- Published on
I'm pleased to announce my holiday shows this coming season. I always have my own Open Studio, which will be with Melissa Bridgman again. I love spending the weekend with her and her gorgeous pottery. (Something always stays with me when she leaves. I'll be back at Tsunami again for their nicely curated, one day, manageable sized sale that I love. And this year, for the first time, I'll be joining MAC for five weeks at Crosstown Concourse. I've never done such a long show before, and I'll be curious to see how it goes with my stock. I'm excited to do a show at Crosstown, though, and it's a neat group, so here's to new things!
- Published on
Even though I'm primarily a painter/printmaker, I listen to a lot of writing podcasts. They translate well into a verbal medium, deal with creativity, and teach me some the publishing industry as I'm working on my Mr. Darcy picture book. There's a bit of talk about "morning pages," the early morning writing you do for yourself, not part of your regular work, just to loosen up in the mornings. This week I've been doing the sketcher version of that, drawing my morning tea.
It's been a week of some drawing, but mostly fiddly computer work, as I scan in drawings and text and assemble them in photoshop as pages for my book. I've wanted to have some bit of actual creative, painterly fun in the midst of it, so this has been a good way to start my mornings lately. I'm always trying to balance the journal/blog/social media/printing and packaging time I spend against painting or carving time, so this may not be a good fit for me daily. Often I wake up with a painting just dying to push its way out, and all I want to do is dive in. Doing a daily anything can be constrictive for me creatively. But I do enjoy these meditative sketches, so I'm leaving a paint box out on the counter at my breakfast spot for now (one of many advantages to living by myself), and I'll see if I can be more mindful about sketching instead of just looking at a screen when I am having some down time at meals.
It's been a week of some drawing, but mostly fiddly computer work, as I scan in drawings and text and assemble them in photoshop as pages for my book. I've wanted to have some bit of actual creative, painterly fun in the midst of it, so this has been a good way to start my mornings lately. I'm always trying to balance the journal/blog/social media/printing and packaging time I spend against painting or carving time, so this may not be a good fit for me daily. Often I wake up with a painting just dying to push its way out, and all I want to do is dive in. Doing a daily anything can be constrictive for me creatively. But I do enjoy these meditative sketches, so I'm leaving a paint box out on the counter at my breakfast spot for now (one of many advantages to living by myself), and I'll see if I can be more mindful about sketching instead of just looking at a screen when I am having some down time at meals.
- Published on
I've been mostly DOING Inktober even though I've been bad about posting here lately. Most days I've managed one ink sketch, but the majority of my work this past week has been tons of computer work (taking my attention from scanning for other purposes) to get the Mr. Darcy Goes Home book and the related counting book ready to send out. I've got a mid November deadline to be able to submit to my dream publisher without needing an agent first, so I'm working flat out to get it ready. I'll show a couple of reject sketches from that process here, but for now, a few more Inktober sketches to show what I've been up to around the edges.
Above is the Side Street Steppers. Below is one sketch as I was stopped at a train on my way to a printmaking demonstration at Dixon (I'll be doing several more of those) plus a quick sketch waiting in line at Home Depot, buying materials to shore up my floor to receive the type cabinet (see the last blog post).
Above is the Side Street Steppers. Below is one sketch as I was stopped at a train on my way to a printmaking demonstration at Dixon (I'll be doing several more of those) plus a quick sketch waiting in line at Home Depot, buying materials to shore up my floor to receive the type cabinet (see the last blog post).
I've been still practicing people when I get the chance, so at right are a handful of sketches from lunch at the Majestic downtown. Below is one quick page during last weekend. I almost never draw at dance weekends -- my only real vacation from art, complete and total, but I did do a few on Saturday, knowing it was Inktober and trying not to flake out completely.
Plus I always enjoy drawing treats, as a way to keep enjoying them, and also remember nice days I've spent with other people. Here is one of those, just to round things out.
