Cay Denise

Today, I went to the theater to see 'The Shape of Water'. It is a stunningly beautiful love story with some suspense and action too! The music was great, the story lovely, the sets very appropriate to the time period, and just nearly perfect in every other way as well (especially the poem and final scene). I loved it, if you can't already tell, and highly recommend it!

If you have a chance to see this, do! It is a great movie filled with philosophy about creativity and the value of doing it in old ways, especially for writers and musicians. I also enjoyed the sculptural artist's imaginative work using typewriter parts.

In reviewing the year that has passed, I'm so appreciative of the many accomplishments I'm looking back on that are outside the arts-related ones on the list that follows.   I began my work life this past year as my jurisdiction's Acting Office of Emergency Services (OES) Director, managed our office through two local Presidentially-declared disasters including one for a flood that impacted 14,000 residents in our community, on-boarded a new OES Director and other staff, and completed our jurisdiction's annex to a multi-jurisdiction Hazard Mitigation Plan among other responsibilities. The effort to sustain my art-making practice in the face of my work life was a challenge, but it has also been necessary for relaxation and re-integration as time has allowed. That said, January through March was a blur...with storms, more storms, a flood, an Emergency Operations Center activation over 19 days, long hours, little sleep, three phones to manage, and more work than availabl...

This was completed as part of the Woman Unleashed Winter 2017 retreat.  It was not an assignment or session product, but rather a piece that simply arose spontaneously.  The shape is intended to be a pair of angel wings.

I've finished reading this book, and I have absolutely loved the journey through it!! The last 50+ pages are writing exercises -- very doable. Lynda Barry, the author and illustrator, is so imaginative and philosophical in her look at life and experience. If you are a writer, a writer wannable, or an artist/artist wannabe, this book provokes thought, provides a creative method to follow and develop your artistic muscle, and is well-worth the read. Even the symbolism, art, and collage elements have meaning! To purchase the book, you can find more information about it at this link: https://www.amazon.com/dp/1897299354/ref=cm_sw_r_fa_dp_U_BzGkAbCVHGKTC

Consider checking out the Woman Unleashed Online Retreat with host Amber Kuileimailani Bonnici at:  http://theradiantmama.com/OP/winter2017/ .  I've done her (no cost) retreats for the last three years focusing on the art-related sessions.  She has good instructors! Project 1 is to make your journal cover--the journal we'll be keeping throughout the workshop.  You can do whatever you want.  Her example was to gesso the cover of an art journal and then paint an image on it. Mine started out by reusing a piece of cardboard from an 8x10" photo paper package as the base.  Other materials used include metallic tape, alcohol inks, glitter, paint, pen, magazines (for the collage paper), a recycled earring, and reused stitched writing on fabric (with verse that is mine). There is an outside and an inside.  The inside drawing is a quick self-portrait in pen. The face and hair have been left black and white.  I'm thinking of filling them in with paint...

This is primarily a journal piece done on 12" x 18' art paper.  There is a lot of layering in this piece, and it reminds me of the old RCA channel sign-off icon. The way this turned out, is very different from the lesson which was actually to cover everything written below it, and I like the translucence that hints at the journaling below and uses the highly decorated and colorful background to generate a sense of energy with the bands of white paint and the yellow tentacles. I like this alot and would never have done something like it without the lesson prompt!I also used many Copic markers that I don't often work with and that was neat too. This piece was created through a class offered by Tamara Laporte from Willowing Arts Ltd. For more information, visit this  link:  www.willowing.org .

This video short consolidates several process photos of the last piece posted on this blog.  At the point before the trees were added, I felt stuck.  Some of the questions that were arising were: Is the face over-painted?  If so, does that mean the piece is complete?  Why does the overall piece feel so bare?  How do I keep the central image 'popping' if background work is added (to prevent eye distraction)? What kind of background would complete it? I had one idea, not fully formed, of adding in the background--shadowy trees in the style of Eyvind Earle.  So, I had to go back and research his work, because I knew I wanted the dark trees and to add depth (e.g. with trees in foreground and in a distance).  It was a week or two before I started the background...still unsure if that was what would really complement the image.  Well it seems to work.   In the Earle paintings I reviewed, it was clear that his tree work evolved ove...

This piece took about two weekends to complete.  The first part to be painted was the face.  Then I got stuck for a while on what to do with the background.  I eventually added my interpretation of Eyvind Early trees to the background and have kept it dark so the figure pops (or at least hopefully it does).  Comments welcome!

https://mobile.nytimes.com/blogs/lens/2017/10/05/how-to-walk-out-of-the-louvre-with-a-masterpiece/#_=_ I'd love to try this!  With only 250 permits issued per year, it's not likely--but it is fun to imagine trying to recreate an old masterpiece.  Would you be intimidated to try?  I might be a bit if people were watching me paint.  But what a great way to learn about color, composition, light, etc.

The base of this piece is a collage of parts of articles. I created a verse from words that I was drawn to and was inspired to do a piece in green. Then I applied gesso to cover the entire page of collaged articles, wrote in green watercolor crayon, drew my witch, activated parts of the watercolor areas (and added black), and then did some detail work. Fun, since Halloween is right around the corner!

The recipe: Journal with watercolor crayon on watercolor paper (overlap the writing so it can't be read) With a permanent marker, draw a face (without lifting pen off paper) over the journaling Activate areas of the drawing with water Voila!

