Portraits

My daily art project, 270 days in, has evolved yet again. I started making portraits of dogs, then a cat, and most recently, this human. I didn't expect, when I decided to try my hand at drawing a human face, that I'd land on this one. But this face has gripped my attention for the last two years, a face no more or less human than any other, though it's easy to lose track of that fact when emotions run high.

Jane Fonda got skewered in the media for her statements about having radical empathy for Donald Trump. No wonder. She's asking us to do a very difficult thing— extend compassion to a person who wields power in a dangerous, destructive way. She isn't asking us to condone or support his behaviors, she's asking us to see his humanity. "This is a man who was traumatized as a child by his father, who had a mother that didn’t protect him,” she said. “And the behavior is the language of the wounded.”

246 Days Later...

I'm on a roll, folks, making and posting art every day (on Facebook and Instagram, go see for yourself). Though I started on January first without any clear plan, at this point I intend to keep it up, at least until the end of the year.

It feels good to apply myself to this creative task—to explore color and texture and composition, and to use up my hoard of art supplies (while sticking to a resolution to—for now anyway—avoid buying anything new).

But to keep this up day after day and still find the process engaging, I need to be digging into something meaningful. There has to be personal inquiry. I need to be strengthening my voice, sharing my vision, honing in on something I want to say—about life, about nature, about beauty, about engagement in the world.

Partway into this project, I stumbled into making fashion collages while exploring my thoughts and feelings about female bodies, female beauty, and female strength. I still plan to do more in that vein.

In the meantime, I'm making drawings with Sharpie markers, landscapes that range from pure abstraction to almost-realism. I can feel a part of my mind struggling as I make these, in the same way a writer might struggle for the right word to signify meaning.

There's something I'm trying to articulate in these new drawings, something about the magic of the natural world, about the vibrancy and potential in every living thing, every living moment. Every life.

I want to be entirely present in every moment. And I want you with me.

That's all I've figured out so far.

Daily Art Continues

I'm a month and a half into my daily art experiment. At the moment, my greatest joy is using up art supplies. I've been on a roll with Sharpie drawings—as the markers dry up and my sketchbooks empty out, I'm forced to alter my color palettes and make creative use of pages with marker bleed through and abandoned scribbles. See the whole series here.

Daily Art

I've completed something every day so far in 2018 — I'm determined to continue for as long as it's fun. Maybe longer (sometimes the most interesting stuff happens when you get bored or careless and start taking risks).

One of the most interesting aspects of this challenge is economy. I don't have a lot of space in my life to devote to this right now. When there isn't much time, my creativity, and creative confidence, are stretched.

It's always good to stretch!

I'm archiving these in a facebook album.

Art on Video, Frogger, Milli Vanilli, What More Could You Want?

I made this while I was a student, lots of art, philosophy, the game Frogger, and the secret origins of my dog's name. (Hint: her name is Millie Vanillie).
More of my videos here.

More from the Archive

Years ago, I acquired a small, old-fashioned suitcase, a squarish hard-sided cosmetic case with leather re-enforced corners and a matching handle. I thought it was charming, and stared into it for quite a while before deciding what belonged inside. Eventually, I knew: markers, crayons, colored pencils, scissors, a few watercolors, and a stack of stiff paper cut to roughly postcard sizes.

I called the case my Postcard Kit and took it with me everywhere, pulling it out whenever my hands were free, often times when my friend's hands were free as well. The Postcard Kit became a portable art party, not to mention a source of secondary income. Many of the little one-of-a-kind artworks I made and then stashed in the Postcard Kit were sold along the way, but I've held onto a few...


Cassandra




Key West Feral Chicken




Do-It-Yourself




Portent




Reflection




Plans

Nostalgia

The artwork in this post is all on 8.5 x 11" paper in some combination of ink, watercolor, and oil pastel. Shipping is included in the listed prices.



SOLD


When I was five years old, I knew I wanted to be two things when I grew up: an artist and a writer. Though these desires have never flagged, at times my confidence has. Therefore, my life has occasionally strayed — quite unhappily — far from the mark.

About ten years ago, I was working construction by day and dabbling in (but mostly feeling discouraged about) my writing and art at night and on the weekends. Perhaps it was the day that I learned to run the jackhammer that things began to change.

