Going to the museum

I love going to a good museum or exhibit. I love wandering around a quite museum and taking in all the beauty, studying pieces, and in some cases jumping up and down excitedly.
It's been a good year for me and museums, in January I got to see got to see several Carl Bloch originals in an exhibit at the MOA, it was amazing experience and I got to see the exhibit two or three times in the short time it was there.
I've been going to my local museums regularly and enjoying their exhibits and visiting my favorite pieces in their collections.
June was monumental in museum going, I got to go to Italy where I went to the Vatican Museum, the National Museum (ancient Rome, statues etc.), the Academia (where the David lives), the Uffizi, and tons of beautiful churches. The Uffizi is where I was jumping up and down excitedly, I was seeing pieces of art that I'd studied and admired and loved for a long time.
In October I got to have a dream come true, I got to see my art prominently displayed in a museum. It's happened once or twice before but I haven't been able to see it (I'm not counting art centers as museums btw) before. It was so cool and I didn't think to bring my camera and I didn't get a good picture of the piece before so I'll have to share it here, anyway the piece is in the Spiritual and Religious Art Show here.
It's been a good year museum wise and not a bad year art wise.

I know, it's been nearly a month since my last post and I don't have any pictures for this post either, unless you want sketchbook pics but they're just not that exciting.
Anyway during the nearly a month absence from posting I have been working a lot, also doing other things but mostly working. I had two great ideas to be two great pieces for an upcoming show I wanted to enter. I began work on the first piece, a pencil drawing on Arches watercolor hot pressed paper (the paper was recommend to me as being someone's favorite paper to use, I did try it for watercolor as the name suggests, but I find that I didn't really care for it in a watercolor usage, maybe I should give it another shot though). I worked on this piece and it soon became apparent that I would not be finishing in anything like enough time to make the two pieces for the show. I resigned myself to the one piece new and using a piece I made in 2010 for my other entry. This week was the entry deadline and I began to fear that I wouldn't be able to finish the one piece in time. I did finish the piece, I framed it and then I felt sick because I don't even know how many hours upon hours I'd poured into this piece and it was not the sort of piece that I wanted representing me in a show. I was very sad and tried to reason with myself that maybe I was just being really harsh. I couldn't talk myself into it, parts of the piece I really loved, and other parts looked like they came out of a comic strip (nothing against comics, it's just not what I was going for). I was really excited about this piece and to show it off to the world but that will not be happening. I may go back and see what I can do to make it better at some point in the future but not right now.
In other news I recently attended a lovely symposium (for lack of a better word) about Sacred Geometry and I'm really excited to get back into it with former enthusiasm. Hopefully I'll have something amazing for display soon.

Okay, some art, it's about time. I had a lovely time painting yesterday and I finished one painting and started another. I took the design, and was able to figure out how to do it, from a design in Daud Sutton's book Islamic Design (I don't know why it's amazon uk but it's a great book and about $10).


The new painting is a pattern that I've been working with and exploring the possibilities of. I'm wishing it didn't make me think so much of a ships wheel.

I also saw this and appreciated it and wanted to share. In other news I will try to get my act together and have some real/better posts soon. Life has been a little crazy.

I happened to read this and I thought they were some good ideas, so I'm sharing them.

Artist Statement

I have written artist's statement's before but I never loved them and they more applied to a specific series than to my work as a whole. I recently wrote an artist's statement that I'm really pleased with and which sums up what I'm about as an artist. It will likely change but for now I'm excited. Here it is:

Numbers, shapes and colors all have a meaning which can deepen and enrich a piece, as an artist I am intrigued and fascinated by symbolism. Throughout the years symbolism and art have gone hand in hand. Before widespread literacy and availability of books symbolism in art was essential in conveying meaning and stories to the masses. The world around us is loaded with items that have become symbols and I enjoy learning their meaning and incorporating them into my art, whether geometric or Islamic designs, landscape or still life.

What do you think?

"A good painter is full of invention within and were he to live forever, he would always have something new to bring forth."
-Albrecht Durer

Sometimes I feel like I'm going in all different directions art wise, I don't think I will ever be the artist that just does one style or sort of thing. I'm interested in geometry, sacred geometry, Islamic designs, painting, drawing, and the list goes on. Today's focus was Islamic designs.

I'm trying out a new paper, Arches (pronounced arsch (it's a French paper) but people will probably call it arches) Watercolor Hot Press. Hot press means that it's smooth, cold pressed papers are rougher/ more textured. I'm liking it so far but I haven't tried any shading on it yet.
I love Islamic designs because they're so beautiful but I also like them because of the symbolism they have. In Islam they don't use images of people or animals, etc. to avoid idol worship, so they use designs and they have symbolism in them. This design is called "The Breath of The Compassionate"

It's been a while since I posted but here's what I've been keeping busy painting. Here's a new painting that I'm working on.

