Frankestein in action

I got the painting bug. House painting that is. So I went to Home Depot to pick some paint chips. Once I got home, I separated them in two piles: "not a chance" and "maybe". I then decided to paint something on one of the discarde ones. I started with this:

I applied a blot of watercolor and switched the paper around. It takes a while to dry because the paint chip is shiny, so there is some time to play around. From there I got here:

Frankestein in action - not sure what this is really. Flying elephant? Monkey? Worm?

I glued some paper on the back and painted a light coat of gesso:

I even made an envelope for it from a magazine page:

Kinda cute ....they could be made into mini-journals, thank-you notes, invitation and so on ...

Illustration Friday - racing

I am late posting this one. Drawing made from a picture from my last race.

 This is yours truly at mile ... dunno ... maybe 17 or so ... of the Hartford marathon. No, I do not have a woden leg, but I am sure that by that time, my legs did feel like wood. Or concrete.
Whenever I check the links posted for illustrations, I feel like giving up. I draw like a three years old...people make such neat stuff over there it's amazing.

Crusade nr. 45 - Back to back

Boy, what a battle this was! And I have wounds and plenty of BandAid to prove it!

I made color photocopies of some of the backgrounds from previous crusades:

I started with a page in a board book I am altering where I pasted some scraps of my papers.

 

Then I decided to make some ATC. After all, what can be easier, right? They are so small... the results however where terrible.

In the left one, I doodled with colored pencils; in the middle one I collaged the face and "found" the face; I should have left the last one alone, but I decided to draw a one-liner sketch. hohum......

On this piece of matboard, I glued a photocopy and a face from a magazine, then I "found" the rest.

I did not like her, so I applied gesso and washes of paint. Then, I "found" a rabbit-chicken-russian-cossack-dancing-kazachok:

I liked it, but I the background papers are almost completely covered. So, I thought that maybe if I apply washes of gesso instead of straight gesso it will make a difference. Here is the result:

These being done, I proceeded to try the same process on a black and white background:

I wanted to have a simple figure as a focal point; that, believe it or not, is a man. Yeah, I know my drawing skills are ....well ...let's move on.

I wanted to see if I get a different results using scraps of store-bought scrapebook papers. I forgot to take a "before" pic. I "found" a blue cat:

I liked the cat, but not the background, so I changed it. I am not sure I improved it, but the doodles in the background seemed a bit much. 

It just occured to me that I probably misunderstood the crusade - I should have used copied of the same paper in different ways ... ooooouch....

Thanks for visiting!

Opium 37

This is the third play in my tour of the Montreal theatres. It performs at the Theatre des Quat'Sous. Paris in the 30's is one of my favorite periods because of the intellectual effervescence in those days. There was a lot of opium too ... Sometimes, I wish I were a fly on the wall at Café Flora in those days. today, the only effervescence I can see comes from staring for hours at the computer screen...

Recycled container

A couple of times of year I go to McDonald, usually after a very long run. Or a marathon. On the way back from Hartford, I stopped for a burger. I won't elaborate on the contradiction here - running to keep healthy only to eat artery-clogging food from McD.

I saved the fries container and decided to try an experiment. I applied gesso and then caulking, then I collaged some of my papers and doodled some.The caulking added some strength to the paper. I could have added a magnetic strip on the back, but I did not have one handy. Here is the result:

As I was taking the picture, I "saw" the face. The green stripe in the middle is the nose, the two little wholes on each side are the eyes. One eye has even eyelashes. I might go back and paint the face too just for the fun of it.

Old journal pages

My mojo is sort of gone these days, so I don't have much to post. I  found these pages I finished a couple of weeks ago. On the first page, I added the quote at the last minute, but I find it interesting that Frida is on the same page. I think she is an example of somebody who lived that quote to the fullest. The second page started with some scrapes of colour, but then I "saw" 3 faces and I just had to draw them and then go around them to fill in the page.

There is a quote on the second page. It says: "Nap days it's a day without a care, a day for a much-needed break."

Paradise by the river

Performs at Centaur. I must say I was not impressed. I understand the historical and political component. The play is about what happened to Canadians of Italian origin during WWII. The situation was similar to that of people of Japanese origin in Canada and the US during the same period. The political aspect was overwhelming. The steretypes about Italians were present at the rendez-vous, and I found that annoying. There is nothing new anymore about all this ethnic jokes, maybe it is time to stop being so superficial. The play is too long, almost three hours. Trilogia della Villegiatura was three hours as well, and I did not know when the time passed. I guess it is not about how long the play is after all ...

