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Just some quick pictures, and not terribly detailed. But I couldn't wait to get her posted:
I made the cupcake over a year ago for another doll, and decided not to use it. Then I decided I wanted her to be sitting on the cupcake like she had just commandeered a mountain. Let me know if you think there should be more of them.
with two new dolls, for my October online exhibition at buysomedamnart.com. "Candy Thermometer" and "Compass." I even had my new flex shaft drill out to insert the sleeve in the back. It was so slick. I can clamp it right to my table and have it done in minutes. Here's a quick look:
"Candy Thermometer"
"Compass"
Flex shaft magic!
You can see in the above pictures the back post that supports their sitting. It slides right into the metal sleeve inserted in their back. All it takes to install them is an 1/8 inch hole in the wall and the post. Installation shots will have to happen this weekend.
I had hoped to get more done, but with rethinking my drawing class and getting everyone back to school, these two were all I could manage. If I can get my cupcake girl finished next week, maybe she will be available too. Will post a link when the exhibition goes live.
This last trip to Barnes and Noble was a real success. Not only did I find a contemporary drawing book which is helping me rethink my Drawing 1 class, but I found another book titled "Drawing and Painting Imaginary Animals" by Carla Sonheim that has me itching to draw. I'm not afraid to draw. I love drawing and am confident drawing from observation. I am however, terrified to draw from my own imagination. That's why I rarely sketch an idea for something....I just make it to see what it looks like. At some point I decided I am not good at illustrating, although I have never tried. So this book is full of exercises that will let me play, experiment and explore, without worrying about whether they are right or wrong. We may even try some of these ideas in my class. Will post one as soon as I finish....
Yesterday was our first day of actual drawing in my Drawing 1 class. It was all about the mark. The only real direction I gave was to fill the whole page with marks; charcoal marks, graphite marks, pen marks, eraser marks, layered marks. More will happen next week, but yesterday, I wanted them to make friends with their tools and to discover what felt natural to them without the added pressure of making something look like something. I am always amazed at the range of responses I get. I never know who has any experience with drawing or art, and the successful drawings often have nothing to do with prior experience. Those interesting drawings have more to do with the student's ability to work without fear, or in spite of it. I learn so much about them by how they attend to this drawing. I learn which students are willing to go for it, which are willing to make mistakes, and which ones need rules to follow. This first project, titled "Big Fat Mark Mess," is one of my favorites....I get to learn so much about them that they may not even realize themselves.
of Drawing 1 at RCTC. 26 students. New easels, tables and supplies. We spent the morning reading the syllabus.... hopefully the big art words didn't scare them off. I have spent many years as the teacher, but I still remember my first drawing class at RISD with Michael Yefko. He smelled like coffee and cigarettes and wore his hair in a ponytail. It was a seven hour studio once a week. It was heaven. He gave us our supply list at the beginning of class, and sent us to the RISD Store to purchase everything. We had an hour, and the bookstore was the world's best playground. I bought tools I knew nothing about and had never used. We came back up to class, and Michael had set up a still life of pots and bones. We had a 24x36 inch pad of newsprint, and we started drawing. I had never drawn that big, and it was the smallest size I drew on all year. We came back the next week to draw the model....another first for me. I don't remember much about the model, but I remember making a gesture drawing of the model with compressed charcoal and it was a revelation. I loved gesture drawings. Longer drawings found me getting fussy and caught up in particulars while I lost sight of the whole. Gesture drawings were this wonderful process of discovery every single time. I still think there is nothing more beautiful than that feather-like mark of compressed charcoal swooping across the page. I hope I can help my students find what excites them about their own drawing. Discovering my drawing during that freshman year was one of the best moments of my artistic life.
So in just a few short weeks I will be teaching my second Drawing 1 class for Rochester Community and Technical College. I had thought I had the class figured out after ten years, but teaching last spring gave me some things to think about. Partly it is a different student that I am teaching that requires a different approach....but I think it is more a renewed personal excitement and sense of possibility with the process of drawing. I realized in my own drawing that I want more freedom, spontaneity and space for whatever comes, and unfortunately, that process was also absent from my teaching of drawing.
In a night out at the bookstore, I discovered Drawing Projects: an exploration of the language of drawing. I am so inspired by this book and can't wait to incorporate many of the exercises in my class. Drawing with your tool at the end of a long stick....drawing with two pencils taped together...drawing without looking, but instead, feeling your object. These are all ways to be engaged with the process, without focusing on the outcome. There are beautiful illustrations and thoughtful interviews with contemporary artists. I am ready to be a student of drawing again!
The series is starting the final half of it's final season this Sunday. I noticed early in the week that the first half was now available on Netflix, and you know what I did. Watched. All. Eight. Episodes. But I got a lot of work done while watching. Nearly very major body of work I've made in the last twenty years has a corresponding television series. My M.F.A exhibition was made to The X-Files and Homicide: Life on the Street. The beaded organs were made while watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel. The drawings in Careful Measures happened with the background of The O.C. And this work now, it has seen some really good television. I've been making it slowly for a couple of years, and in that time, I enjoyed all five seasons of Breaking Bad, House of Cards, Enlightened, Luther, Louie, the new season of Arrested Development....There is too much good television to be viewed, and thankfully, there is still a whole lot of work that needs to get made.
Here is some of my progress:
It looks like complete chaos. But...the bodies of two new sewing ladies nearly complete. The limbs for both require a little more painting and decisions as to what belongs where. Finally, the measuring tape will be painted on. And then I will break out the new drill to add the installation hardware. These two new pieces will be a part of my buysomedamnart.com exhibit. I'm still a little uncertain about the figure towards the bottom of this image and whether she will be included. I have got plans for a transparent dress, red rain boots and a large cupcake and lollipop, but making it all stand up...that is going to take a little more time. I will be sure to post installation images when I have them and let you know when the work is available.
I was just in Ft. Collins, Colorado visiting my brother and his family and my dad and stepmother. My dad and stepmother are selling their house and down sizing. In all the sorting and packing, my dad found a painting I did in Art 1 at Blevins Junior High School. I was in eighth grade. It is on purple construction paper with (I'm guessing) tempera paint. There must have been some sort of resist for the outline....you can see it on the back. I think this piece was my first exhibition....there is a sticker on the back that it hung at the the Foothills Mall. I just barely remember going to the mall to see it. I also brought home another piece from my senior year at RISD....watch for an image in the next post and a possible etsy listing.
And congratulations to my brother on his new house with his lovely family. I am happy Ruben finally gets to share it with you! Yes, my brother owns a kangaroo as pet and he is adorable. My 19 month old neice thinks he is a bunny that hops.