October 25, 2012 - Honeybee

I think I might just have to do images of insects for the rest of my pieces.  I highly enjoyed doing
this one.  Coincidentally, the first image I did in my drawing series was of a honeybee as well.  In
that post I wrote about the history of them and how their hardworking tendencies were monastic in
nature.  I also think I wrote about the mystery of the honeybees disappearing and how sad I think
this is.  I mentioned that one of the theories was that it was the cell phone towers- how the signals
mess with their ability to return to the hive.  I've heard in the meantime that now the experts are
saying it's the pesticides that we use.  Whatever the case, we should revere the hardworking,
amazing honeybee for as long as we can.  I find it hard to imagine living in a world where
honeybees and honey don't exist.

Painting #20
16" x 20"
Mixed Media on clayboard

October 11, 2012 - Grasshopper

I did a drawing of this grasshopper in my daily drawing series.  It was really fun to translate it into
a painting.  I worked on it from looking at my initial drawing and it was interesting to translate my
own work into, well, my own work again in a larger format.  It was a nice technical piece to get
me away from my recently discovered indecision about what kind of work I want to create.  I have
a tendency to overthink my art.  Didn't I learn anything from my daily drawing project?  When
I did that, I didn't have time to question my work and what I was going to do- I simply did it.  With
this bi-monthly project, I've harkened back to the olden days of overthinking and questioning  everything I do thats art related.  Silly things like:  Is this good enough?  Will people like it?  What
am I doing?  Do I have a direction?  A theme?  Is this art?  And so on.  I wonder if now that I've just realized this as I've been typing that this will change in the future.  I guess that's up to me.

Painting #19
16" x 20"
Mixed Media on board

September 27, 2012 - Third Time's a Charm

This is the third time I've worked with this image hence the title.  It's a photograph I took while
visiting my parents in Shelter Cove.  I've always loved this image.  I did a painting of this the
first time for a solo exhibition I had called "Treescapes".  It was one of the first paintings I did in
the series that ended up selling.  While I was glad to have found a home for it, I admittedly kind
of missed it.  So I did a small drawing of it during my daily drawing project which looks really
similar to this.  Then I decided I wanted a painting of it to hang in my house so I did another
version than the one I sold and here it is.  I've worked with the shape of this tree so much that I almost have it memorized.  I really like this painting- I think it's magical.  I was going to work
with collage this week but I just wasn't in the mood.  Maybe next time.  For now, this will have to
suffice. 

Painting #18
16" x 20"
Mixed Media on board

September 13, 2012 - Incarnation II

This is the second part of the piece I did a couple weeks ago.  It's a
mixed media collage piece similar to the last post.   It's made out
of old wallpaper samples from the seventies and mounted on a canvas
I painted.  I think 2 is enough of this style, but I'd like to work more with
collage and mixed media.  I've always loved collage and have done it
since I was a kid.  Sometimes I get stuck on whether it's a valid art form
but that's ridiculous- of course it is.  Some of my favorite artists worked
in this way.  I don't know why I apply self-imposed rules to my art at all-
I think if I loosened up it would probably get better.  The daily drawing
project I did last year while honing my skill has now made me confused
about what my style is.  In that project I learned how to draw what I saw.
But each piece was so small and technically precise that now I'm not sure
how to translate this into larger work.  This painting project has made
me realize I'm in a transition phase artwise.  I need to loosen up.
I have no idea what I'm going to do for my next piece.  It really will be a
surprise.

Painting #17
12" x 16"
Mixed Media on canvas

August 30, 2012 - Incarnation

The first image is the way I intended this experimental incarnation.  Then
I flipped it around and thought it looked interesting that way as well.  So,
I decided to show both.  This is a mixed media collage piece and I really
enjoyed working on it.  I've been talking about wanting to do something
different for awhile and I'm glad I did.  It's made out of old wallpaper
samples from the seventies and mounted on a canvas I painted.  It was
a thoughtful way to work - cutting out shapes, deciding which ones use
and moving them around the canvas until I felt they could be secured
onto the surface.  I'm pretty happy with it and think I'll do another.

Painting #16
18" x 24"
Mixed Media on canvas

August 16, 2012 - Raccoon

This week I did something a little different.  I did this one as a drawing on a
piece of raw birch.  I had planned on painting into it, but decided I liked the
way it looked on plain, unfinished wood.  I thought of doing a raccoon because
I dreamt of them a couple weeks ago.  It wasn't the most pleasant dream
actually- they were nipping at me to get at some food I was trying to give them
but when I woke up I the first thing I thought of were raccoons.  I know they
can be somewhat aggressive at times but I still think they're cute.  I think
they're most appealing when a family of them climbs down a tree at night
to forage for food.  I've seen this a couple times and they'll be climbing down-
usually one mother and four or five kids, and when they realize they've been
seen they'll freeze.  This is when you can really check them out because you
can see the wheels in their heads turning and probably thinking "go back up
or continue going down?"  In both cases, they stopped, then decided that going
down was their best option so they started moving again towards their mission.

Painting #15
12" x 16"
graphite on birch

August 2, 2012 - Flamingo

I'm just back from being out of town and can't believe it's August already.
I've barely gone swimming this year yet and once more, the days are
getting shorter and the end of summer looms on the not so distant horizon.
How can this be again?  I'm constantly surprised at how rapidly time passes.
I try really hard to stay in the moment, but yet find myself flashing into the
future.  I can't help it.  At my job, I'm scheduling things that are taking
place in March 2013 and my head is already in the fall.  Our school starts in
3 weeks in fact.  I used to talk about this a lot during my daily drawing
project but it's still a subject that resurfaces constantly.  I guess it's a question
of balance:  Enjoy every moment of each day and keep the future in mind.

Painting #14
16" x 20"
mixed media