Weekly Inspiration No. 4

Well that didn't take long for me to fall off the wagon, eh?  So it's almost been a month since I updated my blog posts.  Sorry for the delay.  This one's going to be kind of short.  I didn't really delve into this artist too much so I apologize.  I chose Alex Ross weeks ago.  When I picked him I asked Kevin if he'd heard of him.  Alex Ross is a very well known artist in the comic book and graphic novel community.  Kevin immediately said yes.  One of his favorite graphic novels is Astro City: Confession.  I need to go through Kevin's collection of graphic novels one day.  He has a pretty big collection.  But getting back to Alex Ross...  In what I've read about him, he works in watercolors mostly.  Meaning he's a painter first and foremost.  He usually does covers and a lot of character design for story lines because that watercolor being the medium he works in, it takes forever.  Could you imagine doing an entire comic book with only watercolors.  It would take a wicked long time.  He is the best in the business though as far as reputation goes.  I found it interesting he went to the same art school as his mother, the American Academy of Art in Chicago.  Here are some of my favorites that I found that Alex Ross has painted/designed.

Marvels Painted 6

Astro City cover #5

Superman #676 cover

Batman Black and White p.3

Batman Painted 3

The Shadow #12

Weekly Inspiration No. 3

This week I looked at my usual go to for artists, artcyclopedia.com, and ended up on the instillation artist page.  There was a decently long list of artists to choose from dating back to an artist born in 1917.  I started by going past names that I knew like Rebecca Horn and Annette Messager.  I looked a few artists I thought I recognized and wasn't really impressed by the work that I saw.  Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that these artists aren't good at what they do.  I just wasn't really "inspired" I guess is what I'm trying to say.  I then decided I would look at all the American artists on this list.  I kept going until I found Zoe Leonard.  She was born in New York and still works and lives in the state.  I'm not going to go into as much detail probably as the other two artists I've researched so far.  I didn't really delve into her work until today.  I'm not going to lie, I definitely put this week's blog off until last minute.  Nothing seemed to grab me, but she's the one that kept me interested enough to look at more of her work so here we are.

"1961", 2002-ongoing

This was the installation that initially caught my attention and made me want to see more of her work.  This piece, Leonard adds a vintage suit case for every year she's alive.  It's interesting to me that she used suit cases to represent a year of her life.  I wonder what the significance is.  Did she travel a lot in her childhood?  Were her parents in the military and that's why she traveled so much.  Does she just like vintage suit cases?  Why mostly blue vintage cases?

I then found an interview with Leonard.  Here she explained her process.  As an artist, as you will see in the next pictures I post, who works with photography a lot she wants her viewers to see things how she sees them.  They'll obviously make their own interpretation of her work, but that's part of the process.  The next installation I saw is called "Strange Fruit (For David)."  This also caught my attention because in the text surrounding this piece Billie Holiday came up.  She had a song with the same name.  This piece was done around a time when Leonard was big in the AIDS awareness movement.  She sewed zippers and used yarn and string and buttons to dried fruit skins.  From what I gathered it was for a friend who died of AIDS.

"Strange Fruit (for David)," 1992-1997

"Strange Fruit (for David)" detail, 1992-1997

There is another installation she did that interested me as well.   This installation is of dolls that Leonard found at yard sales and thrift stores over a period of time.  It seems from the things I've read that she found it interesting that all of them were just discarded.  And that she thought of the dolls' story: where they came from, who played with them, and why they were given away or discarded.  

"Mouth Open, Teeth Showing," 2000.

Another thing she talked about in the interview I read was that she took pictures at this medical museum in Paris.  There was a bearded lady in a Ball jar.  It doesn't seem to be a Ball jar in the photograph she took, but that's what she said a few times in the interview.  Leonard said that this "specimen" was just in a back room on top of a filing cabinet or something.  Just an afterthought it seemed.  It fascinated her that this poor woman's head was just discarded like that.  And so many questions: were her family compensated, was her body buried, where did she come from?  I guess she worked for a circus, but still, it's so creepy that they preserved her head for science? 

"Preserved Head of a Bearded Woman, Musee Orfilia," 1991.

