going back to the land of ice and snow

Whilst the sleeping tempest gathers might

Yay! Finally finished this thing.

Scanning this just doesn't work, too many reflections from the gold (as seen here).  

The camera worked a little better; but the gold always exaggerated every stray ray of light, with a dark me-sized reflection in the middle.  I finally figured out that all I needed to do was cut a little lens hole in the middle of a sheet of drawing paper to block out my reflection and get an even reflection, and angle it in a slightly north-easterly direction about a foot behind a cloud-diffused ray of southern sunlight.  Whew.  I need to get a better photo setup.

Still had to photoshop it a bit, but it turned out more or less looking like it does in real life.  Well, it's way cooler than I could capture, the dragons scales reflect the light as you walk past it.  Oh dear, don't tell me I'm going to start posting videos of drawings :P

Deliquescent Glow

3.25"x4.5"

Another gold leaf piece.   Varnishing sometimes enhances the contrast and saturation of the coloured pencil and wood, so I wanted to see how the gold reacted to being varnished.  Not too bad, doesn't change the surface too much.  If anything, it brings out the colour and contrast of the body so it's not overpowered by the gold...

Back to the dragon...

Gold is worse than wood!

11"x14"

I've been working on this piece for a few days (in addition to finishing one piece a day, I'm trying to have a larger one going at the same time). I found my old stash of gold leaf and thought I'd try it out on the wood. So of course, instead of doing some test pieces first, I dive right into this behemoth. A bit big for an experiment, but I love the challenge of figuring it out as I go along.  Especially when I don't really know if it'll turn out or not.  Keeps me from getting bored with the whole process.  Still needs a lot of work, but the hardest part is done.  Although I'm not sure I'll try gold leafing individual scales again any time soon.

So, the birch: If you don't go too thick, the coloured pencil sits on the top of the woodgrain so the picture seems to move as you move past it.  Different colours fade in and out, shadows deepen, highlights vanish and then reappear. If you look at a piece straight on it may look dull and flat, but take one step to either side and there's a face bursting out of the wood at you. That's one of the main draws for me, the reason I love working on wood.

I've kind of figured out how to photoshop the birch pieces so they look at least similar to the originals, but this goldleafing... Hmmm. It does the exact same thing, multiplied about 10 times. Don't get me wrong, I absolutely love the way it's turning out, but it's going to be a bitch to photograph.  

How the hell do you take a straight-on photograph from a 45 degree angle???

The edge of the moon

4" x 7 "
coloured pencil on wood

Like a sunset going down

6.25" x 8 "
coloured pencil on wood

two trees on a hilltop

3" x 4.5" 
coloured pencil on wood

After that last one, I needed a change of pace, fresh perspective and all that...  and so, a landscape

closing your eyes (won't make you blind)

3" x 4.5"
coloured pencil on wood

Not sure I like this one as much, this cheaper wood (not the birch I prefer) gives a courser look...

Shift

4" x 12 "
coloured pencil on wood

That's What Keeps Me

5.5" x 9" 
coloured pencil on wood

With this one, I stained the wood before drawing on it.  I like the look of it, the way it brings out the woodgrain and warms it up.  I think I'll do more.

a little more each time I crumble

3" x 4.5" 
coloured pencil on wood

I was going through my old life drawings thinking I could use some of them, and found a sketch I'd done back in Chicago.  I transferred it onto a small wood panel, and coloured it in...  The background of circles/bubbles/cells/stones is something I've used over and over in my work.  

More to come...

And so it begins...

I am, at this moment, filling out the application for Art at the Source, "an open studios event sponsored by the Sebastopol Center for the Arts and focusing on artists based in western Sonoma County".  Yay!!

So, I need to greatly expand my portfolio, to pad it with less intricate and time consuming (ergo, less expensive) works. With this in mind, I have set myself a goal of making at least 5 pieces each week priced under $100.  This is the first, to get the ball rolling

On the calm black water where the stars are sleeping

Did a bit more on her face trying to get the proportions just so.  
Not quite there yet.

This is what 30 looks like.

Just a wee bit of grass...

K and I went out painting last week, down by the Laguna, found some cool grass by the edge of the water...  Above is what I did that day.   


And this is what it looks like after working on it in the studio for a bit.  It's about halfway finished, I think.

