Into the vat.

Taking a dip. A touch of warmth. Wear and tear. Imperfection.

It's been a dubious day. Dubiosity has reigned quietly in the background for the past few days as I've been going along cleaning, creating and contemplating. I've felt dubiosity hanging out somewhere in the corner of the room, weighing down heavily. Every time I think I catch it staring at my back, I turn and it's not there. It's moved and lurking in another corner.

- Color study for Warship

Silence.

Back to work.

Zen Tree

Image: J.B.Weekes, Copyright 2008

Awesome Jon sent me this. He took it last weekend after our first northeast storm.

Planned a post but stayed up too late and now tooooooooo tired. Does that mean double the goodness tomorrow?

?

I love paper.

I just wanted to say that. I love paper. Just that. Paper. Yep. Not the Xerox kind. The nice, fancy, kind. Porous, fancypants, watercolor, handmade-type. I love paper.

I love it so much, that I had to get up and post it here.

Wintery work.

Start of a continuation. I'm liking her more and more.
Pardon the bad lighting, I have very limited light sources.

I was so happy that this past weekend came around. Though part of the weekend was crappy due to family making me miserable (Saturday), yesterday turned out to be a perfect working day. Art day. Art is not work. I have to remember that. I keep on losing my vision of this since my day job is all about creating, and that is work with a capital, hard-ass "W". And the past week of day-jobness was exhausting. But Sunday was so nice. Music, art, and the company of kitties. The blistering snow storm outside didn't even phase me. Come evening time I went out to dig my yellow lemon out of the snow (that's the vehicle, it's yellow and a lemon in more ways than one), an hour and a half of wintery shoveling, to wake up today and see that I was plowed in. *Sigh* But with such a good day yesterday, I didn't care.


The view outside my window on Sunday.

When it's snowing like that I want to run out and hike through the woods. One day I'll get myself a pair of snow shoes that I've been pining for, grab my topo map and compass, and go get lost in the snow. One day, when I get those shoes.

Into the sketchbook.

Meine Kamera ist kaputt. Well, not really, it's only that the battery has run down and I don't have a charger. The charger was removed from my checked backpack somewhere between O'hare and Bradley International last year during a random routine search, and never replaced. My camera was on me, but in exhaustion, at the last second I checked my backpack. When I got home and unzipped it I found one of those paper things stating that they had gone through my bag. I was not so much upset that they (they being an airport personnel of some sort), rummaged through my bag (I can understand the need for it nowadays), I was more upset that the battery charger was removed and not put back. Unfortunately, at the moment I can't replace it and have been borrowing one off and on. So, since no battery for the Kamerrra, today no photos. But, I went all out and got savvy outside of the day job, and used the scanner. Woo!

So, peek into my sketchbook. It's actually a very special thing, place, whatevermajiggy, where I sketch ideas, meditate, babble, paste things into, and so on. I have pages where I warm up my brain with doodles and sketches before I actually start drawing something. It's a lot meditative and a bit trance-like. I write, make lines. Warmups. Brain babbles.

One page and close-ups. After I scanned the page (the book wasn't laying flat - sorry), I became detached from all those doodles. I felt as if I was looking at someone else's stuff and got really fascinated looking at it up close in hi-res. So I thought the close-ups would be neato to show.

Oh, and please pardon any cat fuzzies you might see.

In progress.

Oh, I wanted to post so much yesterday, but the odd weather up here in New England sent my barometer into the migraine zone. With a strong dose of ibuprofen I was out of commission. Sixty degrees out and pouring rain. Not normal. Not normal. Not for here. Oh we're all going to burn. Shame on us. The poor planet. Blahblahblah. I better stop now because otherwise I won't stop.

Sunday was great! I worked on the above image. I wasn't planning on it. It was originally a small drawing I did in pen. (I prefer a good pen over a sharp pencil. I like the challenge of having to rework a mistake to make it work, and a pen is very unforgiving.) I output it at a larger size for a transfer, and the next step will be inking it. I rather like it at this large size, 15"x 22". I could almost see it as a print of some sort, but not sure yet. I need to see how I'm going to develop it. I never know what the finished piece will look like when I start. I just go.

I gooooooo. Oh oh oh!

Jin Young Yu - Oh My!

