poor, neglected bloggins. let's see about an update, shall we? in list format, of course, for maximal laziness.
1) i have been drawing mostly, lately (as opposed to bookmaking). this is bad news for my etsy shop, since i don't think etsy is necessarily the best place to try to sell drawings, but i'll give it a go anyway, probably. a pseudo-goal of mine is to contact a few local galleries within the next year to see about having a show (!). in the meantime, even if i'm not trying to sell anything, i can always work on building my portfolio.
2) speaking of which. at scripps we were taught that the message of a piece of artwork was just as important as the image/photograph/sculpture/etc. itself. it is not a school that teaches you how to draw still-lifes really, really well (though there was some of that, too)- they care more about educating artist-wannabes how to talk about something important or ask interesting questions in their work. that was an awesome experience for me. but in day to day drawing, especially when i want to work on something bigger and more in-depth than i have in a long time, i often find myself paralyzed by not having anything "great" to say. more importantly, if there is something i'd like to "explore" (as we call it), a major challenge is to "translate" the concept into the kind of style that i like to draw in. for instance- i've been working on an ongoing series of drawings illustrating the attributes of love given in 1 corinthians 13- i have two done so far...but how does one illustrate "love is kind"? i really don't want anything to do with one smiling person handing a loaf of bread to another person who looks sad and poor. (there- kindness! DONE.) so one problem is that i'm probably not thinking hard enough, but....
3) i have also recently decided that art for art's sake is ok, too, thanks to a short thing i read about james mcneill whistler's "peacock room". it's pretty! he's all about art for art's sake and the pursuit of beauty- he didn't feel the need to inject moral messages into his work (though there is a story behind the painting of the two peacocks- whistler's patron decided not to pay him the full amount for this commission, so the peacock on the right is him, being pompous and puffed up, while whistler is the peacock on the left...so i've read). so anyway, this inspired me, and i've just been drawing things with the intent to create something pleasing to look at, with a focus on depth, unity and balance. AND little doodlies.
4) so i wasn't reading about whistler because i am a disciplined individual who takes particular interest in educating herself in her post-college days. no. i am teaching an american art history class once a week starting in september (and, as a side note, i am TERRIFIED). this blurb on whistler is one of many blurbs on many artists and artistic styles prevalent in the US since before the US existed as such, all the way up to the present. and then i will teach this material to a handful or so of high schoolers (in a co-op for home-schooled kids run by our church). also, i'll be teaching a beginning drawing class in the fall (eeeeek!) and a bookbinding class in the spring (wheee!!!).
5) in other news- i have been making excellent use of the pasadena public library system's digital audiobook collection, which allows you to download audiobooks onto your home computer for a period of 7 or 14 days, after which the files mysteriously delete themselves (by magic, naturally). i love this- it's so convenient, and the selection is so much better than what they have in actual cd-format at the library branches. the importance of being earnest, and, the three musketeers are two books i would highly recommend.
6) so. my dear readers, you have inspired me to get thinking creatively (ugh) about how to translate what i want to say into new and exciting and doodly ways of saying it. i mean, after all, it was only out of feelings of guilt toward you that i even began this blogpost. but i must also thank coffee, milk, and trader joe's midnight moo chocolate syrup, for waking up my brain, because otherwise i wouldn't have had the energy to feel guilty. :)
toodles and promises to update more often,
-k.o.
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1 comment:
Three Musketeers is fantastic. It's one of the only books I've read where I didn't really like the main characters at all, but still loved the book.
I think that art of both forms (with a moral message, and art for art's sake) has a really important role in society. It certainly is good to try to use your talents to motivate other people to do something good, but sometimes there is a necessity to just see something beautiful.
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