The Base for My Upcoming Installation: A New Drawing Device

This is the third iteration of a base for my installation. I think this one is going to be the winner!

Today’s Project: Shadow Play #01

Finally! After at least a month of non-stop rain, it’s #sunny! I’ve been collecting #shadow images of my #dogs for a while now. This is the first set of shadow #stencils from today’s work. Gotta try some different surfaces and color combinations. #shadow #art #sun #dogs #stencil

Sketches for My Next Drawing Device

As always, I have a ton of ideas spinning around in my head… I met with glass artist Amanda McDonald yesterday about the vessels we’re going to make for my next drawing device. If all goes according to plan, it’s going to be ahhhhmazing! We’re doing a test run in a few weeks, then (fingers crossed) we’ll go into production. My show in June isn’t going to make itself! #madewithpaper #glass art #installation 5 notes

Clare Leighton. Depression Era Wood Engraver and Printer

Clare Leighton. Depression era wood engraver and printer. Her depictions of urban poverty and desperation are contrasted by other images that reflect a nostalgia for farm life. #Clare Leighton #Engraving #landscape #art #depression era

American Landscape Painting in the 1800s

I’ve been reading a lot about Americans’ attitudes towards landscape/nature over the past 200-ish years. In the 1700’s it seems that painting landscape just wasn’t something that was considered acceptable. It wasn’t until the very late 1700’s that Americans realized that they had something uniquely different from Europe, and they began to (sort-of) celebrate it. Romanticism was in its heyday during the first half of the 19th Century, and the paintings pictured above were created during this time. Many artists during this time wanted to celebrate pastoral nature, the agrarian landscape, evidence of the people’s control over the land for production purposes. They weren’t quite ready, it seems, to depict full-blown wilderness in a positive light, as it was still dangerous and frightening. In these images, we see lots of human activity on the fringes between wilderness and civilization. Urban development was looked down upon as well as wilderness. The rural farm life was seen as the most virtuous. Cities and industry were depicted far in the distance, with these pastoral and leisurely images in the foregrounds. Picnics and farms were common subjects during this era. #landscape #painting #art #America #Thomas Cole #Winslow Homer #Alvan Fisher #PNCAmfa

Drawing in a Friendship Garden

I created this afternoon intervention in the park today. I loved the meditation of walking around and around this tree to envelop it with my attention. Then the meditation continued afterwards as I walked around the tree an equal number of times to disassemble the piece. #contemporary art #installation #nature #landscape 9 notes

The Drawing that Makes Itself — Variation 07

Here are some more images from my recent series of Drawings That Make Themselves in the Sierra National Forest in California. That granite is such a great substrate for the drawings. I would love to go back and do more of these drawings sometime.

Variation number 07 was about how the liquid transfers from one surface angle to another.

The Drawing that Makes Itself — Variation 06

For this variation, I decided to see how the drawing would look when I mix colors. Having all the extra liquid also created a much bigger drawing. I enjoyed the longer, more meditative process.

This is my favorite set from the Drawings That Make Themselves. I am really excited that they were chosen for the Tool at Hand PDX exhibition at The Museum of Contemporary Craft in Portland. Check out the images in person before the end of January 2014!

The Drawing that Makes Itself — Variation 05

This is number 05 in a series of ephemeral landscape drawings that make themselves. I love setting something free and seeing how it behaves on its own — like a controlled chaos almost. 

I'm getting more and more excited about working outside in the landscape. Interjecting artificial, almost psychedelic colors into an environment filled with earth tones creates a tension that reflects the collision of urban civilization and natural landscapes. I created these drawings in the Sierra National Forest just south of Yosemite.

The Drawing that Makes Itself — Variation 04

This series of photos documents the process of creating The Drawing that Makes Itself - Variation 04.

My Beginning Drawing Students Rocked This Semester!

Brandon Smith

Jessica Weidner

Anthony Via

Dylan Svaldi

Doug Martin

Oops, I can't remember who did this awesome gesture drawing!