08/17

pen and ink drawing, 08/17/2011

randomness

January 18, 2011
'To Sing and Fly'
'Esme calls it a monster who sleeps ;)

Took a few hours off today because I was getting a headache and sales were slow anyway... took a hot bath and Mark was very sweet bringing me coffee and making pizza. I washed and brushed out Esme's hair (which of course, she didn't like) but then she got a lollipop and came upstairs to put on cow dress and watch a cartoon on Mom and Dad's bed. She fell asleep before the pizza was out of the oven. She has a piece ready to reheat when she wakes up.

I saw another print on an artist's website that looked EXACTLY like one of the drawings I had made before. And now I know why. That artist was probably looking at the same 'musculature and skeletal anatomy' book of animals that I was - and subconsciously copied the stance and features of the rabbit when drawing. (Mark asks how I know it is the same rabbit and not just 'a' rabbit... leaving it at saying once you see a picture of muscle-structure only it kind of 'sticks' with you and it looks nothing like a normal picture of a rabbit) I went back and looked through my old drawings (haven't forgotten your request Henry) and there is just SO much there... and not there at the same time. One of my drawings says at the bottom that it is asking 'where do I go - the visions I saw in my head - what do I do with them?'... There is a lot of 'seeking' and 'asking' in the pictures... empty hands and staring into holes in midair. That was several years ago, and I have not drawn much of that lately.

Should sit down and try to draw some more - look through the same old books and drawings and constellation maps, math, geometry, anatomy, ancient languages... it was all coming out into those drawings. I would draw random lines on the paper and it would just 'appear' in the lines -- filling in every little bit until it looked like I sat down and planned it all out to come into one 'multitude' of figures joined in a story. There was often a small bit of prose underneath each drawing to tell something more about it than a 'title' could by itself.

Reading back on these it is like I was seeking some key to the Universe *ha*... Maybe it doesn't come out as much now not just because of less time to do things in - but because I have more important things in the RIGHT NOW, Mark and Esme and all the precious moments that fill the days. The Universe can explain itself later, if it isn't explaining itself to me right now, in that sweetness when we are all together and snug.

These are just a few of hundreds of drawings that are now in file folders in our storage room - they were saved and brought back here when I went to Minnesota with Mark...

This was one of the drawings in my art show in March 2004 in Fargo, ND:

September 3, 2003
Where do I go?
The question is where do I go?
What do I do with what was said?
The thoughts that came into my mind...

Also from the show:

February 2004
One can receive knowledge without necessarily understanding it.
Construction and Deconstruction within a dream, The dream possesses some knowledge, constructed from fragments, the contents of this knowledge, it passes to me, and yet I do not understand.

And these were done later the same year.

'September, 2004
Seed (growing) Magic in the Seeds of Life, All from one rises, together and apart, forms and reforms, as if by magic, these seeds of life, they grow.


November 2004
'Can I reach beyond? Can I be enabled? learning, dreaming, creating... will I make it?

There are also a set of very telling drawings from the time I came to be with Mark (January 2007) and all of the way up to Esme's birth (November 2007). Those drawings say 'everything' about me, but not to everyone I'm sure. Someday they may become a book that will show all the depth and strong emotion that was coming out at that time.

Rabbits Climb to the Moon original ink drawing

'Fantasy Woods' Rabbits climb to the Moon

This drawing should fit within an 8 x 10 mat opening. It is an original handmade drawing on sketch paper, not a print. This drawing was SOLD at the PenStrokes shop.


Rabbitsmoon detail 1

Rabbitsmoon detail 2

I spent a few hours last night with my gel and Micron pens. I drew 12 blocks for a quilted project and then started out on this drawing. It shows little rabbits climbing up the tree to sit in the moon. There is also a deer, owl, bird and dragon monster in the drawing. I call this place the 'Golden Woods' where my little mythological creatures play, and it shows up often. This drawing also has lots of the 'nonsense' gears and attachments that often appear in my drawings. I love getting back into making the textures like the ones under the deer's feet and up the tree.

Books: I'm reading 'Blindness' by Jose Saramago. It is very different than most of the things I have read. The author uses generic descriptions for all the people like 'doctors wife' and 'taxi driver.' There is a large lack of visual descriptions because everyeone is supposed to be blind, except the doctor's wife. The things she is described as seeing have more impact because she is the only one seeing them - especially the descriptions of the thief's gangrenous wound etc... There is also a dream-like feel to the book and the author's has a formal British accent which adds (for me) to the feeling I am truly looking into another world.

Original Ink Drawings

I got a new set of Micron pens a few weeks ago and just really put them to the test last night with a few ink drawings. Here is what I came up with, some like my old style, some like my current style and one that looks like Picasso came and tried to ghostwrite Guernica through me ;) heh

Once again, all of these drawings are created by scribbling a few random marks on the paper and trying to figure out what I see by connecting the lines. They are all listed at Pen Strokes.


I call this style a new Art Nouveau
It looks somewhat like my old style



Picasso-like.


close-up - 5 colors of ink and lots of sketchy stuff
I called this one 'I Fell in Love with a Birdman' - even though it doesn't really say much about me and Mark in particular or that he is actually a Birdman... although he does have a sharp profile *grin*... Sometimes though the name just hits you out of the blue even when it doesn't make perfect sense.


