Month: June 2016

finding artistic inspiration

A Creative Life, art techniques, commonplace book, food for thought, pattern design, sketchbook, visual story

People tend to think of “wealth” as things they have yet to acquire rather than things they already have. Similarly people think of “artistic inspiration” as some grand life-changing event rather than a learned-and-practiced way of looking at ordinary life.

I had an art professor in college who would talk, after class was over, of various practical aspects of the business of being a professional artist. He would say “If you can’t find artistic inspiration, something utterly fascinating to you, something you are curious about exploring using art techniques, in your own room, in your own yard, in your own life – then you won’t last long as an artist. So collect every inspiration you have, keep careful notes of what piques your interest no matter how small, protect and pursue these interests passionately, and you’ll have a life-long career as an artist.”

Here’s a fascinating pattern I found in my backyard – which I’m “keeping” for some unknown-at-this-moment future use.

A fascinating pattern I saw of white dew "dots" on larger green clover "dots" on a darker green-brown ground.

A fascinating pattern I saw of small white dew “dots” on larger green clover “dots” on a darker green-brown ground.

 

wine plus art again!

A Creative Life, art exhibit, fine art

This Friday July 1st at Burnt Bridge Cellars http://www.burntbridgecellars.com/ the winery will be pouring some of their SF International Wine Competition award winning wines! Wahoo! Congrats Burnt Bridge! Oh yes and 20 of my fine art pieces will be hanging on the wall! So after we each get a glass of wine we might look something like this:

First Luncheon Of The Ladies With Red Hats by Sue Clancy

First Luncheon Of The Ladies With Red Hats by Sue Clancy

 

 

 

designed by sue clancy

A Creative Life, animals in art, Art Apparel, Art Licensing, fine art, published art

My first official “Signature Collection” of scarves, pocket squares and tops has just gone “live”: http://shopvida.com/collections/voices/sue-clancy  – and I’m excited! By allowing my artwork to be “licensed” you get fun stuff to wear and I get to play with pattern creation (the patterns I make on paper for use in my fine art, and my fine art itself) in yet another fun way; by designing apparel!

I’m collaborating with VIDA, http://shopvida.com/, a new kind of fashion ecommerce company that connects artists like me all over the world with producers to bring our artwork to life. For every product sold VIDA will provide the gift of literacy… you can see more about that on the website link above!

Here are some teaser pics of a couple of my designs – there are many more images of my new designs at http://shopvida.com/collections/voices/sue-clancy :

Pattern design by Sue Clancy for VIDA http://shopvida.com/collections/voices/sue-clancy

Pattern design by Sue Clancy for VIDA http://shopvida.com/collections/voices/sue-clancy

Pattern design using artwork by Sue Clancy for VIDA http://shopvida.com/collections/voices/sue-clancy

Pattern design using artwork by Sue Clancy for VIDA http://shopvida.com/collections/voices/sue-clancy

books music and Ivan

A Creative Life, animals in art, art exhibit, art gallery, fine art

Due to popular demand from my friends who live in far-flung places but knew about my current exhibit (a prior post re – https://sueclancy.com/2016/05/31/fine-art-and-fine-wine/) – here are a few of my artworks currently on exhibit at Burnt Bridge Cellars www.burntbridgecellars.com via Caplan Art Designs www.caplanartdesigns.com :

