365 Day 164

Relief printing class #3


fox woman that emerged from an "automatic" drawing in my sketch book





Tonight we chose one of our drawings from our sketch books and made a transfer with tracing paper and charcoal and applied it to the golden carving material. This material is a lot stiffer than the other soft material and feels so different to carve. It takes a lot more power and it really makes your hands and finger tips tired easily...but it is very worth it.

At the end of class we took some time to write about what we are doing. We will use this as a tool for writing an artist statement later on.

I am pretty happy with the way the creatures are coming out of the "automatic" drawings I have been doing at home. I could never have just sat down and drawn any of them. But I noticed tonight that after I have worked with the image for a while, I can almost make a freehand rough sketch of it when I need to. Pretty cool.





the fox woman tracing
















the image transferred to the carving block



















the first stage of my carving -- just before test inking




















test printing of the image...to see where I want to go with it













the sketch I made on the paper table covering...I can almost draw the fox woman freehand now -- at least enough for me to recognize the basic shape

365 Day 163 (extra bit -- part three)

Slightly more bear-like...

...but I'm done for the night now.






He's already trying to see what's on the table
















I can't take him back to the first photo area for comparison anymore tonight.

365 Day 163 (extra bit -- part two)

Woah -- looks like it wants to be a bear-like guy.

365 Day 163 (extra bit)

I'm doing SOMEthing with this thing today!

I brought this decorative twirling sprinkler thing home from a garage sale last year intending to use it for its original purpose. Of course I never got around to it and it has languished on my back porch since then...including wintering out there.

Just now when I came in from strewing some foxglove seeds and half-planting some lupine seeds (my only stab at "gardening" this year -- maybe they will magically grow on their own) -- I decided I couldn't walk past this thing again and I brought it in the house to the studio.

It seems fitting to use an upside down tomato cage for the base of it. I did not think that masking tape would secure it to the cage, but it did...LOL.

Later on I will sit with it and let the plaster cloth dictate what it might become. Right now, all I know is that the twirly sun shape is the creature's crown.

365 Day 163

We finally did it!

Juana and Anita and I have been wanting/planning to get together and share art supplies, talk, have lunch, just hang out, make stuff, etc. for months...we finally managed to all be available at the same time yesterday!

Juana and Anita came out here to Northville to my house. We went to lunch and made a stop over at the Northville Art House to see the West of Center show and also to look at the banner from William Hessian's Miniature Art Hunt. (More about the Art Hunt in upcoming blog posts.)
And we also grabbed a tasty beverage from Solid Grounds Coffeehouse and Anita tried the Art-o-mat machine for the first time.

We want to do this sort of thing on a more regular basis and we already discussed our next get together. We had such a great time!






Juana and Anita looking through the art supplies














Anita just happened to have these two Hey Diddle Diddle items in her trading stash and said I could take them -- I collect Hey Diddle Diddle things















more stuff I got from Anita













some of Anita's collage elements -- Juana and Anita and I all do collage, but we all have such different styles











more stuff I chose -- for future projects









Twink comes up to say hi to Anita

okay...I'm back with a new computer!

Woah -- Lots of stuff happened while I was computer-less.

I have been away from the blog from Day 149 (Sunday, May 29) until today, Day 163 (Sunday, June 12). At this point, and in light of some of the recent events, I think I will just resume posting to the blog and leave the missing block of days/entries out. I am feeling really overwhelmed at the monumental task of trying to play Catch Up and come up with 14 blog entries. Since the purpose of my 365 Project is a personal Creative Progress Report, I think I will do what feels "right" for me.

Hmmm...ways I can allow myself to do this:

• make a list of all the art I worked on during the computer/blog downtime
• choose my favorite things
• start fresh with the blog as of today
• add an item or two from the list to each upcoming blog post
• quit beating myself up

Yep -- that's it. That's how I will do it.

woe is me...dead computer

Wow -- I am going to have SO much work to do to make up for all of the missed daily posts due to my computer dying.

I can't replace it until at least the end of next week...and I won't be checking in in between times. My dear friend Andi happens to be here with her laptop computer this morning.

See you when I see you -- I WILL return and make up the missed posts!