Eggs-actly What I Meant

I'm in a pottery class. It's definitely a relaxed fun time with Abby and Lisa. We don't get a grade, we don't have any assignments, and we just do what we want.

The first week we were all just playing around with the clay, pinching it into pots and shapes, and I decided to make an egg. It took me quite a while to get it all smooth and egg-shaped, all hollowed out so that it wasn't too heavy, and flat on the bottom so it would stand.

I should have taken a picture of it at that stage, but I didn't. Sorry.

I told Lisa that I wanted to carve a design in it, but didn't know what to do. She suggested a paisley pattern, so I googled "paisley" from my phone and started carving.





It stands about 5 inches tall. I can't wait to get it fired. But then I've got a new problem. What kind of finish am I going to put on it? Any suggestions?

I Have a Secret

For the past 10 years or so I have been engaging in a clandestine activity during church. My husband knows about it. My kids do too. I think I've kept it pretty secret from the rest of my church-going companions, though.

This is my secret.

I draw people.

Once I sat behind a young family. Obviously the mother took great care in styling her daughters long tresses. I was fascinated with the braids and ribbons. I came home that day with hair sketches. Sometimes I sit across from a very interesting wrinkled old face. I have to draw it.

Lately, though, I have been sitting on the stand. When I had my foot surgery in December I couldn't get around very well, so I got in the habit of staying on the stand for the entire meeting. The last few weeks I began to notice all the interesting views I was getting of the backsides of people talking from the pulpit.

I began to sketch. I have to be quick on Testimony day because I never know how long they will "pose" for me.


And just in case you are wondering, I find that I remember more about what they said when I sketch than if I just sat there.

So here are my "Secret Sketches" from the last couple of weeks. And please keep my secret. I don't want people to be self-conscious about what their backsides look like while they're standing there.

November Gifts

~ My sidewalk is done and I love it! The first day after they took off the tarps I just kept going out there and walking it. It's exactly what I envisioned. I'm so glad Mike let me draw it out the way I wanted. Thanks Honey!

~ That my podiatrist is really helping me with my foot pain. First of the month I couldn't take a step without pain, now I am virtually pain free. I'm thankful for modern medicine.

~ That Andy received his Patriarchal Blessing. It was a special day, and he received some wonderful promises.

~ That Andy's mission papers were sent to SLC. We are waiting to hear where he'll be going. It's exciting and kind of scary.

~ That David and Emily's family were okay after they were in a car accident that demolished their car. What a blessing!

~ That I love my job. I truly feel appreciated and like a contributing member of a valuable team. They are the greatest people to work with.

~ That I went to the movies 3 times! I can go a year without going to the movies, but for some reason this month we just went. It was pretty fun, too. I went with Joni and Abby twice and once with Andy and Mike. When I went with Mike the manager loaded us up with pop and popcorn for free. Sometimes it pays to be married to Mr. Social Butterfly. He has friends where ever we go.

~ I'm blessed to have a warm house, yummy food, a cuddle puppy, 2 feline friends, and so much more. It's been a pretty good month.

Art Share

Snippets

How long can the flu last? I keep thinking he's over it, but no dice. I guess he needs to build back up his strength. He hasn't had anything but apples for days. Don't ask me why he just wanted apples. He said it was the only thing that appealed to him. I did manage to entice him to eat about 2 ounces of steak tonight. He also had a heaping bowl of jello.

Well, that's not quite accurate. He heaped his bowl with jello, and then ate about half of it. I think his eyes were bigger than his tummy. And this is the kid I could never fill up.

It was my kind of day today. Rainy! I went for a walk in it. It was invigorating. Then I came back to a stifling hot house. Joni got at the thermometer again. I swear that girl needs to move to Arizona. Or the equator.

I enjoyed conference. The last two days were full of peace and comfort. I'm glad I could listen to most of it. I finished a necklace I started making yesterday. It's pretty good I think. Joni liked it and she's my fashion consultant, so I guess I did okay. Maybe I'll even post a picture of it. Maybe.

I decided to tackle my drawing again and turn it into an illustration. I scanned it and brought it into Photoshop. Wow! I really forgot how to use Photoshop. I worked on it for an hour, cleaning up the lines and designing it a bit better. Then I printed it out. My big plan was to transfer the pattern to a piece of Bristol paper and ink it. Then I was going to watercolor it. Now that it's on the paper and inked I almost think I might put it back in Photoshop and paint it in there. Who knows, maybe I'll do both. I'm just plugging away at my art, trying to get my groove back. I guess it will get easier, but right now I feel like I'm stuck in mud, straining at each step as I pull my galoshed boot from the sucking mud. I can't wait to get back on the little forest path that winds around in effortless and interesting ways.

