Inspiration:The Beatles!

Good Morning! I didn't feature an inspirational artist in my last blog, so I thought I would just dedicate this blog to one of them. In the past I have featured illustrators, painters etc., but  this is the first musical inspiration! I am starting with none other than the BEATLES! 

 

I grew up listening to the oldies but goodies. My best friend Ayla and I even followed this Beatles impersonation band around. They mostly played in bars and we were only teenagers but we were allowed in anyway to see them play. Lots of  great times listening to their music with Ayla. I have so many happy memories associated with listening to The Beatles. My Uncle Brian used to tell me that every little girl goes through their Beatles phase. I don't think its every girl but I do know that they are iconic and an inspiration to so many people. My Uncle Brian also asked me one time what my happy place would be if I could go anywhere. I told him I would be on a yellow submarine with the Beatles at Anderson Gardens. Anderson Gardens is one of the top Japanese Gardens in the country. If you ever have a chance to go I would highly recommend it. To this day my happy place is still the same with a few alterations here and there. I may not listen to The Beatles as much as I used to but they still inspire me and  "Oh Darling" is one of my go to songs for karaoke. I will always love The Beatles.

Lyrics often show up in my art and Beatles lyrics are no exception. Below is one of my pieces that is part of a 12 piece series. It is titled "Eleanor Rigby" like the song. The lyrics have always spoken to me and this piece ends the series. What better way to talk about death than with that song. 

"Eleanor  Rigby"

A few lines stand out to me the most:

"Waits at the window, wearing the face  

That she keeps in a jar by the door

Who is it for"                                            

                                                      "Father McKenzie, wiping the dirt 

                                                  From his hands as he walks from the grave 

                                                        No one was saved"

Finished art /Happy Easter

HAPPY EASTER EVERYONE!!!!! 

I had 2 hours of sleep Friday night and went to work, family time and a dance on Saturday. I apologize that this is a day late. Below is the piece I came up with for my art challenge. I'm not sure if its necessarily a finished piece but its pretty close. Drum Roll please.....

I decided to combine 2 of the days: "Day 2 - Open any book close your eyes and point to a word on that page. Draw what that word means to you with only warm or cold colors." and "Day 4 - Pick someone famous/notorious you admire. Look up quotes by them. Pick quotes that speak to you and draw your interpretation of that quote".  I think it turned out okay from the limited time I have had and all the sleep I haven't had in the last few days. I cut off some of the top of the picture. If I add more to it I will try to get the entire picture. I have been doing another  challenge which I will share at a later day. Overall I think my first challenge was a success and I think I will be doing another one. If you would like to see the sketches this is the link: Results.

I receive a little Easter surprise today! My friend wrote a short story about a detective named after me!! He did it as a thanks for featuring him in my blog! So sweet. It is called "Hippity Hoppity - An Easter Noir: Part One". If you click the link you can read it! Its only part one can't wait for part two!

I have some bad news... I will not be posting one of my art inspirations today because its Easter and I have a lot of family time to prepare for. I apologize I promise to continue that I just wanted to quickly post the results. Thanks everyone for reading and supporting me on my art journey. Love you all!

Art Challenge Results (featured artist Pat Perry )

Day 1 - Doodle in your sketchbook with your eyes closed

Day 2 - Open any book close your eyes and point to a word on that page. Draw what that word means to you with only warm or cold colors.

Word picked: Between

I chose a book from my childhood to pick the word. "The Thief of Always" by Clive Barker

Day 3- Go to your search engine then type in your name. Click the image tab and pick of few pictures to draw  using pointillism, scribble and contour lines.

Day 4 - Pick someone famous/notorious you admire. Look up quotes by them. Pick quotes that speak to you and draw your interpretation of that quote

 I chose Maya Angelou.  

Day 5- Click Next Blog until you stumble across a blog with pictures and draw an image that speaks to you. Then add your own artistic spin to it. Do this as many times as necessary til entire page is filled.

It surprisingly took me longer to find a blog with pictures than I thought.

