Here I am! I’m back! I knew I’d guilt myself into a full blog with that last post. I’m at work, I’m putting together just the art that I have on my phone, and I’m realizing just how many art projects I’ve gotten done. The difference this time around that is actually pretty unique and very much a first time kind of thing is that all the art I’ve been doing has had a purpose. I’ve been making art for my masters class; I’ve been decorating my apartment; and I’ve been making things to give to people. Of course this blog also includes the two unrelated pieces I’ve done, because nothing quite calms me like drawing for myself. But decorating the walls of my apartment makes me feel so fucking grown up, as do other ways of representing my life and who’s in it with me. So without further ado…a giant art dump ensues.
Apartment Stuff/Love Stuff
You may recall a really long time ago I made an immaculate digital painting of Ryan and I. It was probably in January. And according to my blogs I never actually posted it! Ahh!
So okay fine, first, here’s the original work. Long overdue to be posted, obviously.
Don’t mind the junk on the outside of the border. I literally had to slice off all background colors in order to post it, and I’m getting damn tired you guys. Obviously since the piece was done in January I had to add in our February tattoos, and recently my engagement band. But, we’ve both gotten new glasses too but I don’t feel like doing a hard edit of the painting to change our faces.
Anyway, here’s what I finally did. Ryan bought us both an early Christmas present and got a super discounted printer for us. We’ve certainly made good use of it (cool side note: I can print shit FROM MY PHONE) first in this, which is a piecemeal because the drawing was supposed to be printed on 11×14 paper before I realized I didn’t want to spend that much money on it for a square frame Ryan had gotten last year. Anyway, I completed the big blank space over our bed with that and a new set of string lights I got from my parents. It’s so whimsical and romantic!
So last week Ryan asked me to make a Christmas drawing of us for a Christmas card. Not two hours later, I’d finished some lineart (and disrupted a bunch of students who squealed out about it while they were trying to take a test…I’m the worst). I really felt up against the clock wanting to get them done essentially by the weekend, cause there’s no point in sending out Christmas cards that’ll get to people on the 26th.So, Saturday and Sunday I worked my ass off for these cards. Watercolors took forever and I was working on the original, which was on printer paper, so half the time I was painting it I was convinced it would get ruined. But lo! I worked patiently and carefully, and got it done. After painting it, I scanned it in, fixed a few of the colors, and then added our message. I was pretty proud of the dropshadow I made, even though I’ve done it a bunch of times, haha.
After finishing everything on the computer, I forced myself to leave the house on Saturday for the sole purpose of getting paper. It was terrible. But persevering through something terrible is very gratifying. More or less. And I think $10 is the least amount of money I’ve ever spent at Michael’s. And fortunately, the paper and the envelopes I got were really effective. Sunday I enlisted Ryan to help me get the cards printed on nice paper after tweaking all the printing settings for a really long time. We figured out the margins and everything to make sure it was centered and also fit in the envelopes. Then, we printed out 9 cards on the first part of the paper, and then I chopped those ones up, and then we used the remaining half of the paper to carefully print another 9, and it actually worked. I also used my cutting board and xacto knife to size them down, and I cut them 100% better than I ever cut anything during my entire semester taking a Book Arts class. After we had them all cut, we had to actually write the cards. Honestly after as well as the production went the card writing process was kind of a pain in the ass, haha. Like, all the people who were getting ones were people we talk to regularly, so how much did we have to say? Well, Ryan did get to spell “merry” as “marry” one time and he didn’t notice it, but I thought it was super funny and it was just in one to his brother so naturally I got to tell his brother what he did. For the lulz. After we wrote all the cards out, Ryan trekked off to the post office – which was weirdly inside a Byerly’s??? – and shipped off the cards, including one to my fair Zoe who’s currently in Australia, but he still spent under $4. And so that is the legacy of these cards. I’ve never felt so satisfied by making something intended for others. Like, under no other circumstances would I actually make Christmas cards unless it was for me and Ryan looking cartoonly and adorable.
Commissions
This category sounds a lot fancier than it is, but I had a coworker randomly be like OMG CAN I SEE SOME OF YOUR ART…MMKAY CAN YOU MAKE ME SOME FOR MAH BOYFRAN
I love how the drips turned out and the spacing of the text looks really nice.
Class Projects
My first Art Therapy class at Adler has included art projects at least one time every single class. Some of the art was passable and definitely more focused on the Art Therapy exercise itself. But some of the works I did for class are just too interesting not to share.
This is the inside of a mask I was asked to make. The ripped pages have fantastic volume, which I’m usually really terrible at.
This was my super cheerful self portrait meant to show where I am now at the start of my journey into Art Therapy. My journey into Art Therapy brought me new purpose for life and it also coincided with my getting engaged. Needless to say, between that being the case; living on my own for the first time in an adorable apartment with my fiance; and you know, having a fiance, I’m the happiest I’ve ever been. Looking at this on days when I don’t feel that way is a good way to keep up my enthusiasm. In all honesty though when I look at this when I’m not feeling very happy, it seems like it must be about another person. Fortunately it looks like me, so I can’t really believe that.
This was my last project for the class which focused on showing one of my strengths in the form of a figure. Needless to say, one of my strengths was definitely not sculpting with model magic clay. I won’t rewrite the whole elaborate tale here because I told the whole class about it two days ago. But now this will forever be the banner over our Art Therapy class sculpture, even though that partially feels like I screwed something up and I’ll think about that every time I see it ever again. Haaaaaaa.
Actual Art
During a half day at work when I had nothing to do for the last hour and a half, I was sitting in the lab when I saw this small stack of long 8×14 paper and I was like dear school you owe me paper so I snatched one and sketched for the next half hour while helping a student look up shit about Calcium. Then naturally I had time to ink it in the next class I was in because we were watching a documentary about North Korea and it was pretty dull. This came after a morning of thinking about Myoku and how weird it is that I used to like, have him in my head. He’s still kind of an emblem of my past and I always draw him sad now.
I started this the day I read that many art therapy students regret the toll their practice takes on their art for pleasure. The sketch was great and expressive and I took my time till I was ready to paint it, while I was binge watching Jessica Jones on Saturday during my very long stretch of time alone. I’m going to go ahead and say that Jessica influenced me in terms of the contrast between her stoic determination to do what she must and her sheer, tender vulnerability in the face of the man who’d abused her. I love her splatter hair and the tendrils of turquoise shooting out from her “dark side.” The fine painted lines on her eyes and her pointing finger make me extremely happy, as does her tattoo. This piece is just so complex and bright and layered, like my life right nowwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww