IN PROGRESS...

I've been working on this big crocodile drawing and I'm really happy with how it's turning out. I just hope I can keep up the good work through the painting stage and do the drawing justice!

sketchbooking

One of my goals lately has been to do more drawing, so here are some tid bits from my sketchbook:

a school of fish \\

// ouroboros

process from this class assignment \\

// I had a crocodile dream....

...and now I can't get them off my mind! \\

// Sometimes I try to explain the ups and downs of life with a graph.

PMA!! \\

horse on driftwood

This has been sitting around my apartment for the past several weeks. Driftwood + wood cutting tools + pen + watercolors. Not sure if I should consider it a work in progress, leave it as is, or move on. It began as an impulsive act; I rifled through some of my old stuff, found a drawing I liked, slapped it on that driftwood and attacked it with my little used wood carving tools. The process was very enjoyable, but I'm still not sure how I feel about what's there (or not there).

works in progress

Still not finding the time I want to. Wondering what or how things need to change. I'm passing up blog posts and putting off projects. Doesn't quite feel like my life, or at least not my life as I like it. Feeling stuck in a holding pattern. No bueno! Bu hao!

But the sky is so pretty today. And Johnnie is sick so we're having a Twin Peaks marathon. S'not all bad. Not even close.

indecision

This young woman is so beautiful. She started out months ago stuck in my journal but I quickly realized it'd be a crime to keep her hidden between pages, so I peeled her up and set out to make her a new home. She suffered a little damage but remains intact, yet lately I find myself dissatisfied with her current environment (I don't think it does her beauty justice) and am considering peeling her up again.

/////\\\\\/////\\\\\/////

My ability to make confident decisions feels like it has been all but lost lately. Purgatory... limbo... that is my current realm! I'm putting things off, waiting until the absolute last second to make up my mind, or regretting my actions soon after. I got pretty down on myself thinking I was making a string of bad decisions, but then wondered: "Is this one of those times when all my choices feel shitty simply because the outcomes I have to choose from are considerably less favorable than I want them to be? Is it just a challenging time?" Yes. It is. I've got a heartbreak-unemployment-seasonal depression trifecta happening!

It was actually a rather comforting realization and has allowed me more realistic expectations. I have limits and one good choice won't magic me out of this particular struggle. I just gotta endure. There's no clear and sunny path to choose because... there just isn't. It's all wet and muddy brambles for now. The choices are tough because my situation is tough, and the only thing that's gonna tenderize that toughness is time.


**After having hashed this out with myself I think maybe she should stay where she is. She's a nice little metaphor, a sort of microcosm in my macrocosm, and a reminder of what can be learned during challenging times.

hex blanket stage one

Every fall my nesting and hibernation instincts kick in and I get the urge to make myself blankets. Makes sense, right? I got started at the first sign of such an urge this year and am mid-way through knitting a hexagon lap blanket. I'm using a big chunky 100% wool Burly Spun yarn from the Brown Sheep Company (thanks mom + nan!) in hand dyed "strawberry fields" and "forest floor." Red and green are my favorite pair of complimentary colors, though these yarns are so much more than just red and green. 

I found a really sweet pattern for knit hexagons at Cotton and Cloud. It's simple and clever and really quite easy to knit once I got the hang of the double pointed needles. The hexagons actually knit up circular and are then blocked into hexagon shape. I love-love-love this method, I found many-many patterns for knit hexagons while researching this project and this one made the absolute most sense to me and I think looks the sharpest. 

(Look at the range of colors on that left hand needle! Gorgeous!)

I've sort of been designing the blanket as I go, I started knitting the circle/hexagon pieces before I knew where I was going with them several weeks ago (actually I started a few last fall but never followed through). I figured out the pattern and layout for the whole blanket last week and just finished knitting all the pieces I'll need for it within the past few days. Next step is to turn all the circles into hexagons by blocking them, something I've never done before! I read up on a few different methods so hopefully one will work well and make the process relatively painless.

I haven't figured out how I'll put all the hexagons together once they're blocked... sewing? crochet? What yarn will I use? a contrasting color? maybe cream? If you've got a recommendation I'd love to hear it!

in progress :: crystal portraits

I've been working on my miniature linocut crystal portraits again and I think I totally nailed it on the amethyst!

I am so happy with the way these came out, even better than I hoped and definitely better than I expected. (They're only two and a half inches square!) Before I started the amethyst prints I had completed a run of Tibetan clear quartz, but now seeing the quality of the amethyst I'm going to re-carve and print them.

Each print in this series (a third stone is coming, tangerine quartz!) will be printed with two blocks, one for the shape and one for the outline. I've already carved down the outlines on the Tibetan quartz so the line weight is thinner and I'll reprint it in black, the shape will stay white but maybe with a little pop of yellow somewhere. Lining up the registration on the amethyst prints was fairly easy because I made sure the carved images on both of the blocks were positioned identically, unfortunately I didn't make sure of this on the Tibetan quartz blocks and the images are positioned at slightly different angles making proper registration much more difficult. Hopefully I can find a way to compensate for this with out having to carve one of the blocks again. I've posted this image before, but here are some of the drawings that started these portraits.

