Going blind and a few words

Another great blogger found me, and I in turn got to find her. Sarah over at drawing diary is doing some wonderful blind drawing that inspired me to do a little drawing from life myself. Basically, what I mean by “blind drawing” is drawing without looking at the paper. Kind of like how you type without looking at the keys; with this technique you keep your eyes completely on your subject.

I first heard about it in a drawing class where we used the book Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain by Betty Edwards that has you start out doing blind contour drawings (contour means you just draw the lines without shading).

It’s pretty freeing and fun and teaches you that drawing is more about seeing your subject than anything else. This technique also allows you to be sloppy and just focus on noticing detail. It’s a great way to get past the whole “I suck and I can’t do this” phase that so many people seem to feel about art.

I fully agree with Betty Edwards when she says anyone can learn to draw. I say, “throw caution to the wind, pick up pen and paper NOW, and let the fun begin! You can do it!”

Here are a couple blind contour drawings I did today:

My dog Lance

A self-portrait—I particularly like the left eye!

On another note, I have flipped back into a painting phase, and I’m working on a very large 28 inch by 36 inch word painting called “Black Hole.”

I have been in a pen and ink phase for quite some time, so you may not have seen or heard about this other work, but I like to paint large words on wood with bright house paint. I’ve done rhyming words and little funny poem-like things, but this one is a couple phrases I wrote a while ago that I am really feeling right now.

These paintings take me a whole lot longer than my small drawings because I have to paint over and over the letters to get them solid, and there’s a lot of area, so I will be working on it for a little while yet. If I’m really motivated, I could finish it by the end of the week, but I’m not making any promises. Here is a little glimpse:

Blue Bicicletta Turns One!

In my mind’s eye, this is a chocolate, chocolate chip layer cake with chocolate ganache and raspberry filling. In honor of the one year anniversary of this blog, I’d like to serve you each a heaping slice.

Yup, I’ve been at it for a year now, and I’d like to say thank you to all of you who keep coming back to my blog and make it so much fun to keep writing and sharing here. It’s so easy to focus on the things that are not happening, but today, I want to focus on all of the positive things in my life.

A lot has changed for me in the last year:
I became a “blogger” and have begun to share in the great creative community happening online
I started working part time instead of full time, so I could have more time to make art
I have taken some art and design classes that have really got my creativity flowing
I have been paid in cold hard cash for some of my art (in part because of people I’ve met through blogging)
I have proved to myself that I have an unending supply of creative ideas

As some of you probably know, I dream of being able to support myself entirely through art, and while I am not there yet, I feel pretty good to see the steps that I’ve made over this last year (one major step is just being able to say this dream out loud).

So, here’s to all of you who keep trying every day to live the life of your dreams, and refuse to settle for less! Hang in there—we’re all in it together, and as I often tell myself, “just one foot in front of the other—keep moving.”

Just a little, or a lot

Just a little hello there, from this crazy character that I drew a while back.

I’ve been thinking a little bit about place and physical emotions today and thought I would share my thoughts with you.

I have been reading this book called Finding Your Own North Star: Claiming the Life You were Meant to Live by Martha Beck. I am not quite sure if I would fully recommend it yet, but I have realized from reading this book that I am a person who has a very physical reaction to emotion and thought. Beck explains that people have differing levels of physical manifestations of stress, hope, etc, but everyone does physically react to these things, however subtly.

I am kind of on the extreme side—probably the best example would be during my sophomore year of college; I was going through a difficult break-up and I would get shooting pains in my chest. At some point, I kind of started to worry, but in the Spring when things began to mend, my chest-pains stopped.

I continue to have these physical reactions all the time, and Beck talks about them as being a good indication of what is your right path. This comes up for me a lot surrounding my job. Work (as in the way I make my money) has always been a sore spot for me, and my current office job is no different, even though I continue to try and learn how to relax.

On a bad day, work feels absolutely repulsive to me. I can feel my body tighten up when I walk into the office. At my worst, I feel like I’m trapped in a cardboard box—my lungs feel tight, and I feel a weight in my chest.

Today was a pretty low day, so when I walked into my house and my body instantly relaxed, I really noticed—I could breathe. My body knew I was in a safe place, and that work I like was very close at hand. Isn’t it amazing how places can do these things to you? You associate a particular activity or memory with that place, and going there can instantly make you feel a certain way.

I’m not quite sure why I wanted to share this with all of you—maybe to get it off my chest, but also to bring up the idea that you should be paying attention to these feelings. I completely agree with how Beck says these feeling can truly tell you what is right for you.

I don’t feel like a million bucks every time I sit down to do art, but a large majority of the time, I feel a lightness, a relaxing of my body and mind. I feel like this tells me I am beginning to find the right path.