One of the photo installations I really enjoy in its entirety is "Analogue."  This is a compilation of 412 photographs she took with a Rolleiflex camera.  She took pictures from 1998-2009 of neighborhoods in New York City.  There are a lot of store fronts and street cart vendors.  It's neat to see the changes in the storefronts over the years.  

"Analogue," 1998-2009.

This is what the installation looks like in a museum.

"Analogue," 1998-2009.

I hope you enjoyed looking at some of the work by Zoe Leonard.  I'll leave you with one of her more recent installations.  I definitely relate to this artist.  Through my artwork, especially my photography, I want the viewer to see things the way I do.  They might not view it in the same way that I do, but that's the interesting part about hearing what people think of your artwork.  They see things, sometimes, in a completely different way than I do.  Leonard's view of the world changes in medium as well which I relate to as well.  She might feel that a physical found object is the way to show how she's feeling about a subject, or maybe it's a photograph, or a group of photographs.  And the subject matter is all over the place too.  Which is interesting to me.  She has different feelings at different points in her life and she's sharing that with the world.  We get to see into her diary so to speak.  She's putting herself out there for the world to see.  That's brave, to me.  To put all your thoughts and emotions out in the open, very courageous.

Weekly inspiration No. 2

I'm a bit late this week, but I'll get into a better routine eventually.  This past week I looked into the artist Chris Gilmour.  I was going to do Wassily Kandinsky, but I thought that might get a bit boring.  I was going to piggy back artists that were friends or inspirations of the artist I did the previous week.  But I decided to go a different route.  At first I thought I'd share my favorite artists, but that wasn't really the goal of this project.  It was to learn about new artists and the need to be inspired artistically again.

Strongbox, 2006

I'll start with probably my favorite that I've seen of his work.  As you can see, his medium is cardboard.  He uses cardboard and glue.  This is one of his later works and you can kind of tell if you look at the right side and on the pieces on the open door that you can still see the print on the original cardboard.  There's an interview on his website where he said that he started out by using cardboard in it's purist form.  Meaning he would use pieces that didn't have tape, print, or labels on it.  But in his later work he enjoys seeing the cardboard for what it is.  People discard it everyday and he wanted to use it in a way that everyone knows it, even it's more unappealing sides.  I enjoy that he changed his perspective in that way.

Aston Martin, 2006

This is another piece I enjoy.  It's life size and he did all the interior and the inner workings of the engine as well.  I read that a lot of people who viewed this work wanted to get inside and try everything on the car.  It's incredibly detailed.  He also did a Fiat car too that was life size, and detailed as well.  I think it's so cool he wanted to recreate these cars to the "t."  Seems like he did a lot of research and sketches to make these come to life.  That is something I don't tend to do.  If I'm making something, painting, or drawing something I tend to just go and enjoy the mistakes and layers that end up happening.

The Triumph of Good and Evil, 2010

It's crazy to me that he does everything out of cardboard and glue.  Everything is so detailed.  He has done a few statues like this.  I mean he's done a few busts a few human formed statues as well.  This one is my favorite of his human figures.  It's so fantastical and it looks huge!  I'd love to see his work in person.  Just to see all the detail of his work.  The dragon is so cool looking.

Chris Gilmour grew up in the UK and now lives and works in Italy.  He has a wikipedia page if you'd like to read more on him there.  His biography on his website and the wikipedia page are pretty similar.  I didn't find too much on him, but I was really glad to learn about him.  When I was thinking of an artists to do this past week, I wanted to find the grad student that was student teaching with one of my professors in art school.  I think it was my second year of art school.  He like to work with cardboard as well.  He showed us his portfolio one day in class and told us about why he liked to work with cardboard.  I couldn't remember his name and he wasn't listed in a Google search, that I could tell anyway.  From my memory he liked to do sculptures of everyday scenes, like a kitchen or something along those lines.  I was bummed I didn't find him, so I settled on Gilmour instead.  

I'll leave you with this last piece and what he said about it.  He said in that interview I read that he felt that his most important piece was the wheelchair.  It created the most reaction, emotion, an/or feeling from his viewers.  Most people didn't go near it or want to touch it.  It made a lot of people uncomfortable it seemed.  I thought it was interesting that he chose to do a few wheelchairs.  But now it makes sense.  It's intriguing for artists to hear the reactions of their viewers.  Most of the time it's nothing like what you would expect them to think of the piece.  I find it incredibly fun to hear what viewers think of my artwork, so it's cool to hear that an accomplished artist feels similar to me on that point.  

