Month: February 2019

reading and mutts in art

A Creative Life, animals in art, art exhibit, art gallery, artistic inspirations, Books In Art, creative thinking, dog portrait, Dogs in Art, fine art, food in art, reading in art, still life, visual story, visual thinking

On one of my walks near the Columbia River I had the pleasure of seeing, then meeting, a mutt. She was a beautiful white and buff longhaired dog, larger than a Labrador, stockier than a Greyhound and hairier than a Golden Retriever. I asked the owner what breed she was and the owner didn’t know. The dog and human had rescued each other. The dog was friendly, beautiful and let me make drawings of her in my sketchbook.

Fast forward to my currently in progress reading and books in art series – and the wonderful mutt I’d met made an appearance:

MeditationsForTheMetrosexualMutt72

“Meditations For The Metrosexual Mutt” by Clancy – 16 x 20 inches – acrylic on cradled board – image copyright 2019

Yes, in “Meditations For The Metrosexual Mutt” I’ve spoofed a famous painting by James Whistler along with two of my own still life paintings. If you look at the titles I’ve used for each of my paintings you’ll get a hint about my theme…

LifesABowlOfCherriesStemsPitsAndAll72

“Life’s a bowl of cherries, stems pits and all” – by Clancy – 8 x 10 inches – acrylic and gouache on board

The still life, pictured below, is on the deep cradled edge of “Meditations for the Metrosexual Mutt”, where it will only be seen if you’re able to see my work in person.

Gala72

“Gala” by Clancy – acrylic and gouache on board

The selection of Whistler’s famous painting to spoof was deliberate as the art history around Whistler’s work is part of my meditation on life, beginnings, origin stories etc.

I imagined that the dog in my painting is reading a book titled “Meditations For The Metrosexual Mutt” – which is why I used that as the title for my work.

As you can tell I’m still thinking about “nesting ideas” and stories within stories…

 

 

crossword puzzle books in art

A Creative Life, animals in art, art exhibit, Art Word Combinations, artist book, artistic inspirations, Books In Art, dog portrait, Dogs in Art, fine art, poetry, still life, visual thinking

Here’s a new painting in my “reading and books in art” series.  I confess that I love printed dictionaries, thesaurus’s and puzzle/game related books. In my art studio resource shelves I have 8 dictionaries, 3 thesaurus’s and 5 puzzle/game related books. Art idea gold-mines in my opinion. Naturally a Boston Terrier would consult one of these books…

TheArfThesaurus72

“The Arf Thesaurus” by Clancy – 16 x 20 inches – acrylic and gouache on board —- image copyright 2019

The puzzle in the painting is actually work-able – at least somewhat – if you could get the Boston Terrier to move his arm.  It was fun to imagine a puzzle related to sounds (words?) a dog makes.

If you look in the upper corner of this painting you’ll see that I’ve spoofed another painting that I did earlier.

GoodMorning72

“Good Morning” – by Clancy – 11 x 17 inches – acrylic and gouache on board – image copyright 2019

As I’ve worked toward this exhibit theme of reading and books in art I’ve become aware again of my love of words so I’ve also been experimenting with abecedarian poems, nonsense poems and made up words. This is in conjunction with thinking about constructing some artist books related to my upcoming reading and books themed art exhibit.

Still noodling about this concept of nesting-ideas-within-nested-ideas I’d mentioned in my last post. We’ll see where it goes.

And yes, I love it when I take the time to sit and work a crossword puzzle. I’m not up to The New York Times puzzle level yet. Someday perhaps. I’ve known two people who could do the Sunday NYT puzzle in ink. They impressed me enough with their level of education/smarts that I started on the bunny-slope level of crosswords. They inspired me reading more widely too. I like to think I’ve gotten a little better at puzzling since then.

Do you like crossword puzzles?

reading and books in art

A Creative Life, animals in art, art exhibit, artist book, artistic inspirations, Books In Art, dog portrait, Dogs in Art, fine art, food in art, visual story, visual thinking, words and pictures

I’ve begun a new series of fine art pieces intended for exhibits later this year. (Yes, I’ve a deadline dragon) And I’ve been thinking of how when I walk into a library or bookstore I feel like I’m entering a galaxy.  Words and ideas that are interrelated with other words and ideas, like an array of planets and stars, or like nesting dolls or stuffed vegetables.

Also in my thoughts; the way I can experience something first hand but when I read about that same experience in a book I have a delightful momentary shock of recognition and I better understand my experience.

So I’m exploring these thoughts, as best I can, within my new series.

Here’s one of my new pieces:

GoodSmellsAMemoirOfALifelongPursuit72

“Good Smells: A Memoir of A Lifelong Pursuit” by Clancy – image copyright Sue Clancy 2019

You’ll notice, I’m sure, the “nesting” ideas of the coffee and mints. There’s a real still life, also by me, which is spoofed within the above painting that I will also include in my upcoming exhibit. I love the idea that a viewer could find the real-life painting that is referred to within another painting – sort of a “find the image” puzzle exhibit.

Here’s a picture of the still life referred to in the painting above:

AfterDinner72

“After Dinner” by Clancy – copyright Sue Clancy 2019

I’m also thinking it’ll be fun to also include at least one artist book version of an imaginary book depicted in one of my paintings – so the viewer could look at the painting and then leaf through a copy of the book depicted in the painting. But we’ll have to see how that works out.

Posting progress as I go… thanks for staying tuned.

 

oh sheet a deadline dragon

A Creative Life, art techniques, Art Word Combinations, artist book, artistic inspirations, author illustrator, business of art, creative thinking, drawing as thinking, functional art, illustrated poem, illustrated shorts, poetry, Sustainable creativity, words and pictures, writing and illustrating

Dealing well with deadlines is a topic often discussed among my fellow artists and writers. So I wondered “could I make a poem about deadlines, make it funny, illustrate it and create a book format that would accent the concept?” Fun challenge.

And here for a free download is what I came up with: Deadline Dragon Dance by Clancy. It’s a pdf file and will print using 2 sheets of 8.5 x 11 paper. One sheet is my 8 page book. The other sheet is the instructions on folding the book. Have fun! And yes, feel free to color the dragon before you fold it into the book.

Below is what The Deadline Dragon Dance looks like when you print it out, the “cover” is on the right at the top by the dragons nose, page one is on the left at the top behind the dragons head and the content proceeds counterclockwise from there. It’ll make more sense as a book once it is printed and folded. If you wonder, yes, I’ve somewhat bastardized the graphic design concept of layout for physical commercial printing.

Anyway, here is what The Deadline Dragon Dance looks like as a flat sheet-book:

DeadlineDragonDance72

And here is the instruction sheet on how to fold the above “book”:

HowToFoldADragon72.jpg

The pdf file for free download again: DeadlineDragonDancebyClancy

Yep I had a lot of fun taking a stodgy concept like deadlines and combining it with humorous poetry, illustration and book arts! I used brush and ink as well as my fountain pen on Bristol paper.

What do you think? How do you deal with deadlines, both the ones you set for yourself and those set for you by others?