Wedding Cake Cracked

As much as I believe in it, the following is not really an accurate statement.  There is a memory in objects.  I feel this strongly as a visual person, because when I look at an object I have thoughts.  I might even have memories associated with a particular object.  The memory isn't actually in the object (though it feels that way) but in my head and the associations that have been built by experience.

The object that is bringing about these words is actually a replica of an earlier object.  A wedding cake to be exact.  The memories aren't my own but those of others who have told me the memory.  Their memories have become my own.  Back to the anniversary cake.  The most striking feature is the huge crack that crosses the surface and runs deep.  Definitely not a feature of most cakes served at anniversary receptions.  Most cakes are pristine and beautiful in their perfection.  For this cake the fault line marring it is the beauty.  It also speaks of the stories that are hidden by the surface--reminding me to never judge a book by its cover.

In 1968 two wonderful people married and became even more wonderful.  You might ask if that is possible, but if you knew these two you would not ask because you would know it to be true.  Behind this couple were many loving friends and family members.  A family full of makers, who moved and formed the things around them to be useful, beautiful and functional.  One of these makers is the sister of the bride.  I see her as exuberant and confident.  She was also the maker of the cake at a youthful ten years old.  So, the ten year old made the wedding cake, a cake full of hope, love and good fortune as any wedding cake should be.  After the cake is complete and assembled it was packaged up for a 70 mile car ride.  A car ride that proved disastrous for the cake.  On a curve, the cake became representative of the "Leaning Tower of Pisa" as a deep crack developed.  You can imagine the upset this caused the sister who made the lovely cake.  Knowing the bride and groom, this folly was taken in stride, most certainly with humor.

As one story of many from a wedding in 1968, we celebrate this 50th Anniversary with two cakes, a pristine, perfect cake and a cake with faults.  The memory in this cake is full of love and happiness.

Story From the Kiln: The Lady and The Snowman

This picture needs a story.  These two ceramic pieces were made by the same student artist.  I appreciated her attention to detail and the care she took in their creation.  You can see this by looking.  Placing them in the kiln they looked like they needed a story.  Actually, the picture demands a story, and it asks us to write the words for The Lady and the Snowman.   Pretty strong to say that a picture demands a story, but this one has been yelling at me since placing them in the kiln! An odd sensation to say the least.  The two pieces are joined for me by their maker and I cannot separate that commonality of their origin.  When I look at this picture it tells me story, as art does when we let it work its magic.

Here are a few starts.  Maybe you can write one/some of your own.

*In a matter of hours the lady and the snowman would be transformed.

*Looking on, the snowman did not sense the lady behind him.

*Worry filled the lady, a worry that she would not see the snowman again.  Their journey to this point had been evolving by the hands of someone else.  Now they were on their own, wondering what would come of them in the next six hours.

Enjoy!  Would love to hear your stories!

Packing for SAL: The Best Book for the Trip

My journey to NAEA School for Art Leaders 2017 began just before NAEA New York 2017 via am email.  The email piqued my interest for SAL.  In New York I made a point to attend one of the SAL 2016 cohort presentations which confirmed my desire to be a part of SAL.

Fast forward to the first week in July.  I am packing for a week at Crystal Bridges facing my fears and uncertainties as well as a fair amount of imposter syndrome.  To allay my fears I knew I had to take a Robin McKinley book.  It didn’t really matter which one, although the cover for Chalice speaks to me with its warm, comforting colors and William Morris feel to the border.  In high school, I won a copy of "The Hero and the Crown".  After an enjoyable read, "The Blue Sword" followed and I was hooked on Robin McKinley and her female “I’m not ready to fill these shoes but here I am to push forward blindly” hero.  I wanted to bring a McKinley book to SAL because I felt (and still do) like an imposter.  Thinking of myself as an “Art Leader” was the same thing as the heroine of The Blue Sword leading her fighters against unbeatable odds into a future she could not envision.  McKinley’s female hero’s speak to me like few heroine’s.  I can associate with their feeling out of place, not fitting in, coping with a new reality.  Feeling like they do not have the skill or know how for the job at hand.  Yep!  Totally bringing a McKinley because I needed to have hope for that heroine who for all their haplessness conquered the villain, accomplished the deed and found themselves in the end.

Why Draw Circles?

This week must be full of realizations.  So my mountains have changed this week.  I do love the mountains, the perfect escape from reality, from electronics, from me.

I draw these little circle drawings to escape from my reality.  I can "build" these small in size pictures with rules that I create with a math thought here and there.  Fibonacci Numbers to divide the plane, because I need some structure, then random circles that float around.  I can draw my lines in ink to hold everything in place.  They (the lines) allow me to respond to the randomness of the circles with decisiveness and a plan thought of in advance.

My escape in art is to build my own world that looks and feels like no other.  It is safe and I understand the rules because they are mine.

Infinite Mountain

I used to think that life was a series of mountains.  In my mind the mountains were all the same altitude.  They represented the ups and downs of life and my psychological state.  This morning my thinking has changed.  My mountain range is different.

I think that my mountain range is now infinite in altitude and really may only contain one mountain.  That thought is a little fuzzy, I can let that be imprecise.  This morning I realized that I will never reach the top.  This is a little stressful, it makes me feel that goals I am working toward my be unattainable.  I do take comfort in the fact that the virtual terrain of my mountain has altered.  It is no longer straight up and down.  My mountain is now a series of plateaus between steep parts, nicely graded paths that are gentle in their height gain mixed with steeper, rockier sections.  Every once in a while the path even heads back down, losing altitude.  The path itself is a mix of groomed walkways, clear of rocks making for smooth traveling.  Sometimes it is craggy and technical and in the worst case non-existent.

Such is life, sometimes smooth and straight forward other moments are fraught with tension and worry about the outcome.  You know, I don't mind that my mountain range has changed and is infinite.  The views are breath taking.

There are some pictures in my head that go along with these words, later maybe.

Choices

This past weekend brought a wonderful getaway form the everyday grind of life.  A few days lost in Arkansas.  So, maybe not lost.  I knew exactly where we were located, Devils Den State Park outside of Fayetteville, AR.  Sleeping in a tent.  No cell phone signal beginning about 6:30 pm Friday evening.  A total disconnect from many things pressing day to day.  I did connect with friends and family, connected with nature and my mountain bike and in turn myself.  I realized how much I missed this simple kind of get away that we took so much more of ten years ago.  This realization brought about reflections on my time choices.  Right now, I am reassessing choices having to do with how I use my time.  (I think I need to do this with my food choices also!) 

Are the things I give myself to adding value to my life?  I do know after the weekend, I miss my family.  I miss feeling like a mom.  I miss putting care into my home.  Definitely feel a need to reassess.

The Seed

As a child I played with the seeds on my grandfather's farm.  Collecting them, stacking them, probably throwing some at my siblings.  This memory was forgotten until a year ago when I came across a pod of these seeds on a trail ride.  My childhood memory returned along with the sense of play and wonder only a child naturally has.

A seed.  A seed represents potential.  Potential for the future plant it is capable of becoming.  Under the right conditions it can achieve its goal of maturing and passing information on to future plants.  I have this potential, you have this potential.

I want to create an atmosphere in my classroom that allows students to envision and work towards their own potential.

Ella Third Birthday

We celebrated Ella's third birthday today!  Time travels quickly these days, seems like yesterday we realized we would be adding a third youngster to our family.  Ella reminds us everyday how to be youthful and cherish the simple things in life.

Thoughts Behind the Binary Birthday Series

We are surrounded!  They are in our homes, cars and they wake us up in the morning.  Numbers are with us at every turn, explaining why things are the way they are.  Love or hate, numbers are with us to use as a tool to understand and improve our lives.

  My current focus in art is the visual nature of mathematics and numbers.  In genreal, we use a number system that utilizes a base of ten for day to day living.  In the background of our computer use is a number system of base two - the binary system.  It is fascinating that the fastest thinking objects we have uses a series of ones and zeros to access not just numbers, but words and symbols.  About a year ago I started playing around with binary numbers and what they look like.  The challenge for me was how could I use them as a tool to create a two-dimensional artwork that looked interesting and had meaning beyond what it looks like.

As with many things, a little bit of conflict can push your ideas.  I wanted to make a birthday gift for my father that had math content utilizing binary numbers.  The actual birth date became the gift translated into binary code as a series of cells in which occupied one of two colors.  Each of the colors was assigned a value of zero or one and the paint by number binary code began!

What does your birth date look like??!!

The Last Four Years

In one sentence in the last four years I have gained a child and switched teaching content areas.  These four years have flown by and I find myself once again opening my personal art doors.

Jumping right into the current artwork that has been evolving since early November of 2015.  For whatever reason binary numbers have captured my brain.  The best art for me involved some kind of problem to solve.  This problem was how to use binary numbers in a visual way to relay different numbers to the viewer.  First came the learning curve, how do binary numbers work to exchange one number to another.  In this case, a birth date to two numbers, a zero or a one.  Because there are basically two options, the powers of two come into play.  Below is a picture of what it looks like to me.

This template was created to speed up the process of drawing a friend's birthday using binary numbers.  Each block represents the month, day and year.  I found this representation fits almost all birthdays, except for days larger than fifteen, for those an additional column is added to the day block.

The most entertaining part of this process is thinking about what the columns of space represent and how they should be interpreted within the blocks.  In the first few, I was very strict in their representation.  Everything had to be square and contain the same number of columns.  Over time, I realized that both the blocks and the number of columns could change in size and still represent the same binary number and in turn birthday.  I struggle to let go of symmetry.  It made my brain very happy to live in perfect little squares and perfect little columns of information.  However, it became much more fun to imagine how the visual representation could be changed and still be the same number.  This process has reminded me how much I enjoy algorithms.  They can be utilized for any job that may be repetitive or may take several steps or decisions to reach an end.  With the same thoughts of building the date in the original work, I let myself become more flexible in terms of the columns and block sizes.  Pretty soon I might be able to leave the square format!

