41 posts tagged “pen & ink”

I can't believe that it's almost been a month since I’ve posted. My god, time flies when stress is in the air. Some of it’s been good stress (very good) but a lot of it has been sort of unfortunate. Here are both sides of the stress.

• The new used car makes a bunch of random noises. But we’ve been able to fix most of the noises in the car for only a little money.
  
• It is getting progressively harder to sit at my desk and work. On the other hand, I know the end-date of this job is getting closer, and I know I could do some things to make it even nearer, like putting some drawings up for sale in my empty etsy store.
• I hadn’t drawn for weeks, but this week, the boyfriend has been shooing me off almost every night to scribble
• I haven’t cooked a real meal in weeks. But my uncle and my dad are helping me make a recipe for a dobash cake, my favorite cake from childhood made (only?) by the family bakery that went out of business a few years ago.
• The Wheeze, my ferret of 4 years, was taken over by a fast moving cancer and passed away. There aren't many positives here. She did go peacefully, and I am grateful that my dog is alive and healthy.

Oh, other good news (the very good news). The boyfriend, whom I’ve known for about 7 years, proposed over Thanksgiving at Fiery Furnace in Arches National Park. (!!!) So, we are officially engaged and are working to plan some sort of funky wedding. That is definitely a happy bit of stress.

Here are some drawings. Some are better than others.

For those of you who are interested, my car was totaled in the hit & run. I keep trying to stay positive by thinking: "at least no one was in the car" and "at least I didn't have to pay my really high deductible" and "at least I got a bunch of streetglass." Besides the fact that no one was hurt, they're pretty small consolations for the week-long headache of getting a new car. Which I did on Monday - well, it's a new used car... Actually, it's sort of a beater, but it runs well, smells like soap, has decent gas mileage, and gets me where I need to go. And that extra money from the car is going into the house kitty.

Since the accident, I haven't scribbled (or exercised or cooked or cleaned the house or ... ), but I'm finally starting to feel sane enough to start up again, and I hope to have something new to post tomorrow. I spent the last several days as a giant ball of stress, and I know I was a pain to any/everyone who had deal with me in real life. Apologies to all of you. Anyway, to make up for my grumpiness and my last few whining posts, I thought I'd post two drawings from last week. Hope you enjoy.

I go through hot & cold spells with almost everything. With how little I've posted lately, I guess two back-to-back posts almost make this a hot streak for vox.

This is a hot & cold time of year for me. Maybe it's the weather. Maybe I'm realizing the year is slipping by and I haven't done as much as I hoped. I rarely have a New Year's resolution, but for some reason have decided to make a mid-year resolution. Here are most of the things on my list: 1) I am going to get fit enough to go backpacking next summer. To do that, 2) I will exercise three days a week and 3) take vitamins. 4) I will draw (at least) every day that I do not exercise, and 5) I will look into taking an art class at the museum. Whether or not the museum art class happens, 6) I will explore starting a series of paintings of playground things and 7) I will  take a crocheting class so I can learn to make yarn-robots. 8) I will try to spend more time with real people, and when I do, 9) I will try not let social things bother me.

I have been busy cobbling together the company newsletter and now I'm in the middle of getting all 3,000 of them ready for mailing. These are the contents of my even less interesting life outside of vox. Newsletters. (sigh) At least it's sort of art related.  This scribble is in celebration of all of the trouble I have creating newsletters since I have no "real" graphic design training and just make something that I think looks good. I have no end of trouble with the printers and in getting the thing coverted to spot colors and other such nonsense to print. This is called "CMYK."

I excitedly called handfuls of friends when Obama won my old home swing state of Ohio. By the time he won my new swing state of Nevada, there was no way for him not to win the election. Still, when he was officially elected, I cried. I also cried during his acceptance speech and at a simple picture of him with the words "Mr. President" below it. I was a strong Obama supporter from way back, but I didn't think I'd be this emotional about his election. I feel relieved. Excited. Hopeful.

The only rain on this amazing parade is that Proposition 8 passed in California, banning gay marriage. It's amazing to think that even with this historic election, we can get fearful of something as simple as love.