- Published on
My week went rather spectacularly off the rails this past week. I had seen an antique mall out in the further ‘burbs of Memphis voted as the best one in our weekly newspaper’s annual Best of Memphis, and since I happened to be driving past on an unusual errand to that part of the world, I decided to stop in. It’s enormous. The size of a Wal-Mart. And I turned one corner and saw this. I’m always watching out for type in antique shops and flea markets, but I’ve never found any in this quantity before, and the cabinet itself, with its slanted work space, is lovely. In a mad impulse, I bought it and whatever type it contained.
Sadly antique stores tend to sell off letters individually, which makes the remaining type less usable, since you can’t have enough “m”s or whatever is the popular letter when you try to set a poem or a poster or whatever. But with 40 or so drawers of it, there’s still an awful lot left, and my next job will be sorting it and seeing how much and what I have. Some fonts look very intact, some are quite picked over.
After the impulsive purchase, the rest of the week was consumed by logistics (which is why I haven’t been posting any art). It’s heavy enough that the floor needed to be reinforced. I’d reinforced it once for this press some years ago, but more was in order. Fortunately I happened to have a handy and generous house guest, so we both slithered around in fine southern dust in my crawl space for a couple of afternoons dragging cement blocks and large timbers to reinforce the joists under the press room.
Some equally generous neighbors helped me move it and shove over the press to make room for it (harder than moving the actual cabinet, since we removed all the type drawers first).
So that was four good days, and on Sunday I had the amazing good fortune to get to play bass at a gig with the Bluff City Backsliders, a band I’ve loved and followed for years. (For longtime readers of this blog, you’ve seen sketches of them in years past.) That was a total rush, and it was a marvelous way to cap off my week. I couldn’t be more lucky in the life I get to live.
Sadly antique stores tend to sell off letters individually, which makes the remaining type less usable, since you can’t have enough “m”s or whatever is the popular letter when you try to set a poem or a poster or whatever. But with 40 or so drawers of it, there’s still an awful lot left, and my next job will be sorting it and seeing how much and what I have. Some fonts look very intact, some are quite picked over.
After the impulsive purchase, the rest of the week was consumed by logistics (which is why I haven’t been posting any art). It’s heavy enough that the floor needed to be reinforced. I’d reinforced it once for this press some years ago, but more was in order. Fortunately I happened to have a handy and generous house guest, so we both slithered around in fine southern dust in my crawl space for a couple of afternoons dragging cement blocks and large timbers to reinforce the joists under the press room.
Some equally generous neighbors helped me move it and shove over the press to make room for it (harder than moving the actual cabinet, since we removed all the type drawers first).
So that was four good days, and on Sunday I had the amazing good fortune to get to play bass at a gig with the Bluff City Backsliders, a band I’ve loved and followed for years. (For longtime readers of this blog, you’ve seen sketches of them in years past.) That was a total rush, and it was a marvelous way to cap off my week. I couldn’t be more lucky in the life I get to live.
- Published on
I made it through the Pink Palace Crafts Fair week, which is always a crazy ride but a really fun time. I so appreciated everyone who came out in the rain to support all of us local and not-so-local artists. It was fun to catch up with a whole group of different friends, and I'm always touched when people come to see my art year after year, tell me what piece they have (and sometimes show me a photo of how they got it framed), and maybe even take home a new piece to keep the old one company. I missed a couple of days of Inktober sketching in the hooplah, but I managed most days, so here are a few that I did but hadn't scanned in yet.
This last one served as a model for a demo linocut I started carving during the demonstrations at the crafts fair. I have more work to do once I pull a print and see what it looks like. I love coming home with a sketch I want to spend more time with and make more art from.
- Published on
This one still has some refinement to go, but I’m feeling largely good about it. It’s probably 85% done at this point. I’m having the best time with oils lately. I’m taking time off this week to demonstrate printmaking the the Pink Palace Crafts Fair, Memphis’s oldest and marvelous outdoor fair. I loved it as a kid, and now I get to be a part of it. Come see me in the demonstration area Friday, Saturday, or Sunday if you’re in Memphis. I’ll be back to painting (and working on a children’s book) again next week.
