Sketchbook assignment 3

PAW PAW – Sharon, of Paw Paw, Ill., passed away the afternoon of Sunday, March 9, 2014, at her home.
Born Aug. 1, in Waterman, to Paul and Shirley, Sharon married Howard on Aug. 29, 1959, at Earlville Lutheran Church, after graduating from Shabbona High School in 1959.
Employed by Safranek’s Market for many years, Sharon was known for making the best potato salad around. With her selfless heart, she also put many hours into teaching Sunday school and Kid’s Klub at Paw Paw Bible Church.
Sharon was the treasured mom of three children, R. of Rollo, J. of Leland and S. of Mendota, who were all raised in Paw Paw. She will be missed by all, including her grandchildren, Nicholas, Mitchell, Brandon, William and Shelby. She also enjoyed and loved her five great-grandchildren, and nieces and nephews. She was beloved sister to her brother, Steve of DeKalb; and sister-in-law, Mary of Paw Paw.
Sharon was preceded in death by her parents and two brothers, Stanley and Howard.
The funeral service will be at 6 p.m. Wednesday, at Paw Paw Bible Church, with Pastor Jonathan officiating. The visitation will be from 4:30 to 6 p.m. Wednesday at the church. Cremation rites will be accorded.

Sketchbook Assignment #2: Inspiration

1) Christinas World by Andrew Wyeth.  For some reason as a little girl this image just spoke to me and I couldn’t get over it. I’m not sure if it serves as inspiration as I haven’t seen it’s echo in any of my work to date, but perhaps it’s still stewing in there.

 

2) Hard Knock Comics –  In high school I tripped across an ‘underground’ comic which I could not find anywhere on the internet.  I bought all the copies, AND I also wrote one of the artists who provided me with a second round of copies to send to a friend (but he said that was all he had).   It was a multi media piece by multiple rotating artists including but not limited to: Craig “Gundy” Gunderson, Dave Janicek, Matthew Langland, Mike Samson and Nick Wetmore.

 

3) Typography, Calligraphy and Fonts: I can’t specifically pick some or one that would illustrate a specific inspiration.  I think it’s the variety and the continuing innovation that I find inspiring, verses a specific image.  The repeating shapes and specific spacing in individual letters is more inspiring to me then the arrangement of the letters into words or on a page.

4) Survivor Man:  One man, Two cameras, and surviving.  He structures his shots in a very interesting way and then structures them together into his show with a purpose and an artistry.  Repeats available everywhere.

5) Historical Scientific Hand Drawn Illustrations: the detailed illustrations of the world around us I always found very inspiring.  I designed my whole wedding around it.

 

 

6) Everyday objects that have outlived their usefulness:  Rotary phones, type writers, tube T.V.s to name a few.  I think it is limited to the time before I was born because I don’t find items such as Nintendos or old computers as inspiring.

 

7) Quality Stage Design:  Since I majored in theater I have a soft spot for costume, lighting and set design.  Especially when it is elaborate (verses minimalist).

 

 

 

9) The play “The Adding Machine” by Elmer Rice (1923).  This play is about a man who has a nagging wife, and a boreing life, loses his monotonous job (that he has been working at for 20 years) unexpectedly.  He goes crazy, murders his boss –  Is tried for murder and found guilty then executed.  After that it follows his journey trying to find happiness in the afterlife.  It was so inspiring I can see the costumes in my head, and I even tried to write a modern version (as the themes hold up today), but I’m feeling as I’m not capturing the depth of the work so I abandoned it.

10) The Art of Takashi Murakami:  I like the clean plasticness of his work as well as the colors and shapes.

 

 

Flower Arrangement in Red

Shadow Box

Copic Experiment in Blue

Sketchbook assignment 1

INSTRUCTIONS:

In your sketchbook, make or describe something (or choose a work by another artist) that stands for what you think art really should be in your perfect world—if art was daring, bold, unique and special, if it was community-building or affirming, if it made the world a better place or turned the world on its head. Here, you get to decide.

Then, make or describe something (or choose a work by another artist) that stands for what you think people in the world think art should be—because a teacher or expert told you that’s what art is, or because that’s what you think “good art” is, or because you think this is what the art market wants, etc.
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art in my perfect world

I saw a dance concert in college put together by one of the students and afterwards I told her that her collection/performances were what I always imagined dance to be. I felt I needed to mention it here not only because I would use it as one of my examples, but to reassure myself I was confident in the following choices.

The first example I have to share is the art of Leigh Bowery. It is interesting to look at, textural, has historical roots yet pushed the envelope. His work is a combination of performance, fashion, sculpture, color and line. His not only created, but inspired as well. The argument can be made he did shock for the sake of shock, but not every piece by every artist is a winner, and I believe that is an important part of art in my perfect world.

This website has a pretty good collection of images: Bank Holiday Comes

My second example of my art in a perfect world is the game Myst circa 1993. At that time ‘electronic gaming’ was a newer concept, considered child’s play, this game brought gaming to adults and to the masses. Not only was it important in the history of gaming, but it was incredibly beautifully designed and drawn, it had compelling characters and told a riveting mystery story. In 1993 there wasn’t anything like this. It spawned a whole new genre of gaming and game design, which in turn required hardware to advance to keep up with the ideas. Again this piece was inspiring and also inspired.

The Worlds Idea of Art
Art should be attractive, often realistic, belongs in museums.

I picked Thomas Gainsborough as my artist for this. Portraits, pastorals, rich, accurate, beautiful but not very mentally challenging unless you find details overwhelming. Here is a blog with a nice collection of his work. Brits at their Best

My second example of the worlds idea of art is a game called Insanely Twisted Shadow Planet. It was released in 2011 and used very graphic black images on sharp colored backgrounds. The physics used were well established in the game industry and it was really just pretty. Fun, sure, but not anything that innovated or inspired.

Anime Jewelry Box

My Early Work

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Wood Block Stamp for Elle

Owl and Pussycat Stamp

Wood block carved stamp showing the Owl and the PussyCat from the folktale.