Wheelchair, 2003

Weekly inspiration No.1

Lately Kevin and I have talked about how I haven't really done any artwork in probably a year now.  I've done some photography here and there, but never really been active in my artwork.  So I thought about our conversations a lot and came up with an idea.  The idea is to look at other artwork and artists again to hopefully get inspired to create my own again.  I will research an artist a week and post my thoughts on the artist here in my blog every week.  This week I decided to research Paul Klee.  Here's what I've found and what my thoughts are on this artist.

Nocturnal Festivities, 1921

This is one of my favorites that I've seen so far of his work.  Klee was known for his "pointillism" style he used a lot.  He used a needle on blackened glass to draw when he was younger.  He also seems to use an etching technique in a lot of his work.  If you can think back to your grade school days and ever did an art class where you scratch away black paint to reveal color underneath...  He used a similar type of technique a lot in his work.  There seems to be a lot of layers to some of his artwork.  He used a lot of different surfaces to work with too.  He used a lot of gauze and burlap in his work.  He liked to mix mediums as well.

Ad Parnassum, 1932

This is considered to be one of his masterpieces according to a few articles I've read so far.  This showcases his pointillism technique.  I guess this was one of his larger works as well.  He tended to work small.

Burg und Sonne (Castle and Sun), 1928

This painting is really interesting to me because it is used in schools teaching geometric shapes.  I'm sure there are other lessons you could learn from this painting,  but that seems to be the main lesson from this painting.  There are actual lesson plans made revolving around this painting.

Siblings, 1930

I think this one is my favorite I've seen so far.  This kind of puts together his love of shapes and his surrealist flare.  I don't know if he ever really considered himself apart of the surrealist movement, but it was said that he really admired Pablo Picasso and actually got to meet him.  When describing his style of painting a lot of genres are listed.  Wikipedia lists his influences of expressionism, cubism, and surrealism.   You can really see the texture in the background in this painting.

Paul Klee was born in Switzerland and died in Switzerland, but he also lived in Germany a lot of his life as well.  His father was a musician and was brought up to also be a musician, but decided it wasn't for him.  Although a lot of things I read said that people can tell he has musical training and a mind of a musician

Insula Dulcamara, 1938.

Insula Dulcamara is an example of one of his later works.  He used a lot of bold and think lines in his paintings.  You can see a lot of texture in the background again in this one.  He collaged things in this piece.  I really enjoy that about his work.  

Klee died two years later in 1940.  He finished a whopping total of around 9000 pieces of artwork in his career!  That's so impressive.  He taught as a professor at the Bauhaus for 10 years, and at the Dusseldorf Academy for three years.  He also had some pieces in the 1937 German "Degenerate Art" exhibition.  

He apparently had a disease later in his life called scleroderma.  It's an autoimmune disease that attacks healthy tissues in your body.  It creates hardened skin and can effect your organs.  Apparently he had a hard time swallowing because of the disease. People say you can see his pain in some of his later pieces.  It really started to effect him later in his career up until his death.

Red Balloon, 1922.

I leave you with another of my favorites.  It's been fun learning about a new to me artist these past 4 days.  I'll start a new artist tomorrow so I can be on a regular week schedule for this project I'm starting.  Through the things I've read about Paul Klee, he seemed to be his own person but didn't reject things that he experienced in his life.  For example, music... His father was a musician and his mother was a singer.  He played music growing up and I think he still played throughout the rest of his life.   He married a pianist as well.  And people say they can see the influence of music in his artwork which I find interesting.

He seemed to do his own thing.  He wanted to experience things for himself and let it reflect in his artwork.  He traveled to Tunisia and he said it changed his life forever in how he viewed color.  It seemed as though he never really said he was apart of any movement really.  His work is always classified as something different on a lot of websites I looked at his artwork.  Some say expressionism some call it surrealist.   I wonder what he would've thought about that.

I feel like I'm rambling a bit here, but all in all I'm so glad I learned about Paul Klee.  I enjoy his different techniques and especially that he did a lot of mixed media in his work.  As I enjoy doing that as well.  I hope you enjoyed reading my perspective on Paul Klee and hope you learned a little something about him too.