Enough politics - I need to let silence do the talking. I drew this scribble while waiting in line to vote. It has little, if anything, to do with the election or Obama, but it reminds me of how hard it is to stand and draw. Enjoy.

I can't believe it's been almost a month since I've shared anything here. I closed out a Moleskine over a month ago and am well into a new one. The drawing has been steady, but my postings obviously have come in fits and starts. I blame my 9 to 5. The only other news I have is that I'm working on a new painting/drawingthing to hang near my desk at work, so I might disappear again until that's finished.

Here's a new-old scribble that I drew at an activist conference a few months back. Hope you enjoy.

This is a scribble from my recent travels. I saw this phrase on a sign in Boston near the main library. I thought the phrase was hilarious. Some people didn't take it as lightly and seemed offended that a sign told them they're boring, which is sort of hilarious in its own right. Anyway, here is the scribble based on that sign. If you are bored, I am not accusing you of being boring. But if you are bored, you may want to do something exciting - just in case.

My dears. I've been traveling and drawing and holing up and ignoring most things for the better part of a month. I apologize. The good news is that I have many stories and many new scribbles. I also have a good handful of scribbles that are quite different from anything I've drawn before.

I've been working hard on a new "monstrous hybrid" (mixed media piece). I haven't done much scribbling lately and (obviously) haven't posted to vox in well over a week. The painting/drawing has been going really well, though. It's been a lot of fun, and I hope the end result of all of the drawing and erasing (and drawing and erasing...) will be less than disastrous, and may even be decent.

To give full credit, I stole the term "monstrous hybrid" from a book I'm reading, which stole it from somewhere I can't remember. The book is Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things and is one of the more interesting books I've read in a while. It focuses on the design problems of industry, which are many and terrifying, but it also discusses fascinating approaches to solving those problems. How with a little creativity, we can have industry that actually works with the earth instead of against it. Anyway. This isn't the place for a book review.

And to give completely full credit, the title of this post was stolen from the first line of one of my favorite songs by Uncle Tupelo, "New Madrid" from the album Anodyne.

Here's a scribble:

Drawing & arting & scribbling has been going pretty well. The boyfriend has been persistent in scooting me off to the art room after work. I work on something - even if it's just a new scribble - almost every day, which is far beyond where I was even a few months ago. It's been good. Most days I need a little push to get me off and working because I'm so tired from my 9 to 5, but it's easier than it was. As the weeks go on and as I'm working more, art is becoming a source of energy rather than a frequently stressful drain. I guess it's the difference between a passion and a hobby. I can ignore hobbies, not happily, but it is possible. But when I say something is a passion, the only choice is doing it or having it lapse back into a hobby. Anyway, I'm glad I'm keeping the art going. It seems the only thing I'm sacrificing is reading. I've only read 200 pages of a novel and a graphic novel in the last month or so. It's embarrassing.

I am happy to announce that I drew from life for the first time in years this past week. Part was fear that I'd lost my drawing chops, but most was that I never made time for this kind of art. It's pencil, water color, and oil pastel. I don't know if those three can go together in real life, but they seemed to work here. At least I think they seem to.

And for old time's sake, here's a new scribble. I drew this when I was going to rescue my boyfriend from the bowels of Las Vegas and the stress of living alone with both of our pets. So here we are. This drawing has nothing to do with that, but when I look at it, I clearly remember the turbulence of the flight and how it made the word balloon head look like a zombie. Hope it's not too shaky.

I drew this earlier in the week, determined to reunite with my long-lost colors. The crayon job on this scribble isn't great by any means, but I think it adds a fun dimension to my normally black and white drawings. The head shape on this guy was inspired by my ferret, Ms. Weasel Marie (not her real name), but I ended up adding the chin part of his face to make him look a little less weaselly.

My art + work adventure has been going better than I expected. The boyfriend (not his real name) is doing a great job of getting me into my studio, even after a full 8 hour day at my frequently stressful job. The art I'm making probably isn't as good as it would be if I were arting full-time, but I am getting pen to paper - and now crayon to paper, too. Oh, colors! How I've missed you!