wagonized

Eén ding is zeker, U maakt KUNST

One thing is for sure, you make art.  I have this card ("K_NST") that I have kept from my time in Brussels, Belgium, which reminds me of what art is.  It hangs on the wall in front of my desk, and I see it every day.  And since I was sitting at my desk tonight, I drew it -- as well as the random crap that lies on it.  

Meeting and exam doodles

Can't believe I am posting this kind of overlapping crap -- but that was my day yesterday: doodling during exams and a faculty meeting.  I guess I'd sooner draw crap than not draw at all in the course of the day.  

Dashboard

Sitting in the parking lot of the supermarket tonight, while Tom was running in to get last-minute groceries, I whipped out the iPad and tried to do an inside-the-car drawing.  I had not done that in years.  I had to be quick because I knew Tom was probably going to go through the "10 items or LESS" checkout -- only Whole Foods seem to get their grammar right by the way. 

Paper app for the iPad.

 

Michael Fowlin

For the sixth year, Dr. Michael Fowlin was giving a talk in front of the Freshman class at our school today.  It was a presentation full of laughs, punctuated by moments of deep silence.  Even though I had seen him a handful of times before, today was probably a tad more personal.

I have been trying to draw bigger spaces around me -- and this was my attempt to fit a portion of the auditorium in my Evernote Moleskine.  

Pigma Micron 05.  

This is one of those many, many sketches done near the end of the evening, before getting the last load of laundry, sitting in front of the TV without watching it, trying to capture the new layout of the living room with the pocket doors closed (and that's a towel underneath them, to keep the cold air out).  

Trying to draw fast, without laboring too much over details.  Paper app for the iPad.  

Stolen moments

Five minutes here and there, that's all I had to steal a couple of doodles in school.  The former at my colleague Diane's desk and the latter was in my little office.  

Paper app for the iPad.

Intentions

My original intention was to draw my husband tonight, but we watched Jon Stewart interviewing Roger Waters, which in turn made me think of David Gilmour.  Since he was looking fine in the early days of Pink Floyd, and despite my aversion toward drawings of celebrities (I drew my share of Keith Richards and Mick Jaggers in high school), I wanted to draw handsome Gimour.  A complete fiasco resemblance-wise, but it was great fun to toy with the pencil strokes in the ever amazing Procreate app for the iPad.  

The lowly Crocs

Always trying to do something fast, the opposite of tedious, something that looks like something without laboring over details.  It's an exercise in restraint, speed and simplicity.  And again, the best subject is my daughter's cute little size 8-9 Crocs.  Kind of like these old ones but not quite.

Paper app for the iPad. 

Space heater and computers

I am pretty psyched about having received my new 5 x 8.5 Evernote Moleskine in the mail the other day.  For fear my digital doodles might take over, I have forced myself to use the Moleskine again, even though its pages are significantly thinner than in the regular Moleskine sketchbook.  It's ok, because I would lie if I said those little squares didn't help me draw straighter vertical lines.  

This is a glimpse of the stuff lying around our garage/studio while Tom is working on insulation and drywall.  

Pigma Micron 01 in Evernote Moleskine.

Earlier in the week, I drew with one of my fountain pens in a business class.  Hence the much thicker lines.

 

 

 

Bogged down

The irony about my job as a high school teacher is that, every now and then, I have to take a day off just to prepare for the upcoming week of work.  Actual teaching, as it turns out, is only a small portion of teaching.  Grading papers, writing relevant, engaging and intellectually stimulating lessons which will cater to various learning styles, grading papers, attending meetings, responding to e-mails, grading papers, typing recommendation letters, designing material where there is no textbook, entering grades, giving exam retakes, grading exam retakes -- everything keeps me away from drawing.  But there is always a minute here or there, while shifting gears, to pull out a Moleskine or the iPad for a quick doodle-dee-doo.  And eat some orange-infused prunes, which I love.