August?

I've been very much in the mood for doing and being over showing and telling lately, hence the deserted blog. Sorry! I'm going to attempt to catch us all up here, but I have to say, sometimes it feels really good to forget about all this internet business. Anyway, I haven't posted anything since July and now it's September, and in between it was August - month of endless funtimes and also my birthday month! You can see why I might be preoccupied. Besides, it's summer - who isn't preoccupied?

First thing I have for you are pics from my birthday camping trip to the Wilson River. Johnnie and I met Mike and Kari there for some free camping and splendid swimming. Kari fished while Mike and Johnnie constructed a bow and arrow from river sticks and fishing line (it actually worked!). I observed and failed to thoroughly document. Birthday girl's privilege. We stayed one night during which it rained, and so we constructed an impromptu shelter from one 5' x 7' tarp, two lengths of twine, one tie-down and a bungee net. Well done us! We then proceeded to feast under it like true camping champs.

Earlier in the month I finished watching Battlestar Galactica, reading The Return of the King, and got a new ID - all in the same day! Mundane events, yes - but together like that it really felt like the beginning of a new age. Here's the cover of ROTK to complete the set:

This cover lets us know that in this, the final chapter of the saga, shit's really gonna hit the fan. Raging volcano, BEASTS, banners and more BEASTS?? Methinks perhaps a war is on. I love the scratchy texture and line work we see on all three covers, it makes me think maybe there was some scratchboard or at least scratchboard technique in the making of the illustrations. If I can manage to find more work by this mystery artist I'll definitely share it here. 

In the realm of art projects, I rode the wave of my make-ation and experimented with block printing on fabric and started on some portraits of crystals from my personal collection.

I still need to test wash the horse patches to see if my inks will set properly on fabric. The crystal portraits I haven't been able to work on lately but I'm really excited about them. I was hyper critical of them right after I started, but since I've had a break from them I really like what I'm seeing!

I bought myself a new sketchbook as a birthday gift and it seems really huge! Like 300 pages huge! I was fretting over what sort of commitment I'd got myself into after purchasing it when I found my horoscope in The Stranger which read:

"Science writer K.C. Cole asks this question: 'How would you hold 100 tons of water in thin air with no visible means of support?' Here's her answer: 'Build a cloud.' What you have before you right now, Leo, is a comparable scenario. Your assignment is to materialize a phenomenon that from a certain viewpoint may appear to be laughably impossible. And yet, with the proper attitude on your part and nature's help, the project at hand is eminently achievable. It won't necessarily be fast and easy, mind you - but you wouldn't want it to be, because then it wouldn't be able to teach you all the precious wisdom it has to impart."

Quite applicable to small specific goals, like my sketchbook, and to larger more abstract endeavors!

Hmm, what else? More recently I went blackberry picking with my friend Elliot --

YUM -- and in a failed attempt at fostering, adopted this troublesome troublemaker, Miss Ralphie Starbuck.

More on her later, when she calms down a bit.

I still need to photograph and list much of what I accomplished during my make-ation, I also have supplies and packaging to find and purchase, but I'm still very much in the mood for art projects pure and simple and experimenting with new inspirations and ideas. Maybe as fall begins to roll in I'll catch the spirit of the new season and begin tying up loose ends and preparing my stores for winter. We'll see!

make-ation

I was supposed to be camping on the Oregon Coast this week but when I got started on a couple projects this weekend I just couldn't stop... so I stayed! Call me crazy, but I think it's the best decision I've made for myself lately. I'm having a great time, look at the mess I've made:

All that productivity means new goods to be listed soon, that is if a little Battlestar Galactica doesn't get in the way. After recommendations from several good pals I dove in, and guess what? It's awesome! I think I'm going to sacrifice the next couple hours to finishing up the first season, and then I'll get back to work... probably. Stay tuned!

disappointment?

Neither of these paintings turned out as I hoped they would, but combined -- boy.... they sure are somethin else....

dry {enough}

I printed the covers for my zine almost two weeks ago and they weren't dry enough to fold until today, and I still got a lil ink on my fingers! It could be because I used super lovely, but non-porous, hand-painted wallpaper for the stock -- or because maybe I added a little too much crisco to my ink. :/

Either way, I prolly shoulda used that drying time to print and trim the pages of the zine, buuuuuut I didn't! Maybe I'll do that today. Or maybe I'll celebrate this long awaited sunshine with a lil tequila.

it's different everyday

I'm adrift today. No motion, no momentum. At least the sky is pretty.

draft

Today I completed a little comp of my China zine.

I ended up doing the imposition by hand due to a lack of Adobe programs and it went surprisingly well. Also, I discovered my printer lines up double-sided prints like a champ - well done little guy! The cover sheet is some rad old hand-painted wallpaper. I love it! I'm planning on block printing the covers, so after some simple content editing I'll be drawing, carving and printing those.