The Art of Interpretation

Creative Connections

2011-12-07T19:21:00.001-06:00

Every now and then I come up with an idea and it's like a strong blast of wind that hits me and leaves me with a breezy smile.
See, my bosom buddy/ex-roomie and I parted ways last summer and it's very rare that you find someone you can bond with over so many things. Together we had gotten two kittens (hers to keep), had many crafts parties, late night movies and chats, trips for lattes and crepes, and basically did anything and everything that two hipsters would do and we shared them lovingly together. Without her, I miss all those things and wanted a way to share with her what I did away from her in those categories without the usual technology ways about things.

Thus was born our bosom buddy sketchbook.

It's not an entirely original idea (I don't believe anything really is) but I put the one thing which was artist journal collaborations together with my missing friendship and, voila! I'm very excited for the outcome of this whole book!
We'll paste in our favorite things we find and wish we could share with each other: lists of things, recipes we like, inspirational quotes, sappy poems, "found" pieces of paper, sketches we've made and we'll also just journal various girl talk.

After I had the idea, Chelle mentioned she had the perfect sketchbook already! I cannot express to you my excitement when I opened up this package in the mail! Warm fuzzies all over and it will continue each time we send it back and forth! It'll help fill in the time we don't get to road trip to see each other and will also give us both some time to collect our favorite things but still share them.

Yesterday, I spent some time adding in some various things for Chelle to add to after I send it back to her in the next couple of days.

Like some happiness quotes and some stamps I have (I wish I had lots more stamps though!!!)

Or a recipe for crepes and also a recipe card for Grandma Gibbs' waffle cookies...with a message behind the card about how grandma is one of my life hero's.

I would start a book with anyone who wanted to...this is so much fun! And by all means, please steal the idea too!

Many Leatherbound Books...

2011-12-02T16:56:00.001-06:00

I warned you that I had been doodling a lot....

I thought this was a wonderful idea. I always forget my favorite books and I believe I didn't really capture them all here. I like books that gave me that one particular feeling in order to qualify. It's an all-encompassing feeling of "I can't finish this last page...oh it's so hard, I'm slowly closing this book I just read...I'm going to be sitting here and thinking about this a while...."

You know. That feeling.

Anywho, I'm sure I forgot some but here's the list (obviously, I'm big into classics):

The Awakening - Kate Chopin (Always been my number one.)
The Old Man and the Sea - Ernest Hemingway (Because I can taste the salty sea when I read this.)
Everything Is Illuminated - Jonathan Safron Foer (Just so...different and made me feel in awe.)
Little Women - Louisa May Alcott (I like to pretend I could be a Transcendentalist:)
The Golden Notebook - Doris Lessing (Women have issues.)
Siddhartha - Herman Hesse (I thought about things differently after this.)
How to Win Friends and Influence People - Carnegie (I still try to read this now and then, it helps.)
One Hundred Years of Solitude - G. G. Marquez (Just love this one.)
Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen (I always feel sneaky adding this...what can I say.)
The Idiot - Fyodor Dostoyevsky (Did you ever never want to let a character go?)
The Giver - Lois Lowry (I never felt so many emotions at once as a kid...)
The Giving Tree - Shel Silverstein (...except when I read this.)
The Bluest Eye - Toni Morrison (Just that visual is enough to understand race issues are rough.)
Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy (I knew the ending the whole time, and was still surprised.)
The Good Earth - Pearl S. Buck (I was transferred to another world.)
Their Eyes Were Watching God - Zora Neale Hurston (Pain. So much pain.)
The Magician's Nephew - C.S. Lewis (I see the imagery as my dreams...the pools in the wood.)

What would be on YOUR shelf!? I wish I could know lots of other friends shelves...

Oodles of Doodles

2011-12-02T13:23:00.001-06:00

Thanks for Chelle's blog Happy Particles for sharing a toon that inspired my own doodle...which ended up making Blake chuckle quite hard. He said "you should scan this or something and share it on the internet or something." Here you are sir. Right now I happen to be doodling a bookshelf with some of my favorite books on it. Doodles are very theraputic and whimsical that I have allowed myself to be taken away with them these past couple of weeks. I bought new pens for drawings and I'm very obsessed with them and take them wherever I go! I hope that all of you out there have doodles to share that I could see some day!

T'was a Poet

2011-11-15T16:40:00.006-06:00

I recently signed up to receive daily emails from a print project called "20x200." The premise being that everyone should own art and that said art should be available to everyone at a reasonable price...not to mention that artists can still get their product out there in a tough economy/market. So starting around 20 dollars for a limited edition quality print around 11"x14" you can get something unique and artist made. Read more about it here.

So today, I got an email from 20x200 about the artist Austin Kleon. He creates poetry (I refrained from putting the rabbit ears on there, it really is poetry) from blocking out some text and leaving other text on pages of New York Times articles. Naturally, I thought "I want to try that!"

Out comes the trusty Brother's Karamazov book that fell apart a few years back while I was reading.....

Oh my goodness it is a blast. I basically just grabbed my awesome re-fillable permanent marker and started blocking out lines of text. When I notice a word I like, I save it. I speak the line out loud/mentally as I go so I eventually make something that makes some sort of sense. It's spontaneous and totally rewarding!

Here are a few of my favorites so far (I can't stop, I keep making one every half hour or so):

"complete" devotion

weeping

over his face

he walked away

his own tears

departed completely

________________________________

silence,

repeating.

silence,

pleased.

natural law assumed prepared

to face whatever

the outcome.

_____________________________________

(and a funny one.......)

The Smell of Decay

on the coffin

was greatly evident

______________________________________

Find an article and print it out or grab an old book you don't want to read anymore like me and try it out and share it in the comments!!!

Kittens in Repose

2011-11-03T14:18:00.005-05:00

I thought I'd share a happy heartwarming little picture of my two kittens. I came downstairs one day and they were perfectly juxtaposed in the sunlight. They ran to meet me and I thought I had lost my moment but I ended up plopping them back into their spots (no really, plopping) and caught a little bit of their personalities in a quiet moment before Judas ran off to what he was looking at and Lucifer followed after.

