Sunrise Still Coming and Ground for the Journey

Travelings #8, Sunrise Still Coming
39/100 in 100 creative challenge, 7/8/09
Golden Fluid Acrylics and Pitt Artist Pen on linen finish paper, 3.5"x2.5" ACEO

I drew a pattern on the paper first. I thought I would like the subtlety of it coming through. I do. I'm using the acrylics like a wash, lately. Thinning them with water and laying them on in layers, dripping, blurring. But I can also use them in thicker opaque layers, or rub them out for texture. I like the flexibility, although I still wonder if I should take up watercolors again. Haven't done watercolor in years.Flying Girl as She Moves, or Ground for the Journey
40/100 in 100 creative challenge 7/9/09
Golden Fluid Acrylics on watercolor paper. 5"x8"

I wondered what would happened if I put Flying Girl into one of my travelings.

I don't like it.

I don't think the more illustrative style fits with the more painterly style. It's possible she could fit in another painting, but not in this way. Or perhaps the problem is I changed the proportions of land to sky. I forgot the real vision of the roadside blur and tried to combine it with the more standard long landscape of the old FGs.

Well, try and try again. Keep on swimming. ;)

Oh, and my Wreck This Journal for the week is still drying/in process. I'll try to post it tomorrow.

Travelings, Orange and Fireworks

Travelings #7, Orange
38/100 in 100 Creative Challenge, 7/8/09
Golden Fluid Acrylic on Linen Finish Paper, 2.5"x3.5" ACEO

Here I'm starting to explore a little. My son dumped my orange paint on the floor. Yes. Yes he did. I salvaged as much as possible and cleaned up the floor and sent him to his room, and then I got to thinking about why the paintings were always dark blue. Sure, it's dawn, but why always dark blue?

And I thought about switching them up, instead of blue with white and orange lights, I thought why not make the whole painting orange. I thought of making the whole thing a kind of negative, but this is what turned out.
Traveling #6, Fireworks
37/100 in 100 creative challenge
Acrylic on Linen Finish paper ACEO, 7/7/09

This one was inspired because my son watched the fireworks from his bedroom window, behind the avocado tree. I know I didn't get this one right. The proportions in my head were too far off of the proportions of what I was working with. Spacious vs enclosed. And the fireworks take away from that feeling of movement. Plus, isn't that spark going to set the field on fire?

Anyway. 100 paintings in 100 days and you're going have some duds. That's okay. Crap. I'm still behind. I've got to stop taking these lazy breaks. (Oh, I don't want to paint today, I'm too tired!)

I actually have been thinking about what it takes to keep the movement going forward in life. I'm pretty sure that it's not flying that keeps you moving.

I think it's grounding.

I'm trying to figure out how to ground myself so that I can fly. I think I might need to take better care of the mundane things, things like housekeeping and mail. It's kind of tough for me, because I've always lived in a world of thought and speculation and creating.

Maintaining our spaces and our bodies, that's grounding. Maintaining our relationships. Maintaining the order of our world.

The only thing I can think of to get this grounding going is to start keeping my lists again, to dos and did dones. I should take up yoga again, but I don't know how I'm going to get here, (no yoga) to there (yoga). I might have to wait until I move to do that.

Anyone have any suggestions for grounding, so all this movement doesn't unbalance the journey?

More Travelings

Traveling #4
35/100 in 100 creative challenge. 7/4/09
Golden Fluid acrylic on linen finish paper, ACEO 2.5"x3.5"


Traveling #5
36/100 in 100 Creative Challenge 7/5/09
Golden Fluid Acrylic on linen finish paper, ACEO 2.5"x3.5"

To tell you the truth, I missed a week somewhere. Well, it just blurred right by me. I could have sworn it was there somewhere, but I looked up and it was gone.

Like when the car goes fast and you look out the window at the passing landscape.

It can be so beautiful, but there's so much, some of it is much the same, and it goes by without stopping, no landmark to call you to attention, and it become one big passing.

I'm a little bit afloat. But still moving.

Just keep moving, right? Just keep moving.

Traveling Treasury and Wreckage

My first news is very exciting for me. I grabbed my first etsy treasury. It's probably because it was the holiday weekend and not everyone is sitting around at home while little kids nap. But I did it! I got one. Woo Hoo!

