Ok, that's enough pixels for right now.

I was on a digital binge for the last several days.  I kept getting ideas that I wanted to try..."I'll scan this thing here, then I can make that" and so forth.  Something about working at my computer too much makes me want to pull out some brushes and paint and use my hands, so I think this is the end of the digital and drawn pieces for the moment.

Dotted lines (or are these dashed lines?) are so interesting.  They can instruct (cut here) or show the hidden part of something in a diagram.  Or they show where to draw the top of the lowercase letters when you're learning how to write.  And they remind me of hand sewing, too.  What more can you want from a line?

Roses again

Another new piece...drawn, scanned, colored, collaged, etc.  

I tend to start drawing in my sketchbook without thinking too much about why I'm drawn to a particular subject or image.  Once I'm going back through my recent sketches for something to work from, I give a little more thought to what it is that caught my attention.  For example, the subject of gardening in general is really interesting to me right now--planting and transplanting, pruning away something to make a stronger plant or a better flower.  I feel like moving away from where I grew up is making all these things resonate for me at the moment.

As far as why I want to draw and work with roses the past few weeks, I think that's more specifically about leaving my roses in the old garden.  I'll start a new rose garden here and I'm starting to look for places I can buy the roses I planted before.  It's still sad to leave them there, of course.

Side note:  I prefer to grow old-fashioned or old-fashioned looking roses.  However, I think the modern shaped roses read better as line drawings, as here.

Goodbye to the garden

When we went back to the old house this weekend to pick up the last of our stuff, this is what it looked like outside.  I think it might make it easier to say goodbye to a garden when it's under a foot of solid ice than if it were in mid-June bloom.  This winter has been completely horrible--you can see a where some of the tree branches broke off from all the snow.

I realized after writing about how much I like white translucent frosted surfaces to draw and paint on that the new light I installed above the dining table is, well, you know.  I wired this myself and I think my first electrical project turned out quite well.

Working away

The studio is inching ever closer to being properly usable.  Our movers helpfully left our vacuum at the old house, so after we go back and get the last of our stuff this weekend I can vacuum all the dust and pencil shavings out of my flat file and get it organized.  If the studio ever strikes me as looking good enough to take a picture of, I will, but for now it's still kind of a travesty.

I did, however, actually sit in my studio at the table and paint last night.  Not at the dining room table, or on my lap somewhere else, but really and truly in the studio.  I'm not even sure how long I was there--at least a few hours--but it felt like no time at all.  When we chose this house, I was hoping the studio would be a place I would feel productive.  So far, even with a bit of clutter still seeking a permanent home, it does.  My old studio room was so small as to be almost unusable once I had all my supplies in it.  I would end up doing prep work in there and then bring my actual work out to the kitchen table.  It's a lot easier to get distracted out in the main part of the house.

Now I have a room with everything in it, including my easel and table set up plus the flat file (which takes up a fair amount of real estate on the floor) and I can still walk around everything.  I feel pretty spoiled.

Progress report; or, works in progress

I'm trying to remember to scan more of my drawings before I paint over them.  Then I have more options to do something else later, without having to redraw an image.

Still playing with Yupo, which if you don't know is a "paper" made of plastic.  I can't get enough of frosted translucent surfaces...I went from colored pencil on frosted Mylar to Yupo.  These two drawings are on a slightly heavier weight Yupo than the previous images.  It seems to grab more of the graphite and requires an even lighter touch to get a nice variation in the line quality.  I'm still working out how to approach it.  I would have thought that, being plastic, the surfaces of the two different weights would be identical, but that the lighter weight would be more transparent.  But it seems like the actual surfaces feel a little different, too.  

I suppose it doesn't matter too much.  I treat pretty much every piece as an experiment anyway.

Pimp my studio (or whatever the hip kids would say)

This weekend, I brought home a new (to me) flat file for my studio.  I've been wanting one for years--so many of my drawings and papers and mat boards have to be rolled or sandwiched in foam board and leaned against the wall that this is going to make a huge difference for the new studio.  

Picking it up was interesting...not because it was particularly difficult to move, but because the person selling it lived in one of those artist lofts that are almost a stereotype:  urban, downtown, ex-warehouse building, tall ceilings/windows, etc.  I felt kind of a weird freshman-among-seniors vibe (if that makes sense).  Like these people are all Real Artists because they live in Lofts in a Gritty Urban Area and they are Serious.  I can visit cities, but I don't want to live there.  I grew up wandering around in the woods and I need open space (and my horse who doubles as my therapist).  So the timing of this article (via Garden Rant) was fortunate.  Not that cities are necessarily bad, but I felt a little more justified in my decision to live and work where I do.

In other news, it snowed yesterday.  I'm annoyed that it snowed but considering that this is what it looked like in Spokane (below) around the time we left a few weeks ago, I think I can handle an inch.

I was there and now I'm here.

So I was too unhappy about moving and leaving school to feel like blogging or worrying about anything but the essentials, but here's the scoop:  I don't live in the Spokane area now, I live in the Seattle area.  In a new house with lots of space for the horse (who will be coming over later) and a brand new garden.  I left the BFA program I was in and will be getting a BA in studio art instead.  I'm not sure how I feel about all this yet (even though I knew it was coming).  

But I have a bigger studio space, which I'm getting set up.  I bought a really nice used Epson Stylus Pro 4000 printer and I'm making new work, both digital and, y'know, with like paint and stuff.  So it's going to be ok.  It's weird right now though.

These are a few of my newer pieces...more on my website.