New Work for Your Enjoyment

Astronomical 02. 13x10 inches. Mixed media on paper. 2010.

I just finished these two new works... Just in time for the Gathering at the Great Divide Art Festival in Breckenridge, Colorado. I will be hosting a booth there over Labor Day with these and quite a few additional original pieces for sale. I hope to see lots of art-lovers there (and I hope they like my stuff)!

Astronomical 01. 13x10 inches. Mixed media on paper. 2010.

Blind Contour Drawings

Blind contour drawing is my absolute favorite drawing technique. I could do blind contours exclusively for weeks on end, I think. I woke up in the middle of the night last night with an idea to shake things up for my drawing students. 

I asked them to all go into the hallway and lay down on the floor with their legs up the wall (viparita karani for all my yoga friends). Then they were asked to place their paper on the floor alongside their body, so they could look up and draw their feet without seeing their hand or their paper. 

I hope that by making drawing a physical activity—rather than a completely intellectual exercise—the process will be a little more fun and a little less intimidating for them. These are two of the blind contour drawings that were turned in at the end of class this morning.

Next week: gesture drawing.

Drawing and Making Mistakes

I’ve been teaching college design classes for years now, but this is my first semester teaching a beginning drawing class for freshmen and sophomores. I was/am excited and nervous — I want everything to go well, and I want the students to learn a lot and have fun! Of course, teaching a new class is always a learning experience, too — experimenting with sequencing, finding the best ways to demonstrate and verbalize ideas, realizing that what you thought would be easy for the students is actually difficult (and vice versa). As a teacher, you really have to react to what’s in front of you.

I did a blind contour drawing of Matt.

I knew that students would be self-conscious and afraid of making mistakes, even though I told them from the start that there really are no mistakes in drawing (except skipping class and not doing the assignments!). 

To try to loosen everyone up, I’m starting the semester off with blind contour drawings. What I like about this method of drawing is that the time frame is quick, and the resulting marks on the page are unimportant. The goal is for the student to get used to really, truly looking at the subject of their drawing. Some of the students found it impossible to avoid looking down at their paper even for 10 or 15 seconds!

Laurie Rosenwald’s website

Anyway, after the first class, one of the students emailed me. She said she thinks she needs to change her major because she can't draw... ! I was surprised by this, because (after all) she is in a beginning drawing class to learn just that! I wrote her back with some encouraging words and ended my note with, “I will see you on Thursday.” Needless to say, these kids are self-conscious and are afraid of doing something “wrong.”

A poster design by Laurie Rosenwald.

Serendipitously, I happened upon the design and art work of Laurie Rosenwald today. On her website, she talks about a workshop she teaches, entitled “How to Make Mistakes on Purpose.” Apparently, the specific content of the course is secret, and because of that I’m dying to go (of course)!

 A painting by Laurie Rosenwald.

My favorite line from her article about the workshop reads: ”If you try to be good, it will probably be bad. If you stop trying at all, it might be good. Or possibly dreadful. But if you are surprised, I will be, and that’s very good!”

I love this philosophy for my students, but I also need to remember it for myself... Because teaching should be a fun, creative, mind-boggling experience, too!

My Portable Gallery

If you read my blog regularly, you already know I’m preparing to host my first booth at an art festival over Labor Day weekend in Breckenridge, Colorado (Gathering at the Great Divide Art Festival). I’m trying to be a good yogini and maintain a calm, patient, relaxed state-of-mind through this whole process. It has been okay so far.

Matt and I spent this past weekend doing a test-run—putting everything together to see how complex the process is. We also wanted to find out if this is a set-up I can handle alone if need-be. I got a set of Pro Panels, and a canopy tent. The whole process was a lot easier than I expected, although I did psych myself up quite a bit because I expected it to be frustrating.

The main issue I can see is that the tent is really heavy. I'm not sure I can lug it around by myself (hurray for the hand-truck!). The Pro Panels were a breeze by comparison. Each panel is relatively lightweight, and they are easy to connect to one another. Taking everything down was even easier than putting it up.

This coming weekend, we're going to reassemble the whole thing for a true dress rehearsal, complete with artwork hanging in place. We want to time it to see how long the whole assembly/disassembly process takes. I’ll let you know how it goes.

Fresh Out of the Studio: A Triptych

Orange Geometric 01

Mixed media on paper. 7x10 inches. 2010.

