Daily Drawing

Often on the edge

2012-01-23T12:08:00.000-08:00

I woke up this morning thinking about where everything meets everything else ... like, where the dirt meets the grasses that reach up and seem to change into the sky. This happens so easily in a drawing, probably not so easily in the organic world. But I can almost feel how one skin cell might stretch and reach out to become a shadow of a skin cell or a particle of night.

I love first waking, when everything seems possible and OK.

Pencil, paraffin, china marker and crayon on paper. 9" x12"

Watching the game

2012-01-15T19:56:00.000-08:00

Drawing while watching the game (49ers beat my beloved Saints). Can you tell?

I love how what I see, what I take in, gets processed, stored and reused. Sometimes almost instantly.

All are about 3.5" x 8" the usual china marker and paraffin on paper.

Drawing after supper

2012-01-06T15:20:00.000-08:00

Alternate between animation and stillness. Endow shapes with personality and will.
Encounter stray crayons that stab black water.

All 12" x 9" paraffin, crayon and chinamarker on paper.

Lighting up the night sky

2012-01-03T19:00:00.000-08:00

Working fast, dwelling on simplicity. It occurs to me how little command I have of language sometimes - can't get the words out - how much better if I just draw a picture of 'it.'

12" x 9" paraffin and china marker on paper

Groundwork

2011-12-31T07:28:00.000-08:00

Whenever I'm outside these days, my eyes have been drawn to the ground. Winter hasn't really kicked in (I wonder if it will at all this year), the soil is damp and rich and almost always in shadow. I suspect that there's a lot going on down in there. Busy life, growing, expanding out, pushing up through the cracks in the pavement, consuming and expelling, roiling under us. Even in this dormant time.

I feel way more light-hearted than that sounds ... this isn't my favorite time of year, but I like the idea of a living, breathing Earth, taking care of itself, getting ready for spring.

All these drawings are from my current sketchbook, measuring about 7 inches square. Pencil, paraffin, china marker and oil crayon on paper.

Drawing with my fingers

2011-12-25T20:25:00.000-08:00

Ooooooh Hal gave me a Kindle Fire for my birthday. I've been playing with a cool drawing app...
Bothe easy and complicated.

Monster drawing rally

2011-12-11T21:00:00.001-08:00

It was great fun, a big crowd milling around and good art... what a blast to see so much art being made so deliberately, so fast, with so much good energy.
Image 1: Here's my drawing. Yet another battle scene (see Nov. 2 post: Small Worlds ). That hour went by quick.
Image 2: Here I'm making it (that's Heather Bryant working on her small green creatures to my left).
Image 3: And there's Hal with E.A. Poe (and a problem with his brain).
Image 4: Crowd shot for context.

Most of these photos by Casey Gwinn (Thanks, Casey!).

Practice practice

2011-12-09T21:57:00.001-08:00

Second annual Monster Drawing Rally at 1708 in Richmond is tomorrow, well, today I guess. Hal and I will be there from 3-4pm.
It's late Friday (early, I mean, Saturday) and I'm home from work and figuring out what I might draw while I'm there. We each (70 some artists) get an hour to produce work that then gets sold to benefit the gallery. We did it last year and it was very cool.
See you there.

Vegetation + light

2011-11-17T19:01:00.001-08:00

Lately I've been thinking about lighting – I want to wrap all the trees around my house in sparkly white. These are a lot smaller than that. Adding light to beautiful paper and lots of x-acto work is making me happy.

Paper-wrapped votive, 2" diameter x 3.25 inches.

Snow on the mountains

2011-11-10T20:03:00.001-08:00

Here's the smallest pop up I've attempted, about 3.5 inches high. They remind me of a sparkly Advent calendar we had when I was a child, how I loved the daily ritual leading up to Christmas, opening little doors and windows to reveal a treat, a treasure or a secret ...

Pop up

2011-11-05T13:21:00.000-07:00

I've been making some pop-up sculptures lately, mostly from bad, or maybe just not wonderful drawings (of which I have quite a collection). It's nice to recycle when I can.
There's something really satisfying about successfully cutting out delicate curves and shapes. It's a no-mind sort of process, once I get the panels, elements and folds worked out (definitely a not-no-mind process).

This is a small piece, about 5 inches square when it's flattened out, made from a mixed media drawing on watercolor paper. I'm calling it Bones I, more to come.

My new favorite artist is Kirsten Stolle

2011-11-03T13:10:00.000-07:00

Hal and I were wandering around Asheville NC last week and came across a few wonderful small wax paintings hanging in a cool restaurant (called The Junction, I think). They are sweet, detailed map-sort-of-images and I couldn't stop looking at them. Love the detail, the tiny drawing and the humor. Check out her web site: Kirsten Stolle's web site or
www.dolbychadwickgallery.com/painters_html/stolle_html/stolle61.html

Small worlds

2011-11-02T12:44:00.000-07:00

Today is a day for organization, archiving and 'show entering.' These are three recent pieces in a series called "Soil Sample." (You can see a couple of others in the March 12 and April 5, 2011 posts)

As usual, some more successful than others – the reason I like to work in series. Underdrawings of ink pen were layered with paraffin, china marker and a few bits of color to ponder again the worlds of fragments that make up everything.

I like how the drawings seem to be progressing from passive, floating environments to more active, almost battlefield-like scenes.