**update**
Finally finished:

A couple loose ends...

Not sure what this thing is.  A few years ago (ok, closer to 5 yrs) I was experimenting with collages and image transfers.  This a collage I transfered onto a piece of wood.  Because the wood was dark and only the ink transfers over, the whole thing was really dark.  I just went back in and added some shadows and highlights and blues in coloured pencil...  

And I finally got around to finishing this piece:

Not much of a change, a few shadows, a bit more detail in the eyes...  And finally got a more colour-accurate picture, after a bit of photoshopping... 

Can't think clearly enough to write coherently at the moment, tired and listening to Firesign Theatre...  Gonna go to sleep now.

A penny-farthing rodeo

And it only took 6 hours...  I got to watch the sunrise (quite rare for me)

I've been listening to eastern european surf music all day, and thinking about getting the shrine ready for the Handcar Regatta.  Hmmm...  

I also figured out what to do with my backyard,  pictures soon...

Spinning The Thread of Life with Thought and Memory (unfinished)

(oil paint, pen, coloured pencil on pine frame)

Another piece that I've had sitting around for a while.  Originally, it only had the figure, straining against the sides, trying to escape the 'box'.  Then I added the string and the crow on the bottom holding the end of it.  After I drew it I felt really bad at creating this world where a crow was being jerked around, like I'd tied a REAL crow to the end of a string.  So I stopped and stuffed it in a box...  Until last night...

I added a second crow and continued the string past the bottom crow, giving them both a more 'active' role in the situation.  But then I needed to do something at the end of it...  

__________________________________________

Lately I've been reading more Norse mythology and a bit of it seems to have worked its way into this piece.   

• The most logical choice for the end of the string was a spool or spindle. The Norns are Norse demi-goddesses of destiny, dieties who "spin the threads of fate" of both gods and men.
• The crows turned into Odin's two ravens, Huginn and Muninn (their names mean 'Thought' and 'Memory') who fly about the world delivering messages and gathering knowledge.  At night they return and perch on Odin's shoulders and whisper into his ears everything they've seen and heard.

  So this is turning out to be a Norn spinning the thread of someone's life, deciding their fate, with Huginn and Muninn watching closely (and maybe lending a foot or two) so they can tell Odin all about this new person coming into the world...  But even as she's spinning she's getting tangled up in the thread as well, maybe losing a bit of her objectivity...?

I love it when these things happen.  This thing has just been sitting for the last 6 months because I couldn't figure out how to finish it.  Then everything just falls into place.  Stuff I've been reading, pictures I've been looking at, all just seem to fit together perfectly to make it complete.  

  ---   
norn=woodsprite?  The woodsprite was my consolation/therapy piece for not being able to finish this one when I started it.

“Humankind has not woven the web of life. We are but one thread within it. Whatever we do to the web, we do to ourselves. All things are bound together. All things connect.”

There is a crack in everything, that's how the light gets in.

I've been toying with this idea for ages, finally decided on the right figure and composition this week.  

Now that I have the room, I decided to take advantage of the space and use my overhead projector for the first time - almost four years in storage, it's about time I used it. But the smallest it would get (and still be in focus) was still too big for the canvasses I had.  So I went to the hardware store and picked up a few sheets of 2'x4' birch plywood.  It's the largest painting I've done in a long time.   Eek!! 

I've been making it a point to stop periodically and take pictures of each stage. I've never done it that way before, since I generally like to finish paintings in one sitting...   I have the feeling that it's going to take me a while to finish this one.    

This is just the underpainting to get the  colours and shadows figured out before I start the real painting...

waiting... for what...?

I have been bouncing off the walls of my skin for days... weeks now... vibrating with the urge to create something.  It's the most frustrating thing in the world, this all-consuming need without the inspiration to temper it.  To make it useful.  To make it more than just this paralyzing itch that is always moving just ahead of where I'm trying to scratch with fingers I have no control over.

I've started several pieces mostly just as busywork to keep my hands occupied, if not my mind.  Even finished a few.  

