Love Rising

That's what I think I'll name this quick little marker and watercolor piece. Remember that gorgeously thick paper I was trying markers and paint pens on? Well, I finally got some markers for me (though my kid's are thicker, and therefore better...) and a tin of cake watercolors too. It was really fun to just doodle and play around. I like what resulted, especially the effects of the sunlight as it was oozing through the blinds, and onto this painting. Makes for a really nice effect in the photo, I think.

And two more quickie watercolors. The flower was just off the top of my head, but for the butterfly, I used one of the illustrations from my kid's homework pages. In fact, there are about 4 butterflies that I have confiscated, and put in my clip art collection. I know I will be using them for reference, or for collage. If I had illustrations like that on my homework pages in second grade, I'm pretty sure my homework would have been really slow going!

He's Got A Rider....

the seahorse, that is. I created the mermaid with colored pencils and then exacto-ed her out and onto the seahorse and the main piece. I've included her 'naked' photo too...thought it was kinda cool the way the simplicity of her outline contrasted with the pencils. I snapped that one when trying to decide on colors for her body. It's coming along...

We'll have sunflowers...

and tomatoes and peppers and strawberries, if it ever gets warmer around here. The flowers I bought a couple of weeks ago are looking a bit bedraggled...too much wind and chill, I think, although the bird feeders are emptying out a record speeds, so the birds don't seem to mind.

Three of my Poems

Today I'm posting three poems that were all written earlier this year. My idea regarding my 'coffee table book' was originally to combine both my artwork and my poetry together visually. So far, I have only been able to do this in a few instances. So what I've decided to do is post my written work here-directly on my blog, and figure out later what visuals will accompany them. Sometimes when I am writing, the painting or pastel or collage has already been born, and my writing flows specific to the existing visuals Sometimes it is the other way around. The feeling takes over in the form of words, and the picture is created in the mind after the letters take shape in my verses.

This first poem is an acrostic. Acrostic poetry uses a word, or a phrase, and each letter of the word or phrase refers back to, or helps to 'tell the story' of the word or phrase. I posted "Unrequited", which was both a visual and written work of art by yours truly, and an acrostic.  This one is inspired by Friendship.

Feeling hope, joy and kindness in unison

Rays of warm connectivity bind

Insightful and shared visions of life.
Everlasting memory of happy camaraderie
Now a reminder of forgotten bliss, reawakened while I’m
Doing the creative work of love.



The next one was a contest entry and a response to the following prompt:

Prompt : "Wearing a mask...is so much the rule and the law among men that there is almost nothing which is less comprehensible than how an honest and pure drive for truth could have arisen among them. They are deeply immersed in illusions and in dream images; their eyes merely glide over the surface of things and see 'forms.'" ~ Friedrich Nietzsche


Intoxicated Devotion

Such an unhappy one he has been lately;
Brooding all the time about the love he thinks he’s lost.
Eyes cold blue, like frozen metal, burn her with accusation.
And although she has repeatedly asked him to come to his senses,
He cannot let it go. The form of her, he knows he’d seen that night.

Was it not her (his memory is her scent, permeating the space all around) at the tavern, sipping enthusiasm and feigning attentiveness?
Was it not her (he’d recognize that sing-song laugh anywhere) who accepted the token convenience store bought rose?
Was it not her (he knows the shape of her body, the flow of her hair down her back) who danced so tenuously, held in the arms of a man half his age?

It may be the whisky, strong and cut-throat, that blurs the vision of reality,

Making tainted reasoning his only truth.

Blaming makes it easier to accept that his true love beckons from the glass,

Teasing him to taste her whole.

While maudlin sentimentality warps true memory,

to favor a rose colored history.


And the last poem for today is one that I wrote back in January. It simply describes where I get some of the best inspiration - from within.

Inspiration

When the heart calls out –

silent screaming.

unnatural feeling,

wanting;
waiting in longing.

When the soul connects to
the unseen and yet felt –
there is quiet knowing,
emotions reeling;
Desire.

Waiting for another chance
to love
Myself.

