variation on bench print

here's a variation on the last piece i posted- i printed it and then rubbed the ink around with a wet paintbrush.  i like it way more than the straight print!

dont forget to drop by the art reception at sally's tomorrow night from 6-8 if you're around.  if you need more than one reason to come, think of good cheeses, whole wheat cookies and pepper jelly over cream cheese (an andersen specialty, thanks to ians's dad!)

see you there!

linocut practice

bench and shadows

a "linocut" is a print made from a block of linoleum (i'm sure it's similar to the floor stuff, but i'm not sure how...).  the positive (white) areas are carved away and the black is whatever is left: a relief print.

this is a practice one i've been working on for the last week.  

more to come... i'm becoming addicted :)

Yesterday Silas was tired

and needed a nap (he's almost 2 years old),

so he cried and cried and would not be consoled.

Nate (his dad), took Silas out of the coffee shop we were at while we were still getting coffee and sat down in a grassy area with him across the street.

When we found them, Nate was sitting cross-legged with Silas draped over his shoulder.  The subsequent close proximity of Silas' screaming mouth to Nate's hearing meant his cries rose and rushed unhindered into his dad's ear (it amazes me how parents can do that).

Nate just sat there and held him tight and let him cry it out, so patient and quiet, even though people were staring and the volume of his cries swelled in immense emotion.

I have days like that sometimes, except instead of Nate and Silas, it's God and I.

And He'll sit and wait till I'm done, even though my overwhelmed spirit doesn't recognize the comfort He Himself is.

But soon enough, I'll find myself carried on His frame, lulled to sleep by love and tiredness,

one day closer to growing up.

when danielle came into work today

she asked, "did you see what happened?  one of your drawings sold!"

and there it was.

an envelope with a check in it from a person i didn't know.

seriously, it's the biggest honor ever to have someone buy your art who doesn't know you- who is buying it solely for the pleasure or meaning it has brought them.

this doesn't happen to me very often, so forgive my childish wonder... i'm still just so amazed and blessed!


i havent been posting any art due to being busy, but more is to come.  i'm playing around with relief printing these days, so stay tuned (that's yummy stuff, relief printing... to see some genius relief prints check out this page or this page.  these two women have made some very sublime and moving prints)

the art is hung.

well, the art is up, so come out to sally loo's to take a look-see!

only took me 6 or something hours to hang it... i had no idea it would take that long, but it was fun and satisfying to look around the room at the end and see the culmination of a few months worth of work.

i hung art, drank tea, snitched two day-old cookies and listened to iron and wine and gillian welch really loud.  afterwards ian took me out to thai classic.  hard life :)

and now that i have no show to do art for, i am boiling chestnuts, making vegetable broth and folding laundry.  susy homemaker and i are bff, for sure ;)

and just for good measure, here's a picture that we all need to see of ian getting pissed at his '65 ranchero for not starting and me taking a glam shot:

and here's us laughing about it:

i'm trying not to be shy but it's still awkward.

pen and ink.

can you relate?

sketching at the Getty

sketch from a painting called, "orpheus and eurydice" by jean raoux

ian and i went to the Getty on friday to sketch and be inspired.  we tried to sketch some busts in the wing that the impressionist paintings are in and found that due to distraction and subject matter, the drawings we were producing were CRAP.  

then we wandered into a more quiet wing of the museum and found our mental drawing "zone."

the painting i drew this picture from is huge- like 8 feet tall or something.  it was amazing.

my favorite part of a museum are always the drawings and the ones we saw at the Getty shamed every drawing i've ever done.  drawings used to be just a pit-stop on the way to a painting, so there is a raw, non-glorious element to them that attracts me.  i love thinking of the artist's hand resting on the blank edge of the page as they drew... i'm such a history nerd.

what struck me this time around, though, was the level of insane workmanship in the drawings that were mere plans and studies for paintings.  not a line or color out of place.  the drawings would have been amazing enough themselves, but then these artists went on to turn them into oil paintings.  i was challenged and inspired, for sure.