“Banjo Time” by Sue Clancy 24 x 18 x 2 inches hand dyed paper, hand stenciled paper, and acrylic on cradled board
“Out Of The Blues” by Sue Clancy 10 x 8 x 2 inches hand dyed paper, found paper and acrylic on cradled board
Improvisation By Sue Clancy 10 x 8 x 2 inches hand dyed paper, hand stenciled paper, handmade paste paper, found paper and acrylic on cradled board
“Making Time” by Sue Clancy 12 x 9 x 2 inches – hand dyed paper, handmade paste paper, found paper and acrylic on cradled board
“The Read Hat” By Sue Clancy 14 x 11 x 2 inches Hand dyed paper, handmade paper, hand stenciled paper, found paper and acrylic on cradled board
The Read Wagon by Sue Clancy, 14 x 11 x 2 inches, hand dyed paper, hand stenciled paper, handmade paper, found paper and acrylic on cradled board.
“The Read Balloon” by Sue Clancy 14 x 11 x 2 inchesHand dyed paper, handmade paper, hand stenciled paper, found paper and acrylic on cradled board
Red Herring Special By Sue Clancy 24 x 36 x 2 inches (h x w x d) Media: hand dyed paper, found paper, hand marbled paper, ink and acrylic on cradled board.
Ivan The Tarot Bull By Sue Clancy 20 x 16 x 2 inches (h x w x d) hand dyed paper, hand stenciled paper, hand marbled paper, found paper, ink, watercolor and acrylic on cradled board

burnt lunch and an arts education

A Creative Life, art techniques, fine art, illustration

Back in the 1980’s when I declared my intention to be a fine arts major at university I was told that an arts education wasn’t much use in life. I disagreed then and now after up-teen years as a professional artist (with a BFA!) I still disagree. I’ve used, and benefited in multiple ways from, my arts education – particularly from drawing and painting techniques. For example – just yesterday I burnt my lunch. The food was seared to the bottom of the pan as if I’d welded it on.  But thanks to my drawing and painting professors (and a high school art teacher before them) this was no problem! I simply took my plastic food scrapper and used “cross hatching” and “stippling” techniques as if I was doing a drawing using a large chunk of graphite on paper. I employed the sharp edge of my plastic scrapper as if I’d been assigned to do a delicate “scratch-board” illustration.  I “scumbled” small circles with the duller edge of my plastic scrapper as if it was a stiff ox-hair paintbrush – and voila! An artistically cleaned pan! Thanks art teachers!

Here are the drawing/painting techniques described in this post - just in case...

Here are the drawing/painting techniques described in this post – just in case…

the universal drawer

A Creative Life, Authors, illustration, visual story, words and pictures

Here’s my recent effort at flash fiction – with illustrations by me of course.

The Universal Drawer

By Sue Clancy

“Papadopodada” said Nanotzee, said to an adult Alienatzoa who was holding a copy of The Universal times in his four hands. “Papadopodada!” Nanotzee insisted.

“Hmmm?” grunted the adult voice from behind The Times and far far away.

“Papadopodada… where did you get this?”  Nanotzee was looking at the Milky Way Galaxy which lay in chest of drawers.

Nanotzee was doing what all young Alienatzoa do – go through their adults private drawers asking personal questions.

(If you could hear them talking their words would sound a lot like this: “Gooartohozee.  Nanhumota Behoobustic”  and so forth, hard for us Earthlings to understand.)

A corner of The Times folded down and one of 3 eyes peered over it. “Oh. My Papadopodada gave that Universe to me for care and feeding when I was about your age. He thought it would be good for me to take responsibility” said the voice behind The Times.

Those words didn’t make much sense to Nanotzee who pulled the drawer all the way out, carried it and set it on a table carefully.  After looking with three eyes a while, reading the labels and admiring the colors, Nanotzee got out the Spectacularizer.  The Spectacularizer makes things appear larger than they really are. A Spectacularizer looks a lot like this.

illustration of a "Spectacularizer" for a story called "The Universal Drawer" by Sue Clancy

illustration of a “Spectacularizer” for a story called “The Universal Drawer” by Sue Clancy

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

“Wowweezowee!” exclaimed Nanotzee peering through the three eye pieces and adjusting the Spectacularizer’s knobs, buttons and lenses, making the wonderful even more spectacular.

Eventually Nanotzee said “Papadopodada…one rock, labeled Earth, has a lot of little beings all over it. Is that normal?“  A few nanoseconds later Nanotzee added “And why is your universe so big? Mine is only half this size.”

