Virtual Art Show at June in Oz' Blog

June in Australia posted the first installment of the virtual art show today. I mentioned her intention in a post about a week ago.

Travel there and see what she has up. Two of my scrap creatures are there - one made for this show, and one from years ago. There is a lot more - from all over the world. I love how the places come through the images.

And I think this is just the start.

Above is the beginning of another scrap creature. I stopped to show the result of my "scribbling" before I start looking for the image it will become. This will need more play before something emerges. About ten minutes for this effect so far.

Rainbows Boats and Stegasaurus

>> Appendix de Grenouille

Bonjour!

Here I am with the little moleskine, el pocito, as Etienne calls it, above six months of eraser chaff, at the end of the double rainbow. It is with childlike mental silliness that our artiste friend acquired and arranged these tugboats and ancient lizards. Imagine him in a store approaching the counter with a handful of colorful rubber playthings. No, no. Picture him earlier still, at the big jugs of these colorful rubber items, trying to decide on rainbows of tugboats, or trucks; mixed suaropods or just one kind; insects or bears. His brain nearly exploded from pleasure and the difficulty of the decision. He filled his hands repeatedly, one way and then another, seeking the right set of creatures. Fortunately his daughter was with him to provide a calming effect, or Etienne might have bought the jugs entire. We know how he is about color.

But, eccentricity aside, there is symbolism to be found in these arrangements. The rainbow is how so many see the issue of equality for love and marriage among the genders. Etienne thinks of this double rainbow, running both ways, as representing every direction of love between men and women. He feels it is synchronicity that the crossed rainbows meet at (voila) green, the current color of sustainability and symbol for touching the planet with gentility.

Oui, this is no coincidence. The way forward is revealed in the rainbows.

Stolen Meme

I borrowed the stolen meme from Linda.

I intend to answer at least one thing in each category in some detail - my twist on the meme.

LAYER 1: Tell us your...
* Name: Steven Joseph Emery (Steve)
* Birthday (month, day): April whatever (that's how I celebrate it these days - though it's really in another month, and I really celebrated it in May this year).
* Birthplace: the Hudson Valley of New York
* Current location: the Triangle area of North Carolina (Raleigh, Durham, Chapel Hill - I've lived in all three of those towns).
* Eye color: Brown (from Sicily - no other brown eyes in my immediate background but from the Sicilian grandmother and my mother)
* Hair color: gray and silver - used to be dark brown, almost black
* Height: 6 foot
* Righty or lefty: Righty
* Zodiac sign: Sagittarius

LAYER 2: What's...
* Your heritage: Hungarian on two sides (3/8), Sicilian (1/4), Austrian (1/8), German (1/8), English (1/8)
* The shoes you wore today: ugly clog-like loafers (comfort, not looks) and athletic sneakers (for support)
* Your weakness: Food - can't seem to go long at all without it, and love to eat nearly everything.
* Your fears: That I will fail or disappoint people who trust me. That people will yell at me (hate that).
* Your perfect pizza: this is a hard one... I like white pizzas, pesto pizzas, deep dish pizzas... I love traditional Itialian pizza (American) toppings, but also all sorts of odd things, including ostriche and rattlesnake sausage (I've always thought that a fun image). I'd have to say, though, that the best I ever had was a very deep dish pizza in Chicago, smothered in mushrooms, basil, italian sausage, and very fresh roma tomatos. It was two inches thick, like a crisp, chewy quiche, almost. Man, it was good!
* Goals you’d like to achieve: I'm actually doing what I want. Huh. I'm not sure I realized that until just now.
* Your first waking thoughts: Almost always something about work - the project I'm working on
* Your best physical feature: my eyes - or my voice
* Your most missed memory: being able to fly - I could once, I know I could. I distinctly remember it. It comes back sometimes in dreams. I am going to fly up to the last lit spot in the clouds on a gorgeous autumn sunset someday, and land there and look West at all the glory streaming past me.

