Ojalá, Selah, Lateda

What I’ve been up to…

I can’t seem to get myself to blog all that much lately, but I have been making art and some of it is getting posted online, just not here. Here’s some of the places around the web where my art can be found…

Various original pieces are available on Etsy.

Miche Bag Shells featuring my vector designs
are available in the Custom Miche Gallery

Prints, iphone & laptop skins and even t-shirts are available at Society6

And of course there is also a facebook page…

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Return to Figure Drawing

There were a lot of wonderful things about living in Cancun, I could go on and on, but one of my favorite things was La Casa de la Cultura, which translates literally into The House of the Culture. It was there that I first learned about Alebrijes and made my first paper maché mask. I spent long hours in the ceramics studio with an amazing couple of sculptures, and starting in 2003 I participated in weekly figure drawing sessions. (Some examples from then can still be seen on the old cancunarts.com site.) But when we left Cancun (four years ago on Wednesday) i had to leave all that behind.  I am able to continue with my paper maché, no problemo, but I hadn’t had the chance to work with clay or draw from a model in over 4 years. I was thrilled when I heard that the Dawson County Arts Council was going to have weekly figure drawing, and then very disappointed to hear there weren’t enough people interested for it to happen.  However, a small group of artists decided to go ahead and meet in one of their studios and hire their own model once a week and as I had expressed interest in the DCAC group they invited me! Friday I drove out to a beautiful farm slightly north of town and joined three other artists for three hours of drawing. The model overslept so we ended up taking turns drawing each other, but that was fine. I’m not sure how to explain it, but there is just something very different about the experience of sitting with a group of artists and drawing from the same model. I love it. I’m not sure if the difference is based more on having a life model or the communal aspect. I guess I could experiment with drawing still lifes in a group, or drawing a model by myself, but in the meantime I am just so happy to have  a chance to be part of this group. Like I said we have lived here for four years now, but it is just now starting to feel like I am part of the community. (Click on the images to see them bigger.)

Art in Georgia

As an artist and resident of Georgia I was dismayed to hear that the House
Appropriations Committee voted yesterday to eliminate the Georgia Council
for the Arts budget for FY 2011 and that GCA will cease to exist.

I know that times are difficult and that many agencies are taking cuts,
but to get rid of the arts agencies all together is a tragedy. Art is
important to our state, our communities and our individual lives. Art is
important to our souls, it separates us from the animals and machines.
If this passes…

1 - Georgia will be the only state and territory that will have no state arts agency.
2 - We will lose the Grassroots Arts Program that ensures there is arts programming in every Georgia County.
3 - Georgia will lose tax money that is reinvested in our state through the National Endowment for the Arts. This money is entirely contingent on the GCA budget being at least $900,000. This money from the NEA funds programs in every Georgia County.
4 - We will lose more jobs in this economic crisis.

Remember that investing in the arts pays off both in tax revenue, jobs, tourism - it’s one industry that is alive and well in spite of the overall economy. Please contact your state legislators TODAY, and let other voters know of the situation before Georgia becomes the only state or territory in the U.S. without a state arts agency.

I just wrote our state legislators and  I hope you’ll take a moment to do the same.

Please Follow This Link to Take Action on Important Arts Issues
http://capwiz.com/artsusa/ga/utr/2/?a=14931951&i=98643886&c=

Thanks,
Jennifer

Trusting Prophecy and Talking about It

When I first decided I wanted to have a blog the idea was to have a place to share via the written word as well as the visual image. I expected to write regularly about what was going on in my life, what I was reading, and what I was thinking about in general. I imagined I would share drawings here and there. In October of 2007 when I started this thing I wasn’t doing much in the way of “real” art, most of the images I created were doodled on post-it notes while I was supposedly busy “designing” yellow page ad after yellow page ad. Then came Illustration Friday. IF was an amazing way for me to start purposefully making art again and then actually share it. My posts became more and more just my responses to whatever that Friday’s post was, which was was fine. However for some time now I have been aware that I wanted to start actually sharing words here again. There has been a lot going on in my life and so many mornings as I write to myself in my journal I think that whatever it is I am writing might be worth sharing in this form. I have a thing about starting though. I feel like coming back to write should start with a bang. I should start with “Today is the first day of the year 2010″ or “Today I quit the job I’ve had for nine years,” or even “Today I started the Daniel Fast.” But those days have come and gone. It has been 87 days since the year started, 77 days since I quit my job, and 15 days since I started the Daniel Fast. Not a round number amongst them, but hey, a girl has to start somewhere. So here I am writing despite the fact that I have no dramatic “today is” kind of news.

