Category: Life in general

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Drawing Faces Life in general Other Art Blogs I Read People Sketchbook Pages Watercolor

Life: NOT as Seen on TV

NOT as seen on TV

Ink & watercolor (Larger)

“Life is what passes you by while you’re watching TV.” I used to have a little sign on my TV with those words, but back then it was a reminder to my kids, not to me. Now I need it for me.

I was chatting with my friend Lin [View from the Oak] about our struggles to find time for everything. Lin manages to paint or sketch every day, post it on her illustrious blog AND leave wonderfully encouraging comments on countless other blogs, all while working a grueling schedule and making time for her husband, offspring and grandbabies.

It occurred to me later that day: I bet Lin doesn’t watch TV! It turns out I was right. Other than the art videos she watches while on her treadmill, she rarely watches TV. She said that sketching IS her TV, her way to relax.

I used to be like that too but somehow, over time, TV has insidiously infiltrated my life. I turned to it as a way to relax when my brain was tired from thinking hard all day at work. But it puts me in a stupor so I just watch another show instead of doing something more satisfying (or just going to bed when what I really need is sleep).

Now it’s time to pull the plug! I may even cancel my cable and TiVo subscriptions and go cold turkey for a while. I bet that not only will I gain time and save money (on cable and TiVo bills), I might even lose a couple extra pounds, since watching TV often leads to snacking on empty calories while burning none!

Have you successfully quit TV? If you have any tips, I’d love to hear them!

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Life in general Other Art Blogs I Read Painting People Sketchbook Pages Watercolor

How NOT to Start a Workshop

Coffee spill

Ink & watercolor in Aquabee sketchbook (larger)

I’m taking a figure painting workshop this weekend from Randy Sexton in Crockett, CA. It’s two full days of painting a beautiful model both nude and clothed in exotic gowns. Although I was excited about the workshop, I was also exhausted and stressed after a very difficult week at work, topped off by spending Friday evening doing my taxes (ick!).

Early this morning I packed my oil painting gear into my rolling cart, stuck a big thermos cup of coffee in my backpack, and rushed off to Crockett. As I got out of my car I felt my back suddenly go into spasm. Across the street another workshop participant was unloading her supplies. As I waited for her I tried to stretch my back by doing a sort of Downward Dog yoga pose holding onto the handle of my cart.

I felt a searing hot pain go down my back. At first I thought it was another spasm and then realized it was hot coffee pouring all over my backpack, down the back of my light green shirt, and dripping onto my shoes. I’d forgotten the cup was in my backpack and worse, had forgotten to close it all the way.

I managed to enjoy the class today despite all of the above. We did multiple 20 minute paintings and then a couple 40 minute poses. It’s quite a challenge to do an entire oil painting in 20 (or 40) minutes from a model, but extremely good practice. Most of my pieces today were “scrapers” (scraping off all the paint to reuse the panel) but maybe tomorrow with longer poses I’ll have something worth saving (and posting).

Now to go take a painkiller and rest up for tomorrow’s class — which will start even earlier thanks to stupid daylight savings time!

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Life in general Other Art Blogs I Read Outdoors/Landscape Photos

Eternal (& Happy Birthday Sis)

Eternal

Larger

I took this photo of an old house near Berkeley’s upscale 4th Street shopping area. There’s something about the image that I find so evocative.

Today is my sister Marcy’s birthday, and while I’m thinking about birth, eternity and old houses, I invite you to visit the Blue Lotus Project (click on Craftsman Home) where you can see the amazing rebirth and transformation of her home, a former fixer-upper (or tear-it-downer as I called it).

The house had been severely neglected for decades and everything was rotten and moldy. It was so awful that I thought it should have been torn down. But Marcy and her husband Tim had a vision of what it could be. After several years of hard work, it became the beautiful home they envisioned, and the place where our family meets for holiday gatherings and all of our rites of passage.

Tim is a contractor, fine woodworker, and master carpenter; Marcy is a brilliant interior designer and space planner; both are talented fine artists as well. They are co-partners of the Blue Lotus Project, a San Francisco Bay Area design/build company.

To see the amazing before and after pictures of the rebirth, click on “Craftsman Home” on their Blue Lotus Project website. There are more of Marcy’s interior designs on the Marcy Voyevod Design website and her her paintings are here.

I know sisterhood isn’t eternal, and I am so grateful for every moment we have together in this life!

Happy Birthday Li’l Sister!

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Art theory Dreams Illustration Friday Life in general People Sketchbook Pages Watercolor

Leap (year) * Illustration Friday

Leap

Four watercolors, framed together 24×32″ (Larger)

This week’s Illustration Friday challenge is “Leap” in honor of leap year, this February 29, 2008. But the paintings and sketches in this post were actually made twenty years ago. They were inspired by two dreams recorded in a 1988 dream sketchbook (below) and a class in color theory I was taking at the time, based on Joseph Albers work. The images include references to the seasons; times of day/night; the elements of water, fire, earth, and air; and tarot symbols.

The dreams that night were showing me a choice I needed to make in my life. Then as now I was fascinated by computers/technology and art (a perfect combination for an art blogger, no?). But my dreams pointed out how the time and energy I was spending on the computer tied me in knots and stole from my creativity.

