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November 30, 2013

Day 15: Falling down the stairs in style


Today I decided to have my art project be my style choices for going out for the evening.

I'm not exactly sure why I decided to have this "count" as Day 15's Art365 but it just felt right. I spent a lot of time on my choices on what to wear for the evening as well as my make-up and hair. And I'm a firm believer that style and fashion are art forms and use creative and artistic skills to put together.

Normally I'm a "throw it together" kind of girl, but I wanted to look put together and sophisticated but still playful and a little edgy for tonight's plans.

My husband and I met up with his boss and various others at Henry's Tavern in downtown Portland. I was the designated driver so I was drinking Sprite. (Really, only Sprite)

Anyway,  not 30 seconds after Kevin took this picture of me, I fell down the stairs (like 5 of them) and hurt my right ankle. It's not broken but I did tweek it badly. I'm not a klutz and my shoes were flat, so it just happened because I wasn't paying attention to my surroundings.

Now that I'm home, I've been icing it and doing the normal thing. There is no swelling and I've been watching my pain to monitor anything getting worse or not getting better.


What a pain!

This picture to the right was taken moments before I fell down the stairs, but it seems to sum up the whole debacle rather accurately.


I do think I will continue to "count" style/fashion choices if they take me as long as they took me this evening. It uses creativity and my body and personality becomes the artistic medium :)



Clothing
Wrap shirt: Diane von Furstenberg
Skirt: Anne Taylor LOFT
Leggings: H&M
Boots: vintage
Necklace: Crossroads vintage


November 28, 2013

Day 13: Happy Thanksgiving

Grandma, Kevin and I went to my in law's house for a wonderful Thanksgiving. Not only did we enjoy good food but also good company.
Time: 15 minutes
Materials: prismacolor pencils
Notes: I did this from memory. I'm thinking it looks more like a tomato. Kevin is playing the acoustic bass after grandma taught him a new strumming pattern. 


November 27, 2013

Day 12: a snowman (for Kevin)

Kevin requested I create a snowman today :)
Materials: art marker, mixed media paper
Time: 15 min

Grandma is still visiting. She is teaching us how to play bridge.


November 26, 2013

Day 11: Ode to the Wizard

Materials: pencil
Time: 30 minutes
Notes: I love the tornado scene from Wizard of Oz so this page was inspired by that.

November 25, 2013

Day 10: No. 2

Materials: pen, colored pencil

Time: 5 minutes

Grandma (my mom's mom) arrived today from Montana, so not many opportunities for art. She will be staying with us for five days. It should be a really nice visit :)


November 23, 2013

Day 8: Qwirkle and paint test page

I was testing my Canson mixed media book with acrylic paint. There are a few benefits to this book. I do like how there is no bleed through to the back page. That could come in handy if I use my art markers on one side, which have severe bleed through.  It lays relatively flat from the binding. Size wise they are easy to carry, which could lead to some fun opportunities to take it out of the house for painting experiments. As a testing page for techniques, it would be fine.

I'm not very pleased with the results due to the amount of page curl. I will NOT be purchasing more of these books and I can see why they were on the 75% off table at the art store :) It was super cheap at $2.99, which is most likely part of the reason why I am not recommending it as a good painting surface/medium overall. Clearly others were complaining about it or Canson decided it was a shoddy product.

Today we had planned to play the game Qwirkle with friends, so I was inspired with paint and construction paper. It's a fun game that is sort of like dominoes but with colors and shapes. Also I decided to test the capacity of Elmer's washable clear school glue for kicks and to see if it actually dried clear or left residue. While I was seeking construction paper colors, I found some art work and various materials from 1995 in elementary school, which I will try to use in later posts :)
 This is also a good test because I glued paper across the binding of the book. I'm wondering if the acrylic paint will stick and become gross to the other side of the paper. More notes to come.


November 22, 2013

Day 7: War skull

Kevin came home today, so I just did a quick drawing. He was playing a video game and this was an icon in the game. This skull was also inspired by the Skull365 project from 2008. That guy was dedicated to his subject. I don't know what I would draw if I had to do the same subject for a year. Just creating each day is challenging!


November 21, 2013

Day 6: Toothbrush

It's going to be challenging to post drawings on the blog that I don't like. But that's the point of these blog entries...to keep me accountable to creating daily.

At least you can tell what it is :)

November 20, 2013

Day 5: Secret Art Symbolism

I was so excited about yesterday's project that I made a completely new project using the idea as a springboard. It looks great and I am still so excited for this project :)

Update: March 7, 2014
 The plan is to watercolor the babies like a starfish and then use ramen as a stamp to make water behind it. But I haven't gotten around to do that.


Materials: heavy weight paper, ink, tracing paper, hand-made carbon paper
Time: 1 hour

November 19, 2013

Day 4: Secret Art

I was struck by inspiration late last night, so I stayed awake thinking about how I wanted to accomplish it. I woke up at 6:00 am and started drawing. I'm going to get home from work and still be working on it! Though I am unable to share the finished product with you all, I assure you that it rocks! Sorry for all the secrecy, but it's a gift and I don't want to ruin the surprise. :)

Date: March 7 update
Here is what I did. It was a card for some good friends expecting a baby. The color of the wrap would reflect the classic gender stereotype.


Materials: ink, watercolor card, watercolor paint
Time: 1 hour to design and draw, 20 min to paint

November 18, 2013

Day 3: "wish I could fly"

Materials: watercolor, ink
Approximate time: 20 minutes
Notes: This card painting was inspired by the picture book, "Up and Down" by Oliver Jeffers. I was practicing my white space on the balloon as well as making black (not really black paint) be able to be transparent enough to see his eyes. You can almost hear what he's thinking. Leave a comment to caption this image.


Full size card view with signature

November 17, 2013

Day 2: Robiraki sweets tray


Materials: Ink, colored pencil, watercolor, art marker
Approximate time: 1 hour

Notes: Robiraki is an annual Japanese tea ceremony event celebrating the transition between the furo (summer) to the ro (winter). This was the zenzai sweets tray, the traditional sweet red beans in syrup with a mochi ball. It's black lacquer ware with gold lacquer accents. The flower is a camellia.



Detail of camellia



November 16, 2013

Day 1: medieval "F"

Materials: Vintage medieval alphabet coloring page, vellum, art markers, glue.

Notes: The image is of Luke 7:36-50, where a sinful woman is anointing the feet of Jesus. Though I'm not a religious woman, I was struck by the woman's facial expression. She is meant to be crying while washing his feet. Why would she cry? What's going on in her mind? I colored this in 1995. I cut it out with an exacto knife. I thought it would be a fabulous first page since this coloring book was my mom's but she gave it to me years and years ago. For an elementary school student, note the gradation in the bottom of the letter.

Estimated time: 1 hour (over the course of 18 years)


I should also mention:
That the idea of this project scares me and intimidates me. What if people think I'm a terrible artist? (I had trouble with rejection in NYC when I worked there) What if I totally suck? What if everyone rejects me and finds me idiotic for trying this? What if I fail through laziness? What if people just find me insane for doing another 365 Project? A 365 Project is a large commitment. There is lots of room for failure. But I would like to look at this project through the lens of hope and self-betterment NOT just another thing to check off my to do list.

And with that, I'll end this post. I am feeling hopeful.