Month: September 2021

Dogs, boxes, old stories, cards, nachos and video vibes

A Creative Life, art exhibit, art gallery, artist book, artistic inspirations, author illustrator, dog portrait, Dogs in Art, pet portraits, public art, publications - publishing, published art, recipe illustration, sketchbook, whimsical art, words and pictures

The text for my newest childrens book project “The Professional Dog” is shaping up. I’m still collecting dog photos from friends but I’ve almost gotten them all. The project still feels vague but it’s more in focus than it was last week. I’m content to view it with my peripheral vision so to speak.

Dog photos came this week from a Gallery owner, a Reporter, a Park Ranger, a Sculptor, an Assistant and a Bus driver.

So one of the focal points this week was a masked-up very quick in person visit to the Caplan Art Designs gallery in Portland Oregon. The Gallery invited some of the Gallery artists to participate in a “Holiday Box Exhibit”. We were given wooden box cubes and asked to do something with the cube in our art style. The cubes are 8 inches square. 

This box project is now a vague project on my work schedule. It’s much more nebulous at this point than The Professional Dog book! In a creative life learning to deal well with uncertainty and insecurity is as much an essential creative skill as the ability to draw!

Of course while I was at the Caplan Art Designs Gallery I enjoyed looking at my Odditorium exhibit and seeing the red dots indicating sales and the spaces indicating that my pieces have gone to their new homes! About a year ago my Odditorium project was itself a vague nebulous notion. I dealt with all of the uncertainty and now my Odditorium project is a very solid real thing!

Odditorium by Clancy at Caplan Art Designs https://caplanartdesigns.com/

The other focal point this week was my exhibit “The Old Stories” that opened in Oklahoma at Downtown Art and Frame. Each of these paintings are about stories: a folktale, a myth, or an ancient children’s rhyme or saying. For example the one with the dancing sheep is titled “Ewephoria” and it’s about the history of the rhyme “ring around the rosies, pockets full of posies…” (Black Death)

“The Old Stories” is an artexhibit of my larger artworks – anyway, all of these pieces refer to classic ideas from mythology or fables –
The titles of my collage paintings give you clues…

Panda Dora’s Box – 24″ x 24″
Woolrich Family Yarn – 24″ x 24″
Long Dog Love – 11 3/4″ x 12 3/4″
Just In Time For Cookies. 10 1/4″ x 12″
Ewephoria 24″ x 36″
Cheetahs at Cards. 24″ x 36″

Please contact Downtown Art and Frame in Norman Oklahoma for more information
https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100057154703557

If you’re wondering- no I didn’t visit Oklahoma in person. I just talked with the Gallery owner there via phone. I have worked with Barney at Downtown Art and Frame since the late 1980’s and we can darn near read each other’s minds! Makes long distance projects like this so much easier! They ship art all over this globe the way you and I would switch a book from one hand to the other.

The third focal point this week was the Aurora Gallery https://auroragalleryonline.com – I made sure they had plenty of my greeting cards and my various artist books. I also got, via no-contact delivery, new white boards from them cut to my various sizes so that I have plenty to work with for my Professional Dog book project as well as for my greeting card designs.

I’m particularly glad they have copies of Favorites So Far as I intend to do more recipe postcards and place some at the Aurora Gallery.

Just look at all these lovely blank boards in the photo below! A vast expanse of open potential!! Wahoo!!!

This week the long awaited video thingamajig (see last post) came in the mail!! At first all I had time to do was get it out of the box and read the instructions. Then…

… later I had a very brief chance to practice with the new thingamajig so I did this flip through of a book https://youtu.be/tOf3q9ALNoA It was really nice to have both hands free to turn pages! My brain is a whirl with possibilities!

We’ll see what happens next week with this new gadget… I’m hoping I’ll have time to play with it.

I hadn’t made nachos in a while so I remedied that! Spouse and I had such a delightful off-grid sort of evening! Especially during busy times playing is important!

This recipe is from Favorites So Far – and definitely one of the recipes I plan to eventually put on a postcard!

Clancy’s handwritten illustrated recipe from Favorites So Far https://www.blurb.com/b/10863384-favorites-so-far

No matter how busy your week is I hope you remember to play at least a little! See you next Monday!

Professional dogs, new books with mac and cheese

A Creative Life, artist book, artistic inspirations, author illustrator, books, children's book, creative thinking, Dogs in Art, fine art, greeting cards, publications - publishing, recipe illustration, whimsical art, words and pictures, writing and illustrating

All week I’ve been collecting photos of dogs from my friends and writing and rewriting the text for my newest childrens book project to be titled “The Professional Dog”.

