that while I really dislike having to defrost the freezer and change the bedpans of hot water and making a big mess, I really love the after. Nice and clean and roomy again. And, refrigeration (not to mention electricity) is a very nice thing to have available as well.

This lil' guy is 2"x2" too. I have one more litle surface I can carve so...any suggestions for images? I'm going for a ride, I'll think up something I am sure. I am in a perverse sort of mood. You've been forewarned.

Tuesday, August 08, 2006

whittle





Jane is coming along nicely, I guess she is mostly gold by now....last night I went over to see the girls and we ate dinner together out on the front porch GOD I love summer! And did our art projects outside too..until it cracked thunder and started raining, then we moved into the garage - which is a double and you know? it's about FOUR of my apartments, seriously. The thing is huge. We all forgot to haul Jane's pasties out so I could gawp at them, darn it. I need a picture of Jane for you all. That is on my agenda oh yes.

Mass printing tonight. Just cutting up the cards yesterday was an hours-long affair, and tonight, well you know it's slow going when all you have are your wits and a spoon.

The spoon, folks - it's what I use to burnish the ink into the paper :^) That is my printing press.

Oh yeah.....also did a jam session with Haddock this afternoon, when I got home from a sweeeet bike ride out and about and hello to Chuck at work, he's back from BC..back to Ye Olde Grind....really had fun doodling on that thing though, when I got home.

yawning now!

Monday, August 07, 2006

last night this morning

Got late last night again and I just packed it in without blathering on into the wee hours......glorious day, and I cleaned up my art space at the very end, feeling good about that! Any bets on how long it'll take to get out of control again?

I did a bunch of gel transfers again yesterday and a small slew of acrylic backgrounds since Jacque needed her paint bucket back. She made a very tall sculpture of a woman some years back, she's painted red right now and has become something of a local icon (residing in Mother Kali's, a female-friendly bookstore). Jacque got an idea to paint Jane gold, she and Marsha are going to head up the Soromundi (choir) booth at Pride next...weekend, yeah. So Jane is in for a total makeover, which includes a new coat of acrylics (and perhaps a gold loincloth and bejewelled pasties, if anyone gets a burr in their saddle about a nude sculpture). So I busied myself making as many backgrounds as I could before Jacque whisked them away. I've been so into that lately I feel like someone cut off an arm...where are my paints? :-) I can try messing around with other cheap-o acrylics though, and see what happens. Got to vacuum my floor yesterday when they stopped by, too......(my tiny cannister vac doesn't have enough gumption to even qualify as a true vacuum and Jacque lets me borrow her super duper Sears Sucker). And with this new carpet....stuff shows up and doesn't blend in with the dinge...so I feel better better better! Clean studio, clean kitchen, clean floors.

So here, some of the gel transfers






And here, a print from the tarot deck...#10, Wheel of Fortune - which traditionally is the only card in the major arcana which does not focus on the human figure. I aim to break tradition.



Probably needs a bit more scooping out but I'm happy with it and I finally managed to get the entire image into an ATC-sized space!

And now, grunt work: cutting up bunches of cards for a mass printing. At some point during my weekend I really need to defrost the freezer. Gee, I was up at 5:45 this morning, I coulda done it then......but I went back to sleep instead.

Sunday, August 06, 2006

RUSH HOUR



........which, thankfully, isn't raging in MY neighborhood right now, it being sunday morning and all. The partie's in here though...me and U2 live Sunday Bloody Sunday. The boys, they rock. I like their early stuff.

Saturday, August 05, 2006

Where's Timmy?



Good boy!!

I hand drew and then collaged the well, the finger, and the doggie. Watercolor background. Hee.

bellwether



...didja know that 'bellwether' comes from the name of the lead sheep, who wore a bell, and guided the whole flock? It also means 'trendsetter'. Yup. This is for a swap over at ATCards. I have another idear for the pointing finger, think I'll go to it.

more experimenting



Here she's Pele, that lava goddess chick ya know?

And below here, she's some other kind of great big undine, emerging from waves? clouds? Hmmmm....Splicing photocopied images of the prints that I've drawn and carved, then gel transfering again.

satyrday

More gel transfers, folks!

Just had to do one more in the consanguine/salamander love-touch series......



