Ah, Summertime!

Been a while since I've posted anything.
So, here's what happened since last April...

• Robotics team won the Regional Competition at UC Davis AGAIN!!
• Which meant we went to St. Louis AGAIN.  Didn't win there, but what a very cool experience.
• My Mom came to visit in May, and we had great fun with her!  She's a very cool Mom, I have been a very lucky person!
• Sean graduated high school.  Yay!
• Peach, our cat, got "pissy" with me, and bit my hand.  The sucker swelled up like a balloon, and I spent 3 days in the hospital with a couple of cute male nurses and some delightful drugs.
• Mike got promoted to a new job, and I think he's very happy about it.  Yay!!  He's now working in the same group of a good friend of ours, Larry.  
• Terra and her 3 kids, as well as Sabine, Timo and their 2 kids came to visit Bill and Vittie.  We had them all over for dinner.  That was 13 folks.  WOW!
• Sean got a job at the local Sizzler, and he seems to really like it.  :D  Good for him!
• It's been freakin' hot here, but now FINALLY cooling down a bit.  

Well, that's the highlights.  I know there's been a lot more stuff, but this ol' brain of mine isn't firing on all cylinders right at the moment.  Wait 'till I finish my coffee!!  ;)

what's going on?

Boy, I had intended on making art every day.  Pledged to do it.  Fully intended to do it.

Then I got sick.  A doozy...  no gory details, just suffice it to say I've been 'ahem' indisposed.

So, got all my paper cut and folded for my journal, bought some sweet leather remnants just the right size for the cover, and finally found the right clasp right here in town.  I go pick it up on Saturday.

So, I've been busy.  Sick, but getting things done.  Slowly....  :)

I should have pics soon, just wanted to keep up to date.

Travis

Here's a sketch of our big 11-year old "puppy", Travis.  What a goof-ball.  He was just relaxing, trying to ignore our 3 cats.

I realize after I finished his snout is too short.  Trav actually looks a bit like a Great Dane with a longer snout and smaller ears.  He's cross between a Chocolate Lab and a Chesapeake Bay Retriever.  He's a BIG boy!!

Creative Every Day

In the right column, you'll see a cute square icon that says "Creative Every Day 2013".  More than a cute icon, it's a challenge to be creative every day.  And to post about it.

If you know me, I've not always been terrific about following up on such challenges, but I've been making a lot of changes in the past year.  So...

I've been doing my "Daily 10" (writing every day in my journal for 10 minutes) and I realize I'm pretty creative in my life.  I just don't blog about all of it.  And it's not always art-related.  You might see some  unusual kinds of things, but in my mind, it's creative.

Here's today's creativity...

Yeah, doesn't look like much, but it's the first 2 signatures for my next journal.  And, it's some new paper I'm trying...Utrecht American Master's Printmaking Paper.   It's a nice weight, and should take all kinds of media (yet to test it!!).  And, since there's a Utrecht here in Sacramento, I could purchase it by the sheet.  AND it's on SALE!!!  :D

Paper is fun.  

So, the next couple of days will probably be filled with bookbinding stuff.  Thanks for bearing with me.  :D

From Steve Henderson, artist

"It's extraordinarily windy today, and what it's blowing in, I have no idea (the weather service says, 'Nothing'). "Wind fascinates me because it has the potential to make a huge impact on any area -- years ago when we were building our house, the wind picked up 4 x 8 foot sheets of plywood and flung them around like playing cards. "Wind knocks down power lines, leaving untold people without electricity. It sweeps through and unroots trees. It battens against the house and rattles the windows. It reshapes landscapes simply by blowing so much, so often, and/or so consistently. "And yet, we never actually see the wind -- just the results of its existence. But just because we can't see it, doesn't make it not real. "So also with the things we do each day, whatever those things are: a comment we make, a compliment we pass on, an encouraging word during a discouraging time, a note, a visit, a gift, catching someone's eye from across the room. "These seem like no more than puffs of air, and we continue through our day unaware that something we did or said made a difference -- sometimes a significant difference -- in another person's life. "While initially it seems that much of what the wind does is bad, imagine life, and this world, without it. Stagnation, stillness, inactivity -- without this unseen force of nature, what would happen to our planet? "Similarly, without you, without each one of us, doing what we do each day, this world would be a different, and not necessarily a better, place."                                                                                           - Steve Henderson Check out Steve's work, it's magnificent!!

