Daily Sketches – a new torture device

Sketching on a regular basis is obviously critical to developing (and maintaining) one’s art skills. I don’t do it. Well, duh…..have you seen my artwork? So because I care enough to send the very best (damn you Hallmark!) work to improve my skills, I am committing to a daily sketch. Some days the sketch will be somewhat detailed, other days just a quick, minimalist sort of thing. I think both styles could be helpful, and besides, some days I’ll only have the patience for a quick little ditty.

So I’ll post the ones I like well enough to show you ;-) Here is yesterday’s effort:

The light source on this is different than in the photo at right – it came from a lamp at the back of the carving.

A carving my daughter brought back from Kenya last fall – the light source from the camera flash overpowered the lamp – I wasn’t thinking when I took this…..

One other that I will post here is from late winter/early spring (?) just as an example of the quick, minimalist type sketch:

My foot in a ribbed sock – fascinating subject matter, I know, but I was too lazy to get up and find something interesting to draw. It’s just practice, guys! Sheesh!

Garden Diva

Garden Diva is finished and ready to hang. *SIGH* (By the way, that’s not a wistful sigh, that’s a sigh of relief.) As you know, I have spent WAAAY longer on this than was necessary because I play mind games I wanted to get it just right! Yeah, so…….TGIF. (Thank God it’s finished) If you are wondering what I’m talking about because you just joined us, look here.

And in other news – I will be at the Nashua, New Hampshire Art Walk this coming weekend with Artspider both Saturday and Sunday. I’ll be in the gazebo area (and I’ll have Garden Diva with me and another piece or two), so those of you close enough, plan to stop by and say hello and check out the great art in Nashua. For a list of all the venues and events at the Art Walk, check the City Arts Nashua website.

And the fun begins!

There’s is just something about starting a new project. And by starting, I really mean starting the actual application of glass. I don’t know why I never think to include the research and design time as part of the “start”, but to me, I haven’t really started something until I’ve glued some glass to something! I should work on that thought process, because I tend to forget to include the time I’ve spent on research and design when asked how long a piece took to produce. But tomorrow – the fun begins!

So for a little refresher, here’s the first watercolor sketch I did for The Dream of the Dragonfly

as you can see, I didn’t actually finish the sketch, I was just establishing colors and relationships. I did another watercolor sketch that I actually finished to send to the client, but I changed the mountains in the background and didn’t like them as much (why do I do these things?!?) So use your imagination and fill in the details on this one.

And….here’s the smalti that arrived while I was out of town!

for the mountains and the lake	for the sky
for the dragonfly	sample board *drool*

Now, of course, I have to explain the photographic problems I had. I can’t explain why, but the color in the photo of the blue and silver tiles is pretty accurate and the others turned out way too yellow. Exact same lighting, time of day, but whatever….. The tiles that are overly reflective in the picture on the lower left are green gold smalti. They will make up the body and veins in the wings. The rest of the wings are transparent smalti, and honestly, photos won’t do them justice anyway. I have never seen a photo taken by anyone that really captures the clarity of them. (LOL - Come to think of it, they almost remind me of Jolly Rancher candies!)

It’s really early, but the sooner I go to bed, the sooner I can get up and get started! (Is there an art-related equivalent to “nerd”?)

Smalti Heaven

Oh boy oh boy oh boy oh boy!!!!! You may remember that I have been out of town for about 10 days, and I ordered the smalti for the dragonfly commission before I left. So when I came home and opened the boxes, I had to restrain myself from opening all the bags and spreading it out all over the living room table! I decided to keep it in the bags because I’m too tired to re-sort it all! LOL

Tomorrow I will sort it by value and take a pic or two to share with you. But having just rolled in at dinner hour this evening after 10 hours in the car, I can only muster enough energy to oooh and aaaah. Until tomorrow………….