Soil Sample III, IV and V
Ink pen china marker, paraffin and crayon on paper, 14" x 11"

Boo

2011-10-31T10:37:00.000-07:00

I made this card for my neighbor Susan, who has a sort-of-Peter-Max-thing going on. The best thing about these pop-ups is the shadows cast, and this one gets sufficiently spooky when properly lit.

Happy Halloween.

Untitled, approx. 5" x 9," crayon on cut paper

Sunday hike on the parkway ...

2011-10-30T14:27:00.000-07:00

Here's the drawing I finished today, after going into a floatation tank yesterday morning for a lovely hour. The tank session (I've had a few really wonderful experiences with floating) allowed me to get down into the place where I can see more clearly, like knocking the cob webs out of my brain.

My usual battle with horror vacui has been getting me down lately, and I sure did need what I found there: release into wide open spaces, simplicity, intent.

And here we are, hiking in the mountains near Asheville last weekend, down onto the valley floor that is still recovering from a ferocious fire almost a hundred years ago. It was unruly and brush-covered, crisscrossed with streams and dotted with rock. The sky was huge and clear, the trail led us out to a high, stunning waterfall.

"Sunday hike on the Parkway," 36" x 52," graphite and china marker on gessoed paper

Now&Zen ...

2011-07-12T17:27:00.000-07:00

... is the name of my joint show at Baron and Ellin Gordon Galleries with Lorraine Fink (Old Dominion University in Norfolk VA). The opening reception is Friday July 15, 7-9 p.m. and the show is up through Labor Day.
Lorraine and I have been friends forever and have been working together (well, side by side) for the past couple of years.

The gallery is located at 4509 Monarch Way (University Village) behind the Ted Constant Center. 757-683-6271. Come on out.

Forest floor

2011-04-12T05:45:00.000-07:00

Fragments of the big drawing...
My big works seem to be composed of many small drawings.
Hal and I were hiking in the mountains up near Wintergreen this weekend... winter still hangs on there and snowdrops are just poking their heads up out of the ground. Trails were carpets of gnawed-open acorns, deer prints and spring green moss-covered rock. Spider webs held sun catching dew drops and scallops of white fungus clung to dying tree trunks. All knitted together to create a forest.

Fra-a-a-g-men-ta-tion

2011-04-06T19:48:00.000-07:00

The floor of my studio under the big drawing is alive with byproducts of art making; of building up (china marker) and tearing down (eraser crumbs).
Clutter, fragments and pieces live on the floor, on the tables, in baskets and cupboards, and my head. Everything I see here seems half-assembled, or half taken apart; half begun or half finished. Not a completed thought in the room.
Hmmmm. Maybe it's OK that nothing ever actually 'arrives' at its destination. In the end it's the pieces that stay with me. The joy, the sense of rightness is found in a small curved red line, or the shape of a white bird against a jet black field (more details of the drawing tomorrow).

Interior landscape

2011-04-05T19:12:00.000-07:00

Mmmm. Or still life with silly string.
Or lost in the wilderness (I've been reading a novel about monks in the forest on winter nights).
My head says I should be drawing simple. My hand just does what it wants to.

Burnished china marker over ink pen.
14" x 11"

Why is it so hard to make a small good idea a big good idea?

2011-04-04T19:52:00.000-07:00

Here's a detail of the great big drawing I've been working on... I'm giving myself 'til the end of the week to figure it out. Then I must move on.
I'm digging the collage (the soft gray areas) and the burnished black china marker. And the bronze color. And the playfulness. Hmmmm. Maybe this will work.

Under-drawing

2011-03-20T20:08:00.000-07:00

These are details from a large (7.5' x 4.5') drawing on paper I began over the weekend. There's already been one big bout of erasing and probably more (recorded and erased history?) to come. I like the back- and-forth rhythm between adding and subtracting, building up and destroying. I've been thinking a lot about how we remember ... and revise, and forget ourselves.
I just finished reading Paul Harding's Tinkers. Maybe that has something to do with it.

Studies

2011-03-19T19:28:00.000-07:00

It's been another great Saturday. A long week of no drawing (and lots of work) led to a great day of 45 small ink drawings (here are a few) ... they influence a new series of big works which I'll begin documenting tomorrow.

It's been a great day

2011-03-12T19:50:00.000-08:00

I love Saturdays filled with working and playing and running and drawing. Spring is in the air today.

Here I've gone back into an old ballpoint pen drawing ... finally knew what it needed. All the different styles I'm using lately will define the upcoming series of large drawings. Looking forward to it.

Living and breathing

2011-03-08T19:13:00.000-08:00

Here are a few more images from the Conch Republic.

We met an interesting artist on the island, Zbyszek Koziol, who has lived all over and told us stories about Warhol and the New York scene way back when. I liked his funny, figurative drawings. Check them out here.

Reluctantly returned home

2011-03-07T18:39:00.000-08:00

Here's a sampling of the drawings I made in Key West. Vegetation is awesome, abundant, and not what I see everyday in Virginia. Seed pods, fruits and roots, tree bark textures and flowers everywhere. Everything just grows, pushing up and out of sidewalks and pavements and foundations, bursting through fences and breaking pots that try to hold them.

On the road again

2011-03-02T11:11:00.000-08:00

Headed down to Key West for the rest of the week. I'll leave you with another one of the practice images. NOT the colors I hope to be using tomorrow when drawing banyan trees and lizards.