New Hampshire weekend getaway

Polly's Pancake Parlor, Sugar Hill, NH.

In July Kevin and I went up north to see some family from Texas and North Carolina that came up for a vacation in New Hampshire.  So to explain the situation: My dad's oldest brother lives in Sugar Hill New Hamphsire.  My dad's second older brother lives in Dallas Texas.  This uncle loves to visit New Hampshire at least once a year, usually in September.  But they wanted to do a family vacation this year because my cousin recently moved to NC.  Most of my uncle from Texas's family was able to come up to New  Hampshire for two weeks.  So to add to the family my uncle in New Hampshire has two of his three kids living up there as well.  And all but one of my cousins that were there that weekend have children as well.  Kevin and I were only there for a weekend, but it was really nice to get away for a weekend.

Kevin and I stayed with my cousin EB.  She has a little boy and he is adorable!  We really love staying with them.  We get to hang out with my cousin, her husband, her little boy, and her extra lovable golden retriever Kebler.  Their house is beautiful and their back yard view is the White Mountains.  It's so beautiful up there.

My cousin's dog Kebler.  He's so loveable.  Even though he's an older dog he still romps like a puppy.

The day after we arrived we went for a short hike in Lincoln, NH.  It's called the Lincoln Woods Trail off of route 112.  There were so many people there that day.  There was this group of trail runners that didn't seem too serious about what they were doing.  They ran past us and then stopped 100 feet in front of us and "adjusted" them selves.  One of them wasn't wearing socks...  They kept running then stopping the whole time we were there.  We didn't end up staying long because the amount of people was getting to us.  We stopped for a few minutes so I could take some pictures on the river and so we could put our feet in the water.  Holy crap was it cold!!!  And it was JULY!

Kevin and I taking a break along the Pemigewasset River.

After our hike we got some lunch at the Black Mountain Burger Co. in Lincoln, NH.  The burgers hit the spot.  I was pretty hungry.  I think we ended up being a little late to dinner at my aunt and uncles because of this.  That's okay though.  We got to see everyone and ate some more of course.  It was nice to catch up with my cousin that recently moved to NC.  We weren't able to get an invitation to him in time for the wedding.  But he ended up telling us because of the kids they probably wouldn't have been able to swing it anyway.

Our cold beers at Black MTN Burger Co.

This photo doesn't do the moon justice.  It was huge and really bright orange.  I took this from my cousin's back deck.

The next morning we had breakfast at Polly's with a few of the cousins and then we headed up to Littleton to shop at some of our favorite stores.  There are a few thrift and antique stores we like to frequent, there's a fun farmers' market, and of course there's Chutter's candy store.  It's always a good time going to visit my family in New Hampshire.  I would definitely move back to New Hampshire if I was given the choice/chance.

Apple Picking, Twin Peaks, and THE CIRCUS!!!

It's been a while since I've written.  I almost have so many times, but sometimes posting emotions on a public site isn't the smartest idea.  I really need to break out my sketch book for that kind of an outlet.  Some things just don't need to be read by family and friends.  With that said, I wanted to post about some recent happenings in my world.

As an adult I have found I love fall the best out of the seasons.  Winter was my favorite as a child.  I was born in December and I grew up for the early part of my life in New Hampshire.  Snow was the BEST!  Now that I'm grown and have to drive in wintery conditions, it gets kind of old.  Shoveling the driveway before work every storm is a lot.  Trying to figure out the flattest route to work never really is the flattest.  Last year I hit an ice patch on my way home from work taking that route and scratched my rim on the curb of the road.   Fall? Fall is where it's at.  It just is starting to become long sleeve and sweater weather.  You can break out your slippers again and your warm heavy comforter.  The color is just beautiful this time of year.  I don't know maybe it's because I live in New England I love fall.  There are a million festivals and activities to do this time of year.  One of my favorite is apple picking at a local orchard.  

Kevin at Lasley's Orchard in Pomfret, CT.

