Archive for the ‘Process’ Category Originally uploaded by love not fear The last drawing class I took was in 10th grade. Hard to believe, I know, but I’ve just never really drawn much. I like to doodle, but drawing realistically has never been my forte. Part of it was simply not practicing, but I’ve always been pretty uninterested in creating realistic art. Recently, though, I attended a life drawing session at the Missoula Art Museum. Every Wednesday night artists gather in the basement of the MAM and draw a nude model. I decided to give it a shot. I arrived with a graphite pencil, a charcoal pencil, a brown “liquid paintbrush” pen and a Sharpie. I wanted to draw using a variety of media, maybe even mixing all types on one page to see what happened. The session began with a series of 30 second gestures. The model would hold a pose for 30 seconds, the moderator would say change, and the model would strike another pose for 30 seconds.? While there was free paper available for us to use, I wanted to use the vellum paper I had brought with me, but I didn’t want to waste it. I decided it would be fun and interesting to draw each pose with a different utensil all on the same page. The above is the first drawing from the 30 second gesture series.
Still. I was encouraged to see that my drawings seemed to be getting better. Not by much, but definitely better. By the time the 10 minute poses began, I was deep in frustration. I stopped drawing before the 10 minutes were over and wrote, Huge frustration at not being better at this. Want to run out of the room now. Go outside. Originally uploaded by love not fear I’ll probably draw again, but not before practicing on my own for a while. The experience was a good one. Trying something new and being humbled by the drastic difference in what I expected I would be able to achieve and what I actually achieved. Originally uploaded by love not fear i beat my machine it’s a part of me it’s inside of me the me that you know he had some second thoughts all pain disappears it’s the nature of my circuitry the me that you know he used to have feelings i can try to get away but i’ve strapped myself in hiding backwards inside of me i feel so unafraid…. –NIN, The Becoming
I’m using the wires to attach the glass to the metal. Originally uploaded by love not fear Got the metal cut, and a camera to record the results. Am going through letters again. Scanning the letters I rip up. Not sure how I feel about this yet. Cleaning glass, cutting wire, hammering holes with the awl, affixing glass to metal. Playing with the paints, too. As well as experiments with other rusty things. Stay tuned for progress.
Originally uploaded by love not fear The Original Gimp was over at my house the other night as I was completing another prototype. At his suggestion, I made one without wood, but instead used metal. His reasoning for the switch is that wood is too warm, but metal is cold, and the pieces seem to have a cold theme. I don’t think the theme is cold. Rational, yes. Clinical, maybe. While all loves are different, looking back with a clear and rational head into past relationships to learn what worked and what didn’t is a positive way to both honor what went before while building towards a successful and long-lasting relationship. The process lends itself to asking questions like, I wonder what she’s up to now? Asking the questions is fine, but making the call, dropping the email or doing a Google stalk is not and would probably be perceived as disruptive. I’m still trying to figure out how to apply all of these ideas to the actual finished artwork. I’ve figured out that I want to use metal as the background, and I think I also want to use wire to attach the glass to the metal, as showing in the new prototype. A problem that I tackled while making this prototype is how to attach the glass sandwiches to each other. I want the binding method to be transparent — no glue showing. I tried doing this by spreading the Superglue evenly across the glass, but it still dried somewhat opaquely. I know that Superglue makes a glue specifically for glass, so I need to go pick me up some of that. Todos
Get metal scraps Cut metal scraps Read new email and letters Oh, right. That reminds me. I found a new folder of letters and also figured out how to import all of my archived .mbox emails into a local mail client.
Originally uploaded by love not fear I finished the prototype last night. I’ve never approached making art in this way — making a prototype. Typically I go with first draft=final draft. But this series is important enough to play around a bit and figure out what works and what doesn’t. I’ll explore below what I’ve learned logistically during the process thus far. I generally like the way it turned out, but there are some obvious imperfections. I’m anxious to make another prototype to see how what I’ve learned from this one can be applied. Visually it looks good. I know I need to do a few things:
I’ll learn more about the process as I do it, I’m sure. A few questions I’m asking myself need to be worked out. The inclusion of paint comes from a suggestion that another artist gave me as I explained the idea to him, and I like the idea. I’m interested in what others have to say about how to execute this series. Please share any ideas in the comments.
It used to be that I’d do it once a year, and I always dreaded it. I had five of those CD binders because I’d thrown away all of my jewel boxes. I traveled a lot, and this was in the days before most of my music is digital.  I’m talking about, of course, the sorting of the CDs. Mine were sprawling out of their cases and scattered all over one of the shelves in my living room and generally contributing to a look of disaray. I loaded up iTunes with two episodes of This American life and set to work. One good thing, I told myself, is that I’ve since consolidated CDs to get rid of three out of the five binders, so the sorting should be less. I got all of them at least placed in the correct alphabetical piles, but actually alphabetizing them is for another day. Meantime, I found a handful of mix CDs that I haven’t listened to in years. I’ll load ‘em up in the car stereo and give them a spin over the next few days, but I thought you might appreciate some of the titles (not all mine). Do *you* have any good mix CD titles? Let me know in the comments.
photo by ChadBrooks on Flickr
Originally, I was shooting for a list of 100. I’ll experiment more with lists of 100 later, but for now, this is a good start. And no, I won’t just add to this list. If you want to donate anything to help me achieve any of these projects in 2008, please fell free by clicking the PayPal button below. Even a quarter would be great. Thanks, and have a great weekend. Yes, I realize blog references are excluded, so the list of 36 is incomplete. It was a brainstorm for cryin’ out loud.
Tags: art, art in missoula, artist, arts, creativity, journals, lists, processart, art in missoula, artist, arts, creativity, journals, lists, process |
I’ve been thinking about an art project of snippets of old letters under stacks of sandwiched glass mounted on wood. Details aren’t worked out yet, but here are some initial sketches of how the glass might be laid out, along with some notes. More as I progress on this. Doing data mining tonight.
when no one is talking and all is silent…
you can hear the crickets in the yard
rubbing their wings together to fill the uncomfortable silence…. [poem from an IM back in 2005]