On the issue of toxic paints; I don't really have an answer for how to deal with the toxic paints. I did reresearch my paints and most of them are non-toxic as far as I've been able to find out. I don't use the two toxic colors too much...because they're toxic. For now I'm just going to paint with the non toxic ones which is much better than not painting at all. I started a painting yesterday that I'm excited about and so hopefully the next post will have pictures. Also I hope to continue the geometry blogging.

Geometry Tools

So in my last post I told a bit more about sacred geometry and my love of and interest in it. I was going through my geometry books again and looking up others online, wishing to find them in library catalogs, not succeeding for the most part and turning to amazon to get the book that I needed to utilize and a few others that I wanted ($25 super-saver free shipping is a dangerous thing for me.). Coming to the point, I was remembering the frustration that I've had and still have in trying to find materials on sacred geometry and similar subjects. I had the idea that I could both make a resource book for myself and make blog posts for others, sharing what I know about sacred geometry.

If you have every wanted to learn how to make those cool geometric designs, then you will need some tools.
A ruler/straight edge - I didn't take pictures of these because I'm guessing you have one somewhere
.
And a (or several) compass - I have four but I mostly only use two.

I have this one that used to be my dad's when he was in school.

I have this one which was a cheap-o way to be able to draw bigger circles etc. I don't use it any more because it's a cheap and ineffective compass.

I have this one which I normally don't use because it's so huge but it is great for working big.

Finally I have this one which is Utrecht brand and intended for geometry use and as such titled the Geometry Compass Set. I really like this compass because it's bigger than my first one, has a connection for pens etc. and an extender bar so that you can make even bigger circles. (If you want one it's currently 60% off).

Sacred Geometry

I have been renewing my love and fascination with Sacred Geometry, I've posted a fair amount about it in the past. I've been getting excited about my work again, and I'm going back and reading or rereading books and photocopies I've got on the subject. I've been really working on learning and exploring the geometry, instead of just sticking to a few designs/patterns that I've sort of run into the ground. I've been getting out my compass and ruler and going to work, "taking chances, making mistakes, and getting messy" as Ms. Frizzle of Magic School Bus would say. I want to reverse engineer Islamic patterns/designs and be able to make designs and patterns of my own that are equally as beautiful. Starting out, I'm working my way through the material provided in Sacred Geometry by Miranda Lundy and eagerly awaiting the arrival of more wooden books (I would love to read just about all of the books they've published).

Here's a pattern I drew the other day from instruction in Sacred Geometry. Look for more geometry soon.

One of the greatest things about the trip I just took to Italy, was getting to see iconic pieces of art, the stuff that art history classes are made of. The Uffizi was a mind blowing dream come true and seeing Michelangelo's David was amazing.
I can't explain how exciting it is to actually see a piece of art that you've revered and loved for years.

Toxic love

I have a problem and I'd love to find a solution or hear about one if any are known. I use a lot of watercolor and to be able to get some of the colors I want, I have some paints that are toxic or carcinogenic and I don't want to have those things going into the water system when I rinse and clean my brushes but I also don't know what to do with the dirty water. I was just leaving the dirty water in the jar hoping that it would evaporate but right now I've got a jar of water that reminds me of when we had tadpoles. I need to go back to the drawing board and I'd love to hear about any better solutions.

Dear painting,
I have really neglected you of late. I got out my paints again today and I can't believe I waited this long. I don't quite recall why I stopped painting and only used writing/drawing implements for the last several months. I was reminded today of how much I love working in watercolor and color in general. I hope we'll never be parted so long again.
-the painter

Morandi

Photo found here

I've been learning more about Giorgio Morandi of late, he was a fairly well known Italian painter in the 20th century. Morandi is not all that well known these days outside of Europe, I never knew about him until a few years ago (this is the case for many artists though) but I've been interested in his work. Most of Morandi's paintings and etchings are landscapes and still lifes (still lives?). Morandi worked in a small messy studio where he painted smaller objects like bottles and vases over and over again.
I like the idea of focusing on some simple objects, we live in such a complicated world and often complicate it further. There can be real beauty in simplicity and often in the things all around us that get overlooked.

The National Museum in Rome

I wasn't expecting very much from this museum but I was blown away by it. By the end of this trip I was a little overloaded on marble busts and statues (they're just everywhere in Italy) but we went to the National Museum early on in our trip and it was just amazing. I highly recommend going there. The pictures here are only a small fraction of the ones I took there, which is a small fraction of what was there.

