Totoro Forest Project.

I remember stumbling on this site ages ago (pre-blog era) and falling in love with the idea of seeing other peoples concepts of forest spirits. Sadly I missed the exhibition in San Francisco last year but I pre-ordered the book which won't come until December (sad) and bought a copy of Hunt & Gather.
Here are some of my favorites from the exhibition:

Jackson Sze
The Gift
Watercolor and Gouache
Katsuya Terada
My Forest Monster
Digital over pencil drawing
Mike Dutton
Sunset Sky and the Cypress of Sighs
Acrylic and Gouache

On my personal artist struggles, I've actually broken through the wall! I'm so excited, I've started three new pieces in what promises to be an interesting process. I'm combining drypoint etchings with watercolor and we'll see what I get. I'll have process pictures up and some sketchbook rambles hopefully soon!

Where the Madness happens.

Okay so my studio was absolute chaos up until about 2 days ago and went through to bring some order to what I was doing. And then I took picture to prove it (and remember what its supposed to look like)
This is kind of an over all shot of the whole studio with my wall of old paintings, sketches and (new) prints, etc.
More of a close up of where I keep all of my art books and my little painting station complete with self portrait mirror.

My clay table that my dad and I built out of a door. You can see my necessary liquid staple maker (aka tea/coffee maker)
My drafting table, this is where I do most of my drawing and painting...and yes, farmvilling. Oh and my obscene collection of glazes

Here I made myself a little inking station for my lino printing and woodblocks. The cat box is a make shift wedging table, its almost completely filled with plaster. and the other two shelves of Shit I Don't Know What To Do With.

I also have stuff that I've been working on that I'll post later tonight.

Plz?

I promise to take very good care of him.

Is it my birthday??

No. But I've sure got a lot of fun things coming! After a financial kerfuffle with DB over a back ordered item (they were actually very nice and very English speaking) I exchanged that money over to buy myself one of these:

a #6 to be exact.

As well as triumphantly winning a lot of 75 winsor newton artist grade tubes on ebay (my new crack holy shit) at approx $2.00 a tube, I'm feeling quite smug.
I'm still waiting on...
a new bag
palette
and 4 books

I have 40 new colors to arrange in a palette with 20 wells. I can't stand the pressure! I means I have to be selective and it breaks my heart.

oh. OH. AND This site is FANTASTIC

I will hopefully awe you tomorrow with pictures of my productivity

Ear:worm [Royskopp // What Else is There]

Tick Tock

At this point the clock is ticking and going fast, and I'm scrambling in the midnight hours to complete even 5 pieces for the upcoming show. I hate when I get inspiration at THE last minute and I have no time to take the time that I want to and that the idea deserves.
For Example:
I've just started a watercolor triptych that represents my fear of what the future brings for our society. Its a lot of nekkid kids killing each other, and at the moment I haven't finessed my explanation but believe me it WILL make sense...eventually. But anyways the pieces are highly detailed with a lot of components and again kids. Did you know that kids are a fucking pain in the ass to draw? My first attempt looked like a scary angry midget. The proportions are driving me insane and then add facial expressions, and hands and I will be working on this piece for a long time.

My only saving grace will be my prints, once I get a ~good~ print of my octi and complete the next several ideas I have I'll be gold.

But to satisfy your curious eyes, here are some pics of my piece so far.

"Inheritance I: Heirs of Icarus"

Part of my problem at the moment is when things are bad the state of my room shows it. Right now it looks like a war zone, but I can't stop thinking about that I don't have time but thats a lie. Today will be a day that I take a break from the worry and just get my act together. Lord help me.

Time to Use BOTH Hands

"Sea Goddess"


I decided that I would give printmaking another shot this semester and here is the fruit of my labor. Its 18"x24" (go big or go home right?) and I never quite considered the logistics of it all until I was confronted by The Biggest Brayer I Have Ever Seen. It was quite intimidating. Anyways this is the first artist proof I did. I used Daniel Smiths water soluble ink and it was recommended that I try using the oil based one for a more solid color. Though at this point I'm up in the air because the clean up for that beast was bad enough with just water let alone turp. I think I would end up killing us all. Either way I'm pleased as punch save for some minor cut details with the plate itself and I plan on doing a couple more runs to try to get the ink more even (first time folks). But I think in the future I'll stick with 9x12's

The one reason that Wordpress can suck it.

No. Custom. Layouts.

well thats a lie. But you have to pay for the changes you make.

So Blogspot, it appears we are stuck together until 1. I get my own domain 2. database management ceases to elude me.

FYI: Copies are Faking.

I find that the evolution of this blog has been rather interesting in all of its reincarnations. However. I am MOST. DETERMINED. TO. STICK. WITH. IT. And so here we are. I feel that the problem I had with the others is that they had a Purpose. This one won't, hence it will last forever.

Your Welcome.

Earworm // Steiner Um Flugg [Pantha Du Prince]