It was so much fun. I have moving on my mind. I want to do a roadtrip across country, but I don't know if it will work out. We might have to go another route. BUT, the very concept inspired my window shopping and curating. The treasury is called Traveling, just like my aceos. These are almost all new shops to me, but most of them just popped right up in the search to be exactly what I wanted. Please take a look, it won't last long. In Wreckage news... somehow, I can't see taking my book into the shower. I just don't want to, and my shower is very tight. There isn't anywhere to put it but on the floor. Not willing to do that. So as an alternate, I put it out in the torrential downpour in the garden. There are puddles showing the rain drops.
I also dropped paint, in various dilutions and colors and then closed the book here to make a print. The kids really enjoyed watching this process. I did it color by color, rather than all the different colors together. And you can't really tell, but the last shade is gold, and it gives it a lovely butterfly wing kind of sheen.
This is the page that went along with my Traveling ACEOs. I actually kept the little cards on the paper as I painted. Part of the painting was drips and runs, so I let the ACEOs drip onto the page, as well as wiping and testing paint on the page. I like the color theme. I might add more lately.

I didn't do a whole lot of wreckage this week, but I am noticing that it is having an effect on my art. The experimentation of the book is leading me to things that draw me. Things like repetition and pattern, for instance. Using less figurative work and more conceptual. These are things I have used in the past, so maybe I'm just getting back to them.

I still am uncomfortable with letting go of things. Proabably why I didn't want to completely soak my book. I don't want to lose something that I like. I will work on it.

Travelings

Three ACEOs
Traveling 3
Traveling 2
Traveling 1
32, 33 & 34/100 in 100 Creative Challenge, 6/3/09
Golden Fluid Acrylic on linen finish paper, 2.5"x3.5"

And with these ACEO's I'm caught up with the challenge! Hurrah. But I don't fool myself that I won't be skipping days here and there.

I like the smudgy darkness. The suggestions of trees and hills and roads. And then, when I added the blur of the light the interplay between the indistinct dark blue and the bright sharp white made it come alive. And the pop of orange? Zoom! It came to life. I imagine movement and stillness... at the same time. Serenity and time passing. Power and passivity.

I really like these. Throughout my time with Flying Girl, I have still loved landscapes. I still love abstract art. I was surprised at finding myself using these ACEO's almost like thumbnail paintings. Planning. Exploration. A place to try new things that have been rooting around in the back of my head. Like these pictures I took almost a year ago.
This is another of my roadtrip series that I rediscovered while cleaning out my photo files. I love them. They have captured my imagination, just like they did when I took them. I suspected then that it was just my own eccentricity that was drawn to the underexposed, blurred, smudgy, ruined photo. But I don't care!

Let me tell you. I know I know nothing about exposures and lighting. I know my pictures are often blurry and grainy. I don't know if I printed them out if they would be anything at all. I know there are many photographers who would toss these images out in the trash, or who wouldn't have taken them at all, but I love them.

I think that because I don't have the training of a "real" photographer, I am free to explore anything I want. I don't know what is correct and what is not, so I can just go with what feels right.

We all know there are benefits to being trained and expert in a thing, but perhaps we take for granted the benefits to be found in being a beginner.

Flying Girl and Flowers, or Deluge

Flying Girl and Flowers, or Deluge
30/100 in 100 Creative Challenge, 7/1/09
Golden Fluid Acrylic on paper, 5x8"

This was inspired a day that woke up to poop, and just kept on going in that vein. I said to myself, "Self, this is a day for flowers." And then, as the sky opened up, yet again into the kind of rainfall that actually scares you with it's ferocity, I realized, the kind of days that are made of shit are the kind of days that feed the flowers... both metaphorically and literally.

I know the Northeast has been inundated with rain, but we had a hot dry streak instead, down here in Florida, finally broken by this system that just sits here and lets loose. I prefer it to the heat where I have to hide all day in shade and air conditioning.

