An Old Abstract

Found a stack of old photos of some of the paintings I did my last year in school, 1992. The photographs were taken outside in the sun, using a 35mm point an shoot camera, and the white balance was way off. In photoshop I just let the automatic color adjuster do it's magic, and here is a result I think is as close to the real colors that I can remember.

This watercolor was the result of trying to make something out of an accidental spill from the brush water jar. (There was no way i was going to waste a $13.00 sheet of heavy coldpress) Turned into something that has since reminded me of other artists' abstracts along the way. Maybe they were also creating something new from a spill?!

Today this large (24x36 inch) watercolor painting is hanging framed at pappa's house in Sweden.

Out

It's official. This evening it occurred to me, and now it's there, looking at me, asking me, "now what?"

I am an artist.

Having denied this all my life, perhaps embarrassed by the haughty aire the word seemed to have, I now see there is no use in trying to hide from the truth.

I am an artist.

It is what it is. It doesn't mean this or that, it doesn't change anything, because it always has been. The only difference is that I can say it now.

I am an artist.

This is a preliminary sketch - a concept idea really - for a card design I've been asked to make.

This is a page from my art journal. When I look at it I see a big influence of the styles of some of my favorite artists who post their art online. There's a bit of Camilla in the side-ways drop-shaped bubble, I see some of Kim's style in the stick legs of the bird, the bird itself is reminiscent of many artists, because the bird motif is rather popular.

I think artists find inspiration in each others art, and often the influence shows up in their creations. Though unique, they recall faintly a kind of common spirit. When I page through a magazine like Somerset, for example, or when I'm browsing the flickr art pictures, I always notice trends. Maybe it's the trading card trend, or collage trend, or art journal trend, or the trend to illustrate something based on a word each Friday, or a technique each Tuesday. I love this awesome art community online! What an amazing way we can, via the internet, communicate, share, influence and inspire... how cool to want to try to sew a sketch (sketch-sewing!) after seeing Fiona's wonderful work, and how exciting to participate in an Art Challenge when a package of supplies arrive from Joleen?

Now, I am not going to quit my day job. What I am going to do is answer "Yes! Yes, I am." the next time someone asks me, "Are you an artist?"

2005 5x5

This is my entry for the Art Center of the Ozarks annual 5x5 show.
The deadline for turning in our contributions was actually last week, on the 15th, and I hadn't had a chance to complete mine. I had started a painting of a road disappearing into the horizon, with a blue sky and white fluffy clouds, but I really didn't now where it was going, the painting I mean... so it just sat there on my work table, going nowhere.

Today I found out from my friend (who is also contributing to the show) that they would accept late contributions through Monday (tomorrow.) So, after dinner and while the big boys went fishing and the little one played outside in the yard, the painting I had started began a new journey.

In less than an hour the canvas was coated with a new layer of paint, covering the original image, and had dried enough for me to add a little bird, using pastels and pencil to begin with.

Eventually the 5x5 was completed. It will need to hang in a lit location for the colors to really show, the overall is much darker than I normally paint. The scan makes it look a bit darker than it is really as well.

Here is the photo that inspired me.

Driving Log

I haven't posted this until now even though it's a part of the vacation pages from this summer, because it just seemed (yawn) uninteresting to me. Then today when I paged through the journal I took the time to read what I'd written, and suddenly it was like I was there in the car on the road again, on the tail end of our vacation.

Yepp - I have very carefree handwriting. Care-free!

Choose

A lot of the office doodles find a new home as part of a collage in this book that is a lined journal but has now become a book with pages and pages of collages. After supper and after kids are in bed, it's a great way to end the day - making collages.

Procrastinating

Don't want to do my work review.
Would rather cut and paste and draw.

I do what I want. More of what I did tonight on my mostly in Swedish crafty blog.

I'll do the work review later.

These doodles are from today. There was a big meeting at work, the top dogs had flown in from the G.O. While I listened, I doodled.

headlines

Just some of the headlines from our local paper Aug 31 and Sept 1.

The one about Bush was includes because it is so typical and so out of line. (it's the discord, if you will.) Seriously, at this time, oil is the last thing on my mind.

The picture in the middle is from a Colorado vacation guide I picked up this summer. It sort of represents higher ground.