Hartford, Connecticut

I visited Hartford this past weekend. Visited is an exaggeration though, since I have not seen anything else except the marathon course.The weather was perfect for running, the race was well organized. Perfect conditions for a personal best, I thought. Of course, everything went wrong. Mainly, it was my fault. Whose fault is it supposed to be anyway? I did not do my homework and I had no idea what my pace per mile is. I time myself per kilometer, not per mile. Bottom line is I screwed up, I went out too fast and I burned my legs by the half point. I finished, but it took me much longer than I thought and was a pain. Plus, for three days I was out of commission. So I have not made anything this weekend and now I struggle to catch up. Ahhhhhh.....

Recuerdo

I have been playing around with the blog for a while. I wanted to customize the background image, but nothing fitted the purpose. They are too bog, too small, too busy, too whatever. Then I made another collage, trying to keep it low (using a muted palette), but it still came out too busy to tile for the background.

I started gluing papers down, then I applied gesso, black paint, a variation of beige craft paints, then I lifted some paint with alcohol.

I do not want a busy background. For now, white will do. I like classy things and white might just be it. I am also crawling my way through GIMP tutorial. This is what I use to crop the images - GIMP and Irfanview. Both free ...
Oh and why recuerdo - this is what is written on the paper under the bouquet of roses. Recuerdo - memory

Norway. Today

I don't remember if I already said this, but I am on a mission to rediscover my theatre buff self.
Last week, I saw Norway. Today. It is about two young people that meet on the net and agree to a suicide pact. They go to Norway to kill themselves by jumping into the sea from the height of a fjord. After the play, there was a conference with the actors, the director and a sociologist from Université de Montréal. We discussed how the so-called social media changes relationships. ("so-called" is my own take on the topic. I do not see anything social in this. Social means being with other people, looking them in the eyes when talkign to them. Spending days in front of a screen is anything but social. But I digress...). I was glad to see that others think the same way I do, at least I know I am not loosing my marbles. I was glad to have seen the play and I am looking forward to other discoveries.

Peekaboo

At least once a week I cannot sleep through the night. I suppose this is one of those aging-related symptoms that nobody bothers to talk about, since forty is the new thirty, right? I eat healthy, I exercise, I cut the caffeine - nada. I spent quite a few nights this summer twisting and turning and I know that does not help. So when I woke up again at 3AM and could not sleep, I decided I needed another plan. I figures I will paint for a little while, get tired and go back to sleep.

I started working on this - canvass paper 6x6:

I still wasn't sleepy and by now, it was about 4:30AM. Hmmmm .... I decided to make fused paper using some scraps found on my desk. I used an old book page and I glued scraps of papers on both sides of the paper, sandwiching the book page.

Still no luck on the sleeping front, so I started doodling on photocopies of my journal pages and watched an episode of NCIS LA.

Weekend frenzy

I spent part of last weekend doing major cleanup: cleaned closets, brought a big bag of stuff to the Salvation Army, washed and scrubbed and dusted. I also changed the paper that cover my painting table. I was not about to through it away, of course. So, I spent few good hours on Saturday making papers. I like this because I just go with the flow.
This is how it all started:

 To protect the floor, I surrounded the papers with other papers to catch the paint drips. But then I decided that since I am already making a mess, I might as well finish all the papers. Which is what I did.
Now I have a ton of paper. Moratorium on buying papers from now on though. Oh, and I did not protect the floors at all because the spray paint steeped through the papers and more scrubbing followed.

These are the papers:

It was hard to take a pic because they are so big, but I hope it gives an idea. They have a graffitti look to them that I like. Now I must find ways to use it this paper ...

Illustration Friday - Beneath

No idea what to draw for "beneath". I could not find a decent quote or anything funny. OK. I did not look too long. I found "The ground beneath her feet" - novel by Salman Rushdie. I did not read it. In the end, my feet won. While I was talking on the phone with a friend, I dreaw a bling contour drawing of my feet on the floor. At least they result looks like feet - not mine though!

The well-educated mind ...

 ... by Susan Wise Bauer.

I found it at TMI, the institute has a lending library for students. The book teaches the reader ... to read! That's right, it teaches people how to stop gathering data and start reading. Gathering data is what we do when we browse the newspaper, surf the web, read books even. But reading is about understanding ideas and making sense of the information gathered. By reading, one gathers wisdom.

This was music to my ears. I am sorry nobody taught me how to read before, now I feel like I must start all over again reading everything I already read.

I am working my way through the book, taking notes about how to read novels, memoirs,history, plays and poems.

And as I am struggle with the 750 pages of The fountainhead, I decided to do it like she says. I am still at the first stage of reading, and I suspect I will be at it for a while.

I am also reading On writing well by William Zinsser (excellent book), The Best American Essays 2007, and Style Statement. And tapering for another marathon next weekend. And trying to make some art...hmm ...should I cut something from the list? what? That is the conundrum ...