February 28, 2016

Squirming Recycled Paper Dance

...as drawn during a meeting that dragged into the endless; it had some fussbudget in it that went on over some trifle in the way that fussbudgets always do. So the figure had to squirm like the meeting did, perhaps dancing in some impossible way...


I'm still in love with my 100% recycled paper -- perhaps I told you before that it stood there alone on the shelf, feeling rejected. I felt a little lonely on my shelf too, and instant bonding occurred. I suppose that one could and perhaps should use fine materials on it, oil pastels and gouache and the best ink... but now I tend to go for ballpoint pens -- cheap and underrated as they are. They arrived too late to have a place in the traditional art world.

In the modern art world, Art can be Anything and be created with Anything, even ballpoint pens, which is compensated by not letting it be created by Anyone. So we select a select few and call them Artists, and then we decide that what they do is Art. Basta. -- We may always debate what Art is. And the debate will invariably be led by the same circles (also very select) that selected the Artists that are Artists so that the discussion isn't led by just Anyone, q.v. And this gives me a sort of squirmy feeling too, but I digress.

Anyhow, I am stimulated by the fact that the "paper with nine lives" (or so the manufacturers call it) seems to have many stories behind the present pages. It has seen life! -- in the form of chocking newspaper headlines, it has been love letters and death notices, it has carried bored doodles and revelations... I hope that their unknown pages of the past somehow, through some impossible dance, shall echo in what I happen to draw, a song for all the Others.

A closer look. I change the colours a little. See if feelings get warmer too.


Now, if I am drawn to slightly off and rejected materials... I think that I saw an old box of children's crayons the other day in my Muddle, Sweet Muddle; and some very dry felt pens. Hmmm. I really should finish that video first but... Hmmmm again?

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Ps. If you're curious, my particular block of reincarnated paper was born again in Latvia, found through this link.


February 21, 2016

Working Insomnia Sketch

Made instead of sleep, some nights due, so have mercy. The Vernissage that had killed so many nights before went fine, with lots of sweet dearies and gentlepeople showing up. Sadly, I could not show digital works there, such as the one below:


We'll take a closer look. A rosy red was just what this tired little study needed.


And now (as I write this it's a bit past midnight, and not even the right one) I think it's time for sleep...

February 14, 2016

Valentine Mechanics

Ah, Valentine! How strange isn't the machinery that deals between kisses and rejections, that sets souls aflame or on ice! Thus spinneth the wheel of fortune, driven by some intricate clockwork behind the Eye of the Beholder. It might not be very accurate. -- Being cogwheels, I am going to animate them later for my little music video mentioned last week. -- Anyhow, here it is: Valentine Mechanics ...


A closer look, dearies!


I started out with a ballpoint pen on a 100% recycled paper that I've just fallen in love with. It's very coarse and rough but honest and sincere, and I might tell you more after Valentine. Perhaps we'll stay happy together.


(I've just made the cogs spin. The nails fit into each other all the way through in my little animation, drawn freehand. I just had to break a few natural laws.)

Cheers! A Happy Valentine to those who valentinise!
-- Hugs, kisses and tic toc.

February 07, 2016

Vernissage Birdsong

I am still making birdsong for my Vernissage, which'll just intensify until the actual event... (After that I'll collapse like a dead Norwegian Blue Parrot.) Now you've seen The Music in Me so many times that I point you directly to my vernissage page on Facebook instead. But the letterhead for that ad is new and perhaps a little interesting...

With the benefits of digital painting, one might copy letters that resemble each other...


...and then bind them together.


Of course one might save even more time and use some gaudy font from the giant box of fonts that we now have. But it is Not That Fun! I love the craft, the shaping and re-shaping of letters... and I suspect that I, somewhwere deep down, love the waste of time too.

While all this is going on I still animate a little -- should practice for a concert too, how much to do! -- fairly "limited animation", but still something to look at. These are my strange mechanical birds...


And yes, they blow cute little bubbles. Po-te-weet!