playful and practical

A Creative Life, animals in art, artist book, author illustrator, books, Books In Art, Cats in art, Dogs in Art, drinks in art, fine art, graphic design, illustration, magic realism, small things

One of the purposes of the Arts is to help us live well and, paraphrasing Kurt Vonnegut, to grow our souls.  I’ve had this in mind as I’ve created my holiday stocking-stuffer stuff for my upcoming pop-up shop at Vintage Books Dec 7th from noon to 4 pm. https://www.vintage-books.net/

Making a whimsical, playful, calendar with artwork from my current Readers series was loads of fun – and I hope it will help people remember to live well and grow their souls all year long!  I’ve titled my calendar “Reading All Year”. It is 5 x 7 inches when closed and 10 x 7 inches when open. It’ll fit into a holiday stocking. I’ve checked.

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“Reading All Year” – a 2020 calendar by Clancy

If you can’t visit me at Vintage Books here’s a link where you can get your own calendar shipped directly to you.  Hopefully my calendar will be a fun stocking-stuffer gift the other readers in your life will enjoy too!

I wish you the best during the holiday season and in the coming new year!

feature article in The Columbian about my art

A Creative Life, art exhibit, art techniques, Art Word Combinations, Artist interviews and profiles, fine art, public art, published art, visual story, words and pictures, writing and illustrating

Here’s a link to an article written by Scott Hewitt for The Columbian about my art exhibit “Dear Readers” that is currently at Burnt Bridge Cellars! And a picture of the front page of the newspaper with a bit of my artwork on it and pictures of the other 2 pages.  I was relieved to see that my artwork reproduced so well in print. Even though by now I know very well how to create images for reproduction I still breathe a sigh of relief when I see them looking good in glorious color print. Anyway, here’s the newspaper link all spelled out: https://www.columbian.com/news/2019/jul/18/vancouver-artists-ties-together-dogs-books-in-whimsical-ways/

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Both gouache paints and acrylic paints reproduce well (even in newsprint!) but to my eye the gouache reproduces best of all. But then gouache was originally created for use in illuminating manuscripts back in the days, around the 16th century, when all “books” were hand written, hand illustrated and hand bound – one at a time.

Acrylic, a medium that originated in the late 1940’s, tends to be shinier and more difficult to photograph and thus get a good reproduction quality image.

Have I mentioned lately that I really like gouache??

dogs strawberries and cookbooks

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

My wife’s garden has at least 100 strawberry plants in it. They currently are in bloom. My favorite dessert is strawberries and shortcake. I only have this dessert in the summer on account of trying to be sensible. Nonetheless I’ve been anticipating “strawberry season” and making new artwork about it.

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Dogberry’s Strawberry Treats – by Clancy – 20 x 16 inches – acrylic on board

I chose a Bassett Hound as my character because of the breeds easy-going relaxed nature. It’s the way I think of the Pacific Northwest summer.

As I’ve been doing for this series of artworks I’ve spoofed two of my own still life paintings in the background of the above painting titled “Dogberry’s Strawberry Treats”. Below are the two still life’s I’ve spoofed:

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June’s Treasure – by Clancy – 7 x 5 inches – acrylic and gouache on board

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It Must Be June – by Clancy – 5 x 7 inches – acrylic and gouache on board

Since we have so many strawberry plants – and get lots of produce from them – besides sharing strawberries with neighbors and friends and making strawberry shortcake desserts I’m often looking at cookbooks for ideas of what else to do with an abundance of strawberries.

My one-person art exhibit, which opens the first Friday in June at Burnt Bridge Cellars, is book and reading themed. So naturally, for the exhibit, I had to have a painting with cookbook and a Bassett Hound cook consulting a book while working with strawberries.

And yes, in the exhibit I’ll have all three of the above artworks displayed. I’m hoping that sharp-eyed attendees of my exhibit will connect-the-dots so to speak and see the correlation between the paintings, sort of an in-person story-puzzle effect; the ability to walk about (glass of wine in hand) finding the related art pieces and identifying the story-theme for each.

But whether or not people catch any of the correlations between my paintings I’m hoping the exhibit will be as fun for visitors to see as it’s been for me to create.

new Clancy pattern designs

A Creative Life, Art Apparel, Art Licensing, artistic inspirations

Here are images of my newly finished scarf and bag designs intended for the amusement of teachers (and students and people who enjoy language and numbers) – and both designs were inspired by teachers.  My most recent blog post on my website tells “how and why I made this” details.  https://sueclancy.com/2017/02/06/art-messes-math-mistakes-and-teachers/ 

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scarf design by Clancy – the original pattern is created by hand-drawing letters in ink. That pattern is custom printed on modal fabric https://www.shopvida.com/collections/sue-clancy

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bag design by Clancy – the original pattern is created by hand-drawing numbers in ink. That pattern is custom printed https://www.shopvida.com/collections/sue-clancy

You can see my full pattern design collection here: https://www.shopvida.com/collections/sue-clancy

art messes math mistakes and teachers

A Creative Life, Art Apparel, Art Licensing, artistic inspirations, pattern design

I’ve had the cold/flu/crud for the last week. I’m feeling better now and wanted to “do something creative”. Trouble is I still suddenly sneeze and cough so using sharp xacto knives, loaded ink brushes and glue laden papers is more hazardous and messy than usual. What to do?