Landscape and Memory

Landscape and Memory is a book by Simon Schama that I read several year ago. I highly recommend this book, although it is certainly not “beach reading”. It is highly detailed and exhaustively researched, but absolutely worth the effort. It is also richly illustrated with paintings like this one by Caspar David Friedrich:

The “Chasseur” in the Forest, 1813

The book explains how natural landscapes have shaped cultures, sometimes in ways that I had never considered before. The celebration of these landscapes in the art of a culture is in a way the celebration of the culture itself. I think it could be argued that the culture passes along a love of these landscapes to successive generations without any overt attempt at it; even people who are several generations removed from the landscape can have a powerful attachment. Perhaps it’s a subconscious patterning, or maybe Jung’s Collective Unconscious at work. At any rate, the book is worthwhile for the illustrations alone!

I also will mention here that there is likely to be a hiatus of about a week and a half on this blog because I will be out of town and will have no internet access most of the time. I don’t want you guys to think I forgot you :) So until then……

To Sleep, Perchance to Dream…

Work begins on the new commission Dream of the Dragonfly (even though Garden Diva is not quite finished. I’m waiting on the hanging hardware to arrive. Long story). I started a watercolor sketch, which has given me several thoughts on exactly what I don’t want to do :(

At any rate, the basic idea is good, I like the sky and the background mountains. The bluff in front of the mountains is way dark, but since I painted that at 10:00 last night and have had the flu, I’m going to cut myself a break. It is just the preliminary sketch, after all.

I hope to translate the watercolor abstract quality of the sky to the smalti. How successful I will be with that…..well, what would life be without a little mystery?

What is “Mosaic”?

I have seen several very interesting discussions of this question in a couple of different forums. Generally, the consensus seemed to be that the only requirement that could be agreed upon was that pieces of something be stuck to something else. Not much of a definition. However, I think by keeping it that loose, we (mosaic artists) see many things in a different light. Case in point: an article I found about the kick off of the fall season in Chelsea. The photo below is of a piece by Maya Lin (Washington D.C. Vietnam Vet Memorial designer). It is made of 2X4s. Are they stuck to something? I can’t tell for sure, but I suspect they are. If so, it fits our basic description as a mosaic.

The surface of this piece reminds me of a 3D smalti work. It is amazingly fluid.

So what are your thoughts? Does this qualify as mosaic?

Wrapping up the orphan

The glass is done on Garden Diva, getting ready to grout it. The flowers will be grouted in charcoal colored grout, and they will be done tonight. The lighter shades of grout will be done tomorrow. I’m still amazed at what a little mind game can do for you – if you’ll remember, I couldn’t seem to get this finished when I considered it the first in a series. When I decided to orphan it – voila!

The next project is the commission of a dragonfly. Several sketches have been done, but a final design hasn’t been settled. I expect to have that wrapped up by Friday, then I’ll order the tile and get started! Maybe while I’m waiting on the tile delivery I’ll play around with the Yupo watercolor paper that came in the mail a couple of weeks ago. Fun fun fun!

Meet the Artist – DJ Geribo

This month’s featured artist is DJ Geribo, from Alton in the Lakes Region of New Hampshire. DJ paints mini portraits of animal eyes in acrylic for the non-profit organization Eye Help Animals which she and her husband co-founded to benefit wildlife. She also has a fine art website where you can see her other works in oil, pastel and watercolor.

LA: How long have you been practicing your art?

DJ: About 15 years, but the last 8 years have been full time.

LA: What is it about your Eye Help Animals artwork that made you choose it to be featured:

DJ: This is my passion. This is my purpose. In the 15 years since I first started painting, and in the lifetime that I have been exploring art in its various forms, I believe it has all led me to this point. I can do what I love doing—painting, and I can help wildlife conservation and habitat preservation around the world.

LA: How has completing this artwork made you a better artist?

DJ: I’m not finished, as I mentioned. It is an on-going project, but it gave me a purpose beyond just making paintings. I’ve always loved wildlife and always donated to various wildlife organizations. I’m so happy that my husband and co-owner of Eye Help Animals, LLC and I have found a purpose that is so thrilling and satisfying to us on so many levels. I don’t know if painting eyes has made me a better artist, but I think it has made me a better person.

LA: What made you choose the subject matter for this artwork?

