Celeste

My cat, Celeste, all comfy in her favorite sunny spot on the couch, caught in mid-yawn.

What Do I Want To Say...If Anything?

There are some artists who make you think. Lately, Zom Osborne has been doing that for me. She asks questions or makes observations about her world through her artwork that cause me to pause and think about things. This is good. This is what art should do, at least to me. Which had me asking myself a few questions about my own work, the biggest being, "Why do I do it, and what do I want it to say, either about me or the world I live in?

It bothered me that my first answer to that question was, "I don't know." It bothered me even more when I realized that I have never really thought about it, or felt compelled to make, for lack of a better term, "statement" art. So, the next question I had to ask was, "If I have always thought that good art made some kind of statement or made you think of the world in a new way, why didn't I ever require my own work to say anything?" After thinking that one over long and hard, I decided the embarrassing answer was, "Because I had no idea what I wanted it to say." I do it because I enjoy it, which is fine, and because I feel compelled to do it or I feel lousy, and that is fine too, but it has never said anything, I don't think, about who I am and what I believe. I have never tried to change people's way of looking at the world, or tried to make them understand the way I view my world.

Maybe artist automatically say things through their artwork even if nothing was originally intended? I suspect the very act of creating something says something about you, no matter what you create. And, since people interpret works of art differently, maybe you end up saying something to one person, but draw a big blank from someone else.

What all this introspection boiled down to was, making me think more about my art and what I truly wanted it to say about me and how I view my world, and how I might go about making that happen. I had to dig down into my fairly shallow brain and find out what was in there worth saying. And I think I found it.

There is a line in the movie The Tempest (the old one, from the 70s) that has the main character facing an incoming storm, raising his arms, and saying, "Show me the magic." I have a favorite author, Charles de Lint, who writes of urban magic all around us, but unseen by most because they don't believe it is there. I believe it is there. I look for it. I don't always see it, but I feel it often. I'm willing to believe. That's what I want my art to show. That magic is out there — old magic, new magic, light and dark magic — and that if you would only stop and look, you would see and feel it as well.

This doesn't mean high fantasy art. I like some of that genre, but that's not what I do. I want it to be more subtle than that, and still make it work. Will I succeed in making people see what they may not believe in or can't feel? I don't know. But for me, at least it is a new focus. It is a new way to think, and that's always a good thing.

Two New Projects

I've got two new projects going, which is kinda nice. The first is another drawing in my series Nomads & Gypsies. This time it is a gypsy. I loved the pose and the position of the woman's hand (Taken from a photograph of a real gypsy woman I found...of course...on Pinterest). These drawing are slowly, ever so slowly, getting better as my drawing skills creak out of retirement.

Gypsy 1

It has been pointed out to me by another artist that her hand is a bit large. I agree. However, I redrew that hand about ten times, trying to get it right, knowing it would be the focus of the drawing, so I have left it "as is." If I had messed with it any more, I would probably have wrecked the whole thing, and rubbed a hole in the paper. Maybe she's just a girl with big hands? Another person viewed it as her beckoning the viewer toward her, which I thought was a lovely way to look at it. I'm going with that. Also, I realized she didn't have any ears! Oops. In the photo I used as a model they are barely visible under her hat. I have added them to the drawing since I took this picture. Also, I am out of the soft grey ink pen I use to outline, so she is waiting to be finished with ink and colored pencil.

William Morris Bolero

The second project is a new bolero. I haven't done one in quite a while, and the T-shirts had been stashed in a drawer while I worked on other things. Today I pulled them out of hiding, and cut out the pieces. I barely...barely... had enough of the patterned shirt, which reminds me of William Morris wallpaper, to get the front and back. Even thought it was a woman's size large, I guess there is large, and then there is large. I had found another shirt in the same color of light green, hoping to use that as the binding, but ended up having to used it for the sleeves instead. The question still remaining is, what new color of trim to use for the binding, which will determine what color of embroidery thread I use to sew everything up. I am leaning toward the soft rose, but will think about it a bit before I commit.

So, those are my two new projects. The weather has waffled between really hot...109 the other day...to a little milder...mid 80s. So I have lots of time in the middle of the day, when it is the hottest, to work on these...and other things. 

Hope you all are enjoying the summer weather...or cooler temps if you live Down Under.

Icon

They covered my hair in black veiling, encased my body in heavy brocades, and assigned jeweled insects as my familiars. Surely the small miracle I performed did not warrant becoming a prisoner of their adulation?

Small mixed media collage, done about ten years ago. Alas, the gold in each corner isn't showing up in the photo as well as I would have liked. The piece was done for a members show at the Grants Pass Museum of Art, with the theme The Number Three.

