Cup of Beautiful

February 9, 2014
Year of the Horse.
last night, I was watching a local tv program that highlights the arts. It's on KVIE and airs Saturday night, 7PM. Has a ton of really good stuff and is hosted by the same guy, Rob on the Road. Here's the link http://www.kvie.org/programs/arts_entertainment/default.htm

One of the segments in the program features Olympia Dukakis, reprising her role in a theater production of Mother Courage. During the interview...at the end of the interview she quotes a poet. (forgive me but what I heard was  Locker, Lokker, Lacher???! so in search of this lovely passage, replaying the clip and googling it word for word, found it! The Spanish poet, Frederico Garcia Lorca, wrote:

...the poem, the song, the picture are drawn from the well of the people(s) and should be given back to them in a cup of beauty so that they shall know themselves.

This seems a good underpinning. My uncle said that there are a couple ways to take a walk. Some people walk the same way every day observing and interested in what has changed on that walk. Some people take a different route to see new things than they had the day before. Often for me, it's good to have a purpose, an endpoint or a circuit  then I relax along the way. Working is often like that.

Gray Whale Off the Coast

The gray whale foldout is the next iteration of the foldout that went out to Rhode Island in August.
The design is more dynamic and has those fish again and a watercolor-up-through-the -depths landscape of the lighthouse. The colors are more vivid and has more ink coverage. There are also two variations. One is of the whale moving up through the kelp and the fish. The second shows it breaching and a wave curling up out of the surface. Highly stylized but hey.
https://www.etsy.com/listing/172089290/gray-whale-breaching-popup-foldout?ref=shop_home_active_22

Gray whale migration off the coast of California

 

Whale Song, New, Newer Work

I have a new foldout in the web shop. It's titled Whale Song, which may be referencing some audio collection in my subconscious with whale calls. Sperm whales make clicking sounds that some researchers theorize is echolocution since they don't seem to have good vision. The foldout was created or rather finalized for a gallery in Rhode Island, i.e. Ambergris Gallery on Block Island. Gillian, the owner asked me if the new work...whale foldout depicted a sperm whale. The initial foldout sketches and file is of gray whales and I may drop in those images for a dual whale work. The sperm whale has such a blocky profile. Ink coverage has spread out over the surfaces.

It really helps to have a deadline. It's uncomfortable but it really helps to push the working.

Lifting questions and writing the answers

These questions came from LinkedIn discussion board for illustrators. Someone named the "illustrator dude" with a robot-thing was canvassing members to interview. The following are my answers to the interview questions. I decided to interview myself.

Interview Questions:

When did you start illustrating?
I got fascinated with the "process" of drawing. and possessed enough detachment from the results that I used a ballpoint pen. It was all very fluid.

How would you describe your illustration style?
I have a distinct line style that dominates everything I do much like individual handwriting.

Where do you find inspiration?
the natural world, some odd quirk observed, music...music is universal isn't it.

What’s your software of choice?
Photoshop

What’s your favorite focus food?
...what does "focus" mean? A food that one is fixated, have a yen for or a food that imbues a sense of contentment, calm and concentration?
Odd question. probably coffee for focus. It has a ritual aspect that is linked to so many memories.
What’s your favorite thing to draw and why?
animals

What illustrators do you look up to?
Elise Kleven. I love her storytelling and the looseness of form and color through paper collage.
There are several children's book illustrators that make my heart happy.

When do you work best, early in the morning or late at night?
mental function and energy are best in the morning though sometimes it takes me some puttering around to get really productive and always I work better with a medium-range deadline. Deadlines create the necessity to make decisions and to finish.

What are your illustration goals for the next 2 years?
develop new work that uses collage as a substrate providing richer textures and depth; create a body of work made up of limited large format papercuts; work more quickly, create and render more ideas; purchase a lasercutter for stained glass compositions and more paper art; find that sweet combination between art and product that creates a sustainable income and recognition.

Holly Peters Foldouts

where is the letter "v"

On Sunday, I went to the flea market with Dennis and Bryan. I haven't been in awhile because of my work schedule. They decided last minute (at the on ramp for 680) to go to Alameda, which is once a month, bigger, pricier and vintage.
I bought a set of letter stamps, thinking these would be perfect for mixed media....what a score...some time later while looking through the set, I discover that the lower case "v" is missing. Dammit!
This morning, in my email I find a series of messages from the Lodi artists group about what to do at their next meetup this Thursday.
"Barbara sounds like a fun project. We might even consider embracing the letter V and see how many different things we can make with this shape...Just a thought...for a challenge and a little crazy fun."-Linda

The Daily Papercut on YouTube with Foldouts

Here is a short video of me describing "foldouts" and some of my thoughts on working
YouTube link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FOjikq-OwrA&feature=mh_lolz&list=HL1315318198

NelsonNunez.com created this from footage he took of me over a couple of shoots. I admit to ambivalence about being photographed and not really knowing what I wanted to communicate. Please take a look, he did a great job.