M.I.A.

Wow! Where does the time go? Has it really been another six months? And how busy can a person be not to write a little roundup? If you are out there making art, you'll understand. Time gets away from you, and the only place you really want to be is with sticks of color in hand, applying dreams to the page. As usual, I can be found in any one of a dozen online classes or subgroups on Facebook. I must be meeting deadlines I set for myself, because, after all, there is no grade or punishment for tardiness or incompletion in the virtual classroom. But I feel the clock ticking, and I know what I need to accomplish to make me happy. And it does. Make me very happy!

In just a year I have come so far in my skills and knowledge, it is starting to feel like a college degree and more. I can't imagine I could have possibly had the time to make this much art in college, what with all the "core" courses and the outside work, and the clubs and friend time, and hanging out. No, I am in a different frame of mind and I am driven, and it feels so good.

The End? No, it's time for a restart!

You may recall that in 2013 I was taking the giraffe as my muse in Carla Sonheim's "Year of the Giraffe" class. This is a frame from a class video animation I contributed to. My portion was titled "Spot Goes Spot Shopping".

In October we did four "mini" projects. This was "Cardboard Giraffe" week, made entirely from boxes I had sitting around in a box, and old fashioned brass paper fasteners.

Another October week was "Famous Artist Giraffe". "Frida Giraffe" was one of my favorite creations of the year.

But back to the blogging and why I haven't kept a schedule there. I think it has to do with a big change in the way we are relating out there in the ether. I notice fewer and shorter blog posts by many of the artists and friends that I followed. Generally, I am not finding the time to read them and unless a post is under my nose with a link on Facebook, I'm not seeing it. Most of the time I only go looking if I want to find a tutorial, or just check up on an old friend I've lost touch with. I am also finding that while Facebook is the social medium we love to hate, many of my teachers are finding it the most expedient way to connect their students' work and commentary to the class.

In addition to giraffing in 2013, I continued to stretch my mixed media drawing talents and imagination for visual storytelling with the Jane Davenport class, "Joynal", nine weeks of fairytale type characters from fairies to unicorns to mermaids. This altered photo of my toddler self was the basis for a "fairy godmother" illustration.

"Joynal" was inspired by both joy and journaling, part of which was creating an altered book in which to do some of our artwork. I also created a larger format book out of several types of watercolor and mixed media papers. Both are still be used in my current Jane classes.

Since we were encouraged to draw characters, the classmates began to collect not only myriad art supplies, but shelves full of studio muses. The "Monster High" dolls are great posable tools for use as manikins.

A journal page showing my research in the shapes which fairy wings can take was a lot of fun, with a few tongue-in-cheek references.

Over the three and half years I've written this blog, sixty-four posts, I have only received 339 legitimate comments, an average of five per post (and some of those are my replies). So I am often left to wonder, who exactly is reading it, and would they notice or care if I stopped writing? When my original intent was for this to be a diary of artistic growth that I didn't mind sharing with the general public, I guess I was really satisfied just to know I had a running record for myself of what I'd been up to. If I touch or inspire others along the way, so much the better. But really, why should I always be filled with angst that I am not making my "story" a well crafted piece of literature, or making it too long or short, too frequent or sporadic?

For the week on fairytale heroines, I chose Alice, and later did a "tables are turned" illustration of grownup Alice judging the Queen of Hearts in her courtroom.

Galadriel served as inspiration for this elfin queen.

For those old enough to remember the movie, South Pacific, you will recall the intro to the song "Bali Hai".

After drawing two unicorns based on horse photos, I went on to create this creature totally from my imagination.

Our parting lesson was based on a painting Jane had designed of "girlimal" twins. She invited us to create our own combination of animal and female. What else could mine possibly be to end "The Year of the Giraffe"? This is a digitally altered version of my full color Copic marker painting.
The complete set of all the classwork can be found here on my flickr page.

So in the spirit of fairness to all, I'm going to try to post more often in whatever form strikes me creatively that week, and I'm going to be very happy to read and respond to your comments about what reading blogs like this means to you and consider that we could make this a dialogue, or not. I am finding that most of that is going on over at Facebook, and if we are connected in any way in the real world, (say, we both love Jane's classes) you can contact me over there. If you "like" my page, Second Part Art, we can be in touch without that friending business. Oh, and it still makes me glad that you stopped by for a visit. 