My Other Life

Here's what I do when I'm not stitching, sewing, or doing other artwork. I do target mounted archery. This is the first photo of me on my own horse, Delight, doing a run at the canter. It is one of the most fun things I have ever done on a horse, and yet it took a lot of courage on my part to learn this...especially at my age. It still scares me to let go of the reins, and shoot while going that fast, but I keep at it, and I keep getting better, as does my mare. And I love the feeling of power it gives me. I truly do feel like a warrior.

Photo by Carla Erland Resh, taken on the course of the Rogue Mounted Archers (The club we belong to), Eagle Point, Or.

The Love of Stencils

Recently I have discovered many wonderful uses for stencils. Years ago I stenciled a pattern of twining leaves high on the walls of our dinning room, and I may have dinked around with a few since then, but nothing very exciting. Over the last two years or so, I have had all kinds of fun with them. The nice thing about stencils is, they are inexpensive, and can be found in all sorts of places. I picked up the variety you see above from JoAnn's fabrics, Michaels Crafts, Home Depot paint dept, and the rose I found at the Goodwill.

It started with seeing Rice's work over at the Voodoo Cafe. She used stencils to cut out patterns for the Alabama Chanin-type clothing she was making. So, not only did those posts inspire me to make some of the same types of clothing (and buying the AC book), doing all the stitching by hand, and getting back into embroidery, but it also got me using stencils in new ways.

The little amoeba-looking beaded star was my first attempt. I never used it on anything because the beads (only ones I had at the time) are heavy, so it's still in a drawer, waiting for a home. 

I started on cloth first, both for design and for stitching around, and for reverse appliques. I did three boleros, two tank tops, a T-shirt, and a sweatshirt. Here are three examples.

I have just started using them on paper for my artwork for background designs. My first try was on this color pencil and ink drawing of Nomad 2. Here is a close up of the stenciled part of of the background.

I drew around the stencil with a light pencil, then colored it in and added highlights. Worked great.

What's next? Well, once again, Rice has featured a new technique that I want to try, using stencils. You draw the stencil pattern on cloth, much as I did for the above drawing. Rather than use paint to color it in, you go over the drawing lines with stitching.  You end up with a lovely stitched pattern. Since I love the little boleros so much, and they are so easy to make, I want to try this way to use a stencil next. Rice used it on denim (or maybe it was linen, I can't remember), and it looks wonderful.

Just an FYI, if you have never visited Rice's blog site, I highly recommend it. She is always finding new ways to decorate fabric...she's now into dying her own embroidery thread...not to mention her other projects and trips to art conferences, photos of her cats, and just general fun everyday thoughts and, yes, sometimes a rant or two, but she's always inspiring.  Some of her posts will make you laugh out loud.

Nomad 2

This is another drawing from the series I am working on, so far called Nomads & Gypsies. I like the composition of this, but don't think the colors are quite as successful as the ones in Nomad 1. Color work is hard for me, so I struggle with it and don't always get a successful outcome.  But since these are for practice, to get back into drawing and using color, I don't think it came out too bad. I like the pose so much I am thinking of doing the same one, only bigger, and on illustration board instead of paper.

Anyway, here is the process again, for those of you who are interested in this kind of thing.

Drawing with source material...again, found on Pinterest.

Here is a better one of the drawing. Sorry, I didn't realize the photo was so crooked until I uploaded it, and by then I had already done the color work, so couldn't re-shoot the photo.

Next is the drawing after I inked it with a Pigma Micron 05 pen in dark blue. I started to add color then went, "Whoops, need to photo ink drawing first" so that's why there is that bit of blue on her head scarf.

And at last, the finished drawing. I think I got a nice melancholy expression on her face, as if she is day dreaming of something a bit sad. The design on the green (meant to look like tile) was a stencil I drew around then colored in.

I am going to have to press this one for awhile, as the paper wants to curl up on the corners. I tried carefully rolling the paper in the opposite direction of the curl, and was only marginally successful...barely enough to get the photo. And, in looking at this, I think the green background needs more work. It still looks rough. Like I said, these are practice runs, nothing too serious — yet.

Other than working on these drawings, I have been practicing mounted archery in order to get ready for a clinic in two weeks. So far the weather has been steady, except for a few rain sprinkles, so that has helped. I have also taken a deep breath, for fortitude, and started reclaiming my garden from the weeds. I bought a cherry tomato plant and a basil plant, which are still sitting on the deck in their original pots, so those need to go in the ground soon.

Best part of the warmer temps = sitting out on the deck in the evening, sipping wine, sampling snacks, and having a nice relaxing moment with my husband...who drinks a beer instead of wine, 'cause tasting wine makes him make funny faces and hand the glass back to me.