Illustration Friday - Golden

Unfolding

20 x 20

Acrylic on Gallery Wrapped Canvas

It just worked out that a painting I was finishing up this week also happened to work moderately well for this weeks Illustration Friday prompt "Golden".  This painting started out as an assignment for my painting students.  The object of the assignment was to create a collage out of found images and then to use that collage as the starting reference for a painting.  The result is that the final image has the feel of a collage but has no mixed media in the final work.   We spent a lot of time talking about how images that seem to have no relationship to each other can be combined to create new meaning.

Illustration Friday - Retro

Boxed Collage

Part of a larger assemblage.

full image of completed work to come

Illustration Friday - Voyage

Stories I Tell Myself About Reality

8 x 8

Acrylic and collage on box panel

After a long absence, I am returning to my blog and weekly Illustration Friday submissions.  The last year and a half has been (and continues to be) a long and arduous voyage, full of loss, fear, disappointment, guilt, and unexpected moments of hope and courage.  We experience life as an ongoing narrative that we tell ourselves to explain how events fit into our personal story.  I like the metaphorical strength of collage as a narrative device and hope to produce an ongoing series of collage works based on the theme "Stories I Tell Myself."  

I feel like Odysseus..... 

Illustration Friday - Space and the Everson's 60/60 Event

Blue Tree 2

9 x 12 inches

Pastel on Pastelboard

 

 As promised I am posting the artwork that I completed for the Everson Museum of Art's 60/60 event in Syracuse, NY.  Happily the image also worked pretty well for this weeks Illustration Friday topic.  I have painted this tree before in a much larger acrylic on canvas version, so I decided that I was comfortable enough with the image to feel like I could complete a smaller pastel version in a 60 minute time frame. I chose to use pastels so that I wouldn't have to worry about paint drying (or not drying) due to the weather and humidity.  I did take the risk of working with my brand spanking new set of Pan Pastels that I had purchased just that morning.  I have never used them before, and they are absolutely yummy.  They lay down intense color extremely well without using up the tooth of your surface and they blend beautifully.  I also used NuPastels by Prismacolor and a few Rembrandt soft pastels.  The finished painting was raffled off at the end of the event as part the museum fundraiser.

Even though the focal point of the image is the tree, it is its isolation in space that has always drawn me to it.  This is a tree that is in a field near my previous home in Texas.  I drove by it frequently and stopped to take pictures of it throughout every season of the year.  So not only have I photographed it repeatedly, but I also seem compelled to return to it as subject matter in my art.  I supposed it is a self portrait of sorts.  I'll let you sort out the psychological meaning of it all.  Below is the acrylic painting that I completed last year.

Blue Tree

36 x 48 inches

Acrylic on Canvas

Illustration Friday - Secret

Secrets

approximately 28 x 14 inches

mixed media on paper with digital editing

I have a fondness for images that leave a large amount of detail to the imagination.  They hold secrets that can only be whispered in the imagination.  This is a digital enhancement of a large mixed media drawing that I completed about October of last year.  Is there a secret between these girls, or the birds at their feet?  What are the untold details of story, time, and setting?  I feel like I could write a whole book based on this image alone, but I think I will keep it a secret. :)

On a less secretive note: the move from Texas to New York has gone relatively smoothly.  I completed my Masters of Art in Art Education degree in May, and am now in a full swing job hunt for a new teaching gig in NY.  I am just beginning to find time to create some new work, and to dip my toes in the Central New York art scene.  Next Friday I will be participating in an event called 60/60 at the Everson Art Museum in Syracuse.  Sixty artists will create sixty individual works of arts in a 60 minute time period.  The artworks will then be raffled off as a fund raiser for the museum. I am looking forward to the event but I am also a little nervous about completing a finished work in such a short time period. I plan to spend much of this coming week prepping as much as possible and solidifying an idea for the composition.  I'll be sure to post a picture of the finished piece after the event next week

Illustration Friday - Return

Balance 4

acrylic and mixed media collage on canvas

48 x 36 inches

A return to Illustration Friday after a somewhat lengthy absence.  A return to and overdue completion of another piece in my "Balance" series.  In a little over a week I will return to my beloved Texas for my Master of Arts in Art Education final exhibit and presentation at Stephen F Austin State University.  It is a return for me because in the course of this semester I have managed to sell my house and farm in East Texas and move to the charming village of Baldwinsville in Upstate New York.  Big changes all around!

Illustration Friday - Silent

Conceptual Self Portrait

acrylic and collage on board

5 x 7 (unframed)

This week's Illustration Friday topic is a bit more introspective and philosophical so I decided that this conceptual self portrait, completed about a week ago, worked perfectly.  The quote that came with this weeks topic is by Emily Carr: "I think that one's art is a growth inside one.  I do not think one can explain growth.  It is silent and subtle.  One does not keep digging up a plant to see how it grows."  

I also completed a more traditional self portrait image recently.  This one is colored pencil on a primed panel behind mirrored glass.  I made a comment recently in a class that I hate pink.  I realized after I said it that I really don't hate pink, it is just a difficult color to use effectively, and I hate seeing it used badly or without purpose or thought..  So... I decide to make a few pieces where pink is a dominant/important element.  I like the kitsch of the pink painted frames. Click on the images if you would like to see them larger.

Migraine

colored pencil on panel with mirrored glass

19.5 x 12.5 (framed)

Illustration Friday - Scattered

Scattered Influences

mixed media collage on panel

12 in x 12 in

I have been thinking a lot lately about what influences art and artists.  I have also been thinking quite a bit about what makes an image iconic, how iconography affects the way we interpret images, and the impact of unexpected juxtapositions.  I don't think I will say more than that today.  Collages can be so metaphorically rich that I will let you all sort this one out for yourselves.

In case that is not enough, here are a few more.  All are 8 x 8 inches on panel

Illustration Friday - Ferocious

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I'm a Lover, Not a Fighter

15 x 24

Pastel on Paper

This is Romeo the Papillon .  He was once accused of being ferocious at the pet store because he growled at a much bigger dog that was eyeballing him.  The owner of the bigger dog became nearly hysterical and proclaimed to everyone within earshot "That dog needs a muzzle!"  Romeo is more than happy to stay home on the couch, big ferocious dog that he is.  He has also been accused of being a humming bird.  I think that is a better description.  He is constantly in motion.  This was one of the few times that he held still long enough for me to capture a quick likeness.

Illustration Friday - Disguise

3.5 x 2.5 inches ATC

watercolor, pen, marker, colored pencil

A Sad Portrait for an ATC swap I am participating in also worked for this week's Illustration Friday.  Sometimes the disguise goes deeper than the costume and face paint. Makes me think about the disguises we wear on a daily basis.

Illustration Friday - Gesture

Gustavo Dudamel

Watercolor, pen, colored pencil

2.5 x 3.5 inches ATC

Perhaps a strange image for this weeks Illustration Friday.  I started out drawing a current portrait image of the young but definitely adult music conductor Gustavo Dudamel.  He has such an exuberant and childlike natural quality that I couldn't help but turn him back into a young boy.  He has after all been conducting orchestras since he was 12 years old.  If you have not heard of this talented young man before, please take a few minutes to view the following videos.  He is the prince of passionate and creative gestures, and you can't help but like him. 

 

60 minutes also had a segment about Gustavo.

I only learned of Gustavo after searching for images of conductors to develop my idea for this week's illustrations.  I was first drawn in by that fantastic curly hair!