I’ve been on a roll this week making new stuff. This triptych is meant to be seen side-by-side, along a wide horizon. There’s something about these that have a modern retro feel, I think...

Orange Geometric 02

Mixed media on paper. 7x10 inches. 2010.

Orange Geometric 03

Mixed media on paper. 7x10 inches. 2010.

I Dreamt of Things: A Tiny Plane

I dreamt I was on a tiny plane (apparently all the people were the sizes of Smurfs)... And the plane was in some kind of apartment, or office space, or something. After everyone boarded the tiny plane, it took off in the living room (or maybe the kitchen). But the plane just kept circling around the interior space of this building and couldn’t find a way out. Someone suggested that maybe there wasn’t enough power for the plane to exit the building. So the pilot ended up plugging the nose of the plane into an outlet at the top of a chandelier hanging from the ceiling. Only the chandelier wasn't a nice one, it was just a few incandescent light bulbs hanging down. The gist of this scene is an airplane plugged into an outlet at the top of a bald chandelier.

First Art Festival

Periscopes. Mixed media on paper. 10x7 inches. 2010.

I just got an official letter notifying me of my acceptance into the Labor Day Art Festival in Breckenridge, Colorado! The 34th Annual Gathering at the Great Divide Art Festival will be my first time on the art festival circuit, and I’m going to document the process. I’ll be running around like a crazy chicken for the next few weeks while I prepare! It will certainly be a learning experience.

Be sure to come talk to me and see my art in person (maybe buy a piece or two) over Labor Day weekend: September 4–6 at Wellington Rd. and N. Main Street in Breckenridge.

Western Wyoming Wildflowers

Fringed Grass-of-Parnassus

Found along the banks of Corral Creek

Along with the beautiful landscapes we saw in Wyoming last week came an abundance of stunning mountain and desert wildflowers. My camera has a pretty good macro setting so I can get good detail in shots of even the smallest flowers.

Yellow Monkeyflower

Found on bank of Corral Creek

I was looking for the names of some of these flowers (still didn’t find all the ones I was looking for), and came across a great archive of western U.S. wildflowers, along with their common and Latin names. If you’re trying to identify flowers you found somewhere, check here first.

Mountain Harebells

Meadow in Black Canyon

Fringed Gentian

Meadow in Black Canyon

Pipsissewa

Found on the floor of a pine forest

Black Canyon above Greys River, WY

Indian Blanket (or Firewheel)

Found along shoulder of US Hwy 191

South of Pinedale, WY

Unknown 

(AKA Bon Jovi Hair Flower. You’re welcome, Lindsey!)

Found in a meadow on the trail to White Pine Lake

Cache National Forest, UT

Greys River, Wyoming

White Pine Lake, Cache National Forest, Utah

To celebrate our 7th wedding anniversary, Matt and I planned a camping trip to Greys River in western Wyoming. On the way there, we spent two nights at Red Banks Campground in the Cache National Forest in northern Utah, near Logan (where we lived for a year in 2003-04). We returned to White Pine Lake almost exactly six years after the first time we hiked it. This time the sky was clear, so the photos came out better (above).

 Greys River. Bridger National Forest, Wyoming.

Greys River splits the Salt River and Wyoming Mountain Ranges, and empties into the Snake River at Alpine, Wyoming. It is mostly known as a world-class fly-fishing site. We aren’t fisher-people at all, but we still found more than enough to keep ourselves occupied throughout our time there.

Man Peak over Greys River after a morning storm.

Corral Creek leads into Greys River.

I think we easily could’ve spent another week exploring along the Greys River. What an amazing place, and a beautiful river. The weather is totally unpredictable—one minute dark clouds would roll in and thunder would rumble, and a few minutes later the sun would shine warm and bright. We saw a variety of wildlife including moose, wild horses, antelope, and deer. My favorite thing to do is hunt for wildflowers, so look for my next post with images of all the flowers we found. 

The Corral Creek Trail was my favorite.

The five nights we spent along the Greys River in Wyoming were spectacular, with the added bonus that the whole week-long trip cost us less than $350. Next time maybe we’ll splurge and get a cabin at the Box Y Ranch...

I Dreamt of Things: Bouncy Floor

I dreamt of a yoga room with the typical hardwood floors. Suspended about 8 inches above the floor was a bouncy, transparent film, pulled tight along the edges of the room. It looked like people were hovering over the floor when they walked. It was a little bit like an invisible trampoline.