LAYER 3: Do you...
* Smoke: never a puff
* Cuss: Only when really angry or needing to make a point. I enjoy it when I'm alone and working on something mechanical, when it comes out in long streams that are traditional in one branch of my family. I inherited that gene.
* Sing: Yes - in the church choir for a while - I have a nice baritone/bass voice. I am known, though, as a whistler - I do it to raise my spirits, when I walk, or when I'm overflowing with energy or a tune in my head. I sometimes like to improvise blues or baroque when I whistle.
* Do you think you’ve been in love: Oh yes - still am. I am living a great romance. I am astonishingly lucky - and we also work hard at it.
* Did you go to college: yes but I quit and went back later. My BA degree is in Philosophy, with enough additional credits for majors in Studio Art, Art History, and Classics. Not one course in computers or business - but that's where I make my living. I use logic every day - though the only time I used the heavier stuff was when I altered a program to do the supposedly impossible by applying DeMorgan's law to convert "or"s (the impossible in that case) to "and"s. It was not a big deal, but it was fun.
* Liked high school: My senior year (new school - where I met Dearest) was good. The rest was an emotional mess - mostly cause for long angry walks in the woods with the dog after school.
* Want to get/stay married: Very happily married
* Believe in yourself: lots, except when I don't. I'm an INFP - full of self doubts.
* Think you’re attractive: Yes
* Think you’re a health freak: No
* Get along with your parent(s): Yes
* Like thunderstorms: Love them! I sit in the open garage door and watch them blow in from the West.
* Play an instrument: None - I can't make my hands work that way (fingers independent) - I'm lucky I could learn to type. My hands like to work with all the fingers together. And I do not have a reliable sense of rhythm.

LAYER 4: In the past month have you…
* Drank alcohol: yes - Most recently a tequila shot, last night, to make my brain STOP after work. My mind had been doing the mental equivalent of hyperventilating, or of an engine dieseling after the ignition is turned off. But I only drink two or three times a month, and never more than two or three drinks - usually beer (2 or 3) or wine (seldom more than two glasses).
* Smoked: Never
* Done a drug: Never - scared to death to play like that with my brain. I like my brain the way it is.
* Made out: Yup - always happy to do that with just one person I know
* Gone on a date: No - we are probably in the busiest time of our parenting years, and savoring it.
* Gone to the mall: no - I go five or six times a year - sometimes just to "people watch."
* Eaten an entire box of Oreos: I'm not an Oreo fan. They're OK...
* Eaten sushi: Three times - love it
* Been on stage: No
* Been dumped: No
* Gone skating: No
* Gone skinny dipping: No (only twice my whole life, actually - the thought of getting caught ruins any pleasure for me)
* Stolen Anything: No

LAYER 5: Have you ever…
* Played a game that required removal of clothing: No - sadly no opportunity when I might have found that fun...
* Been trashed or extremely intoxicated: No - but I have had several episodes of bed spins from dehydration the day after a night of too much beer or wine (college). But not trashed or out of control.
* Been caught “doing something”: Not really...
* Been called a tease: No - I've been teased...
* Gotten beaten up: Only as a kid and not badly
* Shoplifted: I can't recall, but it's the kind of thing I might have tried once or twice as a kid and then forgotten. I know I would have felt guilty about the object forever afterward, and I would have needed to get rid of it eventually. I have an overbearing conscience.

LAYER 6:
* Age you did get/hope to be married: Barely 20 - It feels crazy to me now - I'm so glad we did it.
* Numbers and names of children (either you have or want): Oldest 21, Daughter 17, Youngest 10 - all planned (Youngest was carefully planned when we realized we would be done raising kids far too soon).
* Describe your dream mate: I already have her. Check out her blog...
* How do you want to die: I don't. Unless when I'm depressed, when I want to do it with the flip of a light switch and have it be done just like a light going out.
* What did you want to be when you grow up: a scientist, a philosopher, an artist, a lover. I'm really quite close to all that, in some altered ways.
* What country would you most like to visit: Italy

LAYER 7: Now tell...
* Name a drug you’ve taken illegally: There isn't one - see note about my brain, above.
* Name a person you could trust with my life: My wife or either of my two oldest children. I think Youngest will be in that list when he's older.
* Name a favorite CD that you own: Impossible to choose, and it changes... I do have some CDs that I think are never going to wear out for me... Synchronicity by the Police, Vivaldi's concerti, Say I Am You by The Weepies, This is Where You Belong by The Summer Obsession, Come on, Come on by Mary Chapin Carpenter. Other artists are also favorites, but their CDs aren't quite so perfect (love maybe half of each).
* Number of piercings: none
* Number of tattoos: none
* Number of times my name has appeared in the newspaper: 18? 20?
* Name a past experience that you regret: Telling a very innocent and devoted friend (who may, in retrospect, have been attracted to me beyond just being a friend, but I'm not wired that way) to get lost. I doubt I could have made that friendship work, but I could have been far gentler. I was a teenager, and not patient or experienced with such things.