A Family In Disguise

I've never really posted about another artist before, but Jin Young Yu's sculpture is absolutely amazing. I got a glimpse of her work on ArrestedMotion during their coverage of Art Basel and had to know more. Since then, I've spied images of her work on various blogs across the internet.

The figures are so ghostly and haunted looking, their emotions so masked and hidden yet at the same time readily apparent. From what I gathered in doing research on this Korean artist, her work is a commentary on the hypocrisy of today's society, who we really are and who we pretend to be while amongst other people. The masks we wear in front of our friends and relatives, yet at the same time not truly understanding who we are as individuals. I immediately identified with her work since it strikes close to home. In such a chaotic, media driven, materialistic society, it is very difficult to find one's soul and true purpose. The media drives us to not think for ourselves. It tells us what to wear, eat, how to act and behave, what medications to take, and how to live our lives, and even how to mourn, as at the very same time it is stripping us of our individuality. Though, it's very clever, because it leaves us with the belief that we are still thinking for ourselves.

So, in bloggy fashion, I'm posting both links to Jin Young Yu's blog and Union Gallery which is showcasing some of her work. Her blog is in Korean, but it's worth to take a look at all the images posted there.

yep.

Work. I'm slow to post because, just beacuase. So these are last week's photos. Sorry for the quality, there wasn't a lot of light.

I had put the original large piece Earth on the back-burner due to moving around so much and working on other things. She's everywhere and I can't get rid of her till she's complete. She's also further along now since this photo.

The other pieces are 8"x 8" and experimental. I don't know where I'm going with those yet. I pick them up every so often, do a bit here, then there. Then they sit. And I look and look. And so on. I've got too many ideas and too many things going on here and there that I'm starting or doing or finishing something or other.

I wish I could think of something clever to say. It could be this jazzy samba stuff I'm listening to. It might be messing with my head.

I really could go for some m&m's right now. With peanuts.

Updated the...

banner, yet again. It's a work in progress, constantly evolving. I'm stuck on the fonts. The above is slowly looking more and more, unlikeable, I think. Hmmm.

Back, and feeling good!

Doodlie doo! It's been a while (but when has it not been?), my arm is feeling better at the moment, and I am back to my usual drawing, painting, and other unmentionable nonsense. Not that it's fixed, because it's not. But I'm hoping that with the physical therapy I'm attending, it'll recover.

So, got back to being very busy, and busybusybusybusy. Especially during the next few days. I'm not much of a Holiday-sie type of person, so I keep busy with other things.

Posting a photo out of my sketch book to keep things interesting and because I realized that I have too many posts without images. Okay, well, someone pointed that out. Okay, more than one person pointed that out.

Okay.

I gotcha.

Some things in development. . .

I've been creating smaller pieces lately and not working on the larger ones due to funky arm spatula muscle syndrome, or something similar sounding. I have the actual syndrome name written down somewhere, but can't read all of it due to my doctor's hand writing. I can hardly ever read anything he writes. So, hopefully this scapular thing won't last too much longer because even just sitting at times can make it ache uncomfortably, and sitting at a computer can make it worse.

The post before last, I posted photos of finished pieces. Sorry if the photo quality was off. I'm trying to figure out what's up with that. But those will do. I took some additional photos a few nights back to show some of the gold effect in a warmer, low light. But then, I can't trust what I see on this monitor. The first one is Ennui, and is 6.5"x9". The other is Earth II and is 12.5"x10". These are both meant to be enjoyed up close. Close, close. Clossseeee. (I'll post more photos of these later.)

Sketch For Change

So, while I was at Baby Tattooville a few weeks back (it feels like ages ago), I was approached to do a very cool thing. I was invited to do a sketch for an auction called Sketch For Change. Annnd since the auction is already happening (3 days left!), and because I'm very bad at explaining things and slow at posting, AND because their site explains it all, one should definitely click on the link and check it out. And if not to bid on some fun art or support a cause, then at least to check out some cool drawings by some well-know, and talented artists.

My sketch for the auction.

Ennui

Ennui

Ink and gold acrylic detail on

stained Canson 140lb coldpress.

Oh, I have so much I need to do but not surprisingly, I have been slowed down again. My right arm is useless at the moment due to some sort of muscle issues, so I am having a hard time with everything in general (typing, drawing, painting). There are so many people I need to email and so much to post here, But, enough of the pity party, so until my arm feels better, here's some eye candy.