Blog I picked:

http://buffyfest.blogspot.com/?expref=next-blog

This blog written by Tara is all about  Buffy the Vampire Slayer which was an amazing show! l absolutely love Joss Whedon shows  he is brilliant. I had trouble finding Tara's about page so I couldn't find anything about her other then what she writes about. I stumbled across one of her posts 'Buffy: The High School Years - Freaks & Geeks' Announced at #NYCC"  The post is about a graphic novel written by Faith Erin Hicks. Tara featured some of the illustrations of this graphic novel and that is what i chose to draw. The illustrations are by Yishan. You can read more about it by checking out Tara's blog.

I will be posting the final piece when it is finished. I have already started working on it. :)

Pat Perry

I stumbled across Pat Perry not that long ago.  He is an amazing illustrator that is extremely creative. His art is so unique and I just love the way he draws people.  Instead of drawing just a normal person he incorporates  buildings or places where their faces should be. His use of colors is also great. I could  look at his pieces for days. There is so much imagery in his paintings that you have to look at it for awhile to really take in everything. Even his sketchbook pages are so detailed, its ridiculous. It makes me want to step up on my sketches.
I unfortunately had trouble finding the names of his pieces.

Art Challenge?(featured artist Salvador Dali )

I want to be challenged and miss the structure of school. I miss having assignments for art that I would never think of doing and having a specific deadline for them. I looked online for art and found 30 day challenges with a list of items to draw. That is great, but I want something more in depth. I can easily just pick a list and draw something, but I am not at a loss for ideas to draw. I have a bunch of ideas floating around in my brain, I don't necessarily need more. I guess what I'm looking for is the accountability of a deadline but also the push to think outside of the box.  So I thought maybe looking up images would help. It sometimes gets me in a creative mood. If anyone actually reads this and knows of any websites with abstract challenges or suggest different drawing styles versus ideas let me know. For the mean time I thought why not create my own list. So I will draw something in my sketchbook everyday for 5 days. Then on the 5th day select one of those ideas to be a more detailed piece or to go into one of the many pieces I am working on so that I actually finish art pieces. Then have the art piece finished in 3 to 4 days. So if I start today the 5th day is on Tuesday the 22nd. Which is perfect because my grandma and I get together and do art anyway.The piece will have to be done by Saturday which will be somewhat difficult because I have a big dance that day. I still believe I can do it though.

Day 1 - Doodle in your sketchbook with your eyes closed

Day 2 - Open any book close your eyes and point to a word on that page. Draw what that word means to you with only warm or cold colors.

Day 3- Go to your search engine then type in your name. Click the image tab and pick of few pictures to draw  using pointillism, scribble and contour lines.
Day 4 - Pick someone famous/notorious you admire. Look up quotes by them. Pick quotes that speak to you and draw your interpretation of that quote

Day 5- Click Next Blog until you stumble across a blog with pictures and draw an image that speaks to you. Then add your own artistic spin to it. Do this as many times as necessary til entire page is filled.

I'm going to go for it I will post my sketches later. We will see how it turns out...

Salvador Dali

I have mentioned before that Salvador Dali's  "Vision's of Eternity" is one of my absolute favorites. He is one of the greatest abstract artists and most know for his melting clocks . His paintings are so bizarre and just seeing photos of  him he looks just as quirky. I would have loved to meet him, because he just seemed like such a unique guy full of unique  ideas. His quotes are sometimes witty/hysterical  or just plain brilliant.

"There are some days when I think I'm going to die from an overdose of satisfaction." - Salvador Dali

I as an artist sometimes feel as though I don't know how to communicate with the world around me. Sometimes my art is out there and people just don't understand it. I'm sure when Salvador Dali was starting out people didn't quite get him and maybe even discouraged him. Its nice to see artist who stay true to themselves and create art that although appears wacky in reality has so much beauty and deep meaning. Salvador Dali created so many pieces while he was on this earth I don't even know where to begin to pick favorites. I think its safe to say he is one of my all time favorites.