Yep. Judas (table) and Lucifer (floor.) It's humor silly! Lucifer is a long haired girly who is so fluffy and full of wonderful attitude. Then she'll turn around and squeal as she jumps onto your chest to snuggle with you until you can't stand it. Judas is a momma's boy who can't let you out of his sight and is always trying to capture your attention...except when he's jumping on counters and eating anything he possibly can.

I love that there are my mums in the picture, the sunlight curls along the curve of Judas and how Luci sits perfectly in the line of sunlight on the floor. Such a sweet picture.

Today I'm thankful for kittens in sunshine and my loving boyfriend, family and friends. I apologize for delayed posts...I can't seem to publish from my work computer which is the free time I allowed myself for posting. More artworks to come soon.

Process Photos

2011-10-19T09:48:00.004-05:00

First layer of paint...still working on the vibrancy of hue but I always just decline into using a lot of white...

I decided I will crop some of the bottom so I put a piece of tape on to show that future crop. I fixed up the right corner of the fence. I don't think I want to work much more into the background otherwise it'll become too detailed and start coming closer to the portrait. Smeared out grandpa's shirt so that I could go into another time with different values and color. Trying to really think about the construction of their faces and starting to clean it up. Will let it dry a bit more to work more layers on top.

Love Lives Here

2011-10-14T18:44:00.005-05:00

I just worked out a quick sketch of my g'ma and g'pa Gibbs. They are cuties:) I cannot WAIT to put some paint to this....and in oil! Yippee...I'm getting so much better at it! More on that later. Until then, just think about how much your own grandparents would love something homemade from you too. My grandma cried the last time I gave her something I made:)

Thanks to Aunt Lisa for having such a great photo to work from...great value AND the blues in the photo are going to be a fantastic mono-chrome for painting.

Amazing Aspirations

2011-09-29T14:24:00.005-05:00

I cannot lie...sometimes I don't get modern art. I think that when I admit to others that I sometimes call myself an artist they think I automatically have some grander understanding of the toilet sitting in the museum on display. Just like you, I like some things, and I don't like other things and I usually don't have an explanation for my preferences. I don't always "get" it and heck, sometimes that's the whole point. I do know that art is created for many different reasons so I guess I have the one up on you there.

What I DO like and understand is portraiture and classical styles of painting. This is why I always try to find more and more people out there who work in this supposed "dead" area of art (it's very much alive actually it's just a matter of popularity.) Enjoy the artists I've recently become enamored with....

Ilaria Rosselli Del Turco

I didn't have to go very far to research because she was one of the featured artists in The Artist's Magazine I receive (NOTE: If you want to become and artist, get every subscription of every art magazine out there....or make regular stops at your library.) Let's talk about things I love about her style. First, this particular portrait is a profile. I'm terribly obsessed with how a profile portrait looks. It's intensely personal but off-put....just oh so complicated in personality. Second, I like how there are a lot of drawing elements to this style. There are obvious "drawn" lines with color not just planes of color. I like when one line can convey just as much as a swatch of brush color.

From her own blog, I found this...

Oh, hello painter Euan Uglow but in version 2.0...... Alex Kanevsky.

I don't have words. You HAVE to go to his website and click through his examples of process photos. He has no way of explaining how or why he does anything to his paintings in the process so I decided I would try and define it for him...absurd genius. How he arrives at the final painting is bizarre and beautiful. I want to work until I get even the appearance of his first stages of process photos...totally swoony.

Everyone needs something or someone that inspires them. Every day.

Fear of ___________

2011-09-23T18:18:00.002-05:00

I've never figured out if it's of success or failure. I'm pretty sure if I sit down to really think it through and figure out which one, I'd be contributing to whatever controls me in that process.

Le sigh.

I like this blog. In fact, I'm here almost every day. I'm not writing because I'm always disappointed in my artmaking. It's either minimal or inadequate. My goals are non-existent or either too grandiose.

All the while my little doodles I painstakingly make feel left out and cast their eyes downward, "nobody wants me."

"Sniff, sniff."

I don't believe I can't work hard. I think the best example of my work ethic is imbibed in my physicality. I can easily put myself through workouts where I'm constantly pushing my boundaries.

Artmaking is the same. There are boundaries to be pushed. You get a little scared at times and downtrodden but all that while you should be creating (all that while you keep sprinting or lifting that heavy weight and denying yourself tasty treats with zero nutritional value.) Artmaking is equally journey and destination but destination is the the zone I don't want to reach for it is there that I'd arrive at the question of either fear of success or failure. So I compromise by committing to an avoidance of both. I've made my studio into a room whose door I want to close and ignore before I've even spent enough time in it to know it's dimensions (probably your standard 8' x 10' but one can't be sure yet.)

I don't want to focus my energies on where I went wrong (ah hem, college) but rather, where do I go right? Again, I can apply my area of success, workouts, to this other situation of life. I set a goal. I set up the necessary little goals to reach that goal. I then achieve the goal, set another and continue so forth. Every goal has tiny daily steps to take.

Keeping in good shape doesn't have similar roadblocks (unless you count everything SUGAR, yum) so how do I remove that nagging question of fear?

It would be nice to have a workout "buddy." How does one find someone, same demographic, to meet with daily to keep accountability in this art arena? I'm quite successful at finding older established artists. How also, do I structure life to help to also provide me accountability?

Every day I sit in a gallery of creations by a successful artist and every day I still slumber at the start of a path I swear to myself I can't figure out.

I'm pretty sure if I just started walking in a direction I'd end up somewhere. That somewhere may be better than here.

Here I go...

Atelier

2011-08-25T15:00:00.002-05:00

What is this? An Art Studio For Ants!?

Hahahaha...classy.

If you check out the link you'll catch an artist who made miniature studios of famous artists...how bizarre but completely fascinating:)

Why might I share this link...because I'm so excited to HAVE MY OWN STUDIO!

All it takes is finishing up a bathroom remodel so you can clear out the spare bedroom for all your wonderfully organized totes of art materials. Total swoon. One partial week in i'm not sure how productivity levels have been affected. I am, today, working on more pen drawings of dried out "gumball" seed pods.

I like them almost too much, not sure what the draw is (a spell check read-through later, I realize I wrote an unintended pun there.) I went on to wikipedia and decided I would make a number of drawings to match the number of different slang terms for these gumball seed pods. I can't WAIT to sit down and decide which drawing deserve the title of "monkey balls."

