This is why I paint and why I should be painting a lot more often

This weekend provided the first opportunities in months for me to really invest some time and paint in my home studio. Here are the fruits of my labor...

Both were done in Gamblin oils on stretched canvases that are 36x36 in size. Both are completely original works for me and this is a huge first for me. Both were also done - start to finish - within less than 48 hours of time. I have no titles for them yet but I am working on that. The inspiration for the subject matter should be obvious enough but largely it is informed by my Christian beliefs and experiences so far in my life.

My secret about how I "do it all" is...

Here it is: I don't.

Yesterday, was mother's day for mothers the world over (including me) but I wasn't celebrating it because I had to travel hours out of state to a funeral. Yesterday, I also had to finish up another graduate studies course for my MAT program that is still at least a full calendar year from being able to be completely finished and today starts yet another class. Yesterday, I also had to do various other things like inventorying my current textbooks so that I could have them ready to sell to fellow grad students and while this seems like a minor task, it's actually not - at least if you want to actually make money off of the books rather than just selling them back for a pittance. The day before yesterday (so, Saturday), I was up before 6am to help my husband with a major event he was helping to spearhead at the school where he teaches and after that I had 3+ hours of school work (for the class that officially ended yesterday). I also spent 7+ hours dealing with an issue affecting both my husband's phone and my phone that basically was rendering our phones as very fancy paperweights. Attending to the issue required one very involved trip to an Apple store and another very involved trip to the cell phone store that ended up derailed for reasons way beyond my control and I ended up eating some delicious frozen yogurt instead while on the phone for a third time that day with a customer service rep for the cell phone network I am on.

Here's something you should have noted in all of the above that is only really a typical (seriously) two days of my life beyond blogging here: I did not once mention cooking OR cleaning. For this I am not necessarily proud and I won't say I didn't clean or cook at all (because it happened partially in the midst of everything) but for the most part? It was hardly a priority. Another thing that was very much a priority but just plain wasn't mentioned was my my almost five year old daughter. She was attended to plenty I just really don't remember how, what, and when I did for her amidst all of the... well, everything that I did.

Some weeks ago I was checking into Pinterest (I do this sporadically when I need to rest my brain mostly) and I stumbled upon this from CraftSnark.com...

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It made me laugh so hard because it is absolutely the truth! Because here's the thing, even if I didn't have teaching full-time, graduate school full-time, and being a wife and mother to a young child, my life would still likely be exactly as the above describes. And this is because I would end up indulging my creative inspirations, spurts, and seeking to satisfy my wandering curiosities a whole heck of a lot more than I would be making and keeping up a well-oiled and tidy household.

Anyway, I know all of this is pretty unrelated to this blog and everything and I know that I haven't been blogging lately but I just wanted to pop on here and let you know that while all of the aforementioned applies still to any given day of my life, I am working on getting some content on here to be published soon enough. In the past week since I have been not actively publishing fresh content, I have had so many hits and connections made to this site and I am so grateful that you all are finding what you need AND liking it enough to keep coming back for more. I suspect that many of you are art educators because that's what my stat counter indicates you are more often than not and I want to encourage you all to never hesitate to contact me with any questions or comments about what is posted here so that it is useful to and for you! This is the whole point of this site afterall.

And that's basically it for now at least. School is wrapping up for me over the coming three weeks and this week is actually my last one with this year's graduating seniors so their grades are due and I am definitely behind on that. I can hardly believe that another school year has gone by and I hope it has been good and fun for you all, my fellow art teachers, bloggers, and creatives.

See you in a bit (though I can't commit to exactly when that will be) with some stuff other than just explanations of why I can't actually be here. Thank you again for continuing to bear with me.

Right now I am swamped. Please stand by

I am right at the end of a very labor intensive graduate class and also drawing closer to the end of the school year. To say I am incredibly busy and not able to keep up with fresh content here would be a gross understatement. So? Give me a moment or two and I will be back up and running with things shortly. Thanks!

Taking it from shape to form to cartoons-in-the-round

Right now, the 3D Design class is diving into the lesson idea that is Cartoons-in-the-round. It's such a favorite project for the students to do both because it offers them the opportunity to do handbuilding and work with clay and the subject matter? Well... cartoons are just so much fun! Still, for as much fun as it is, it's also incredibly challenging for so many of them. Most all of them are foundational student artists and this means that many of them have little to no experience with the visual arts. Just the same, that doesn't ever keep them from dreaming big about what they can create and as far as I am concerned, I am all about enabling them to make their seemingly impossible dreams come to fruition.

One of the big challenges I always have in teaching visual art is helping the students to see things in different ways. Sculpting is always a great adventure because of this challenge since the students inevitably pick subject matter that they know can be done in clay but they have a hard time figuring out how it will happen. Since I do not permit them to trace their selected cartoons, the frustration of the project always sets in very very early on. They print off pictures of what they want to do and insist that that is adequate for them to sculpt from. I never EVER allow it to stop there and I require them to draw (from picture reference) both a straight on front view and then a perfect side/profile view of their selected subject. I describe what they need to draw by telling them to draw a "mug shot" of their cartoon.

The majority of the students are ALWAYS frustrated by the drafting portion of this project though because they cannot figure out even how to draw things. I have found it's very helpful for them to see simple step-by-step directions (always readily online) of how to go about drawing cartoons...

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Both examples above definitely help them to see how to go from simple shapes to complex forms and I teach them to interpret complex forms by visually "reading" them as simple shapes. I even offer them a key for when they are drawing and "reading" their subject matter by reminding them of how the four basic shapes look as 3D forms - circles are spheres, triangles are cones, etc.

After I do this with them, I project a random character selection onto the white board and then I draw in (with their prompting) the simple shapes found within the overall complex form. Then I turn the projector off and show them what the simple break down is...

Can't find the original cartoon but this was a baby tiger I think

I encourage them to do this simplification process to whatever they are attempting to draw not just to figure out how it should be drawn but also to show them that if they do this, they can use this to determine what complex forms they will need to have in order to put them together to make their character in sculpture form! They can even count how many spheres they will needs, cones, etc.

The students are working on sculpting all this week but they are supposed to be done by the end of this week in order for us to have enough time to dry them completely and then paint and fully articulate them. This will end up being the very last project that we do in 3D Design and I am really glad that it is working out like this.

Artist Trading Cards are so amazing

Today the Interactive Art History students are finally getting their paint brushes at their mini canvases for the ever popular Mini Masterpiece project idea. In the past they have been both excited and incredibly intimidated by the teeny-tiny canvases both this year I think I finally discovered a way to allay the fears because check out what they did with these Artist Trading Cards...

If these don't show that they are reasonably prepared and confident for really turning out some extraordinary tiny paintings that I don't know what will prove it. They will work on their tiny canvases for at least a week (starting today) in order to leave enough time for them to set and dry to give as mother's day gifts. I really look forward to sharing their finished works with you all because if this is any hint at what's to come? Surely they are going to be amazingly done!