Running a jackhammer was a secret dream since childhood. It seemed entirely outside of my grasp. After all, I only saw jackhammers on construction sites in the hands of muscle-bound men in hardhats. Construction sites, not to mention hardhats, seemed completely inaccessible. Great big biceps seemed, well, not exactly desirable. But the day I ran the jackhammer I learned that not everything that looks hard is hard.

Perhaps it was a true epiphany. Perhaps my brain had just been jostled out of complacency by a loud, violently vibrating machine, but very soon thereafter it hit me: I was already both an artist and a writer. And not only that, but: I can run a jackhammer! It didn't matter if I believed in myself. It didn't matter if I was "successful" in any sense of the word. I am free to dedicate as much energy and resource as I can muster to my cause: the full realization of me.

These drawings/paintings of grapes come from that time. In fact, they were the first thing I did after realizing that I wanted to keep my art and writing as the central creative pursuits of my life. I gave a bowl of grapes to myself as an assignment, a drawing challenge, a creative inspiration, and finally, after several nights' work, a snack.

I hope you, dear readers, invest in yourselves similarly.





$125

$125

SOLD




SOLD






$125

$125

$125

$125

$125

Dance

Sometimes there really is nothing better than putting on some music and turning off the brain.



Dance
Mixed Media on 100% cotton paper, 11" x 8.5"

NEWS FLASH

mixed media (ink, pencil, crayon, watercolor),
on 100% cotton paper, 8.5 x 11"

"You're not charging enough for your work."

How many times have we, as artists (and designers, and freelancers), received this dubious compliment? I suppose if we are busier and poorer than we can sustain, it's a comment worth thinking about. Otherwise, it implies a "should." Be very wary of "should"s, people, whether generated by the restlessness of your own mind, or by someone else's.

My response, regarding my daily collages, has been this: As soon as I sell one, we can talk. This may sound flip, but Cay Lang, in her excellent book, Taking the Leap: Building a Career as a Visual Artist (by far the best practical guide to being a professional artist I've come across thus far) backs me.

Says Lang: "At the beginning of your career, you want to place your work inside the standard price range for the type and size of work that you make, and at the lower end of that price range. The advantages to this strategy are many. By pricing the work low, you will begin the process of getting the work moving. More people will buy it, which means more people will want to buy it, and you will start to develop a following. Pricing the work low creates room for the prices to increase, which makes you look successful and places your work in even higher demand."

Truth be told, I'm not so much strategic as going on gut instinct. I know no better incentive to make more art than hooking up with people who want the art I've already made. But it is difficult, I'll admit, to part with these pieces for just $45 (which includes not only the minor masterpiece in question, but the cost of the envelope, postage, a cut for Paypal, plus gas and my time to and from the post office,). Taking all of this into consideration, I made a promise to myself: Once I sell my first collage, I'll raise prices.

Well I sold my first Daily Collage this week (#32, see below). Additionally, I received word that another sale is looming (the buyer is in the process of choosing her favorite). As a courtesy, I've given this second buyer until the end of the month. I'm extending that same courtesy to you.

Here's my NEWSFLASH: True to my promise, the price on Daily Collages will go up from $45 to $65 beginning August first. (Shipping, within the U.S. anyway, will still be included.) [Note from the future: these prices are out-of-date, and Paypal "Buy now" links have been removed, at least temporarily as I make adjustments.]

Consider yourself fairly warned!

You can see the whole Daily Collage series, as a slide show, in the order it was created, here. And in their original blog entries here. If you want one that isn't labeled with a "buy now" button [or if you want more information], email or post a comment and I'll set up a Paypal link for you.

#32 - SOLD

Dreamville

Vivid dreams lately prompt me to share a couple mixed media drawings/paintings I made some time ago about sleep and the creative experience of dreaming:

Road to Dreamville

This one comes out of thinking about that very fleeting instant at the beginning of sleep, when we've relaxed enough to sense all the adventures and companion adventurers glimmering before us in our potential dreams. In that moment, all that remains is to release, to let go, to allow. Sometimes, there is apprehension in that moment.



mixed media (ink, watercolor, pencil, crayon, gouache, pastel)
on 8.5 x 11" 100% cotton paper


Perchance to Dream

The title says enough on this one. No apprehension in this dreamer.



mixed media (ink, water color, pencil, crayon, pastel)
on 8.5 x 11" 100% cotton paper

Something To Think About...