"Visions Of Eternity"

"The Invisible Harp"

"Enchanted Beach with Three Fluid Graces"

"Remorse or Sunken Sphinx"

"The Weaning of Furniture-Nutrition"

"Ant Face "

"Saltimbanques"

"Venus and a Sailor - (Homage to Salvat-Papasseit)"

"Figure with Drawers for a Four-part Screen"

"The Average Bureaucrat "

"The Image Disappears"

"Maquette of the scenery for "Labyrinth" "

"Visage of War"

The Swell Owl (featured artist Edward Hopper)

A good friend of mine Andy Lind  has an awesome blog where he writes short stories. Many of them are about romance which for people that know me, romance isn't necessarily my forte. Even though it is about romance *GAG* his writing is very compelling. I still prefer his mysteries though. One of my favorites would have to be "Divorce Dungeon - A Short Story Mystery". I think it was the title that grabbed my attention the most but I really like the PI and his don't care attitude. Its almost as though he doesn't like to work or be bothered, but if a case intrigues him enough then he might try to solve it. He doesn't seem to have a soft spot for the helpless, but wants a case to be interesting or challenging. Then when he solves it, its almost as though he is disappointed and goes back to his don't care/don't disturb me attitude. Here is the link To Andy's blog The Swell Owl. You can find "Divorce Dungeon in his earlier posts.

So today since I spoke about my Friend I thought I would post his favorite art piece instead of one of my inspirations. Then post my favorite pieces from the artist who painted it. Its easy to see why "Nighthawks" by Edward Hopper would be his favorite. Its as if this painting comes to life in  some of his short stories. Including the PI from the"Divorce Dungeon".

Nighthawks - Edward Hopper

I too really like "Nighthawks" and had to do an art project with it back in high school. We had to change this famous piece by putting our own spin on it.

My favorites:

"Evening Wind" - Etching

Stairway at 48 Rue De Lille, Paris

Approaching A City

Rooms by the Sea

Morning Sun

House by the Railroad

She Just Wants to Dance - The ups and downs of being a dancer (featured artist Connie Lim )

I absolutely love dancing most days. Dance like drawing is another way for me and many others to express themselves. I often have trouble verbally articulating what I have to say and those 2 art forms have blessed me with a new form of communication. The dances that I do all involve having a partner to dance with, witch comes with its fair share of unnecessary heartache and drama. All the dances I attend are social dances, however most of the time I want to speak with my body not with my words. Its hard to be in a social setting and have everyone chatting and gossiping about their lives when you feel as though you cannot. That your words will come out wrong or be misinterpreted. Sometimes I just want to scream out lets just dance. Don't speak with your lips. Speak to me in away that I can communicate back.

She Just Wants to Dance Sketch

When I created this mono print back in 2013 I was attending Rock Valley College. At the college I was founder and president of a social dance group. Unfortunately because of drama, rumors and misunderstandings I was removed from office. The club shortly died after. It was hard for me to watch it die but in the end it needed to happen. I ended up creating a new dance that I actually was paid for instead of doing for free. In the end it all worked out for the best.

I Fell In Love with Dance

This mono print I originally created for a challenge on facebook that stated: "I promise to make a small work of art for the first ten people who comment on this post and say "YES, I want in". A 'like' alone is not enough of a commitment, nor is a comment about thinking Pay It Forward is a great idea..... I Created two dance prints for my friend Brenden to see which one I felt best fit him. I  chose a different print but still think this one turned out well. It really shows the passionate side of how I feel about dance.

This is actually the print I ended up selecting for my friend and below shows us dancing at a gas station. 

Connie Lim -

Connie Lim is not the typical artist I am usually drawn to, because she is so commercial. However she has such a beautiful eye and an edge to her pieces. My favorite art teacher who I mention quite a bit in my posts suggested that I could make playing cards with my art on them. I wasn't to sure about the idea but I thought I would look up artists that created playing cards. I stumbled across Connie Lim's cards and instantly fell in love. Although her art is so neat with such clean lines the imagery has a grittiness to it that I connect with. So without further adieu her are my favorite pieces of Connie Lim's: