Been thinking of how people can focus too much on things that are unlikely to happen and forget to see what really is possible – such as enjoying the here-and-now moments. I’ve also thought of related quotes and phrases: “Life is not a dress rehearsal” and “Take tarts when tarts are passed” and “If not now, when?”. These thoughts baked in my brain pan a while and out came this painting I’ve titled “Pie In The Sky”
Pie In The Sky – by Clancy – 8 x 10 inches – ink and gouache on board
In my early 20’s I worked as a graphic designer for the Center For Economic Management Research where I took business statistics and turned them into maps and all sorts of illustrations. It was fun to learn that there are magical people behind those dry lists of mundane numbers!
Well fast forward to today – and I still like maps. I think of map-making as sorting mundane information via my imagination. For example; I’ve recently taken my running around sketchbook pages that depict places where good pie can be found and have turned the accumulated info into a map titled “Pie Places in Vancouver WA”. You can find this map and my other maps here and here.
And yes, you can really go and get a yummy slice of pie from any of these real-life places:
Pie Places in Vancouver WA – https://www.theydrawandtravel.com/artists/sue-clancy
Finished the artwork and titled it: “Purrameters of Pie”. I decided on that title because (as my last blog post said here) I was thinking of all the various sizes of sweet or savory pies available here in the Pacific Northwest. And the tabby cat’s towel protected paws encircle the just-out-of-the-oven pie…
I’ve noticed in my travels around the Pacific Northwest that you can get savory or sweet hand pies to-go from food carts, a medium sized “personal pie” in restaurants, a slice of pie, a whole pie or a serve-yourself-family-style pie. I’ve also heard from several sources that a flaky pie crust is hard to make from scratch.
I’m currently discovering that it’s also a challenge to paint a flaky pie crust. Here’s a picture of me working at it:
I’m using a “color shaper”, a rubber wedge shaped brush, to remove the top layer of color to reveal the color underneath. An attempt to make the pie in my painting look like a browned pie crust top that has cracked to show the yummy goodness inside.
I’ll keep working on this piece but first I’ll let it dry a bit and go have some dinner… for some reason I’m hungry.
Creating an illustrated poem today…
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.
Holy Pied Cow