Tag Archives: daily blog

Arting for 365 Day 259: Reinvigorated for No Good Reason

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3 x 5" ink on paper

3 x 5″ ink on paper

Goal: To create one piece of art each day for 365 consecutive days

I would love to know what clicks in our brains to make us suddenly full of ideas. Why is it that one day, coming up with something interesting and stimulating is a tedious struggle that makes us want to pull your hair out; while other days we have more ideas than we know what to do with? With no drastic changes in our lives – or any changes, really- our minds function on an entirely different level.

Whatever the reason, I say get while the getting’s good and hope that it lasts a VERY long time.

Arting for 365 Day 258: Winter Time

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3 x 5″ paper with pinholes

Goal: To create one piece of art each day for 365 consecutive days

As I tried to figure out what I could complete for my daily project, I came across a lovely picture a friend had taken of  pine trees covered in snow. Because I was still in pinhole mode, I decided creating a winter tree might be a good challenge. This small piece is what I came up with. While not my typical subject matter, it did let me work on my technique a bit more.  So far, I’m loving the process and am ready to finish up one of these on a larger scale.

Day 258 Winter Time Detail

Arting for 365 Day 252: The Sorry Fate of a Happy Cow

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3 x 5" ink on paper

3 x 5″ ink on paper

Goal: To create one piece of art each day for 365 consecutive days

There they were. A small herd (if seven or eight counts as a herd) of cows. They weren’t on the open range. They weren’t even pinned up in some corral. Instead, these cows were riding in the back of a horse trailer. The cows seemed perfectly content and at ease – happy even – which made me smile. One cow would poke it’s head through a section of the trailer while another would push it aside and then poke its head through. Another rubbed its ears against a side post. None of the cows seemed to be mooing in fear. It seemed as if they were simply enjoying a perfectly gorgeous Saturday afternoon drive around town. The whole scene made me laugh. Until I remembered where I was. I knew better than to think these cows had a happy fate ahead of them. There is little to no hope for a cow growing up in Colorado. Enjoy it while it lasts adorable little bovine, I thought to myself.

Arting for 365 Day 251: Big Fish

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Day 251 Big Fish

Ink and acrylic on 1955 Field & Stream Magazine

Goal: To create one piece of art each day for 365 consecutive days

Appropriation in art is, in the simplest of terms, the practice of using someone else’s imagery or original design to create a new work. Artists from Picasso to an out there artist named Duchamp did it in one form or another. Today there is a funny artist name Wayne White  who takes a unique, graphic design-like approach for doing this, using old landscape paintings he finds and painting words and phrases on them.

I pulled out an old 1955 Field & Stream magazine and used the cover art (by Tom Rost) to create my own piece of appropriated art.  This was a great exploration for me. It allowed my brain to play with space and design a bit. I kept portions of the original fish, while adding blocks of color and line throughout the rest of the piece.I love the idea of keeping a portion of the old to influence what is new – a bit of a metaphor for life, I suppose.

Because I enjoyed this so much, I’m hoping to continue throughout the magazine. In order to keep the images connected, I plan to cut out a portion of the previous page. For example, I cut the top 1/3 of this piece off so that as I paint the next right hand side page, it will become part of the cover art.

I feel like this has the potential to be a really great project. It’s got me, once again thinking about growth and connections. My only regret of day 251’s art, is that I neglected to take a picture of the original cover. That and I feel a bit guilty about covering up so much of an old treasure.

Acrylic adn ink on 1955 Field & Stream Magazine

Acrylic and ink on 1955 Field & Stream Magazine

Arting for 365 Day 245: On Top of the World

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3 x 5" ink on paper

3 x 5″ ink on paper

Goal: To create one piece of art each day for 365 consecutive days

There are days when, for no particular reason, I feel on top of the world. Maybe the way the sun shines that day does it to me. Or perhaps it’s waking up to a smiling face and a drooling cat. Or maybe it’s coming out of a lovely dream that I no longer remember. Whatever it might be, on these wonderful days, I am certain there is no wrong in the world.

Arting for 365 Day 240: Not Quite as Planned

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8.5 x 11 watercolor on paper

8.5 x 11 watercolor on paper

Goal: To create one piece of art each day for 365 consecutive days

Yesterday my niece and I were able to sit down and do some drawing together. We worked patiently for quite awhile and put our work up toward the end of the evening.

This morning, as we opened presents, she ended up getting watercolor pencils. We decided we’d experiment with them on our yesterday’s work.

Nolan’s art (see below) turned out beautifully! I wasn’t as thrilled with my piece as experimentation turned out to be a bit of a mess in some areas. Oh well. Sitting down and painting with my niece was well worth the not-so great project I ended up with.

Nolan Day 240

Arting for 365 Day 236: Birds As Satellite Towers

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3 x 5" watercolor and ink on paper

3 x 5″ watercolor and ink on paper

Goal: To create one piece of art each day for 365 consecutive days

Back in the day, pigeons flew messages from place to place. From my understanding on the subject (which is very little) the fowl seemed pretty reliable and happy to do the work.

Maybe phone carriers like Verizon and Sprint should think about a similar approach. I see lots of positives to the idea:

1. Birds are everywhere. You would NEVER lose your signal.

Never mind. I guess I only see one positive. But it is fun to imagine.

Arting for 365 Day 233: A Different Path

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12/17/12

6.25 x 10.25 Ink on paper

Goal: To create one piece of art each day for 365 consecutive days

He recognized long ago that he wasn’t like the others. Physically, he didn’t belong. His stubby antlers never reached a length of more than a few inches. And he honestly didn’t care for foraging or trudging through four feet of snow in the dead of winter.

Not handsome by nature’s standards – that required a six point rack at the least – but sharp as a tack. Numbers were his thing.

So he packed his bags and made his way to the city. Wall Street specifically – where a fine suit and silk tie trumped antlers hands down, and numbers were the name of the game.

Day 233 Head Detail