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.

Draw, Cut, Paste, Draw

"I looked after her as long as I could see her, a tall, stooping figure in unfashionable clothes, walking slowly out of my sight, and out of my life forever."

"I am assured that after life there is death and after death a more enduring life in a happier world."
Here are a few collages from the past week. It's been a while since I sat down to make my own collages. The text from both are some tweaked lines from an Agatha Christie novel, and the rest of the images were also made from pages of that book. It's so satisfying the way old newsprint pages take ink...

Cabin Collage

This past weekend I went out to the whiteshell to a friend's cabin. We did all the normal fun cabin stuff that you can do in winter-went snowshoing, and skating, hottubbing, and we also did some collaging! It turns out that Keira has been hiding her collage talents from me all these years. Happily we sat in her sunroom cutting, gluing, drawing, and sewing things together. That's where I made the above image. Keira has a lovely collection of fabric scraps that she shared with us. It's amazing how someone elses' fabric scraps are so much more appealing than the ones that I own, because hers are unfamiliar to me. Thanks go to Keira for the lovely weekend, and the collage party!

Deja Vu-Illustration Friday

An Illustration Friday for the topic Deja Vu. It is a drawing collage.

Sketchbook Project Drawings

Egg Foo Young


Let's Rumba!

All Alone

Going to miss you

Best Art Blogging!(?)

Gian Lorusso from the art Blog ArtSediments sent me an email last week saying that he was adding my blog to his list of "Best Art Blogs." It's nice knowing that someone out there in the blogging world appreciates my posts. Lorusso states on his blog that:

"Art Sediments deeply believes that creating art is a human necessity, as love and friendship: art is in the nature of everyone of us. And Art Sediments deeply believes that art, as love and friendship, needs to be shared with others."

I'm happy to be included in a list with that kind of mandate!
Here is a link to the list of his best art blogs:
http://artsediments.blogspot.com/p/art-blog-list.html

Yesterday I headed over to a friend's daycare in Winnipeg to do an art session with some of the kids there. The plan was for them to tell me a story while I drew it. I supplied them with the bare bones of the story, sort of mad-lib style and they filled in the descriptive details for me. It turned out to be a really fun activity. I don't get to draw with younger kids anymore, I always work with high school students. We ended up with a drawing of an alien dude named Mr. Bob who wears a leather jacket and a speedo. His best friend is a dog named Stinker who has eyes on his ears, pogo sticks for legs, and has always dreamed of going to Catopia. Mr. Bob and Stinker live in a garbage dump, eat smelly cheese, and sleep under a giant mushroom. I didn't think of bringing my camera, so I don't have a picture of it, but I was very pleased to work collaboratively with the kids. Finally, people who like weird drawings of things!

Here a couple of recent drawings I did this week. I suddenly realized that the deadline for the Sketchbook project is coming up in only about two weeks, which means I have to have my moleskin sketchbook all filled up and ready to be sent out very soon. I think I have about 14 pages left, so I'll have to work hard at finishing it in time. Here are a few pages from the sketchbook. By the way, the numbers correspond with my ongoing image a day project that started at the end of August.

#114 I have cold hands. Collage with watercolours and ink



#115 Coffee Collage with watercolours and ink

Collage Drawings!

# 97 Take Flight Collage Drawing with marker wash.


#99 Lost and Alone in the City. Collage Drawing with marker wash.


I realized I really like the idea of incorporating text into my drawings. It's interesting cutting up other people's words, rearranging them, and making them a part of something that I make. It's also interesting searching for books whose purpose will be to cut them up. The local MCC book/Cafe Sam's Place by my house has a great selection of old, strange and discarded books, and all for a very low price. It's funny how with some collages when I finish them, not only do I like to look at them, but I like to touch the texture of collage pieces over the rest of the drawing. That makes me happy.

My friend Sarah is insisting that I start writing children's book with found text. I like the idea, and am considering it. I feel like it would have to be a series of short stories, that might fit my way of working a lot better.

Sheer Ashtonishment

Painting, Drawing, Collage.
I tried painting on drawing vellum because a recent Illustration instructor(Craig Terlson) said that he loved how the ink sits on the vellum. I found I love it too, except that when I went back in with yellow ink, it was too wet for it, and wanted to curl up a bit. Nevertheless, I still like how this image turned out. Part of the image was cut off, because my scanner is only so big, but you get to see the main part of the image. I'm going to try out more vellum paintings, but might stick to just using black India ink on it.
In other news, the Beautiful Mercy and Other Works opening reception was tonight, and the show runs until this Sunday. It's always nice to visit some art. It's an eclectic show, and there are some nice pieces on display. Check it out at 200-75 Albert street.

Don't forget to Listen

#68

#69


These two pieces started out as random words, and they became something more than that. It means something in life if you can listen to the right things, ignore the wrong things, and know which sound to follow.

Safe from Attack

#67 Safe from attack

Collage, drawing, ink...

Art-a-Day...

#57 Ours are the Hands

Painted on tracing vellum and then collaged.

Art-a-Day

#52 Dear me


#53 and 54- Sadness and Disapointment


#56 Wrong Track

Spooky-Ilustration Friday

Marker wash with pen and ink collage. It makes me happy.

Mixed Media, Vegas, and Colour

It feels like ages since I last posted because I've been so busy the last few weeks with moving, going to Vegas, and lots of other life-filling things. I'll have to be more on the ball with posting, and will try not to fall behind in scanning images. I was on a roll last week with collage drawing/paintings. They were fun to do. I also started a Children's book Illustration course two weeks ago. I'm excited about it, but I'm not used to getting graded on my art anymore. I was honestly more than happy to leave grades behind when I finished my degree several years ago. I had a little flicker of fear during my first class when I realized I'd be getting marked on my images. It can be good to be reminded of that, especially as an art teacher. Here are some of my images from the past couple weeks, some of them inspired during a weekend jaunt to Vegas for a friend's wedding.

# 23 Violin Man


#24 I remember Iceland.


#25


#26 Blue Dress


#27 Handgun


#29 A Visit to the Atomic Testing Museum in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Image a Day

#10


#14

Illustration Friday-Dip or Drip?

An Illustration Friday Drawing not really what the word of the week is... it morphed into something else. I purchased a new set of watercolour paints a few weeks ago, and hadn't had the proper chance to crack them open until just a couple of days ago. I am really loving using the paints, I've made a few other paintings that I'm not going to post yet until I have a complete set. It's really nice going back to colour after focusing just on ink work for a while.

Trying out ARtfire.

I have heard of Artfire, and decided to see what it's all about. I started an account, and so far only have one piece posted. It is similar to Etsy, but I don't like the layout as much, and there are aspects of it that are appealing, but I don't think I'll venture very far from my etsy shop. I wanted to see if there was a major difference in the kind of traffic get through Artfire versus Etsy, and so far it appears to be similar. I think the main difference is that Artfire deals more do with Art whereas Etsy has a whole variety. I find etsy more intiutive, though naturally there are benefits to Artfire as well.
I finally finished my Tree Drawing. I don't feel completely satisfied with it, I'm not sure what it is. Something about it is too calm. This is the one I posted on Artfire. You can go to it here.

What am I making?

I put this together yesterday. I'm not sure how I feel about it. I like it, but at the same time I hate it. I had this moment when glueing the pieces on that went like this in my head, "I went through art school at university, and this is what I'm making?" I've been wondering that about what I've been making lately, like do I really value what I'm making, or am I just making? It's not that I think there's something wrong with making things, and putting images together, it's just that I think I'm ready to make something better, or more focussed than what's coming out of me lately.