no time like now

sooooo how long has it been now?   well anyway, I finished the semester.  I totally loved personal mythology class, especially with a great breakthrough on the final.  I even learned to like the painting IA class.  I'll have to take some photos of those paintings.... BUT I can post my stuff from my myth final.

I enjoyed setting up the photo for death/life/time (the third one) (a good use of my art direction skills).  it was also fun (though sometimes embarrassing) to jump in the air in front of the byzantine chapel (the fifth one).

I also recently went to my hometown, and visited my mom's grave.

 
this one isn't a collage like the others, but I like the continuation of the 'art direction'.  I took other photos that I will collage later/soon.


these are breakthroughs because during class I was focusing on characters I created, (a sasquatch, a wizard, a familiar, and a creature) and it was VERY difficult to relate myth THROUGH them, as opposed to just using them IN a myth.  that sounds easier than it was.  but whatevs.  this works MUCH better.

I'll post pics of paintings later.

new semester -- fall 2010

into my third week of fall semester.  beginning painting I (of II), and personal mythology.  I'll give you a guess on which is my favourite.

really love my mythos class.  I'm focusing on my family.  ...which really means me.  ;^p

BUT I used it as an excuse to sign up on ancestry.com... love it.  I've easily spent over fifteen hours on it in the last two or three days.   found a line to king arthur!  (through campbell, starting with my great⁷ grandmother ...though there are some discrepancies.)

anyway, I'm attempting to mythologize my family.  my dad's a twin.  my mom died when I was youngish.    time, memory, legacy, and identity are interesting & important issues to me.

it also relates to my "I'm in an existential crises, why aren't you?" joke.  which also involves evolution  ...as a species, as a planet, as a[n(?)] universe, and as a family on a macro & micro scale.  everything seems against you in terms of the probability of your existence, yet you're alive.

SO I'm trying to tie that into some kind of a narrative based on my family.   or something.

but I need to do some physical art.

it's just been theory and research so far.  I'm also reading books on iconology, subpersonalities, and incest.

also a memoir.



as for painting I:  I'm painting a still life in four monochromatic scales.  before that, we did ten small quick black&white studies of single objects.

I need to get more ultramarine blue.  and flo-aid.

the starkest difficulty is in learning to paint in an impressionist oil-painting kind of way.  holding the brush at length, lots of paint, quick strokes.  I'm used to a watercolourish method.  still fast and gestural, but less paint. though that is kind of an issue of mine..... conserving/hoarding/rationing.  at least it was in the past, I've gotten better with it.
...in art, and life.

fear is nobody's friend for long.

(though I think part of my preference for watercolour, and less paint, can also be tied to my appreciation of minute details in the mixtures & textures of colour & line.  but that's me focusing on small things. zooming in. and that relates to my interest in 'found compositions' and depth perception. (primarily with photography))

BUT ANYWAY..... I need to make sure my mannerisms don't become academicized.    <--though that's a fear of influence.  hmph.



oh, and I got a B & B+ in drawing & design, respectively.   though I feel my quality decreased over time.  at least in terms of input energy.   and that's another issue.

yay art.

day 6 (before classes): a homework & an activity...

ugh. tired.

partial homework

desk

drew and drew

me

more art (not-for-school)

...and my dad got married the weekend before last.

her name is betty.  she's a nurse.  they live in pearland.

they're very happy.

as am I.

day 1: SUPER tired.

home again, home again, jiggity jig.

classes were fine. just overview. normal first day stuff. I apparently don't have many art supplies for 'drawing'. some design homework for wednesday---20 thumbnail-sized, close-up 'line drawings' from observation-not imagination.

ANYWAY, summerfest was yesterday AND the day before (Girltalk was best!)... and I have to go to work overnight in a few hours... I'm so very tired... and drew keeps threatening to eat my shoes unless I take him for a w-a-l-k. siiiiiiigh, brb. ...okay, I'm back. it's humid and grey out.

so it's 4 o-clock... I could take a two-and-a-half-hour nap. ...but I'll have to set every alarm in my conapt just to make sure I wake up (there are 3). at least I can do my homework tonight at work. tomorrow I'll check my supplies, and get new things I 'need'. AND tomorrow evening is the el rincon social crit class!

okay, I'm gonna nap.

ps - complete fail on finishing ANY of my 3 paintings. LAME. I'll have to make a post about motivation & procrastination soon. ha.

completed paintings + studio & hood + new illustrations

Stuff I already finished this year, plus some compositions of my place and neighborhood, and some brand new drawings.  yay art.

...and I totally have not painted at all these past few days. so, 3 paintings in 8 days? DOABLE!

Goal: 3 paintings in 12 days.

Classes start in twelve days.  I want to finish the last three of my recent paintings.

...and after one session...

...so yeah.  yay art.

It doesn't look like much, but it's a step.  There's more grey & brown (payne's gray+titanium+cad red light) on the flower & the forest.  And I shaped up the the ny skyline w/ grey+cerulean+prussian blue+gold yellow... used two different brushes too (a cut round & a filbert).

Yay Glassell

I signed up for Drawing Fundamentals & 2D Design @ the Glassell... !!!!!  yay art, yay artist.  step 1 complete.
                   ...classes start June 7th.   4 weeks away.


I've also signed up for the criticism class at El Rincon Social... !!!!!  yay julia/tessa/patrick!

                    ...and THAT starts on the 8th.



I'm excited to FINALLY start moving forward with my art into a public sphere.  I've been drawing and painting off and on since I started college (ten years ago!), and it'll be nice to get some peer review AND physical classes.  I haven't been in a classroom environment for art in... seven years?  I just can't seem to stay motivated unless I have a big pressure... a deadline... so, yay school.  yay pressure.

the two classes cost 840$...
the crit class cost 100$...
(we'll see which one pays off more)


One of the ulterior motives of taking these courses, is to get into the Glassell's CORE artist residency program.  But I need to take the paintings classes... to evolve as an artist and painter and stuff... duh.

Montrose Adventure Theory

The Montrose Adventure Theory Club
Artists discussing Art.

MAT#1: figuring out why you DON’T like something is at least as important as figuring out why you DO like something.

Let's take cartoons... we all like 'em, but what I don't like is straight-to-dvd animated movies. The production values are inferior, of course, but what specific production values make it bad? The lack of movement fluidity, the limited colour palette, the lack of well integrated background art, poor sound design, bad dialogue...

This can be applied to Soap Operas as well. What's makes them so bad? The overhead lighting, the lack of camera movement (only zooms), poor sound design, bad dialogue...

Now what about the sound design, for instance... why is it bad? how can it be better? is it technology, or time/effort that truly makes it better? how can we incorporate these ideas for better quality in our own work?

This are the kind of questions we should be asking ourselves and other artists. with real and honest and helpful answers. and don't be afraid to not know something, to not have "an opinion" on something... but be honest about not knowing! and always, always be willing to find out the answers.

Let the adventure begin!