Statement of Purpose

I've had over a month to get my change of major paperwork done. Guess how much is done. Did you guess all of it? Fool! No...none of it.

I have to submit all new paperwork. Today I am determined to get my statement of purpose done. There are only 50 students in the whole major. I've spoken to the professors and they know me by my first name, and yet, I have to write all of this nonsense so they can determine if I can join thier major. Pshhhh. It's very tempting to just stay where I am, but...that's the lazy way out. Wish me luck.

Torrit Grey

It seems these days that there are a million new companies that make paint. water soluble oils and all kinds of 'hand made' paint. Some I like and some I don't, but one company that I DO like is also impressive in their recycling efforts.

Gamblin Oil Paint makes paint...duh. For those of you who don't know how different paints are made, oil paint is made from dry powdered pigment mixed with a drying oil such as linseed oil. There might also be OMS, or varnish etc that change the gloss of the paint, but basically, without getting into a scientific discussion of paint, suffice it to say that oil paint is dry pigment mushed into linseed oil.

Well at the Gamblin factory, there would probably be an awful lot of colorful boogers with the massive volume of colors they make. Think about it. Y'know when you pour flour into another container, or sugar...or any powder, it makes cloud, gets in your eyes, your nose...(hence the rainbow boogers). But at Gamblin, they have an air filtration system called the Torrit air system.

This Torrit air system sucks all of the otherwise rainbow shnoz pigment particles into the system and collects them for a year.

Imagine every color you have, mixed together. What color would it be? Well, I can tell you that if you mixed every color that Gamblin made this year into one paint, it would be Torrit Grey. They take all of the dust from all of the pigment of all of the colors that they make and make it into a paint called Torrit Grey. Every year it's a little different. Sometimes, it's a brownish grey. Sometimes, it's very black.

And, not only do they recycle all of the particles (some of which would not be good to work their way into the water system if they were flushed down a drain or thrown in a landfill), but they have a contest every year to paint a picture, using JUST Torrit grey and white and black. There is a small cash prize each year and some of the entries are impressive.

The best part of Torrit grey is that it's FREE. or supposed to be. Some less reputable dealers make you buy X amount of stuff to get it, but if you ask at the counter of better art supply stores, they are supposed to give you a tube. gratis.

Check it out.

Recycling with a cool end product. Can't beat that.

Favorite Pen

The world is going to hell in a handbasket. The economy is screwed, the Earth is FUBAR and I've put on at least 20 pounds since college. BUT

BUT...

There's a bright side. Never let it be said that I can't find something happy. Today's source of happiness boys and girls is a new favorite pen.

Now...if you are not an artist, or an artist who never draws...ahem...read the last entry...then you probably don't or can't grasp the magnitude of a favorite pen.

However, as I DO draw CONSTANTLY...I have been through my share of pens.

First let me say, I'm a pen girl. There's more to that statement then might meet the eye. Some people are pen people and some folks are pencil peeps. Pencil people are more tentative. They like to have an out. A do-over...a mulligan if you will. They sketch or write in short bits always ready to flip that puppy over and wipe out whatever they've just done.

Pen people on the other hand are fly-by-the-seat-of-our-pants folks. Permanent ink baby. In the immortal words of Ghandi..."Shit or get off the pot". We do crosswords and Sudoku in pen. Our sketches have no hope of being erased. They're there pal...for all perpetuity. (by the way, pen people with white out handy are just closet pencil people).

Now, Sharpie people are just out there. These are the people who bungie jump and play in traffic and dont care if the writing instrument of their choice will not only mark on whatever they are writing on, but will most likely bleed through and leave a permanent announcement for all future generations that 'a Sharpie person was here".

But...I digress

I have a new pen.

"This is the pen I bought ONE HOUR before my bike was stolen! What's the significance?! I DONT KNOW!!!" -Pee Wee Herman.

I've been partial to a few pens over the years. I ten

d to be drawn. haha. get it...drawn... to almost anything that Pilot makes. I've liked the V5 Precise with the little ink window. So smooth so black..

There was something space age about this pen. No suddenly running out of ink with this baby. Nooo...you had plenty of warning young lady.

But then...it had it's drawbacks. Have you ever taken one of these bad boys on a plane? The air pressure -or perhaps it was the result of appalling service on Delta- would make these puppies leak like yesterday's diaper. They tended to blob a bit.

And...while they say the ink is permanent...it's not. If you used this pen in a mixed media work, and got the ink wet, you know, it turns kind of a cool red. Great if you want that effect, a royal pisser if you didnt.

So, my next pen was the G2. Not to be confused with any sort

of failed government summit, this was another pen by Pilot.

This sleek puppy had the cool window so you could keep track of your ink supply (not to mention some sort of groovy yellow wax looking thing that followed the ink down. Sleek clip, more ergo dynamic, even a comfy grip.

so, what's the downside. For one, these pens are harder to find than a virgin in New Jersey. Everyone steals them. And if you find them on sale, folks gobble them up. They are a bit pricey in my opinion too.

And, they also tend to glob a bit, especially if they've sat awhile, and they are much more of a throwback to the roller ball ink that tends to be a little harder to control when working on a precise drawing.

So...what's the new pen already. Keep your hair on. I've left the ranch and have turned down the Pilot cool aid. My new pen is not a Pilot at all, but a Tul. Go ahead...make your jokes. What a tool. (I think that's why they made the name all...faincy and called it Tul with an umlaut <---SAT word...look it up)

so without further ado, a dew or adieu...The new pen

TADA!!! The Tul needle fine black .5 retractable gel pen. With a compass in the stock and this thing that tells time. Ok...not really, but c'mon. This is a cool pen. A subtle ink window. a meh clip, but a point so fine you could take out your own appendix with it. The line is consistent, smooth and sooo fine. Fine as in thin and fine as in...well...fine.

Now granted, I havent had this pen very long and TUL's drawback seems to be that they are their own biggest fan, with space aged packaging that reeled me right in. Forget bubble packaging, these babies are sold in capsules. Screw Tang...if we still had a space program, they'd be taking these pens to the moon.

I'll keep you posted, but for now, along with stock piling Ramen noodles for the 2012 end of the world, I'm gonna buy a crate of these bad boys.

Sketching sketching sketching

**Edit...allow me to apologize ahead of time for the crazy picture placement in this entry. Blogger is messing with me and what I put in place seems to have a mind of its own. So...the pictures in this entry are very Zen like in their random-osity. Deal with it.
I've been really caught up in applying for grad school so I've been slack in much of the online department. I've been painting, and photographing, and sketching...but no blogging.

While I was working on one of my submissions the other day at a local coffee shop, a lady I knew from town came in and we started chatting about drawing (as I'd just seen her at a figure drawing session). She was frustrated with her work and said that she gets tense and doesn't like what she has drawn and it discourages her etc. etc.

I told her that she, and I...and anyone else who wants to improve their work needs to sketch...all...the ....time. Everything. There is no end to what you can draw.

I think the problem is that people wait for something "pretty' or 'picturesque'. Well...if that's the case, you aren't going to draw much. However, if you draw EVERYTHING, then when that great something comes along, you'll have the chops to carry it out and come much closer to what you envision in your mind.

I have a small (8x10)

sketchbook that I take everywhere

with me. Nothing fancy. I think I bought it at Barnes and Noble for like $6. I have a pen I like clipped in the binding. If I'm having lunch alone,

I'll draw. If I'm waiting at an office, I'll sketch. Heck, if I'm sitting on

Marta on my way to the

airport, I'll draw the folks around me. Nothing is off limits.

Don't worry if 'people are hard'. or any other excuse, just draw it. Do some blind contours. Who are you drawing for anyway? Who's going to see it? This is your sketchbook, your artistic gym. Give yourself a workout.

Besides...if you are being constructive and practicing your drawing skills, you can put off getting off your ass and going to the real gym.

Jury Selection

Yesterday, I received a letter from the State of Virginia, where I used to live, about a jury questionnaire. It was all about seeing if I qualified for jury duty in Virginia. Seeing as I have resided in the state of Georgia for the past 4+ years...I'd bet not. However, there was a weird question. It said "have you lived in this state for the past year". It did not however, specify WHICH state it was referring to. The state that was inquiring, or the state to which they mailed it. I answered both YES and NO. That ought to throw them for a loop.

But...keeping in the theme of juries, yours truly was selected by a jury of her realistic peers to be in the 6th annual International Guild of Realism show in Santa Fe New Mexico. I'm pretty stoked. Especially, as I've entered several contests in the past few months and have mostly been handed my hat, so to speak. So...yeah me.

Just goes to show, whatever state you are in ...Virginia, Georgia...or even the state of denial, keep trying.

This is the painting that made it in.

Continuing Ed

Today I went back to school. Well, ok, I just took a tour and spoke to the grad school folks but it's the first step back into the world of academia.

In high school I received a scholarship to Savannah College of ARt and Design. At the time, it just wasnt financially in the cards and I always kind of felt that it was an unfinished...out there.

In 2005, SCAD opened a satellite school in Atlanta. Hello. That's where I live. hmmm...

Everything happens for a reason and maybe the reason we moved back here was its my turn. SCAD has always been my dream school and maybe now I'm ready and SCAD is ready for me. It's daunting. It's easy to say "nah, not right now, it's too expensive, it's too hard, it's too..." but I think it's time. The applications is in. The first born child is signed away. Damnit. I'm goin'.

sketch sketch everyday.

I know it's not a good thing, but I've been on a bit of a painting hiatus for a few weeks. Granted, I was out of town for a week or two, but mostly, I just got sort of burned out with the way and place I was working. Not good.

however, things are lookin' up. For one, I joined a local art organization called Kudzu. Right now, it's kind of small thing, but I'm hoping that it takes off. They have some good shows and some good opportunities for networking etc. Also, they offer a lot of just open studio time which is good. I've signed up for a studio space there and am really psyched to move in in July.

In the meantime, however, I've been trying to sketch every day. Not any great works of art necessarily, but just something. I was reading one of Danny Gregory books (the Creative License) and his laid back, unintimidating style inspires me to pick up a pen and draw whatever I'm looking at.

In the past few weeks, I've drawn my lunch, people on the plane, paper bags, a waterfall in a local shopping center. Anything and everything.

It's been pretty inspirational and fun. I'm drawing from life, which is always best, and I find that the more I draw EVERYT

HING, the more I can draw ANYTHING. Make sense?

Here's a few sketches. Like I said, nothing awesome, but great practice. On a side note, it's interesting to see the lighting. The man is being lit by light from the plane, the fountain is natural light and the lunch is dim incandescent light in a coffee shop.

enjoy.

Not an "artist"

I was talking to a fellow painter today. Someone I had not met before and we were talking about other folks working in a community space. When she pointed out one woman's area she said "Yeah, she's a potter...she's not an artist", it took me a little by surprise. It's funny how whatever we do...WE...the royal we...is the 'right' thing, and others who are outside of our box are not real, not professional, not serious.

What is an artist? Of course, if you ask anyone (artists included, I would hope) an artist is anyone who creates. Be it a painting, a recipe, a knitting pattern, a photograph, or maybe even graffiti on a wall. But, if you are one of those things, a photographer, a painter...whatever, it's easy to think of what YOU do as ART and what they do as...I dunno...something else.

I try to tell my students all of the time that if you create something...whatever it is, it's yours (and often copyright laws would back me up) so, copying a photo out of magazine, for example, is a no no. That is another ARTIST's work.

Maybe it's the snob appeal factor of whatever thing you do. If you are a rock star, is a person who sings in the church choir a 'musician'?

Of course, when you call attention to it, anyone would say 'of course that's true' and wax philosophical about it, but it's what we say in our everyday vernacular that shows a bit of how we think.

I dont think any less...or really any thing about the lady who said it, it just got me thinking about how what WE do is the real thing and what others do is something else.

How many painters get ruffled when a juried 2-D contest allows photography. THAT's DIFFERENT!! is it? Especially now, when so much of photography involves way more than pointing the camera and knowing a little about the mechanics of the camera. It's composing, often editing, color correcting, light balancing. How different is it?

When someone says "Im an artist" we usually think painter. Right? Or...maybe...that's just me because, I'M a painter...therefore what I do...must be the real thing.

Rock on all you artists!

