Energy Confined: Two Stages

Energy Confined: 

Gallery View

Stage 1

Energy Designed & Confined: 

Stage 2

Experimental Sketchbook Class: Time & Space to Create

Some of my work during the weeklong class.

It was perhaps the best art class I've ever taken at University. 

We were encouraged to experiment.

Push out of our comfortable ways.

I started getting scribbly & messy (not shown here)

so it was a relief to do some minimalist drawings.

Zoom grids became an integral part of my experience.

I wandered out of my familiar box.

I cut up one of my watercolor "still life" grids

and pasted fragments into a booklet.

And then, relief, back to the familiar~ 

except with a bit of a grid.

A grid containing The Tiny Fears of Rita

Les miniscules craintes de Rita

We tried a wax resist/ink wash/charcoal layering technique

that Maine artist, David Lewis, uses.

(His drawings are very sophisticated & refined...) 

We collected shadows by tracing actual shadows.

Some of the students turned their results into imaginative

imagery, unrelated to the original subjects, and then 

turned them into handmade books.

I loved my Swedish Ivy design & didn't transform it,

except to put it into an accordion format.

Last class exercise: Do 20 versions of the same object, 

using various papers & drawing materials.

I got 3 done in our half hour allotment...

But THIS is the idea which I most want to continue

at the moment...20 objects? 50? 100? 

Maybe they would be painted and drawn, then,

hand sewn together into a paper quilt that folds 

into a book. We shall see...

The beautiful thing is that I have SO many wonderful

inspirations & directions with which to continue.

Thanks to my instructors & to the class, composed of

young undergraduates, graduate students,

& some oldsters like me. 

So much inspiration,

& this is only the tip of the iceberg...

...But I am quilting... (2nd in a series)

I am not a quilter, but I am quilting!

Yesterday.

Two days ago.

 

Today:

Blocks are increasing, loose fabric decreasing...

The design is being laid out, forming itself.

In between sewing, I am learning to quilt

with some great YouTube teachers.

Thank you, teachers.

I still don't know what it will look like in the end

but it does look somewhat how I imagined it!

Don't know many blocks I will make.

Or how big it will be.

Maybe a tablecloth...

I am making fewer mistakes now. 

Developing a rhythm. 

I am glad I didn't quit. 

At one point I thought

I'd just make a bunch of separate hot pads.

But I think I've gone too far to not make a quilt

of some sort.

A box holds scraps from quiltfor a next project...

Can't wait to see what it will be!

It was the masks that got the whole thing going.

If I have to wear them, they might as well be colorful

and match my outfit!

What I Took For Granted...

Funny, I took spiritual gifts less for granted

than material objects, before the virus & shut down.

I don't shop online,

but art tools & materials 

were available at local shops 

within a 100 miles.

Now those shops are closed.

So a friend kindly helped me to order new #11 blades,

and a great, new ergonomic Excel knife. 

They are luxuries to me!!

I did a few test cuts, magnificent feeling

of cutting with a precision blade! 

My edges could be smoother,

but that's me needing to practice...

 I realized I could arrange these simple snippets

in an infinite number of ways,

with lovely negative shapes inbetween...

Like letters in a word, words in a sentence...

An infinite number of ways.

Boggling...

But then, a lot is boggling these days...

Sticker and Dot Play

 

While listening to the news of the virus,

I was soothed by painting Dots. 

Dots, again? 
You're supposed to be sketching,

Sketchbook Wandering!

I went through a major Dot Phase 

not too long ago.

Recently a reader, "minimal shine", 

asked about the Dot Stickers

that were on my last daily journal cover . 

To see that post, click HERE.

The Dot Stickers are some of my favorite stickers.

(Yes, I'm also going through a Sticker Phase. 

And at my age!)

 

So pretty, and even the dots have little dots!

They are called Sticko Color Bubbles, 

found at Michael's.

The Postal Service is also going through a Dot Phase.

The latest Celebrate postage stamp!

All of a sudden, while doing this post, 

Dots were everywhere!

Even my measuring cups turned into Dots.

Even the soap suds were made up of tiny dots!

The recently organized fountain pen inks.

Yes! The lids were Dots!

Like a happy school girl,

 I'm still merrily pasting little stickers 

into my current daily journal.

In between the writing & the tracking,

I'm also inserting 

my own drawings & paintings & colors.

I may leave the Sticker Phase,

but I don't think I will EVER get over Dots,

 or Drawing & Painting.

