Cay Denise

  Austin Kleon has a new book coming out this June titled 'Don't Call It Art'. As part of promoting pre-sales, he is providing some goodies that include five zines containing some of the materials cut from the book.  This description of the book is a quote from Zine #1: "In this book, I'm going to help you learn to treat yourself with the care of a loving parent so that the wild, creative kid who still lives in you can come out and play." I think that says it all.  As you may guess, I pre-ordered the book.  If you do so, make sure you go to his website and look for the promotion.  You'll need a receipt to submit for the goodie package. 

I really liked the first half of this book while the second half had more stories that supported her themes and wasn't quite as fun to read.  There are some great lines in this book that are worthy of keeping as quotes to review every now and then.   I love the author's way of looking and dealing with things in an unusual way.  Some examples are how she has a conversation with fear before a project begins, how she created a ceremony when young committing to the life of a writer, how she sees ideas as disembodied life-forms, etc. For creatives from all disciplines, this is a worthy book to read.  There are truth nuggets throughout, and the author authentically shares how her perspective on creativity has been developed throughout her life as a writer regardless of, or maybe in spite of, success.

I've had the source image below for over a year.  This month has been the first time I've attempted to sketch a likeness of it in pencil.  My reason for not doing so before now....was a lack of confidence in my ability because it looked too hard (so many darks to be able to distinguish)..  That said, my first try began with a line to show the edge of the face on the right from forehead all the way around the chin.  The effort below was done over several days.  Even though it is 'finished', the hat could benefit from much more work in order to be a strong likeness.  But overall I'm satisfied with the sketch where it is now. There is a difference that can be seen in my piece compared to the photo.  The face in the photo is shorter [vertically] than mine.  But it's not enough to make me want to re-do it. The challenging areas were the eyes followed by the hat.  What I learned is that I'm seeing shapes better as well as in more detail which adds ...

Boy, I have a much greater appreciation for the artisans of this elegant, physical, difficult, and time-consuming art form than I did before my beginning class! My post-class questions include, "What would the artisans of the past be able to create with the tools now available that weren't during their time?"  Also, "How in the heck did they do it with the tools they had??" Stained glass-making is not easy.  Cutting glass is a trying experience.  Glass is finicky, and not all glass will break according to its scoring (initial cutting that doesn't break the glass).  Each type of glass is different.  It's better to cut on the smoother side (easier), but that doesn't mean it's easy nor does it guarantee a great or clean cut. Then, there's the process of preparing the glass for soldering so that it fits into the cartoon (design/ pattern) image of the final product. Soldering is an art form as well...with the goal that it doesn't detract from ...