5 posts tagged “self portrait”
So sorry to have disappeared once again, friends. It's been a whirlwind, to say the least. Worst of all, the art's been really slow. I struggled with this new piece for a while, and at their best, my scribbles have been incoherent. But last night, I finally finished this monstrous hybrid (just in time for Thursday), and I made a scribble I love. Hurrah. I'm back in the game!
A word of disclaimer: Though I am quite attached to the actual painting-drawing, I am not as fond of this picture of the painting. I really need to get some decent studio lights.
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 called this one "Family Curse" because even though it's a self portrait, the face reminds me of my brother when he was younger. I didn't think my brother and I looked at all alike until I drew this, and I definitely see both of us in the same face. By the same token, it doesn't look like either of us because I just was scribbling from my head again. I was in a coffee shop and just had a conversation about the unintentional representation of people I know in my scribbles. I decided I might as well draw one that I intend to look sort of like me, and not just capture my thoughts.
By the way, I don't have a dark cloud over my head (most of the time - certainly not today), and from what I know my brother doesn't either. If there is a Family Curse, it is that we all tend to head into the arts. My dad and his brother, my brother, and several of my cousins are in the arts (painter, musician, poet, photographer, poet, etc).
It's Self-Portrait Thursday.
Some of you know that I was very kindly arm-twisted into starting this scribble blog by my cousin M-----l. From the beginning, I had a rule that I would only post my art and short art-related ramblings. As a corollary to that rule, I mildly swore that I would never do a Vox Hunt or Quote of the Day. Well, here we are, and from the title of this post I've obviously broken the only corollary to my only rule of scribble blogging. Unfortunately, I found this Vox Hunt too hard to pass up. I am answering it (or whatever you do for a hunt) because it's art related and because I happened to find an old self portrait on a thumb drive a few weeks ago.
I painted this on a fitful night in college. I wasn't pursuing a BFA and I never had much time for my art, but occasionally I got a crazy urge to paint (think: demonic possession). I remember clearly that it was a Saturday night, I was in my pajamas, and I had to shoo my few curious friends away and convince them that no, I really didn't want to go out that night. I think they thought I was crazy. I probably was. And I probably am.