Feel free to pick this up and do it yourself, as well.

More Dunny - Mwahahahahaha!

So I opened the last one I had tonight. Rough coupla days at th'office, ya know, and I just felt entitled.

As soon as I opened this one it seemed to need the brown ape beside it. They're so perfect together (and both velvety, like fuzzy plastic kids Christmas ornaments from the 70's) that I have moved them to their own place in my work table.

I still can't figure out the draw of these for me. I have a weird craving for them - for the uncertainty of which one is in the box, for the way the different graphic designers have played out their little stories on the same oddly shaped canvas.

I would buy blank ones (only if they were this little) in a red hot minute to do my own playing.

Mothers Day Trip to Blowing Rock NC

Last Friday we took a day trip to the mountains for Dearest - a week late, but it was for Mothers Day. We had thunder and rain all around us all day, but never had rain while we did our favorite outside things. We started with a picnic at Price Park, by the stream.

We walked at the Cone Manor, around the Bass Lake (or course - this is possibly our favorite walk on planet Earth) Here I am looking back at the carriage road over one half of the heart pond.

Raindrops delicately clung to everything, softly accumulating from the mist. Here wild strawberry leaves, cow vetch, and a buttercup make up the principle players.

This is our beautiful Daughter, looking out over the Bass Lake from the bench near the dam. The leaves on the trees were five or six weeks back in time from what we have now in the Piedmont.

Bluets covered the top of the bank on one part of the opposite shore. I took a number of photos, trying to capture the simple profusion of these light blue flowers all over this bank. Click images for a closer view.

Here the bluets are up close. They're also called Quaker ladies.

At the end, before going to get pizza and ice cream at our favorite eateries in Blowing Rock, Dearest wanted to at least hike up to the bridge on the Rough Ridge trail. I stayed below with Daughter (whose healing ankle was not up to more steps and climbing) and so I could take this picture of the others when they got on the bridge. I believe this is one of the most beautiful bridges in the Southeast, for the lovely arch, the simple construction, and (mostly) the setting. The water streams quietly over this steep, but gently curving rock face covered with mosses and plants. Everything about this area is like a garden, so lush and beautifully arranged.

Before we visited the Rough Ridge trail head, we walked out from the overlook towards the Linn Cove Viaduct. This shot was from that walk - the puddles of former rains reflecting a cloudy sky. We felt like we got away with something, like we had our pleasure all day under the very eaves of loud thunderstorms, and never got wet. It rained most of the way home, when we were in the car and it no longer mattered.

Happy Mothers Day, Dearest.

Scrap Creatures

June Saville, in Australia ("June in Oz") commented on my "Drawing" post with an invitation to contribute to a Microsoft Paint gallery. She's created some images of her own, and posted them along with the challenge for us to try our hands and contribute them for a virtual show. Genie Sea regularly creates paintings using virtual paint, though she is using more sophisticated software. MSPaint is very simple, not even a lot of color choices, and no complex shading tools. Just spray paint, lines, basic shapes, and cut/paste tools. I think the limitations are part of the fun.

So this afternoon I created a little image with my mouse (not shown here). Oldest and I used to call these "scrap creatures." Back when Oldest was about six, we would sit together at the computer and make these. We would scribble all over, spill virtual paint and spray randomly around, then cut and paste and scramble the drawings. We even turned them and flipped them, looking for the tell-tale signs of what they would become. Some we did together, like the one above ("Dog, Cat, Fish"). Others we made with my hand on the mouse, but both of us "seeing" together what emerged, and deciding as a team what to bring out of the background. I haven't thought about them for years, but the method is amazingly like what I do now with real paint. Weird (that I forgot that).

So here are several of the old ones. I sent June the one I created today, for the opening of her virtual show, and I sent her our favorite example of the old ones, too (not shown here - saving it for the show, of course). I am also bemused at seeing how much I was into ultramarine blue back then. That was fifteen years ago, and during my artistic blockage (no real painting or drawing). How little things change...