Anyway, I once made a FG with flowers inside, also in a rainstorm. This one was definitely on my mind as I painted the new one (I used silver paint here, in case you can't see it). I notice she doesn't have an umbrella. She's not trying to take cover from the storm, she's just existing within it. I think I might list it in my shop as an original as soon as I figure out the shipping.

On the plus side, I think by tomorrow, I will be caught up with my paintings and my posts... thanks to a nifty series of ACEOs. Tiny paintings are a life saver when you're trying to keep the numbers up. Oh yeah, and a painting that I am choosing not to post, because it is U.G.L.Y. And it ain't got no alibi. But it still counts towards my total. :)

I Am the Treasure and I Will Not be Afraid

Flying Girl When She Loses Her Way, or I am the Treasure
27/100 in 100 creative challenge
GOlden Fluid Acrylic, gold paint pen and Pitt artist pens on paper 5x8"

I am so behind. And sweating up a storm. It's hot after the deluge of this morning. Ahh Florida. I've been editing photos in my computer all week and am still 9 months away from today. A package came for G's birthday from his Wisconsin grandma. Yesterday we had some accidents that needed to be cleaned up, nothing serious, but messy and time consuming. Once done, I felt better. Today has been technical difficulties and beginning the process of purging whatever we have collected this past year that is unnecessary in a new life across the country.

To tell the truth, I feel a little lost. Not sure what to do next or how to tackle it all. there's time, but so much!

I did some list making yesterday, and that helped. I'm going to continue in this. Prioritize. Recognize what is necessary and figure out the baby steps needed to get there.

Still painting, but still behind in posting. And I want to start listing new items in my etsy shop. I think it's time. I was a little overwhelmed in my desire to do etsy full time while being a full time mom and still a writer and artist. I need to pull the shop back and go more slowly. I think I can manage it if I organize and prioritize. It's all coming. Slowly.

Maybe this Flying Girl will help me remember what else I need to accomplish all I need to do. Actually... she did. I painted her, and started to break through some of my stuckness.
Flying Girl and the Writing on the Wall, or I Will Not be Afraid
026/100
Acrylic and paint pen, paper 5x8

Viva La Flying Girl

Landscape ACEOs

Skyline Watertowers, or Constellate
28/100 in 100 creative challenge, 6/28/09
Golden Fluid Acrylic and paint pen on linen finish paper, 2.5"x3.5" ACEO

You'll have to forgive me. My challenge numbers are getting out of order. But I am behind in posting and still have 2 or 3 paintings to put up here... and I am not quite caught up to paintings. Oh, those lazy days will get you.

So when I went to the art store to pick up new brushes, I got a little pack of ACEO blanks. I figured, why not? And then, when I had mixed up too much of a gorgeous blue color for a flying girl, and I didn't want to waste all that paint, I grabbed one of the ACEOs and painted the whole thing. Then I found one of my lost inspiration tiles randomly on the floor, and it said "skyline." I thought, hey, why not? I'd also been seeing city skylines, and watertowers, so I thought I'd go for it. I like it.
Passing Landscape 1
29/100 in 100 Creative Challenge, 6/30/09
Golden Fluid Acrylic on linen finish paper, 2.5x3.5" ACEO

This too started as the leftover paint of a painting I was (still am) doing this morning. The color and image is no doubt inspired by what I was doing yesterday.

I've been going through all the photos on my computer, in anticipation of getting a new computer, and getting rid of anything I wouldn't send, post, paint or print. The problem with digital is that it is so easy to take as many photos as you want. But what do you do with them then? Best to get rid of all but the best.

I came upon a series that I took last year while on a road trip. I took the photos out of the back car window as the sun slowly rose. When I went through my photos, which I'd never touched since I uploaded them, I lightened them and heightened the contrast on the predawn, too dark pictures and gasped at what came out. Some of them were so lovely. Some of them looked like paintings. They are smudged and blurred and random and shadowed, and they probably show what a bad photographer I really am-- I have zero technical skills, but I still love them.

Road Trip
7/08

This is one of them. It's the one that most reminds me of the ACEO. I have the feeling that I will be doing more of these paintings. I don't feel that I really captured what I wanted to... although I do like the little painting, I'd just like to work a little more on the possibilities.

