Art Overload and Loving It!

I just spent the best day in Los Angeles, my friend Jorge and I came out to look at some campuses for graduate school and today we checked out UCLA.  I was really hoping I would hate it and I could check it off my list of schools I am interested in (which would be awesome because it is so expensive) and early on it looked promising.....but then we took the tour :( campus is so beautiful and their program is exactly what I would love, and they have  graduate studios off campus, so you only have to come to campus if you were teaching.  Still a long shot, but I'll give 'er a go :)

We even had some down time to sketch a little.  Then we went to the Museum of Contemporary Art and it was AMAZING!  I had my first experience seeing a Jackson Polluck, Franz Kline, Mark Rothko, Gorky, Jasper Johns, Lichtenstein....there are so many!  I never thought I would be one to get starstruck over paintings, but it was really fantastic.



Adrift

I'm sure everyone has felt this way, but lately I feel like I sleep, and work.  Nothing more.  I haven't been able to create anything in a couple weeks :(  not for lack of trying.  I just worked in the studio for a couple hours and have nothing to show for it.  It's like all the ideas are still percolating in my head and a rush to put some paint on the canvas only proves frustrating.  Is it possible to be overloaded with nothing?  like the less I do, the harder it is to start something or make something I am happy with?  I feel like i'm not currently measuring up to my potential and that is the worst feeling of all.

Upon Water



Upon Water oil on panel, 24"x48"

Another piece I did to enter into the Springville show.  These were really fun to do, I messed around with my supports :) for the last two I used panelboard and stained it chestnut, then I just painted directly on that.  It was nice cause I wanted a rich feel to the piece and it was cool to see the stain through the paint and then blend the paint out so it is just wood on the edges. 

New work. . .

This is a piece I am working on to enter into the Springville Museum's Spiritual and Religious show.  This is my take on the allegory of the olive tree. 

Sivaya

A portrait I am working on.  This is just done with Bic colored pens on 140lb watercolor paper.  I am surprised with how well the color works.  No more expensive art pens for me...well maybe not for some things :) i am really on an ink kick lately, I don't know what it is, maybe it is because I know that if I screw up it's permantent and that makes it more interesting.  This is taking forever though and I am not the most patient artist (or person for that matter) the dark background may kill me.  The good thing about projects like these are they are very time consuming and tedious and that takes my mind off of everything else for a while.

Lou

On my last trip home my gorgeous niece brought it to my attention that I had not drawn or painted her, ithis is kind of true, I've started a million times, but never finished.  It seemed I could never quite catch her likeness to my pleasing.  So, i set out to find an image that I wanted to draw.  This is a pic I took of her for a photography class and I wanted to see if I could do it justice in ink.  I can't wait to give it to her in a couple weeks.  I love you Lou.

Posters

 

  My weekend project was to do some illustrations for my sister's playroom, it is a project in the making for like 6 months, but better late than never :)  She wanted something child-like so we went for a looser rendering, which I was happy to oblige because it was much quicker.  It was fun to work in marker and NuPastel, i haven't done that for a while.  I can't wait to see them on her wall!