Mom in process

Mom completed

 Two pics of Cynthia and Steven above.

A couple pics of Roger.

This one was supposed to be Frida Kahlo, but I made an error in coloring so is the number 6-6-955.

Matt

Brittany

Above are Jackson Pollock, Georgia O'Keefe, and Mary Cassatt in order.  

The backs of the artworks serve as a spot to record/define which color is a one or zero as well as dates and materials used to complete the work.

Puzzle #1 Beginning

This is a piece I completed in 2008 for a juried art show in Sacramento, CA.  The show was sponsored by the 20thStreet Art Gallery.  The owners have since retired and closed their doors.  I will always be thankful that they gave me an opportunity to be a part of their 50-50-50 shows.  Fifty artists had fifty days to complete, you guessed it, fifty paintings.  Each "tile" had to be able to stand alone.  This was a great format for the venn series that had captured my art and math thoughts. 

Venn 2 has a place to hang in the Pittsburg State University Math Department.  Since hanging it this week my brain has been bombarded with all the fun possibilities I could have altering the tiles through specific movements.

This is the beginning of Puzzle #1.  I cannot wait to hear the feedback on the moves, all kinds of questions are floating in my head.  Will anyone even notice the daily changes the painting will undergo?  Will the viewers try to guess or anticipate the tile movement?  Will the moves be altered by someone other than the chosen tile mover (Hi!! Dad)?  Hmm, lots could happen.

Above is the painting in its original state.  Below is the master tile map.

Let the fun begin!!

09/02/2012

Lots has been going on this past summer and now that the school year has started.  These pics are scans of work completed in July and in August.  Not much and they are simple, drawing and painting. 

The house was good to work on for a great friend.  It is of her grandmother's house that was torn down ten years ago to build a Walgreen's.  It would be difficult to lose a part of your childhood, we place great value on our homes and places we share with our families.  A few years back there was talk of building a highway alongside our city that would have crossed in my parents back yard.  The thought of losing the place I grew up in was heart wrenching.  We avoided the highway when it was decided a road on the west side of Pittsburg would be better.  Now the dilemma has moved to another home.

The cyclists are my parents who are absolutely incredible.  It took a few tries to achieve the final and I am still not happy with the outcome.  This is a project I will come back to when there is more time.  This work was the sketch for the Gorilla Century 2012 t-shirt.

9/21/2011

Finished the t-shirt design. I hope that it is reproducible. Had the best time working this one up. Changed the contrast from the previous version so that there was more difference in the gray. Once I had the ink down it painted much like a paint by number.

So, still working on Deb. It has been fun playing around with the paint. I decided to do a version in gouache that is inspired by the silver surfer, Deborah is a smooth rider who hides her cycling strength under a cool reserve. Will probably do another version that has more contrast and I am undecided as to the background and border. Would love to do an art nouveau inspired border. More to play with!

8/10/11

Well, the scans are not in the order I drew them, but you get the idea. Portrait of a Pittsburg cyclist. Work in progress.

7/20/2011

Still looking for that special something. So, I've been fantasizing about comic books and their bold lines and colors but afraid to really commit to trying my hand at creating one. So I applied the bold lines and really red to my favorite subject, circles! Had to invent some rules for me to follow, you know this math person, always need some guidelines. Everything with no intersection has one set of lines, the intersections of two circles contains (you guessed it) two sets of crosshatched lines and the third has three lines to fill the space. As with any rules there has to be some rule breaking. I decided that the little circles were independent of the rules and the final red piece that is reminiscent of a triangle on the sphere has four intersecting circles followed suit.

Oh, by the way, the size of this one is different than the other paintings this year. This one is 11.5 by 5&7/8 inches.

Read While You Ride

This is the set up my sister has for her indoor trainer. We adapted it to work with two riders. Let's see, Cyn was reading a Diane Mott Davidson and I had the first Harry Potter. We actually rode for 1.5 hours. It seemed to fly by and we were not loafing. No excuses!

7/19

Yes, it has been a month since last posting. Life in that month has been full, full of travels, family and laughter. This past few days has seen me lost and adrift. Seeming with no thoughts to pin down or even act upon. So these two color sketches are a result of needing to do something, anything to find direction.

A Full Week

Off to the KLN workshop for school. Father's Day weekend is busy also. Not only are we hosting the Kansas State Time Trial Championships on Saturday, we are off the Cub Scout camp on Sunday for a few days.

Will be back to painting in a week.

6/10/2011

Grandma's Horse Lamp. A picture I have sketched several times and will many more in the future.