Featured on Trice Collective

A nice treat today. One of my woodblocks, 'Personal Iconography' was featured on the website Trice Collective . The site, curated by Sawyer Trice, features affordable art that is available for online purchase. In my case, this piece is listed in my shop on Etsy.

A great concept and a wonderful way to see art selected by someone with a good eye that you might be able to afford. To read more about this site, click here. Thank you!

Wish I Had This Book a Long Time Ago

My uncle sent me a book he found- 'A Woodcut Manual' by J. J. Lankes published in 1932. I've only had the opportunity to lightly skim it but it is chock full of printmaking tips and the wisdom of experience. Check it out...

The author has his refreshingly straightforward opinions (there is even a list of Don'ts under an illustration titles 'My Lord of Missrule'). Here is a quote that jumped out at me,

"Don't let any self-appointed art critic form opinions for you. Never listen to such unless he is saying nice things of you. The professional critic is all too often a sad person, a defeated artist; his function is not to educate the artist whatever else he may attempt on the public. And don't let anyone scare you, because you may be, from force of circumstances, an "odd moment" artist."

Well said and greatly appreciated by those of us in the "odd moment".

... and here's the other one

The other drawing I did after the bad art day. Gouache is sort of fun, I think.

Some more drawings

Squeezed in a little more time this week to do a few more experimental colored pencil drawings. Discovered some old, old photos to use as reference and away I went. It was good to have the issue of WHAT to draw somewhat solved. Now it's just a matter of HOW (and let's not even get into WHY).

The photos are black and white and not in very good shape so, um, there is a lot of room for experimenting with color, tone, etc. I get to play, to fictionalize.

Not everyday has been sheer bliss. Had a bad art day and it left me frustrated and snarly at the world. Want to tear those pages out of my sketchbook but they serve as a reminder that this is a learning process and I will fall flat on my face many times before the get my groove back.

A Small Beginning (of sorts)

I 'fess up. I've been in the midst of 'artist's block' for, oh say, 4 years now. I used to be able to crank artwork out under almost any circumstances. I never waited for inspiration, I just sat down, drank a ton of coffee and made something.

Anyway, that hasn't been the case for awhile and it has been bugging me. I could blame the kids but there are plenty of working artists out there with kids and other demands on their precious time. I could also try blaming the internet, or craigslist (refinishing furniture isn't always fun but it sure is satisfying) or the inevitable mid life crisis or, or... the cat, perhaps?

So, after some healthy procrastination, I finally (!) sat down, drank some coffee and started to draw. It was awful. The drawings were terrible, my ideas didn't work. Ugh.

Despondent, I hopped onto the internet for some inspiration (I said I never waited). I found Bret Pendlebury's Etsy shop and his work brought a smile to my

face. He also has a blog http://bretpendlebury.blogspot.com/

With the gears finally turning, I found some old photos of people and started to draw and to color. Got totally absorbed, forgot to drink my coffee. It's a shaky start... but I had fun.

A Little Inspiration

I was watching my daughter draw yesterday and feeling both envious and inspired. I had given her 3 pieces of black matboard and she lay across the floor and tackled them with her colored pencils.

She just drew and drew, a narrative forming like a stream of conciousness. There is a princess, a dog, raindrops, umbrella, suitcase and a turtle... all on one panel.

Watching her, I wished I could create like that- without the critic whispering in my ear, the thousands of images of artwork much better than mine flashing in front of my

eyes and the hesitation that holds my hand and freezes my mind.

I hope for her that she will never lose her ability to create so freely. For me, I just wish I could regain it.

Thank you!

The Valentines Lino Cut Workshop at the Encinitas Library was last night. Despite my nervousness and the daunting task of teaching tons about relief printmaking in only 1.5 hours, it went quite well. Lots of participants, lots of enthusiasm and some wonderful printmaking happened.

I want to thank Jim Gilliam who organized the event and the exhibit. It would not have happened without his hard work. Thanks also to the volunteers, Terri, Judy and Carolyn, who helped to set up, assisted during the workshop and did such a speedy job of cleanup! I'll also put a shout out to my favorite purveyor of art making materials, Jack at Rhino Art. Thanks for getting us the supplies we needed, researching better options and making cutting boards for each participant ( we only needed one band aid!).

I hope everybody had a good time and learned enough about relief printmaking that they might want to try it at home. Thank you.