Then I thought – I know several teachers who have this cold/flu/crud too. What could I make that might amuse teachers? Perhaps make them feel a wee bit better? After some further thought I grabbed my felt-tip pens and have been creating pattern designs that will end up on a scarf and or a tote bag.

Here’s a photo of my pattern design work in progress.

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After I snapped the above photo I saw my math mistake. Do you see it?

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I did! And fixed it. Hugs and thanks to math teachers everywhere!

Now I’ll do need to do the digital hocus pocus needed to submit my designs to the apparel company I work with in San Francisco California.

But I’ll try to get some rest first.

You can see my full studio pattern design collection via this link: http://www.shopvida.com/collections/sue-clancy

why whimsical dog art

A Creative Life, animals in art, art exhibit, art gallery, artistic inspirations, books, dog portrait, Dogs in Art, ebook, fine art, Sue Draws Dogs

“So much is wrong with the world and here you are doing artwork of cute dogs and the occasional cats. Aren’t you denying reality, denying the power of protest art?”

No, I am on purpose living well as a direct action against the bullies, abusive people and authoritarians.  If I were to get upset and stay angry and fearful each time I read a news article, for example, I would be handing my personal happiness to the very mean people I’m upset about.

So I persist at finding small joys every day, doing small kindnesses, creating laughter and yes, cute whimsical dogs.  It’s my protest, my declaration of sovereignty, my present to the better angels of my own and other people’s natures. It’s my way to feed the good wolves.

My persistence at happiness doesn’t mean I don’t read and make myself aware of what’s going on in the world. It doesn’t mean I don’t care. It doesn’t mean I can’t or won’t donate money or in other ways help any cause I think is also opposing bullies and authoritarian fundamentalists. I do!

It’s just that I refrain as best I can from giving the mean people my inner self, letting my upset at them/ their actions dominate my entire mind and life. I’m not waiting until there are no more mean people in any positions of power (etc.) before I’m able to enjoy something! I’m going to enjoy something today, right now. I’m also going to learn something, I’m going to play, experiment, and laugh. I’m going to try something new. I’m going to smile and talk to people. I’m going to do my best to be kind and loving. I’m going to live well!

By doing this I deny those mean people what they want most; my cerebral compliance. When I enjoy something they, the bullies, have not set the tone of my mind or my day – I have!   The bully may have authority over my body (i.e. be an abusive parent, a president, or a state that denies my human rights) but they do not have control over my mind!

One of the many good-mental-health techniques that I’ve practiced is to keep a list of things I enjoy thinking about or doing – so that whenever I do get down-in-the-dumps or despondent about how some bully seems to be winning I can deliberately turn my mind towards something I enjoy.  In this way I’m taking direct and immediate action.

By creating artwork that is whimsical, beautiful or even cute I am giving people an art exhibit, a book, a blog post or an item of art apparel  that I hope can, if only for a moment, lift their spirits and enable them to take direct action too – by enjoying something.

As I learned from Dr. Bob Hoke (and which is further discussed in the book “Dr. Bob’s Emotional Repair Program First Aid Kit”) the best response to adversity of any kind is to go on and live well.  https://store.bookbaby.com/book/dr-bobs-emotional-repair-program-first-aid-kit

Here are a few of my dogs currently on exhibit at Caplan Art Designs www.caplanartdesigns.com – and also in my book “Dogs by Sue Clancy” https://store.bookbaby.com/book/Dogs-By-Sue-Clancy

 

happy doggy new year

A Creative Life, animals in art, art exhibit, art gallery, artist book, artistic inspirations, books, dog portrait, Dogs in Art, fine art, Sue Draws Dogs

I worry about human adults. I worry that people forget to play. This worry has included me.

So I’ve been trying to do something about that. Dog portraits are my effort to remember to play. I’ve been purposefully spending time enjoying something and making notes and in the process I created an art exhibit’s worth of artworks. Yes, 32 of my dog portraits are currently scheduled for an exhibit at Caplan Art Designs www.caplanartdesigns.com in the new year, Jan 2017!  So here’s hoping that other people see my artwork – and the whimsy there and play a little too!

