In the Studio

I've been out in the studio the last couple of days--yesterday I turned on music and painted a dreadful painting, then painted over it (very happily, I may add). Today I came out, painted a little bit, and then set to work re-organizing my computer files. While I'm waiting for files to move from one hard drive to another, I'm sketching out ideas for new paintings. 

Mmmm. Nice day.

The Big Draw: Day 23

 

 There's something bizarre and yet attractive about these drawings...

It's All Connected, Somehow...

I remember the first time I realized this--I was a freshman at Michigan State, and something that one professor said just made everything click into place, and I could see--I could actually see in my mind--all the connections between everything I'd ever learned, both in and out of school, in my whole life.

It was a marvelous feeling, somehow larger than life. I remember walking home from class that day, my brain simply fizzing away, zipping back and forth between seemingly unrelated bits of information, and the dawning of this huge revelation that it was all related. All of it.  Everything. And, for a short, magical while, I could see all the tenuous threads that held everything--every thing, every one, all of it--together.

The feeling diminished over the next few days, as marvelous feelings often do, but every now and again I bump into some paler version of it when seemingly disparate items reveal an unforeseen connection. It happened this past week.. Somehow, while making zentangles and doing contour drawings for The Big Draw and looking at my drawing books and working with the high school kids I had an aha! moment. Texture, pattern, contour, light, dark, shadows, reality and imagination all somehow connected in my brain. It's both more complex and more simple than words can express, but that connectedness still gives me a jolt of pleasure, and I think that it's probably one of the most profound truths of all. I know that if I could only retain that incredible feeling of connection to every thing and to every one all the time, I would be a better, wiser, more complete and kinder person.

Here's hoping that all of us experience more of those amazing moments...

The Big Draw: Day 22

 

I quite like him..

And More Zentangles

More Zentangles

Catch Up on the Big Draw...

As usual, things have been hectic around here... Sometimes I wonder what I did with all that time before I had kids.

Joel's football team is currently ranked number 5 in Central California (all divisions of schools) by the Fresno Bee! The boys are having a great season and have knocked off a couple of teams who have traditionally been bigger, stronger, and more athletic than the Porterville teams...It's very exciting.

Katie's choir just had their first concert--wonderful wonderful! Tennis has just ended for her, so she's very sad as she absolutely loves all the girls on the team, but basketball starts in a couple of weeks, which should perk her up considerably.

and of course, I've been ripping up carpet, laying laminate flooring, painting, and cutting new baseboard moldings.  That's been a huge job, more hard physical labor than I could have imagined, but soooo worth it! With three dogs, three kids, and three adults in and out of the house all day long, laminate is a much better choice for us than carpet.

Here are some of the pages from my sketchbook during the past week or so. I'll try to scan more and get them up soon.

Laminate Floor in the Diningroom!

 

Ripped out the carpet in the diningroom and laid laminate flooring--then Katie talked me into taking down the plate rail and painting, which meant I had to cut new molding...Katie is a force of nature--you can't stop her! But this room is done--Aaaah. 

New Zentangles

Here are three new zentangles. I went to Art Club at the high school yesterday and we all did zentangles--the kids loved them! they are going to make them into cards to sell as a fundraiser for their trip to the J. Paul Getty Museum later this year. Next week we'll continue to work on zentangles, as well as making our own envelopes for the cards. Should be fun. It's a great teacher with a great group of kids...

Livingroom Is Done!

 

Still lots to do--paint and put up new molding, paint the walls (but what color? Joel says pale yellow/gold and the girls want a room painted red...), and finish sewing the new fitted canvas slipcovers I'm making out of painter's drop-cloths... but it does look very nice!

My helpers

Jenny (top) and Katie (bottom) now officially can lay laminate flooring.  Between the three of us, we each laid about a third--could not have done it without them! Joel helped lots too, moving furniture and doing all the transport of the boxes of flooring. He is also our resident expert at putting down the foam underlayment--all in all, it was a family event!

Ripping Out Carpet

Jenny and I ripped the carpet out of the livingroom today. What an icky sweaty dusty job! And--even after you get all the pad and carpet out--you still have to pull up all the tack strips, pry out all the staples, and take the molding off!  Jenny and Katie are doing that part :)

Tomorrow we're going to put down laminate flooring. It'll make much more sense with three kids, three adults, and three dogs going in and out of the house all day... We did the same thing to the family room last month (see the pic above), although that was a much bigger job because we also painted the pecky cedar on the walls--now THAT was a lot of work! Thank goodness for my little helpers--it turned out so well...

The Big Draw--Day Eight

All done with my right hand! It's like it shifts my brain into another gear.

Second-hand Store Find!

$5 at a local thrift shop. It's quite lovely; a bit worn around the edges, delicate and ethereal…

Blind Contour Drawings: One Step Further

Using the techniques outlined in the most recent Cloth Paper Scissors, I experimented with turning this morning's blind contour drawing into 'something more'--in this case, a 'faux silkscreen'. I like it!

The Big Draw: Day Seven

I'm going to try an experiment with this morning's drawing--Will post more soon, I promise!

An Image for You!

And what could be better than a free image? this one's particularly cool, I think-- the cover of a vintage 1929 Punch magazine from Britain...

Click the image and bring it up full size, then right click and choose "Save As".

Blind Contour Drawings with the Art Club!

Had so much fun today with the kids at Art Club. Everytime I go there I remember why I loved teaching...the students.

I mentioned The Big Draw to them--I should have told them that I'd post their drawings if they decided to participate--as far as I could tell, only one girl had her own blog--which I'm enjoying reading very much!!!

Fun day.

The Big Draw--Day Five

Blind contour drawings from Jenny's graphic novel, BabyMouse.

P.S. Isn't it exciting/amazing/cool to see these blind contour drawings improving so much? I'm going to tell the kids in art club about this--not that I didn't know that practice improves my skills,but WOW! Even at 46 I need a reminder!

Art Club Today!

Got flagged down by the art teacher at the high school last week when I was delivering some stuff for Katie; they're starting Art Club on Tuesdays at lunch, and she wanted me to come this week. I love seeing the kids, and I'm hoping I can post some of their work on the blog--going to try and get them interested in joining in on the Big Draw!

The Big Draw--Day Four

Some Experimenting Going on Around Here

Working on painting clouds…

The Big Draw--Day Three

Interesting how much more tentative my lines are when I'm drawing and looking at the paper,as opposed to the blind contour drawings…

The Big Draw--Day Two

More blind contour drawings. These are fun, especially because they are so clearly about process rather than product…