Will try to post new drawings while we're gone from Hal's cell phone. Have a great week!

Muraling

2011-03-01T16:37:00.000-08:00

Sometimes small pieces have really big voices.

Drawing and adding torn pieces of other drawings. It makes me think of urban landscape – everybody is on their way to work.

Graphite, crayon and colored pencil with collage. 7 x 14

Practice practice practice

2011-02-28T19:54:00.000-08:00

I made four of these this week. I think of them like practicing scales or jogging the same route every Tuesday. When I don't know what to draw, it's OK to just draw. There's always something new to been found.

I love that story about the monk who hides treasure in the subconscious for a later lifetime when it will be of use to him/her/humankind/me.

Acrylic and graphite on paper, 22 x 30

Sidling in

2011-02-27T18:09:00.000-08:00

Hal's told everyone that I've been back in the studio today, so I guess I'll post the drawings I'm working on. I took a batch of photos of this object created for a road-kill sort of video I was thinking about... I like drawing over photographs, making new worlds out of old worlds.

Ireland Drawing 3

2010-10-19T19:17:00.000-07:00

Untitled, 8'7" x 5', acrylic (monotype), paraffin and graphite on Fabriano

Wondering if this is two, or maybe even three drawings. I put in the darkness to give the eye a place to rest; from here it makes me think of fog and zombies.

Notes from the journal (see Oct. 17 entry): Sat., Sept. 18 – Quiet here in the studio. It's a luxury to float around, working on this one and that one. Hang three big works at a time and battle my inner demons.

Finished with big tribal piece of last couple days. It will be easy to animate. Different elements move or pulse slightly; very slow with lots of spaces in between. Gong or drum ... sneak in the occasional surprise. Trick of the eye?

Ireland Drawing 2

2010-10-18T07:48:00.001-07:00

This drawing, 9 feet x 5 feet, was made over 2 days in the studio. I seem to have had a touch of horror vacuii at the time ...

Notes from the journal, Monday Sept. 13: There's nowhere I'd rather be than here in the studio. It's darkly raining and very hard. Three stark white walls surround me.

Been drawing now all morning and see I have come to that place where I "wake up," loosen up and begin to SEE. But not before there are several really tight small areas in my great big drawing. No matter. Where I mean to be hugely gestural, I have come down to the microcosm. Think maybe I should spend my first hours everyday on a throw-away. But then, that might end up being the best one – in my old contrariness.

I drew all day in the hope of discovering something that "works." And I did. Plus lots of things not working so well (opportunities for problem-solving!). I'm intrigued by a couple of simple lined figures, one at the left wearing a deep crown and another at the bottom right, outlined with twisted legs up. Plus that rich flowing dark water at bottom center. Very fluid.

The Ireland drawings

2010-10-17T09:44:00.001-07:00

I recently spent four weeks in Ireland, working out of a studio at Burren College. I meant to post the work here as I went along, but never could get my camera or its chip to talk to their computers ... so I'll put them up now, one or two at a time, and add noted from my journal.

It was wonderful to be back in County Clare with friends from the village and new students at the school. I worked everyday and loved being away from the responsibilities of home as they tend to interrupt art-making.

I went with the idea of producing a body of large drawings on paper (having, for a change, a large studio) ... which I did. As often happens, however, the universe took me in a somewhat different direction. This drawing was the first one I finished, it measures about 7 feet by 5 feet and was made with my usual graphite, paraffin and crayon on Fabriano.

Here are my journal notes about making it, Friday, Sept. 10: It's Day One of studio work. Walked up from the village and spent the morning sweeping out my space and cutting paper. It's cold press and not taking the graphite well.

So, spent five hours on the first piece – it has a lovely sort of brushed motion to it. It's good, but am having to scrub and that means a lot of dust.

Tomorrow will soldier on – Work changes in an evolutionary way for me. So, what do I want to see happen?

Day Four: Now I am going back into the first drawing with a cloak of mystery. Oppression? No. Suppression? Maybe. Something to hide?

And TA DA!! I did it. It's good. Something hidden. Something revealed. Seeded like I channeled Chagall ... and I hardly know Chagall. With Bauhaus overtones (from five days in Berlin with my friend Bernadette). God, I love Europe.

The meaning in simple things

2010-10-16T07:30:00.000-07:00

These are my entries for the Small Works show at Charles Taylor Center in Hampton VA. I need to deliver them today and want to give a video artist statement to help the viewer figure out what I think I'm doin.'

So, spent some time this week knitting long blades of grass from my garden into tiny fragrant, fragile prayer rugs. Buddha would like them I think. I'm sure I'm not the first artist to do this, but it felt right and helped me to reconnect with my home, land, garden, air, earth. (I've been away in Ireland for a while, another story to begin in tomorrow's blog entry).

Why knit grass? you might well ask. Your grandmother could do it? But wouldn't?

I wanted to do something small and meaningful:

Natural materials are simple, plentiful, not toxic and generally free.
Utilizing women's "work" in art-making – knitting, for instance – feels comfortable, and reminds me of the importance of the domestic arts in everyday life.
Knitting in itself is a repetitive activity and can be very meditative. To do something over and over again – like this simple stitch – is ritual-like, and brings on a serenity I don't often find elsewhere.
The use of a live material that will wither and die – change over time – illustrates the ephemeral nature of all living things. We are only here for a short time.
Bringing nature into the gallery – even ordinary grass – points out its beautiful properties of life, color, strength, fragrance and utility. I wanted to show the viewer something he or she probably sees everyday, but ask them to look at it in a different way.
From the beginning of the work, I called them prayer rugs, albeit tiny ones (maybe for your Buddha nature?). A bit sacred, a bit ordinary.

