1st Postcard! & Wire Sculpture PT 2

Saturday I got my first postcard from the Musings on Realities Postcard Swap!  I was so excited when I realized what it was!  So, here it is:

This lovely postcard came from Sunshine in Portland, OR.  Thanks, Sunshine!!

So, since my post cards are all finished, I am hoping to have them addressed and in the mail this week!

Over the weekend, I also worked on my Wire Sculpture Project... I made this:

If you cant tell (I wouldn't hold it against you lol) its an armadillo.  Truthfully, I have absolutely no idea what we are supposed to be learning with this project.  All I feel like I am learning is that I do not like making sculptures out of rebar wire!  Still left to go: flamingo, camel, kangaroo, ostrich, and a cat with its back arched like its scared.

Thanks for visiting, come back soon!

Postcard Swap PT 2

Hi!  I hope you are having a nice weekend!  As promised, here is the 2nd half of my post cards for the Musings on Realities Postcard Swap!

Today I am going to work on that painting again!  Have a great day!!

Postcard Swap PT 1

Are you guys doing the Musings On Realities International Postcard Swap?  I certainly am.  I worked on my postcards today too!  So, I thought I would share with you since I didn't recognize any of the names, I doubt they will be in any of my regular reader's mail boxes.  So, here are the first 5:

I had a lot of fun doing these!  I even worked on a painting afterward, but it still has a long way to go so no photo.

Come back tomorrow and I will show you the rest of the cards I made!!  Have a great night.

Rebar Wire Sculptures part I

We finished critiquing every one's tape art installations in my design class.  Here are some photos of my classmates' projects:

Now, we are onto our next project.  Rebar Wire Sculptures that demonstrate balance, cantilever, connector, lever, counterweight, shear and torsion.  So far I have completed one sculpture:

If you cant tell what it is, it is a sting ray!  He is about 18 inches from nose to tail.  I am using it to demonstrate shear - because of how the ray's fins (?) move in the water!  Making an animal out of wire is a lot harder than I had imagined...that wire does not like to cooperate with me and I am very tired after making that sting ray.  I hope my teacher appreciates the hard work. 

Tonight we have an art gallery opening and a talent show at my school.  I think it will be a great time.  I am going to take my camera and hopefully I will get some good photos for you guys!  Tanks for stopping by; have a good night!!!

More Sketches!!

After a week of playing with pen and ink, I think I am finally starting to get used to it.  I'm not saying my drawings are great or anything, but I feel more comfortable with it.  Anyways, here are my drawings... one from the last few days, sketching at home:

Here is what I did in class today:

I really hope that soon I can get back to blogging more regularly.  It has been a crazy few weeks since I got back.  Next week is my last working in week in the Army, so after that I am really hoping that things calm down a bit.  Until then I will try and post when I can. 

Thanks for visiting me, have a GREAT evening.

Sketches

One of the projects we are to do for Drawing II class is to keep an art journal.  Not the kind of art journal that I normally keep, I think it would be too much paint/collage and not enough drawing.  One of the "rules" is that we should draw/write in it about 3 times a week, exploring concepts that we discussed in class.  So, here are two drawings I did over the weekend:

I am really starting to see how far off my proportions are.  One of the concepts we discussed this past week was "what is drawing?"  We talked about how writing is a type of drawing - just not one we would typically associate think of drawing.  And doodling - that is drawing as well.  So we were supposed to notice how differently our hand moves during writing vs. drawing and try some write/doodle/write/doodle.  I don't know if what I did will satisfy the teacher, but I gave it a shot. One big thing I have realized though is that I should approach drawing the way I approach other forms of art - just do it and if I don't like the end result, oh well, at least I did something.  Besides making it easier to accept the "bad" art, it does allow you more chance to practice which is the only way you will ever get better.

Thanks for stopping by today.  Come back to see me soon!

Manolo Millares

Hi friends!  My drawing teacher gave us an assignment yesterday (via our Internet classroom) to do an art journal page about an artist that inspires us.  So, it was quite hard to pick one because there are so many amazing artists!  It did help that he said the artist had to be one he wold recognize, and dead.  That helped because I was thinking about Richard Serra and Jasper Johns, but they are both alive.  I narrowed down to Picasso and Manolo Millares.  I ended up going with Millares because he is the lesser known of the two - it would be too simple to chose Picasso.  Also, it was hard to find good, reputable, information on Millares so that made me even more curious about him!  Here is my page:

I have seen two (possibly 3) of his works in person!  I know there is one at the modern art museum in Frankfurt, Germany:

Manolo Millares, Cuadro 73, 1958

and one at the National Art Gallery in Washing, D.C.:

Manolo Millares, Cuadro 78, 1959

Millares' work shows his feelings and position against the violence that was happening in Spain during his lifetime.  I really wish there was more out there for me to find on him because I am quite interested in learning more about him.

I am also hoping that my teaching thinks I did a decent job on that page - it doesn't look like I did much, but I probably researched for about 3-4 hours!

Thanks for stopping by, have a great evening!

The First Drawings

Today was our 2nd class in Drawing II and the first time we drew in class!  I am VERY self-conscious about my drawing skills/abilities, but our teacher (the Art Department Head) has emphasized several times that it doesn't matter how good we are now, only that we progress in our drawing ability over the course of the semester.  Anyway, here are the two sketches I did in class.