- Published on
I’ve been working away on my water series of oil paintings since I got home, in between a couple of work trips and some other obligations. I’m still feeling incredibly excited about this series as a whole, and it’s been such fun to just play in swirly paint. If I mess up a bit, I can go back in and fix it, unlike either watercolor or carving. There’s a freedom and also a sense of immersion in diving into a big canvas covered with wet paint. I love the days where I can spend one whole day laying out and diving into a canvas. I save fixing the smaller bits for days when my time is more broken up, but my favoarite are one long day for one big painting, where I get it mostly covered.
That said, this one took longer than most. I got all the stones in and then let it dry overnight before coming back to do the water patterns on top. It’s taken several long days, but I think it’s just about done. You can see the incremental progress below.
- Published on
I had an awesome night out last night. It's been so good to be back in Memphis after so much traveling since early May. I showed up, hung out and had the very best local BBQ (Central BBQ, although "best" is always a bit of a conversation for Memphians), fed my baby nephew his green beans, caught up with my sister and her husband, and heard one of my favorite local bands. They're friends as well, who do a high energy show of music from the 1860's to the 1960's, as well as occasionally beyond. I love their songs and have drawn them over the years, and my favorite singer/washboard player is going emerius. Mandy Nicole Gauvin has been with the band five years, but her work schedule has pressed as the band schedule has also expanded. So last night we were celebrating her participation in the band as well as Christian Stanfield's birthday.
I had meant to go back and do more painting after dinner, but other friends showed up, and I just hung out and drunk it all in. I even got to sit in with the band. Christian, with no warning, called me up and handed me a banjo and told me to pick a song to sing. I had a blast singing with such a great group of musicians. My sister filmed part of it, and just for fun, that will be in a second blog post (too much to load with all these sketches as well).
I had started off with a fountain pen and meant to do watercolor as well, but after painting all day, I didn't have painting energy. It's nice to have a bit of a sketching kit and some different options. I ended up pulling out the ink brush pens after the first page of line drawings. It's fun to try to capture likenesses with a little bit broader stroke.
Last night I actually did much better with the brushes. Go figure.
Last night I actually did much better with the brushes. Go figure.
- Published on
I was going to post this with the sketches from seeing this band, but I decided that would be too much to load on one page. I usually just talk about art here, but Christian called me up from the audience last night and had me play and sing a song. It was such a rush to get to play with a great band, one I admire, and music feeds my artwork. It's nice to have that energy going back and forth. So I decided for once to put a little music up on this blog as well. Usually I just play for fun on Mondays in a friend's back living room, but I really had a good time sitting in with these great folks. The bonus is I got really exited about playing and learned three new songs in the week since. Creative energy is always welcome.
- Published on
Paris has a surprisingly hot old time music scene, and I'm lucky enough to know several of the musicians there. Camille had invited me to go see some of her friends play, and I had a ball my next to last night there. Admittedly it was my crowd of folks, but it was also lovely to be out in a cafe (well, "Irish pub") and know five people. In Paris. It's good to feel I'm getting a set of friends there.
The band was great. The main pair happened to be Americans, though John Matthews has lived there for ages, and Ilon Moss did for a good while. They had the serious pipes to belt out a bunch of songs, unmiked, into a crowded bar. I was impressed. The bass player and guitarist (who also rang out some great Cajun songs) were French. It was such a fun evening.
The band was great. The main pair happened to be Americans, though John Matthews has lived there for ages, and Ilon Moss did for a good while. They had the serious pipes to belt out a bunch of songs, unmiked, into a crowded bar. I was impressed. The bass player and guitarist (who also rang out some great Cajun songs) were French. It was such a fun evening.