Before and after

2010-07-10T10:58:00.001-07:00

Collage, and then working back into it with paint.

I had hoped to almost ignore the collage, but couldn't stop myself from trying to save the good bits.

And here's another. A lot of energy in so small (10 inches x 8) a space. Too much, I think.

See what I mean?

2010-07-08T20:41:00.000-07:00

Who is that? And that?

What I meant to do was to paste down random scraps and then paint over and around them ... but I get out the brushes and can't figure out where to put it. Aghhh.

Don't quit your day job

2010-07-07T19:38:00.001-07:00

Gosh, this is frustrating. I thought by now, I'd have crashed through this stuff, but I find myself avoiding the studio – making a sandwich or writing an email or cleaning the bathroom – anything to not have to work at this frustrating thing they call collage. I can sort of hear all those little pieces of torn paper whining back there when I pass by the open door ... ha.
Observations:
The switch to black paper has a sort of elegant quality, but feels like cheating.
Why does collage almost automatically go figurative? (I'll post a few more examples tomorrow.)
Black on black is intriguing. Will push this next.

Growing and changing

2010-06-18T05:19:00.001-07:00

Spent the afternoon again with Lorraine. She's making huge works on canvas, recycling old drawings as collage and then going in with paint. Very lyrical and beautiful. She makes it seem so easy.

In contrast, I'm struggling with the medium. I love the idea of using old works to make new works, but it comes slowly and I feel like I have to reach way down into myself for every little decision ... and then second-guess it.

I suspect it's difficult because it forces me to think in a different way. Instead of creating negative space to define positive elements – as I am most comfortable working – I must compose with positive elements. Agh.

Change is good, right?

Found art

2010-06-07T09:45:00.001-07:00

Looking for a big brush in the studio this morning, I came across a batch of 8 x 10s I made last summer when I wasn't posting (why wasn't I posting?). I'd forgotten all about these, and am happy to rediscover a couple of good ideas. They're inspiring me as I work on a new 8 feet x 5.5 feet drawing.

Postcards from the edge

2010-05-27T18:02:00.000-07:00

Spent the afternoon with my friend Lorraine. Helped her work on some monotypes and then collaged these small pieces. Good Spring day.

Back off

2010-05-24T09:48:00.000-07:00

Epiphany: In an effort to marry the two main layers (paint and graphite), I often go way overboard, filling in EVERYTHING. Working on this the other day with graphite, I actually stopped early. And saw that I was making a big (60 x 50 inches) drawing as if it was a small drawing. I had been covering up all the cool huge brush-stroked washes with a blanket of (small) texture. Got out the eraser.

I heard you the first time

2010-05-11T17:22:00.000-07:00

Color. New camera (much better image). Allowing much more of the randomness to show through. Need to ramp it up.

Sunday in the studio

2010-04-26T11:31:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was a good day for drawing. I reworked this piece that started out as a small brush painting, blown way up. There was a lot of under-drawing here, and I love how it shows through. I'm thinking I will go back in with large areas of white paint, sort of getting back to the white of the paper, looking through the layers of drawing, but will hold off for now.

50 x 50 inches, graphite on paper

About that drawing day

2010-04-25T12:11:00.000-07:00

Telling a story

2010-04-07T04:44:00.000-07:00

Even if I don't quite know what the story is. Hal says it looks like an animation where all the elements are smashed onto one frame... awp!

Leaving now for upstate NY and a balmy 85 degrees. Tomorrow it will be 55. O Spring.

No. 5

2010-03-31T14:48:00.000-07:00

Sadly, I've got to stop using this paper, only halfway through my ten pieces of paper. I was excited about it in the beginning – 10 sheets of 38 x 70 inch eco-friendly (by that I finally figure out they mean renewable, but not necessarily good). It's not holding up well, and I fear for its lifespan.

So, I have cut down a larger piece of Stonehenge to the same size and can do at least one more...

It will be a practice run for my gallery drawing at Elmira next week, so I'll start with a bit of subtle monotype. Right now.

Number four of ten

2010-03-29T10:48:00.000-07:00

They say that in order to make a change you have to do things in a different way. I learned a lot from making this drawing for a couple of reasons:

I started out drawing with a stick and ink (hmmmm).

I could only see half of the piece while I was working on it (big wall issues).

I took a break overnight in between halves.

I managed, for a change, to push through the tightness and horror vacui into the eye of the storm (where white space works and scribbles are good). I love this eraser.

OK, I know I'm way behind in my 10 drawings in 10 days project. I've had a cold; I've been pretending to be a cowgirl in Nashville; I'm getting ready to do a gallery drawing at Elmira College next week. But, we press on.

Day four, drawing three

2010-03-18T11:42:00.000-07:00

Yeah, I know. So much for structure...

This drawing just didn't want to work. God knows I tried. I do like the dog; and the bear trap. I think I'd better go out and breath for a while before beginning the next piece.

Two out of ten

2010-03-15T14:57:00.000-07:00

The light is fading so I had to photograph the drawing now (6 p.m.). I will probably work on it a bit more. Large white areas make it easier to breathe.

I need a new camera.

