Squinty-eyed in the summer sun on my back porch. There were moments when I was truly thankful to not be an ant or a little plastic army man melting in the insane light and heat reflecting back at me from the mirror I used.
Both boys are actually in this drawing, but I've cropped it to detail only Bram in the foreground. I'm doing a tiny series of four drawings of Edison and Bram lounging together and when I've completed them all, I may go back and do a color wash over them to make them a bit more interesting. Or then again, maybe not.
Is it possible to be both impressed and unimpressed with something at the same time because I finally dragged my lazy ass to the Dale Chihuly show at the MFA and I have to say I found it to be less than spectacular. Don’t get me wrong, the glass itself was beautiful (I’ve always wanted to blow glass myself but seeing as I hate being hot and sweaty and I get easily winded, it's never going to happen) and there were some surprisingly lovely bits like the little crystal cherub tucked amongst a ceiling full of endless anemones, starfish, tubes, bowls and balls, but mostly it was really pretty dull.
I've never made any bones about the fact that I can't stand Georgia O'Keeffe; not the woman, per se, but rather her work. And I've always had a fairly detailed outline in my head of her life and who she was as a human being, despite my dislike of her paintings, so I thought I knew her pretty well. But recently I saw a biographical film of her that was incredibly well-written and beautifully shot, itself a piece of art and not your typical run-of-the-mill, movie of the week type fare. It left me more impressed with the woman than I've ever been before. I thought, 'What the hell, maybe now that I have a deeper perspective on her personality, maybe -just maybe- if I give her art another go, I might find I like it.' Nope. Not a chance! I still despise every last one of those steer skulls, New Mexico pieces and all those hideous labial flowers (though I don't mind some of her earliest drawings). Hell, I tried. I really did.
I've grown tired of drawing myself with short hair, in a mirror, over and over again so to mix things up a bit I dug out a photo of myself from a couple of years ago when I still had (very) long hair. Man, do I miss that hair!
A portrait of Griffin as a child (see "Griffin," December 30, 2010 for a portrait of him as an adult). His eyes were really odd in the photo I used for this drawing and I just couldn't seem to get them right. He had, and still has, amazingly thick and lustrous eyelashes that any girl would kill to have, thus his looking as though he was wearing mascara and eyeliner. And I think he might have had a sinus thing on that particular picture day, which would account for the terrible puffiness around his eyes. Regardless, I draws 'em as I sees 'em.
Another portrait of Maia Louise, this time in nearly three-quarter profile and again, much larger than life. Oddly, I'm seldom asked to do drawings of cats. I have no idea why this is. Maybe because people love their dogs more. Who knows? 
I found (after not knowing for some time where all those baby photos from that photo shoot were) a version of the old photo of me used in the Big Lippie Brand collage in the right sidebar and decided to do a smallish portrait of myself from it. Oddly, I found it tough to get the big lippie right. Go figure.
I've been in my cellar re-packing and organizing the stored boxes and crates that contain my entire studio and found a few stray experimental works; an idea that proved at the time to be a creative dead end for me. Here are two paper quilts made many years ago and until about a week ago, long, long forgotten. I haven't a clue where I was going with this idea, but all the photographs in these works are of my actual female ancestors. Despite their vivid colors, as works of art these really do suck, but I remember how much I loved the time spent pondering all those ladies who came before me in my clan. 
You know you're a real nerdy artist-type when just looking at photos of someone else's used tubes of paint makes you feel all warm and happy inside. Getting a sweet rush of excitement without even being in a studio (anyone's studio), smelling the tools of the trade (any tools: paints, palettes, canvas, stinky pens, you name it), or even looking at art (anyone's art) means you're too far gone for help of any kind so just accept it and enjoy the uber-joy you feel. Lose yourself in the moment. 
I have just finished a group of apricot trees in bloom in a little orchard of fresh green. I've had a setback with the sunset with figures and a bridge that I spoke of to Bernard. The bad weather prevented my working on the spot, and I've completely ruined it by trying to finish it at home. However, I at once began the same subject again on another canvas, but, as the weather was quite different, in gray tones and without figures.