The Times folded in half.  All three of the adult Alienatzoa’s eyes appeared above the fold. “Well… it’s all a matter of perspective.”

(What the adult Alienatzoa really said was “Garbledee garbledum harumphado.”  But that speech took several light years to reach Earth’s atmosphere and it is likely that much was lost in translation.)

Here below is the only known image of an Alienatzoa:

illustration for "The Universal Drawer" a flash fiction story by Sue Clancy

illustration for “The Universal Drawer” a flash fiction story by Sue Clancy

 

photo artist book post

A Creative Life, artist book, books, handmade books

Via the 23 Sandy Gallery I saw this great post about photography and artist books – and when a collection of photographs in a book is a “photo book” and when it becomes an “artist book”.  I’m thinking this same concept Philip Zimmermann talks about in the post regarding a series of photographs also applies to when a series of illustrations becomes an “illustrated book” and when a set of illustrations become an “artist book”… Anyway, here is the post link: http://philipzimmermann.blogspot.com/2016/06/what-kind-of-book-falls-under.html

And here is a rabbit sitting on a bunch of books …contemplating.

Soup Moon by Sue Clancy (this piece is currently at www.caplanartdesigns.com)

Soup Moon by Sue Clancy (this piece is currently at http://www.caplanartdesigns.com)

illustrated pie guy

A Creative Life, Authors, illustration, poetry, words and pictures

Creating an illustrated poem today…

Such A Nice Guy (poem and illustration by Sue Clancy)

Such A Nice Guy (poem and illustration by Sue Clancy)

Here’s the text all typed out:

Such a nice guy

by Sue Clancy

Hey silly Sally,

You gonna eat that pie?

Or you gonna sit

with your head in the sky?

You better be careful

with your head so high

that a bird don’t hit your nose

and not be able to fly.

He might fall

into your blueberry pie.

So I’ll do you a favor and eat that quick

’cause I’m such a nice guy.

Published in Raven Chronicles – again!

A Creative Life, animals in art, illustration, published art, words and pictures

I just got contacted by the editor of Raven Chronicles magazine – they want to use my art/illustration “Crowseeds” as a front piece for their Food and Culture section in the magazine!  For the next several issues! Wahooo!!!! Happy dancing starts now!

Here is the url for Raven Chronicles all spelled out: http://www.ravenchronicles.org/

And here is a teeny tiny teaser peek at “Crowseeds” – please see the coming issues of Raven Chronicles for the full love and tenderness:

This illustration by Sue Clancy will be featured in Raven Chronicles as a front piece for the "Food and Culture" section!

This illustration “Crowseeds” by Sue Clancy will be featured in Raven Chronicles magazine as a front piece for the “Food and Culture” section!

 

my artist books and libraries

A Creative Life, artist book, ebook, handmade books, words and pictures

My one-of-a-kind artist books have been included in several library special collections (most recently at the UCLA Fine Arts library – thanks to the 23 Sandy Gallery) – well, I’ve newly been included in the Washington State Indie Book Collection!  This means that two of my artist books that I’ve created in eBook form can now be accessed by the general public via libraries that subscribe to something called the Biblioboard! https://www.biblioboard.com/

The two of my books that have been made available for libraries are: “Dr. Bob’s Emotional Repair Program First Aid Kit” and “Coffee Table Book”

Both of these books are talked about at the top of the artist book page on my website – with links for more info etc.

Anyway, now that this possibility of library love exists for me as a book artist I’ve created a postcard about one of my books (Hint: the book “Dr. Bob’s Emotional Repair Program First Aid Kit” is my fave…) so I will have a card I can give away just in case I happen to meet a friendly librarian or two in the urban wilds.

Here’s the card:

Postcard about the artist book "Dr Bob's Emotional Repair Program First Aid Kit" that I can give to friendly librarians and other people

Postcard about the artist book “Dr Bob’s Emotional Repair Program First Aid Kit” that I can give to friendly librarians and other nice people