Tuesday, February 16, 2010
Shoreline Highway 1, Bolinas, CA
The February location for the Virtual Paintout is the San Francisco Bay Area, to honor Google who made it all possible and celebrate the one year anniversary of the blog. I have to say that originally February’s location wasn’t horribly inspiring to me. I’ve never been to California before and perhaps my mental image is a bit skewed, but the first thing I think of when I imagine the state is a fiscal disaster zone. I must have seen the demon sheep ad too many times. Anyway, I was pleasantly surprised when I was looking around Google Streetview. I think I might like to visit California someday just to see all the natural beauty. I was amazed at how many green plants there were everywhere. This particular view reminds me a lot of something I might see at home (and I admit that Massachusetts doesn’t have that great of a reputation either).
Friday, February 12, 2010
Today I am feeling a bit thoughtful, so please forgive me for launching into a discussion on mind-body interactions. (But hey, you might find something useful here though.) First, about the drawing. I drew this from a photo I snapped while visiting Cape Cod this past October. I took a ton of photos of seagulls when I was there, but none of them were particularly good, partly because of all the rain. I wasn’t really too happy with this drawing at the time and I just found it while organizing my scans on my computer. But it wasn’t so horrible to leave it unseen, so I thought I’d show all of you.
For the past two days, I’ve been babying and pampering my arm, but it has still been bothering me. I think a small part of me was thinking that I’m having a physical problem like radial nerve entrapment or something scary like that. I have been paying attention though, and the pain always gets better when I am doing something or talking to someone that is making me feel happy and relaxed, which is classic TMS. This morning I decided that I was going to try to do things even if they were simple because I was sick of wasting time all day. I can say that even though my arm isn’t all better, it isn’t horribly worse either, and it feels good to be active.
The books on the subject say that if one is having a relapse of TMS, there must be some sort of very powerful suppressed emotions in the subconscious and you have to go to a psychotherapist to get over it. Something in me rejected that because 1) I am not a fan of Freud and 2) I never suffered anything really bad like childhood abuse to lead to such horrible repressed emotions. I have had quite a nice life actually.
I have begun to think that it is more important to take care of emotions as they arise as more of a maintenance program to keep myself pain free. Two years ago, I realized that my pain was caused by negative emotions and the pain went away, but I mistakenly thought that I would never have a problem again. I didn’t realize that the same problem would crop up if I didn’t change my ways. Now, two years later, I have allowed all sorts of tension to build up in me again and I am in the same position as I was before. Now I am looking for ways that I can take care of myself in such a way that this doesn’t become an ongoing problem.
I’ve been taking it easy for the past week or so because I’ve had a case of TMS crop up. After two years of being mostly pain free, it’s come up again, because I’ve been doing a poor job of handling my stress. This time it’s affecting my right elbow and every time I grip a pen to draw I feel my tendon start to hurt. The key to TMS is to “think psychological” and not focus on the physical body, and over the past two days it has gotten a lot better. I will let you know when it is completely gone again. I’m already excited about getting back to drawing!
A note on the image: This is a small drawing (5 x 7) I made of Lake Eden in Vermont using a black PITT pen and watersoluble colored pencil on bristol board. I visted with some family there over the summer. Some other drawings I made can be seen here.
Thursday, January 28, 2010
I recently got an email from someone who said they really admired my detailed pen and ink artwork “that looks like teeny tiny dots.” Then I remembered that I had this drawing that I did a few months ago but haven’t posted yet. These are leaves that I collected in my driveway last fall and took inside to draw. I spent about a week on and off working on all the leaves and then coloring them in with colored pencil. This drawing features lots of dots lining all the veins in the leaves and it was a bit of an experiment for me.
I think every year I end up making some sort of fall leaf piece. Here is a link for a small painting I did in 2008.
On Thursday, I got home from work and I had an envelope from Michael Nobbs waiting for me. My whole address was written out in his characteristic block lettering and it was such a treat after a long and yucky day. I ordered the first three issues of his zine The Beany. He has just come out with issue #4, which will be in color and will be available shortly.
The next morning, I felt inspired and made a sketch first thing after I woke up. The whole day felt very productive for me after that.
