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...

Treasure

There is no complete work this week, though this was not the initial intention. I felt prompted to sketch again for this week's word treasure. My initial inclinations were to work with the human figure. And as I looked around for further inspiration, I found it when I went for a run, swim, run to the Berkeley Marina with friends and acquaintances from the Cal Triathlon club. Swimming has been an important part of my life for many years now, so the experience of being in the open water of the San Francisco Bay for the first time was rather powerful. Being among waves and kindred folks while looking out at the Golden Gate Bridge is certainly a memory I will treasure. 

My initial idea for the complete work captures this and is represented in the very bottom right of the sketch page (top). This first page was my first practice at what I would draw or simply what I wanted to draw. Liz's work with ink pen has influenced me here: I liked the effect of adding ink lines over my stronger pencil lines, while leaving the pencil shading and detail. I began the next drawing (middle) with the intention of making the complete work described above. However, I liked the look of just having one subject in the water. I thought that adding the other swimmers would completely change the scene in a way that didn't seem natural. So I stopped and began other works, including the last (bottom). This was meant to be of larger scale, focusing on the form of the swimmer. I intended to draw the figure swimming backstroke, but now it looks like it may be a view of freestyle from the perspective of underwater. I appreciate Lucy's comment on the suggestion of a female figure almost embracing the man, this was not conscious. I feel that these drawings are my most "free" yet, since I made them without a care for perfection or even completeness. 

So rather than having a complete work, I present the collection of experiences captured in these sketches. I find this to be more enjoyable and perhaps more fitting for this week. My question to my audience is: which sketch (or part of a sketch) do you find yourself most attracted to or interested in? Feedback here could help me learn what works well for me for my future works. 

Also, I'd like to try my hand at paint. I'll look into getting a hold of some soon. Suggestions welcome.

Mend

In some respects, this work is a juxtaposition of art and science. On the right is a short reading from an almost antiquated electrocardiography machine. The varied, and frankly beautiful, shapes of the lines are the result of different position readings of the electrical activity of the heart. And actually, that is my heart. I was able to do these readings in my Exercise Physiology laboratory. The paper seemed to be very old, and the experience of holding this physical evidence of my heart's existence was rather powerful. On the left of the page is short poetry I wrote pertaining to the heart, which reads:

The Heart bears all things

With love and loss, warmth and life

The tangible soul

I flutter and I sink

I drop and I strain and break

With time I always remain

The heart takes on more personification and symbolic meaning than any other part of the body. We seem to viscerally feel our hearts flutter when excited, skip when scared, or break when devastated. Of course the physiological purpose of the heart is to carry out the circulation of oxygen, nutrients, wastes, heat, immune system cells, clotting factors, etc. The heart bears quite a heavy burden, carrying out these real and metaphorical duties. The word "mend" led me to think of the heart for all the times that these burdens bear too much upon the heart. Despite heart breaks and heart attacks, the body has the capability of healing with time. 

September 27,2016

Gather

If Tony were to ask, I could respond that I enjoyed making this piece. I originally had no intention of sketching for this week's prompt, gather. As I lied around thinking of my previous idea, this image came to me of a humble mother preparing a meal at an island counter with the child looking on from a darkened doorway. The scene was influenced by my conception of what an old - perhaps medieval - Italian household would look like. In my mind, the mother was much older in appearance, the kitchen was more ornate, the image would be darker overall (except for the child), and the figures would be larger. My original image may have been influenced by the paintings of Vermeer and similar artists. 

I went right to my desk to give it a go. Many ideas were formed and rearranged as I continued in the work. I remembered how to draw perspective again, and found it pleasing to arrange the lines just so. If you look closely, I'll bet you can find the point I used right at the mother's eye. This trick reminded me of Renaissance works, such as The School of Athens by Raphael. I needed some reference as to how to furnish the kitchen, so I looked at what an old oven might look like and drew one that I felt filled the space of the room. I also felt that I had to put those wooden beams on the ceiling to give substance and for aesthetic purposes. The lighting and shading were the most challenging yet rewarding parts of this sketch. I mention above that I intended this to be much darker, so I paid attention to where the light was coming from. You may notice that the candle and the oven should be the only sources of light, but there seems to be light coming from the entire centerpiece of the mother and "altar."

I will admit that during this sketch I listened to my favorite traditional Italian mandolin playlist, and stopped at one point for a glass of wine and baguette with olive oil and balsamic vinegar. I thought this would set the mood, but also, this mood was set in me. In this work, I express a longing for a culture I am only connected to through a genetic lineage. Perhaps I wish that it was my wife and child in the image, if even for a moment.

September 20, 2016 

Meander

Recently I have been captivated by the wonders of plants and the natural world. I have learned to  pay close attention to what may seem to be minor details, and with practice, these details magnify in the eyes of the observer. With this new perspective in mind, I approached the word "meander." To me, meander has a connotation of pleasure as the subject travels from place to place, taking a non-linear path and stopping to enjoy or observe the surroundings. Thus I drew what I think of as a botanist's meandering. 

The form of the work was created with a combination of sketch and chalk pastel. I don't know that this is a common means of working. I began with sketching some parts (the path, the man, the tree, and the large vines). I then decided that I wanted to add color for this work. I had this chalk pastel which I wanted to try using, so I let it contribute to see what would happen. It was not as exact as I would have liked, as the edges of the pastel pieces were flat squares. I decided to keep working with both pencil and pastel. I would agree that colored pencil would work well, but I like the dimension that the chalk pastel adds. I am certainly open to feedback. 

September 13, 2016

Touch

"Draw what you see" Ms. Florence would remind me each time I began a sketch in her Art class. Such a simple instruction helps to calm my nerves about trying to create the perfect work of art. I chose to draw this piece as a way to bring my hands and mind back into the realm of creative art after a few years of stifling from my rigorous science courses. I began with the outline of my hand, and I could tell I was still striving for that unattainable perfection. I continued to remind myself to simply draw what I saw. This finally became effective as I filled in the lines of my palm and creases of the joints. I began to relax and felt that this was a practice of honesty - I included all I could see and did not add anything I felt should have been there. You can see that I even included the scabs from cuts on my palm. With my finished work, I felt that one could read my fortune much like the oracles on the ancient Chinese turtle's shell. 

September 6, 2016