(To minimal shine

 let me know that you got the info!)

Lists and Collections

 I recently wanted to buy a new handbag. 

There were so many styles that

I made notes. It was helpful, if not obsessive.

(Here, only a snippet of several pages.)

 This wasn't the 1st time. Some years ago, I had drawn a 

bunch of bags, & eventually cut some of them out

to save in one of my "repository", catch-all journals.

In 2011, at a city Farmer's Market, 

I devoted a page in my small sketch journal 

to various shoppers' bags. Fascinating variety!

An interesting book : Blackstock's Collections. 

He draws collections at a very intense & obsessive level.

Also interesting:

Lists, To-Do's: Illustrated Inventories

Collected Thoughts & Other Artists' Enumerations

A page from Lists, To-Do's...

Collecting quantities verses buying one of something 

has an economic tie-in in our consumer culture. 

Folks on YouTube show & tell us that they have not one,

 but a multitude of 

bags, notebooks, pens, shoes, etc. 

& they encourage us to buy more, more more.

(They are often given these things at no charge 

or at a  discount. Or, it is their profession.)

What does the average person do who can't afford 

or doesn't need too many of an item?

Me: I admit, sometimes I buy more than one...

But drawing is more affordable.

For a related post please click HERE to my post called

26 Mugs, 100 Monkeys. 

What would YOU choose to draw (or buy)

 if you had to have a collection of 100?

The Practice of Calligraphy

Sample sheets given to me by a master calligrapher/teacher.

The coloring and notes are mine.

Calligraphy.  

The practice can be calming & satisfying.

But it can be frustrating, for one who is not

naturally gifted at it.

Gaye Godfrey Nicholls writes in Mastering Calligraphy:

"Calligraphers revel in the sensual, sinuous 

& arch elegance of italic..."

"Calligraphy 

is about discovering the pleasure 

of watching pigments in water meet, 

fall in love, 

& create new colors on paper..."

"You watch your own hand take over & create the forms

for which you have striven for so long. "

It takes practice, she writes. Maybe 3 years, maybe 7...

It takes persistence & patience. (I say.) 

Here, perfection is sought, not just progress.

 They say to set up a center where you can leave 

your practice work out & practice everyday.

I do.

Still, I am not perfect.

I may never be. It takes acceptance.

Inbetween writing the letter "a" over & over

on lined paper,

trying to get it to be consistent,

one can play with some letter designs.

Even if the letters haven't been mastered.

It gives one something to look forward to.

Meanwhile, one can take a little break from the concentration

& precision, & play at making seasonal decorations. 

Rose Windows

 My first visit to Paris: 2003.

And my first conscious travel journal, 

with encouragement from my French teacher at

The Language Exchange in Portland. 

Never EVER could I have imagined the complexity,

the grandeur, the art, & the spiritual feeling of

Notre Dame de Paris!

In 2003 I broke down & cried before one of the rose windows,

for its beauty.

In 2019 I cried  to see Notre Dame de Paris in flames.

My 2003 journal sketch of the window is rough & inaccurate.

And along with my notes, private.

But spending extended time in the cathedral was sweet,

& the journal pages bring the experience back.

Recently I've been making ink drawings based on photos. 

But the photos seem to be only a point of departure.

During that 2003 visit, one of my companions said

that the windows are like giant mandalas. 

That & more.

Let us hope that they & the cathedral 
will be restored for future visitors.

Indiana's Love Sculpture at the Farnsworth

I naturally chose the Farnsworth Art Museum when

The Sketch Group asked me to organize an excursion.

Pencil only allowed. We sat on stools lent by the museum.

I've always loved Robert Indiana's Love Sculpture.

But sitting down to draw it made it so much more interesting!

When Indiana got tired of the frenzy of the NY art scene,

he retreated to Maine, to an island near Rockland.

So the museum has a strong connection 

to Indiana & his art. 

It's a dream subject for drawing with a focus on 

 proportion, value & negative space, 

& the beauty of letters, words & type. 

The meaning seems simple, but for Indiana it

was an expression of more complex ideas.

Eventually the LOVE image became a burden to Indiana.

"A mix between graphic design & high art,"

 said graphic artist Milton Glaser. 

But it was criticized because of its commercial appeal. 

Indiana didn't obtain a copyright, 

hence, many people have plagerized & altered it. 

Unfortunate. 

But, his authentic versions are all over the world,

including Rockland, Philadelphia, Washington DC, &, Indiana.