Ten big drawings, ten big days

2010-03-14T19:18:00.000-07:00

Just back home from Ireland. Visiting the Burren always helps me get focused to draw.

I found this great, cheap paper – it's six feet wide – I have ten sheets of it, so will make ten drawings in ten days. I made this one listening to Patti Smith. Yum.

Travelin'

2010-02-04T05:55:00.000-08:00

The Central Library show has moved up to Richmond. Catch it at Tarrant's on W. Broad if your travels take you there.

Recycle, repurpose

2010-01-31T15:09:00.000-08:00

So, the plan is to recycle a few so-so drawings into three dimensional sculptures. This is the first one.

The next step is to make some drawings from the drawings, usually a fun exercise for me. Right now, though, I'm struggling: 'drawing things' is much more perilous than just 'drawing.' Feels tight and wrong. How can it be right OR wrong?

I think I want to make fluid and ethereal pictures, but I keep ending up with harsh, graphic work. Shall I just give in? I won't upload the graphic work just now. I'll take another day or so to study the cut paper.

Air Quality

2010-01-02T19:11:00.000-08:00

Hal and I spent a good part of the day framing work for a show going up Monday. Our friend Jack Callan made beautiful frames and we worked out the rest.

This is "Air Quality 2," 27.5 x 53.5 inches. Oh gosh, I later added some graphite drawing that you won't see here (only at the VB central library).

My back is just about killin' me.

Happy New Year

2010-01-01T18:26:00.000-08:00

This is "Air Quality 1," sort of a leap back into the past for me. I've been working lately with my friend and former teacher, Lorraine Fink. Years ago she taught me this process of monotype and I have been revisiting it, layering and drawing, then working with graphite and eraser over it. It feels good to bring a bit of color back into the work. Today I watched a video piece about Joan Miro and was awed by the color in his early work. Color to affect the heart.

This and several others will go into a show at the Central Library in Virginia Beach on Monday, and then on up to Richmond.

Koyanaskatsi

2009-04-27T18:32:00.000-07:00

OK, a small batch of new drawings, the late beginning of spring.

Aftermath

2009-01-21T20:48:00.001-08:00

OK, the show went really well. Hal took these cool pictures and I'll post more soon. I've been sleeping a lot since then (crash and burn) and will be taking a mystery vacation with Sweet Hal on the weekend.
Ain't life grand?

Lots to do

2009-01-03T14:54:00.000-08:00

I decided to 'fix' my graphite drawings for the show. It really goes against my grain as fixitive impacts the environment in a big negative way (aerosol issues, central nervous system damage, and - as the label whispers - carcinogens up the yin-yang). I think it's actually spray on plastic. Yuck. I did some research, but found nothing safer being used as an alternative. I was hoping for something like a baking-soda-and-rosewater-solution applied with a pump sprayer... alas.
Fortunately, it was a nice day for working outside.

More work for the show ...

2008-12-30T11:41:00.000-08:00

... which is only 17 days away. Awp! Click here for details and directions.
Happy New Year!

TaDa!

2008-12-23T12:23:00.000-08:00

I was wondering if I would blog again. Here is No. 5 of the big drawings for the show. I'll try later tonight to write about them. Right now I need to dash off to work.
Cheers.

New series

2008-12-09T09:40:00.000-08:00

I've made these for the upcoming show... although they don't reproduce very well, I thought I'd put them up here. This has been a really productive time for me, but you wouldn't know it by checking out the blog.
I've given in to graphite for now (my studio is a no-go zone, dust covers everything). The ethereal quality seems right and everything I put on the paper sinks quite nicely into it. I will never give up on mystery, on telling only part of the story, on living alongside that which cannot be explained, only experienced.

Enter a new era

2008-11-30T09:36:00.000-08:00

I've been getting ready for a solo show coming up in January... and have clean forgotten to post the big pieces to the blog. Here's a detail from a 5' x 5' drawing based on a much smaller sketchbook drawing. Unfortunately, I cannot get far enough away from the wall to take in the whole image.
So far, this series is looking like the rainy day drawings that inspired them.

Anticipation

2008-11-18T06:04:00.000-08:00

Top drawing was made the night before I received the gift of the dead vole (see recent post). I honestly think somehow I knew what was to come... more evidence that time isn't linear for me after all.
I dig the idea that I can go where I might have unfinished business and try to wrap things up. I do that often in the process of drawing, revisiting ideas that niggle at me in my dreams. But this? This is weird.

What a mess

2008-11-12T10:19:00.000-08:00

This one started as a map of where I live now... sensing energy undulating here. Didn't Edgar Cayce say Virginia Beach is an energy node of some kind? I'm feeling it.
So, are we small? Large? Infinite? Finite? Maybe two objects CAN take up the same space at the same time.

Where ideas come from

2008-11-11T05:45:00.000-08:00

Hal brought home a vole (deceased I'm afraid) for me to draw. So peaceful and eternally sleeping, her fur so soft and perfectly bluegray. Later on I'll maybe post some of the sketches I made of her, but I see her influence in this piece as well.

Dulled senses

2008-11-02T19:30:00.000-08:00

The best of the bunch is not always good... I think the value here is in the detail: ghosts caught on the edge of the image; the intricate, delicate foot turned in; the last flutter of wing. I want that black black back. My heart isn't in it.

