I Had Some Dreams, They Were Clouds In My Coffee

This week brought me some good news. I'm going to be the featured artist at the Hilyard Street Beanery in May! It's a cozy, intimate space, so the fact that I tend to work small is going to be a good match for the setting.

A few days before, in my sketch book, I'd been playing with the idea of dreams and creatures who appear in them, and how our dreams at night are often rooted in our daytime lives. I want to create imagery that reflects that duality, with animals as symbols and messengers and people doing the beautiful, impossible things we dream of doing. 

With just under eight weeks to get ready, these ideas are going to become the heart of the body of work I'm going to create for my show in May. 

By the way, sometimes I love to share my sketchbook pages here. When an artist shows a piece that goes from the inception of the idea in a rough sketch to the finished piece, I love to see the process, so I want to share that. Is that something that other people enjoy too? 

Fall Collage: Nevermore

I am having a very, very good time with collage lately, playing with a limited palette of pens, watercolors, papers and stamps.

 I'm using Pitt india ink pens, and loving the really velvety dark black you get by going back over the first round of inking.

Paper for these is either blank watercolor postcard stock (I love watercolor paper) or Bristol ACEOs.

I'm digging into my backstock of vintage books that have been damaged and could use the second life. In this case, we're talking about a couple of old dictionaries and schoolbooks. Fun!

Grow, Grow...

I think I've been making real progress on my creative block lately. This ancient quote from the Talmud has been helpful:

Every blade of grass has its angel that bends over and whispers "grow, grow."

It's comforting to think that there's a part of the universe encouraging me to grow and heal and make art. It's up to me to hear those whispers and act on them. Which lately, more and more, I've been managing to do.

Kitchen Witch

Work in progress: Kitchen Witch

The girl from my sketchbook that I posted a few weeks ago formed the inspiration for this drawing. When I was a little kid, we had a kitchen witch hanging up in the window over the sink. It was this kitschy cute 70s/early 80s sort of thing, very like this one here, from this fun Etsy shop:

When I think about the old kitchen witch, I get this warm sense of childhood nostalgia, taking me back to a time when things were safe and simple and I was really innocent and nothing was complicated yet.

I decided to draw a bit of an update of the idea, without using the witchy stereotype of the old woman with the nose. 

Kitchen Witch detail

I'm pretty happy with her so far, especially with the little owl that frequently shows up in drawings. I'm also really happy with the glass jars and their zinc lids, although the pattern I used to signify the preserves didn't work out quite the way that I'd hoped. The colors make me super happy, all warm and soft and cozy. 

Girls In My Sketchbook

A Sketchbook Girl

When I feel like making a quickie little sketch, either in one of my sketchbooks or on the back of an envelope (or for years, in the margins of class notes and on homework), what usually comes out is a girl or a woman. I've never figured out why I'm so drawn to creating the various characters that show up, but from the time I was little, I've drawn people.

I've never been drawn to doing portraits or particularly realistic drawings of people. Maybe because it's only in the last ten years or so that I've understood that (a) I wanted to be an artist and (b) I could actually be an artist.

Ever since I really started to explore the work of artists that I admire and to try to figure out my own style, I've been banging into a wall. Many of my favorite artists and favorite art involve drawings, paintings, collages of women and girls. I want so badly to make art like Cori Dantini or Pam Carriker (they are both just fabulous), but I'm terrified of "copying" them. Of being unoriginal.

A few things have begun to tear down that wall. One is the idea of creating what wants to be created. Another is coming to the understanding that I really do have my own visual signature and that as long as I don't set out to directly copy someone else's work, as long as I bring my own voice to the page, it's ok to take inspiration from someone else's art.

It's my job as an artist to show up to the page, to create the work that wants to be created, and to take care of the quantity of my work, trusting that practice and Inspiration will take care of the quality. And it's ok if what wants to be created are the various smiling, wistful, or knowing faces that arrive on my sketchbook pages and elsewhere.

Local Art Exchange

Give & Take

I've been walking around my neighborhood, exploring and getting to know it a bit better. On one of my walks, I came across an art exchange wall.

The Art Exchange Wall

Someone created this art exchange on their backyard fence. It's pretty sweet! There are all kinds of chalkboard spaces, including many in easy reach of young hands. There has been an interesting variety of artwork every time I've walked by it.

A nicely-done chalk drawing

I decided to add something to the wall.

My tiny house fantasy

It's a drawing I did last year when thinking about tiny houses and natural landscapes. I made it with Copic and Pitt art pens on scrap mattboard.

My art with another great chalk drawing

I'm rather delighted to note that my drawing was gone to a new home less than 24 hours after I put it up. I put my name and blog address on the back, so if the new owner wanted to drop a comment, I'd be happy to hear from them.

I think this will probably be a monthly thing for me. It's a great way to contribute to the character of the neighborhood and keep myself both walking and creating.

Blockity Block Block Block

I have been dealing with horrendous creative block for a few months, for almost everything except for everyday design work. Lately though, I've been feeling more of an urge to draw and create again. It's like an itch.

In order to get around the creative block, I kind of have to sneak up on the act of creation. The more casual, the better. "La la la, not really drawing anything, nothing serious; move along, creative block monster, move along."