Apples have always been my favorite fruit.  The more tart the better.  Although, I did try a baking apple in England once and that WAS too tart for me.  My husband Kevin and I went to a different orchard last weekend in north eastern Connecticut called Lapsley's Orchard.  It's in Pomfret, CT.  The other orchards we've been to in Southeastern Connecticut are usually labled and maped out as to where and what apples they have.  Lapsley's wasn't at all.  The fun of apple picking is trying the apples and they embrace that tradition.  You had to pay attention to what the apples looked like, what the leaves looked like, and the tree itself.  Kevin and I prefer tart apples so it took us a while to find which ones we liked.  It also didn't help that the season is winding down and all the close trees were bare.  We had to walk pretty far down the rows to get to trees that still had fruit.  We only went to one side of the orchard too.  There was a whole other side!  It was kind of overcast and chilly the day we went so we got our two dozen and headed back to the farm store to check out their pumpkin selection.  We each chose what we thought to be the perfect jack-o-lantern shaped pumpkin and went on our way.  

The other orchards we like to go to that I mentioned earlier are Maple Lane Farm and Holmberg Orchards.  Maple Lane is in Preston, CT and Holmberg's is in Gales Ferry, CT.  Holmberg's also makes apple, pear, and peach wine and hard cider.  They have tastings all the time at the orchard.  Maple Lane is more casual.  During the week they leave a cash box out and accept cash or checks for a peck of apples.  The trust system is in place for a lot of local farmers around where I live.

Cheddar cheese on apple pie for Twin Peaks night.

Pie is something people make a lot at this time of year.  Pumpkin and apple pie are pretty popular.  Did you know that it's a New England tradition to put sharp cheddar cheese onto of apple pie instead of ice cream or whipped cream?  I only recently found this out.  Pretty sad for growing up in New England, eh?  My husband prefers his apple pie this way.  I found out this year it is also how my mother prefers it as well.  Kevin and I started doing a Twin Peaks night at our house on Wednesday nights.  We pre-ordered the bluray box set and wanted to have people over to watch it again.  Our friend Kat was so nice and made a cherry pie the first week to keep with tradition of the show.  This week she made an apple pie.  Kevin and I put cheese on our slices.  I hope there are more Twin Peaks fans out there reading this and know about the pie obsession in that town.  We also want to get donuts because of the donut set ups in the show as well.  Another thing we have been doing is making decaf coffee because we all have to work the next day.  Coffee is another fun running theme in the show.  Out of the seven people who come over, including Kevin and myself, only three have not seen the show yet.  It's been fun seeing their reactions to what happens in the show.

Going back to my childhood...  I was kind of an odd kid.  I mean carrots were my favorite snack for goodness sake.  I changed what I wanted to be a lot.  I think that's pretty normal for children to do as they grow up.  But one of the professions I wanted to do was to be a clown.  I still love clowns.  I mean don't get me wrong I totally get why people find them creepy and scary.  I really do, but I just love them.  I love the clothes, the makeup, the stuff they get to make and do.  I even taught myself how to make balloon animals.  I still have the book.  I was a clown once for a church craft fair.  That was also when I learned I was allergic to latex, but that's another story.  One thing associated with clowns is the circus.  I always wanted to go to one as a child, but I never was fortunate to go to one.  I love going to the circus exhibit at the Big E whenever we go.  They have this tapestry hanging up in one room that looks authentic.  It's of an Aborigine woman with rings on her neck.  It looks like the "freak show" tapestries they put up in front of their tents.  I love the art work, it's simple but just sucks you in to the imagination of the circus.  I am always drawn to the carnival culture as well.  I just find it fascinating.  Last year I watched the Big Apple Circus documentary on Netflix.  It was really interesting.  I really enjoyed it.  I always keep my fascination quiet around people I know.  I have some pretty passionate vegetarian friends.  The circus is a sore spot for them.  

Finally of the circus.

