My Day Off

Today I went for a mountain hike with my daughter. Later we had lunch at The Farm, a place near my house. In the cool months here, The Farm is as close as she can get to her Northern California roots. Gardens full of young seedlings, three gourmet eateries, and a canopy of pecan trees overhead. Near our house in an old orchard, someone has begun to grow lush garden greens. Yesterday I stopped by and bought all the collard greens, swiss chard and beets I could carry for $3.00! I ate some of them for dinner. Being close to the dirt that grows things and smelling and tasting food you just pulled out of the earth is a very sensual  experience. In some way I want the feeling of this day to find its way into art. I don't know how it will do that yet. Borrowed this scene from the mountain from Youtube:

Artists are those who

Artists are those who, originally uploaded by askthemoon.

Writers talk about their craft as I feel I must learn to about doing art. "Writers are those who write...when they are depressed; when elated; when in love; when in despair; when they need dental work and when they don't; while governments are toppling and while they are being built up again. They write because they write." (Walking on Alligators by Susan Shaughnessy)
Last night I felt art in my fingertips but not in by belly: nothing looked draw-worthy to me. So what the heck, just lie there and draw what you see. So this is what I see: a body tired out from a day's work in a busy library. Too late to still be up but too early to feel sleepy. Let's see...a foreshortened leg looks like this....

After the Rain

After the Rain, originally uploaded by askthemoon.

Lyonel Feininger inspired me in art school. His dramatic angles, rays and sheets of light have remained with me in how I see. After despairing over the grayness of a rainy day I added sunlight as it appears after the rain.
The need to add light arose after I badly overworked a drawing that had essentially failed. As often happens, a Lost Cause is just the loosening up I need to try something new. First I tried lines angled all in one direction. Then I remembered that faceted light effect of Feininger's and liked it better with a prism-like effect instead. Never mind that the drawing is heavy handed. I had fun.

Upstairs Runner

Upstairs Runner, originally uploaded by askthemoon.

This drawing was done from a paused DVD. I liked the people streaming down the hall and up the staircase. In the left background are some people coming in through a lighted doorway and they looked really neat in silhouette with their long shadows, but the drawing didn't come off to show that. But I sort of like it anyway because working from DVD's is a really good exercise. You can keep skimming back and forth til you find just the image you like, and pause there. And all the while you have a sense of the three-dimensionality and motion of the scene because it isn't a still photo- it's a frozen moment.

The Kiss

My daughter. This began as a badly lit interior shot. I loved the pose so much, and took it into Photoshop for a good working over. Now it will be inspiration for a tonal drawing on black or dark grey. I once apologized to my artist aunt for sending her photos of my children that were blurry and bad. She said they were really much better for artistic inspiration because they inspired you without being so good you were led into copying. She has done some wonderful watercolors of this daughter from "bad" photos I sent to her. I think it's true: something that needs "fixing" gets the creative juices going more than something that is more perfect. Thank goodness for that, or I'd never start anything!

Grecian Sketch

Grecian Sketch, originally uploaded by askthemoon.

I’ve been reading The Faith Club, in which 3 friends of different religions discuss their commonalities and differences. They talked about ritual and its importance. To me, there is often more life in quick sketches where the process is visible. I wish my finished work didn't lose that energy! I wish the world agreed that art is ritual rather than the creating of a thing. Religion doesn't require you to leave the ritual bearing a product (worthy of approval, or sale, or critique.) People understand that the ritual is meaningful of itself. The visible part of a ritual, or what remains afterwards, is the altar or other center point where the ritual took place. Ritual trappings are incidental: burned down candles for instance. I persist in turning this around so my ritual is a throwaway, and the end product speaks alone. Imagine slowly beginning to turn that around so that the ritual became more meaningful and the result only derives value from the process. Well, this is an ongoing conversation I've been having internally for a while.

Janus or Gemini 2010

New Years resolution time. The past year isn't "dark" in a bad way, only dense with events and heavy with emotions. Like you, I want a fresh start occasionally. Somewhere in my head a switch clicked the other day saying to take a breath and move into this year doing art with purpose and energy! The original sketch was a scribble of shoe polish, then playing around with pencil to see what it suggested. Later more playing in Photoshop for the two images.