Reindeer Games

I started this and completed it this morning...just as a quick exercise. I started with a contour line drawing:

Then I added paint and pushed away the lines...

 

I only gave myself a half hour to do the color and wasn't satisfied with the paint so I added some color pencil lines:

 

And I am calling this finished. It was good practice, despite the fact I don't really like it.

Color

I haven't really decided which direction I think this one goes. And I guess that doesnt have to be up to me. The color feels really good in this one for me...even though I questioned the orange.

 

It may not be finished...I am pretty sure it isn't.

The Gathering

I have started pushing myself to do some quick paintings and be more "painterly" with them.  I love doing the illustrative work...but it is time consuming. This pushes me to be more relaxed and let the color and shape work over my concepts and ideas. Here is the first one of these...it is either a visitation or a gathering...

Trolls

I notice it is so much easier to post these to my FB page and I forget to update here...

This is an illustration I did when thinking about the idea of the trinity (mind, body, spirit) in story and religion. But the truth seems to me...that it is a quad...there is always a shadow figure no one likes to think of as part of the whole. But it is. So here the Troll encomapsses the goats. Once you incorporate your shadow self you are more complete....don't you think?

New Finished Memory Work

My computer isn't letting my use the...first letter in the *lph*bet key so...there will be l*ck of this letter in my post. This piece is my new f*vorite :)

I *lso finished this one. I'm pretty hppy with it despite the illustr@tive feel.

 

Pl*nning to st*rt new work today.

Beginning Memory Work

So...while I am still working on ideas and drawings from the Metawhimsical stuff...I have been spending time with childhood nostalgia and trying to capture some of those memories as ideas for new work. I struggle with the fact my work becomes sort of illustrative, but it is partly because of materials I am working with and partly cause, well...I like illustration. There has always been an battle in my brain about the way I want the images to look, and how I want to work with the ideas, especially since memories are distorted images it is hard to pin down how I want these to appear to a viewer.

I started writing down memories I want to have images of and the list is pretty long. The first sketch I did was about time spent in the doghouse with my childhood dog Blacky, the fear of people at the car wash behind my house and how someone murdered my old dog Snoopy at our old house and memories of the fact I could see the blood in the snow. Here is the quick doodle for that. I need to think about color and scale more:

 

I have a tendency to think about the darker things and want to work to remember all the wonderful things in my memory bank as well. So I started to remember going outside to my swing set as a child and pretending to fly. I would imagine the anthills around me as little cities I was flying over and was fascinated about the way ants worked. Of course there was still the fear in the back of my mind about the people at that car wash and if they were coming to get me. This was the sketch for that idea:

 

 

I started to flesh this one out and here is where I am in that process:

 

 

Part of me really wants to make this messier...and I might...but I am enjoying the work on these ideas.  I feel like there might be a way to satisfy my dual nature of illustrator and painter by creating the same idea in different mediums and methods. For now I will focus on the illustrative work and quite the messier self that wants to make this all gooey and fuzzy. I will give that voice some images later...

 

 

 

Meta Whimsical Collection

So these are the pieces I am currently working on. The color is WAY out of my comfort zone but I felt a real need to push the vibrancy of the new work. These are made with ink washes and colored pencil. I am really loving this mixed media work and find it easy to get the color to pop. These are the first real pieces I've delved into since my cancer and recovery. I have really felt the art making process has been very healing and whether or not these are indicative of my future work doesn't matter, they have connected me to my spirit again and reminded me of the power of art and images.

This one was the first piece. It is about Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer, which was the first story to ever feel like mine. I wore a piece of red construction paper taped to my nose for months when I was five to show solidarity with my hero. Here Rudolph is my "spirit animal" leading me into a metaphysical understanding about my place in the world.

 

I did this sketch that lead me forward to create work about the energy of the underworld. Sometimes I really like the messy quick quality in the preliminary work.

 

Here is the finished product. With this one I felt more confident in the medium. I limited my color more in this one but felt it still felt vibrant to me and full of life despite the underworld aspect.

 

 

Next I thought about the wisdom that comes from transformative journeys. I love the idea that with every challenge we get closer to understanding our path towards a sacred fruit. It often takes confronting things like the "gatekeeper" who guards our inner wisdom. Still adding detail to the owl on this one. I feel like this is one I could tinker with for a while.

 

 

This is the latest one I have completed and probably my favorite so far. I had heard about the ritual dances of the Dogon Tribe in Africa and their connections to the stars. They make elaborate head dress and have amazing spiritual dances to honor their ancestors. This piece is inspired by this tribe and my own concept of using ritual to awaken our inner spirit.

 

 

I currently have about 5 other sketches in the works to complete this series. This has been a very healing process and pulled me to the purpose of creating images as a spiritual process. While I can feel that the nature of the images will change moving forward, these have shaped my art practice and will inform my methods as I continue to evolve as an image maker.