Baby Tattooville '08

I am back from a most wonderful, spur of the moment trip! After a rather stressful week at work (throw an eyeroll in there), I needed to get away. A badly needed change of scenery, was badly needed (hah). I was so desperate I was actually toying with the idea of flying to France to see a Jeff Koons exhibit. What was I thinking!? I don't know. I don't think I was. I just needed to be far away from everything, and everyone (don't anyone take it personally please). SO, uh, what else was happening that I could do? There was Baby Tattooville In Riverside, CA. Was I serious? What was I thinking!? I don't know. I don't think I was. But, all of you who knew how much I would enjoy this and just told me to go (one week before the event!), thank you for not letting me talk myself out of it. I sincerely, one hundred percent, mean it.

It took place at the Mission Inn. I got there early so I explored the hotel for a bit.

One begins to feel a bit like Alice in wonderland at times, well, I guess a girl like me would. For guys it could be the Mad Hatter? Maybe? Ahh...

Quite odd. You see.

But the event itself was a fantastically good time.

The look on Ledbetter's face.

Movement, and motion.

I just like this one very much.

Daniel Peacock, in the moment.

Amy Sol, so still.

At Soto's studio (l-r) Dave Cooper, Shag (Josh Agle), Bob Dob, Brandi Milne, Glenn Barr, Michael Whelan, Amy Sol, Ana Bagayan, Joe Ledbetter, Daniel Peacock.

Like a deer caught in headlights " Omgomgomg! I'm getting my photo taken with Tim Biskup omgomgomg!" Yes, that was REALLY going through my head at the time. Just in case you didn't catch on, I collect his art and have wanted to meet him for a while. Can't get over the look on my face!

The Beginning of The Jam .

They all jumped up at once.

Ledbetter.

Brandi's gifts to us. We all thank you.

Ana is very sweet. And she worked so hard - Just so we all would get something nice.

Dave Cooper

There really isn't anything there yet.

Cooper. He's trying to make a point. Look at him move.

I think we get what Harley makes of it.

We thought so, too ;D

Jammin.

A Biskup At Brunch

I can't wait till next year.

Baby Tattooville!

I haven't posted in a bit due to a spur of the moment decision to attend a great event taking place in Riverside, California. "Spur of the moment" doesn't even do justice to describe how quickly I booked a plane ticket so I wouldn't have time to change my mind. Today starts day 2 of the Baby Tattooville event, and so far this whole thing has been a blast. What a great way to meet and hang out with all of one's favorite artists. For me, it literally is a dream come true, just because most of these artists reside on the west coast. There will be many photos when I return!

The finger. . .

is awesome. Well, not quite fully, but it is growing back, I think. There is some numbness in the tip, and it feels strange when I touch it to something, but it could be because it's still healing? I may have phantom finger syndrome, also known as fantumus phingerus syndroma.

Sorry. Had to take a pause there.

On another note, here is a sneaky peeky at something that is so close to finished that I won't post the whole thing till it's done, since to do otherwise would be silly. Plus, I needed an excuse to talk about my finger.

Post number two today. Oh my!

This weekend I had lots of plans. But I did the unthinkable last Thursday, I chopped, ok, I sliced a chunk of my finger off with an Exacto knife. In the many, many years I have been using them, I have not cut myself once. So, I guess my time had come. Unfortunately, it was more than a wee cut. Imagine blood spurting everywhere like the Exorcist was coming to town. So my left index finger (thank goodness the left and not the right), is outta commission. And boy did my hand throb this weekend. No stitches were needed, only since in a state of panic, I ended up throwing the cut off chunk down the drain, only to scream "NOOOOOOO, I want the rest of my finger back!" The doc told me it would grow back. Yeah, with two additional fingernails and an eyeball attached. Hee!

But that did keep me indoors (in my grumpy state), and I was very artistically productive. A very complex drawing was completed for a painting, another drawing was finished and transfered for a small inking project, and various other things. And inspirational doodles (see below). Ok, so what began as a doodle turned into a face. Well, the truth is, after just painting for the past few weeks I got nervous and thought that maybe I lost my ability to draw. I'm so paranoid sometimes!

My ninja.

This little dude is Preston. He makes me smile.

Earth

Earth

Ink and gold acrylic detail on

stained Canson 140lb coldpress.