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.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Printmaking and Pastel Cut Paper

Right now I am spending time with ink washes and colored pencil drawing...but I have been looking back at older printmaking pieces and think I need to figure out how to get back to doing some of that work. This is an old piece that was inspired by childhood monsters, a reoccuring theme in my work. The story of Red Riding Hood and the wolf, that is in all of us, inspired this etching. I would have to figure out where I can locally get access to a printmaking studio to make work in this vein again.

There was a time not long ago when I thought pastels would be my new "after having children" medium. I do love how fluid the work can be with pastels and the ability to layer the color. This was a piece about human connection with nature. I also wonder about those "tree spirits" I have heard stories about. I drew the tree and cut it out, made the "spirits" and cut them out, then weaved them together. It isnt't affixed yet, but I do like the yellow background.

Unfinished Ideas

These are doodles and ideas I have been saving and figuring out how to move forward or if I want to move forward with.

I do believe this one, while unfinished, is...finished. This is about the search for finding what home really means. I think that search is always unfinished in some way and so, the nature of the drawing suits the concept behind it.

 

This next one is done with crayon. I simply love layering crayon and getting the bright effect that only crayon can give. In this sketch I was working through the idea of recovery and meeting death. What does healing look like? Can you see the true face of Death? I like this sketch a lot and need to decide how I will move forward. I like the mix of child like medium and serious subject.

 

Pandora's Box has always been an interesting concept to me. Once you release something into the world, you can't take it back. Art is similar...once you let it out into the world it changes and what happens with it isn't up to you. That is why in some ways showing what I do on this blog is nerve wrecking. What are we releasing when we explore our own curiosity? I love the simple linework in this drawing and have debated whether I need color. Either way I don't think this is fully complete just yet. But I am gonna share it anyway ;)

 

The last incomplete piece I will share is a silly doodle. Sometimes I think it is just fun to let my mind go wherever and see what happens. I wasn't thinking about composition or good linework I was just playing with ideas. This is totally not my style, but it is so good to expand the idea of what is or isn't "mine". This is fun, but not sure if it has a home in my real work.

 

 

 

 

The Playthings

I wanted to share some older work that I am considering reimagining. I did these pieces years ago and they are very dear to me...almost like friends or family. They are oil washes on wood and stand 6 foot by 2 foot. The idea for these came after a dream I had where I was rescuing children from a sewer and these "children" were behind large metal doors wearing masks.  They also have reminded me of real people in my life.  I think I have really grown as an artist and could recreate these to be more alligned with my new vision and technique. The idea of dreamwork and story is still what drives my artistic endeavors so these mark the moment I knew that was where my work was going...even though I put that work on hold for a while after these were made.

Daily Monster - The backlog

I had trouble getting these to load from my phone...so here are the daily 10 minute monsters that you can also see daily on my Facebook page (where they upload easier).
http://www.facebook.com/ArTerialFollowArtToYourHeart#!/ArTerialFollowArtToYourHeart

Here is what the "Monster Under Your Bed" looks like...beware, he can shape shift.

This one is based on the old Russian Fairy Tale of Baba Yaga. She is the old witch in the woods that eats children. She has the coolest house that rises up on chicken legs :)

 

Lots of people are terrified by this cure little guy. This is what "Change" looks like. He isn't really scary at all. He just closes and locks some doors and unlocks others...but if you avoid him he can bite.

 

 

Dolls have creeped me out since I was a child. The idea that some spirit could be contained in something as a plaything is terrifying to me...especially if that soul was evil (insert maniacal laugh)

 

 

This monster is cowering from all the evil in the world. This is the "jelly" your soul turns into when you stop thinking for yourself or allow yourself to be dominated by the media, bullies or other monsters.

 

 

 

Tuesday Monster

Poop Man - Has this guy ever tried to climb out of your potty?

Monday Monster

Igor has been given some robot parts by Dr. Frankenstein!

Scary Things In My House

The weekends are hard to make time for my Monster Drawing and I feel like I can be creative with the images for Saturday and Sunday. So I decided to photograph things in my house that scare me. I have had this doll for as long as I can remember and she has always made me uncomfortable. As a child I tried to flush her down the toilet.