I’ve been thinking of the 19th century parlor game called The Minister’s Cat and have been updating that game idea with a variety of professions and dogs. All of this is so I can play with my adult friends and together we can entertain some kids.

The way I’ve played The Minister’s Cat (in pre-pandemic times) is like this: a group of people in a circle start a clapping rhythm. One person starts with the letter A saying “The Minister’s Cat is an agile cat”. Then without skipping the beat the next person can either follow with another A word description like “The Minister’s Cat is an adventurous cat”. Or they can follow with a B word like “The Minister’s Cat is a brave cat”. And so forth the game goes through the alphabet in a clapping rhythm. If someone loses the rhythm or stumbles on an adjective then they’re out. In our adult games the penalty for being “out” was refilling everyone’s beverages.

Below are some scribbles of text on my legal pad. I’ve decided (I think) that there will be some letter repetitions just like there would be in an in-person game.

Below are some of the dog photos friends sent this week! There’s an Artist, a Dean, a Chef, a Guidance Counselor, a Lender and a Judge.

In my experience projects in this kind of messy stage of becoming are best left within my peripheral mental vision, so to speak, till they firm up.

As a result I did a good bit on my winter greeting cards project I spoke of in my last post. Below is another card notion – paper dolls on a postcard! I’m thinking it will be fun to mail this card to some kids I know.

Here’s a few of the cards on my Zazzle shop – including “Crowshoes” that I was working on in my last post. I’m also doing more recipe cards as my friend Bernadette of New Classic Recipes suggested.

On my Zazzle shop https://www.zazzle.com/collections/odd_greeting_cards_art_by_clancy-119338499337369594

I’m still waiting on the thingamajig that will hold my phone while I do videos. Insert a cartoon image of Charlie Brown waiting by the mailbox here. While I wait on the thingamajig to be shipped I’ve been making notes on stuff I want to share about creativity and living a creative life. Fun thoughts to think!

But what did come in the mail this week were the books I’d ordered from my local independent bookstore Vintage Books! I’ve read the top two books in an ebook format and wanted print copies they were so good! Besides both books speak to my interest in living a creative life.

And some days I want pasta. One of my favorite cookbooks for pasta is Macaroni and Cheese by Marlena Spieler. There’s a baked broccoli, cheese and pasta recipe that’s very yummy!

I hope your week is the best it can be. See you next Monday?

The professional dog and what’s in the cards

A Creative Life, animals in art, Art Licensing, art techniques, Art Word Combinations, artist book, artistic inspirations, author illustrator, children's book, greeting cards, household surrealism, pet portraits, visual thinking, whimsical art, words and pictures

I’m starting a new childrens poem project “The Professional Dog”. It’s an excuse to do a series of portraits of dogs owned by friends who have professions that fit neatly in an alphabetic format… accountant, botanist, chef…. (Yes, another abecedarian book!!)

Several friends – with dogs – have different professions that could fit for the same alphabetic letter. I know a botanist, a brewer and a baker. I know a chef, a councilor and a critic. Part of my work on this project is winnowing this list.

My book idea began in my small poetry sketchbook, the orange one in the picture, and is now in the messy draft stage on my legal pad.

I’m in the process of contacting friends and asking them to email or text photos of their dogs – and asking questions about their profession. These responses will help me narrow things down.

Here’s a few of the dog photos I’ve gotten from an Accountant, an Underwriter, an Inventory Manager, a Poet, a Nurse and an Entrepreneur.

In addition to this new book project I’ve been thinking more about greeting cards. Last year during the holidays it felt weird getting or sending cards that touched on pre-pandemic style large gatherings. I found I preferred getting and sending the cards that had winter scenery or literary poems or food/drink recipes. I did enjoy the family photo cards and “seeing” everyone that way.

So as I think of the upcoming holiday season I’m starting work on painting a short series of winter, food and book themed artworks intended for cards on my Zazzle shop. Here’s a sketch in my sketchbook with one of my winter theme notions.

Here’s a look at the finished art. I used my new butterfly palette that I’ve talked about in a prior post. These colors are literally based in scientific studies of butterflies and other bugs. It was fun to paint winter scenery using the butterfly colors! The color palette you see in this photo is what I call my “butterfly box”.

Below is a closer look at my finished artwork. After I get a few more for-cards artwork pieces finished then I’ll upload all of the images and design the cards. I’ve titled this piece below “Crowshoes”

Crowshoes by Clancy

This week my spouse made homemade sugar cookies. Seriously comforting and yummy cookies! Cookies and a coloring book are two of the good things in this life, I think, so I posed this photo for use in telling on social media about my recent coloring book “How To Draw A Dragon“

https://www.blurb.com/b/10815467-how-to-draw-a-dragon

Many of the baked goodies my spouse makes – like the sugar cookies in the photo above – are from recipes in “How To Bake Everything” by Mark Bittman. As an eater of baked goods I can vouch for this book!