Blue Rabbit, Brown Bird
This woman is singing about all the creatures and they are singing with her

As you can see with all three of these I draw women in bird masks a lot - maybe you could call the bird AND the rabbit avatars of a sort... they show different sides of my personality and I use them in the pictures to try to tell a story about where I am going and what I am doing.

Artwork: Automatic drawings

Phoenix

These drawings start with a few ink dashes put down on paper to the rhythym of a song. Then I slowly fill in the areas that look like something to me, until there is a full image and no dashes left over (hopefully). This is a style I have been working on for well over ten years. Usually animals, people and plants show up, but also some symbols that have come to have meaning for me.

We are currently gathering and posting these drawings at Pen Strokes etsy shop.


Rabbit Dancer Woman

New Drawings

Bird mask with many faces
I did a few drawings today after I got home. Some are selling out of our art shop.

Thanks everyone for the messages of encouragement. A good hot bath does help every night to soothe the muscles ;) It's like dancing 8 hours a day while carrying things around in a small space... But I have only one more temp work shift on Sunday, then I'm off because I may have an interview. The manager at this place was really nice today when I explained I couldn't stay on longer -- she offered for me to come back and work again if I'm not hired elsewhere. The interview would be at a big supplies store like the one I used to work at in Fargo. I really miss showing people where to find things to help them do their projects. Doesn't that sound weird?

Family Protectors/Protections (artwork)

drawn at 2 am Saturday, November 10th, 2007
'Family Protectors/Protections' original artwork by Marie Lamb

Note: deer mask on figure, deer is the protector of family and family relations

Fish Dreams

I've always had 'fish dreams' - where the fish are dying, or the water is running out etc... and I can't do anything about it. They always upset me, and in college I had a good friend finally analyze them (she later got a PhD in psychology). She suggested the fish were my hopes for the future - and that the dreams were a sign I was feeling a loss of control and inability to protect those hopes from outside forces. Eriu hit that nail on the head, in my opinion.

I don't get the fish dreams as much anymore, but I still look hard at them when they do appear. I'll always remember a beautiful fish dream, the first where they weren't in danger, and didn't die - and that was after I had made my decision to come here with Mark. Tanks covering an entire room, full of beautiful goldfish, and he was standing there talking to my stepfather. Neither of them knew each other yet, and that dream made a very powerful image. Someday, I'd like to put that image into a painting.

Last night I dreamt Mark and I were moving fish from one tank to another - but the second tank had carnivorous fish in it, and they wouldn't be safe there. We were talking about setting up a third tank (we have been, in real life, as well - it's on the porch), but it wasn't set up yet and we already had four fish that really did need to come out of the first tank. I ended up putting them in a small jar while we kept talking about what would be a better place for them. Again though, they didn't die - they were just in a holding area, waiting to see what we would do with them.


'Expansion of the Universe' (birth of a child)
artwork Oct 21, 2007 11 pm
I hadn't done one of my random-line drawings in a while now, and last night seemed like the time. Some of you might find the above drawing a little explicit - but hopefully not, as the symbols are pretty obscure and hard to distinguish from one another in general. To me it's explicit - but in a good way. It talks about our baby being born soon, and about the growth, life and responsibility coming from that event.

Pogo pictures and a surprise from Mrs.Pao!

DeeDee is doing well with her eight babies. They don't have their eyes open yet but seeing all the pink paws wave in the air is very cute.

Pogo was trying to get away from Bunny puppy this morning and fell asleep in the magazine rack again - she barely fits now!

I've been doing some more painting and listing some more of my art on Ebay


Mark keeps both hands busy with Kelba and Pogo

Pogo: 'Ear Rub! Ahhh....'

'Fox Makes medicine' ACEO card

What a wonderful surprise was waiting for us at the post office today!
Thank you so much Mrs.Pao! I was very confused by the 'New York' address and wasn't sure I was reading the 'from' address right until I opened up the card ;) It's all so CUTE!


Click picture to enlarge - cute onesies!


Equally cute sleepers and a baby shawl

Lots of bunnies and bears and stripes, how cute is that? Thank you from both of us! (well, all three actually)

Happy Fourth of July!

We have Fireworks! (they are legal in Tennessee, but are not in Minnesota)

Yesterday was a long day, we went to the flea market in the morning, a town trip in the afternoon and at about 8:00pm we decided to go to the Transformers movie in Murray, KY with a stop at the fireworks store while we were up there.

Tranformers was extremely fast visually, hard to see things because they were moving so fast. It was like a video game, with everything going on all over the screen at once very fast and hard to track it all. Plot-wise it wasn't too bad, but it was funny to see Ebay used as a plot device ;)


Our Pogo-face
When we were at the flea market we saw a kitten that could have been Pogo's twin. She was very small and scared of dogs, though. I'm sure Pogo is glad we left her there for someone else to adopt.


Cotton Shirting Fabrics
I also picked up some men's cotton dress shirts from one of the flea market booths. At 25 to 50 cents apiece I don't mind using them for fabric - they'll be great for toys!

Wishing you all a happy and safe Fourth of July!

'Magical Lights and Messages' 07/04/2007