There is a lot to say about quitting my job and doing the Daniel Fast and how the two are related, but today I want to share a sculpture I finished a few weeks ago and entered in a local juried art festival. It is called Trusting Prophecy and is built of paper maché on top of an orange juice bottle. I didn’t use any paint in its decoration, other than some ribbon and a rock, and that orange juice bottle, all the details are made of paper. I must admit that when I entered it, along with 5 other pieces in the Cumming FUMC Festival of Arts I thought it would surely be accepted in the show and maybe even win a prize. However I was wrong. Of the six pieces I entered only one was accepted in the show and the author of the acceptance letters made a point of letting us all know that they had  worked hard to make sure each artist had at least one piece accepted. The fact that Opinion (Proverbs 15:28) will be in the show is a consolation prize that did not make me feel any better. I think I would have rather had all my pieces be rejected out right and pretend the show never even existed than to have to show up to drop off my little piece on second hand canvas board to the show, attend the opening, and watch someone else win the prizes. My first reaction was to spew as much venom as the Aztec looking soul in the accepted piece. I wanted to rant and rave that the people in Cumming, Georgia don’t know anything about art anyway, to justify my rejection by deciding the show was probably going to be full of watercolors of kittens and daisies in rustic buckets anyway.But that is not what these pieces are about. Proverbs 15:28 says that,  “The heart of the righteous weighs its answers, but the mouth of the wicked gushes evil,” and the prophecy I cite in the title of the paper maché piece is from Exekiel 36:26, “I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.” This piece of art truly is a visual expression of my prayer to love people better, to have a heart that is made more of flesh than of stone. Perhaps its sole purpose was accomplished just by its being made. Perhaps it was too personal to be shared in an art show, even a church sponsored one. Or perhaps the purpose was to have this rejection, this humbling, to remind me of how much I still need to be praying this prayer and trusting in this prophecy. At least I believe I am heading in the right direction in this spiritual journey of mine, perhaps this whole experience will even bring me a step closer.

Sense of Entitlement

Acrylic on Paper Mache Relief, 9.5×9.5″

The last time my mother was here for a visit she let me know that it was not okay for me to be using a fry pan that the teflon was wearing out on. Though I am not a classic tree hugger I really don’t like how much we add to the landfills. I held on to the old non-usable pan for quite some time, thinking surely it could be good for something. Last month it occurred to me to remove the handle and cover the whole thing in paper mache. I considered just painting on the paper covered surface, but once I start paper maching I tend to get carried away, so the swirls and figures just started developing. Building up the relief actually went much faster than the painting. I wanted the colors bright, but not garish, which proved more challenging than I would have thought. Anyway, I am pleased with the result and I have my eye on a couple more pans that may be wearing out soon.

Recovery for Christmas

Recovery: Acrylic on Wood, 8.5 x 12 inches

A week and a couple days before I left for Christmas vacation a friend asked me if I would do a painting for her to give as a Christmas present. She wanted a painting to celebrate a friend’s recovery from alcohol addiction. When she first described it to me I imagined one of those pictures where Jesus rides shotgun in a big rig. I tried to explain that no matter the subject matter a painting by me would be in my style, and that I wouldn’t be offended if she wanted to look for an artist better suited to what she was imagining. But I was intrigued and started making sketches. I sent her the sketches and she liked them so with just a week to get it done I accepted the commission. I wasn’t sure if I could get it done with so much else to be done for the holidays but I think the pressure actually worked in my favor. I finished writing part of Psalm 18 around the border just minutes before she came to pick it up, and a few hours later the kids and I left town for a week.

We decided to use the verses from The Message translation. It is very powerful…

 ^16-19 But me he caught—reached all the way
from sky to sea; he pulled me out
Of that ocean of hate, that enemy chaos,
the void in which I was drowning.
They hit me when I was down,
but God stuck by me.
He stood me up on a wide-open field;
I stood there saved—surprised to be loved!

^20-24 God made my life complete
when I placed all the pieces before him.
When I got my act together,
he gave me a fresh start.
Now I’m alert to God’s ways;
I don’t take God for granted.
Every day I review the ways he works;
I try not to miss a trick.
I feel put back together,
and I’m watching my step.
God rewrote the text of my life
when I opened the book of my heart to his eyes.

-Psalm 18:16-24 (The Message)

IF: Hatch

I couldn’t decide which of the 2 paintings I finished this weekend to post for this prompt. Even though they are quite different in tone they both feature a “hatched” creature. I worked on them together off the same pallet so if one wasn’t about to be sent off to live in New Mexico I think I would hang them side by side.

Pondering with Peacock is 7 by 10.5 inches.  Flirty Bird is 7 x 12.5 inches. Both are Acrylic on Wood.
Click on them to see them larger.

IF: Entangled

“After a while she got so entangled that all boundaries were lost.”

For Illustration Friday: Entangled
Collage of Pen & Ink Sketches

This piece started as a simple office post-it doodle on a pink square. It can still be seen on it’s corner in the center. Another, purple, post-it was cut in fourths and pasted to the corners and then all the pieces were placed on a larger yellow one. The transition between the different pieces was awkward until various swirls and a hand were drawn and cut out and pasted down crossing over the edges. A little black sharpie to bring up the contrast and it felt worthy of this week’s prompt.

IF: Flying

“The drawback to having an open mind was the way her thoughts kept flying away.”

For Illustration Friday’s Flying
Acrylic on Wood

I worked on this all weekend and I am very happy with the way the colors glow.

IF: Germ

“The washing of hands and the use of a tissue may prevent the spread of germs but a bad attitude is still easily spread. “

Acrylic on Wood
For Illustration Friday: Germs

Back in May the Illustration Friday prompt was Contagious. I used some doodles to make a digital collage but I knew it needed more work. When I came across a box of wood scraps a month or so ago I brought them home with the idea of doing some folk-art inspired paintings. The first one I started was based on the Contagious piece and it seems like “Germs” is the perfect prompt to share it. I had a hard time photographing it because of the varnish, that’s why the image is shown with some “perspective,” the actual piece of wood is a right-angled rectangle.