The Sky Was Made Of Leaves

Drawing

One of the most fascinating things is to see what your hand will draw when you simply start without weighing your mind down with any sort of plan of how it will turn out.

Moving the pencil along the paper. Inventing a the rules as you go. Drawing can thrive with uninhibited mark making.

And sometimes I wake from dreams, wondering how on earth my mind concocted those images. Such idiosyncratic feelings and subtle, particular events.

One reason that I make pictures is because I have a wild imagination. If it is not focused and reigned in, the scenarios my mind will cause me all sorts of stress and anxiety. To purposely create poetic stories is empowering.

 

 

Moon Conversations & The 100 Day Challenge

The Summer of Shooting Stars

Pools of Light

Hands Extending into the Blue

Pressing on the Golden Stem

Leaves As Gems

& A Book of Clouds. 

Those are some of the titles I've come up with as prompts for my next series of illustrations, 100 Moon Conversations. There have been these magical ideas floating around in my head that fill me with happiness yet I haven't taken the time to draw them. This year, I've written out 100 abstract notions/lyrical phrasings derived from song lyrics and poems I've written with the goals of 1) creating images I want to see out in the world and 2) making a book. I've rekindled my love for writing by waking before 6am, meditating for ten minutes and then writing before working on art.

I've rediscovered that writing is always the answer to improving and inspiring the artistic process.

On April 4th, along with many other people all over the world doing all sorts of projects, I'll be starting another 100 day journey.

In my first project 100 Dreamy Beach Babes, I came up with a little illustration (literally, they started out approximately 2 x 2") of a whimsical girl on the beach. In my second project, 100 Ten Minute Skies, I went for a conceptual approach where I would draw the sky everyday for ten minutes no matter what it looked like.

Every idea sounds interesting when you start. The challenge is in pushing through, not falling behind, and finding new ways of approaching your idea when it inevitably gets monotonous.

In those projects, I thought my themes were specific enough to yield continual inspiration, but I found myself spending a lot of time finding a reference photo for the "beach babe" (I later just took self portraits) and by day 20 I was already bored with painting a girl and the sea. I realized that even small paintings took me quite a bit of time.

[caption id="attachment_12166" align="alignnone" width="950"] Dreamy Beach Babe on Day 76, measuring approximately 4 x 5"[/caption]

The following year, at the start of Ten Minute Clouds, the Kilauea volcano erupted and filled the skies with thick vog, creating skies that were white and gray for many months. I quickly adjusted my focus and started to create abstract works inspired by the sky. It was the simple act of making; dedicating time to drawing (often while my daughter ate breakfast), observing what I could make in ten minutes, and pushing through creative frustration that brought the most happiness.

In my first project I learned the importance of preparation for the 100 days. Practice beforehand, imagine what the situation will be when you are working, and consider how long each piece will take.

[caption id="attachment_12160" align="aligncenter" width="744"] 100 Ten Minute Skies on Day 6[/caption]

In the second project I learned that a timer is a valuable tool. Think you don't have time for something? You can actually accomplish quite a lot in ten focused minutes instead of scrolling social media or watching a show.

Essentially, the most important part of any 100 day project is just doing something... every single day, no matter what. When you push through boredom and tedium you will find new ideas you never thought were there. The magic is in the consistency. Constraints and routine can equal the utmost freedom.

If you are doing the 100 day project or interested in one, I'd love to hear from you.

Landscape Drawings circa 2009 - 2013

 

SaveSave

SaveSave

Rolling Wave, 2013

A little drawing I made for my uncle who lives on a boat.

Dreaming of the Sea after Art School

Waves and more waves. They are one of the few forms that when captured in a photograph and translated into a drawing, can become both abstract and representational. Immense, delicate, always changing. Somewhere waves are crashing, and if I can't be near them then I will draw them.

SaveSave

Wave Form

Wave form, 2009

Drawings Circa 2009 - 2012

 



 

SaveSave

Self-portrait from March

untitled (underwater drawing)

An automatic drawing with intuitive colors. In retrospect it is probably a sea creature from my unconscious, at least I want it to be such a thing. Right now I don't know what that could mean.  Within art I am interested in not only in what is presented, spoken, or acted out, but also what is absent, the layer that we try to hide, our blind spots.

This is a drawing that derives from wanting to place pencil on paper and feel it's surface, but it also becomes about meditation, self-esteem, controlling what I want to see, finding balance between internal and external environment.

I was sitting in a small mundane space passing time in order to receive money, although I would rather have been working somewhere better, but then there is always somewhere better and that is a never-ending cycle. I value new experiences even if they are uncomfortable at the time. I can only say this because I am having a good experience right now, writing this. I love the word "retrospect" because it is what life (I wonder if animals experience retrospect) is comprised of: experiencing, or sometimes avoiding experiencing something that we are afraid of, and then trying to forget, or trying to understand. Sometimes we think we have come to an understanding of something but we are just trying to cope with not understanding, but we desperately want people to think we understand. Sometimes we call it art.

Now everything I have just written was not planned out, but it was controlled and directed just like this drawing.

On The Shore

 

I sat on the shore

made lines for a short while

or something like that