Back in the saddle

Breaking out of the rut isnt easy. Sometimes you just have to sit and make yourself do something. I've had a lot of ideas of things I wanted to paint lately, but as I said, I'm just not in the mood. So, I decided, after a pep talk with my gal pals, to just get to work, so I did. I don't normally paint in this style, so loose and ala prima, but...today I did. This painting is 20x20 and I've more or less gotten to a stopping point in two sittings. It's kind of fun, working so loose. I don't think I'll change styles (again) any time soon, but it was a nice one to get back on the horse with.

a very rough sketch just to block in the composition.

chunking in big blocks of color. working to establish shadows.

Done-ish. I'm sure that I'll futz around and probably over work it, but I've gotten to a point at least this evening where I'm satisfied with this for what it is.

I guess this is my -following my own advice and getting off my derriere and putting paint to canvas. Other than teaching, I have a lot of free time tomorrow. My goal is to get another at least started if not finished. Here's hopin.

The Dreaded RUT

If you are a creative person of any sort, I'm sure you have had days where you could do no wrong, where the least effort produced the best recipe, the greatest knitting, or the most glorious masterpiece oil painting...ever. But...if you are a creative person, I'm sure you have also had days where you start out maybe gung-ho, head up to the studio, clap your hands together in a 'let's do 'dis' kind of way and then..."oooh, let me check my email, download a picture, look at funny pictures of cats, vacuum, play with the dog, open the windows, shut the windows, straighten a picture that wasnt crooked to start with... and get...nothing....done.

Welcome to my day. Actually, welcome to my last few weeks. The dreaded rut.

Some ruts are blamable (is that a word? blame-able?) on external sources, you're sick, scheduling conflict, lack of materials, but other times...like the last few weeks, I just don't feel like it. Call it depression, call it exhaustion, call it PMS, call it...Wednesday. whatever.

I sketch, I plan. I have solid gold plated-buy it now on Ebay-intentions, and then...pbffft.

Now this is where I punch you on the arm and say 'buck up little camper...here's whatcha do". but, no. I got nothin'. I tend, when in this mood, to either take a nap, or go get a bagel at Panera.

There are great inspirational catalysts to be sure. flip through an art book. lurk around artist forums and blogs, flip through any book by what's his face that wrote Everyday Matters. Look through and organize your references. Take your camera and wander around and snap some ref photos.

Today, I even know the painting I want to work on. I've sketched it out. I like the concept. But am I painting? No...I'm sitting here. Writing.

I think that any creative outlet will help. If you're in knitting rut, go bake something. If you are a painter, go write a poem. If you write music, go sketch people at a coffee shop. Change it up. Like working out different muscles in the gym. Grab a coloring book and a cup of tea.

So, what am I going to go do?

A bagel sounds pretty good. and that picture is still crooked.

work in progress

In the process of getting off my proverbial derriere, I have realized the need for photographing my work, not only before it sells-duh...but also some in progress. That being said, here is one that I'm working on.

My grandmother did a painting that I love that hangs over my mantle. She had a wonderful primitive style, ala Queena Stovall. I've been wanting to do this painting in my own style and have finally gotten around to it. Here is the beginning of the painting. I am doing this in the 7 step realism process so it'll go through many manifestations. Here is the first...enjoy.

Sketchbook

I think artists often forget about the power of the sketchbook. I know that I tend to only use my sketchbook for recording assignments and working on thumbnails and sketches for work that I've already been commissioned for. I forget to just draw or use it as a sounding board for ideas. I'm long past the trepidation that someone will see my sketchbook and, lord forbid, see that not every time that I set pen to paper to I come up with a masterpiece. But I forget to just doodle.

I've expounded before on folks to turn 'journaling' into their art form. They spend sooo much time making these 'spontaneous' books that are anything but. Pages of flotsam and ephemera that look just like everyone else's. I guess it has it's place but not, in my opinion, at the expense of creating finished works.

That being said, I think that we as artists should keep our sketchbooks handier. sketch our breakfast, our feet, the dog...whatever is in front of you. If you are a world class runner, you don't just wait on the couch between races, you practice, work out, run sprints. I would like my sketchbook to be more that way. I think if I make sure that I can draw ANYTHING in front of my, when the time comes to get paid for drawing what's in front of me there wont be anything intimidating about the process.

I'm not much into resolutions...but if I could manage to change a habit or get something done from this point on it would be to turn the trifecta of keys, wallet, and phone, into the...um...quadfecta(?) that would include my sketchbook everywhere I go. Maybe I'll even post a few pages and doodles. And then again...