Come see my studio or tell me what to work on in my studio next! Thanks to everyone who visits my blog!

Mat Cutting Blues

2011-08-19T18:11:00.003-05:00

One of these would make my life so much easier. I was spoiled having one at the Workspace while I was there in college. Now, Jimmy-kins lets me borrow his but I've started to feel like I'm getting more mileage out of it beyond just casual use. Plus, if I kept it here at the gallery, I'd really be able to custom frame everyone's prints...

oh, hello. Dick Blick and back to school sale? Shouldn't have bought that new dress for the rehearsal dinner....

Getting Back into the Swing of Things

2011-08-17T11:59:00.008-05:00

I have lately done two trees for wedding sign ins. This is the fun one I did where the thumbprints and signatures were set up...sort of a fall themed tree and Jessica loves it!

I have another much larger (3'x3') painting I did for Jen's wedding where I was a bridesmaid. The tree was done in a medium grey and have the cutest pink leaves painted in. I realized I only took pictures with my phone and not my camera so I'll bother the bride later to post that up for you.

I'm sort of plotting evil things lately. How can I set up a studio in the spare bedroom without Blake noticing? Right now, it's half filled with everything from the bathroom renovation but with any luck, that will all be over and cleaned out after this weekend.

These three paintings aren't of much consequence but I don't really have any need for them to hang around...would you want them?!! Bargain deals here:) They were only one of the projects for my color class where I was showing different color relationships. The squiggle method is something I always did as a kid with a box of crayons after learning it from my brother. Drawing a continuous line overlapping over the whole page and then fill in the segments with color. I thought it fit in nicely for the project.

You just let me know if you're interested...I may be posting up some other "garage sale" art as I work through really settling my artistic self into my new home. VERY excited that the crazy summer seems to finally be over and I can get some down time to make artwork...really excited so far with my sketchbook and drawing ideas.

Graphite

2011-07-21T15:00:00.003-05:00

Here is a detail shot from the finished arch drawing I did. It's a gift for a couple but I decided to go against my usual bad form of posting up gifts before they are finished...I will wait until I get it all pretty and framed up. I chose a "graphite" looking frame from our Larson-Juhl selection at the gallery. If you ever need a framing project done...I'm your gal!

I have two "tree" wedding sign-in paintings I'm trying to finish up so you should catch wind of those soon. I also am going to send out the updated "summer list" so you can see all the crazy things I've been doing instead of making art. Until then, check out this crazy art project...

Burning House

2011-06-23T12:14:00.005-05:00

Who says I can't post multiple days in a row to make up for my extended absence!?

The picture above is something I have been meaning to do for a couple weeks now after seeing some one's "Burning House" project listed on a blog I follow. Read about the project at the actual website.

Anywho, here is my photo. The premise is really a condensed version of a personality quiz. What would you save from your burning house? Here are my answers formatted as the other website:

Melissa Gibbs

Age: 25

Location: St. Louis, MO

Occupation: Artist, Art gallery "manager"

Website: Here...my other one has nothing on it:(

List:

-Baby Blanket made by my Aunt Susan (I carried it everywhere, I always believed that no matter how it did it, my blanket always "smelled like home" and one whiff magically put me there.

-Sketchbooks, these are a couple of my recent favorites but I have about five storage tubs worth of journals and art that are my way of having documented my life. I would pretty much try to spare them all if I could or just forget them all. Start over right then as my documented life would have gone to ash. That would mean I'd get another sketchbook and start immediately again.

-Necklaces, one gifted to me by Blake, artist-made, and one that is a locket with our pictures.

-Medals, one is silver and the other gold. A heartbreaking second place in Nationals 2009 and a Worlds Champion at WFDF in Prague 2010. If I had remembered, I probably would have thrown in my "captains" disc from college nationals 2009, the first year Iowa State qualified.

-See, maybe there are other things but I don't know if I care? Passport for sure and license. I want people to know who I am with official documents, other then that, if I were still babysitting Chelle's two kittens, I would grab them too.

Not as excellent at the photos at the real site but I just wanted to throw mine out there for the heck of it. My camera died right as I was uploading Blake's picture. His included his mac computer, his Iphone and the painting I did of a dozen roses he sent me. I realized that really, neither of us would care much for things. We'd make sure to grab each other! Blake probably asked five times before he understood "would you be okay?" How sweet. I think that a large part of what connects us together as a couple is our similar values and that includes thinking that there are things (people) that are irreplaceable...while everything else is. Even artwork, even words from my youngest self until yesterday. What matters is love and I don't need something to remember that besides the one I love!

What is your burning house photo?! I'd love to see my friends do this project...it takes five minutes! Post in the comments or let me know where I can find your own photo.

May your home stay flame free!

Adventures in Life

2011-06-10T11:47:00.007-05:00

Where have I been!? My blog has dropped over a month behind and I haven't made my sketchbook page for this month and it's nearing the end (although I do have an "attempted" calendar page.) I have also had little time spent creating but as Billyo said when he stopped into the gallery yesterday to sign some prints and I told him what was new (not art), "...there's a lot to be said to just living life."
I HAVE been having some adventures. The adventures of living together with my boyfriend (and how I feel like when I thought my housework load would decrease, it's actually tripled), driving off to Colorado for a week for coaching the girls at nationals, and indulging in a two day bike trip during Blake's "week-off" before his new job. On top of that, the gallery ran a Groupon, I played my last tournament with my World's champion co-ed Ultimate team and I hosted a 30 women tryout party for my new women's Ultimate team. Summer still sort of crashes into you even without being in school. I'm ready to hanker down now and get some discipline.

So here are a couple of pictures to get you the reader caught up. I did manage to get myself out and drawing next to Billyo's painting easel near the arch yesterday. Can't wait to share the drawing with you when I finish it up but I do have intentions to gift it for a particular wedding this Summer! In the mean time, I've decided I should have an artwork giveaway to increase readership and comments. My goal will be in the next five posts to send out a giveaway! Stay tuuuuuuuned!

