diary with "stuff"

a chronicle of several days using just the stuff that normally ends up in the trash. (Conveniently, most of the trash worked into a nice color scheme.)

dodo II

The trouble with, or fun of a cut out page (depending on your mood), is turning the page to the same subject the next day. This one was fun.

dodo

somehow today I ended up with an image of a large, flightless, extinct bird for brains........not much I can add to that.

variations on a theme

the theme being strawberries. The little sketch of three berries seemed a bit lonely on the page so I added a few variations.

gourds

I needed a card and pulled out this lino cut of ...gourds? pumpkins? something in a bowl! I find printing with water based inks really unsatisfying--the texture is sticky and the finished prints are not permanent, which is not good for any collage or paint additions. But I don't want the clean up and mess of oil based inks at home......c'est la vie.

sam

I felt like painting a person today, but there weren't any available--so I grabbed a nearby photo. It is an old one of my son Sam, he must be eight or nine.

just say no

In our paper this morning there was an article about the man who screens all the mail that comes for President Obama. He chooses just 10 per day of the thousands they receive to give to the President. One example they gave of a letter he chose was from a man whose father had died of lung cancer urging Obama to quit smoking. I found this package on the road this morning, so in honor of earth day (picking up the litter) and the President (quit!) here is today's "art".

inspiration

At the journal collective last night there was a visiting artist in town for a workshop. He sat in the back during the meeting working away at his journal--which was a spiral bound notebook thick with collage and paint. Every page was covered with artwork, ephemera, fold outs, windows to the next page. It was so fun to look at and reminded me, yet again, to loosen up, have some fun, put down what I like and get away from the "precious" pages. So that is what I did!

urban landscape

I attended a meeting of a journaling group tonight to hear a speaker about doing landscapes. Her advice could be summed up with one word: Simplify. After her talk we had a little time to do a landscape--made a little tougher since we were downtown. I tried to keep her simplify advice in mind on this urban collage.

k.i.s.s.

keep it simple, stupid. I am always drawn to art that is simple, in its forms, colors, shapes. I love Australian Aboriginal art, folkart, children's art, native art. But simplicity in art is deceptive. It may look simple, but I find it the hardest kind of art to do. When you are reducing your subject to its most basic elements you have to get those right! Its difficult to shut down that left brain reminding you of all the rules and pointing out every leaf on the tree. So, if you look at this painting and think "my 5 year old could do that", I will take that as a compliment!

still green

am I in a bit of a color rut?

yellow flowers

My sister sent a photo from a trip we took recently of beautiful, vining yellow flowers in full bloom. (I don't know what they are). I used it as the inspiration for a reduction lino cut. It has a Victorian feel to me.

green!

Today's warm sun (finally)gave me hope that green can't be far behind.

sketchcrawl 2009

On Saturday I joined a group of fellow journal keepers/sketchers/artist for the Twin Cities contribution to Sketchcrawl. It is an international event that takes place a couple times a year. People all over the world go out on a specific day and sketch! Our group met at the Como Zoo and Conservatory. It was a gorgeous day and alot of fun to sketch animals or people or plants or whatever caught our attention. I'm tardy in posting these, but was too tired on Saturday, and took Sunday as a day of rest!

jelly beans

No children in the house for Easter this year, and still there is a bag of jelly beans!

new pens, old pears

A test run on a new set of pens, the "landscape collection". Its going to be a few more weeks before those greens and blues really come into play in the landscape around here, so I tried them out on a couple of pears that are nearing the over-ripe stage. Nice colors, either way.

daffodils

When you live in a climate where April and spring are not necessarily synonymous, you have to find coping mechanisms. Daffodils are one of the best ones I know.

there is no try, there is only do

I put this theory to the test tonight. I was busy all day and never got a chance to get any thing down on paper. I was determined to do a journal page but trying too hard just doesn't work. This particular page is so thick with painted and collaged-over layers it could stand on its own. Finally, this little cat showed up on the page and I'm calling it quits. I haven't decided if the moral of the story is "never give up" or "don't force it when its not working".

doodling

The equivalent of drawing on an envelope while on the phone, only in paint. I just pulled out some colors and started painting. With a nod to Kandinsky.

near miss

I splurged last week on a bunch of pink tulips, and each day intended to sketch them. And it just didn't happen until finally yesterday I noticed that the petals were dropping. I grabbed pastels and did a quick and loose sketch before it was too late.

thinking of women in hats

I didn't intend to neglect my daily posting, but it happens. I haven't neglected the work, just don't have it in a form to post here yet. So, I'm posting an image of a painting I did for the Minnesota Watercolor Society spring show. The opening was Thursday night and my piece won an Honorable Mention award. The title is "Thinking of Women in Hats" which, in fact, I was and was planning to do a painting of one, but this is what appeared instead.

April Fool

I started out to do something spring-like for the first of April but all that came to mind was April Fool. Maybe the two inches of new snow on the ground was clouding my perception! I did a few sketches and then a lino cut of my little fool.