Kitty and I showing you a miniature journal we made with instructions from Tracy Moore in the Artstronauts club, one of our new online inspirations.

A New Muse

How did it get to be almost the middle of January? I guess I've been too busy to notice the time whizzing by. The last week of the year is always a favorite for me: celebration season coming to an end and everything calming down, exercise classes on hiatus. Fewer social expectations means time to clean up the house and clean up my to-do pile in a more relaxed way, and always, make plans for a new season of learning and excitement.

As the light of day materializes, I contemplate my creative life.

This year the Strathmore workshops aren't scheduled to begin until March, but I had an alternate New Year's Day creative jolt: after starting the day with a very "rah! rah!" Weight Watchers meeting I came home to begin, in earnest, "2013, The Year of the Giraffe, An Experiment in Creativity" with the most excellent of creative cheerleaders, Carla Sonheim. I have taken numerous online workshops with Carla over the last two years, as have others of the giraffe class, and we were so ready for this new concept. Rather than being an actual drawing class, we are expanding our vision about the meaning of creativity by having one basic muse, the giraffe, and twelve monthly assignments in various forms of creative expression. We will design assignments of our own choosing, we will communicate through word and image, we will talk on the phone, we will create a group e-zine, we will make friends around the world, and best of all, we will share an understanding of what it is to be a person who needs to, who must, create as a part and parcel of daily life. Rather than have a goal of finished product, the goal is to be present for the process.

January's assignment is to draw the giraffe, in any manner, as few or as many as we choose, largely from life or from photo reference, and then some from imagination. I began with three "realistic" portraits in conte crayon, and have moved on to ink and warm-up exercise type drawing. This week I hope to go back to portraits in pencil and maybe charcoal. I am not adding color yet. I want to study features and lines for a while.

A classmate's husband took the photo reference for this drawing while on safari.

This is a new baby and mom who live at Chicago's Brookfield zoo (drawn from a photo.)

Inaugurating my new journal with three versions of each animal (drawn while looking at the reference photo, but not the journal page.)

These "cool dudes" were the happy accident of drawing with water soluble marker with my eyes closed entirely, then adding water to spread the ink with my eyes open.

It occurs to me, faithful readers, that for a bit of a while now, even though I have been quite busy with classes and learning and trying many new things, what I have been sharing with you are photos and tales of my recent travels (still more installments to come!), and that I have quite a backup of this and that to show you. After two and a half years with my very first artist's journal, more of a practice book, plus some coffeehouse doodling, some travel drawing and a few "good" pages, I have come to the end of it, and chosen two others in my possession with which to move forward. One I bought as a lovely souvenir of Spain, which will suffice for my year of the giraffe, and for mixed media I am finally committing myself to my first Moleskine from Melanie Testa's class in 2012, and I think I will need to buy a new "everyday" book for scratching in.

This is one of my proudest doodle sketches in the old journal because I did an interesting piece based on a real art drawing strictly from memory. The two drawings are very different, but related, and I like how one begot the other. (I don't think I ever showed you the more formal one, and I will try to do that next time.)

This highlights my love of lettering and trying to develop ways to fill space with meaningful texture that is not a standardized doodle.

Many times in this short journey, partly due to excitement with learning, and partly due to the reality of the scheduling of online offerings, I have had to take classes at less than optimal times or overlapping with others, so that I may not have finished all the assignments or lessons. I have decided that the exposure to what I do have time for is better than not taking them at all. In most cases there is printed material to return to later, or even archived video lessons to use at my leisure. Such was the case these last six months, too much, too complex, but what would I be willing to lose? None, really. In some cases, I will return to finish these classes on my own, in others just the exposure to new ideas is welcome and will carry over to other activities.

In November, I had the opportunity to take a six week introductory class in the use of a FREE digital editing and drawing program called GIMP. It is something like Photoshop, quite complex, and will take much more study and practice, but it was a revelation to begin to understand "layers" and "brushes," and other tools of the trade.

I enjoy photographing the flowers in my summer garden, so it was fun to work a little color magic on this clematis, and the iris below.

My favorite garden ornament becomes ethereal with a color punch.

I started to learn about the ability to "capture" areas of the image (here a part of a garden pot,) and then layer them on interesting backgrounds.

Capturing areas, adding filters, emphasising parts. The artistic choices are endless.