Here is the image from the first dream that night: A computer tech “boiler room” full of electronics, miles of wires, computers, monitors, and icky nerds frantically, obsessively, working non-stop at their computers with no time to even look up. It was a nightmare really…full of tension.

Leap-1988

In the next dream I left that scene and I was running free in a field and it felt really good.

Leap-1988-2

And then, from a quote I’d heard somewhere, this image and words.

Leap-1985

When I awoke I knew I had to make the choice for life, freedom, and art, and quit spending so much time at my computer.

I guess like anything else in life, it comes down to a matter of finding balance and making choices about what’s really important. If I remember to ask myself whether I’ll feel happier at the end of the day if I’ve spent my time drawing/painting or working on the computer, I usually know which to choose (Art!).

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Drawing Life in general Painting Plein Air Sketchbook Pages Watercolor

Ladies, Stand Up for Your Right to Pee Standing Up!

Pee Standing Up Tools

Ink & watercolor, 7×10″ (Larger)

Plein air painting means spending the day out in nature … but what to do when nature calls and there’s no restroom? The guys can just face away, pee on a tree, and preserve their modesty. But we women have to find somewhere to squat with knickers around our ankles, fannies exposed.

After my first painful experience in this situation (too much coffee, no place to hide) I wondered what more experienced plein air painting women did. My research led me to the devices pictured above that allow women to pee standing up, without having to drop their drawers. All you have to do is unbutton and unzip your jeans enough to slip one of these nifty devices into position and you’re ready to “go” with no body parts exposed.

I practiced first at home, trying out all three of items illustrated above. My favorite is the purple one, called the Whiz. It’s reusable, works perfectly and lets women wee anywhere that men can (just remember not to pee into the wind). WhizBiz’s website recommends it for active women for hiking, snow activities, climbing. It is flexible and can be squished small for carrying. WhizBiz is in Australia but ships internationally. I received my order in about a week.

I also liked the Urinelle, which I ordered from Magellan’s travel supplies. They recommend it for foreign travel when bathrooms are unavailable or too nasty to use. The Urinelle is made from stiff paper and resembles a snow cone cup. They are disposable and can only be used once, which could get expensive since they cost a little over a dollar each (sold in packs of 6). They are very easy to pack or carry since they are flat until you open them for use.

Of the three I tried, the only one I did not like was the Caring Hands TravelMate (the blue one above). It is too small and not at enough of an angle and…well, I’ll spare the details except to say I’m glad I was testing it in the shower. I wrote to the company and asked for a refund but they didn’t respond.

Peeing standing up is so much fun! I keep a Urinelle in my purse and another in my car, just in case. When I go out painting I carry the Whiz in my backpack. It’s saved my fanny several times now.

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Life in general Sketchbook Pages

Maybe it’s time to kick the coffee habit (again)

Peet's Coffee

Ink, 3.5″x4.75″ (Larger)

I sketched this at Peets when I stopped to pick up some coffee beans, now that my grinder is working again. It’s in my new combo wallet/sketchbook. I visited my local stationary store looking for a small binder to use as a sketchbook and the owner offered me this little Filofax for only $5.00 since someone had returned it. It’s a perfect wallet (even a zipper section for change) and has rings to hold nice paper. See the bottom of this post for photos of it.

The problem with being addicted to a morning cup of coffee is that I wake up stupid and dysfunctional until I’ve had my cup. This is dangerous since making the coffee involves handling scalding liquids, equipment with motors and sharp blades (to grind the coffee), drip filter holders that can be easily knocked over, and carrying cups of milky coffee across the room with shaky hands. I’ve encountered disasters with all of the above.

To read the rest of this post and see the wallet/sketchbook photos, click “Continue Reading” below:

Continue reading “Maybe it’s time to kick the coffee habit (again)”
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Drawing Dreams Life in general Painting People Sketchbook Pages Watercolor

Dreams: Definitely not on the best dressed list

20080208-Macys

Ink and watercolor in 5.5″ square sketchbook (larger)

Last night I dreamt first that I was shopping in Macy’s and a snooty salesman looked me up and down and made fun of what I was wearing. He offered to help me dress better and recommended $100 flip-flops with made of thin green nylon (like they make sleeping bags from) with criss-crossed shoelaces that held the flimsy things on your feet.

“The latest thing,” he told me. I wasn’t going for it.

Carrying on the poorly-dressed theme, the next dream was that I was wandering around Los Angeles, looking for a bus to Santa Monica (a suburb of LA where my mother lives) wearing only a large (but not large enough) shirt.

20080208-shirt-only

(larger)

I wasn’t terribly embarrassed by this partial nudity, having gotten used to it from all the time I’ve spent in previous dreams completely naked in public.

In real life, I don’t go out naked, though I did spend a summer nude in the early ’70s when I was 22, camping with 6 friends at a beautiful spot in the Siskiyou National Forest, 10 miles down a dirt road from the town of Happy Camp. The temperature in the afternoons reached 117 so nudity seemed pretty reasonable.