Thank you to the professional photographer who took a photograph of Ian McKellen that appeared in the July 27, 2015 issue of People magazine!  I used it as a source image for a painting done this weekend.  Even though there were some challenges, I'm quite pleased for my first painting of a man's face.  I also used white pen to create chin/facial whiskers (and the hair), left the primary areas of the face in complementary colors rather than tamping them down into more neutral ones, and used gesso and Neo Color watercolor crayons for the background. This post also linked to  http://ninamariesayre.blogspot.com .

The week's lesson was on expressive arts collage.  I've done two today.  The first is the Live Fully piece followed by the Lucid Dream piece.  They were very easy to do though auditioning the placement of images is good to do before glueing them down. This piece was created through a class offered by Tamara Laporte from Willowing Arts Ltd. For more information, visit this  link:  www.willowing.org .

I've been waiting for my art swap partner to receive the original painting before posting a photo of it. She just received it earlier this week...so now for the reveal. This is the empathy monster I created for her...named Emma. My swap partner loves it and so do I...such fun! This piece was created through a class offered by Tamara Laporte from Willowing Arts Ltd. For more information, visit this  link:  www.willowing.org .

Seems like anytime I think an art lesson is going to be easy...it's far from it.  This was another one of those kinds of lessons for me.  Part of the instruction was to draw a face on a separate piece of paper, cut it out and then apply it over wet, Gelato colors on watercolor paper with Matte Medium.  That just didn't work!  The Gelato colors bled through onto the paper face.  So, I traced the face on to Tracing Paper, cut it out, gesso'd over the old face and then glued the new one into place where the old one had been.  I really liked creating the flowers....and my white Molotow pen worked great for the line work (highly recommended)!.  I also liked using Washi tape to create the clothing stripes, and it works well.  Looks like something else may be needed, but I'm not sure what. This piece was created through a class offered by Tamara Laporte from Willowing Arts Ltd. For more information, visit this  link:  www.willowing.org ....

This video was done many years ago, though it visually shows the overall creative process from start to finish of five wall art quilts. Thank you to instructors Jane Sassaman, Dena Dale Crain, and Pamela Allen plus the creator of a Fast Friday Fabric Challenge and instructor of a beginning silk painting class that were the genesis for the five pieces shown in this video!

I used acrylic paint for the background, and lots of different kinds of markers for the rest of the doodling.

The LifeBook 20 lesson was doing a layered blind contour piece. This means to draw an object on the paper while looking at the object and not looking at the paper. Sort of comes out Picasso-ish...with differences in shapes, perspective, etc.  The layered element is another line drawing and painting of the object below the one you see that has also been painted over. The inspiration object was a decorative vintage teapot. This piece was created through a class offered by Tamara Laporte from Willowing Arts Ltd. For more information, visit this  link:  www.willowing.org .

I quickly sketched a bust at the J. Paul Getty Museum's Sketching Gallery recently.  The tools provided were charcoal and a couple of lighter colored pencils plus paper and artist's seat.  Charcoal is not my typical medium and I had some blending challenges with it as can be seen.  But the overall sketch is a kind of fun image...and has some character.

My first intuitive painting from a recent Painting Experience workshop led by Stewart Cubley.  It was a weekend of freedom painting in terms of imagery.  There were no assignments other than to be open to painting the painting that wanted to reveal itself through each participant. I absolutely loved the movie about Paulus Berenson, an amazing artist and philosopher, that was shown as part of the workshop.  I highly recommend it!

This is the Week 13 lesson through Life Book 2017 led by guest instructor, Annie Hamann of South Africa.  The lesson for me involved a lot of firsts.  It was my first time using 15" x 22" paper...so there was much more room to fill up collage-wise and important decisions about face placement-- since that came first before the body and hair. Also, it was my first time using black charcoal.  Unfortunately, the application of it (both pencils and sticks) over acrylics just wouldn't work.  I'm wondering now if I need to try 'vine' charcoal. I also applied layers of tissue paper to create more realistic hair color and some shadow areas in the hair. As part of the lesson, we were to incorporate some symbolism.  What I've included as symbols for  grounding are a rose-like window within a labyrinth. I'm really curious about what others see in this project.  When you look at it, where do your eyes go first?  Where does your eye travel, if it do...

This was my first week's lesson through Life Book 2017 that I was finally able to start and get to this point today.  I may do some tweaks to it in the upcoming days/weeks, as I sit with it a bit longer.  But I'm glad to have taken some time to do art work today, as I've been missing it! This piece was created through a class offered by Tamara Laporte from Willowing Arts Ltd. For more information, visit this  link:  www.willowing.org .

This warm-up exercise involves writing stream of consciousness as a bottom layer, collaging followed by adding and activating watercolor crayon as a second layer, then covering that with gesso to keep building up the base leaving the top third of the page with more color/collage visibility.  Then we added our word for the year (mine is balance) plus a symbol with that word in it.  My symbol is a pair of wings with the word written as a border within them.  The number 2s at the bottom play a dual role: one is to refer to the pair (of wings) and one is to represent the word 'to'. This piece was created through a class offered by Tamara Laporte from Willowing Arts Ltd. For more information, visit this  link:  www.willowing.org .

I've been working on spontaneous book page poetry today.  This is fun for me because I love words and the nuances of language.  Plus I like to wax philosophically sometimes.  Beyond that, it's really interesting to be able to work with others' writing and create something totally different than the writer's intent.

My accomplishments for 2016: Completed 20 Life Book 2016 projects Made 64 Blog Posts  Took San Jose Museum of Art course on textile design Participated in three Creative Club project efforts  Visited the Broad Museum in Los Angeles Visited the Museum of Modern Art in San Francisco Had two pieces displayed as part of my employer's Activate! Art! project (display of employee art work) Participated in the 2016 Woman Unleashed Online Retreat and completed six projects for it