There are a lot of spots on that sketch that are the result of me closing my sketch book before the next sketch had dried...so... the first one looks kinda crazy now.  Here is the second one:

I have issues with portions.  But stick with me for a few months and I bet the sketches will get a lot better.  By the way...the model was wearing a grey hoodie on top of a black shirt and sitting in a chair with her arm leaning on my table! 

That is all I have for now, friends.  Time to study my ASL before class tonight!  Thanks for stopping by; have a great night!

WOYWW 18 JAN - Tape Art Project Part III

What's on my work desk?  Nothing, because I finished my tape art project and installed it this morning.  Here are some photos of the final installation:

I installed my project under a staircase, in a seating area.  I don't know my grade, but the critique went well I think so I'm not nearly as worried now as I was before class! 

Here are some photos of the projects of 2 of my classmates that installed their project today as well:

this one has no particular shape other than orb like

this one is a body come out of the wall w/ flower below it

If you want to look at more desks, go on over to Stamping Ground for lots-o-links!  Thanks for stopping by!

Tape Art Project Part II + Scrapbook Pages

I finished my tape art project this morning.  I hope I made enough circles, but either way I am way tired of masking tap and tired of making circles so I figured it was time to stop.  Also last night when I went to bed my wrist was throbbing - this project is not worth carpal tunnel!  Anyways, here it is right now:

I still have to get to the school and figure out where and how to hang it.  Then, Wednesday morning is when I do the installation and Wednesday afternoon it gets graded.  I will show you guys pictures of the final piece Wednesday evening!

I also did a bit of scrap-booking today! 

For my Army Scrapbook

For my travel scrapbook (this was trip in 2002!)

I did my pages from when I went to Victory Junction, but we are not supposed to post photos that include any of the families/kids from there, so I did not even take pictures of my pages.  Perhaps I will though, of the ones of the volunteers.

I also did this experiment

but it did not do what I thought it was going to do.  I will have to figure out what to use it for now!

That is all for today, friends.  Thanks for visiting me and I hope to "see" you again soon.  have a great night.

Tape Art Project Part 1

Hi everyone! Before I tell you about my Tape Art Project, I wanted to give you an Army update.  It has been a busy two days!! Yesterday they finally had my medical separation date!  I spent the day trying to get my leave form signed so I could finish my transition packet and get my orders next week.  It didn't workout but I went back in today (even though it was a day off!) and finished it up!  So, its all settled now!  I will be picking up my orders next Friday and then going to 3 different briefings.  After that I can clear - that means I go to all the different departments and they sign off on my paperwork saying I don't owe money or have anything that belongs to them.  I have to finish all of that by the 31st, so that on the 1st I can have my final out - my VERY LAST appointment in the Army (except for some medical appointments which I am going to keep since I will still be in the area - and its free health care!).  On the 2nd of FEB I will officially be on leave and will no longer be working.  On 12 April I will no longer belong to the Army!  I have waited so long for this, I am so happy its finally happening.  I think it will all go by so quick.

In addition to the above, I have been working on my tape art installation project for Design 2 class.  I have an awesome idea but it is taking me forever to execute it.  So, I am starting to worry that I won't have enough of it done in time to make a big enough impact to get a good grade (A!)  Do you want a hint?  It involves lots of circles made out of tape.  Do you want another hint?  We have to do a bunch of samples/tests, so here are some photos of ideas that are similar to how I am thinking of doing my project:

I will show you guys some more in a few days when I get more of it done.  For now I need to get back to production!  Have a great weekend! 

WOYWW 11 JAN

Hello and happy WOYWW to all my WOYWW visitors!  So, I've been busy this week starting school and taking 2 continuing education classes, thus my desk is sorta bare and very unorganized:

My side table is looking like this:

I want to get those scrapbook pages done - hopefully this weekend. 

Last night was my first American Sign Language class.  I REALLY enjoyed it.  I am very excited about learning more. Of course we did the alphabet and started practicing spelling really small words.  We also learned a few signs for words/phrases: what, where, bathe, rest room, coffee, machine, gone, and, family, mother, how are you, fine, my name is.  My hope is that learning sign language will enable me to help more people when I become an Art Therapist. 

1st Day of School

Yesterday was my first day of school!  I had computer art first.  They put us in the wrong classroom - a classroom without computers! - so after going over the syllabus we got to go home.  I will be learning photoshop in that class which is awesome because it is something I have wanted to learn for a while now. 

My 2nd class was Design II.  We will be doing mostly sculpture type things in that class.  Our first project is an art installation using only masking tape!  It should be fun at least.  

Yesterday was also the first day of my online only class, Women in Art.  I read the first assignment last night and it was pretty interesting. 

My only other class is Drawing II, but we don't go to the studio for that class until Thursday.  The class is hybrid - half online, half in the studio.  I got the syllabus online yesterday and I tell you what, it kind of scares me.  Today I am going to go buy the supplies that I don't already have (Thankfully I have most of them.)

Yesterday during my break I finished some scrapbook pages:

These scrapbook pages are of all the BOSS events I have done since being at Fort Bragg.  I still have a few more - the ones that happened right before Christmas, but I am mostly done.  I have 11 pages left in my book (I added an extension packet) to cover mid December till I am completely out of the Army - I think that is plenty!! 

Today I am finally turning in all my Army issued gear.  Its the most complicated part of out-processing the Army, so after that is done the rest of it should be easy.  I still don't know my separation date, but I am hoping to find out this week!! 

Well friends, that is all for now.  Hopefully I will "see" you again soon.  Have a great day.