Full Version: iPad Project 2011 Culmination/Film

This film runs a bit slower than a previous version I posted.  This is my preferred way for viewing the work.  It's too long for YouTube.

September Maple

watercolor, 8" x 5"

Painting: January 2011

22" x 26", oil on canvas

I'm thinking of a convict tracking time with hatch marks in relation to my dots. I'm not using them to keep a calendar or with longing for the passing of time. The dots occur in time, however, as actions and records of a moment. Like the prisoner's marks, they result from my existence in time-space.

The convict is uncertain of the future, as am I. I don't think the convict has the same relish for making his mark, the drag of the pencil or chalk on the wall. His marks are numerical symbols. Mine incorporate vision, organization, and sensation. Both are emblematic of will. Both are of personal importance.

My dots are made with the love of painting and the belief that they, and hence painting, matter. I know what the paintings of others mean to me and so I persist, insist that they are relevant. Take a step back and its our collective hope that our lives matter. It's our will that makes it so. No giving up.

Two Oil Pastels

Red-Violet Maple, 18" x 15", oil on canvas

Maple, Purple, Green, 18" x 12", oil pastel on black paper

Night Maple, 18" x 12", oil pastel on black paper

Hip Hop artist Jay Z spun his song Hard Knock Life from Charles Strouse's It's a Hard Knock Life written for the musical Annie (Strouse says he was flattered). Jay Z was attracted to the lyrics because of the grit; he liked that it showed how it really is for some kids.

These works of mine have grit, an edge. They aren't pastoral. They have expressive marks and are skeletal, a builder's framing of a tree.

The bare canvas lights the form of the tree in Red-Violet Maple. The black paper provides atmosphere for Maple, Purple, Green and Night Maple. Their limited palette shows restraint, minimalism in service to form.

I love drawing in color. Here I wasn't willing to totally abandon it; I still wanted it for feeling. I draw with color when I use the iPad. It is some kind of drawing/painting hybrid just like pastels. I also love Hard Knock Life and hip hop dancing even though I'm a generally quiet white girl (o.k., it's been a long time since I've been a girl). The images are hybrids of my internal quiet and energy, strong from years of abrasive grit.

Dot Painting #1

14" x 13", oil on canvas

Light moves, color moves, dots swirl like blowing leaves and dust. Dot Painting #1 pulses, extends itself forward and back just as it is stabilized by left and right verticals and a horizontal mid-line. Transitions between earth tones

are close, the off-white canvas is bare, harmonizing with the lighter colors. The lower left corner is held by a pink dot while diagonally opposed by an area of red.

Painter Lois Dodd in a YouTube video says she sees things other people may not see just as musicians probably hear things she doesn't. I think this painting is an example of the unique way I see and is stronger for it. It is this same quality that may make it esoteric. I stand by what I make no matter the degree of accessibility. People like different things. My job is not to guess what they like, be part of a think tank, but to make good art whether it is liked or not. That is the luxury a fine artist has over a commercial artist. The same quality interferes with cash flow, so perhaps it is the only luxury. It is sometimes discouraging and many artists quit from the compounded factors of money and lack of appreciation of their work. I don't regret my choice. I can't rest without making the images. Here is my personal declaration, a reminder of what I am doing. It's my raison d'etre and I take it with me into 2011. It was done on the iPad. I give permission to any artist to print it out for themselves (not to reproduce). Happy New Year!

House and Red Tree

18" x 15", oil on canvas, 2010, PRIVATE COLLECTION

This week I have two musicians to mention with accompanying quotes relevant to the creative process. The first is gospel singer Mavis Staples who released a new album called You Are Not Alone. Her father, Roebuck "Pops" Staples said, "What comes from the heart touches the heart." Art made from the heart will be received as such.

Singer-songwriter Rosanne Cash started painting to see how she would express herself without language and found that it is similar to writing and performance for her. She likes a quote from musician Linda Ronstat, "Refine your skills so you can support your instincts." Improvisation has to hang on something, knowledge and clarity. House and Red Tree has structure while it sways to its own tune.

iPad Advent Calendar!

Red Mountain

Check in daily to Art Weekly for an iPad Advent Calendar! Each post will feature one or more of my artworks done on the iPad using the apps Brushes, Sketchbook Pro, Inspire Pro, Art Studio, or Type Drawing.

iPad Advent Calendar!

Fall Pine #1

Check in daily to Art Weekly for an iPad Advent Calendar! Each post will feature one or more of my artworks done on the iPad using the apps Brushes, Sketchbook Pro, Inspire Pro, Art Studio, or Type Drawing.

Sunrise January 2010

In between unpacking boxes and scheduling utilities I managed to make these two. The sketch I did at 6:45 a.m. looking out the kitchen window. Beyond those trees is the bay. the colors changed in seconds and fifteen minutes later it all turned blue. I want to hold onto the color. The trees have payne's gray, black, and blue mixed in. It was tricky to capture the volume of the clouds overhead when the dots want to flatten space, accentuating the picture plane. The two pictures are very different. The sketch is airy and energetic while the painting is staid and iconic, almost classical. Dictionary.com defines "staid" as "fixed, settled, or permanent". The drawing is more spontaneous, a reflection of how it was made. There is movement in the painting and the entire concept of a sunrise is temporal. The painting has that in addition to a feeling of being grounded, the dots are like map pinpoints, helping me to orient myself. So far so good.