I did these figures months and months ago, but couldn't decide what to do for the background so I just stuck it in a box and left it for a while.  I'm still not sure if I finally figured out that this was enough or if I just gave up and did what I could to correct previous missteps:

Having such a simple background, on one hand feels like sort of a cop-out, since I didn't really even think about what to do, I just did the first/easiest/simplest thing that popped into my head just to get it finished.  But I think it keeps it from being too cluttered. 

There's still a few things I want to do to it, more highlights/shadows on the rocks, shading on the leaves...  strengthen a few outlines...  Need to find a title too.

Out of the Rolling Ocean - still splashing in puddles

My last "studio" was definitely getting a bit claustrophobic by the time I moved.  Working in such a small space I'd started to produce very small pieces, didn't have room for anything I couldn't hold in my lap...  So when I moved I chose a place where I could have more space to work on larger pieces.  I get this nice big (relatively speaking) studio and what do I do?  

I keep working small!!!  

1.5" x 2" !!!!  

I gotta stop doing this!

I was born cloaked in the absent sea

I have a studio! I have a studio! I have a studio!
And I finally used it!!!

Instead of watching a video, or wasting time online, or unpacking more boxes, I decided to spend the evening making something. I'm paying for the space, I'd damn well better make use of it. The only thing I've done in there since I moved in is make pillow covers for my couch. So I dug through my boxes of sketches looking for an idea.

I've had this sketch laying around for several years, just this body curled up on the ground.  One arm, no head.  I didn't know what to do with it, I could never figure out what to do with her head.  Then it dawned on me.  Waves!  It took a while to make them look like both hair and waves.

I had to finally hook up my scanner, since I can't find the cord to hook my camera to my computer. (It's odd, when I first moved in, I knew where the cord was, but not the camera.  As soon as I found my camera I lost the cord.)

It was so nice to actually be in the studio.
Aaah. Makes me smiley all day long :)

Ivy is Evil!!

I'm not talking about poison ivy, just yer plain ole Hedera Helix.  It was completely covering a huge chunk of my yard (if you count the planterboxes as 'yard'), the wood underneath is soft and most likely won't last too much longer.  So far I have filled three huge trash bins to overflowing with the ivy I've pulled out of my backyard.  My neighbor generously offered use of his last week.  And I still have at least one more bin's worth to go.  But I did get it out of half of the planterboxes, and off the fence.  I transplanted my zucchini and yellow squash there, along with a couple watermelon, since it gets good sun most of the day.  One of these days I'll get the rest of the ivy out...  
 
(that entire back part was covered from the top of the fence, across the 3' planterbox, down the front of that, and had grown about 3 feet out into the yard.  The newer part of the fence didn't have ivy on it, since it had been torn off when the fence was replaced not too long ago...)

But instead, I've been cleaning, unpacking, figuring out where things go...  I made the most awesome covers for the pillows on my couch.  Pictures coming one of these days.  

I let K talk me into having a game night/house warming party this weekend while my mom is out visiting, so I have to speed up the unpacking process a bit.  Last weekend I finally got something up on the walls in the kitchen, doesn't look so bare now.

 On the back wall (on the left of the pictures) I put a little hanging shelf, the perfect place for my glass polar bear collection.  I just need to get some sticky stuff for their feet so they don't go on walkabout while I'm not looking...  On the other wall (on the right of the pictures) I put my grouping of little mirrors, mixed with some small artwork...  Better for a small space, I think, than one big piece.  


This is directly out the back door (you have to go through the garage to get to the backyard) Last weekend I also got most of my succulents arranged, and up off the ground.  They seem to like it better here.  I'd dug up the onions I'd grown from seed and brought them from my old place.  They immediately started blooming the day I moved in and have been in full poofy bloom ever since  :)

From the garage door, looking out towards the backyard. 


And since I had to leave all my other sunflowers behind, I bought some...  Because every house needs sunflowers.

Not the best pictures, I know.
My camera is still packed away in some box Ihaven't gone through yet.
I'm going to have my mom take some pictures while she's here.

And it's driving me absolutely batty to have a studio and not be in it making art!!!  There's just too much other stuff to do first.  Have to's before want to's.  That's what my dad always said.  Which is good for actually prioritizing what 'needs' to get done, but....  I've been trying to quelch it by doing 'interior decorating', and sewing, but... but I want to paint!!! Oh yeah, I did a little screen printing on one of the pillows though. More on that later.

