Illustration Friday - Stay

 

Stay With Me

(while I monkey around with my career)

Collage and graphite

9.25 x 5 inches

Big changes have happened in my life since my last post.  I did something even I couldn't have anticipated.  I resigned my high school art teaching position.  This was one of the hardest decisions I have made in a long time, and I know a lot of people think I must be off my rocker.  Maybe I am...  I absolutely love teaching.  I work very hard to be good at it, and I can only hope that the effort is understood and appreciated by those who retain my services as an educator.  The students always get it, maybe not at first, but eventually and reliably.  I miss them already and we are only half way through the summer.  

But change is good even if it is hard.  As Newton tells us, a body in motion tends to stay in motion, and I am no exception to that rule.  The current plan is:

1. Make art full time -  It is a now or never opportunity to promote myself as a professional artist.  Teaching gave me freedom to make art for personal intellectual pleasure at my leisure.  I have been much more productive in the last couple of years than in the past but now is the time to ramp it up to the next level.

2. Finish up my Masters degree - I am five classes away from completion.  With more free time I should be able to finish up by the end of next spring semester

3. Start a new blog - I will be putting up a new blog that will deal more specifically with my production of fine art and illustration. Illustration Friday submissions will be posted there as well.  I have three recently completed large canvases that are the beginnings of a new body of work.  As soon as I have good photos, I will inaugurate the new blog.

4. Work part time at Micheal's - As a evening/weekend "Customer Experience Manager" and hopefully fine art instructor... I still need to be able to make my car payment and tuition. :(  I worked at Micheal's about six years ago as a framer and event coordinator before I started teaching.  They still like me and have been kind enough to take me back.

I showed my son Todd, the illustration for this week.  He asked me what the word was, when I told him, he looked blankly at me and said "I don't get it."  If you have read to this point I hope it now makes sense.  To those who have been kind enough to follow this blog, I hope you will "stay with me" as I move on in another direction.  I'll post here to let everyone know when the new blog is up and running.

Make art with all your heart, mind, and soul!

Sally

Illustration Friday - Toy

Lucy Loves Ducky

8.5 x 8.5 inches

Watercolor and Sharpie Pen

Playing with toys is a sign of intelligence, and all of the higher order animals do it; elephants to whales to dogs and cats.  The tendency for humans and animals to continue to play well into adulthood is both a learning activity as well as a stress reliever.  My border collie Lucy thinks it is just plain fun.

Illustration Friday - Warning

Don't Eat Me!

ATC 2.5 x 3.5 inches

mixed media

Vocabulary word of the day:  Aposematism - a visual warning signal (usually bright color or high contrast pattern) indicating that an organism has a secondary defense mechanism such as; unpalatabilty,  poisonous glands, stings, neurotoxins, or foul odor.

Illustration Friday - Swarm

Queen Bee

Ink,  marker and watercolor on mat board
4x6 inches

Wow!  It has been too long since I have participated in Illustration Friday and I am having serious withdrawal.  I may have to commit to another 1 year goal to make sure that I stay motivated to keep it up.  

This is just a quick one this week, but it had me thinking about the zen of being at one with nature.  Nature and I have a love hate relationship.  I consider myself something of a nature girl, but become literally depressed when things don't grow and flourish in the ways I envision.  We have had terrible drought conditions here in Texas for at least four of the six years that we have been back.  I have had very little success at growing anything.  OK, in reality I have a black thumb.  My husband commented on it just yesterday when I was fondling the plants in the garden department at Lowe's.  But despite my general ineptitude with growing things, I have always been happiest outside, breathing in fresh country air.  And I like to think that I will eventually get better at nurturing nature, if I just keep at it.  (And don't forget to water)

I remember being particularly concerned about the state of the natural world a couple of years ago when I heard that bees were disappearing.   Apparently a bee virus was decimating bee colonies, but they seem to be making a comeback.  I am still pretty upset about the fact that I haven't seen a firefly in several years.  No one really knows what has happened there.  But on the positive side, ground dwelling birds have returned to East Texas.  I have been seeing road runners and killdeer again for several seasons now.  Apparently the fire ants are finally finding a balance.  That is the thing about nature, isn't it?  It always finds balance.  How Zen!

Illustration Friday - Winter

Walking in a Minion Wonderland!

