Dadaism

"Dilemmas may be rebutted in more than one way."
A collage. I think it's dadaist.

A Dragon Postcard. I'm rediscovering oil pastels lately. When I first used oil pastels years ago it was for a poorly set up still life, and I was very frustrated with the results. I have since given them another try, and I'm starting to like their "messy" qaulities. There is a smoothness to oil pastels that are nice to work with. This particular piece was done with a pencil crayon background, a drawing collaged on top, and then oil pastels worked into the background. Markers were also used on the dragon.

Navigation to the Jungle

Using an old book about flight paths and flight calculations I made this a few days ago. It seems I eventually go back to some kind of creepy thing to make. Collage work can be really satisfying. I'd like to experiment with silk screening some collage layers. I think it would work out well if I tried laying the silk screen colours in the same way I would collage elements.

Temperatures this week were dipping around the minus forty mark, which had me cold to the bone at times, and dreading going outside. When Winnipeg's winters become 40 times colder than my freezer I start to get a bit cranky along with a bad case of cabin fever. To soothe this state of mind, I went over to the Assiniboine park conservatory today with Jay, my boyfriend. The conservatory has a nice indoor pathway that winds through layers of tropical trees and Tiki-inspired rock carvings. I brought my sketchbook along to make me sit and enjoy the "jungle" with Jay. Today at least the outside temperature rose up to -4 degrees, making the quest for tropical temperatures a little less necessary.
Here's what I ended up with. It is a marker drawing with water wash.

Prepare- Illustration Friday

An illustration Friday Drawing for Prepare. I find my drawing rather bland, yet I like it at the same time...

Door to Door

Alright just a couple of things I wanted to note about some really cool things on Colossal Art and Design. First my friend sent me a link to some photos of South Korean artist Choi Jeong-Hwa.artist named who created a massive door installation. My friend really likes old doors, and I actually do too. There is a scene in the opening of West side story where the background has a row of multicoloured doors and I just love it(at least in my memory it is in the opening...) This new installation reminded me of that.

Read more and see more pics here.

Second, also found on the Colossal Art and Design website is this fantastic stop motion video by Sean Ohlenkamp and wife Lisa titled "The Joy of Books." It was found here.

Grounded- Illustration Friday

Ok, so this isn't my best work, but here it is anyways. I recently adopted an adorable dog, and he was the inspiration for this work. I'm not sure why I put grass on the ground, when there is snow all over the place currently. I guess it's wishful thinking.

Highlights

There are times when all those end of the year reflections are annoying to me when I see them in the paper, or on TV, but I put together a set of highlights of my last year. I just had my 29th birthday on the second, so the timing of the new year and my birthday makes it easier for year-long resolutions and contemplations.