Flashback

2011-05-19T10:38:00.008-05:00

I'm going through some old flashdrives while my camera powers back up. I'd like to share with you my most recent oil painting ventures with Billyo but I'll save that for the next post. Until then, check out these process photos from college. I think I had it right. I'd like to feel like I can get back to this spot and I for sure want to push beyond it. I really really like studio work but who can deny the fun of being on location as well? Either way, I want to paint what I see. Warning: these are all process photos and none of the completed works. They didn't end well anyhow:)

I always liked to set myself up at fun extreme angles and I'm drawn to profiles especially in portraits. I think they are awkwardly almost disconnected but still intimate when it comes to painting a person who doesn't have their focus towards the painter. I like the emotion it gives off and it probably reaches something in my personality when it comes to interpersonal relationships.

My drawing skills are always there. Now it's for the color value and mixing I have issues with but I can tell I've already improved just by this last painting I worked on with Billyo.

This was my first plein air painting! I stood outside of the design college and painted it (it's there is the background.) I always liked this painting. I did the trees in the foreground very nicely but lost a little in the painting of the cars in the parking lot.

Now this is a fun story. I was doing this master study and thought I, well, mastered it. Unfortunately, this artist works in lots of thin layers upon layers. With oils, drying time can take time and I didn't have time so I decided I'd rush the process by baking it in the oven ever so slightly between layers. Can you guess I got distracted the last time I was heating the layer dry? Yes. I'm sure I exposed myself to lots of toxins as a plume of weird white and black smoke poured from the oven, I grabbed the painting by oven mits and threw it out into the snow. I still got a decent grade despite the overall blackened appearance and duller colors. Big time lesson learned but to have admitted my mistake to my professor felt like an accomplishment. Normally, I would have just lied and not turned anything in and made another painting. I was NOT about to make another painting.

Another master study. The final piece is Blake's property and hangs in his house. Correction...our house! I moved in this week before my lease was up because I just didn't care about waiting.

I'll share some new stuff with you soooooooon!

Who Gives a Hoot

2011-05-14T14:03:00.005-05:00

Fun little side project. Painted Charlie Mckenzies room with some watch-owls. Pretty simple and I think it fits in nicely. I wouldn't mind painting children's bedrooms all the time. Gives me a rest over trying to make high art which stresses me to the max.

I think it fits there above the crib nicely.

Here are my fail attempts at working at some more color studies. Oh bother. I'm going to need to go out and get a lot more panels knowing I'm going to be working things out for a long time before I get a grasp on making good color compositions. I do really enjoy working with oils but it may take some time before I feel like I get a grasp on it and stop treating it like acrylic.

I'll be painting next weekend another children's bedroom: Ana and Gabe's joint bedroom. So I'll just be heading up to the old L'Iowa soon. Ahhhhh, home. Just going to be a lot of circles in primary colors I believe so I gathered up a batch of lid and container combos that I can use to not only mix paint in, but use as the circle templates. Should be pretty simple and cute and probably go over nicely if I have my lovely assistants of Mom and Blake helping me out.

I'll try and finish another wedding sign in project I've not looked at in a while so I can not only spend my weekend alone well but also be more productive then this entire week as has been.

I'll try to post sooner next time! If you want more posts or want a post on specific topics, please comment. I love comments. They give me direction and motivation for sharing with you:)

Color Studies and Sketchbooks

2011-05-05T11:23:00.009-05:00

I said I would be doing small 30 minute color studies and here are the first two from Tuesday and Wednesday. I'll do another small one tonight and then I leave for Houston tomorrow. When I return Sunday night, I'll get started on doing a set of four studies that may be longer (the panels are larger) and have the subject be a bunch of daisy flowers so that in the end one of them will be my mom's favorite flower in a painting for her:) Happy Mum's day, Mum:) These type of color studies may be ongoing for a while...they are a daily practice and already are really quite useful in the learning process.

New sketchy sketch book. A recycled book from before I left Ames last summer. I had planned on making it my sketchbook at that time but I ended up buying a moleskin for my travels to Prague. Now I've got it started for real this time. It's a "world" cookbook and it's fascinating in itself although I don't think I'd like to try making many if any of the recipes. If you can read it, the cookbook is called "A World of Choice." It's a nice fit for a sketchbook because it's not thick and sits open and flat really nicely.

Inside the cover there's the summer list on paper! That way I can make notes and cross things off as I go. Man that list is HUGE. Currently I'm starting to read Crime and Punishment on my pandigital for the first book of eight!

Here is a fun page I decided to try. At a blog I follow called The Kathryn Wheel, they do monthly pages. While there's are really a heavy stamping emphasis, I just liked the concept for the most part. I blocked off squares with painters tape and painted acrylic ink over top and had my month of May calendar. So far, my days are amazing! I have the first as a day Blake and I spent watching movies and staying in bed while I was sick (my favorite kind of days, oh, besides being achy.) On that Monday I went to a Cards game with amazing home plate seats, Tuesday has a quote about love since all that day I was working on things and on yesterday's square I got to write the happy birth of Gabriel Roy Gibbs, my new nephew!

The page as a whole...it's a little messy but trust me, as I write in it...it's going to get even messier!!!! I saved a little house drawing in the corner from the original book while I was gesso-ing the pages. I just love that I will have a little calendar page that documents my life daily in little notes. Hopefully it might lead back into journal writing like I use to.

After the calendar page, this is the contents pages that will soon be gesso'd...probably for another calendar page or sketches.

Remember how I told you I had found this free book a year ago? This is a sketch inside Stomping Grounds, my old favorite coffee spot in Ames and the date is May 3rd of 2010...freaky because that day I decided it was to be my new sketchbook! I love to fill sketchbooks. There is nothing like grabbing a warm beverage and sitting down around my plastic tubs of old artworks and sketchbooks and walking back through them and remembering the things I did and learned and experienced. Everyone should have a journal/sketchbook!

Summer List

2011-04-28T17:24:00.002-05:00

My "summer list" is more of a tradition than my "birthday list" and my birthday list is epic.

I write a list pertaining to how many things I need to do on my birthday that coincides with which year I'm celebrating. Then, that number gets thrown into the mix even further. All in all, it makes my day eventful when I have to go around trying to hug 25 people, have 25, 25 second dance breaks, or do a workout of 25 exercises for 25 reps. Ya. Crazy you know? But it was all in an attempt to make my aging birthdays continually special for the person it represents. It always manages to get the task done even when I hardly brush the surface of crossing of a majority of the things on the list.