Undersea creatures

2008-10-29T12:43:00.000-07:00

It's big, it's messy, and I feel set free somehow.
Ebony pencil and paraffin... reaching back while looking forward. There's something so right about scrubbing away with that pencil right down to the nub.

Night fishing

2008-10-26T17:12:00.000-07:00

This drawing started out as a map of my childhood neighborhood. I am surprised that it went figurative on me, but since I'm looking for new territory, I decided to go with it. i like the 'reflection in a pool' quality. And the organic edges. And the scribbling.
Exhale.

Mourning a process

2008-10-26T07:15:00.000-07:00

I'd like to say I've pushed these drawings about as far as I can, but what really happens is I get more fearful - no, wrong word - more rigid, less likely to take a chance with them, less adventurous... and now they are less interesting.
What a drag. I think I need to give up the time-consuming ink drawing and get onto something freer and looser...
this process clearly needs to die, at least for the moment

Treasure hunting in the studio

2008-10-25T12:18:00.000-07:00

I found an ancient can of blackboard paint in the studio and it prompted an afternoon of repetitive-chalk-mark-making... if I could I'd wear this thing.

Pondering creativity

2008-10-23T05:48:00.000-07:00

This morning Hal and I were talking about ideas, where they come from, how to lay the ground work for more, how to recognize them when they do come...
I always say I can't make this drawing until I've made the one that came before it.
The thought process mirrors, so they say, the biological process of building nerve pathways in the brain. Thinking and drawing begets more thinking and more drawing.
But growth and change often seems to occur while I'm doing something else, crosshatching in a dark area, for instance, not really thinking about anything, but enjoying the physicality of drawing and the connection between the pen and the paper.

Halloween is upon us

2008-10-19T14:09:00.000-07:00

Restless, though benign I think, souls are stirring the air around here. I can almost feel them wandering through rooms, going through the refrigerator, hiding my pencils.
This process of drawing – layering random ink-pen sketches with burnished china marker – seems to invite them to take form through my fingers, a writhing chain-link-fence-like sub-strata of energy.
I was working with a story recently at the newspaper about 'buckypaper,' how it's made up of carbon nanotubes that stick together (left?) to form super strong skins for use someday soon in lighter-weight aircraft and spaceships. I love how everyday experience and encounters filter through me onto paper.

Rooster on the windowsill

2008-10-07T08:54:00.000-07:00

Bell jars and other vessels have been in my dreams lately. I seem to notice them all around me.
They're about holding onto something, maybe something precious, but probably something I need to let go of.
But I like them in my drawings, where I can isolate forms from the environment; saving them or saving all the rest of us.
Or perhaps this time the drawing really is just about that rooster on the windowsill, ready to crow.

Fishin' for a good time starts with throwin' in your line

2008-09-30T04:48:00.000-07:00

Pulling what I need from the collective unconscious. I never know what I'm going to need, but it often seems to come to me anyway.
Since I fish and swim here, I try to give as good as I get.
I'm feeling the darkness and panic emanating from Wall Street and Washington (and elsewhere)... my knee-jerk reaction is to blacken in the skies and let the fog roll in.
Fisherpeople have been pulling flounder, blues and crappie out of the Bay here lately. That's comforting, given the precarious condition of our economy.
From Douglas Rushkoff: Think small. Buy local. Make friends. Print money. Grow food. Teach children. Learn nutrition. And if you do have money to invest, put it into whatever lets you and your friends do those things.

No quiet mind

2008-09-28T17:29:00.000-07:00

Can you tell I've been all over the maps (inner and outer) lately? Covered lots of literal ground with visiting friends from Scotland and then a week in upstate New York with family. Not much time for resting or reflecting – or drawing. Now I am back at home and exhaling long and slow. Hope to be making some quieter work as the week unfolds. I'd love to see some big black (or gray or white) areas for resting eyes.

Sunlight dappling water

2008-09-21T05:16:00.000-07:00

I've been working out of more than one book this week and just came across this piece where I am pushing the background and playing with transparent forms. Since I won't be posting again for a week or so, I thought I'd add this in today. Cheers.

Wind and waves

2008-09-21T04:57:00.000-07:00

Traveling in the Outer Banks, I found a way cool Hemp sketchbook... this is the first drawing and not finished, but made in various coffee houses and outdoor pubs around Ocracoke Island. Waves on the beach were huge, sand was blowing and shells were only fragments... mosquitoes as big as hummingbirds, and just as hungry.
Continue to travel this week and will I hope bring back more drawings.

Invasion of the body snatchers

2008-09-08T04:57:00.000-07:00

I've been working in the yard and discovered a cluster, or should I say invasion, of 'pods' in the juniper bushes... hanging like Christmas ornaments from the ends of branches, oozing sap they steal from the plant and incubating I don't know WHAT sort of alien life form.
I made this drawing on Saturday night and only noticed it is THEM this morning... oooooo.
So not only do they creep unbidden into juniper bushes, here they are in my head as well. Oooooo.

Plain weave

2008-09-06T17:04:00.000-07:00

It's so great to have a day to putter in the studio.
I wondered what would happen to a drawing if I shredded it and then put it back together – deconstructed and made again (I am nothing if I am not literal). Take it a step farther and shred it in both directions, then weave.
It's got everything: hands working a repetitive, meditative process; craft; pixel-like blurring at the edges (very beautiful effect I think); dimension.
Click here to see what it looked like when I first posted it on Nov. 11.