(if you've never gone to the Getty, please do.  it's free except for parking and it is a lovely museum.  the only drawback is you have to deal with LA to get there.  ian and i were  in so many near accidents this time around, it was staggering... so good luck :)

practice sketches

drew these today at sally's looking at a picture of henry ford.

i've not been drawing too much in the last week.  sometimes i get discouraged with it, which is why i chose just to do some practice sketches today.  pen and ink is such a fun challenge :)

art show!

drop by sally loo's from february 15th to march 15th and see my "by it's cover " book cover art show!

i'll have a reception for it on friday, march 4th, from 6-8.

sally loo's is at 1804 osos st, in SLO.

i'm having these postcards printed up pretty soon, so if you want one (and you're not already a friend i see a  lot) let me know!

thanks to all you guys who read deese leetle blog of mine :)

smoked paprika is good on roasted yam.

tell your friends.

i love you, matryoshka

pen and ink

light of life

last month i painted this huge piece of painters canvas for my church's christmas service.  all the words are crammed at the top because they had a table there against it with lamps on it.  i was pretty happy with how it came out and super stoked to paint for my church!  quite an honor.

painting this thing was one of those "skin of my teeth" situations though.  it was so huge i took it home and wanted to work on it outside (this canvas is bigger than the walking space in my living room! :) but it had rained and rained for a whole week.  it finally came down to a wednesday when ian and i were gonna leave that night to travel up to his mums for christmas and i still hadnt done finished it.  i drove all the way up to morro bay and finished it in one of the spare church rooms about a half hour before the church closed.  crazy!  

p.s. the font that i based the letters off of is called "texas hero"... seriously one of my favorite fonts.  you can download it for free off certain font sites in case you fall in love with it too. :)

and in case you cant read it, the verse is, "I am the Light of the world.  He who follows Me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life."  spoken by Jesus in john 8:19.  a wonderful verse that pretty much says it all.

vine charcoal, conte, acrylic

not sure how i feel about this one yet.  it's hard to put a lot of work into something only to be  marginally satisfied with it, but what can you do?  art is like that sometimes: a monster of its own.

i like the portrayal of the concept i had in my mind which was one of doing something by faith and how you may get discouraged or tired of doing it, but that doesn't mean it is for nothing or not bearing any result.

i think a lot of people i know have felt like this and have wondered whether what they are doing is fruitful or not, only to look back and realize the trail of beauty left behind them.  it's hard when you're in the moment though, for sure.

"and let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not"

galatians 6:9

storytime with ian

One time in third or fourth grade I was in the little boys room and in a moment of inspiration from the movie “Ghostbusters” a buddy and I were “crossing our streams” between the urinals.  The janitor walked in and yelled at us, and in my nervousness I spun around and accidentally peed on his foot.  He yelled, “your recess is mine!!!” 

Sure enough I spent every single recess for the next week or two in the office staring at a wall.

The end

you decide

pen and ink

drew this at sallys talking to jules.

this is from a real tree growing out of a rock up on terrace hill where (6 months ago today, actually) we got married...

only a little crazier :-o

boy and music

pen and ink, watercolor

dont have a name for this one yet.

any ideas?

path: sketchbook fun from sallys

pen and ink drawing done outside sally loo's while talking to 'ol julie-pants.  

i think the secret behind pen and ink is the secret behind learning a musical instrument: you have to love one well played note and be content with it before going on to the next, slowly developing more and more appreciation as you go (at least as i understand it).  with this medium, you have to be willing to just breathe, draw, relax and enjoy every line one at a time.

a friend recently reminded/encouraged me to be stoked about the fact that every drawing i do with and for God is worship... a sweet thought indeed.  it takes the pressure out of it and brings art back to something enjoyable, filled with liberty and worth something, even if it only has value in His eyes.

i've always wondered how all these hours i've spent doing this type of thing could ever amount to anything.  so what if i can draw this or that?  the world is a place of great need and suffering and here i am sitting in my comfy house drawing pictures like a little kid.  when it's worship though... when love of God is involved, it all starts to make more sense.  i dont know what the point of it all is, but that's alright.  that's His job as God, not mine :)

pen and ink at the cafe

this drawing is based off ian as he was sitting across from me reading.  i'm not sure the resemblance is 100%.

playing around with my favorite mantra.

i was drawing with a round nib i found in ian's art supplies (a nib i dont usually use).  very fun :)

sketching with peppermint tea and ian in the freezing cold is an excellent way to spend saturday.

ian sketch

this is a sketch of my ian when he was a boy.  it is from a picture i found while i was snooping through his mum's photo albums.  his pose is perfect... you want to go to him and let him alone to think at the same time... he is neither happy nor sad...

it's gonna make it onto a book cover, just you watch ;)

resemble

paint and pen 7"x4.5"

(click on the image for a better view)