Now the summer list has been going on since about sixth grade (whereas the birthday list got started in high school.) It's a list of things to accomplish over the summer and these lists, unlike the other, are usually fairly accomplished by the end of the warm days. I know that this blog was created with the intention of more art content but guess what, I've got nothing to show for you in the past week. Well, maybe I do but I want to share how an artist is an amalgamation of all the things they do and know that makes up who they are. When you see this list, maybe you understand more of the me behind the more serious artworks I create. Also, everyone should have a summer list (fact.)

Go to City Museum.

Visit my soon-to-be nephew as much as possible.

Spend lots of days on play dates with Charlie McKenzie.

Help captain a women's team to Nationals success.

Host a big party (or multiple) with St. Louis Ultimaters where costumes are required.

Spend multiple days taking in the beauty at the Missouri Botanical Gardens.

Play my best season of Ultimate: various goals include increase vertical, increase agility/quickness, improve pulls/hucks and evaluate defensive positioning and effectiveness.

Ride the Katy Trail. If not in it's entirety, then a day trip of around 40 miles.

Visit Missouri Wine Country and "research" with Chelle.

Visit the Ozarks.

Move into Blake's house and intertwine our lives.

Visit Chelle (and kittens!) in Urbana.

Get a pet. Be it dog or two cats or bees.

Get a second source of income.

Play STL summer leagues Wednesday/Thursday.

Enter at least one art show and photograph a stock of artworks professionally.

Find "my" farmers market by sampling the many across the city.

Bike to more places (you should really watch that video.)

Improve the profitability of Billyo Originals by following through with my marketing ideas.

Try climbing.

Go to free dancing lessons with Blake.

Be a good bridesmaid for Jen.

Have a picnic on Art Hill.

Plant my garden and help/watch it grow.

Improve Blake's landscaping and general curb appeal.

Reorganize Blake's basement.

Finish Blake's upstairs bathroom remodel.

Summer Annual possessions purge (as old as the list itself) include Blake.

Paint weekly, draw/sketchbook daily.

See St. Charles Art Foundry.

See a Cards game (or 2, or 3...).

Work on a daily positive attitude (because it IS practice.)

Help parents at clearing land for dream home and go boating on the mighty Mississippi at least once.

Try six new wonderful STL restaurants.

Read 8 classic or modern classic novels.

Eat more local foods, cook more and go a little zone diet (as if I already wasn't.)

Goodness! I've already gotten started though and I feel confident I'll address them all.

Happy list-making!

En Plein Air

2011-04-21T11:44:00.008-05:00

Is French for "in the open air." This is the way of Billyo O'Dennell's artwork and has been my focus of the past week. This Monday, I spent a gloriously sunny and warm morning in the Missouri Botanical Gardens. I only got a glimpse of the gardens so I'll really return to get it all in some other (many) days. Here is the view that Billyo and I worked on: the home of John Shaw (the person who started it all!) Well hello wonderful azaleas. Quite truely pure hue, straight from the tube.

Billyo sets up his easel and mine is in the foreground. I was set up to overlook both the scene and his painting. Let me tell you, it's a LOT easier to work this way. I get to sort of mimic him as best I can. He is too fast for me...I can hardly keep up.

Now this is from Wednesday's workshop with Billyo in Augusta, MO. Augusta is about an hour West and a little bit South of me in U-City. After a jaunt down highway 40, I take 94 South and wow-wee, that's one crazy winding road. Talk about no shoulders and only the ability to cruise at 45 because there is not one straight spot in the road for fifteen miles. Hello wine country! Wednesday was cold and overcast. I was wearing lots of clothes and (like a rookie) a red sweatshirt on top of it all. Red does not go well with outdoor painting...it reflects onto your canvas silly! Greens suffered the ill-deed.

My set up in Augusta. Can I just say how absolutely charmed I am by small town Missouri and the Katy trail? Okay, good. I'm charmed by small town Missouri and the Katy Trail. I mean these towns really have some history. If my parents and I were roadtripping on these roads, we'd get nowhere with the amount of historical marker signs I pass and NEED to stop at (true story of my youth.)

So you think I've been having a dandy time with painting this week well...for sure, I don't want to be NOT working on art but I have some serious struggles going on. Billyo said it best, I'm a wonderful drawer. I agree, graphite makes sense to me and I can get amazing values however I want. Color theory and getting color value on the other hand, still astounds me. I have no skills in terms of paint mixing. I think I might do better with acrylics but it's a general skill I have not mastered. So today, I've dug out my old sophomore sketchbook and will be going over my color studies from my literal color class. I've got some of Billyo's paintings here at the gallery to look over to study the way he handles and solves areas of a painting. I also have the assignment to paint apples (fruit in general) for 30 minutes each day for a week to work on my color form. Needless to say, I'll be scraping my two canvases from the past week to make way for more work and more study. Oh color! How you confuse me!

A fellow artist from the workshop down the road from me. How classically plein air looking is she...it's nice:)

So now that I've found that historically rich towns that are a stone's throw from my backyard I plan on going biking/hiking and daydreaming/painting for other many days. Plus winery visiting. This house is similar to the clapboard house restoration dream I've always had for myself. Total and complete swoon sigh.

"Mom! Dad! (points to brown sign) A historical marker! Stop! Stop! Can we stop!?"

Brush off the ol'...brushes?

2011-04-14T17:52:00.002-05:00

I'm going to be painting a lot next week. Like, a lot a lot. More than my visual brain has been practicing on in a long while. I'm just been doing artsy fartsy stuff and no true fine art work. I'm going to head out Monday with Billyo and paint in the Missouri Botanical gardens and/or Forest Park and/or other nice things like local pubs that are charming. Then this Wednesday, for whatever reason, I'm still not sure of why I get a free spot in the Augusta plein air workshop thingy so that's a 9-4pm thing right there too. My lovely brushstrokes are going to be putzing about all kinds of gesso'd boards. Mostly, because I have complusive tendancies, I wonder how I'll possibly be able to let myself not have a base-drawing and have to head right into the bright white background with color...very scary! So I've got my camera batteries plugged in and juicing up. I'm going to take this blog along for the ride for sure and it should be really lots of fun. I hope you're getting excited! I'll share some other project developments soon but on a recap note, remember my little collage blocks spelling Charlie? I got to give him is birthday present (before his birth) and his momma and daddy (and invited friends!) all liked them and thus, I got a lot of warm fuzzies that if placed end to end would have stretched further than the many irish car bomb glasses emptied at Seamus' bar last night. Hopefully before Charles pops, I can pop over and doodle a diddy on Charlie's wall of a cute owl or two perched on a branch. Sometimes my fees are only a meal and a movie with popcorn snacks:) Toodles and doodles!

