Summer ends, School begins

Summer has sadly ended and the school year has begun.  But before I had to go back to my regular scheduled program of being an art educator,  I was able to have some architecture/ art fun with one of my best buds, John. We explored the Architecture and Design Museum, where they had designs of buildings that were proposed for various locations in Los Angeles, but were never accepted.  Some of the design concepts were extremely futuristic, but it gave an interesting perspective of what LA could have possibly looked like.   During our adventure we saw the Wall Project, which are grafitti'd portions of the Berlin Wall.  It was really cool seeing it up close.  I remember being in middle school when my brother told me he was helping with taking the Berlin Wall down.  I thought it was the coolest thing that he was apart of a historical moment.

Then we went to the Geffen Contemporary, where we saw a great Architecture exhibit.  The structure below was one of my favorites.  It looked like it was made of the mesh material from lawn chairs and light/patterns were projected onto it.  Standing in the structure had a calming effect.

 

In August, I was asked to show my work at the Santa Ana Art Walk with the Orange County Creatives Gallery.  They did a really nice blog write up about me. Orange County Creatives

 I wasn't sure what to expect, but it turned out to be a good experience. The gallery was extremely busy the whole night.  I seemed to attract a lot of visitors and I met a lot of interesting people. 

 

 

It has just been confirmed that I will be there again on Saturday, October 5th!

 

 

As for making things, I had made a lot of new Mizzles and Mermizzles for the show, but I have been working on a few paintings here and there.  Since Operation Relocation, a lot of the Mizzles have been exploring the beach life along with me. 

This first one is not one of my favorites.  It still needs a lot of work and turned out to be more yellow than I had planned.  I might have to redo this piece, but I thought it would be fun if the Mizzles had a beach bonfire.

After looking at this piece on the computer screen, I feel if the background was darken more then perhaps it would unify the piece more.

 This piece was a commission from one of my new neighbors.  She bought a Mermizzle for a friend's baby and wanted an artwork to go along with it.  This is probably one of my favorite pieces.  I have a lot of fun drawing the Mizzles exploring underwater life and meeting sea creatures.  I began by inking the outlines of the characters with a .18 rapidograph.

Then I used Derwent Inktense pencils to paint the foundation colors for each character.

  I used regular watercolor paint to develop the shadows and background.

 I mounted it to a 4"x 12" canvas and coated it with gel medium to seal it all in.

 This is the doll and painting together.  Since I loved it so much, I plan on recreating it. Hopefully, I can remember the correct color schemes I used.

 

I seem to finally be in a good place to begin working on my book again.  I spent the last weekend working on a few pages.  I'm trying to not let life get in the way of my goals.

 

 

Beach life

Since "Operation: Relocation", I have been enjoying my new life...the beach life.  I find it very surreal.  It is not something I'm used to, but I'm becoming very accustomed to it quickly!  I have been enjoying my runs/walks on the beach with my occasional shell collecting; riding my rust-bucket bike; hanging out with my new neighbors; listening to lots of music; and making art.

This has been my life:

My first time at the US Open of Surfing

The crowd after the Modest Mouse concert @ US Open

The trees around here are amazing!

Favorite part of my workout is taking my shoes off and then walking in the water.

I love these birds.  Someone told me it's called a Long Billed Curlew. 

Hiking Bolsa Chica wetlands

more of the wetlands

If you look closely, you will see a squirrel friend :)

Listening to local band, The Originalites

As for my artwork, I've been working on random things.  It's been a bit challenging to get into a work habit that has been successful for me.  I know when I'm like this it means I'll be producing some of my "bad and ugly" artwork.  So, I decided to just paint.  I had attended the Kustom Kulture exhibit at the Huntington Beach Art Center.  Here were some of my favorites:

Mark Ryden

Audrey Kawasaki

Shag

The Pizz

I decided that my first painting would be a reproduction of the Tiki guys in the car.  I bought myself a travel watercolor set.  I'm so used to using watercolor pencils that I needed practice.

Here are some other paintings and drawings I've been working on:

a daily sketch

A sketching day with my best bud, John.

Wow, my perspective is off.

The past few days I've been finding solace drawing in the courtyard of my complex.  This is becoming a favorite spot of mine, especially because my neighbor has been having band practice or playing around with his music.  It's like having a private concert each day.

Operation Relocation

I have always wanted to live by the beach.  My fondest childhood memories occurred at the beach.  I was always happiest when I was at the beach, but who isn't? But life has seemed to lead me farther and farther from the beach.  I know I was never really that far from the beach, but it felt far.  It just seemed time to make what I wanted happen.  With that in mind, I began my adventure looking for a new place.  It seemed that the universe was thrilled with my idea of moving to the beach because within a few days of searching I found a great home near the beach.  It is amazing how different I feel.  Being able to get up in the morning and run on the beach has become a dream come true. Side note: Sand is colder than the water in the morning.

Life has been absolutely wonderful so far. I sometimes feel like I've moved to a completely different world.

I haven't had time to paint or draw in the past few months, but now that I'm finally settled, I have worked on a few things.  I am participating in the Brooklyn Art Museum Painting Pal Exchange.  I received a 4x4 canvas to draw or paint on.  I decided to paint about my move to the beach.  Here are the Mizzles enjoying their time at the beach.

Next, I will be working on a large 3' x 4' canvas.  This is inspired by the "man-cave" that is in the garage below me, which reminded me of the dogs playing poker painting.  This painting is clearly not for the kids.  Here are the Mizzles drinking and playing a game of poker.

Poet Nancy Wood

I was talking to a former student a few weeks ago.  Somehow we got onto the subject of my paintings in college.  One was a fabric collage with paint and dream catchers attached.  It was based on one of my favorite poems by Nancy Wood.  It is called The Four Sisters of Everlasting Beauty.

But I have another poem of hers that is my absolute favorite.

Why the Great Spirit Made Hands

The Great Spirit made hands before he made
     eyes or feet, so people could learn to hold
     one another. Hands were useful for touching
     the hard ribs of trees or the soft tongues of flower petals.
     Hands discovered the dry uncertainty of snakes, the
     slipperiness of fish, the mystery of feather. Hands found
Other hands and clasped together to embrace the oncoming world,
     unafraid. Two pairs of hands, burned by fire and cooled
     by water, felt their way along unfamiliar paths and then
     reached out and found they needed one another
     to make a home in the wilderness of their minds.