Eye of the storm

2008-09-06T11:38:00.000-07:00

I've been all over town working on this drawing the past few days... waiting for my friend Bernie at his physical therapy, taking phone calls at Samaritan house and a late-night break in the newsroom. Today I'm not working - deep sigh of pleasure - and finally finished it up in my studio.
Tropical storm Hanna is battering us today, the air is odd and color in the sky unusual, but not dangerous. Out on the beach this morning the waves were kicking up and clearing the sand of everything... no treasures to poke at and study.
The crosshatching around this 'eye of the storm' went counterclockwise, then clockwise then back again, as if I am buffeted by the storm system and trying to get control... ha, like that's going to happen.

Structural framework

2008-08-24T16:01:00.000-07:00

I sometimes post drawings that are not finished... maybe hoping that next time I look back through these, I will see something I've missed. Part of my practice involves studying my own blog for threads of ideas and connections that surface here and there... like the goat drawings, or Cthulhu drawings. This skeletal piece is so delicate, I wonder if I can add some darkness without overwhelming it's subtle forms.

Still Life With Mirror

2008-08-23T09:35:00.000-07:00

Something about this recycled paper, it's color and flecks of I-don't-know-what leads me to make old drawings. Here I pretend I'm one of the old masters, carefully engraving a portrait or biblical story. Again, I am working over an older drawing in this sketchbook the past few days. I like the effect of a mirror image - more obvious turned upside down - but it seems to carry more weight with this end up. Ah, the tough decisions that an artist must make.

Recycling on a couple of levels

2008-08-14T18:44:00.000-07:00

Here's another one in the same vein as yesterday's post.
This drawing zapped me right back to Ireland and a walk up the hill behind Burren College last year. I came upon the carcass of a goat, it appeared to have crawled into some undergrowth to die a few days before.
Previous posts: Ashes to ashes, Goat drawings continued

Memory is an additive process, like drawing

2008-08-13T19:16:00.000-07:00

Hal is watching an old film noir and I'm channeling hard shadows and dissonance from it. The soundtrack especially is creeping in (Schoenberg- influenced score).
Lately I've been going back into earlier drawings. This one, about a year old, was all soft graphite and paraffin, serene and meditative. I soon put a stop to that.
Layering drawings, a new one over an old one, is like layering experience and memory. The building up becomes a new experience; the recording alters the memory with some bits obscured, destroyed, some exaggerated, some just preserved.
A continuous, ever-changing, truthful and not-so-truthful history of the universe.

Molecular level living

2008-08-08T05:04:00.000-07:00

A bit more work done on this Survival instinct since I posted it in July.
It's Friday morning and I'm off to Samaritan House (our version of domestic abuse/homeless shelter) to work on the phone lines for a few hours. I'm curious about how several of these drawings originate there, in a windowless office filled with desperate stories, fluorescent light, silly jokes and true good works. The down time between phone calls is fertile ground for drawing.

Small animals

2008-08-05T20:30:00.001-07:00

I've been making these drawings for a couple of days now...
They remind me of a Florida trip a few years back. I went out on the air boat in the dark with my brother Bruce so he could catch frogs. Gig frogs I mean. Frog giggin.' A process by which one sneaks up on a frog in the boat – o unsuspecting, innocent creature – shines a bright light in its eyes (they're quite stupid and actually hold still for this) and then Snap! stabs it real fast with a long pointy stick.
What I've been thinking about – after the shock I guess – is the huge shadows cast by the big bright spotlight. The frog goes sort of taut and stretches out all its legs, wrestling to get away. Bruce pulls them off the stick and puts them in a burlap bag in the bottom of the boat. They bounce and wriggle and hop inside the bag for what seems like ages.

New York

2008-08-03T19:48:00.000-07:00

What I love about MoMA is discovering an artist I've maybe seen before but finally 'see.'
This time it is Mira Schendel. I'm practically speechless about her work, and, as you can see here, miles away from being able to embrace her simplicity. But I saw and I remember.
New York was good fun. The opening at the Bowery Gallery was packed and noisy and I'm still trying to figure out why I'm in that show. Most of the rest of the work was quite representational. Later we all went to a big party under the 59th Street Bridge for great food and wine and dancing, courtesy of my friend Lori's employer.
Friday we walked across the Brooklyn Bridge, stopping over one of Olafur Eliasson's waterfalls to look down between the boards of the walkway. I generally love his work – the Weather Project in the Turbine Hall at Tate Modern comes to mind – but I don't get these. At the end of the day we were at Coney Island for fireworks on the beach.

Large drawing on small paper

2008-07-30T09:43:00.000-07:00

My favorite part of this drawing is the sort of tank at lower right that contains two amoebas (for their safety or everybody elses?). Other wise I'm digging the contrast between this and the previous post, those two little portraits against this epic battle scene.
Tomorrow we head up to New York for the opening of the juried show at the Bowery Gallery. I am so psyched. Here's a link to yesterday's article in The Sun; Alix Finkelstein interviewed juror Jed Perl about the show: http://www.nysun.com/arts/standing-fast-at-the-bowery-gallery/82764/
And here's the gallery Web site: www.bowerygallery.org
Links to my blog posts containing the two drawings in this show: O Tannenbaum
and Here's another one

Past and present

2008-07-28T05:17:00.000-07:00

My friend Anna Darlene gave me this very old paper she found in an Asian imports store in Milwaukee... they told her it was nothing special, used for packing china or pictures. But it is beautiful. Thin, aged, stained, worn and ready for small drawings. It has a texture like linen. Too fragile for me to do more than lightly draw with a pen.

