I have been drawing quite a bit lately. I discovered this guy a couple of years ago, and love his work. The detail is amazing. And yes, even the piece of tape are drawn.  See more of his work here,  www.jdhillberry.com

More of the exhibit, sorry for the blur.

The Self Portrait Series

Well, last night was the artist reception for the Exhibit at the Gallery at the J. What a great event. The team over there was gracious and professional, and so wonderful to work with. As I told them, I feel honored and grateful to be a part of it.  The photos above I took on the day we hung as a preview.

My friend, Barbara Kelly, took photos of my work and my artist talk which I will post as soon as I get them. THANK YOU BARBARA!

Next up is the West Austin Studio Tour on May 19 & 20.  I was able to get my Church in as an out of the box type. We will feature work in the official gallery, but we are also opening up our meeting hall to display work.  I am very excited about this opportunity. I plan on showing more of my Self Portrait series.  More Details to come on that event.

http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/en/elizabeth_gilbert_on_genius.html

I realize this was part of the learning process, and giving me a chance to practice my technique.

The last one is of my own hand. I got to pick the subject and how I did the pen strokes. I enjoyed it more, but I still prefer drawing with pencils.

In addition to the many other things I do, I coordinate the gallery space at my church, University Baptist. As part of my blog this year, I am going to feature the month’s artist or photographer.

This month is Rod Hunter. Here is what he says about himself:

I picked up my first real camera in Spain while serving on the aircraft carrier USS America, (almost 25 years ago!), the beautiful scenery of the Mediterranean and the aviation action onboard made me want to capture my perspective on film. Today I am always learning and experimenting with the amazement that is the digital photo age.

I prefer to shoot in natural settings and do not utilize a studio. I believe that taking a photograph is merely the first step in creating a piece of art, but it’s not all about that. It’s also about having a natural eye behind the camera, it’s about knowing the light, the location, the subject. It’s about treating each client like a friend.

Check out more of Rod’s work at his website, http://www.rodhunterphotography.com/

Repetition Nineteen III 1968

Untitled, 1966

I first discovered Eva Hesse in a issue of Vogue. Talk about art and fashion meeting. I was intrigued by her organic sculptures.  They were unlike anything I had ever seen before.  I loved her use of industrial materials like latex, fiberglass, and polyester resin to create sensual and organic forms.   I have only ever seen one of her pieces in person. I went to the Sol LeWitt x2 at the Austin Museum of Art in 2008. I came across this piece and loved it before I even knew it was Eva Hesse.

Accession-V-1968

She was born in Germany in 1936, and was able to escape to New York with her family in 1939. She was creating art in New York in the late 1960s. She died in 1970 from brain tumors, believed to be caused by the chemicals she was working with.

Untitled 1970

Studiowork-1968

Drawing

Contingent, polymer, 1968

Accession II, 1969,

Eva Hesse

Here is a post about her painting:

http://structureandimagery.blogspot.com/2011/10/painter-eva-hesse.html

Goals

I admit I have trouble with goals. I have trouble making meaningful goals and keeping them. But today I decided I need them if I want to get things accomplished. So today after journaling, I wrote a list of things I want to do this year.

I am continuing in school, but I want to spend more time on other creative pursuits.  Some  of the goals are ones I started last spring but lost focus  on.  A facebook friend posted a link to a book called Start to Draw Your Life by Michael Nobbs, a fulltime artist, blogger and tea drinker. ­­­­­­­­­( http://www.sustainablycreative.com/stdyl-download/ ).  In his book, Michael encourages you to draw every day.  I had already be thinking of this because I have slacked off.  I was trying to draw daily during the summer, and then had to do it for a class in the fall. For the class, I felt pressured to produce quality, where previously I was drawing to experiment and practice.

This morning I also came across this quote, “We will open the book. Its pages are blank. We are going to put words on them ourselves. The book is called Opportunity and its first chapter is New Year’s Day” by  Edith Lovejoy Pierce. When I posted  it I added ,”In my case, it’s a sketch book.”  So yes a goal of mine is to create 356 drawings this year. Some will be good, some will be bad, and some, hopefully, will teach me something.

Abstract Painter

Who Shaped a Movement,

Dies at 83

“I don’t resent being a female painter. I don’t exploit it. I paint.”

Mountains and Sea

Snow Pines

East and Beyond

I am fascinated with this period of art.  Read more about her here:

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/28/arts/helen-frankenthaler-abstract-painter-dies-at-83.html?_r=2&hp

Here I have put wood icing on two prepared 12 in x 12 in   panels. These are Ambersand panels from Jerry’s. Since they were out of the encaustic ones,  I got two gessoed ones and covered them with encaustic gesso. Better safe than sorry.

I have added some color with pastels. I  have colored wax, but wanted a softer effect so I played with the pastels.

Here I have added the collage pieces, all various paper cut outs that mean some thing to me in context with the piece. I added color with the ink for two reasons. One I wanted to see how it would work, adding in a little more color, and two, I ran out of black ink and didn’t want to leave my studio that day at all.

The finished pieces. I covered each with several layers of wax medium, which, instead of being clear, was a warm natural beeswax color. I then rubbed metallic oil paint sticks lightly into the surface. The piece on the left in titled “The Artist”, and the right one,  “The Outcast”.  I will take pictures of all six pieces when they come down from the show,  and post them here.

Our final project in this class was to make a city for a game with a Blade Runner/ Dark City feel.  The top image is what it started as, and the bottom image is the final. I used 3DS Max and Photoshop CS5 for everything. I did make all the textures on the building. I started with an image, then used Photoshop to make it how I wanted. I like modeling, but my favorite is the texturing part. I guess that is the costume designer in me. The most challenges part was when I had to start over because I was having  glitches in the program. I had to copy everything into a new file. Nail biting, but luckily, I didn’t lose everything. The other challenge was the second week of class we found out to get everything into the engine , we had to lower the polygon count. I started with about 40,000, and got it down to 14,000. Talk about a learning experience from the real world. Some of my class mates grumbled but after working n retail for almost 10 years, I am use to things like that. Below is more images from my building. Our instructor actually put all our buildings and assets  into a game engine that we got a copy of and can play around in like (or almost like) a real game.  Pretty cool for a beginner class. I can’t wait to learn more.