Learning to "cut" a piece of a photo and make a frame for it.

Drawing by creating shaped areas to fill will color gradations, using brushes to make patterned lines (or stamp with) to add or erase color.

These are basically doodles with brushes drawn or stamped through defined areas. So much fun, and you can create your own from any cropped bit of a photo or drawing.

 I continued my Alabama Chanin wardrobe with a long sleeve bolero with bead and sequin embellished cuffs. Although I am generally not a "sparkly" kind of dresser, this piece works well with jeans, and will be a versatile cover up for cool times or just for adding a little special kick to a simple outfit.

This is my fabric and bead choice showing the instructions page in the book  "Alabama Studio Sewing and Design."

The finished cuffs, and the garment below. (Of course, there are pants involved when I wear it!)

 I had to try a pair of the hand warmers. They were a bit difficult to sew with the two layers creating eight in the flat felled seams in tight places. Not sure if I'll make them again.

My first journal page spread of the new year summed up the completion of my biggest goal for 2012: being able to have clothes shopping be a fun experience again, and giving me a reason to put all that time and effort into making artistic handsewn garments.

My favorite blogging artist at "Smallest Forrest" gave me a wonderful idea for capturing creative ideas before they flee in a small (this is really small) journal called a "Seed Book", named for the seeds of ideas.

 And finally, after months of it sitting idle on a shelf, I decided to get out my hand-me-down iPad and use it for:

       1. a Weight Watchers online cookbook source,

       2. a (Pandora) radio on my kitchen island, and

       3. an electronic sketchpad from the inspiration of another favorite blogging artist, Pat, at "Reclinerart's Posterous".

Here I am playing with brushes for the first time (in a controlled manner.)

Here I am playing with brushes like a kid (or someone who doesn't mind calling the giraffe her muse.)

And here I am actually attempting to draw with it . (The program is "Sketch Club".) Let's just say there is going to be room for improvement, but I do expect to have some fun trying.

A New Paradigm

This week's story caused me a big brain cramp trying to birth it.  It may be because it's more about my messy state of mind than the neat and pretty art I've been up to. Change, which I can't control, versus drawings and designs, which I can. I've interspersed the art for relief when you get tired of the words. Hope you don't get a brain cramp too.

When I was a public school educator back in the eighties, our school administration conducted a serious of lecture/workshops to introduce the faculty to some "new" social terminology (lifted from the field of scientific research): the paradigm. Simply stated, this is any philosophical or theoretical framework widely accepted as the norm. When you embrace the paradigm, you are "in the box." 

The goal was to acknowledge our current habits of reasoning and learning, and  to begin thinking "outside the box." This movement to new social structures is called a "paradigm shift." As I recall, we were instructed that a BIG ONE was happening in society.  The computer was starting to be everywhere, and for that and other reasons, our world was getting smaller.  Now we had to be on board to teach our students  the art of change.

Sketching at the mall with water soluble pen

Soon to be a victim of changing paradigms

At least that's how I recall it. Maybe I was doodling in the margins, and thinking about a guy named Fred, but I swear there were boxes and arrows and all kinds of lists of "what's in" and "what's out" and "what's about to be in and out."

That was about twenty five years ago (I gave up teaching about five years later, for numerous reasons I may talk about another day), and it's all really a blur except for the gut memory of confusion and boredom at these sessions. But in the end, a lot of change has come to pass in the way we think about and live our lives. This considerable shift in social structures has brought about what I believe is a big change in brain function as well. In those days, even with the prevalence of computers and video games, most of my interaction with people in my life was face to face, or at least ear to ear (with extended phone conversation.)  On the days that I couldn't get to my friends, we would talk in endless detail in cohesive phone chats.

Sketching on location: outdoor details (as seem through a window)

Just before the snow melted

Nowadays the phone almost never rings, and "chat" is barely more than instant text exchange. Most of my daily human interaction (outside that old school presence of a live in spouse) is done in tiny tidbits of short isolated postings over the Internet. As much as I love to death all the new people I am meeting and the possibilities of relationships that abound, it no longer has the same intense, messy personal connection of those pre-cyberspace days. I look at the sheer number of humans I talk to daily and then consider how many of them can be there for me in real life. What can be so comforting in theory (unlimited connection), fails to fulfill the real human need for physical proximity, eye contact, touch. "LOL" is definitely not the same as laughing together.