Most of us can’t up and quit our jobs, or move across the country tomorrow morning, but it seems worth it to at least try and understand what our bodies are telling us.

On the opposite end of my work-a-day feelings, last Friday, I woke up feeling really good and calm after an evening of working on things at home. I went on a jog before work, and I don’t think I will ever forget the feeling I had when I crested the hill near my house, looked out at the pink sky, sunlight on my face. My body felt like the most well-oiled machine, and my heart and lungs opened wide. I felt perfectly calm and happy.

If my main goal for the rest of my life was to feel that good as much as possible, that would be a pretty amazing goal.

Two Things

Two things to say today . . . OK, probably more than two things, but here it goes:

1. I finally framed and hung up this amazing poster I got some months ago. It has re-inspired my desk space—honestly, I gasp with delight every time I look at it. I bought it at some little shop in my northern California travels, but from reading the fine print on the poster, I found out it was designed by Shepard Fairey and is available through Syracuse Cultural Workers. I haven’t had a chance to look fully at the site, but it looks like an interesting organization, and they sell my new favorite poster, so they must be doing something right!

Here is a picture of my desk and said poster.

2. A while ago, in this post, I talked about a show I would be involved in at the UC Davis Craft Center called “Crafts from the Farm.” Well, I dropped my photos off today, and the show will be up from September 29-October 31 showcasing all sorts of farm-related arts and crafts in celebration of University of California at Davis’ centennial anniversary.

Why the farm theme, you ask? Because UC Davis was originally set up as the UC farm school—an extension of UC Berkeley, I believe. I apologize to you readers who’ve heard this before, but I feel the need to re-explain this for any newbies.

Anyway, if you’re in the area, check out the show. There will be a closing reception on Halloween from 5:30-7. I’m not sure if I’ll be there, but I will post a reminder here towards the end of October.

Since I forgot to take pictures of the framed photos, since I was in such a rush to get them all packed up, you’ll have to settle for the show postcard. I may try to show you how they turned out, once I get them back after the show.

On another note, I just wanted to say, I apologize if I am not as present on this blog over the next couple of weeks–I’m making up some hours at work and trying to catch up in my web design class, since the class started two weeks ago, but my textbook just arrived yesterday. I hope to get back to business as usual by the beginning of October.

Design This Design That

I just wanted to let you all know that I have been featured in an online magazine created by Ariadna at Design This Design That. Ariadna approached me last month, asking if I would be a part of an Etsy series she was doing. This project grew into a beautiful magazine issue showcasing dozens of illustrators. Ariadna did a wonderful job picking a great variety of artists and creating beautiful layouts. I am honored to be a part of this project. See the magazine here. I am on page 89 (you can use the arrows above the magazine to look through all of the beautiful 176 pages). Here’s a picture of the spread about me. Ariadna picked my piece “Bloom” on the lower right, and I chose “Eat Well and Slowly” to represent my word art.

From the beach

I’m back from my long luxurious weekend in The Sea Ranch, California on the north coast. It was very relaxing, we moved very slowly—waking up late, walking along the bluff trail, eating a lot, and we even picked wild blackberries, which allowed us to eat blackberry pie a la mode almost every day. I brought along a little sketchbook and finally took the time to sketch some plants I like that grow along the bluff.

Here are two of my sketches:

These plants grow rampantly along with tall grass and poison oak, on the grassy bluffs above the ocean. I love the repetitive lines and the natural brown and black colors. They’re like incredibly spare flowers, or skeletons of flowers—they always seem to be dried out. They remind me a little of spent dandelions, although these are large and sturdy plants. Does anyone know what they’re called? I think the two sketches are actually of two slightly different plants.

It’s interesting how some things just catch your eye. People walking by on the trail probably thought I was a little nuts. One guy joked, “What, are you collecting poison oak?” But I didn’t mind, it was a beautiful day by the ocean, smelling of salt and dried grass, and I couldn’t think of a better way to spend the morning than drawing.

Holiday

This could wind up being a hodge-podge type post. I am leaving for a short vacation to the northern California coast tomorrow, and I think my brain has already checked out, as I run around trying to do errands before leaving.

I title this post “Holiday” because I am trying to learn to use that word instead of the American “vacation.” Life coach Michael Neill (whose work and philosophy I appreciate a great deal) has pointed out, “holiday,” as the British would call it, means “holy day” where as Americans just “vacate” on their “vacations.”

I went on a very mini holiday last weekend, a one-night camp-out to celebrate my boyfriend’s 25th birthday, so I feel like I haven’t had a ton of time to do art, but here’s a drawing I did yesterday, inspired by the idea of tribal armor.

“Armor I,” 5 x 7 inches, pen and ink

I’m hoping to do some more armor when I return. Have a wonderful rest of the week and weekend! See you next Tuesday or Wednesday.