Bees

How creepy is it that people plan their own funerals?
I can't really make much of an easy statement to explain away this one..
A couple weeks ago, I got stung from my first bee in 20 years. The bee wasn't going to make it, and in a last ditch effort, reached out and stung me. Rather rude of it, I mean, it was good as dead. But no, had to take someone down with it.
Then there was a book I read, and the characters are in survival mode, trying to cook some food, and the bees keep swarming it, So they kill three, and lay them out as a sacrifice, and the bees stay away.
And the bees attacked my studio. And I think this is where this piece catches air. I waited, and they died. Like 500 honey bees. So I gathered them up in a bottle. And the idea of gluing them to canvas came to me. Like a collection, I suppose. Been doing a lot of that lately... Anyhow, I thought honey would be perfect, because it's bee like, right? Makes sense. tit to tat. But when I started, I just piled them up in the middle and poured honey on. Then I was like, well, if I'm going to be creepy, I might as well go all the way. /end result.
Stepping back and looking at it, I feel like a serial killer. Really sick like. Like painting her toe nails in her own blood. Or the end of Secret Window, when he eats the corn. (:

jhiv

Back to Square

sribbling

Some drawings. I've been carrying printer paper with me, and a pen, to scratch out still lifes.


The first one I ever did was is the Supreme Court, you couldn't have cameras, so I drew a picture. Then I did them it church, listening to the pastor after staying out all night. It kept me from falling asleep.
I started doing it lately because I didn't have a camera, and wanted to capture this one scene of planting trees. And make a little journal entry. Then it turned out all right, so now I've just been practicing.



It feels good, because I don't feel like much of a drawer, but I can still make drawings. And they have a fast motion to them.



Also, some stamps. Because I'm feeling the bubbling of words and phrases, like a phase in my art. I carry a little notebook to write them down. And sometimes post them to my facebook.

Working on

Part two too to of three coming soon.

Day 3

Makes me want to get a lot of jars and fill them with light affecting materials. I think I might.



1) 3D glass 2) Plastic martini glass 3) shampoo 4) egg (kinda translucent) 5) Bubble tea 6) Puzzle pieces (glare, reflect) 7) gold light fixture 8) purple bling ring 9) diet coke can 10) light bulb 11) Cat's eyes 12) tanning bed 13) chlorophyll 14) Marbles 15) triple thick 16) spoon 17) greenhouse glazing 18) jello 20) mirror 21) cd's 22) Masterpiece glass 23) plastic bags 24) white bed sheet 25) windows at night 26) bendy straws in water 27) colored cellophane 28) watches 29) crinkled tin foil 30) maple syrup

Boring

I spend SO much time doing things like work and school that I get no time for much fun art.

Day Two too to

The best part is, there really isn't going to be any beating myself up over this. I decided when I got the book that it's totally fine if I skip a day or two.
So, it wont always be continuous. But I'll try, for your sakes.


(The "experience logs" in the back of the book are just blank lines to take notes, so I wont scan them)

• Wednesday aprx 2:14 pm April 15th 2009, driving home from school
• hadn't done taxes yet
• afraid I would forget
• found pen, using photographic placement memory
• wrote TAX on back of left hand
• wrote FIN FAFSA TRANS BANK too
• wrote laundry dandelion run meds on inside palm
• ink smelled of stale chemicals, hand smelled like soil and pesticides
• considered the sensation of "touch" and how nonconsiderable it is
  
• wondered if the words would stay on long enough to remind me
  
• wondered if you could invent an erasable pen for your hand that wouldn't wash off
• considered liability of such invention
• wondered why McDonalds was sued, and not the inventor of coffee
• Wrote "do not erase!" on back of hand
• end time, aprx 2:27pm
  

The best book of my art life

I cannot plug this book enough. It is awesome. It is a piece in itself. Keri Smith, writer of "Wreck This Journal" and "The Guerrilla Art Kit". (Hadn't read either, yet).
I wish I could send one to everyone I know. But I'm still waiting on my stimulus check, so I'm going to i ll e ga lly (sound it out) copy it for you. Some parts. With my scanner. So, it won't be beautiful, visually. PS: this is SO nik, am I wrong?

Day One:

1. It's blue and metal with four legs.
   
2. It has one of those foot rest things. SO nice.
3. Who the hell engineered this? Did they have a degree?
4. Where did it come from? Where was it made, sold?
5. Wow, some really great welding.
6. How was the color picked? Like slate blue. It matches nothing.
7. What is the point of me having a folding chair here, I never fold it.
8. Two basic shapes, thin rectangles and long narrow cylinders.
9. Cool to the touch. Kinda almost clammy.
   