A box made from art to store small art journals

The bottom and inside of the box; a real, not theoretical one

And yet, if it weren't for this new "box,"  I wouldn't be talking to all of you, and I wouldn't be exploring my art which has become, in a very short while, the center of my life. I think I understand there is no going back and I wouldn't want to. So I've decided not to emphasize the negative aspects that come with change, but embrace what's good in it.

My most recent design in Contemporary Woven Boro, called "Blue Moon Heart"

Being aware of the box, I too can think outside. If I can help it, I will have a long connected life. It is far from over, and I intend to continue looking beyond the horizon where the best of the future will be. I'm going to follow that sun.

Get Your Motor Running

Sometimes my mind goes quiet for a stretch and I don't have a need to connect in verbal ways. I mentioned this last week, and yet it struck again. It is not to be construed that I am out of ideas or projects or general joy with life. Actually, just the opposite. I am lately in the "Artist Zone". I am full of the doing. I am absorbed by the doing and don't need to justify, clarify, or quantify. Every day seems to just flow lately. The To Do Lists aren't being written, because there is basically just one DO--create something.


Actually many somethings call me daily, but I let them whine and scratch at the door to my attention. I'll open it when I'm good and ready for you! Today is blog day, yesterday was watercolor journaling day. Each session belongs to itself and no other. Each has all of me. So even with the enticement to "do it all", I am gradually coming into a place of focus and concentration.


The one area that still vexes me and gives me that twinge of guilt is the online connection. As I mentioned last week, I am taking two different classes in two different disciplines with at least 150 other creative souls. If you participate in these forums, you know how demanding of your time and attention they become. You are torn between wanting to know these people who stories are so like yours they could be you, or so different and mysterious, they fascinate with rock star aura. Here is the opportunity to make worthwhile and even lasting connections and yet the time spent talking, knowing and commenting often saps the quiet and the space required to create and learn. So I say here today, if you are one of these new friends, and I've not been duly attentive, it isn't for lack of wanting to, it's to be able to keep up with you!


The Strathmore Recycled Journal Pages lesson has come to a completion and I am thrilled with how much I learned in just these three drawings (in four incarnations).  They have given me a leg up on the use of many materials and techniques and an excuse to just run wild. No pressure, no purpose and yet, a lot of joy and good result.


(You'll get the most out of seeing these if you click to enlarge, or better yet view them on my flikr page where they can be framed in quiet black.)

Where Did Pinky Go?
The addition of a whole lot of doodling with markers, white and gold ink completes the craziness.

Fifi and Cow
Same materials and techniques, more subtly done. Really pleased with the outcome.

Deconstructed Hippo
My total favorite of the recycled pages, complex and very satisfying.

My class in Contemporary Woven Boro has produced two new starts. Unlike the drawing activities, most of these cloth designs have no endgame at this point. They are pure experimentation. Some will be embroidered, embellished, quilted, and used. Some will be considered "sketches" and put aside. Either way, they will mostly not be completed within the time frame of this class, so that I can concentrate on getting the most learning rather than the most product.

Initial layout designed in an online program by Jude Hill. After being woven, the fabric strips representing the earth began to grow a tree. That's how things work in this class. That's why you need time to consider and let the cloth tell you what it wants to do or be.

Experimenting with weaving parts of one t-shirt into another, seeing how knits react to the process.

The place I achieve both learning and product is the class designed to teach me how to get started with visual journaling of my daily life, specifically in small sketch and watercolor vignettes. My skill with both has progressed tremendously since I began the first lesson in session one last October, with three pieces of fruit set in a simple single line frame, with no particular journaling or story.

Week one assignment: keys

Lately I'm all about the storytelling

Now we are being required and released to head out to our public lives, to set aside the concept of still life, and bravely draw what we see in front of us in the "real" world. My first coffee shop session yesterday broke the ice and moved me to a new place.  I went to my artist zone, forgot the other patrons and painted. The only distraction was a truly lovely moment of connection with another artistic soul. A young cashier with a joyful smile came to peek and said, "Isn't drawing fun? Don't you just love it?"

I wanted to drink that latte so badly! (No worries, I didn't let it get cold.)

Truly I have taken last week's keys and headed out to the highway in search of my life. It's going to be a blast of a journey.