Just Start

I was in a group of people. We were waiting. I had a pencil and a pad of paper with me. I looked around. There were some very interesting faces. They hardly moved as we waited. I started to draw. It felt pretty good. It's been a long time since I've drawn anything. I was quite startled to realize that what I was drawing was really good! I thought to myself, "why haven't I been drawing for so long? I'm pretty dang good at it!" The faces were captured on my pad, one after another.

The waiting ended. I hurriedly put away my pad and pencil and stood up.

and then I woke up.

I think it was a sign. I need to start drawing again, whether I feel like it or not.

So tonight, after cleaning up another vomit mess and feeling drained that after a week my son was still sick, I went in the studio.

I got out my pad, and my pencil, and I started to draw.

and I thought to myself, "why haven't I been drawing for so long? I'm pretty dang bad at it!..........but I'll get better."

And you know what? It felt pretty dang good.

Ta Da!!!

It may be a week late.
It may be too late for any kind of grade at all.
But I don't care.
I'm done.
I finished my drawing.
My exterior, 3 point perspective, city-scape (in my case, farm-scape) is DONE!
I feel like celebrating. I took a picture. It's not a great photo because the drawing was large and I couldn't get it all from directly above, but here's a peak at it.



I'm getting it scanned tomorrow and then I'll turn it in. Yippee!!!

April Fools Day

I'm gullible and a sucker in most cases. Yesterday was no exception.

Lisa, my daughter, told me about her plans. She teaches Music Literature and planned on surprising her students with a massively hard test telling them all they read the syllabus wrong and yes, it really was today. She was afraid some of her more anal students might either burst into tears or have a coronary right there on the spot so she backed off and just gave them a 3 point pop quiz that was ridiculously hard. One student asked if it was an April Fools joke and she deadpanned, "wouldn't that be nice." Then she graded it and had them pass it in. One student just crumpled up his paper in disgust and threw it over his shoulder.

Then she said "April Fools" and said they all got 3 bonus points whether they got the questions right or not. Ha ha. I laughed when Lisa told me what she had planned.

Then I went to my class. We had just spent the entire previous class period learning how to scientifically figure out how to draw things in 3-point perspective. We had to draw a building 200 feet tall, 90 feet wide and 75 feet deep with 10 feet sidewalks and 10 foot windows. There were 22 steps to the set-up alone. The handout he gave us was 7 pages long.

So, yesterday he comes into class and said, "get out a piece of paper. I want you to draw a building 75 feet tall, 45 feet wide and 45 feet deep, with 10 foot sidewalks, a 60 foot wide road in front and a bus 30 feet long driving down the road in 3-point perspective from memory."

I frantically jot down all the specs, thinking the entire time that I don't really need this class to graduate anyway, and maybe I can remember how to do part of the set up, and maybe I can just pretend like I know what I'm doing and can just fake it.

That's when the girl behind me calls out to the teacher, "do you know what day today is?"

I felt like such a sucker.

Aren't college professors funny?

Fluent?

Many many years agoI took Spanish. 2 years in high school and 1 year in college. I just never really got it, though. The professor once said that you will know you're getting fluent when you start dreaming in Spanish. That never happened to me.

An interesting thing HAS started happening to me in the last week, though. I'm dreaming in art.
Yes, you read that right. I have a dream and whatever I look at in the dream I begin to see in terms of how it's drawn.

My closet:
The angle of the door that sits part way open. The heaviness of that line in comparison with the more delicate lines of the hangers and clothes inside.

My dinner:
The ellipses of the plate in perspective. The way it sits up off the table.

My toothbrush:
When held this way how large the head of the brush would be in the drawing with the far end diminishing down to nothing.

I think I'm becoming fluent in art.

Either that or I've been spending way to much time doing it.

Class Project

In class this week we were assigned to "paint a pumpkin using big juicy textures.
I always liked the image of the stack of pumpkins. The first image was what I came up with before class today. He hated the background I originally had. Today in class we learned about making the background have texture. I changed my background using the new knowledge. Which do you like better?

I'm getting in the mood....

Halloween is my favorite holiday. Maybe because fall is my favorite season. Maybe because night is my favorite time of day. Maybe because I like the colors. Whatever the reason I just love Halloween. Tonight I got on Photoshop and just played around a little. This scared little pumpkin showed up. He's scared of a spider. Imagine! Scared of a spider. Ha! Spiders don't scare me. Now that snake I caught in the garage yesterday..... That's a different story.