I did the painting after looking at the photos yesterday, but I did not use any paintings as sources. I kind of think I should, but maybe I would feel too stuck to the photo?

I also noticed that with the 100 in 100 project, I am almost forced to try new things. I simply run out of ideas. I have to experiment or take a side path. One might look at my Flying Girls and wonder why I would do landscapes, but this new series of Flying Girls doesn't have the landscape background that many of the old Flying Girls did. In fact, both of these ACEO's could have been the background for a flying girl.

So even if a painting or a topic or a technique seems like it's a departure, maybe it's just a little return to something you once loved.

I think the past is such a rich vein to mine.

Flying Girl and the Break of Dawn, or I Hold The Night Within (and wreckage)

Flying Girl and the Break of Dawn, or I Hold The Night Within
25/100 in 100 creative project, 6/26/09
Golden Fluid Acrylic, white ink pen on paper, 5x8"

This is what the dawn looked like from my window as I lay in my bed with a child who had been woken by lightning in the middle of the night and refused to go back to sleep. More or less, my eyes were bleary.

But also, here is the internal landscape. In the dawn, we carry the night inside of us.... and in the night, we carry the dawn. The bird? Well... I guess there's something inside of her that keeps her flying, no matter the night, no matter the dawn.

For this week's book club entry, I took my Wreck This Journal for a walk with the family. We fixed the double stroller, now they only want to ride.

But the journal went on it's own two feet... er... multiple pages. The edges wore off a bit and the cover got smudged, but I was not as wreckeriffic as some of the hikers WTJ hikers I've seen. I'm okay with that. The leash is a nifty woven leather belt I found at a thrift store for a buck.
This is actually the second time I decorated my cover. The first time, which looked much like this but with a purple milk pen, got completely smudged and wiped out when I took the book for a walk. So I redid it in white. I like white on black. It probably reminds me of chalk boards, and all those years of being either a teacher or a student. Sometimes both at the same time.
Here is some more purple milk pen... covered by blue milk pen when the purple alone wasn't opaque enough to cover the letters. I like the way this looks. It took forever and my hand cramped up, but I still like it. This might be my favorite page. It makes me smile. Why? I don't know. I'm weird. I also like that I didn't follow the directions to the letter. Notice there is not one jot in the margins. I like the written page too much. Perhaps this is an ode to books. You can't read it anymore, although it didn't matter to begin with, but it still looks like language. It's still familiar and comforting. And the only word left un covered is "yes."
Here's my ugly page. It started when I realized how much I was yelling at the poor kids. Yes, they were ignoring me and making messes and fighting and all that, but still. Ugly mommy. G said it didn't look like me, but oh well. There's also scared/overwhelmed me... which is perhaps where the yelling me came from. On the same page is G's prompt of ugly things having a hundred legs. Then he said it looked like a centipede. And then there are the cockroaches... palmetto bugs, that are huge and fly... both dead and alive. The dead ones don't fly, but they lay on their back and occasionally kick their legs and grab onto the broom when you try to sweep them out the door. *shudder* Also the little poop in the potty. Yuck. The ripped screen window, which lets in evil mosquitos. The dirty foot prints from walking around barefoot on top of scattered cheerios and bananas and whatever else my children shed every minute of their beings. The cheerios and dust underneath the sofa. Oh yes, and little kids waking in the dark of night and not going back to sleep. Ugh. This is all in shades of black, dark gray, dark brown, with a smidgeon of stale pee yellow and oh yeah... a touch of red for the burn of a mosquito bite that has been scratched too much.

Flying Girl All to Pieces, or Discombobulated

Flying Girl All to Pieces, or Discombobulated
024/100 in 100
Golden Fluid Acrylic and Prismacolor Watercolor pencils, 5x8"

This is what I felt like when I sat down to paint. All to pieces. Confused. Overwhelmed. But still knowing, somehow, that there was a pattern in it all. Just hard to see from the inside.

PS I'd like to say that I got two orders in the mailbox only moments before the mail man came to my door. And it was not easy to get them together while I had two little munchkins demanding my attention every 5 seconds. Feeding them didn't help. Turning on the television didn't help. Sending them to the garden to play didn't help. Yelling didn't help. Got to figure out a better system. Grumble.