Be Delighted

"Oh my my my my, what an eager little mind!"

Auntie Mame

Monday, February 25, 2013

Extreme close-up

You know the old saying: God is in the details. And you know the old saying: The Devil is in the details. It depends on the day. It depends on the deadline, on the level of patience, on the moments of Zen, on the weather, on the project, on the level of ADD, on the caffeine.
Usually I'm a big picture person. I see the forest, the wholeness of treeness, the ocean of waveness, our tiny atom of a planet in the cosmos, but sometimes the macro is too much and the micro assures me that every Who down in Whoville is unique and cared for.
That's just a totally misleading build up to the fact that I'm posting little pieces of bigger projects today. I am reveling in the details because every stitch has its place in the whole.
 This lotus below took me a LONG time. At first I cut around the linen square I had embroidered it on and sewed it on a skirt, then I stopped wearing the skirt so now I am integrating it into a larger wall hanging. Whenever I have done this kind of intensive handwork I usually look at it a few years later and wonder who the crazy person was that had that much patience. But then those ladies who did the Bayeux Tapestry are mocking me from their graves.




Eventually the big pictures of these projects will reveal themselves. Eventually.

Friday, February 15, 2013

Still life in the ol' Still Life

When I was little I thought still lifes were boring. My drawings were full of people in action, often riding horses or climbing trees, and sometimes fleeing from villains in grand adventures. My teen drawings were full of angsty sad faces looking poetic and mysterious as they gazed into a dreamy distance. Later in college, I still thought still lifes were boring in art classes when the teacher would pile some random objects on a table and have us draw them. Over and over. From all angles. Again and again. I understand why, of course. It was the equivalent of eating your vegetables before you get dessert. It was good for you. It taught you to look closely at shapes, at shadow and light, at form defined by light, at textures, at perspective and scale and all those other aspects of design important to an artist. So I've surprised myself lately by giving myself a painting-a-day project just to stay in practice, to stay loose and flexible, to turn off my analytical, judging brain and just play. And Voila! Most of my splashing and doodling has turned into still lifes.(Media: acrylic paint, acrylic ink, brush pen and India ink, and a section of a Lego castle floor brushed with paint to print some fun dot patterns.)
Most of the examples below were done from my head, no actual still life models in sight. Although I did bring in a lemon to look at. I do like lemons. And I am sorry the lemons are sideways. I have tried every technique to make them upright and they won't respond. The original image is upright so I don't know why my blog image uploader is fighting me.

Oh well, bombs away, lemons!

I did this little piece a number of months ago. Now it belongs to a friend in Florida who really wanted it. I love it when my art finds a good home.