And then this one below, well I guess it's been done before but I haven't done it before...I call this one Playground:



Feel a little nonplussed bleh today. Maybe I did some heavy-duty dreaming last night. It's just gorgeous outside though, a perfect summer day, and an extra one off of work for me, I'm inside a five-day weekend now, decided I needed a little summer holiday. Ice cream later, anyone? And there goes a cicada buzzing its buns off - I just love that.

And this one is a leetle quick sketcheroo I did yesterday too, and then transfered it on to an acrylic painted background I did a couple weeks ago. It's called Heliotrope:

Friday, August 04, 2006

consanguinity

yuh....awn....g'mornin'. I sure ranged over miles in my dreams last night. I'm kinda travel-weary this morning! Wuz jest too tahrd last night to post this quartet, so here are more of the gel transfers. Etayne asked if I'd 'splain how I do it so sure thing!









This is a series of doodles I did yesterday. I think I will just let the images stand on their own without any big explanation. Chuck's in Canada, I emailed them to him and he said something about salamander love-touch. Yes. He's a way with words, that laddie.

As for the method - I love the uniball fine point pens for doodling. After I scratch out some sketches I photocopy them. At home I prep some 'canvases', which are actually sturdy pieces of cardboard I usually filch out of the dustbin at work, or find lying around in big piles that haven't been disturbe for weeks, so I figure, fair game. I paint a couple few coats of gesso over the cardboard, letting that dry between layers. Then I choose a palette and paint with acrylics. I've carte blanche to a bucket of nice tube acrylics from my friend Jacque who doesn't ever use them (she prefers charcoal, conte, and graphite to draw with and I, in her generosity, reap the bennies). After I'm done painting a background, I coat that with gel medium. I'm using GAC700 Golden brand right now, simply because there is a huge container of it. There are also other gel mediums in the acrylic bucket, this is just what I've settled on for now. When the gel medium dries, I coat my cut out photocopied image with a think layer of gel medium - using my fingers, so I can feel how thick it is. Don't want it too gloopy. Then I press it onto the canvas and I roll it out with a small brayer. No air bubbles. Let it dry completely! Then, wet it with some water, a bit at a time, and work the paper off by rubbing it with fingers and thumbs. Often there is a thin film of not quite white, where the paper just won't come off - so coating with another layer of gel medium brings up a nice sheen most times.

Here's a great link, where I learned the basics of gel transfers. It's got pictures, too, which is nice if you learn well by visual example.

Well shucks, better get myself ready for work. Another beautiful day here, it's nice and quiet still. Dandy!

Thursday, August 03, 2006

a nightcap.......or two



A scribblething from a couple three weeks ago...who knows when? It's already August fer cryin' out loud!! Did the painting this morning, then the gel transfering...now I'm home from work and have more transfers to peel, they're waiting in the wings, drying. But this, for now, and maybe before I slope outta here for the night I'll finish the others. I'm calling this one Kringle.

Wednesday, August 02, 2006

hang it all

And so a few words on The Hanged Man, which I had neither time nor energy to go into last night when I posted...oh well I see, I guess I did say a bit but also...or again..emphasizes surrender, emotional release, new perspective, reflective pause, giving up urgency and moving forward by being still. I really struggled with the angle of the head (I worked from a photograph of myself actually) and finally with a turn of the line I realized the jawline but it also looks like a mask. I'm not entirely sure what this means, but I decided to print it up like that. Often when I do art or art does me stuff happens subconsciously and then reveals itself in layers as I go along or reflect later. I think of this as turning a face towards potential without the sorts of expectations that uh, well, hang you up really. Fresh start, ground zero.

So ah...hee hee...I realize also that quite often when I draw from a photo of myself, there are elements of my very real likeness but I think the masculine can really come through too and sometimes gender is also very ambiguous (at least to me). I like tapping that. Technology rocks, because usually it's me, the digital camera, and then loading up a photo and sketching from it. Last night's was a pretty lengthy sketch but it's been real cool thinking on the meaning of the card I'm working on as I sketch and take time to take it to heart. I wasn't so frustrated, I just kept at it, trusting that sooner or later my eyes would see and my brain would hook it all together and something I really liked would emerge. Et voila.

Today, golden. All over. Well one weird thing when I got home but otherwise, great.

