Frrroze

We still have no heat and it's starting to get really difficult because it's in the low thirties farenheit. They won't be able to reconnect us until all the floors are done next week so we make do with our two space heaters and lots of layers! It's embarrassing here in small town so I just tell people "yeah it's fine we got our heat YEp!! (big fake grin) because if not people get too nice and start offering their grandma's house and it gets really hard to just say no. But yes I can say it on my blog that it's freaking cold in our house, help!!!

But that's not the freeze I was talking about.

A freeze-UP is more like it. Notice the lack of AEDM posts? I'm experiencing a nasty case of artist's block which is apparently a real problem for me. I never get writer's block. I always seem to muddle through my mediocre writing but over the years I've had a huge problem with art-block. I had it so often in uni that I changed my major. I get stuck. The new me though just journals with no qualms about who sees what but the new me never posted much art until lately. I like sharing my art in a hippy dippy "ma lookie what I done did" way but I think it's starting to mess with my head. So I will WITHDRAW myself from AEDM and go on with drawing, posting or not, and hopefully be cured of my little problem with sharing.

Not that I didn't do any art these past days, but I just got stuck and my head started going in funny directions. Ever had that happen? I just start going in circles like a dog chasing his tail. I get too many messages at once and then my filter gets blocked. I think that's what most artistic blocks are like.

My collage group met on Saturday and I did some découpage on my own which was lots of fun. I made a fox from one of our Eric Carle's books and it came out cute. I really appreciate his work now. It took me four hours to get the background and the body parts right. Damn. Découpage is super hard. Then the cool collage chick came by to see what I was up to and she said "oh you copied the fox from the book by that lady?" pointing to the picture in the book. And I said "yeah to learn how he (yep he,he,he,HE) does it." I think she's nice but she was thinking it was child's play and kind of poo-poo about it. I was working from a kid's book after all. Her work's been exhibited in Paris a few times and she's pretty talented at doing photomontage, which means she cuts from magazines and puts everything in a new perspective--not easy either but not really interesting to me because of the ethics involved in using other people's work. That's a fine line to cross. I really like découpage though and even more now that I know how challenging it is. From the outsider's view it looks very easy but it isn't that at all. Besides I can make it my own which is the best part (although admittedly to learn I'm not at all opposed to copying from other artists because that's the best way to learn, ...Manga anyone?).

I was curious after making my fox and I set about learning more about how Eric Carle does his pictures. I was really impressed. He actually hand paints his own papers and stamps them, storing them in drawers in color codes. I do this with my magazine découpage already but I never thought of painting and stamping my own papers for this use. Brilliant! You can link to his site for instructional pictures and videos. I think it's great that he shares his techniques in such detail. He seems like a very laid back artist. He lives in The Keys which to me means he's got his priorites straight--it's one of my dream house spots, ahhh (especially on a day like today).

Well here I am. I'm frozen and yet still inspired, somehow MIRACULOUSLY. I'm sure the frozen thing is the cold house and the pressure to post a pic a day. I never liked deadlines or critiques. Let's just go back to way things were and I may or may not share some art this month. Go on about your business. Pay no attention to the lady there drawing the ketchup bottle. Now git.

Whew.

The curls

While I was at my mother in law's going through photos I came across a photo of Seb as a baby and was really struck with how much he looks like Charlotte at the same age. They're like twins!

It's terrible to have such blonde children and have dark hair like mine. Everyone makes the same remarks "the papa must be really blonde!" to which I sometimes say "no c'est le facteur!" My doctor even thought for a while that Charlotte was adopted and on the last visit she said "remind me what country you adopted her from again?" I burst out laughing. Charlotte has no French healthcare papers yet so she just assumed we'd brought her back from our travels to Mexico. A little blonde Mexican!

AEDM day 4

I'm a closet manga fan and I'm starting to get hooked on manga drawing books. Seb teases me about this endlessly. He thinks it's for 12 year old boys and rolls his eyes when he sees me with them.

These are so fun to create even if I keep getting near misses with getting things right. This one today really bugged me for many reasons, mainly the eyes which were seriously crooked and oversized, scary! Anyway this month is just about sharing my stuff good and bad so even if I hate the drawing it's a banana peel like Danny Gregory says. You just toss it away and savor the fruity moment the drawing gave you that day.

AEDM days 1-3

Here are my catch ups for the past few days of AEDM. It's just some of my usual night time or breakfast time journal drawing.

Day 1: I'm crap at perspective but it's always good to practice. If you draw upside-down then it's easier to get the lines right and trick your right brain but it's probably good to get used to getting it right in real life so I keep practicing (and going nowhere!). This is a fireplace from a book on living rooms and the sword is from the chateau Montmorency near Paris, ummm apparently. I've never visited I just have the brochure because it looked like it would be fun to cut up and draw from.

Day 2: When I get bored I look at the Every Day Matters drawing list. I'm going to sprinkle some drawings from the list in to my journal from time to time although I have to admit that it kind of bugs a little part of me to be told what to draw, or I guess to resort to a list. So, these are my brown oxford ballerinas sketched over breakfast. Little S said "get your shoes off the table MOM!"





Day 3: Everyone in our house is sick with bronchitus so we have a lot of medicine in the little white cupboard in the hallway and on all the tables. There's also another EDM sketch on the page, the halogen track light in the basement kitchen.

Art every day

It's Art Every Day Month (AEDM) over at the blog Creative Every Day and I remember last year thinking I'd like to do it next time it came around. So yes here we are right in the middle of major renovations but I'm going to do it anyway. I've done the drawings for today and yesterday I'll back post them tomorrow, a little late, but what of it. I was locked out of my computer all day because of the window guy. He hogged all my outlets.

Nothing glam just some drawings but I think the most important thing is to show up.