Do you know that it is virtually impossible to purchase any kind of merchandise from the movie "Despicable Me"?  My husband is a five year old when it comes to Christmas.  All he wanted wanted was minions for his desk at work and there are none to be found anywhere.  Its not that people are snatching them up, its that none were ever made in the first place.  Soooo...loving wife that I am, I produced these three out of polymer clay just in time for Christmas.  I had to bar my husband from my studio and swear my son to secrecy, but they turned out to be a rather big hit.  Add a bit of wintry background, a couple of snowballs, and I ended up with a IF entry to boot.

Illustration Friday - Beneath

Beneath a Pale Blue Sky: "Alchemy at the Edge"

24 x 48 Acrylic and Metal Leaf on Canvas

This is a recently completed painting that was juried into an upcoming exhibit at Gallery Main Street in Tyler, TX.  I am having a lot of fun participating in the themed exhibits that the gallery hosts, and have even resumed selling a bit of art.  If you are in the Tyler area, the show opens on Oct 28th.  Please drop by for a visit.

Illustration Friday #52! - Breakfast

IHOP Breakfast

water media on rag paper, 9 x 12

ONE FULL YEAR OF ILLUSTRATION FRIDAY!

This weeks illustration is my 52nd consecutive weekly submission to Illustration Friday, meaning I have reached my goal of participating for a full year!  This week's word was a bit of a bonus since it gave me an excuse to visit my favorite breakfast restaurant, The International House of Pancakes, or as most Americans know it, IHOP.  My husband John and I went for breakfast yesterday morning as a sort of mini celebration for having made it through the whole year.  

As you can see, I had one of my favorite selections, the stuffed french toast combo, with scrambled eggs, sausage, hash browns,strawberry stuffed french toast, and ironically, a diet Coke. :) (I'm not a coffee drinker)  John had something called loaded minion taters that IHOP is promoting with the "Dispicable Me" movie that recently came out.  His came with a tater tot casserole, scrambled eggs, pancakes, and an added side of bacon.  

We came hungry.  We left happy!

Large Abstraction

Untitled

Acrylic, Charcoal, and Metal Leaf on Canvas 

40 x 30

One of my submissions for a juried exhibit competition at Main Street Gallery in Tyler.  I haven't worked this large in quite some time, but I like the way it forces me to loosen up.  The gleam of the strip of gold leaf is a bit exaggerated in the photo.  It has a glaze of burnt umber on it that actually tones it down a bit.  There is also a bit of glare on the right side that is shifting the color.

Illustration Friday - Ripple

 

A Spoonful of Tragedy - A Louisiana Roseate Spoonbill

2.5 x 3.5

mixed media

The folks at Illustration Friday are doing something meaningful this week.  Penelope Dullaghan has chosen the word "ripple" for this weeks theme.  She is encouraging all participants to submit and donate an ATC sized sketch card to a special project that is  raising funds to help wildlife injured by the Deep Water Horizon, Gulf of Mexico oil spill.  This project is being organized by  Kelly Light at http://ripplesketches.blogspot.com/ .  For a $10 donation you will be able to find this as well as many other original and digital artworks available.  This particular card will be sent directly from me to the purchaser when Kelly receives confirmation of a donation made to either the Institute for Marine Mammal Studies or  The International Bird Rescue Research Center .

I hope everyone who sees this blog will consider helping out by either making a donation or creating and submitting artwork to Kelly.  We all use oil.  We drive our cars, we heat our homes, we use tons of plastics and other petroleum products.  We are all responsible for this tragedy.  Perhaps this will be the thing that will help us finally decide to wean ourselves off of fossil fuels.  There are other clean options available, we just need to be willing to change.   True, it will be expensive.  It will be painful to those who need to find jobs in other industries.   But we will come to a point when we cannot afford the consequences of failure to change.  In the meantime, let's clean up this mess as best we can and save as much of our precious wildlife as is humanly possible.

By the way, the coastal marsh dwelling Roseate Spoonbill was just beginning to make a strong recovery from endangerment.  Most of this recovery was occurring in Louisiana....

Illustration Friday - Early

Early Morning Wake Up Call - 4am

This is Napoleon.  He is our little Japanese Silkie rooster.  A full moon is as good as sunshine for him and he takes his job as Reveille horn blower seriously.  We often hear him sounding the wake up call as early as three or four in the morning.  Needless to say we have learned how to sleep with pillows over our heads.

Illustration Friday - Fearless

Who's the Boss

I have a new border collie puppy named Lucy who likes to try to herd the cats.  Unfortunately for Lucy, my cats know better than to cede power to a mere juvenal delenquent of a dog.  Lucy tries to be brave, but it is a battle she cannot win. I just hope she exhibits the same fearlessness when it is time for her to meet the sheep.  Her bravery will be particularly important with the ram that tries to run me down every time I enter the pasture.  She is a smart pup and I have high hopes for her herding instinct and bravery.

Lucy at 13 weeks

Illustration Friday - Cocoon

White Dwarf Cocoon

acrylic ink on paper

When stars begin to die they shed their outer layer in the process of becoming a white dwarf.  The expelled outer layer is called a cocoon.  Our own sun will be at this stage in about 5 billion years. 

Illustration Friday - Ahead

Ahead by a Head

ATC 2.5 x 3.5 inches

mixed media

There is a certain futility about racing around in circles, and yet that is what I seem to be doing most of the time.  I never really get ahead even if I feel like I do now and then. 

Illustration Friday - Detective

Just Follow Your Nose

The scent detection abilities of the bloodhound are unparalleled in the dog world.  They can follow a trail that is days old.  Despite being intimidatingly large, a bloodhound is far more likely to lick the person he is trailing than bite him.  Bloodhounds - Detectives Extraordinaire!    

Illustration Friday - Adrift

 

Wilson!!!!

2.5 x 3.5 inches ATC

marker, colored pencil, and gel pen

available for trade

You know you are watching a really good actor when he makes you want to cry over the loss of a soccer ball. :)  I love Tom Hanks!  This is actually a requested image for my son Todd.  I told him what this week's Illustration Friday theme is, and he suggested this scene from the movie Cast Away.  To work up to it, we watched the movie together.   It was a nice way to spend our President's Day holiday together. 

Illustration Friday - Muddy

 

2.5 x 3.5 inches ATC

The Potter

Life like art is messy.  Don't be afraid to get your hands dirty.

Sculpture and ceramics was my emphasis in college.  I really love 3D work even though most of my art these days is 2D.  In ceramics I considered myself more of a hand builder.  I could throw a decent pot but I never felt I had a flair for refined form on the wheel.  The best thing about it was getting good and sloppy muddy.  I loved being in my paint stained and clay covered overalls.  I felt like a real artist.  I am a much cleaner artist now that I have to make art in more professional "teacher clothes", but a good dirty apron still helps me feel free and creative.

Illustration Friday - Renewal

Is It Spring Yet?

watercolor and colored pencil

4" x 6"

A last minute submission this week.  Honestly, I wasn't feeling very inspired by this week's word even though it fits the time of year well.  But with the country currently in the grip of an Arctic chill, visions of spring have been dancing around in my daydreams.  We don't have crocuses here in Texas, but I lived in Wisconsin for about a year and a half, and these brave little flowers amazed me with their determination to bloom right through the snow pack.  Spring was nowhere else in sight, but these bright purple and yellow flowers were right there anyway in the little flower bed in front of my house.  They were truly the first sign that the thaw was beginning and the return of sun and green were around the corner.  A fitting symbol for renewal, I think.

Illustration Friday - Crunchy

Monty Python's Crunchy Frog

colored pencil and gel pen

5.75 x 3.75 inches

OK, I really took it down to the wire this week, but it has been a crazy busy week.  This submission was inspired by a Monty Python scene that I am going to attempt to attach below.  I am not a huge Monty Python fan but I have been known to appreciate quirky British humor when I am so tired that I am no longer thinking straight.  That would be my general state this whole week.  Anyway, I hope you enjoy the illo and the link to the skit.

Crunchy Frog

Not quite what I intended, but the link does work.

Illustration Friday - Entangled

Come Back to Bed

2.5 x 3.5 inches ATC

mixed media

I really like this weeks theme word, it is full of all kinds of possibilities.  The resulting illos I see going up on IF are wonderful overall.   The theme brings to mind the entanglement of our personal relationships for me.  Perhaps the holidays are also responsible for putting me in this mindset.  I made this ATC for a personal trade with a lady who likes to collect cards themed with a mermaid and an octopus as a couple.  Entanglement is a given for these two. 

Illustration Friday -Blur

Mixed Media 3.5 x 2.5 ATC

I love the soft blur caused by falling snow.  This little ATC was inspired by a poem by Robert Frost.

Stopping By Woods on a Snowy Evening

Whose woods these are I think I know.

His house is in the village though;
He will not see me stopping here
To watch his woods fill up with snow.

My little horse must think it queer
To stop without a farmhouse near
Between the woods and frozen lake
The darkest evening of the year.

He gives his harness bells a shake
To ask if there is some mistake.
The only other sound's the sweep
Of easy wind and downy flake.

The woods are lovely, dark and deep.
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.