A sharpie on the back of an envelope is an excellent way to sneak something past it.

Fall Priorities, Illuminated

I've been playing with sharpies (the more ad hoc the tools and material, the easier it is to get my creativity flowing sometimes) lately and this came out while I was thinking about what I wanted to get done in the upcoming season and what was most important for my health and happiness. All of this feel really right.

Also...one hundred posts! Here's to the next hundred.

August 4th, 1892

Lizzie Borden took an axe

And gave her mother forty whacks.

When she saw what she had done

She gave her father forty-one.

Or maybe not.

A Fascinating Resource for a Perpexing Issue

I found a really interesting blog about copying/plagiarism vs. inspiration: You Thought We Wouldn't Notice. It's helping to fill in one of the gaps left in my education at PSU.

I came up through the anthropology program at U of O with a very strict outlook on plagiarism in academic writing. Basically, if they thought you were copying someone else's work, you would wind up in deep shite indeed. Even improper citation could land you in trouble. I was pretty much death on the subject of plagiarism, so in anything I wrote, I was incredibly careful to properly cite the source for any idea that was not my own.

In PSU's art department, things were very, very different. While they do not, in any way, encourage direct plagiarism, students are occasionally encouraged to "copy" for inspiration. I'm still very confused about the differences between artistic plagiarism vs. homage vs. inspiration, but reading through You Thought We Wouldn't Notice has been helpful in starting to sort things out. There are still a lot of gray areas, though.

For example, I've been looking at a lot of vintage illustrations lately for inspiration:

The image on the left is a vintage magazine cover that I used as inspiration for my drawing on the right.  Comparing the two side by side, the inspiration is obvious. However, an artist friend told me that I'd reached the "changed enough" threshold for my work to be creative, rather than completely unoriginal. Should I end up selling this drawing, I would add the information about what inspired it. And that seems to just about safely cover the ethical bases for creating a derivative work.

Nonetheless, I'm still a little worried. I'm working to develop my skills as an illustrator and further develop my own creative voice, but part of that is being deeply inspired by vintage imagery and visual conventions. I'm basically an honest person, and want to make sure I stay within the spirit of ethical boundaries, not just the letter. I had a lot of fun creating this particular drawing, and I think my own visual voice comes through. As I go along, I hope to hone my sense of where the line is, and maintain my ability to stay far to the right side of it.

(Sorry about the poor image quality, I'm hoping Santa brings me a scanner for Christmas.)

Tentacley Work in Progress

Last night, I learned that giant squid are fun, fun, fun to draw! I see many tentacles in my artistic future. So far, I'm very happy with this one, although it seems to need just a little bit more. I'm thinking an inch more border to the left and above. Squidie should still be popping out of the frame, though.

The picture really doesn't do justice to the vibrancy of the colors or the texture of the water. A small, portable scanner just went on my wish list.

Autumn Woman

Autumn Woman

Another drawing, inspired by a vintage sugar wafer advertisement. Displayed with my Holztiger wolves.

Another Sketchbook Page

I'm still obsessing with tiny houses, as you can see, which come in all shapes and sizes.

Thank You!

Yesterday was my birthday, and I received some very lovely good wishes and greetings from friends from all over. You all made my day! I want to thank you in the way I love best:

Here's to another year of fun, friends, and creativity!

Drawing Lab: 52 Creative Exercises to Make Drawing Fun

Drawing Lab for Mixed-Media Artists: 52 Creative Exercises to Make Drawing Fun (Lab Series)

I picked up an interesting book this weekend (hooray for trade credit). I've been drawing a lot lately, for fun and with the intention to hone my skills and maybe open new avenues for my career (I actually have a career! That is so exciting!).

The book is basically a series of assignments/exercises to create some structure and direction for the practice and creation of art. Why invite structure for creative activity? Pythagoras said "Limit gives form to the limitless." Even the most creative of games have some rules; even playground games of makebelieve involve making up some rules to follow.

The first exercise I took on was 34: Numbers Game. There's a list of animals and a list of objects. Without looking at the lists, you pick two numbers at random. Then see what you've chosen from the list. After that, you come up with some ideas for the drawing, choose the most interesting, and draw it.

My two picks turned out to be "bird" and "bathtub."

So much fun!

Happy October!

Pumpkins' Process

Fall weather has come to Portland with a vengeance. And by vengeance, I mean raining ridiculously. Can you tell I don't like it much? While I do like autumn, in all its sweet, mellow glory, the rain bums me out. Especially because we had about eight weeks of summer this year and no spring. But enough complaints about that (for now).

I'm excited to have "during" and "finished" pictures of a little art project to share. It's not a really big deal project or anything, only a bit of me putting pen to paper for my own pleasure.

Pumpkin sketch in progress:


Pumpkins colored in:


As I said, not a big deal, just a bit of fun that made me smile and think of the good things about fall. While I wish the picture quality was a little better, I don't wish it enough to get out my camera and set up proper lighting. I do like things that reduce the barrier to getting things done, like my laptop's camera and my phone. As I get used to the idea of not taking "perfect" pictures, you may see me post more often, ha ha.