The use of seat cushions as flotation aids should be a last resort.

But if my living room ever floods, I won't drown.

Yes, I finally got a brand-spanking-new couch!!!
Having only one chair was a little inconvenient. So I caved in :)
I was planning on getting a futon or pull-out couch, but when I went to look at some, none of them were quite up to my standards. I expect that they at least be halfway comfortable in both seating and sleeping positions. They were neither. So I went to Scandinavian Designs, fell in love with this little brown lump, and adopted it right there as my very own. Brought it home in the back of L's truck, sticking out about a foot and a half...




 

"A leopard sprawled in the crook of an acacia tree, rising now and then to bite on the remains of a gazelle he had tucked away in a nearby branch, as one would get up from a couch to find some inviting edible in the refrigerator."

When I'm good, I'm very very good...

And 27% evil. Hehehe.

www.olava.org is 57% evil. Who knew?

But I am now 100% moved out of the old digs, into the new!!!  K and L helped me the first weekend, then I borrowed my grandparents van to finish up. And my grandma and cousin and her new hubby helped on Sunday.  But I'm still only about 30% unpacked.  

I'm still sort of in awe that I found this place.  It's got two bedrooms, which means I finally have my very own studio!!!  And it has wood floors, central heating, a bathtub, closets, and a 'real' kitchen!!!  With dishwasher, cabinets, and room for a table!!  And a garage (with washer/dryer) for my car!  No, the washer/dryer aren't for my car, the garage is!   Well, it's full of boxes and plants at the moment (actually got most of the plants outside yesterday afternoon) but I'll be able to park in it once I'm unpacked.  I have a hall closet!!!  I have a HALL!!!

Way more than I was initially looking for or even thought I could find in my price range.  I almost went for another studio, twice as big as my last place, but still a studio...  But K told me to hold out for what I really wanted, with a separate space for a studio.  She was right (yet again, that girl's invaluable).  I really wasn't counting on them offering me this place, because there were a lot of people at the open house, and one was even a former student of the owner.  
But I guess they must not have behaved themselves in class, cuz now it's MINE!

And there's surprising few places for rent in this area right now.  They're either total dumps or one bedroom apartments/studios (with no yard) for about what I was paying before, or 6 bedroom 'estates' with rent more than my entire income!   I don't have many criteria, but those I do have are non-negotiable. (Has to allow a cat, and have room for a studio and a garden all my own.  And it couldn't be a soul-less box in a huge complex...) 
Since I found this place (second week of April) I've kept an eye on what else is out there, and there's absolutely nothing that I would even be remotely interested in living in!  I was actually even considering the possibility of having to live in an apartment, or moving to Santa Rosa or Rohnert Park.  K tells me that I live a charmed life.  She may be right.

So now comes the monumental task of unpacking.  
I even got everything out of my storage unit, mostly art supplies, tools, books, records... 
I'm setting things aside as I unpack, so I can have a garage sale this summer...

Here's my new living room, from the door to the kitchen:


It's a work in progress.  I finally, finally, finally get to have my records with me again!!!  That's them on the right, in the bottom of the glass shelves under the window.  Which also happens to be the perfect spot for my orchids.  So far.  They're still alive after two days, we'll see if they still like it there in a few months...  

Next on the agenda is finding a sofa.  I need to get a pull-out, or a futon, so people don't have to sleep on an air mattress on the floor when they come visit.  I kind of need more than one chair for people to sit on.  Fights have almost broken out over that chair, because nobody wants to be the only one on a chair when everyone else is on the floor.  Might be kinda funny if it wasn't so sad :P


It is quite a spectacular chair though, don't you think? It's Swedish, and won a design award.  Mine has a different fabric, due for reupholstering soon. And my stool is in pieces at the moment, need to reassemble that too.

Really, the garden is absolute first on the agenda.  
I felt kind of bad leaving my old garden as bare as I did.  But not really.  It's not as bare as it was when I moved in.  I left the grass and less than a dozen plants (not counting what was already there when I moved in)... but since they're selling the place, I figure they can just plant one or two plants, throw some bark on the rest of it and it'll match the rest of the yards 'landscaping'. (see pictures below)







Move-In, July 2006 





June/September 2007





Move-Out, May 2008




It just seems bare now because I had so much planted. I didn't realize just how much until I had everything out in pots. Yikes!!!  I took almost everything I could reasonably expect to live through replanting. I lost the first wave of rosebuds in the move, but the plants are doing ok, and should sprout new buds in a month or so. Everything else is doing great so far.