Friday's Monster

Here is the Barbie Monster from Friday I could not get uploaded either. My friend Roxanne requested a "Pink Princess Barbie Monster" after her trip to L.A. So this is after the Botox goes to her brain :)

Thursday's Monster

Monster of the Day - This should have gone up on  Thursday...but I realize I should have maybe used a different blogging platform cause I can't post from my phone very well with this one, hence the late posting. The idea here was a "Blanket Monster".

Today's Monster: I had to go to the doctor today and they took blood. I started thinking about the vampire nurse.

So this one didn't upload yesterday but here is the cupcake troll in honor of my son Henry's 3rd birthday.

Monster of the Day...Mother Goose is angry and has turned MONSTER Goose on us!

Forgive my lack of monster for Sunday...I was decorating for Halloween :)
Instead I offer you Pigman. My husband says this is the scariest thing I have ever painted:

Today's Monster - Today I was stung by a bastard bee at the pumpkin patch...it looked like this.

Monster of the Day: Have you ever felt like you stomach has an evil mind of its own?

Today's Monster - Scary Tooth Fairy

He is just desperate for some children's molars to finish the castle he is building...

Monster of the Day - Spider Headed Zombie

So would you rather be the zombie or the spider?

Three of Them

I always like making work as groupings for whatever reason. Today I continued to play with the idea of non-objective work and created these:

Here are the close ups...remember I am shooting these with my cell phone till I come up with some better method, so the images are not as crisp as I would like.

Might play with some more of these small scale pieces in other colors this week too.

October 2nd - Monster of the Day

Today's Monster was inspired by the Buddhist concept of "hungry ghost". Check out: http://wisdomquarterly.blogspot.com/2008/06/hungry-ghosts-as-metaphor.html to learn more about Hungry Ghosts.

If you feel like it...like me on facebook...
http://www.facebook.com/ArTerialFollowArtToYourHeart

"Monster Month"

 

 

I am using October as "Monster Month" and doing 10 minute monster drawings everyday in October. I figure these doodles might lead to some bigger pieces later, or not...but it pushes me to limit myself to 10 minutes and do it daily. This horned guy is the 1st one :)

 

An Attempt to be Non Objective

 

Today I started trying to do some non-objective kinda stuff to see what happens...and I actually kinda liked it.  Usually I work large but I make these as 5x7s and think I will be making more. It was fun and freeing to just think in color and line without the burden of representation.

I need to find simple wood frames for these...I like the way these look against the maple wood.

Show and Tell

So...I was advised by a good friend and amazing artist that even though I don't feel my work is really ready (and I may never) to go ahead and start a blog to post my creative undertakings in case one day I want to try to show my work or sell it. This is that blog...

I received a BFA from VCU back in 2001 and spent several years as an art teacher but never spent any time focused on my own artwork or ever felt like attempting to show my work. I became a stay at home Mom in 2007 and had been mainly living in "Mommy Land" when 2011 hit me. In February of 2011 my Father was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer...In April I had my appendix removed...in May they told me I had appendicial cancer (one of those 1 in a million cancers) and it had spread within my abdomen...in June I went to Pittsburgh, PA for a major surgery and chemo treatment called HIPEC and came out "cancer free"...In July my Dad died 4 days before my 37th birthday...in August I was told I had thyroid cancer...In September they removed my thyroid...October was the first month of 2011 that I could take a moment and process. In February of 2012 my family relocated to Memphis, TN and I decided it was time to rededicate myself to art as a healing tool. During my 2011 ordeal I did artwork for The Sketchbook Project and submitted a sketchbook about my hell year that is now part of the Brooklyn Art Library's collection. You can check out that work here: http://www.arthousecoop.com/users/Amymarkham/artwork

 

It felt good to make art again after all that had happened and it gave me a sort of purpose I had been lacking as a stay at home Mom (I love my boys but need to have a life outside of them too). Over the Summer of 2012 I started to make some new work...for the first time in a long, long time. Here are some pictures of those pieces:

 

 

In college I had mainly worked with oil paint but with two young kids in my house I felt that a medium that was easier to clean up would be a better choice so I discovered inktense blocks and prismacolors and created these pieces. It has felt like I am kind of on a roll with ideas and have been happy just to be making images again. These pieces were an attempt to connect to unconscious ideas and archetypal images. I'm never confident in my work and even though I like to share it with people I am not sure other people would want to buy this kind of work.

So this is my blog...that is some back story and I plan to post all things Amy art here while I develop my work and look to share my images with anyone interested in viewing them. Feedback is welcome and meaningful to me.