So what did you think?  I always welcome constructive criticism, both on my artwork and poetry. I'm interested in learning more about technique -written and visual- because I've come to understand that my creative journey is a constantly shifting and expanding process. It is amazing to me how many people out there not only do ' a little something' to further their art everyday, but also write and/or journal daily. My favorite blogs tend to be those that incorporate both things - in the form of art journalling.
Do you have any favorite blogs that I should check out?

The seahorse is in!

The seahorse is decidely in. This guy was drawn directly onto scrapbooking paper that I thought had a cool ocean feel to it. I used colored pencils to accentuate. Gotta love my exacto for all this stuff.

I made another art noveau motif, but this time in cooler shades and using silver in the background. I am now out of silver paint pens. This paper is killer! It is so luxuriously thick, that it is screaming for water colors...and wouldn't ya know...there are none in my house at the moment. What happened to the gajillion kid watercolor sets I used to find all over the basement floor? "I don't know" is the answer I got today, so they are on my AC Moore list...for me.

You can see where the paint pen started skipping and running out of paint. Also, another difficulty of using paint pens with marker (or I imagine any other medium) is that it is difficult to cover the painted areas. These are small enough that it is no big deal, and will probably be covered in part by other pieces in the 'big picture'. I'm looking forward to getting some watercolors and seeing the end results using this paper. Definitely not something I'll use often, but I think the textures it creates have a nice accenting effect.

Some new collages in the works

I'm posting some bits and pieces of two pieces that I'm in the process of creating. I'm thinking this is a better way (and probably much more motivating to me) to post these as I go...I know-that's what I said I was going to do from the get go-but it seems I keep waiting till stuff is done to post. So, turning a new leaf today, and going to try and post as I go. We'll see how this works out.

This is how I usually start my collages, if I paste them to a book cover. This cover was chosen because of it's really cool squiggly edges (and plus, it was one of those kids books that hasn't been read in quite some time, and the binding was broken). I used tissue paper to cover all, and will glue my sea plants down. It will be an underwater scene with a mermaid, or seahorse, or both, not sure yet, and some cool RHCP lyrics. Actually the lyric inspired the piece. I like that the words from the book summary are showing through. OOGLIES! OOGLIES!

This is an art nouveau motif that I designed on very thick water color paper. My idea was to put the image down using old water-color colored pencils that I have, then wash over them to get the color to pop. No dice. The paper is so thick, that I couldn't really get the color down without the paper ripping. As it turns out, this paper loves marker, and paint pens...perfect for an art noveau look. The clip art woman is a Gibson girl! She and her friends below I hand colored with pencils and will probably use them in the same composition with the art noveau motif. Kind of like a tree of life thing, but not really sure yet...though I do plan on incorporating one of my poems into the piece. That was another original intention I had when I first though about 'coffee table book' about a year ago- to combine original poems and verses with my art work.

And these chicks are too cool not to incorporate into something! I used colors that are counter-intuitive (green skin, purple hair...) not just to make the viewer really take a look at them, but because, they may be 'flowers' in some landscape. They are clip art , so hey, there's plenty more where they came from.

My macabre answer

to a recent prompt on my favorite poet's page. It was for the word UNREQUITED, and it was supposed to be an acrostic poem. Of course, after I really looked up the definition of an acrostic, I realized that I could have used some more words per line, but screw it. The minimalist, hard core approach with which I created this beauty is totally in line with my mindset for several weeks. On top of the NEVER ENDING sickness in my household, I've also got a shitload of home maintenance problems...and it just started to get warm folks! Won't even brooch the 'happiness on the homefront' issues (not). sooooo, anyway.....this is what I got...

creepy, right! Yes! I like it too, I mean really...as far as composition goes, I think it really works, and it was fun as hell to create. It ain't pretty folks, but art often isn't. It helped me to see that I need to get back to my collaging efforts. I seem to have more fun with them, and all in all, I'm able to be quite more expressive.

On a brighter note, despite the recent shitstorm, I'm getting into shape and am consistently losing weight. So that's one really good thing. As long as the weather continues like it has been, I can schlep my kids with me to the reservoir, (or to the YMCA, in any event). Will try for something a bit more cheerful next post - but I'm not promising anything. :)

OwningPink

OwningPink

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