Primordial soup

2008-07-22T05:30:00.000-07:00

I continue to work on this. I'm digging the stop-frame-animation imprints and the sense that everything is heaving and pulsing... a primordial soup.
Long long ago in design class, we were asked to make a drawing of an object that explained how it worked. Mine was an old egg-beater with a crank handle. When the blades were spinning fast, they practically disappeared at their outermost edges. Hmmm. How to work that into these sleepy zen drawings?

Survival instinct

2008-07-20T20:06:00.000-07:00

I know I will be pushing this image much further, but I like it right now the way it is... vulnerable parent and offspring inconspicuously fleeing from the threatening masses.

Monsters

2008-07-19T08:51:00.000-07:00

I must be having nightmares that I don't remember. I didn't see this coming, creatures hiding in the bushes.
In an effort to keep the edges lively I ended up with Cthulhu and Venus flytraps holding still among the pussy willows. That's what happens when I think too much about drawing.

Suspended animation

2008-07-09T12:59:00.000-07:00

OK, This refers back to my undergraduate work in a big way, though now I am using more eco-friendly materials (lemon juice, recycled paper, wax crayons. Beeswax crayons when I can find them). Sharp edges and dangerous shards, creatures (parasites? or other facets) within other creatures. I'm digging the small transparent areas at the edges.
Good work day.

Number 18

2008-07-07T18:35:00.000-07:00

It's true. The project I thought would long be finished by now is still in progress. This is No. 18 in the grid of 60 6-inch ink drawings that will - if you haven't seen these before - make up a much larger image of the live oak trees at the end of my block.
Working on this one reminded me of an afternoon a few years ago, drawing outside under one of the trees during an eclipse... of course I couldn't look up to see the moon covering the sun, but I looked down to the paper I was working on. Light filtering through the leaves and branches appeared on the paper in sweet crescent shapes instead of these mostly roundish ones.

Fourth of July

2008-07-06T14:04:00.000-07:00

So I've been back from Knoxville for 5 days... and I have a batch of drawings, but not much of them are any good except for this small brown one. And I don't even know where it's going. A lot of the recent pieces suggest animals to me: horses with strong backs; sea lions at rest; pterodactyl trying to scratch its own back. I've found that this deep black china marker I've been using lately (which I love )is taking over, but not in a good way. Trying to reign it (or myself) in... before it overpowers the delicate ink.
Now it's good to be home for a holiday weekend. The weather has been fine, ritual fireworks on the beach and the Bay cool and calm. Time to draw.

Where's my fedora?

2008-06-28T05:51:00.000-07:00

Ain't caffeine wonderful?
Hitting the road to Knoxville for the Tom Waits concert.
Posts from the trip I hope on Tuesday.

Burren landscape

2008-06-25T11:38:00.000-07:00

It's evident that I've had too much coffee... a lot, in fact. Drawings get busier.
I've been thinking lately that I should make landscapes, pondering what makes a landscape... horizon line, big detailed objects in the foreground. Last night late when I was driving home from work, the waning moon was huge and silent, hiding out near the treetops.
If you've ever been to the Burren, this first one might make sense to you. I'm adding a lovely shot of Burren limestone so you can see what I mean. (thank you BamJam.net.)

Ruffled feathers

2008-06-15T19:35:00.000-07:00

This started out as an ink-pen drawing that soon became the skeletal system for I-don't-know-who.

Ashes to ashes

2008-06-14T07:56:00.001-07:00

OK, not what lives inside us so much (variation on a recent theme) as what happens when we don't need it anymore.
I love the deterioration, the natural processes of reclaiming and recycling when the body is worn out. This drawing reminds me of finding a flattened frog baking in the sun on the road, or a days-dead snake in my neighbor's driveway. Leathery, brittle fragments come apart in my hand.

It's Saturday and I got up early to draw before heading down to the Outer Banks (NC) for the rest of the weekend. I've been trying to figure out why I'm working too much (payback for all the weeks I didn't work enough) at work that has little meaning for me anymore. And how I'm going to stop doing it. All around me are people living lives they never imagined, and never meant to have. I don't want that to be me. I'm asking myself why is this the first drawing I've posted in two weeks?

Cthulhu

2008-06-03T20:05:00.000-07:00

Last night we watched an indie film based on an H.P. Lovecraft story about the cult of Cthulhu. It was a newish film made in an old way... silent, lots of cardboard and flapping sheets and glitter. Cthulhu himself had lots of sharp claws and edges. In the end he was run through with the pointy bow of a ship. Though, as I understand it, he can't really die, can he?

Onion

2008-05-29T06:27:00.000-07:00

This week I've been thinking about the many facets of each of us ... some so private we don't show them to anyone. Other selves live inside of us, like fruit, or light. Conversely, like darkness, or ...
This, too, is a recurring theme in my work: Objects within objects; ideas within other ideas; the unintended arising from the deliberate.

Looking closely at my own skin

2008-05-24T06:05:00.000-07:00

I'm surprised that more of my drawings aren't about pattern and texture. Skin cells, scales, bark and feathers for starters. Leaves collected on branches and silhouetted against the sky. Goat poop collected in limestone crevices.
Here's to the holiday weekend: naps in the hammock, grilling out with friends, lots of drawing.