Moleskine June 2009-April 2010

I figure it's been a while since I posted a sketchbook update.  I'm going to start casually drawing more, so here's a dump of what's gone into the sketchbook between the last time I was using it a lot (see Fabriano 2008-2009) and the next run (which will start tomorrow.)

 The untitled title page of the moleskine.

 I began writing as much as drawing in this sketchbook.  I find I need both languages to be honest in my expressions.

keys.  I obsessed over their forms for a week, nothing visually successful came of it, except this drawing.  

Now I can identify the keys on my chain by the pattern of their teeth.

I was thinking about Da Vinci for a while (see lung drawings)

but I don't remember what old Roman architecture had to do with it.

Man on the bus.  Liked his hat.

Maya Lin at the PaceWildenstein Gallery.  Maya Lin used to be controversial.  You know why?  Janet Kaplan told me a lot of old white guys were uncomfortable with the fact that a design made by "an Oriental" won the contestfor the government-funded Vietnam Memorial.

getting my mind out of the city

I'm on vacation.  Well, my body is still walking down the parkway to school every day, but in the studio I am walking through the woods behind my house in Maine, watching my mother tend her gardens, thinking of the colors of the late afternoon in Umbria two springs ago, and peering at the sky through the cherry blossoms of April.  And I'm wondering if the result of all this pretty and happy will be too precious or trite.  I guess I have every reason to revel in real beauty--this art isn't a brain twister or a solution to the world's problems, but perhaps it's a positive experience for my viewer and that is enough right now?

What I Have, What I Dream Of continued

it became clear about halfway through this process that a single layer wasn't going to allow me to express my understanding of the complex relationship between city and nature. Once I cut the original images into strips and situated them on top of one another (see last post of this piece) and then began to work back into the image as a whole (this post) I came to see this piece as a metaphor for the upward motion of the city.

The base layer of this work, upon which all the maps and geometric fields rest, can be interpreted as nature, before any human altered it. The rest of the composition is supported by that layer, and as your eye moves towards the uppermost drawings you may notice how simple, geometric, and sparse they become. In only two or three areas did I allow the eye to perceive clearly the organic that exists beneath all the gridwork, and I imagine these areas to be reminders--what if we were to lift up a stretch of the city and remember again everything wild that lives down there?

This blueprint is representative of how I perceive the city. If one were able to slice it into vertical strata, the lowest layer would be the richest and most organic, and the highest layer would only include empty air and the rectangles of the highest buildings. Everything in between would be defined in terms of the spectrum set up by the lowest and highest layer.

15 minute sketch of my awesome red table and chair and best friend

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lungs, cells, and other dark wet things

the progress is as follows

Line as Sculpture

here's where the lines as sculptures idea took me

Mardi Gras

"Overgrowth." The ink drawing in this watercolor just poured out late two nights ago, as if my brain just needed a good rinse before I called it a day. I've always considered myself a morning person, so it's strange that I've made a habit of doing outside-of-my-sketchbook stuff at night. Perhaps it has something to do with the Nanny job I've had this summer, which has given a whole new excitement to solitude.

I think I could have planned more carefully the colors, maybe restricted my palette a bit, because I didn't intend the Mardi Gras effect. Oh well. My Mommy liked it.

AS OF 9/20: THIS WORK TO BE SOLD AT THE 10X10 SHOW BRUNSWICK, MAINE. FOR MORE INFORMATION CONTACT ME.

Beyond the Map

when i closed my eyes a few nights ago I saw this pattern on the insides of my eyelids...blue interlocking blobs with four tentacles each, and one green one. i had to make note of it, in case it turned into anything. it turned into this tree. i finished this piece before i even went back to sleep that night. it should be called something like "taking off" or "the exciting unknown" or "up and out" but without the cliche-ness. It both got me out of my dry spell from artwork and made me think of how little I've planned past the next two years, which is more appealing than scary at the moment. I think the swingless swinger agrees.

SOLD October 2009

Emily and the Pie

i've been working on stuff, I have, I just haven't had scanner access because something ain't right with the old scanner. So an update on what I've been up to will be aired over the next few days. five new pieces, and here's the first.

just something fun I did to please my sister. adobe illustrator and photoshop.

quandaries and acceptance

I think this one is about being proud of what I have done and can do. It just happened today when I was going through photos from my first black and white photography class, and the pens and pastels came out, and voila. But I didn't really have an explanation for it after I finished trimming the edges, I'm not even sure it's finished--it just felt good to find photos that I took that made me want to make something new.

Although parts of this look collaged, none are. It is a flat drawing in pen and soft pastel.

AS OF 9/20: THIS WORK TO BE SOLD AT THE 10X10 SHOW BRUNSWICK, MAINE. FOR MORE INFORMATION CONTACT ME.

Daughter of the Flower Lady of Brunswick

My mother is a florist/flower designer. This sketch doesn't do her work justice, but it was fun to draw a composition that was designed so well for me.