Open (Guide)

As this may be my last work of the semester, it gained that additional weight of significance in my mind. I questioned what medium I would use, what I would choose to show, and how I might weave in motifs from my previous works. However, I got to a point where I had to throw that out the window and just do something. I realize that with many of my pieces, I start working tentatively - thinking that I might switch to something else. Then I hit a point of commitment when I realize "ok, this is what I'm doing, no matter how bad it gets." That point usually hits earlier than I expect, and after it I can have fun with what I'm doing. This piece was fun to work on. It is loosely based on a real place and experience in a waterfall in Big Sur, but exaggerated and altered. Actually, in some ways the real waterfall was more grand than I have depicted. There was a great deal of exploration in the dynamics of watercolor paint, of which I am still a novice. 

I feel this is a good note to end the semester with. Considering my experience with this class as a whole, I am very happy that I have rekindled my artistic thinking. Not that the fire ever died - but it needed some air. Another benefit is that I now have some art supplies and know where to get more, so I can continue to work on art whenever I want to have that mental escape or for whatever other reason. I want to thank Tony and everyone in the class for being a part of this experience for me.  

"Bridge (trust)"

When I used to draw as a young child, I liked to fill the entire page with doodles that were all related to some central idea happening. For example, I'd draw a large monster attacking a city and detail all of the little responses to this tragedy. That idea was in my head as I moved into the creation of my work for this week. 

I spent the long weekend out in Anza-Borrego Desert (east of San Diego) with my Ecosystems of California class. I was utterly baffled by the landscape there. It is unlike anything else I have seen in person. The land is flat all around, but interrupted by grand, rocky mountains on three sides. The scraggles of vegetation are widely dispersed - they simply can't grow closer together due to the lack of water and nutrients. The air is dry and hot, yet free. With everything else going on in the world, this was the perfect place for me to be this weekend. 

This drawing was meant to display a sort of whimsicalness that I remember from my childhood drawings. I also could not help but to depict this grandeur of the desert ecosystem. Sunrises and sunsets are particularly stunning. I am not sure which I am trying to show exactly. The building and the car are not at all necessary. They came from the desire to make a whimsical compilation, and they give a sense of "grounding" to reality. I had thought of drawing a human figure, but decided this would be catastrophic and likely make the piece too cheesy. I like the effects of the colored pencil I was able to create. It would be fun to explore this further in future works. 

Now it's time to get back to reality. 

Love (change)

I can not write much now, but I will note that the work at the top addresses my concerns about climate change on this planet that I love. I find this particularly appropriate because we are meeting on Election Day, and climate change is the most important issue to me which will be affected by the results. 

I took the picture at the bottom at Ano Nuevo last Friday and found it caught my eye and may be somehow related.

"Near"

In response to my work from last week, I have continued to discover for myself the differences between detail and subjectivity. 

Field

"Baseball is 90 percent mental. The other half is physical"

-Yogi Berra

It's that time of year! The World Series is underway, and the appropriate word "field" allowed me to capture a piece of America's greatest pastime. I do not at all claim to be a fanatic, but there is something about the sport I've come to like. The scenario I've depicted above reminds me of going to the park with my little brother and best friend to play ball. I've certainly blended my ideas of baseball and fictionalized the image with the full uniforms and the resemblance of fields in the background. Ultimately it has turned out to be a mix of my memories, professional baseball, and Field of Dreams. 

I just got myself watercolor paint materials (and nicer paper), and was excited to try it out. I had many study pieces before reaching this one, and still have lots of room for improvement. I hope to work more watercolor into next week's work. In class Tony noticed that there is almost a dichotomy between the form of the players and the background of the sky and grass. I think this touches on a very natural tendency of mine that spans many of my works. I spent a lot of time making sure that the players' forms were correct and made sense, but let myself go when making the background. I can see the parallel between this and in my first work of the hand sketch for Touch, contrasts the outline with the palm lines. Even the works for Gather (the mother and child) and Reach (the sailboat) seem to form the opposite ends of that spectrum. What's interesting is that those two works are my favorite of my works this semester! Does that mean I should do more detailed work, or more freely flowing art? Or should my work continue to be a combination of the two (as Yogi Berra suggests)? 

Round

I couldn't go to Big Sur and not come back with an inspiration to depict ocean crashing into rocks topped with sprawling cypress trees. 

In many ways, I am not pleased with how this piece turned out. I feel that it doesn't do justice to the experience of Big Sur. Perhaps I didn't choose the right scene to depict. This is entirely from the mind's eye, but inspired by Point Lobos. I take that back - the poppy is reproduced from a photo I took last year. Beyond the choice of scenery, I feel that it is lacking. I didn't feel this way until I put it on the wall and committed to its state of completion. I like that I added the hand holding the California poppy as an element of the foreground, but it doesn't fully satisfy me. I may have been a mistake to decide on the medium and technique before the image to create. I had the idea that colored pencil outline would look nice, but not I see that its effect leaves you wanting more. And there are no depicted features to the sky, but it was a cloudy, rainy day which was just incredible in reality. Someone else may enjoy the simplicity, but this will be something I work on in future weeks. 

Still, there are aspects of this work that I like, and will keep in mind as I go forward. I like the color of the poppy in contrast to the rest. I like the spatial orientation of the horizon and the hand, and even the crashing wave and cypress. Adding the hand and poppy as a new layer is a new practice to me, but was likely inspired by others' work (such as Lucy). And I'll admit that a goal I had in mind to make something that Rebecca would respond to, because this piece gets into her area of expertise and passion. Anyway, I'll figure out where to go from here...

October 18, 2016   

Reach

This week's work was an exploration into both imperfection and finesse with color. The paintings of Alfred Wallis certainly struck a chord with me, as should be obvious at the sight of my work. What I admire most about Wallis' works are his genuine imperfection and his passion in representing water with paint. I kept those ideas in mind as I approached this work. The horizon line is not straight because I had no concern for ensuring that it was in fact straight. I admit that I do not have the intimate understanding of ships that Wallis has, so I gave my best mental representation of a simple sailboat at the orientation I wanted to depict. I also went for an imperfect cutting of the edges as Wallis seemed to do so naturally. I spent most of my time exploring the dynamics of color, and color-over-color, and color combined with texture that pastel would allow for. Once I learned how to make the wispy scalloped waves, it was hard for me to stop at the risk of it becoming overworked! In the end, I am satisfied with the sense completeness that color provides to me as opposed to my pencil sketches. I do not yet know where I will go next week...