Running by our campsite was the perfectly named Clear Creek which fed into a wonderful swimming hole surrounded by huge boulders, perfect for lying on and diving off of.

We were the only ones there during the weekdays but on the weekends the occasional truckload of Native Americans from the nearby reservation would come out to swim or a family might camp for the weekend. The guys in our group would put on bathing suits when we had visitors but us hippie girls stayed au naturel for the duration and nobody seemed to mind.

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Cartoon art Colored pencil art Life in general Sketchbook Pages Watercolor

Hamster Brain, Part Two

Silence of the Hamsters

Ink, colored pencil & watercolor in 9×12 sketchbook (Larger)

In yesterday’s post I wrote about what I call “Hamster Brain” (when my mind gets stuck spinning in a hamster wheel of “shoulds” and I can’t figure out what to do next and so do nothing). I was going through an old sketchbook and found this illustration I did in 1999 on a similar day of “my brain on hamsters.”

When I read the journal entry it was interesting to see that I’d figured out back then what was really going: a fear of not having enough: not enough time, and maybe not enough talent or skill either as I faced the artist’s version of writer’s block…that icky fear that seems to come around when I finish one project and am faced with the blank canvas/sheet of paper. I’ve learned to encourage myself and turn off those critical voices but every once in awhile they sneak up and get me when I’m not looking.

Today was so much more enjoyable,  even though it was pouring down rain. I did my errands, went to the gym, and painted. Sometimes it takes a hamster-brained day like yesterday to make me really appreciate an ordinary day that is joyous just by the absence of negativity and blocks.

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Life in general Sketchbook Pages Still Life Watercolor

Stanley 93E Box Cutter & Polish

Stanley 93E & Polish

Watercolor on hot press paper, 5 x 7″ (Larger)

Yesterday at work someone had left a strange little still-life set up on a table in the ladies restroom: a little cosmetic bag and a a heavy metal box cutter (well, to me it looked like a still life, probably nobody else would have thought so). I recreated it on my drawing table tonight, adding a bottle of nail polish that I keep in a similar cosmetic bag.

I like the way the box cutter came out looking like a fish with a little rooster comb on top (the brass thingee you push to move the blade in and out). It felt so good to do this painting after a frustrating day in which I never made it out of my pajamas.

Hamster Brain Part One

Fridays I work half a day from home, but today the half day stretched out into the late afternoon, due to problems needing my attention and because I got a late start due to spending a frustrating hour trying to reassemble my wonderful Capresso coffee grinder after finally receiving the missing part in the mail (it had fallen on the floor when I cleaned the grinder, and was promptly stolen and hidden by my plastic-gizmo loving calico cat Fiona). It turns out I’d put the burr grinder piece in wrong and it was jammed and I could not remove it and so the bean hopper wouldn’t screw back in on top. Now the whole thing needs to go back to Capresso for repair. Makes me think it’s time to give up coffee (again!).

It was the first sunny day in a long time and I wanted to get outdoors and paint…and I needed to get some exercise…and I had some errands and phone calls to make. Plus I had a bunch of studio art projects I wanted to do — some dream paintings, color exercises, and this one.

I got into one of those stuck places, going around in circles…I’ll go to the gym first, no to the store first, no outside to paint first, but really I should vacuum…I’ll just check my email….and around and around. I call it Hamster Brain, since it feels like running in one of those hamster wheels.

Finally, at 8:00 P.M. I pulled myself out of it, did about half an hour of Pilates (while simultaneously putting in my weekly call to my mother) and having accomplished both those things, got to my drawing table and made this picture. Now it’s 11:00 p.m. and I’m free! My weekend has begun and it will joyfully include exercise, painting, and as little erranding and hamstering as possible!

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Every Day Matters Faces Life in general People Sketchbook Pages Subway drawings

13 minutes, 4 commuters, politics and art books

Ink in 6×9 sketchbook (Larger)

On my way home from work tonight I intended to continue reading Hensche on Painting (about an American Impressionist painter and his teachings about seeing and painting color under the influence of light). But the BART train was full of fascinating faces and I had to sketch instead. There are four stops between my office and home. The person in the seat two rows ahead of me was replaced at each stop, which made for a wonderfully random assortment of models, with 2 to 4 minutes each to draw them.

Tonight my painting group was here and we talked about whether we were going to vote for Hillary or Obama. As I wrote that sentence, I realized that it doesn’t feel right to call her by her last name or to call him by his first name. I wonder what that means and if it’s unconsciously sexist of me? Or is that I didn’t know how to spell Barack and had to look it up, even though I’ve seen it a hundred times already? Or is it because when I think “Clinton” I think of her hubby?

Susie has been reading Obama’s first book, Dreams from My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance, about his life pre-candidacy and it has convinced her to vote for him. I’m going to download it from Audible.com and listen to it.

Tomorrow night (Thursday) is the California debate between the two of them, and although I don’t get CNN on my TV, they are streaming the debates live on CNN.com so I will watch it on my computer. Then I’ll make my decision and mail in my absentee ballot. (I like pretending that my vote actually matters.)

I’m just looking forward to the end of the Bush era and not having to run to turn off the sound when he’s on the radio or TV.