Wednesday, March 29, 2023




You always see these staged pictures of a pretty dressed-up and smiling artist in front of their work - but I wasn't really going for that.  I was going more for a real documentary image of well.. this is me, now, and this moment will be gone before I know it as time keeps passing by so quickly.  So, this is me, not dressed up, just after running 8 hours worth of mail and packages, putting the glaze on my painting so I can bring it to a show submittal tomorrow.  This is my natural hair color, sunburn, no makeup, hat-hair even as I just took off my ballcap from the route and chased a chicken around in the yard until we got it back in the fence.  Also, I've been running nearly two weeks without much of a break - because things need to get done.  But I took a picture anyway, and I posted it, because this is real, and I have this painting and I hope someone will enjoy looking at it.

 And the first drawing here - is one of my scribble and see something drawings.  But it looked like the tiger thing had killed another creature and was eating it -so I abandoned the drawing and left it on my board unfinished.  My daughter said I should try the character again, though, so I did.  It might be something to keep working on, it's kind of cute, and you can definitely see where I used to design stuffed animals and sew them coming through on the second one... but it's a start

 

Monday, March 27, 2023

March

 


thought board 3-27

Oh, it's been a month.  It's been a month that has felt like three.  There have been weeks I've been working the entire week, running postal routes (9 days straight this time, actually) - and I have just not had much time for anything, and there have been days I've worked towards goals, and very few days staring into space.  Had a few very good conversations this month.  E and I have cooked some interesting things and talked about things, as well.  
 
Had some lovely notable 'flow' times sorting and interleaving postal routes to get multiple package routes done at once.  That uses the best parts of my visual spatial brain to the best effect.. but it's also, few and far between that I get to 'play' at that high of RPM and have it actually be useful.

Did French mostly (you can tell it's been busy when I say that), and then threw in some Spanish, German, Italian and Hungarian as side dishes at times.  I completely forgot about Portuguese - even though I just got that big thick textbook - why do I do that to myself?  Finally put the repair parts together on the basketball hoop.  My truck's transmission continues to wheedle down - but last time the mechanic said 'it'll do' and I disliked that comment, when I know it is failing.. *sigh*



Simon and His Boat, collage

Tried several new types of pencils - Derwent Chromaflow and CastleArts - liked both of them, they add a lot to the drawings.  Also tried tan and blue toned papers, and am experimenting more with them.  Added four or five colors of paint to my mix, and a gold paint pen.  I know I have to work more on the big project for the gallery but it has fallen to the side -BUT - I did get the pieces entered and ready for the Artist Showcase that starts April 2nd at the Paris, TN public library.  I just have to drop those things off now.

I did a little more work on the Sam the Cat book, about intensity and synesthesia, using my new story board easel to tape up mini paintings and try to organize so I can tell the entire story the way I want to.  I got some great ideas when I played with DALL-E last fall for adding Rosa in as more of a character, with her own gifts as well - and I'm enjoying imagining that and the richness that adds.

 

this hoop had been thrown away, and the person said that their son didn't want to fix it - so I found the repair parts online, and ordered them, and put it up in our yard.  It was heavy - and Mark had to help a lot moving it - but I hope we can get a lot of use out of it.  I used to love to shoot hoops with my brother when I was a kid.  E has a remarkable long-arm shot I didn't know she had.  I was so impressed!

 

A discussion about how I see the mind working - this sketch took about an hour to make and is on 16x20 paper.  I then ran it through DALL-E myself and came out with these, that I liked:




 Another artist / author David Wakeham had done his own AI version of the concept and I really liked what he had come up with, as well:


did a few of the little mini paintings of places I zoom by on the postal route - this one is sort of a house out on Bells Store Road, but the more I look at it in real life I feel I've smashed two places together, and it requires a bit more work.  But then I keep looking at Paris Pike and saying that place is so beautiful as well.  I want to go to the downtowns and spend an afternoon sketching buildings - but there is never enough time, good weather, and vehicles I am always worrying about 'using it up' which ties strings around me... I know it shouldn't.  It still does.  So I end up drawing and writing things at 3 am, instead.


experimenting with different paints, pencils and so forth


thought board 3-16


This is inspired 'Für Elise' by Beethoven, in four or five colors of paint