"Hallmark" Horses

I've always loved drawing horses. They are the subject that kept me drawing throughout my childhood, and the only thing that kept me sane when I spent a month in the hospital as a kid. I was stuck in a hospital bed, in traction, with a broken femur, and the only thing that I could do other than watch t.v. or listen to music, was draw. Even though riding horses was the reason I was in the hospital in the first place, it was the only thing I wanted to draw.

In college, using horses as a subject matter wasn't as kind to me. If you were in my Lithography class and sat through some of the critiques, then you probably get the reference to the Hallmark Horses title I used for this post. It was a horrible class critique, and the person who made the comment was taking jabs at everyone. I stopped using horses as subject matter in my works after that. And now, I've grown up and I really don't care anymore. I like drawing my Hallmark horses. So on that note- this one is for you Rachel.

Summertime

Just another doodle......

And, I finally figured out how to make my images larger on here! So now I'm off to work on the others.

Drawing Away....

These drawings are kind of random, I know. As for the fishermen- I think I've been watching too much Deadliest Catch lately. All of these are pen and ink with a little watercolor on some.

My Old Standby

Landscapes are my old standby when I have no new inspiration for subject matter. Sometimes, as in the case with this painting, I just paint whatever pops into my head, without using reference material. I was feeling particularly blue emotionally when I began this painting. I've noticed that when it comes to my acrylic paintings, I tend to paint in the opposite colors of what would typically be considered the representative colors of the emotions. I guess you could say that I'm painting what I would like to feel.

Maybe with this painting I was thinking of somewhere that I would rather be than where I was at the moment.

Technically speaking, I used some metallic paints mixed with color on this acrylic painting, so it was a little hard to photograph without getting awful reflections. I am by no means a professional photographer.

Fun With Paint!

So I stayed true to my word... I did get to work on some art today, in between some much needed house cleaning. Here's the result:

 ... And my palette...

I hope you can tell what the image is, it's a peacock feather I had laying around my house. When I work on a drawing or a painting, I like to work from an actual object... It just feels more authentic I guess. I was inspired to do some work this morning and I was searching around for something interesting to work from and I found this peacock feather that I got from work. I work in a theater and this crazy guy who was putting on a science show for kids gave it to me. He used the feathers during his show to demonstrate the properties of gravity. In case you are wondering- he did this by balancing the feather on the palm of his hand, which is surprisingly easy to do. Well that's beside the point.  I love the colors in the feather, which is probably why I chose it as a subject.

I am still on a break from the print so I decided to work with acrylic paint. I had these small pieces of Clayboard hanging around and I thought I'd try them out. Basically they are a piece of masonite board with some kind of coating on them. You are supposed to be able to use them for almost anything, including water media. I would like them more if things stuck to them. I originally started filling in the image with oil pastel, but that did not work out so I went over that with acrylic. The oil pastel just wiped right off of the board.

 I am not going to analyze this piece too much, I just wanted to do something for fun.

Stepping Away

I know, I know.... I haven't been making this blog a habit like I said I would. I've been busy with work and haven't found much time to work on my art, and when I've sat down in front of my linocut print, I haven't been motivated to keep working on it. Why? I'm not sure. Sometimes it just seems to be very hard to see a project through to completion which is especially true since I've been out of school. There are many different reasons why I become unmotivated or disinterested in an art project, I'll try to list a few.

Reasons for my many pieces of unfinished work:

1. Distractions: life, work, boyfriend, my cat, family drama... there's always something going on.
2. New ideas: you could file this one under distractions. Sometimes I'll be in the middle of working on something and I get a great idea for another project, which makes me want to work on that instead of the project I've already started. It soon becomes a vicious cycle.
3. Just tired of the artwork: Sometimes when you are too close to something, you don't appreciate it for what it is. This can be true for more than just your artwork.

Ok, enough with the excuses for now. I have tomorrow off, maybe I can quit making excuses and work on something then. I'll keep you posted.

Test Print

After carving away for awhile on this lino block (see last post), I decided to do a test print to see how it was looking. I don't have access to a press right now, so this is hand printed, hence the grainy, uneven quality of the ink.

My thoughts after test printing are that I could still work on carving away some areas. I'm not sure about the background- it's probably a little too busy. I do like the front leg area on the figure and the skirt. Well I will keep going and see how this all turns out. It's been awhile since I've done a linocut anyways.

In progress work....

I am currently working on a Linocut print. This plate is mostly about experimenting with textures and creating values with the medium. It seems counterproductive to work on creating values with this type of print, but I've seen it done. I mostly just want to make sure it doesn't come out looking "flat."

I'll try to make this a habit.

"If 98% of our medical students were no longer practicing medicine five years after graduation, there would be a Senate investigation, yet that proportion of art majors are routinely consigned to an early professional death."

- From Art And Fear by David Bayles and Ted Orland

If you are an artist of any kind, visual, performing or otherwise, I recommend this book. It was given to me by one of my cooperating teachers when I was completing my student teaching. After reading it, I wondered why more college professors don't use this as required reading for the art senior seminar classes. It really gives some great insight into our internal motivators and the psychology behind why we, as artists, are driven to produce art.

Since graduating from college, I have continued to produce art, mostly for my own benefit, and as an emotional outlet. Without the support and the atmosphere that a class environment provides however, producing has not been without its challenges. There are many benefits to being out from under the influence of college professors and academia; one being that I don't feel the pressure anymore to move the subject of my work from the representational to the non-representational or conceptual, as is popular in so many college circles these days. However, one major downside is the lack of the social aspect of college. There are no peers to act as my sounding board for ideas or to give me that morale boost when I feel that my work is just not quite where it should be. I have realized that the post-collegiate atmosphere for an artist can be a lonely one. That's where this blog comes in.

Because I still feel a desire to create, I need some sort of sounding board, something to keep me accountable for continuing on this solitary path. I hope that this blog will fulfill this purpose. If you have happened to stumble across this page and would like to leave any comments for me, please feel free to do so, because you are now my new sounding board.

Thanks for reading,
Macy