DJ: The size of the canvases dictated that it be something small. They were 2” by 2”, so there wasn’t room for much more than an eye, so that’s what I decided to paint.

LA: Do you feel that your interpretation of this subject matter has drawn upon archetypal knowledge or subliminal factors? Is there anything “under the surface” of the composition?

DJ: The original purpose of painting the eyes has definitely changed. At first they were just wildlife eyes, and I though about selling the canvases. Then it evolved into a whole business, Eye Help Animals, LLC, with various products and a mission and a vision.

LA: Is this a “stand alone” piece or part of a larger body of work?

DJ: Each eye stands alone because we are contacting organizations around the world that support and protect the many wildlife eyes that I have painted. Although I now have 32 eyes, I think each one stands on its own as a representative of the animal we are helping to protect. And yet as a group, they symbolize the mission of the organization.

LA: I believe that all artists evolve somewhat with each piece completed. What direction do you feel you are headed? (looser style, more detail, different subject matter, etc)

DJ: Although the wildlife eyes are very detailed, in my other artwork I have been working towards a looser, more painterly style. I feel that if you want a really photo-realistic picture, you might as well just take a photograph. Paintings need to look like paintings and that comes from a painterly style, which is my view of realism with my own artistic freedom thrown in.

LA: Anything else you’d like us to know about the work?

DJ: We are so fortunate, and here is an example of how I know we are doing the right thing. Things are happening without a lot of effort. We just partnered with Zoo Atlanta in the “Give So They Stay” campaign to help raise funds to keep the Giant Pandas in their zoo. The pandas are on loan from China and the cost is $500,00 per year to keep each panda at the zoo. Zoo Atlanta is one of only 4 zoos in the US that have the Giant Pandas on display.

The Eye Help Animals website offers a number of products featuring DJ’s work. Twenty five percent of the proceeds of each product go toward these and other organizations:

• Defenders of Wildlife
• The Fund for Animals
• Loon Preservation Committee
• National Parks Conservation Association
• National Wildlife Federation
• The Roar Foundation – Shambala Preserve
• Sierra Club
• Society for the Protection of New Hampshire Forests
• World Wildlife Fund
• Yellowstone Association
• Zoo Atlanta

Her other artwork is also online at http://www.djgeribo.com/. She can be contacted at dj@djgeribo.com.

I hope you enjoy these profiles of other artists and will leave comments if you do. I am also always interested in learning about new artists, so if you know of someone you would like to see featured here, please send me an email at mosaicartbyla@gmail.com.

The Brooklyn Museum’s body parts

The Brooklyn Museum will be presenting a special exhibition of thirty-five representations of individual body parts from the Brooklyn Museum’s ancient Egyptian collection. The exhibit will run from November 19, 2009 to October 2, 2011.

The concept intrigues me. Such fragmentation may have had a significance in Ancient Egypt that we can’t fully comprehend today. Hieroglyphics sometimes represented a body part, for example an eye, a foot, or an arm and hand. Amulets were made of the Eye of Horus which supposedly conferred protection and power to the wearer. Furthermore, when a dynasty was toppled, statues could often be defaced in order to obscure the subject, rather than removed entirely.

This exhibit is comprised of both items which were made as individual body parts, and items which are fragments of larger pieces. If you have any interest in the art of Ancient Egypt, be sure to get there – the long run of the exhibit makes it a must see!

Dragonfly redux

I have been commissioned to make another dragonfly mosaic, this one smaller, and “fun, airy and light”. This leaves me wondering how much whimsy I could/should use. I did some preliminary sketches last night, but haven’t quite settled on a style for it. The client has requested smalti, which I tend to think of as more formal. I will need to break out of that mindset so that it doesn’t turn out stuffy. Below are some photos I pulled from Google images to inspire me. (These are of course, other people’s copyrighted designs, they are just for inspiration.) I’m loving the colors, but I think I’ll want more realism in my piece, so we’ll see where this runs.

As I was looking at these pictures, I was thinking that they seemed dreamlike, and I found myself wondering what dragonflies dream about? I think that will be the idea behind the piece. What do you think?