Art Barbie?

I got the link to this article and it sort of makes me sick. You can get a Barbie either posing as a work of art or wearing one. I appreciate that people are trying to get art and culture to the masses but how is a piece of kitsch supposed to make one feel inspired? Comparing the Mona Lisa Barbie to a picture of the actual Mona Lisa, it's just silly. You can't make a piece of plastic to compare with masterworks of art. (I'm sorry the pictures are so big.)

The Sistine Chapel

The Sistine Chapel, it's one of the hugest things in art and it was a pretty cool experience to be in there and to see the ceiling and the Last Judgment. If you just can't make it there in person right now, this is a pretty good alternative. This site won't give you the same experience as actually being there, but in some ways it might be better than being there. It was amazing to be there and to see it in person, and the room just filled with beauty but it was also filled with other tourists and cranky guards who were shushing the room periodically.

Alright, I haven't blogged forever, things have been crazy in my life and I just got back from an amazing trip to Italy where I was able to see more beautiful art than I could imagine. I was several times so excited that I was practically jumping up and down. I'll share some of the pictures from that when I get them loaded, in the mean time, I want to share this article. I've been able to see a lot of this painting and I've always loved it, I think it's really cool that it's at the Louvre right now. Also I'm a fan of the Florence Academy of Art, I have hopes to someday spend a little time there, and I've recently discovered their blog and I thought I'd share that too.

I haven't been good about blogging but I'm still plugging away at my bee series. It's a little exciting and amazing how much I've learned about honey bees as I've been researching. I dream of having my own hives someday. Failing that I want to plant flowers that bees like to help out the bees that are around. Here's one of the pieces in the series.

Brotherhood and Sisterhood
11x11in
pen and ink
Series: The Importance of Bees

My friend and former classmate is having a give away/contest on her blog for a beautiful book that she made. The idea behind this is to motivate people to do what they can to help with the disaster in Japan, by donating money or something to help these people out. The details are on her blog but you should check it out, a chance both to help other people out and a chance to win a beautiful book, she really makes beautiful books, much cooler than the ones I make.

Sometimes I really wish that I could create pieces just like Wulf, or like some of my class mates, or Durer or da Vinci, the list goes on. I can emulate their work, I can be inspired by their work and get ideas from it, but I am not any of them and so my work can't be theirs. I've had feelings like these for ages, in elementary school art projects, when writing essays or stories, etc. All I can do is the best I can with what I've got and who knows, maybe there's somebody out there wishing they could do things the way I do them, maybe not. It's interesting to think about things like that though.

To make up for the recent lack of posts and pictures, here's another piece from The Importance of Bees, enjoy.

Divine Tears
Micron Pen and Ink
2011
11inX11in
Series: The Importance of Bees

I haven't posted for a long time, I've been very busy working on an application to have a solo show, I'll tell more about that when I know more. It's been a real learning experience for me. Even if I don't end up getting the show, I've already gotten a lot out of this. One thing that I learned adamantly is that if you can afford to have pictures of your work taken by a professional, it's well worth the money rather then spending hours yourself trying to get good images and then cropping them etc.
I mentioned earlier that I was continuing the series on Bees, but it's turned out to be a new series on bees rather than a continuation. There new series is called The Importance of Bees, by the way if you get the chance to learn more about bees you should do it, they are fascinating. Here is a piece from the new series.

Passing It On
micron pen and ink
2011
11inX11in
Series: The Importance of Bees

I'm sorry not to have been updating this blog lately; I've been very busy working on some projects that have deadlines fast approaching. I hope to have pictures to post soon. In the mean time there's an opportunity to see some of my work on display at the Bountiful/Davis Art Center.

My sister shared this link with me www.googleartproject.com and I just got around to looking at it. It's pretty cool, I'm excited to see more.

Buzz

Remember the series I did on Bees? We recently I've been giving those pieces a second look and I've decided to work on expanding that series. Because I've decided to reopen this series, I've been reading up on honey bees again and let me tell you, they are something. Bees don't usually get a lot of thought, but they are amazing, from the fact that they pollinate a large portion of the produce we eat, to the fact that they make their honeycomb in tessellating hexagons, bees are quite remarkable and I'm excited about continuing this series.

I was really excited to have figured out a good way to incorporate the pattern I've been working with into a finished piece. I got the nudge in the right direction through this piece by Whitney Johnson. Here's the piece.

untitled

prismacolor and graphite on illustration board
2011

detail

This is an older piece but now that I've learned how to crop my photos, I finally have a pretty good picture of it. It's from the choices series. I'd love some feedback.