10. If I were an inch worm, it'd take a while to climb up and over it.
    

the coolest thing is coming

tomorrow

It's high time I retired

Am I artist, scientist, activist, planner, inventor? Am I human, or am I denser?
Or like Chris Watts once asked me, am I informalist, inform-alist? Recreatoer, re-creater?
Am I author, main character?

My Very First Art Teacher

I had just moved to a new town, and Mrs. Freeman was my 3rd and 4th grade teacher. She taught us art, like no other teacher before or since. She would bring in her own supplies and we'd use what we had. Then she'd show us how to watercolor, Bob Ross style, her paper taped to the board. We'd watch as she'd quickly demonstrate, showing us all the tricks of the trade, then would sit down and read to us as we created away.
Before her, we'd only ever been allowed crayons and markers and the like. And left on our own to figure out proportions and color techniques. She was the first to teach us the color wheel. And dimensions. And landscapes and flora.
Since, art is for the art classes. I would love to be sitting in a math class someday, and the teacher pass out watercolor paper and water and brushes and squirt out a little palette for everyone. Or sit in an art class and the teacher show us the technique and leave us to be, maybe reading Maniac Maggee while we painted away. No, it's more like "here's the assignment, now go do your own thing."

Thursday, I was working, and ended up framing one of her pieces. It brought an amazing amount of nostalgia, laying glass over the beautiful watercolored lilies.
I often think about her when I reflect on my journey here.

http://www.pnwwatercolors.com/index.html

Low and behold, this weekend while at the flower show, she had her own booth. It was that shy "Mrs. Freeman! Do you remember me?" And the "How could I forget a student like you?" And the excitment as I told her I was an artist and a horticulturist, studying in Vancouver, where she lives. She was happy. And so was I.

Oh Coraline

In 3D!

So magic

Photo shop is so magic! I just learned how to recapture stuff from shadows.
Now I'm freaked out I'll be retouching a picture and find something evil in the shadows.





Some stuff is just too blurry. But still, this is cool!

what i'm working on now

Ocd, expanded

I'd say 90% are from things I've collected. Magazine cut-outs, etc. I wanted to throw it out, but why not use them? they are free. I suppose it reminds me of scrapbooking, the way you just take some old pictures and turn it into a cute alphabet book. Repurposing.
I try to do one a day, but sometimes ideas don't come together. So I keep a pile of things to use.
Sometimes I try to create a card based on the day or my thoughts. But most of the time, I recapture moments from what the objects are.
It's 80% a matter of finding something to put on the card, 15% a matter of arranging it. And 5% trying to remember where you put the glue and the stamps.
Then there's the tech part of scanning it, trying to touch it up.
Someday I'll have 365, then I'll feel complete.

Maybe it'll help if I started explaining them?
Okay, take this one. "state 98". Everyone in Kalama knows what that means, and it's kind of a joke slang by now. But I still have my tickets.


One time while visiting friends, my suit was linty. So I stopped off and got a lint roller and used it once.

One card a day

So nice to have a computer to upload these again...

unpainted pictures

On the way to Oz

Brown paint on white foam, toothpick

Stargirl's desert

Brown paint on white foam using toothpick to scratch off paint.

circle dot spot

colored cardstock, hole punch, glue, empty silicone bumpers sheet

(what a beautiful day! )

How's the weather?

Snow

Rainbow

Fog

Sunshine

Wind

Lightening

Rain

Polar bear in a snow storm eating marshmallows

felt, thread, sewing machine.

I was SO frustrated that people liked this one. I didn't get it at the time, but now I can laugh.

Kicking it old school

I was cleaning my studio and found these, my first tags. I was too scared to take them with a real camera, in case it would be traced back to me. (: So I totted around a Polaroid.

Bleach

I have these Bleach pens that we used to use to make tshirts. I thought, hey, why not use them to write on everything. So, here's me testing it. It's a little tricky, cuz it's drippy. But once you get the hang out it, it's quite nice.
Downside is that you have to return to capture a picture, because the bleach takes 15+ minutes of work, and I don't know about you, but I'm not going to be hanging around with a camera, waiting for my graffiti to appear.

Other places I tried were brick and bathroom stalls. Tomorrow I'll see how those did.