What about you? Here's a chance to do some drawing, and show it in a crowd of others. It's a bit like singing in the chorus - it's a lot less scary than singing a solo. It doesn't have to be complex or smooth - simple often has more impact. For instance, I like this last one of ours ("Bear and Toad") just as much as the others shown here, though it's a lot simpler.

Check out June's post (link up above) and send her something. What comes out of your mouse hand?

Drawing and Painting

When do we stop thinking we can draw? When do we stop singing in public? When do we stop expressing our life in art? Why do I get responses like, "Really!?" when I tell people I paint, and that I show my paintings online and sell them... (I've discovered I have to throw in the "I sell them" part to get people to take it seriously.) I have learned that I need (for me) to stand up and say I'm an artist. I'm getting better at it - more fearless, more gleeful. But why is this so hard? What do I have to stay in practice (saying it)?! Why do people shudder if I suggest they try to draw?

I think everyone can draw.

Quit shaking your head. We all learn to write. We all make marks. We have characteristic handwriting. I'll quote Professor Hill from The Music Man : "Singing is just sustained talking." Drawing is just sustained writing. And I believe we all can and want to express ourselves this way. Some of us have deeply suppressed that desire.

Some of us have no choice (I'd feel like I'd lost my arms and hands if someone told me I could never draw or paint again). But most of us are embarrassed to try. Or we're afraid of the discouraging feeling we'll get when we can't draw immediately what we see. Discouraged. Embarrassed.

Actually, so am I. Regularly embarrassed to show my art to others because it isn't as good as I wanted or pictured it to be when I started. Why would I show people all my misses, even when they're near misses? "Look! The arrow is in the next circle out from the bull's eye! Do you know how hard it was to even get it into that ring instead of missing the target altogether?!" I don't think that's newsworthy.

But I think we're getting it wrong. Drawing is not about the end result on the paper - it's about seeing. It's about using more of your mind and some of your body to see something inside or outside of yourself. And drawings are also messages in bottles, sent from down deep to the surface. Art can be a communication from our lost child self to our adult self. The adult shouldn't edit or critique those messages - the adult needs to read them. They're personal.

And that implies two further things about drawing. First, it's not supposed to be a replica of reality - it's supposed to be a free interpretation made by a complex and simple inner self. The more free we can make that, the more satisfying the results, and the more complex the messages that can be conveyed. Like learning a language. And second, it's not necessarily supposed to be shared. It might be just for you.

But sometimes it's sharing the drawing that makes it breathe and gives it a greater existence, and that expanded existence might be what's needed for the message to get through. Through to the artist. Oh, it might reach other people, too, but that isn't the point.

It's not about whether it "works" or whether it's "good enough" or whether it's "realistic" or whether some part of it is "right" or "wrong." The best drawing is not the most realistic or professional - it's the most in touch with the inner workings of the artist.

And right there I think I touched on what makes it really hard to draw or paint. And maybe that's what we're afraid to do. I know I was for many years. I still hold back.

Can you open up and let your inner child play? Can you "Just draw"?

Everyone can draw. We just don't all want to (we don't all dare to). Some of us do it "prettier" and so it's not such a "dare" for us, but the pretty drawings are not the most important ones.

Drawing is about seeing.

Drawing is your inner child's chance to talk to you as an adult. You need those messages.

Drawing expands it's voice, breathes (like a bottle of wine) when it's shared. Find a friend you can trust.

Do it for you.

Lisa at That's Why wrote a daring post, a post that's already over the slippery slope, beyond "I can't draw," and into "Why not?" (That question is contiguous with her blog title...) As Randal commented, we're all going to keep after her now until she does it! I had wondered why she's so fascinated with the art of others. The Pagan Sphinx is another on my list. Many people who take photos look to me like the camera is a step toward a more radical tool, toward a more basic way to make images, toward making expressive marks. I wonder if people keep coming by the virtual studio because they're lured there by something inside themselves. I think we're lured by art the same way we're drawn into conversations as adults or toward play as children. We know we're meant to join in. We recognize that this is part of our kingdom. We're meant to live there.

So when you picture yourself creating images, what do you see in your hand? What kind of marks do you want to make? Pencil? Ink? Pen? Brush? Chalk? Do you want to sculpt, instead? What's keeping you from doing it?