I drew this for the January Virtual Paintout. The location this month is Corsica and I had a lot of fun finding the scene I wanted and carrying it out. This drawing is not in my usual style at all. I drew it with pen and then filled it in with colored pencil. I felt like I was coloring in a coloring book and now that I’m finished, it reminds me a bit like something that Tommy Kane would have done. I can’t wait until next month and I think I will try some other form of experimentation with that piece.
I’ve been making New Year’s resolutions for a long time now and never really lived up to them. This year I feel that for the first time I might actually be able to accomplish some of my goals. I’ve arranged to be home on Fridays now, so that I can spend more time on art. My idea is not to use it as an extra day off, but a working day, so to speak. Most often, my excuse has been that I was too tired when I got home to take up a big project, and I ended up not making much progress. I’m thinking that I will take myself more seriously in any case, which will be a positive thing.
I’ve also been thinking about my system of working, which is to start something and then finish it completely before beginning something else. It’s odd because I really don’t do much else in life this way. Even when I was in school, I used to skip around to random questions when taking exams for instance. I think that a better way to work might be to have different projects going on at once, all at different stages of completion, so that I can skip around a little more. I remember Robert Genn wrote about this at one point in one of his twice weekly letters. He said that at the end of the day, you should stop at an easy point in the work, so that you can begin the next day with a sense of momentum from the onset. I’m thinking of trying something like this and I’ll let you know how it goes.
I’ve been working on my submission for the January Virtual Paintout, which is a challenge where there is a certain location declared every month and then everyone makes artworks based on a scene that they find in Google Street View. This month’s location is Corsica and I’m having fun with it. I might actually go back and do the other month’s challenges even though they have ended.
Lately I’ve had a hard time finding motivation and have been putting off necessary chores and also sketching. I used to get a lot of work done after I got home from work every day, but for the past few months I have been so exhausted that I have been spending all evening recouping and mentally preparing myself for the next day. I think it might be because it is winter because I felt like I had a lot more energy in the summertime.
For the past few days I have been trying out the Twenty Minute Trick that Michael Nobbs talked about in one of his “micro-podcasts.” It has been very helpful for me when doing boring things like picking up my laundry and unloading the dishwasher. I have yet to try it for sketching but I’m planning to attempt that today.
About the image: I sketched this from a photo that Chris snapped of me while I was lounging in bed and talking on my phone. Although it is a horribly unflattering angle, it was great practice in foreshortening.
Saturday, January 2, 2010
Stone Window, pen and ink and colored pencil (7 x 5), 2009
When I was eighteen I visited Germany with my family. When we were taking a tour of a vineyard in Bad Dürkheim, I snapped a photo of this window and thought it would make a nice drawing. I never got around to making that drawing when I got home though, and I eventually I forgot all about it. My mother was recently cleaning out the house and she found the photo and requested that I finally make that drawing.
I did finally got around to making it – almost ten years later! I gave it to my parents for Christmas this year. Here is a photo that Chris took of me drawing it a few weeks ago:
The other day I got a text message from my dad saying that he was studying it under a magnifying glass. Yesterday I got a phone call from my mother saying that she and my dad were arguing over which one of them I made it for and I had to explain that I meant it for both of them – for the house, so to speak. I gave it to my dad to open, but I wrote “To Mom AND Dad” on the tag!
Wednesday, December 30, 2009
This is the Connecticut River as seen from the
French King Bridge, in Franklin County Massachusetts.
Of all the goals I set for myself in 2009, I can honestly say that I only met one of them, which was to work in a series. For me, 2009 was all about getting back on my feet and reclaiming my life after 2008, which I officially labeled The Worst Year of My Life. That said, I think 2009 was one of my most successful years EVER because I grew a lot as a person. I feel like such a completely different girl than I was just one year ago and I think my family or anyone else who really knows me well would say the same.
There are tons of things that I want to get done in 2010 and I have a mental as well as physical list of all of them. However, I know that I tend to be too ambitious when setting my goals so I am going to make things very simple for 2010. My first art goal is to Put in More Hours and my second goal is to Get Rid of Stuff (or Purge and Purify). The first goal is obvious, but the reason why I am designating Get Rid of Stuff as an art goal is because I have noticed that the clutter in my physical environment is severely hampering my art making activities. Besides the extra work of having to clear out all the junk before I even start on a project, all the clutter around me is causing an anxious emotional state in me which is mentally exhausting. If I am even moderately successful with these two goals (which I know I will be), I will be very happy come this time next year.
I hope everybody has as good of a year as I’m going to have!