As per my last post I am thinking seriously about doing more videos and have even ordered a thingamajig to hold my phone steady while I talk. It’s a fun – and a bit scary – to entertain the idea of talking on video generally about being creative and include things from my own creative life. I’m thinking I might call these short videos “Creativity chats” with a subtitle of the topic of that particular chat. 🤔 We’ll see. I heartily thank you for your kind encouragement to do more videos!

While I wait for the video apparatus to be shipped to me I’ll work towards “The Professional Dog” and will tell you more about what inspired this idea in future posts.

I hope your week is full of dog (or cat) cuddles, cookies and many other comforting things! See you next Monday.

How the Odditorium and Dragon are going

A Creative Life, art exhibit, art gallery, artist book, author illustrator, fine art, Odditorium, publications - publishing, published art, Sustainable creativity, words and pictures, writing and illustrating

So far so good! 4 of the artworks in my Odditorium exhibit at Caplan Art Designs sold! 3 sold before the official opening! The exhibit is virtual but the gallery still had an “opening night” – as I wrote in my last post it wasn’t the same kind of party as pre-pandemic ones – this opening was careful of everyone’s health. I stayed home for several reasons: I’m deaf and can’t lip read when people wear masks. Also I really don’t want to pass along or get this virus, plus the Gallery wanted to minimize the foot traffic and stay safe.

So the night of the official opening both the Gallery and I monitored websites and social media. They monitored from inside the Gallery. I monitored from my studio. Thankfully there weren’t any technical glitches. That was a big plus!

The biggest bonus of all is that deaf – me actually got to “hear” (read) what people said about my work! The responses to my videos were also surprisingly pleasant- I made those videos in what I call “living dangerously mode” meaning I did the videos knowing that I don’t hear well and could quite easily mess up the sound recording aspect. So I was willing to fail spectacularly at making videos….and I didn’t fail! People liked them! One person even said they liked hearing me talk and that video was a great vehicle for me and I should keep it up!! 😮 That’s certainly something to consider!! Possibly best of all is that I heard from quite a number of people that my artwork-and the videos- cheered them up!!

As a result I am excited and encouraged to keep on keeping on and I appreciate that more than I can express in words.

In fact I was so excited that I started right away to brainstorm ideas for fine art for the future exhibits that are already scheduled for 2022!

Below is a quick look at all of the Odditorium art. More details on my portfolio page.

I signed 6 copies of my Odditorium book. 2 of those went home with people who visited the Gallery Thursday. This exhibit will continue through September.

https://www.blurb.com/b/10698335-odditorium

During the same time of the Odditorium exhibit opening my coloring book poem How To Draw A Dragon went live on Storyberries! There is both an ebook and an audiobook version that is a slightly different from the print version of my book. The Storyberries ebook has the text typed rather than handwritten. This was done for ease of searching as I’d talked about in a previous post. One page was also wonderfully colored in using digital methods by someone at Storyberries!

https://www.storyberries.com/bedtime-stories-how-to-draw-a-dragon-coloring-book/

I learned from the folks at Storyberries that it is possible to digitally color an ebook. If you use the notes function on your iBook and an Apple pencil you can color. Also if you use an app called Procreate you can take an ebook and color it. I am not speaking from firsthand experience here I’m just reporting what Storyberries tells me is possible with my How To Draw A Dragon ebooks.

I’ve done digital art – spent years doing digital art as part of my graphic arts career in the distant past – but I used other kinds of software. I’ve done a bit of digital art on my smartphone with a different app but frankly, I prefer getting my hands dirty with real life inks and paints.

Besides the version on Storyberries if you want to color digitally you can download an Apple iBooks copy of How To Draw A Dragon here.

For a printed and bound copy of How To Draw A Dragon click here.

I’ve also made a way you could download a pdf file and print the pages you want to color using your own printer and real life color pencils. For that click here.

Since this was another busy week it was easier to reheat magic beans and put them in a tortilla with veggies and cheese. Given the recent disturbing news out of Texas I was inspired to try Penzey’s Justice spice mix on my bean burritos. I like Justice.

My weekend was spent resting. But of course I drew in my sketchbook and wrote. There’s a new children’s book taking shape in my mind. I’ll tell you more next Monday. Till then keep sprinkling Justice on the beans.