Friday, October 23, 2009

Sketchbook Dilemna

The sketchbook from Art House arrives.

A blank front cover, awaiting something creative.


The inside cover, complete with pocket for people to check the book out (at least I think that's why). Note blank first page.


Blank inside pages. There are a lot of them.


Inside back cover. See, I get my very own bar code. That's a first for me. Very thrilling. Note the theme above the bar code: Over the top. This is what I need to get creative about.


I love sketchbooks. In fact, I'd have to say that I'm a sucker for sketchbooks. I buy them whenever I see one that beckons to me. I admit, while I love the idea of journaling, daily drawing, filling the sketchbook with wonderful ideas, I usually fill a few pages of my new acquisition and then put it down, never to be picked up again. Eventually it gets shelved with all the other virtually empty sketchbooks.

So when I heard about Art House's Sketchbook Project http://arthousecoop.com/projects/sketchbookproject I just couldn't resist. This company is doing a lot of fascinating stuff. To get involved, first you sign up and fork over $18. Shortly, in the mail, you receive a Moleskine blank sketchbook. You are assigned a theme, and given a deadline in which to fill the sketchbook with something creative relating to the theme. Once it's filled full of fabulous whatevers, it's mailed back to the Art House, where it (along with hundreds of others) travels to a series of galleries and then is housed in the Art House library.

Here the sketchbook looms. I've had it for a month. Thankfully the due date has been pushed forward to January 1. I'm thinking. I've had ideas. Over the top; what does that mean? Am I going to do a series of drawings or am I going to collage, cut, sew, embellish in other ways? No clue. But I need to get with the program pretty soon, because there are a lot of pages to fill.

This is supposed to be fun. It's supposed to get me to actually fill a sketchbook. Stay posted for results!

Wednesday, October 14, 2009

The Series Continues: Nooks & Crannies II


My solo show at the @Central Gallery at Burton Barr Central Library in Phoenix comes down next week. October 22 is the last day. Meanwhile, I'm continuing to work on the series. I have 3 or 4 paintings in the works, all from locations at the Phoenix Art Museum.

What you see above is a painting I just started working on. The scene is at the Tucson International Airport. I've put in several days working on this one, and it has a long way to go.



Just started this one yesterday. It's from a parking garage in downtown Phoenix.

It appears that I'm moving out of the Art Museum and into the world at large with Nooks & Crannies.

Maybe I should do a scavenger hunt for the locations of all of these paintings and give some kind of prize to the person who figures out the exact locations of all the paintings?

Monday, October 12, 2009

Doggie Disaster


The overlooked paint can.


What's left after the disaster.




Some of the evidence.



More evidence. (Breena doesn't ordinarily sport white toenails)


Introducing the culprit: Breena


Last Friday evening, we made the trip to the Tucson Art Museum for the opening of the Ansel Adams exhibit.

After some discussion, we decided to put our neurotic black lab, Breena, in my studio for safe keeping while we were gone. In she went, with her bed, water bowl, and the iPod on shuffle mode for her musical entertainment. I carefully opened the curtain on the glass door to half mast so she could look outside. I made sure everything she could destroy was put up out of her reach, or so I thought.

Off we went for a lovely evening of viewing art and dinner out.

My plan upon our return was to prepare for my teaching my community college class that was meeting the next day and in which I was totally unprepared.

Upon our arrival home at about 9:30 pm, Jim went into my studio to retrieve Breena. He called me inside.

What I saw was my beautiful, epoxy painted concrete studio floor, covered with a maze of white doggie paw prints. Over by the window was an overturned gallon of Navajo white paint. Out of the gallon of Navajo white paint had flowed, yes, nearly a gallon of Navajo white paint.

In her hysteria at being left alone while we went out on a "date", Breena managed to knock over the can of paint with enough force to dislodge the lid. She proceeded to race around my studio for who knows how long, stepping through the paint and making paint paw prints literally everywhere.

I spent the next several hours cleaning up. First I used the spilled paint to paint the door frame. That's why the bucket was there in the first place, only I'd never gotten around to doing this little chore. Then I scooped the rest of the pool of paint back into the bucket. Next I put on my trusty knee pads, and got down with a scraper, water and paper towels, and attempted to clean up the mess.

When I had scraped up all that I had energy for, I called it quits and proceeded to my desk where I spent another couple hours getting ready for class. At 1:30 pm, I crawled into bed.

So much for a fun night out on the town.

Thursday, October 1, 2009

Another Attempt at an Income Stream



Above is a box I assembled and then painted. I was doing quite a lot of this a couple years ago. It's great fun, a nice change from painting, and I thought it would be a good product to bring in some income.

As it turns out, I did sell quite a few. The downside is that I figured out I was making about 20 cents an hour. I could have made more collecting and selling empty cans!

So, I'm still making the occasional box. But mostly just for gifts. This box is headed to Philadelphia, a birthday present for my son's significant other. (Full disclosure–it was supposed to be her Christmas gift last year. Didn't complete it then. Now it's done, with a few additional actual birthday goodies hidden in the drawers of the box.)



Another view.



With the small drawers open.

Happy Birthday, Corinne.