ALAS

I am posting finally :D I have taken photos of all my semi decent work from the first semester at New College. I can't put it all in one post but I shall begin now I think :) Very little of it is my style and my art class was an interesting experience for sure. I started out hating it because it was all about technical skills and left little room for creativity but I pushed through and did well in the class so all works out in the end :) Here's a bit from the first half of the semester. [The order of these sort of goes back in time from mid semester to beginning, click any to enlarge]

Collage self portrait, gray scale paper.

Planar analysis self portrait, charcoal.

Reductive still life, charcoal + eraser.

Additive still life, charcoal.

Origami still life, chalk.

Contour drawings, ink. (left: hand, right: itzkabouwa)

Males can be fun too (Left: ink, Right: Charcoal)

Ink <3

A chair dressed in striped cloth, ink.

Architectural study piece, ink and acrylic pain.
This piece was early in the year and expresses my distaste for the sterility of the art building as well as the curriculum at that point. The actual assignment was an architectural study, so I did one of the art building, then framed with with a colorful nature imposing.

First homework assignment, negative space drawings. Ink.

[more to come soon, I promise :) the next up are collages]

Knitting With Fire

So clearly I am behind in my blogging. I'm slowly but surely going to catch up and start posting new stuff, but we will start with weeks ago. I was lucky enough to try my hand at glass bead making. My wonderful friend Austin let me play in his jewelry studio and taught me how to make beads :)

I'll explain the process as well as I can because I had no idea how it worked before doing it. You use the torch to warm up a small metal rod that has a mud coating on the end to prevent the future bead from sticking. You then use the flame to heat a colored glass stick called a Moretti rod. You have to heat the Moretti rod slowly by waving it in and out of the flame in small circles while simultaneously spinning the metal rod with your thumb and index finger. Once the end of the Moretti rod has melted you slowly twirl it onto the metal rod and then repeat the process to add additional colors.

So here are my lovely first beads, inspired by the colors of the sky :)

I finally made the bracelet to showcase them yesterday :) and below there are 2 other beads I've made since that have found a lovely little home hanging out on my industrials, which I think is pretty awesome :)

I promise more is soon to come :) I have doodles, drawings, a lot of poetry, and most recently tie dyeing to post about, so it's on its way!

A Pology

I'm sorry blog, I've neglected you again. I really really don't mean to. My internet access is at an all time low, but Starbucks has become my savoir. How much of a hipster does this make me? I'll be posting new art soon, I promise. I've got daily poems from journal entries, and new doodles to show. I'll be continuing the style of imagined self portraits that I included in my last post. I plan to create one for every fun new thing that happens, so I have a lot of catching up to do. They will become a second journal of sorts :) I just mentally counted them out and I have 6 I should get started on. I hope you will forgive me for the neglect. Since you're a website under my control I suppose you'll have to. Blog readers however, I'm sorry for being so boring to follow. I've been preoccupied with life and such, and am now staring at a tiny lizard that is drawing my attention away from you again. Bye! [scitters away with small creature]

Ultra Productivity

Lately I've developed the routine of "Sea Worship" which consists of me spending some lovely time with the ocean each day. I thought up this basic idea Tuesday morning and started working on it that night. I realized while I sketched it that something has been missing from my work for a long time, and it's something I often envy in other illustrators work. I've been missing the doodle quality of purely imagined or remembered images. I am constantly sketching from a subject, a model, a photograph, never do I draw purely from my mind. I was very happy to see that I could :) This first piece is a recollection of my morning with the sea, my little findings, and the peace it all brings.

Today, after finishing the watercolor on this piece I decided to play around some more with my new water color set and imagined self portraits.

This piece is actually creepy to me, It has a definite strangeness. I like it though. One thing I don't do often enough is paint without lines. This was a quick little experiment.

This is a step by step of how I painted myself from imagination and without lines.

I painted these two pieces and really liked them as they were but I felt like they could be much stronger with outlining, but I didn't want to deduct from the imperfections of the watercolor, so I made sure my lines did not perfectly correspond. The final product is something I really really enjoy, I'll certainly be using this technique and style in the future.

These painting/drawings were done right before I got ready to go to "Decadent Desserts" a meet and greet event at New College where I'll be going this fall :) This last drawing was my interpretation of myself at the event :P

And finally, all of the painting didn't fulfill my creative mood so I fashioned this little fancy out of a broken bracelet I made years ago. It's just a fun little impulse project but I was happy to receive a couple compliments on it at the event :P

Here's hoping for another creative day tomorrow, I'm quite happy with today :)

Flourish to Suffer, Suffer to Flourish

It has been too long since my last post. I apologize :( My art tends to suffer when my life flourishes and vis versa, my art flourishes when my life suffers. So technically it's a good sign :P but that doesn't make it any less unproductive. I certainly can't use life as an excuse for lack of creativity. It's not that I haven't been inspired to create, I have, excessively so. I just have been happily busy hence my pens and brushes have not :P but I wrote this little stream of conscious poem yesterday morning. It's no masterpiece, but it's a simple and honest perspective on the struggle for inner/outer peace, consciousness, and the state of our society vs. nature. I decided I needed get back on the blog wagon, so here it is:

I want harmony,

I want stability,

peace

I want meditated action.

But it takes me 20 minutes just to feel my feet are on the ground

and I can't even say what the ground is.

I'm touching curious nature,

standing on lost soil.

I'm breathing air so questionable,

that my lungs must concentrate to know that it is air.

