Daily Crucible: thoughts and images every day...

More figure studies

2009-07-03T20:15:00.010-04:00

Figure with Gray

colored pencil on Ingres

Man Sleeping
charcoal on Ingres

Man
charcoal on Arches

Woman

conte on Ingres

space

2009-07-03T13:19:00.002-04:00

What a nutty month June was! 3 professional exams, 2 academic exams in my art history class, 2 continuing ed classes for my massage license, plus work. I didn't work in my studio at all in June, and the disconnect feels foreign and awkward, like seeing a lover for the first time after a big fight.

July allows more space; my exams and continuing ed courses are finished, and my work schedule has evened out. When I entered my studio yesterday, just taking stock, the sense of absence was palpable. Noticing that fire in the belly to just work, take the ideas from my sketchbook and make things happen. Yeah.

Guardian UK Art and Design Blog

2009-06-15T16:17:00.002-04:00

I have wondered what the model's experience is like since I am always on the looking side of the easel, rather than the one being looked at. I happen to like it that way--being seen is not something I feel entirely comfortable with. (As a child, my favored superpower was usually invisibility, a la Violet from The Incredibles.) But this entry on the Guardian UK Art and Design Blog details the experience of one model as she sat for painter Diarmuid Kelley. The finished portrait--above-- is entitled "The King of Spain."

CFAM--Andy Warhol: Personalities

2009-06-11T09:44:00.006-04:00

Until next January, Warhol's Polaroids will be on display at Rollins College's Cornell Fine Arts Museum. Just couldn't resist that one of the Governor of Collie Fornia.

Quote of the Day

2009-05-29T07:44:00.002-04:00

That for which the public reproaches you, cultivate. It is you. -- Jean Cocteau

Quote of the Day

2009-05-22T21:25:00.001-04:00

Painting: The art of protecting flat surfaces from the weather and exposing them to the critic. - Ambrose Bierce

Skull A Day

2009-05-17T15:34:00.004-04:00

This is the book cover for Noah Scalin's Skull A Day project. His work evolved from a blog into a book, and now asks for submissions to continue the daily project.

He made skulls from food, trash, paper, traditional art media, etc. Definitely worth a look.

I love this guy, partly because I enjoy El Dia de Los Muertos, and skulls are a major motif of that holiday. Also, I was impressed by his ingenuity with materials.

(I like materials.)

Weather

2009-04-10T14:22:00.002-04:00

The weather has blown hot and cold this week, uncharacteristic for this time of year. My herbs are still alive on the porch, a little dry and curled from the wind, but opening back up under the warmth of the sun.

I am re reading a good book in slow, deliberate moments. A chapter here. A few sentences there. In between quotidian things I steal these words like kisses and savor them. They are bringing me back to life.

Like my windblown, beleagured herbs I too unfold, emerge, open back up under the warmth of the sun and well chosen inspiration.

I have returned.

Hibernation

2009-02-16T16:23:00.002-05:00

It has been two months since my last confession--I mean, post.

For the time being I will be taking a break from this blog while I pursue some real-life things that need attention. I will be back.

Be well.

Listening Post

2008-12-12T02:13:00.001-05:00

Bowmboi by Rokia Traore

The Silver Tree by Lisa Gerrard

Songs in the Key of Life by Stevie Wonder

...mp3s don't have art on the covers...because there are no covers. boo. hiss.

Reading List

2008-12-11T02:06:00.003-05:00

Reading Judas... (Pagels and King)

Seven Days in the Art World (Thornton)

Anna Karenina (Tolstoy)

I noticed a bigger ad campaign for the electronic reading devices at the bookstore and on amazon. This makes me sad; though no Luddite, I mourn the way technology takes over our experience of the world, and bleeds it of sensuality. I much prefer the sensation--and delight--of opening a personal letter, in someone's own handwriting, partly because I know they touched the same thing I now hold in my hands.

Books are also a conscious experience--the feel and weight of the paper between my fingers, the way the page sounds as it turns, the smell of ink (ahh, "new book" smell). All those words seeping into the imagination...

study from life

2008-12-10T01:57:00.000-05:00

Steve

2008-12-08T01:52:00.000-05:00

On Bullsh*t

2008-12-07T01:46:00.003-05:00

The Emperor has a "wardrobe malfunction."

Recommended Reading: On Bullshit by H.G. Frankfurt

Curiouser and Curiouser...

2008-12-06T00:55:00.002-05:00

Thus spake Alice. She must have been in art school.

This one time...

2008-12-05T00:45:00.006-05:00

I am dating myself here, but I loooooove Schoolhouse Rock. My favorite was Grammar Rock Verb; it sounded a little funky, like the music I was raised on--namely anything on Soul Train.

Soul Train ruled. I still remember seeing the Gap Band perform on the brightly lit stage, and Don Cornelius ending every broadcast with his deep voice intoning "Peace.....and Soul." So, imagine how green I turned when Cameron Diaz got to dance under the Soul Train sign with her Soul Train aisle made of people instead of stuffed animals (as mine always were) in "Charlie's Angels." Sigh.

Now, if only I could get my hands on some Pop Rocks, this reminiscing would be complete.

still life (apple)

2008-12-04T00:00:00.000-05:00

oil on canvas, 6x6

still life (pears)

2008-12-03T00:00:00.001-05:00

oil on canvas, 11x14

pearls before swine?

2008-12-02T10:28:00.002-05:00

Holding a grudge: drinking some poison every day expecting the other person to die.

(author unknown)

acrylic figure study

2008-12-02T00:00:00.000-05:00

acrylic and charcoal on illustration board, 8x10

Speechless

2008-12-01T17:53:00.005-05:00

So, there is an artist/baker named Kittiwat Unarrom in Thailand making body parts out of bread. And it's edible. He is an MFA student who painted portraits as an undergrad, and has since found his new medium to be bread dough, apropos because his family owns a bakery.

If you can't resist seeing more, here's a video. It isn't in English, but who cares, really, when seeing ...bread...?

figure study, from life

2008-12-01T00:00:00.000-05:00

charcoal on arches, 22x30

Ripple

2008-11-30T17:16:00.005-05:00

This piece is my response to an assignment in my advanced painting class earlier this term. We were instructed to respond to the word "chair."

My take on "chair" corresponded with the collapse of the economic powerhouses on Wall Street; for me this seemed ironic because the economic meltdown occurred over the anniversary of 9/11. I drew a correlation between the apparent decay of personal civil liberties arising from increased government scrutiny of individuals while the government simultaneously turned a blind eye to the rampant greed and speculation on Wall Street.

Sprawl, finished

2008-11-30T17:10:00.003-05:00

Sprawl

acrylic on canvas, 36x48

I added a gloss medium over the just the figures once it was completed, to add a more plastic effect to the painting.

Kumi Yamashita

2008-11-29T21:26:00.003-05:00

Origami

2005. Light, Aluminum, Shadow

Description: The each color sheet on the wall, lit from the right, casts a silhouette of a profile.

(from http://www.kumiyamashita.com/)