Visual Animals

Hey,
I saw the below on the Zentangle site, and wanted to share it.  I truly believe many of us are visual animals, some more than others.

School, especially math, was difficult for me to grasp until I associated colors with the numbers.  One is blue, two is green, etc, etc.

Anything I could visualize, I could understand.  Ok, I could get "a + b = c", but with some of the more "exotic" equations were totally beyond my grasp.  And, often, I honestly couldn't see ever using some of these equations in real life.

I mean, really!!????

So, take a look, and enjoy!!



And, just a bit of what's up.  I'm taking a terrific Color Theory at Folsom Lake College from Heike Schmid.   It's tougher than I'd thought, but necessary to finish my AA in Studio Art.  Along with being a visual learner, it's always been easier to learn things in a class, rather than from books.  Guess so many questions pop up while reading a book that are never answered.

Not just basic color theory, like the primary, secondary and tertiary colors (like this)

but all the tints, shades and tones too.  And how to mix those suckers from scratch.  Lots of trial and error, and even more "grr...  why in the world am I taking this STUPID class" but it'll all come together.  I know it will.  Every class I've taken from Heike always starts out like this.  Total frustration and a ton of work.  But,   "A dream doesn't become reality through magic; it takes sweat, determination and hard work."  -Colin Powell

Robert Genn - "Lessons That Art Teach"

I receive a wonderful newsletter from Robert Genn.  These newsletters cover a variety of topics, but all relating to art.  And all are sprinkled with a wry sense of humor which make them such a fun read.

The most recent installment has some information regarding an author, Elliot Eisner and his book The Arts and The Creation of Mind.
This is an excerpt from that book...

 'Ten Lessons the Arts Teach' by Elliot Eisner

• The arts teach children to make good judgments about qualitative relationships. Unlike much of the curriculum in which correct answers and rules prevail, in the arts, it is judgment rather than rules that prevail.  
• The arts teach children that problems can have more than one solution and that questions can have more than one answer. 
•  The arts celebrate multiple perspectives. One of their large lessons is that there are many ways to see and interpret the world. 
•  The arts teach children that in complex forms of problem solving purposes are seldom fixed, but change with circumstance and opportunity. Learning in the arts requires the ability and a willingness to surrender to the unanticipated possibilities of the work as it unfolds. 
•  The arts make vivid the fact that neither words in their literal form nor number exhaust what we can know. The limits of our language do not define the limits of our cognition. 
•  The arts teach students that small differences can have large effects. 
• The arts traffic in subtleties. 
•  The arts teach students to think through and within a material. All art forms employ some means through which images become real. 
•  The arts help children learn to say what cannot be said. When children are invited to disclose what a work of art helps them feel, they must reach into their poetic capacities to find the words that will do the job. 
•  The arts enable us to have experience we can have from no other source and through such experience to discover the range and variety of what we are capable of feeling. 
•  The arts’ position in the school curriculum symbolizes to the young what adults believe is important. 

 Robert Genn went on to say...

In our day, when math, history and even language skills can be quantified and measured, giving clear percentages that pass or fail a student, it's good to know the arbitrariness of art still persists. The teaching of art stretches young minds to new levels of curiosity, wonder and appreciation of our world. And while anything goes and solutions may be open-ended, there is still room for the joy of craft, proficiency and standards. Technical knowledge, design, drawing and an understanding of colour are still out there for each new generation. Further, art education can last more than one lifetime.

I keep my fingers crossed that those kids who have the desire to pursue the arts will persevere.  It's worth it.  :D