Updates in Life and Such

2011-04-06T16:18:00.005-05:00

My darling wonderful beautiful and loved Shell Rock bridge (of my hometown) had construction started in order to rebuild it on this Monday. The bridge is over 100 years old! Twas the sight of many times I dreamed and schemed. Why even at the base there was a lovely little clearing where a friend and I kept a tin that contained hidden treasures that we would revisit all the days of that summer on the way to the pool. Swoon. Shell Rock isn't that big (as you can imagine) perhaps a mile across or so. The bridge rests smack in the middle. Where the post office was but four blocks away, now Mom and Dad will have to trek about four miles to get the mail. If the bridge were in reconstruction in the winter of my youth I would have had a hard time putting on my snow pants when we had snow days in order to visit my best friend across town and watch movies and drink hot cocoa all day. It's for the best that it gets updated (of course)...I hope it's as beautiful as this massive structure of cement was to me.

The third completed family portrait....my mommy dearest! She IS an angel. Mom is an oncology nurse and I never stopped looking up to her. She's still the bestest and I'm glad this turned out to capture her sweetest side. And yes, we look very much alike! There is layers of painted tracing paper and some cloth for her shirt and some stitching as well as old text wings.

This is a box. This box has an assortment of things it may or may not one day contain. The horseshoe is cemented in but everything else is still a mystery....perhaps one day I'll find everything that "fits." J'adore found object art!

Lastly, these two large canvases are another growing mystery. Why today they do not even look like this anymore. Layered upon them, I wrote in a white acrylic paint pen the "story of us" which is a long paragraph of how I came to be all swoony over my boyfriend for life. Over top of this at times imperceptible layer is a popular preschool craft of using bubble wrap for printing. I just painted a little white onto large bubble bubble wrap from the store and did some faded layers out to the middle edges of the canvases. I then added in a scripted "love" to one canvas and a block lettered "love" to another. I still have no idea where it's gonna go next but when I deem it finished, it'll hang in Blakey Poo's dining room with it's massive 2'x3' presence. Hopefully I finish it before the four months in which I move in!

Thanks for stopping by...hopefully have more to offer next week!

I'm the Weiner!

2011-03-30T13:18:00.004-05:00

I go Austin and come back to free stuff!!! Yippee!

I think the karma is that I ate at Torchy's Damn Good Taco's three times in Austin. Yes. Three times. And I laughed at the Republican taco, ordered a Democrat and drooled over myself before getting a fried avocado taco (have I seriously never thought of that before?) I also had a Trailer park taco where I opted out on making it "extra trashy" with added queso. If you have never had real, fresh corn tortillas I pity you.

Anywho, it's pretty cool to see your name on someone else's blog post! It's also incredibly sweet and sassy (and coincidental) that I happen to work in the same mall as Heather Haymart's momma's gallery...go Wood Icing! Actually, now I know it's gotta be the karma of those excellent tacos...

If there was ever a need to make more work it's now. If only I had ultimate strategy genius, Bikram Yoga didn't make me want ralph this week and that I could spend more time with Blakers then just the half hour before bedtime. I've already read the book though (tee hee) so I should be going through it again using some of the demos to make works.

I shall be superhuman some day...it's only a matter of time.

Collage Like Crazy

2011-03-15T01:13:00.011-05:00

As it turns out, I really like posting items before they are given to the intended party. This one may be a little obvious...you have to wait until your zero birthday to get these ones Charles!

These are fun little canvas blocks I made in various collage ways. Stamps for the 'l', the 'r' is a raised wood icing letter, the 'a' has print from an old book...

The 'h' is a North America map (St. Louis is below the right leg of the letter) and 'c' is a free-hand rose painting (I wanted some red. Insert Blake's lame "Charlie Rose" joke here.)

The 'i' is a painted paper with stitching in it and the 'e' is a written background and wash with a lettered letter.
The piece above this is my true plunge into collage. I'm not sure if it's done just yet. I have more of "The Brothers Karamazov" text on the bottom (it fell apart after I was done reading it and it's been a part of a lot of projects since.) I used "wood icing" to make the vein-like or branch-like textures on the side (I cut out the stencil for it myself.) The piece was originally a quick oil-painting I did of a sunflower (that was rather lame before I decided to not make this a painting painting.) There are layered stamps including the bird and some handwritten text as well as various washes of acrylic and watercolor. I think it needs more work done with it but I think that's what I find fun about collages, it's almost better to sit them down and come back to them because then you think of fresh elements to add to it until finally you go "aha!" and it's done. I think I may like this mixed media venture... Oh, and before I sign off on this post, I already have a title for this one when it's done..."Put a Bird on it!"

Mixing It Up

2011-03-09T14:55:00.002-06:00

Youuuuu got me.

I have not been very productive in creating. It is perhaps the addiction in my life that can be blamed which is all things Ultimate frisbee. Midwest Throwdown a tournament in St. Louis hosted by women of the Washington University team, could well be my excuse. Lot's of work goes into it from everyone. I had to stand on cold sidelines and I was quite exhausted by it!

Nonetheless, the Friday before the tournament was exciting for me in the realm of art. I read/knew of a book signing for one of the artists in another art gallery of the Chesterfield mall. I already liked her work a lot and was excited to pop in.

Although I stuck out like a sore thumb, I wiled my way through the happy chatting people and checked the place out. Mary Beth Shaw has a (in my perspective) common story with some artists. Realizing late in life that they wanted and NEEDED to create. I'm really glad that I get to start from that point and I hope I'm thankful for it every day! I try to be but it's just a life journey that isn't just one moment, and I have to take periodic stops to step back and realize the big picture.

Well, if you know anything about me, I'm usually on the poorer side of making enough income. So after I carefully (I mean, if I had a photographic memory, I'd know the book inside-out) thumbed through the book of MBS, I realized a spark inside of me that mixed media (well, all art) brings out in me. So instead of the 25 dollar book I bought a five dollar container of "wood icing." I haven't regretted it since. I have a collage piece I worked on from a brief oil painting of a sunflower I made most of this Monday that should prove beautiful. I hope that next I can purchase stencil making materials to use the wood paste in future pieces...like Blake's birthday present I'll hopefully finish up soon. That will also be a great future post!

So check out the links above and I look forward to sharing some of my artworks really soon!

An Introduction to...Billyo O'Donnell and the Billyo Originals Gallery

2011-02-24T14:41:00.005-06:00

In the latest days of the past June, I moved to St. Louis days before taking a flight to compete in Prague and win a Gold medal with the Chad Larson Experience. After two weeks, I returned to my new life in a new city. By August, I had begun work in the Chesterfield mall near to the Chesterfield Day School where my boyfriend Blake works. This was about a 20 minute drive from my fantastic apartment location next to Forest Park and the Washington University campus. My first job in St. Louis will remain my worst: jewelry department store. Charming Charlie is a fun store, don't get me wrong. But a department store/retail job is about as far out of line from my values as I could possibly attempt. But sometimes, it's these "mistakes" that can lead us in the right directions.

Enter Billyo Originals. One day, shortly after working, I wandered the mall to check out the scene. I was looking for the art galleries of the mall I had read of. Art galleries in a mall? Yes. Unfortunately, I went to the wrong wing of the mall and found myself outside of a closed gallery.

Billyo Originals. "Looks pretty fancy," I thought. "I'll try and come back when it's open." The store was shrouded in black cloth and didn't look like it was yet operating. I did eventually make it back. I walked in and immediately was baffled. Original oil paintings...wonderful ones at that...in a mall!? I still couldn't fathom it. That day, I met Stephen Duncan, my eventual employer. The man is long-winded to say the least but you know he's got heart behind him and you can see that vulnerability to him. I fell easily into conversation (where falling easily is not my usual way.) He could tell I was an artist right away by the way I was investigating the artwork.

Somehow, the topic came around to my experience framing and taking care of a community art studio and also an internship for an art collection. Without one "interview" I eventually began working for the gallery in November after the ultimate season had ended. I quit my department store job with gusto.

Now the store is new and the pay isn't optimum but it means I get to invest in creating the store into an even bigger success. Things are going at a slow pace after the holidays but it is sort of fun to walk into a day of work and creatively solve problems and help raise the profitability of the store. It's a challenge but, in the end, it's really sort of a perfect job for me and I couldn't feel more blessed.

The blessing extends itself because I'm still really a student of art and Billyo is a wonderful artist. To describe Billyo, I must use the word "charismatic." When I define that word in my own terms, I feel it is less of a "words or speaking" type charisma but almost something undefinable. It is magnetic and deeply embeds itself within the soul of that person. I think that is the part of people that connects when charisma is involved. Billyo must be one of those people who you describe to "light up a room" whenever they walk in. If Billyo is in the gallery, the traffic increases and people are drawn into wonderful stories where they share how they traveled abroad and sang in a Spanish church during a wedding because they were in need of a vocalist or how their Navajo ancestry escaped being uprooted because they escaped by hiding in the riverbed, breathing through hollow reeds.

It's just amazing to see people connect to him and his work in such a personal way.

Billyo's artwork is mainly that of Missouri. His biggest project (and I'm launching now into my customer speech) is that of the book "Painting Missouri." Where he painted in each of the counties of Missouri in a duel project with writer, Karen Glines. She wrote of the counties and he painted them. The project took seven years.

You can find the book's website here at http://www.paintingmissouri.com/ although I can already detect some of the information is incorrect.

Now that I'm running out of steam, I'm going to offer that you investigate Billyo for yourself at his artists' website: http://www.billyoart.com/ and the gallery website at http://www.billyooriginals.com/

More work will be done for the gallery website as it was just recently launched. Overall, our gallery offers not only the chance to purchase originals and view them, but also paper and canvas prints of any work of Billyo's. We've just established a wonderful display of frames and you can create your own custom size and style and really, the prices are really good and you have no idea how very little we mark up our prices. I should know from having to frame my own stuff for a while that, for these prices, people should not be scared to come in and purchase because at any other store, they are charging exorbitant amounts. We're here because we want to bring Billyo to everyone and it's not just about his art. It's about your connection to it and your connection with Billyo. Hopefully it's something meaningful.

I hope that wasn't too cheesy because I actually buy in to all I've said. Once again, I'm so blessed to be where I am no matter how challenging I find each day to be. If there wasn't a challenge to it, then I wouldn't want to be here. Thanks for reading!

Artwork Update...and a Pineapple Progression

2011-02-17T17:10:00.010-06:00

Gapstur. Here is your monkey. Now leave me alone. Charcoal and white pastel with cutout brown paper for the tree limbs. Not a lot of detail but I think successful in it's lack of monkey detail. Plus, I think this guy shows some personality. "What?!"

Once again, poor form but I'm not worried. This is my parents belated Christmas gift. Now before we get into how bad of a daughter I am consider that I've already thrown away three drawings of other family members because they were terrible. Perfectionism seems to be holding me down. The inspiration for this collage portrait project comes from Tomas Lasansky's work, son of the awesome Mauricio Lasansky who both hail from Iowa City. I'm trying to collage the background of each portrait (drawn from a family photo) with an interpretation of the personality of the person. They'll look better presented as matted and framed but here are two of the six for now.

Just thought I'd put up one of my art day projects. I like to watch movies when I'm drawing/working but sometimes I just watch art movies on artists and that is what this little wall display is about. They are pages from the discarded St. Louis phone book pages on the apartment doorstep. The artist I borrowed from (name unknown to me right now) was making a specific image while it did the ink blots but I was just shooting for whatever. I like staring at them sometimes and picking out the specific images I see they made...and you find the Donnie Darko-esqe rabbit or the perfectly drawn eye?