I have feet with bones I've never seen,

and I wonder if they're there.

My taste is numbed by the salt I pour,

grain, after grain, after gram

curious nature

not nature at all.

If you are what you eat,

I know not what I am.

Feel, Breathe, Consume.

And in my ears vibrations pour

from everywhere at once.

And even in the quiet

I'm hearing far too much.

Because silence can never be

The world itself must cease to exist

to rid this cacaphony.

My sight, as I have often said, has far too much to see.

I'm dizzy from dimension.

Vision is blinding me.

Jelly Jar

I wrote/drew this fresh out of bed this morning. Do not judge it for it's writing/drawing quality, I beg you. Instead see it for concept and honesty, another glimpse into my journals, a fresher glimpse into my mind. I have been working on other art tidbits but they are giftage and thus private.. but I really am up on my arthood, I swear ;)

The Reincarnation of TOMS

So once upon a time, I fell in love with TOM'S shoes :) They are an amazing company that everyone should check out. For every pair of shoes purchased, TOM'S gives a pair to a child in need. This pair was the first I purchased, I don't know how long ago... long enough that I was a blonde pixie I guess. I first loved them because they are vegan, recycled materials, biodegradable, and have facts about the world in terms of a village of 100 people. I've actually checked out the facts on my shoes mid conversation before ;) very handy, and very fun.

Unfortunately I wore them SO much [nearly every day] that I wore them down to the death. It actually felt nice though, to wear something all the way through, it's a rare thing these days. Below you will see the damage I caused to these poor lovely shoes :P

Instead of throwing them away, I decided I needed to bring them back to life. They still had some kick left in them ;)

Most importantly, something desperately needed to happen to the toes of these TOM'S, so instead of patching them up, I figured it's summer, what the heck? Show a little toe :P and with design ideas from Dan* I began to paint these lovelies.

The process took a couple days, which is why I haven't blogged [I have felt increasing pangs of guilt for neglecting it]

And Finally tonight I completed these cute wearable masterpieces :D I think they are absolutely adorable. They are childhood, wrapped in summertime, wrapped around my feet. Mr. Platy and Monsieur Bear are my new best friends :) I shall take them with me all around the town, all around the world no less :) I quite enjoyed painting shoes, and already have my next pair planned. Now I can buy another pair of TOM'S, do another good deed, and look forward to another wearable art project. For now though, I'm happy my TOM'S won't be put to rest :) they are far too comfy and wonderful to throw away after a little wear and tear.

* Dan is a Photographer, Designer, Haircutter, Master of the Universe, Wonderboy who is currently accepting clients in any of his fields [mainly the first 3] so if you are interested, you should contact him at contactceoux@gmail.com

Dresses In Doodle Life

I finally sewed a couple of dresses I've been excited for :) I cannot describe with enough enthusiasm, how much I adore the veggie material. It even has hand painted buttons to match.

I bought both dresses [well one was a skirt] at a thrift store at different times, and they have desperately been waiting for alterations. The veggie dress was a little matronly at it's length and needed to be taken in at the waist. The safari paisley [how else do I describe it?] was a long skirt but I wanted to turn it into a little dress instead. [before pics: below]

I am quite happy with the results [below] but both were extremely simple alterations, so I felt almost as though I was cheating by only creating them for the day. In order to compensate for that, I had to make them even more special with some doodle scenery :) [click to enlarge]

I wish I really could live inside a doodle land. It would be far more exciting. Especially if I got to wear cute renovated dresses every day :)

White Out Journals

I took an idea from blackout poetry, and selected key words from random pages of my journals. I flipped through the pages and scanned the ones I landed on. None of the original pages were changed or mutilated in any way, they are too dear to me. I realized though, how it is strange to use your own words to create something completely different. These poems have very little to do with what was originally written on the pages, yet I still feel vulnerable showcasing them, because I know they came from my personal journals. I changed things so many times because they continued to feel too personal to share. But I'm happy with the result. This is a project I will definitely do in the future, maybe I'll even become more comfortable with sharing what's so personal. Maybe I'll share more.

Airport

Days at the airport/flying are full of time to just sit around and wait. Although I preoccupy myself with reading, music, and watching movies on my iPod, I think it's also a wonderful opportunity to draw :) I started sketching a binocular machine [below]

and as I was finishing up a man came over and said "that looks so real I want to put a quarter in it!" and he asked me some questions about going to school for art and whatnot, then he said I should draw he and his wife. At first I hesitated, I never am sure what people will think of my rendering. As they went back to their business though, I decided I might as well go for it.

When I finished I gave the sketch to the couple and introduced myself further, and found out their names are Bill and Jean. I hope they liked the sketch, and that it is a fun airport encounter they can speak of and remember :)

[above] Bill and Jean with their portrait.

While waiting to board this plane in Laguardia, I whipped out a quick inaccurate sketch to document :P

And finally my single servings.

Byes To Bests

Today I have been crazed with packing and last minute goodbyes. While visiting Kaley tonight to say goodbye I decided at the last minute that I would draw her loveliness, and I am very glad I did :) The rough sketch I did at her house didn't really cut it for me, partly I think because I often rely on her make-up and hair style to portray her in doodles and such. Tonight though, she had little make-up on and her hair up, so it was more of a challenge to make my sketch resemble her. I think that was a good thing though, because it made me focus more on her features than relying on other factors. After bringing it home and adding shading to finish the image, I now quite love it.