Watercolor on Arches watercolor paper
2010
9X9 in.
Series: Choices

Here's a sneak peak at a new piece. It's graphite and prismacolor.

Art Fair Update

I've been checking in at the VIP Art Fair just about every day since it opened last Saturday. There is a ton of art out there to see and so many galleries. There are so many things that I can't believe anyone would want to buy, let alone spend horrendous amounts of money on. As part of my VIP pass, I'm able to access the VIP Lounge where they've had videos from the Art 21 series and interviews/tours with some collectors; it's been interested to hear how and why they collect art, what they see in the art they've amassed and why they bought pieces.

A different thought, I was doodeling today and I really enjoyed just drawing aimlessly. I also really enjoyed using a nice inky pen.

Yesterday when I was working I decided just to take a piece of paper and my compass and ruler and to see what I could do, I didn't have any plan for it, I just drew and saw what I could make. It was a really fun and liberating feeling just to be experimenting in a sense, not working towards a finite goal. I found some things that worked and which I'll use again and other things which I didn't like.


After I finished my line drawing I added some color, I didn't color or shade carefully I just put down the color. This isn't a finished piece, just an exercise.

The VIP Art Fair has begun, so far I haven't seen much but I hope to see some cool things.

I am excited for a weekend of viewing art! Tonight is the local gallery stroll and I've got a few galleries that I want to check out. There's a really cool looking gallery/museum that I'm going to see today and tomorrow I'm going with some of my friends to see an exhibit of Carl Bloch's work. I'm sometimes saddened by the distance between myself and places like the Met or Boston's MFA but if one looks a little harder, it's still possible to find some great art, even better I don't have to pay an entrance fee to see any of this art.

Here is the almost finished product of the circle pattern study, quite a change from it's beginnings.

So a while ago I started drawing and with one thing and another I just now finished it. As I was drawing I was reminded that one, it's really better to draw with one source of northern light rather than one or two sources of southern light, northern light is more consistent; and two, that it's better to do these sort of drawings from life in one go if at all possible because then you don't have to try to replicate the set up that you formerly had.

detail

The study continues. I decided to take another shot at what I started out to do when I ended up with this. When I got the final product, I didn't really care for it as much as I had thought I would and so I decided to add some color. I don't have pictures yet of the colored final product but is interesting to really pay attention to how various elements will effect a piece.

VIP Art Fair

I don't recall doing this but apparently at some point I signed up to receive emails from Cheim and Read; they're a very big gallery. I was suprised today when I received an email from them saying that they were participating in an international art fair online and they sent me a code that will allow me to be a VIP in this art fair. I haven't really been to any art fairs before and so I'm excited about this opportunity. The fair will be taking place from the 22nd to the 30th of this month. Non VIP registry is free for anyone out there interested in "attending" this fair. I'm very excited to attend and hopefully learn a lot.

Good news, I just learned how to crop my photos, perhaps it's a little late in coming but better late than never!

I really like the pattern of four circles overlapping one, but it is very different visually when the sections are filled in. With sections filled in the pattern is bold and graphic it's different and it's not really what I'm looking for but that's what what a study's all about I suppose. It was interesting to see the difference in it when I made the background green, also, note to self: pay attention to how the pattern lays out, and whether there's half the design hanging off. On the plus side of this study, I've been wanting to use color for a while but not to paint, which led to the use of prismacolor pencils and I do like the jewel tone colors. I apologize for the blurry photo below, I would love to be a great photographer but I am not there yet.



I went through most of my time studying art not having any one clear definition of art, this may seem strange, I'm sure that in almost any other branch of study the course of study would and could be clearly defined but to ask the definition of art, even or perhaps especially in an academic environment is likely to produce a heated debate because just about everyone in the room has their own opinion and most of them do not match up. I have adopted a definition offered me by my mentor, who was reluctant to offer it, I think it was one of my last years of school that he named it: art is craftsmanship plus inspiration. I feel good about getting behind such a definition, I don't really care for the phrase "beauty is in the eye of the beholder" taste may be in the eye of the beholder but whether one loves something or not does not change it's beauty. An example, both farm land and red rocks can be beautiful sights to behold, after driving through either for long periods of time I'm not crazy about either but that doesn't change the beauty that's there. I'm not crazy about tapestries or needle point but there is, or at least can be, real craftsman(woman)ship involved in making them. Right now my work, by the above definition is not art, it could be craftsmanship or in some cases, as the piece photographed, not even craftsmanship. Not every piece I make has to be art, but I hope that as I progress I will make fewer pieces that are craftsmanship or less. I'm starting out and even prodigies (not that I am or was one) must progress or they go backwards. Some things to think about for me and anyone who reads.