I just need to get things in the ground now.  There's planter beds along two sides of my new yard, but at the moment they're overrun with ivy! Kind of pretty, but if I want to plant anything else, it all has to come out. But after two weeks of going nonstop, I just don't have the energy or strength to pull it out right now.
I must have mentioned it to my boss when I was telling her about my new place, because yesterday she came to me and asked me if I wanted the empty planter boxes and barrels on the back deck at work.  I guess when they were in this building years ago they'd had a 'garden committee', and had a bunch of flowers planted in them, but now they're just old wooden boxes filled with nice fluffy dried up dirt.  So I took 5 home yesterday, and got my tomatoes and squash replanted in them.  They'll need to be replanted as they grow bigger, but it'll do for now, better than the little plastic pots.  There's a couple more small boxes that need some work before being used again, the metal band holding the bottoms together is gone, and I'll need help getting the two wine barrels from the front porch...  But that can wait a few weeks.
I also got some plants in the ground out in the front yard yesterday, a couple little rose bushes, lavender, a patch of crocosmia, a couple Heuchera (ok, I'll quit being nerdy, 'Coral Bells') a couple other bulbs that might be Amaryllis?  Only a few more still in pots that need to be planted soon.  The rest can wait until I get the beds cleared.
As soon as I get the plants stable (and off those pesky life support machines) I'll get started on the studio.  Can't wait to start painting again! I'll be able to set up a still life and not have to move it to have room to eat dinner! It's been a while since I had an actual studio, I'm still a little giddy about it :)

The downsides (so far):
No free internet.
The ivy in the planter beds.
Afternoon traffic noise:  it's right on the corner next to Bodega Ave.  
My neighbor smokes in her backyard (right up against mine)

But overall, I'd say the plusses far outweight the minuses...

Change is inevitable - except from a vending machine.

The impersonal hand of government can never replace the helping hand of a neighbor. ~Hubert H. Humphrey


In this case, the two have worked hand in hand.

I've lived in the same place, a (less than) 300 square foot studio basement apartment, for almost two years now. I won't go into all the details, but apparently my neighbor doesn't like my landlords... So, I have to find a new place to live. Of course, I found this out only days after building planter boxes and getting my garden planted. My new home will be bigger, better, with room for an actual art studio. Working/sleeping/eating/living in one small room just isn't working well for me, so it'll be nice to find a new space. A bit nerve wracking though, there's not very many places available that meet my requirements. Damn these high standards and low budget.


I did find one place, the most adorable two bedroom duplex (complete with garage, backyard and hardwood floors). I'm waiting to hear back from the owners right now. I hate waiting. Especially when she told me she'd checked everything on my application, and my references and everything was 'just glowing'. What does that mean?!? I'm hoping that it means that by the end of the month I'll be figuring out how to afford $300 more than I'm paying right now.




How hard it is to escape from places.

However carefully one goes they hold you -

you leave little bits of yourself fluttering on the fences -

like rags and shreds of your very life.

~Katherine Mansfield

To Pass The Time 'Til I Return

The sun is back! The grey rainy days are fading away and the last few months of hibernation are almost over...    Just in time for all of my spare time to be taken up with everything but what I want to be doing...  Where'd those lovely lazy weekends go??  



I sometimes worry that I won't have time to build my planter boxes and get my garden in the ground in time. Of course, there's plenty of time, but there's so much to do...

This little beauty came up at the edge of my lawn again this year. One of these days I'll look it up and give it a proper name. For now, it's stuck with an improper name :P


In gardens, beauty is a by-product. The main business is sex and death. ~Sam Llewelyn


BTW, it's "Arum palaestinum", native to Isreal... AKA Israel Black calla, Solomon's lily or Jerusalem lily...

Do birds contemplate their own mortality?

A recent jaunt to the coast turned up a few treasures...
This is just a 'sketch', I'm not sure what it'll end up looking like.  

Autumn sprite

“Autumn wins you best by this its mute appeal to sympathy for its decay.”
Robert Browning