So the weird thing was.....one of those guys who helped paint the apartments was on my front stoop when I got home tonight. I said What are you doing here and he said he wanted to say hi. When I asked if he was waiting for me he said yeah and I said you've got to go, that's not cool, you can't come back, I didn't invite you, and you better not be around unless you've got painting work to do. He's a bit off his rocker. No really he is. And a half-finished bottle of wine there with him. Fucking weirdo goddammit! Be a little nice to someone, especially if you're a woman, and - what the hell?! I mean okay, I made the guys bread. A human gesture. I never invited this guy in or over or anything. I'm gonna kick his scurvy white ass to Eugene if he shows up again. I let all my neighbors know what's up, but of course, the manager is unavailable, his wife said he'd be home 'in an hour' and that was two hours ago. They're not answering their phone either. Faugh!!!!

So today I worked on one leetle ATC because I have this thing with talk-bubbles filled with not-words. Cows in the field discussing upholstery. ha ha ha hahahaaaaaa. Finished it up just now:



A watercolor background and collaged cows and bubbles.

And now, it is time for me to retire to my chambers. With Six Feet Under. What a gripping saga!

Tuesday, August 01, 2006

tarot - hanged man

The Hanged Man Tarot card is what I drew tonight. Veddy veddy interesting. Allll about letting go, emotional release, surrender; overturning old priorities; being open and vulnerable; suspending action/pausing to reflect; setting aside self-interest...a paradoxical card. You think - you feel - you just KNOW you should aggressively seek, salivate, and salut but really whatcha need to do is just let it all go and step back for a few. O-o-kay.

Here's my print tonight for The Hanged Man, although, I think I need to rename it:



Now here's the sketch (believe me, I had to keep letting go and breathing, it took me a long time to do this little bit):



And this is what it looks like transferred on to the soft block:



Also did The Fool, ATC-sized, a collagey-type number:



I'm liking how I'm seeing when I'm patient. The print still needs work but there are some real sweet spots in there that I'm pretty stoked about. And I liked doing something totally noodley like the ATC too.

oy! my pillow! I think I go lay me head onnit now!

the illustrated life

Just another day in paradise. Earlier this week I was riding the Big Wave of the Cosmic Horn and lamenting the lack of otherness horn in my life (as well as the cuddlier aspects), feeling a right shade awful, and then I saw this and bust a gut:




Well it tickles my funnyhambone, anyway. It was one of those zen moments, like when the teacher reaches over and whacks you on the metaphorical head.

This morning I did another gel transfer, I am having a heluva good time with those in case you haven't gathered that fact. I layered a couple portions of a photocopied print I did a bit ago, over the acrylic painted background. It's ATC-sized.



I also sent this off for a swap - I retouched it up, after Jacque suggested some gel pens. I said that it needed leaves or more definition or...something...Jacque is one smart cookiebabe. I like it much better now (the green and reddishes are the new bits).



Also a couple more for Manekineko...they're 2"x2" (5cm x 5cm):



(someone sent me some stuff in the mail once, who knows when but inside were some really awful earrings, I nearly pitched them but I'm glad I didn't because the two musical charms have made a nice springboard here for the small art)



The neighbors are making some delicious-smelling summery food, like maybe a bar-b-que? I just ate a scone and that after a turkey sammich with potato salad, greens, and I'm not hungry but wow that smells good. What tarot card is next, I am wondering this, for ilustrating purposes...

stop making sense

A co-worker found this inside a book, written on a napkin in really cool/dynamic script:




This morning I:



Finished up an ATC thingy. Another gesso over cardboard, then acrylics, covered with a coat of gel medium and I wish to GOD this fly would leave me the hell alone, I am feeling a litte irksomed by it SHOO! and then I did a gel transfer of a photocopied ink scribblesketch with another coat of gel medium. It lacked something so I decided to collage on the ridiculously pink hat since she is oh-so-serious.

Art night was fun last night. Marsha's kids were there and I brought zuchhini bread (natch...I think I can make another two loaves with the remaining zucchini...no, make that four loaves). Megan whisked it away and cut it up into, not slices, but big chunks! Like a cake! That was so great. And Kendra brought flowers picked from her garden, which she said she did not have a hand in this particular corner, but her housemate Sandy did. Sunflowers, echinacea, and some other little pretty spray....Marsha and I split the bouquet. Oh yum.