It's so PRETTY

The reason I don't post more is that I've become accustomed to sixteen-hour days. Which really doesn't leave a lot of room for reflection and the updating of blogs. Still, I think I've finally discovered a direction where I want my practice to go, and that makes me incredibly happy.

Three words: stuffed animal sex.

On the first day I attended drawing class, my instructor mentioned that one of my classmates' drawings looked like stuffed animal sex: cute, but also disturbing. I found the idea intriguing and have started to explore it in some of my projects for the class. I love the idea of something that is both attractive and repulsive. Something that draws you in with its cute, its kitch, its prettiness, and then turns around and smacks you with a giant blood-tipped glittery tentacle. Kind of like the ones I made for my drawing class.

They're so pretty, and yet...

Brush Versus Marker: An Exploration (NSFW: language)

I'm currently in a drawing course entitled Media and Techniques. In our first assignment we had to do 100 drawings in brush and ink, each done in three minutes or less. In our second assignment we had to take our favourite ten drawings out of the hundred and re-draw them in fine-tip marker.

I'm quite fond of the results - and the contrast between the fluidity of the ink and the precision of the markers - so I thought I'd share. Some of the images got cropped a bit whilst being scanned.

News!

I have an online portfolio. It is full of shiny things. I also find it useful for remembering when I made a particular piece: I have a bad head for dates.

Adventure Bound actually sold! This will be the first time that I get money from a piece that I've made. It's pretty exciting.

Other than that, I've been extremely busy trying to juggle school and work. School is amazing, as usual. I'm learning jewellery-making, as well as cloth dyeing. I am continuously in awe at all of the things that I can learn, and all of the processes out there that I can use to make beautiful things. I've been doing a lot of experimenting, most of which I don't have pictures of. Yet.

Still, I am alive, and continuing to create. Life is good.

Miscellany

The thing about being the only artist on the board of directors of a not-for-profit organization is that you invariably get asked to make most of the visual material needed for the organization. Not that I mind, really. I've learned more about computer-based art making king cards and advertisements for Misc Youth this summer than I would have otherwise. And the challenges kept me busy and occupied for the three months of summer break where I was unemployed and bored out of my tree. Plus, it's a youth organization, which means I get to walk into a board meeting and joyfully admit that all I've done is make paper dolls, and everyone thinks I'm awesome.


Now, if only I could find a job that would actually pay me to make paper dolls all day. Then I'd be set.

Adventure Bound

Just got back from submitting a drawing to the library's art competition. All I had to do was come up with a piece that had to do with literacy, reading, books or libraries that was less than three metres squared and submit it before the end of the month. Even if I don't win, this will help me get my name out there, at least, and if someone buys it I can get money. Money for art. It's a strange concept.
I'm pretty excited for the whole thing.
Anyway, here's a sneak peak at my drawing. The hardest part was trying to take a decent picture of it.

*taps microphone*

After some though, I've decided to get a blog dedicated solely to my artistic endeavors. This will be a place where, theoretically, I post sketches, finished projects, and other updates. I make no guarantees as to how often I'm going to update this. I also have a personal blog, school, work, the universe to hit me over the head with a dead haddock and other such niceties that will surely prevent me from updating as much as I'd like. We shall see.

I've been an artist pretty much since I could hold a crayon to construction paper and make some vague semblance of an image. I was about five when I decided that I wanted to be an artist when I 'grew up,' and at twenty-two, I have yet to change my mind. I've been going to art college for about two and a half years now, and I couldn't love it more. The people are amazing (and slightly deranged), the classes challenging, and the entire experience ultimately rewarding. College has humbled me some, made me realize how much I have to learn by exposing me to artists I instantly hated for being better than me. And it's made me one of those people who can't leave their house without a sketchbook and at least two pens, if not a pencil case and a knitting project as well.

I consider myself primarily a fibre artist, since that's what my major is going to be. I also draw, paint, sculpt, and had an unsuccessful stint trying my hand at silkscreen printing. In my free time (which is mostly imaginary), I knit, create costumes, and do graphic design on a volunteer basis for a not-for-profit organization I happen to be a part of. I play the piano, perform drag at fundraisers, and sometimes even manage to eat and sleep.

There are a handful of projects that I'm currently working on, but I'll talk about those later.