As a separate project I’ve also been working on a printed artist book of my dog portraits. The concept behind both the art exhibit and the potential book is the same: collecting pleasant thoughts and describing those thoughts using imaginary dog characters (based on a real-life dog breed) in order to highlight the pleasant feelings.  This idea has its roots in healthy mental health habits and the practice of happiness; creating gratitude lists, purposefully turning ones thoughts toward pleasant things, playing with ones imagination, and a meditative practice of enjoying  time, memory, attention and whimsy.

Dogs were selected as characters because for me dogs of all breeds represent a joyful exuberant delight at being alive.

I’m thinking that the book – which I’ll call “Dogs by Sue Clancy” – will be another artist book by me, an artistic expression of its own. More than an exhibit catalog or a collection of reproductions of a body of artistic works the book “Dogs by Sue Clancy” is being organized around an artistic idea – the one I mentioned above: collecting pleasant thoughts and describing those thoughts using imaginary dog characters (based on a real-life dog breed) in order to highlight the pleasant feelings.  The book will not be at the art exhibit – it’ll be its own separate thing…

Now, why does it matter that we think of pleasant things and seek to provoke pleasant feelings? Why is it so important to me that I’ve spent all this time to make both an art exhibit and a potential book filled with “pleasantness”?

Well it’s gosh-darn easy to provoke feelings of anger and fear. Some religious leaders and politicians do it often because it’s a reliable (if dirty-tricky) way to get peoples attention and exert control. Unhappy, frightened and angry people are more easily controlled.  Even some grade-school kids use such tactics, because they’re easy to do and successfully get and control peoples attention.

You can even accidentally do it to yourself, get yourself down-spiraling; angry and fearful about almost anything. Particularly around a sleepless 3 am. Especially when you’ve been busy and stressed and not enjoying much in life. (In my book Dr. Bob’s Emotional Repair Program First Aid Kit –https://store.bookbaby.com/book/dr-bobs-emotional-repair-program-first-aid-kit – this is discussed in detail, particularly strategies how to deal with unpleasant emotions.)

So I’ve been speculating that very act of enjoying things – small things – and sharing enjoyments with other people – may itself be a moderating factor, a good-mental-health exercise, and a small way to combat the dirty-trickery of the fear-mongers.

After all one of the ways of responding to, and coming out of, a negative-downward-spiral is to keep a list of things you enjoy doing or thinking about and deliberately turning your thoughts away from anger and fear and towards something you enjoy and appreciate.  Could it also be  helpful-to-good-mental-health to have an entire art exhibit, and maybe a book, full of “pleasant things”?

As a professional artist I’ve thought why not deliberately – and as an artistic project – provoke laughter? Smiles? Warm-fuzzy’s? Playfulness? For both myself and hopefully others?  It would be an artistic challenge. How do you get someone to smile – or even laugh – while looking at a piece of paper covered with lines, shading and patterns?

I’m convinced that happiness is a skill that must be practiced like tennis, like cooking, like drawing.  I’ve been spending a lot of time practicing my own happiness – and enjoying it (pun intended) – I’m hoping that sharing my practice in both an art exhibit and in a book – will be fun for other people too. 

Here’s a new dog portrait.

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Digger by Clancy – ink on handmade paper

coffee, table, book

commonplace book, ebook, published art, sketchbook

I’ve been working on an ebook titled “Coffee, Table, Book”. This book directly relates to my upcoming exhibit at Caplan Art Designs www.caplanartdesigns.com (opening May 7th!) but it’s also about my artwork in general – and very much like the pages I’ve been posting here on this blog. Here’s what the cover looks like:

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It’s an artist monograph about my humorous fine artwork; a visual story of how I take ordinary life and make it into fine art, showing the connection between my sketchbook drawings, collected thoughts and my whimsical artwork – all of which are inspired by coffee, food on tables and stuff written in printed books…and this is an ebook… (You know I like word-play right?)

While parts of this book may resemble a cookbook, a book of quotations, a book of humorous art, a book about art history or any other sort of slick glossy coffee table book – that resemblance is purely accidental – it is really a story-peek inside this artist’s mind and the whimsical fine art that comes from it.

In addition to the risk of sharing my sense of humor part of what’s risky is that this book is art-image heavy and not all eBook readers will handle the color images of my artwork and my sketchbook pages.  But my ebook will be available for all kinds of devices; iPads, Androids etc. so hopefully it’ll be fun to view an “art book” via such devices.

At any rate – here goes: The ISBN number is 9781483553566 – starting now and in the coming weeks this book will start being available at the iBookstore, Amazon and wherever ebooks are sold. Here’s a start: http://my.bookbaby.com/book/coffee-table-book  Remember, you saw it here first!