I found this recently in a stack of old sketches and doodles...



8.5 x 11" ink on paper
$15

Tangle

Sometimes life feels like this.



Gouache and ink, 14" x 11". (click on image for enlarged view)
SOLD

Momentum?

I sold a drawing the other day (this is the one). And completed a commissioned piece. I also finished a painting that was long on the list of not-quite-finisheds. And prepped a board I plan to use for a big collage. Maybe I'll start that today. Yes, I've had a thirty-mile bike ride this morning, and now that it's raining out, it's the perfect thing.

Next, I'd like to report that I sent out several proposals for shows, but I haven't. (Well, I sent out one - it was in a drawer for six months, not quite finished.) I'm not sure what holds me back on that one, I think it has to do with familiarizing myself with the ropes. If I've learned anything from David Allen, it's this: identifying the next action step is often the hardest part of any project. Here's an action I can take: I'll call an artist friend to ask if she could please just point me in the right direction. Give me a hint. An assignment. A suggestion. Just one baby step.

One step at a time, right? Right.

Arting Life

"I have a very difficult time telling the difference between art and life. I don't think that there is such a thing as good creativity, important creativity, unimportant creativity. We have a pecking order. We think it's more important to write a novel than make excellent soup." — Julia Cameron

I've been letting myself off the hook. Instead of morning pages and daily collages, I've been washing dishes, doing laundry, cleaning house, organizing my office, rearranging my books, reading, running errands, cooking, taking walks. Naps. Phone calls from friends. Though I'm still pulling myself up from the flu-mire, regaining stamina, in many ways I'm feeling better than I've felt in months.

Creative energy is like a basil plant. If you don't harvest anything, your plant may grow spindly and weak. If you harvest too much, you deplete its strenght and it will be slow to regenerate. But if you pinch a little here and there, it'll grow back full and strong and bushy and great. (I can't claim full credit for this metaphor, by the way - I don't remember where I heard it, used to describe sexual energy.) (Which, in my opinion, is just another incarnation of creativity, the life force itself.)

To my surprise, lately, I've been wanting to write and collage again. I'd forgotten that feeling.

Looking back, I realize I had myself pruned down to the quick. Just now the leaves are beginning to sprout again, and I'm resisting the urge to greedily pluck at that new growth. No. Instead, I will do another load of laundry, make my stepson a birthday cake, go ice skating, have sex with my husband, strum my guitar, read some poetry, write a letter, go to a gallery, make a date with a friend.

In the meantime, I'll post the last four collages I completed before smitten by the flu. Not right this minute, though, but soon. There's some laundry I'm itching to fold, and a shower I want to take, and I want to do some yoga, and oh, yeah, that birthday cake – I want to make it before the house in inundated with fourteen-year-old boys. I still intend to finish my two-month daily collage commitment, but for now, I'm letting my energy, rather than my ego, take the lead.

Wow

SOLD
I just noticed I've been receiving comments. I hadn't thought to look for them. I didn't realize people are already peeking under the drop cloths to check out this blog. Not only that, two are asking if and how they might purchase my artwork! Hence the title of this post. And my big smile.

A quick and incomplete answer: yes, it's all for sale. No, I don't have it listed anywhere as such, but I'll get right on that. I'll do some research, find an appropriate venue, or create one. If you have any ideas: I'm open to suggestions!

In the meantime, you eager readers have inspired me to spiff up the joint, and think a little more about where I'm headed with this new venture. I've got ideas. Oh, baby, do I have ideas! And I do plan to get into them. But first things first: I've taken the drop cloths down, swept the debris out of the corners, tacked up some links, slapped up one more coat of fresh white paint. (I've decided I like these white walls. Who needs wallpaper? It seems more appropriate to keep this backdrop fresh and blank as a gallery wall.)

If this were a real space, I'd have snacks set up in the back. Wait a minute - this is virtual reality. There are snacks in the back - little mini sandwiches and cookies and chocolate and champagne and a great big fruit plate (all impeccably delicious and absolutely calorie-free)! Help yourself! Happy New Year! Make yourself at home! Feel free to nose around. Sign the guest book. And welcome to LifeCraft!

Oh, and come back soon. I promise, there will be more.