Here are a couple of small sketches I did recently---I like to doodle on to postcards, then I can send them to someone...
In an effort to add some needed structure to my blog---and to spur me on to post more often, I am now going with a theme: the alphabet
so today is brought to you by the letter A
A is for ART!!!! and ARTIST and ARTISTIC and ARTFUL
Today's thought : "I don't really know why I draw (or paint); it is just what I do....."
For about a year now I have been participating in a SKETCHBOOK SWAP with 12 other folks ---all set up via the net. We have been passing our sketchbooks around once a month for over 12 months--next month I will finally get mine back---with sketches by 11 other artists in it! We are located all over the US--both East coast, West coast, plus the Midwest. Besides being fun---and always interesting to see others sketches in each sketchbook---this has kept me drawing with some regularity, and I have made some new online friends. The little sketch above (in Jody's sketchbook) is titled SPRING.
Quote for the DAY:
"-on Leonardo da Vinci...
It is often said that Leonardo drew so well because he knew about things; it is truer to say that he knew about things because he drew so well. " ---Kenneth Clark
While in Kumasi we visited a Ghana Craft Market with out guide, "Mr. Charles." In this compound many artisans were actively creating and selling their beautiful crafts. I wandered around and took some photos---since I am always fascinated by fellow crafters and their process. I purchased a lovely basket, some beaded jewelry, and other crafts as gifts to take home--including a colorful strip of Kente Cloth.
a basket maker---showing a basket in progress
these beautitful young women wanted me to take their photo with the basket--which they were selling
here I am--with the basket I purchased (great for storing yarn in or taking to the Farmer's Market) and a sculpture that was in the compound.
there were wood carvers at work
and ART! everywhere we went in Ghana artists were selling their art---mostly on unframed canvas---I really liked much of it--but was relunctant to ask to photograph an artist's work, if I wasn't planning on purchasing it, so didn't get many photos of the great art I saw. These two large paintings were public art--on the side of a building, so I snapped a few shots of them.
And then I saw my first Kente Cloth artisan at work...I must say that the fabric designer in me was fascinated by all the great fabrics I saw--and the Kente Cloth was no exception---I took numerous photos.
Kente Cloth is woven on a narrow horizontal loom. The loom usually uses four heddles, but sometimes has more. The cloth is woven in narrow strip that is about 3-5 inches wide and about 5-6 feet long. Several strips are sewn together to make a wider piece of cloth for both men and women.
a strip of black and white Kente Cloth on the loom
later we visited a wonderful place in a small village where many Kente Cloth weavers worked and sold their cloth--so check back tomorrow for a colorful treat! as I really did take many photos;-)
I guess since I have been in a transitional stage of my life for the past six months, much of my drawings seem to reflect moving or flying....this small (10" x 7") drawing is titled I'll Fly Away
Pen and ink with prisma colored pencils--and soon will be for sale in my Esty shop--Borealis Beads---check out my shop for some affordable original art!
I woke up this morning and remembered an idea that came to me in the middle of the night--I should blog about women artists for women's history month-- and so I have decided to highlight some of my favorite art history books --- the ones that are about women artists I admire, or are excellent general feminist women's art history--from my collection. When I attended college in the 1990's (I was a college student later in life), I received a minor in Art History---and found myself studying mostly women in art history. This may have had something to do with my experience in the 1980's with feminist artist Judy Chicago--I collaborated with her on a piece for The Birth Project, and that experience certainly "raised my consciousness" around the issue of women being systematically "written out of history."
A classic history is Women Artists : An Illustrated History by Nancy G. Heller. This (and some of the other books here,) may now be out of print but a quick look at ABEbooks.com showed numerous used copies for sale.
Another thought provoking book discusses (between the two authors, Judy Chicago and Edward Lucie-Smith) some of the contrasting ways women have been portrayed throughout western art history---and addresses the questions : "Why has so much art by women continued to find so little public recognition? Are women's depictions of women different from those by men?" among other subjects. The illustrations are numerous and beautiful, and the book may make you view images of women in art in a new way.
I think the title for this book speaks for itself. This is the classic book on American feminist art of the 1970's, with great Illustrations.
Next--the history of American women artist's 1970-1985. If you are interested in contemporary women's fine art, these are the three books I highly recommend.
Now to highlight a few individual women artists whose work has influenced mine....
This book by Janet Kaplan captivated me when it first was published--then I was lucky to veiw a show of Remedios Varo's art at the National Museum of Women in the Arts in Washington, D.C. (If you are ever in D. C.--this Museum is a must see!) Varo was an early surrealist artist--originally from Europe, but forced to flee the Nazis, eventually she settled in Mexico City. To see a great website all about Varo---her life and many images of her art--click here.
"For more than 60 years German Artist Kathe Kollwitz expressed through her work the ideas that obsessed her: the plight of the oppressed, the causes of peace and social justice, the joys and sorrows of motherhood, and the mystery of death." Looking through this book, I find it a bit scary how so many of these images are still relevant today.
Lastly, I have this lovely book about the amazing Margaret Mee (1909-1988)--and English artist who traveled to the Amazon--sometimes by canoe and alone-- and kept diaries of her journeys and also created wonderful botanical paintings and drawings of the plant life.
Today I'm working on a new fabric design in gouache with a bright palette and owls....here is the work in progress:
Here are some more tutorials from the list I've been bookmarking for about a year...I just saved any crafty projects with good tutorials that I hope to make ...someday....(anyone know when someday actually comes?)
1) Brooke's Columns of Leaves Scarf ---here
I just love this scarf...and so do other knitters, it seems...
2) Sew Green : Recycled Slipper Tutorial
Use a thrifted wool blanket (or maybe a thrifted wool suit?) to make these slippers; meanwhile check out the Sew Green blog .