This was an awkward study of the artist I work for. It's from his book Painting Missouri and it is his painting from the top of the Cathedral Basilica. Unfortunately, I can't decipher the arch in this photo...hmm. I say it was an awkward study because a) the original is a low contrast color painting in oil and b) studied from a page of a book and not even the original. Since my style uses an emphasis of line it was a challenge to pull it off but Blake first saw it and really liked it. I did the study in the gallery on a slow day and Billyo responded with "Melissa, you flatter me!" Wow. Not a great artist but about the most humble guy you'll meet. I'll write about Billyo and the gallery soon:)

Now...on to the new series of drawings (thanks to Chelle's recommendation)...fruits! What better to start with than a pineapple? Unfortunately, I started drawing on a Thursday, left for a tournament Friday morning and returned to a dying pineapple. I was really stoked about eating it. Oh well, lesson learned. I did manage to eat my star fruit and kiwi before I left (but now I have to buy them again. Leave me suggestions for my next fruit drawing in the comments!

In terms of drawing, the way I've built this is not a classical study. I'm not building "in the round." I like to think of this drawing as a more biological study. I build from one point to the other.

In the end, it's finished but it's not really too well done. It doesn't have a lot of weight. The detail and construction is a little askew and drawing a wilted pineapple after a fresh one was not beneficial. I also was lazy and used only two pencils: HB and 2HB. Lesson learned...(don't be lazy.) But because I was really overwhelmed by the detail of this drawing I still feel I accomplished it mildly well. It's still presentable. I look forward to more fruit drawings! Also, it's warm and even though Billyo will be in Hawaii at Plein Air competitions for a month now, when he gets back I hope to join on some painting ventures.

Isn't life sweet?! Pineapple sweet?!

Doing My Best...

2011-02-05T16:37:00.007-06:00

I'm doing my best to work on projects lately. Until I really get more productive, I'll catch you up on what I've done so far...

Detail of a "gumball" pen drawing. That's ball point pen...those things you write with every day.

This is a trio of drawings in pen that I did that I should call something like "my move to St. Louis." That's because they document those first few places I called my home when I took up and moved there. Starting from the left, a small leaf taken from the back yard of the house I lived at near tower grove park, formerly where my friend Wirkus lived. The middle is a drawing of a root taken from Blake's back yard. Before I was working, I took up Blake's yard as a project to keep me busy. I was uprooting a lot of bushes and weeds...your general 100 degree day fun. Lastly, a "gumball" drawing of a seed I took out of Tower Grove Park itself. That park was a fun workout and bike/walk place. I still have yet to go to the Missouri Botanical Garden but....soon. Now that I think about it, the three drawings are actually a funny commentary...a shriveled leaf, moving into an uprooted root to a seed....how coincidental to find them placed that way without my conscious thought! And before I'm done with this one, notice that the subjects themselves are placed above...

This is a pen/ink drawing that was a collection of images that represent The Chad Larson Experience, my club co-ed ultimate team. We were coming off of a worlds championship win and moving into our Nationals tournament when I started drawing. Starting from the left corner I have four people who are the core of the original team (as I see it). The fabled "rock" makes an appearance at the top middle moving into the hometown of Ames and Iowa State University at the right corner. Following The Chad into Larson you'll see our placement at the first CLX worlds in Australia. Bottom right has Prague and the championship logo/astronomical clock and underneath a bubble posing the question "have you ever been experienced?" The Experience is set in a rock wall (another rock reference) and an "established..." sign to show where and when we first began and lastly, on the middle left, a pair of santa shorts with bells on the crotch and everything. Well, that wasn't lastly, Chad Larson himself anchors the picture. This was all done freehand. I looked at the photos but drew what I saw and didn't plot anything out until I was ready to draw it...turned out to be a pretty fun free form sketch.

I'm not sure if it's poor form to put this up before I've given it away as the present it's meant to be. It's a drawing I did when I went home for Christmas. I set up artificial flowers in a vase and set the lamp on them and sketched until finished. Graphite pencils in varying softness's/hardness's. My mom already said, "I'll take that please" but it's unfortunately for another set of parents:) She'll get her family portrait project when I'm done with it...soooooon!

Lastly, this gem has sat in the closet for a while. When I pulled it out after the move I first took it off the stretcher bars and cut it down to this size. The height was originally about twice this much or more which meant the sky went on for miles. Until I added clouds it was a vast pool of blue. After watching a cloud-making video I was inspired that, even though my reference photos didn't have them, this painting needed more of them. After I did it, my depth was really striking in the whole piece...success! I need to continue to refine this but should be ready soon. I'm hoping this might be a fun painting to photograph and frame for prints for particular ISU alum that need presents for weddings or the like....maybe someone wants to purchase one or the real deal?! My website needs to be ready soon!!

Thanks for reading!

Being There without Being There

2011-02-02T14:26:00.002-06:00

Google never ceases to amaze! As if I wasn't already having a small love affair with google documents...

Check out ArtProject.

It's a way to all the worlds art from you computer. Sounds a little hokey but when you go to the site...it's absolutely amazing. I've had some really wonderful experiences in large museums abroad (seeing the Sunflowers for the first time at the Tate and then having a spiritual connection with Turner that's proved life-long in the next room for one.) This seems as close to being there as you can get. It's absolutely wonderfully high resolution and the navigation around the museum is life-like, then you get to "step up close" into the paintings you really want to investigate. Enjoy!

The Artist's Studio

2011-01-27T18:25:00.002-06:00

Checking out the environments of other artists can be positively addicting! When it's presented to you in the 360 degree, you can't help but indulge. The views are like you're there in frozen time. Makes me no longer regret all those artist studio tours I could never go to because of the tournaments I was in.

Artists' Studios

Google and Cezanne's Birthday

2011-01-19T11:04:00.002-06:00

I'm embarking upon writing more about the events of the nation and events of St. Louis as pertains to art...easy to begin the journey when Google's homepage brings the subject right to me.

The search bar today has an orginal (apparently staff member created as tweeted earlier) "Cezanne-style" still-life.

Articles are smattered across various sites:

The Huffington Post

The Washington Post

and in case you need more background on Cezanne via the internet,

Wikipedia

Needless to say, tonights art project might mean pulling out some photo references of Cezanne, setting up my own still-life and painting on wonderful streaks of oil paint. Hopefully I'll have a project to show for it tomorrow!