So getting to the point of this rant is that Kevin bought us tickets to the Ringling Bro. and Barnum and Bailey Circus in Worcester.  BEST DAY EVER!!!  Well, it was up there in my top ten favorite days I think.  I felt pretty silly being a grown adult being as excited as the 4 year olds begging their parents for the 10 dollar light up stuff on the walk to the arena.  As we crossed the street I realized that the caravan with Ringling Bro. and Barnum and Bailey Circus on the sides of the cars was lined up across the street.  I got so excited.  We couldn't tell if it was a train car caravan or if it was on tires.  Still, it was pretty cool to see that.  I mean, the Little Engine That Could and Dumbo were some of my favorite things growing up.  This was a big deal to me.  Kevin bought me the program when we got inside.  We had front row tickets.  But we quickly realized that it's probably not a show you want front row tickets for.  The techs are in your view a lot.  I enjoyed every second.  The elephants were adorable.  The tiger show was awesome, but we wished we could have seen the tigers do more stuff.  All of the acts were just incredible.  They have some really talented people working for the show.  The unicyclists were so fun.  I loved that too.  I will never forget it.  Kevin was really impressed that all of the music was live.  I think we were kind of bummed at how the circus has had to adapt to the times.  Kevin remembers the Ring Leader introducing each act and hyping the crowd up.  They did musical numbers instead with the Ring Leader.  That was a bummer.  OH!  I just remembered, we got to see a girl get shot out of a canon!  That was awesome too.  Just a great show...

Elephants doing their show for the crowd.

The tightrope act was incredible!  Here two guys are on two other guys shoulders! 

Tightrope act again: on bikes and a girl on a chair that stood up!

Two married couples that are incredibly strong!

Even though since the wedding it's been quiet and Kevin and I haven't really done too much.  The things that we have done have been really fun and memorable for sure. We both really enjoy that life has gone back to normal since the wedding.  That we don't HAVE to go out every night now.  We can just have rice and beans for dinner and that's good enough for us.  We've been able to do more work to our back yard and inside the house now.  So glad things have slowed down.  

During the opening act: there was so much going on!  The paint splatter dressed girls were in these suspended spirals from the ceiling.

I'm back!  After a long hiatus due to my wedding, I'm happy to be back.  Well, I am sort of happy about it.  I don't feel like I have a following whatsoever.  But this is really for me anyways, much like my artwork.  Not very many people enjoy that either.  The wedding day was fantastic!  Only two hiccups really and they're nothing that big at all.  VERY minor gripes.  Here, I'll show you a picture or two to show what it was like...

Not sure who took this for photo credit, but this is the ceremony at the Kinney Bungalow in Narragansett, RI.
6.7.14

Right before the first dance.  Nice shot Chantal, I really love this picture!

Kevin's brother Brian took this picture.  It was right before the reception started.

So that's a taste of our wedding.  It was a beautiful day.  And now things are pretty close to normal.  I mean we still have crazy amounts of plans every week, but this week we actually had some time to do some yard work that we wanted to do.  I've done a lot of thinking these past weeks, and I came up with an idea of what to add to my blog.  Kevin and I got on a fair amount of trips and I'd say we're foodies sometimes.  So I made a profile on Yelp and started doing reviews and taking pictures of things.  So far I made 7 reviews of different attractions, hotels/inns, and restaurants.  It's time consuming, but I find it fun.  I look at Yelp a lot when we're going somewhere new.  So I thought that might be a good place to do my reviews.  Here's one of my reviews I did of a restaurant we ate at on our honeymoon in Nova Scotia. The Grand Banker Bar & Grill review.  I think I'll do my reviews on Yelp and talk about our trip or why we ended up where we did on my blog.  That's the plan.

Another thing I have been thinking about as of late is my artwork.  I'm in a dead holt rut right now.  It really sucks feeling the way I do.  I'm at a point now where I don't trust my skills so I don't do anything.  I'm scared to be honest.  Scared of starting something, again, and not finishing it.  It's something I always do, I should be used to it by now, but I don't like that about my process.  So I thought of doing smaller items for sale.  Small watercolors for instance.  Watercolors I could take wherever if I get a pan set, and keep it small and sell them at a reasonable price.  I thought of doing greeting or note cards as well.  I could make sets and sell those on my store as well.  I really think I might try that.  And I might stay away from oils and acrylics for a while.  I need some distance.  The ink wash drawing of the acorns I did within the past year made me remember why I don't paint in oils or acrylic.  It just doesn't give me the feeling I enjoy in my brush strokes.  So, I am going to give that a try.

So that's all that's new for now in Heather's world.  It's weird having a different last name, but at the same time kind of cool.  I can be a new person, fresh start!  I mean I still feel the same and nothing's changed except my last name, but it's interesting how that makes you feel different.