3) Baby chenille bibs tutorial from happythings blog. Can't wake to make some cute bibs for the expected grandbaby!
4) At Evil Mad Scientists Laboratories a great tutorial for a "camera cozy" or a camera bag
5) and here is an outdoors--(at the beach! no less ;-) project for nature lovers!
THE WORLD BEACH PROJECT
Devised by Sue Lawty in association with the Victoria & Albert Museum.
The World Beach Project is a global art project open to anybody, anywhere, of any age. Building on the experience many of us have of making patterns on beaches and shorelines, this project combines the simplicity of making patterns with stones with the complexities of shape, size, colour, tone, composition, similarity and difference....."
Over on her blog 37 Days, Patti Digh sent out an invite to artists to illustrate some of the essays from her blog for her forthcoming book. If you have never read her blog---get right on over there and check it out! she has some of the best thoughtful and poetic essay writing on the web, in my opinion.
I decided to try this challenge (as she termed it) and she sent me this essay titled Just Wave to illustrate. She wanted the illustrations to be ATCs (Artist Trading Cards) in size--and we had to have 37 days and the name of the essay somewhere in the illustration.
I chose to make mine a mixed media piece--with my own drawing and artwork, and lace and sewing on the papers with my sewing machine.
I created the art for this essay, Just Wave, in a "creative frenzy"---I just started selecting images from my stash of papers and old sketches, and added lace and started sewing. I sewed on more layers, cut off parts and sewed more--- the piece basically grew as I made it. I did start with an image in my mind, but only a vague image---which included hands and a house---or the shape of a house. The bird is a photocopy of a small part of another painting I made---and I'm still not sure how the bird relates to this essay, but it fit with the art, so into the piece it went. I worked on this all day without stopping at all--even to eat--until it was done, and I was totally absorbed in the creative process the whole time---"in the zone" is how I think of this state. This is one of the highest pleasures for me--finding that creative zone--completely in the moment, creating one piece of art. So for me, most of the time---art making is more about the process than the end product. I found this essay an inspiration, and so slipped into the zone easily and the piece just formed without much real effort like sometimes happens in the studio--on a very good day.
I created a computer illustration for another of her essays the next day; I created this one totally on the computer and I never quite got into "the creative zone." Upon reflecting on the 2 very different creative processes, I began to wonder if I require working with more tactile materials than a computer to find that zone.
In my big bag I carry some blank postcards--which I "doodle" on --mostly when I'm bored--like when I'm waiting at the doctor's office or somewhere. Sometimes I like my postcard doodles enough to color them and then mail off to a someone....YOU could be the next lucky owner of one of these 3 unique, original postcards! Just leave a comment--and include your e-mail address and on November 1st I will have a drawing which will include everyone who has commented--and you could be one of the three WINNERS---then I will happily snail mail you one of these postcards!
I have started a visual fabric journal-- well the journal is sewn--but I am mixing paper and fabrics on each page. The paper is all my own designs---mostly small "roughs" from my fabric design classes (visit the design school here)--in color palettes I ended up not using, or designs I haven't completed. I wanted to create a textile "sample book" or "swatch book" with some of my designs--and so far this is the result. I used grommets and ribbon for the binding. Here the large flowers in purples and green on the pink background are my design--painted in gouache. I eventually chose a very different palette to use with this design.
The left page here is part of a of a flower design I created in Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop, and the right page has part of a design painted in watercolors with inked linework (midpage).
On this page the orange arrows on lavender are my design--painted in gouache.
Here the left side is part of a "doodled" design--but I used a very different color palette for the finished design. I drew this in black and white, then scanned it into the computer and colored it in Photoshop. On the right, the dark gold, brown, and red design is another "doodle"--never used. The nice thing about the ribbon/grommet binding is that I can easily add pages as I make them since this is an on-going journal.
OWLS --nocturnal, a bird of myth and mystery. The owl in some cultures is the symbol of the feminine, the moon, and the night. The ancient Greeks associated the owl with the Goddess Athena. This owl just grew from my pen one day while I doodled...sometimes I dream of owls, which are the eyes of the night, seeing what is not in the open....wisdom and secrets. Many consider the owl a bird of magic and darkness, of prophecy and wisdom--so what does it mean when an owl inhabits my dreaming?
And the blue feathers? they just happened one day, also--bluebirds? blue jay? a feather is a symbol of balance and the wind....
My friend Linda Rees, who lives in Eugene, OR is a tapestry weaver. She has been weaving for over 40 years, and has created a stunning body of work over the years. I love her sense of color and design, and the palettes she chooses, so I am showing a few of her more recent hand woven tapestries here--with her permission. I have included the dimensions of each tapestry here, so you can get some idea of how large these are.
Title: Tropical Serape 55" x 39"
Title: The Speckled Space 56" x 39"
Linda often includes interesting pictorial images in her tapestries--like this series she created on the stages of womanhood, titled : The Doors Open on Aging
here is a close up of one of these tapestries, titled: Sighs for a Sagging Body
17" x 21"
Linda says of her work: "Tapestry weaving has been my primary creative outlet for forty years. I have exhibited extensively and segued into writing about the medium and its artists during the last two decades. However, weaving has been a relatively personal pursuit, focusing my energy towards developing artistic skills. The one consistant feature of my artwork is the persistent use of a limited number of yarns for any one piece, preferably no more than six colors or yarns. The challenge to depict geometric or figurative imagery within the confines of a restricted palette excites me. It is how I think, how I visualize."
I also usually enjoy the titles Linda gives her tapestries--this one is titled:
Goin' Places
36" x 29"
This one is titled: Possession 956
47" x 31"
And here are a few more geometric ones.
Title: Context
62" x 38"
Title: The Trickster's Day
68" x 40"
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