slightly wonky

Happy Thanksgiving, all!  We had a lovely day in Central MA with my husband’s family.  It was a treat to see everyone.  I’m thankful to have spent the day with so many wonderful people. 

Many of my friends have posted photos on Facebook of their Thanksgiving meal.  I have no such photo…sorry!  I do have a rather impressive block skyscraper that my son made with his grandma:

Does that make up for no photo of my dinner plate?  No?  We do actually have some photos from the day, but I’m not sure how my family members would feel about their picture on the internet, so I’m just posting a this impressive pile of blocks instead.  I know.  You would have rather seen the turkey/stuffing/potato photo or the family shot.  No luck.  I’m the only one in the family crazy enough to post things on the internet.  I know that this blog will ruin my future presidential campaign, but I have to throw caution to the wind here.

I’m continuing to meet once a week with Adria Arch, a local artist.  She’s helping me to…FOCUS.  Lately, I’ve been working ONLY in black and white, and ONLY with drawing.  I’m working on still lifes.  Here’s a couple of them:

and

These are just portions of two larger drawings.  The top one is graphite and the bottom one is charcoal.  Ahh…the heady aroma of spray fixative…

In a way, I’m trying to put my blinders on a bit right now.  It’s hard not to be wowed and overwhelmed with all of the other talented people in the world.  Looking at other’s work can be both inspiring, and sometimes a bit defeating!  I’m trying to not worry about being too original in my technique, but being more original in my subject matter.  I hope that, in time, this will lead me into new directions with how to express my thoughts. 

Art is definitely a field where some people shock their way into stardom.  Others prefer to paint “happy little bushes” a la Bob Ross.  I think that the rest of us fall in the grey area between those two poles.

Adria cautioned me about presenting my work to others too early…and possibly stunting the little sapling of an idea here.  That’s at odds with this blog.   I’m going to try to post vignettes of my work so that I can continue to talk about it here as I plod along behind the scenes.

Like most of us, I often feel like one of those circus performers who has to keep a dozen plates spinning without falling.  Right now, I’m trying to have fewer art plates spinning so that I can stop everything from being so wobbly…

I just remembered that I DO have a great Thanksgiving image!  My son made this card at school, and I am planning on framing it because I love it so much AND I MUST PRESERVE IT FOREVER!!!!!!

Gobble!  Gobble! Gobble!