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Last-Minute Charlie Strikes Again

January 4, 2019
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Every year the Glendale Arts Council presents a juried art show in Glendale, Arizona’s Sahuaro Ranch Park. For the past few years, due to my frequent changes in residence, I haven’t received the application and notice for the show, though I’ve been in the show in every single decade since the 70s, and a few times brought home ribbons, and twice cash.

But this post is about Procrastination, not Bragging. Even when I did receive ample notice I would put off the selection and preparation of two show pieces till the last minute. I had a few day’s notice this year, and produced two pieces in advance of deadline, but due to work and reliance on public transportation was not able to get them to the receiving point in time.

So let’s have a little two-piece art show right here, Friends:

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“Appeal,” armature wire, 9″ x 7″ x 4″. Category: Sculpture.

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“Diptych in Black, White and Gray,” 11″ x 17″. Category: Mixed Media.

Critiques are welcome, Friends, and the more clinically honest, the better.

But we can’t sign off on this post yet. If I want to stop being a Last-Minute Charlie, and believe me I do, there must be an end to this dysfunctional method of preparation. One thing I could do is enter a LOT of Art Shows, not just one a year. The other possibility that comes to mind is having more of these private, blog-posted shows–say one a month. Then there is that which has not occurred to me yet. But that can wait–or can it?

 

Notes montage

December 11, 2018
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notes 2018 12 11

Often when I go out and about on public transportation I take index cards and drawing utensils with me. Until this week, though, whatever I drew doing that that found its way to a blog post was first photographed by my smartphone, then photoedited with the smartphone software.

Now I have more freedom. A week ago I took advantage of a going-out-of-business sale to buy a color laser printer. Like all such printers nowadays, this one has scan capability. I’ve hooked it up to my laptop and am now able to scan what I draw on its scanning bed. So today I took a few of my drawings made on my jaunts and montaged them.

Once scanned, I am able to use Microsoft Photo Editor, the photoediting software that came with the operating system that came with my laptop, to crop, rotate, adjust color levels, and–by far the tool I use most of all–adjust brightness and contrast. “Adjust midtone levels only” is my bread and butter for helping my little drawings pack the punch they do.

I will still be using my smartphone. It enables me to capture images on the fly, anywhere, and post them in real time. But the ‘flavor’ of my images will be different with this new capability, and I’m hoping 2019 will see better presentation of images and the content behind them.

you say -esque, i say -ish

December 8, 2018
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When I pulled up my phone to take a photo of this card I found that the warm shadows of my fingers made a pleasing enhancement of the image, so I did without flash, took the shot, and then used the photo editor to strike the best bargain between image and shadow. I like the implicit demonstration of the Heisenberg principle that the act of observation changes what is being observed.

Along that line of thought, I at first gave the image the title “-esque,” because it has become a bit different from what it was (or is–we’re playing with Reality here). But my next thought was “‘-esque’ or ‘-ish’?” (There’s Differences in them thar Differences, said the Meaning Prospector.) And THAT brought You Say Tomato, I Say Tomahto to mind, and THAT yielded the title it now has.

Finishline the First: Neatworking

November 1, 2018
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Inktober is over, but I still feel the head of steam, so I’ve taken on a new project. I call it Project Finishline. All I need do, every day in November, is take an artwork that’s unfinished, and finish it.

Today is a humble beginning. Here is  Before and After of something I started several years ago, and put aside. There’s a vague memory of wanting to construct a maze. But today that feels too cold and cerebral, but the framework implied by the early drawing seemed to want to lend itself to a playful network. A few friendly figures, an inscrutable cat, and a wine glass, and “Neatworking” is done and out of the Unfinished folder.

Inktober 14: Draw Anything

October 14, 2018
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Many years ago Kimon Nicolaïdes, an art instructor, produced an immensely popular book, The Natural Way to Draw. The book is full of wisdom, including a schedule of drawing exercises, a boatload of drawing examples from raw beginner to accomplished master, and the two words of advice that have yielded for me almost fifty years’ worth of rich reward: “Draw anything.”

A willingness to draw anything is a willingness to fail. Every drawing is an approximation, but some subjects for drawings–layered reflections, for instance–are acid tests of patience and skill. The drawing I provide for this post certainly fails the test. It is clumsy and compositionally shaky. But my next drawing will be better precisely because this one is so flawed. It builds my determination to slow down, focus and consider. The next drawing is always, to some extent, an apology and a repentance for previous drawings.

Inktober 13-18, 2017

October 18, 2017
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Here they all are at once, Friends, with a bonus origami crane to boot. The prompts: Teeming, Mysterious, Fierce, Fat, Graceful, and Filthy. As to the last, the portrait is of you-know-who but is unlabeled and meant to be more generic, because there are SO MANY creeps like him out there, proving that not only does power Corrupt–it Engorges.