Here, finally, is a commissioned piece for my friend Phyllis Natanek. She belongs to a local art league we are both in, and she is a wonderful artist (as is her husband, Richard.) She had the idea of what she wanted, and she composed the poem as well. It was just up to me to figure out the final details, how to incorporate the poem, and inject my style. She probably thought it was never coming her way. In truth, I have been working on it on and off for quite awhile.
I had spent a lot of time on a previous version, and even though it wasn't working, I kept at it since I had already invested so much time. No wonder I could never complete it...it didn't feel "right." I finally abandoned it, and began this more "wackadoo" version which fits me much better. I just spent about 1/2 hour going through my computer images, but I guess I never did take a picture of that first, realistic attempt. Check out my last image her, and you can see where I had drawn over the first picture (I actually painted white all over it in frustration, but you can still see the former outline.) I'm not sure if you can see it, but I put texture into that blanket to give it some fluffiness.
Okay, Phyllis. Thanks for hanging on so long!
My initial attempt, lines faintly visible under a white overcoat, and then the genesis of the final version.
Here is one of Phyllis' most recent paintings:
'Oblivious to Alien Fungi and The Storm, the Dung Beetle Soldiered On'.
Maybe it's because we had an all-day event at the hospital yesterday (all's well now). That procedure combined with an art show last week has me moving in slow motion, or as my former Spanish student Morgan used to say, "walking through pudding." And it's hot out...muggy. I say to myself, I just want to be quiet in this pudding state.
I was starting to formulate words for this post while I walked my dog. A song started playing in my head from the 1996 movie, "Picture Perfect" with Jennifer Aniston and Kevin Bacon. The two are sitting at a tennis match at about 34:57 when you hear:
"Now I'm quiet, quiet as a mouse can be,
but inside my head it's loud as a cavalry."
(By the way, no matter what way I Google this with "Lyrics" or "soundtrack," I can't figure out the name so help me if you know it.) Regardless, this was way too chipper of a melody to go with my feelings. Then I smelled the heavy scent of petunias in the sticky night and saw lightning bugs hovering lazily over the grass, and I thought, "Warm smell of colitas, rising up through the air." Yes, that reflected my feelings better.
Anyway, perhaps this is why I'm finding myself in my last two posts drawing tired, gritty men at the end of a long journey. This latest painting looks to me like a Chinese warrior (but he doesn't look Chinese) coming home, snowflakes or swirling buds lending a dreaminess to what awaits him. It's been quite some time since I've seen Zhang Yimou's, "House of Flying Daggers," (2004), but that's what it reminds me of. By the way, if you haven't seen that movie, it is magical, mystical, tragic, and painfully beautiful. Do yourself a favor and watch it. I think I'll re-watch it myself soon, followed by a long sleep to shake this ennui.
Hello, darling people! I have an art show this weekend, June 14th and 15th at Cantigny Art in Bloom in Wheaton, IL (outside of Chicago). I'll be posting upcoming pictures soon! Why am I up at 12:40 a.m.? Because no matter how prepared I think I am, there's always more, more, more to do! Here's some more info. in you're in the vicinity--Oh! And I'll be at booth 74!!
Cantigny is a 500-acre park and part of the Chicago-based McCormick Foundation. It is home to two museums, formal gardens, picnic grounds, restaurants and 27 holes of championship golf. 8,000 people expected.
1 S. 151 Winfield Road, Wheaton, IL 60189
Saturday, June 14th 10:00 a.m. until 5:00 p.m. and Sunday, June 15th 10:00 a.m. until 4:00 p.m.
Below is a birdhouse I painted as a donated piece of art work for an organization named "Shine." It puts a spotlight on young artists and their instructors. Here's their link for more information: Shine and other artists who are involved.
Mine includes one of my all-time favorite French sayings, "Petit à petit, l'oiseau fait son nid." In English, "Little by little a bird builds its nest" or every bit helps. I prefer to think of it as a reminder to any sort of achievement...one step at a time! I have another painting in mind for that saying, so it will be appearing again in a completely different form.
I took some pictures indoors and some outdoors so here are versions of both. I still don't think I captured the colors on camera like I would have liked to have had.
I think I've discovered something...the angle that I'm drawing at, or rather the angle my drawings/paintings turn out like (bad sentence structure, I know) is due to the way I'm drawing at my desk. I have a huge, oversized easel, but instead I'm drawing in a tiny space, lying my canvas or paper over bottles and tubes, a mini-7UP can, mounting tape, splintered popcicle sticks, whatever!
Actually, maybe this is just an excuse, and I'm just a lopsided creator! ha! Anyway, I'll just keep sticking to my own style--these portraits feel more alive to me, somehow, in their "skewness."
Spent lots of time on this one--gouache, ink, acrylic, pastel, oil stick--just kept adding to her.
Look how my different camera-angle taking gave this chiquita a completely different look.
Different angle:
Here's how this picture started. I accidentally rolled over a pastel stick and crushed it into my wooden floor. Rather than waste such a precious material, I smeared it on various pieces of paper. That's how this painting began.
This past month I participated in Sketchbook Skool (yes, that's spelled correctly), an online sketchbook class created by Danny Gregory and Koosje Koene. Over 6 weeks, both of those well-known sketchers, along with Prashant Miranda, Jane LaFazio, Roz Stendahl, and Tommy Kane generously shared their tips for sketchbook drawing. They are all fantastic, of course! And they all offer different approaches to this art. I've been following Danny Gregory ever since he published his inspiring book, "Everyday Matters." I came across Tommy Kane right after Danny and have several of his prints. I could slobber over all of them, but I'll let you discover them by yourself! Plus, to be honest, it's 1:41 a.m., and I'm tired. Here are their websites.
I woke up this morning at 6:10 a.m., an unheard of event...well, not unheard of. Wait, let me begin again. I woke up this morning at 6:10 a.m. feeling refreshed and well-rested. Yes, that's more like it.
Yesterday, Saturday, I slept 13 hours! I woke up briefly at 8 a.m. and still felt exhausted, and I crawled back into bed and slept until 2:15 p.m.! I hadn't felt well at the end of the work week and my hound way lying next to me like an insulator (my husband long ago had went to work), both leading me into a brief coma.
As you can imagine, the day unfolded quite languorously. Around 5 p.m., I found myself watching Cadillac Records, about the great blues label run by Leonard Chess in Chicago that helped launch Muddy Waters, Little Walter, Howlin' Wolf, Chuck Berry, Willie Dixon and Etta James. No one represented Buddy in the film, but he's a Chicago Bluesman through and through and was heavily influenced by all these greats. Anyway, watching it reminded me of Buddy, which led me to rewatch a favorite part of Martin Scorsese's 2005 rockumentary of the Rolling Stones (playing at the Beacon Theatre in New York City), Shine A Light. The next step of course, was that I needed to paint Buddy Guy as he appeared in that film, during the playing of Muddy Water's hit, "Champagne and Reefer."
Feeeeeeeeeeeeeel the power of his voice and guitar playing. Oh, so wonderful to behold visceral virtuosity, no? I've seen Buddy twice in person. The first time was at Alpine Valley, playing with Eric Clapton, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Jimmy Vaughan, and Robert Cray, the night before SRV's fatal crash. Ugh, I can barely type it even 14 years later. The second time was 2007 in Bridgeview, IL at Eric Clapton's "Crossroads" Guitar Festival. (I was thinking I saw him once more playing at Kingston Mines in Chicago, but perhaps I'm hallucinating.) Anyway, he is always, always phenomenal.
"Champagne and Reefer" from Shine A Light featuring Buddy Guy:
Here's a little blast from the past. One of the drawings I did for my 2010 Brooklyn Art Library Sketchbook project, "Coffee and Cigarettes," was Keith Richards spitting out his cigarette during that same song.
This piece has been sitting on my desktop for quite awhile. I coated some cardboard with some modelling paste still on my fingers from another painting I had done and didn't want to scrape it back into the jar. I worked on it, set it aside, picked it up again when I wanted to paint, but didn't want to launch into anything major. I've worked and worked on this little piece.
I wasn't sure how it was going to shape up or what it was, but it started to emerge from the background of paint smears I had put on it.
I call it "Gossipy Creatures." I wanted to make the figure on the left not look so intent, I considered making that mouth upturn a bit, but I liked the worried/distant look in it's eyes, so I left it alone. Maybe I was influenced by my co-worker, Crystal's, recent reading of Othello for her reading class. That bird has a little glint of Iago, me thinks...or not. ha!
Just got back from walking the dog before I head off to work. I was thinking about Othello while I wandered. I remember my high school English teacher, Miss Driscoll, having us read that play and requiring us to memorize long passages of Shakespearean verse, soliloquies filled with elaborate language beyond our capacities, but then upon comprehension, within our means. God bless those teachers who filled us with terror and demand, who pushed ourselves and our brains. We are always capable of so much more than we think or are required to do.
I have several commissioned pieces I am finishing up this month and next. The first is from a co-worker, Diane, who volunteers as an adult-learning tutor. Diane began with one of her students as she helped the girl earn her GED (General Education Development) high school equivalency diploma. From there, she has encouraged her protégée throughout her college career, and on Saturday, this young woman with earn her Associates Degree in college. Isn't that an inspiring story?
I tried to do several things here. I wanted to give the diploma and it's lettering a "parchment" paper/old style look. Diane used to tell her, "You can do it" and when she reached certain achievements, "You did it." Diane also had given her a turtle charm bracelet inscribed with the "you can do it" motto on its back so I wanted to include that.
The graduate also likes fairies. I thought this was so apropos, because it is a representative of magical possibility. Can't you imagine yourself clinging to an image like that as you begin a long journey from no high school diploma to graduating from college? It makes me want to cry for what she's achieved. Anyway, I thought I would give her a floating turtle to represent both a mythical and an earthbound symbol of determination, hard work, and magical reward.
Diane was also her encourager along the slow, plodding path of class building upon class. She was her "human" turtle so I gave her shirt the same green color of that sweet creature. Finally, our college's color is purple so the graduate is clad in it along with some purple thrown into the background. So there you have it!
I've been participating in projects with the Brooklyn Art Library since 2010 when I did my first sketchbook for them called, "Coffee and Cigarettes." I followed up in 2011 with "Sandwich" and 2012 with "The Last Word Spoken." I've also participated in a canvas painting exchange which I blogged about during my 365 day project (Day 235 Be Proud of What You've Got), and also several other free projects that they've offered.
They're a great organization trying to foster creativity not just among American artists, but artists worldwide.
Last week they offered a change to write a drama in 12 words, then asked you to tweet it or instagram it. Ever the romantic, here's mine:
Train jolts, eyes catch.
Lost love, now found?
"Truly me," said she.
Click here for other submissions to this project: 12 word dramas. Fun, huh? Now join in these projects yourself and keep your creativity flowing!
Sometimes I sit down at my computer desk, which also doubles as my painting area, because I have no other room to paint, and I will get this urge. An urge of unrest, of wanting to--actually needing to, make something. I stare at my paint. I can tell that nothing will make me feel better except to paint. And then...off I go. I started this at 10 p.m. I couldn't help myself.
I've been watching the "Eyes of Laura Mars" while I put this baby together. Well, I've been "listening" to it. Again, I don't know why I've been needing to see/listen to this 1978 relic (with Faye Dunaway and a young Tommy Lee Jones). I don't question my weird cravings. It's just like when my body says, eat some potatoes, and I say o.k., and whirl up some hash browns in a Spanish omelet! Back to the movie. I thought I was being directed by the universe to paint Faye Dunaway or something, but the gal that emerged is loosely based on a character in the movie "Amelie." A woman reminiscing about her husband who left her and ran away with his secretary years ago.
For some reason I like painting older people or forlorn people when I paint portraits. I'm not sure why. Well, maybe I do. There's something very interesting to me about more complex human emotions...those that touch a yearning inside. They don't make me sad; rather, I see a beauty in their vulnerability.
Remembering
9" x 12"
Barbara Streisand singing theme ("Prisoner") from "Eyes of Laura Mars"
A little film clip.
Now it's the wee hours of the morning, and I need to clean my brushes, take a bath, go to bed, and lie in bed and think, why did I stay up so late during the work week?!?!?! WHAT am I doing? What can I do? When the muse calls, you must obey.
I used to wear contacts from about 14 until 35 years of age (yes, I'm older than that!), and I can remember many a time having those contacts popping out of my eyes and me having to go on a frantic search for them. I look a lot better with those ol' gas-permeable lenses, for that's the type I had), but I'm not as vain anymore, and I'm now living my life in the land of ease and funkadelic glasses. I can even remember getting those contacts stuck inside my eye on top of my eyeballs. Hmm...THAT is a great idea for another painting. (-;
Oh my gosh, what am I going to do? Fill my house with paintings made by me for me? I can't help but paint these wacko things. I crack up over them, and I think, "Jill, you know no one is going to hang this in their living room!" But you know what, I TOTALLY would! And I probably will! Perhaps, though, there's a fellow whacked out soul or two who can chuckle at these things and whose home would be happy to embrace it. Otherwise, I guess I'll have to start paneling my ceiling with these hilarious (maybe only to me) canvases, because I just can't stop, and quite frankly, I don't want to. This one is one of my favorites of all time. (-:
In February 2013, Lesley Riley (http://www.lesleyriley.com/) had a call for art for her book containing her favorite quotes. That book became "Quotes Illustrated" and was published in November and available on both her website and amazon.com. Her book was picked up by a larger publisher, North Light Books and will be reissued towards the end of this year (2014) in a new version including 30 more pieces of artwork.
Lesley extended a second call for art and had over 200 entries for that small amount of spaces. I sent in an image for that art call as well. Below is my quote from Hugh MacLeod:
One needs to have that big
adventure before truly appreciating how utterly wonderful that simple, mundane
stuff actually is.
And...here is my illustration for it. I was not accepted this time around, but I absolutely love my drawing--is it bad to say that? Hmm, I'm still going to say it, because in all honesty, I do absolutely love it. ha! (-;
The quote and illustration that did get accepted into the original book is below.
When you follow your
bliss... doors will open where you would not have thought there would be doors,
and where there wouldn't be a door for anyone
else.
Here is a most beautiful short film from Carlos Lascano called "Lila." Thank you Suzi Poland for bringing this slice of beauty to my attention. Gracias a Carlos Lascano por esta pelica encantada. (Thank you, Carlos Lascano for this enchanting film.)
She is like "Amelie" come to life as a sketcher! I feel full of happiness that such beauty and imagination exists in the world. I wish I knew you personally!
This painting emerged when I smeared some molding paste on a canvas. I saw a face in the lower left-hand side and it grew from there. I knew I wanted to include some sort of quote about feeling down, but becoming lifted when you follow your heart even if you don't know where it's leading. That, of course, is my feeling about art, a complete lifesaver in my life. I searched for quotes, and these two were my favorites and top contenders:
"The heart has its reasons which reason knows not." --Blaise Pascal
and my ultimate favorite:
"When the heart speaks, the mind finds it indecent to object." --Milan Kundera, The Unbearable Lightness of Being
I was going with that one, going with it like the tearful, yet hopeful figure in the painting floating to his destiny. Somehow, though, it was just not succinct enough, and it didn't reflect what I felt was the initial feeling of this fellow: Despair.
And then I thought, "No despair, if you follow your heart." The message on the painting is a bit of a puzzle, which a life's journey oftentimes end up being, no? I felt it hit exactly what I was trying to express.
Here he is hanging outside in setting sun:
And one more shot floating up through the just blossoming magnolia tree:
I'm participating in an online class called Sketchbook Skool created by Danny Gregory and Koosje Koene and one of the assignments last week was to sketch in public. I have sketched "out and about" before, but never before a concert---jeepers, sure seems like I was a nerd extraordinaire sitting at my table, but baby, I had a homework assignment to fulfill! ha! I sketched a bit between songs as discreetly as possible--is this girl dedicated or what? (-; Anyway, when I got home, I quickly added some watercolor, but almost feel like it looked better in black and white.
Last Friday, my husband and I saw Sam Llanas, founder and former member of the BoDeans and his current band. The guitarist, Sean Williamson, was so good! We were seated at a table right by the stage so I had quite a good view of the sound equipment. O.K., without further ado, here's my quick sketch.
Both last year and this year, I participated in Kat Sloma's international postcard swap. It's such a great artistic combination of online activity and snail mail. Kat encourages you to meet a deadline, follow instructions, and get your work published into a postcard format. O.k., on initial reading, this may not seem like such a big deal, but really people, it is. It's just another way of demonstrating to our procrastinating selves that taking baby steps forward can help to push a door or resistance down and let your art pour through.
Below are some of the wonderful postcards I received, along with their messages. I posted the one I sent out at the very bottom. Join Kat next year yourself, and push your art a little further out into the world! Click on the link at the bottom of this post.
From Jae-Eun Pilsbury, Surrealist Painter (www.jaeeunpilsbury.com)
"Art Must be an expression of love or it is nothing." -Marc Chagall
From Pearl: "The creative adult is the child who survived." --Ursula Le Guin
(Quilt block)
From Granny Sharon: Art is Everywhere.
From Lyne Augh (I think that's the spelling) Be Amazing! Keep up the good art!
From Lui at www.houndsinheaven.blogspot.com "Seek the divine in all that you do and your fruits will always be a celebration."
Mine. A little something I drew/painted while sitting in my booth at an art show a few years back. I added the following quote: “It’s not what you look at that matters, it’s what you see...” — Henry David
Thoreau
