Double

Here are -
Two illustrations I did for Illustration Friday - the theme is "Double"
Enjoy! Check out my etsy site to see my current work - www.graysparrow.etsy.com

For Fun

I have been doing a lot of fun work with my old sketchbooks lately. I think it is kind of neat to see what the sketch of a painting before it is painted looks like. These are the little ideas that later led to the creation of a painting.

Photo Finds

While I was walking home the other day, I came across this ancient truck with a satellite dish (?) in the back. It looked like the whole thing belonged in a junk yard. It was so alien on our quiet little street. I ran back to my house and grabbed my camera and shot these photographs.

Happy Late Valentines Day

This is a little image from a set of cards I bought from our German Teacher's wife - Alison. Aren't they wonderful!

#43 - Recall your favorite childhood game.

When I drew this out of the envelope, I didn't think much about it, but, once I started remembering the games we played, it was amazing how many memories they brought back. You will probably have to click on the image to be able to read the descriptions, but here is the basic list:

Witches and Princesses - lots of stirring eggs in dirt holes in the ground.

Paper Dolls (I wonder if we still have these somewhere. Katie would draw them, and willow and I would cut them out and put them into families)

School

Doctor

You Can't Touch the Ground - Mainly played at the laundry, but also at home

Auction

Dress - up

Barbie

Jacks

Others that are not in my journal, but that I just thought of - Roller Skates, Masterpiece (the board game)
Katie/Willow - can you think of others I am missing?

#?(lost the paper) - Make something interesting out of paper and tape.

Actually, the paper said "something useful" and, I am not sure that a collage is useful, but it is what I felt like making. I was desperately feeling the need to do something just for me.

Photos?

So, I did not get a picture posted today, because I accidentally left my camera at school, and I don't want to cheat. But I did take a picture today. It is Ash Wednesday, the beginning of Lent. We had a "Restoration" project meeting tonight. I ran the worship time. I was really nervous. It only went OK. My ideas were cool, but I did not feel a very good vibe from the room. In fact, I think if anything, I bored people. But, anyway, we gave everyone a disposable camera with the assignment of documenting (in some creative way) their sacrifice they made for Lent. My first picture was of ashes. We wrote prayers for change in our hearts on little scraps of paper, and then burned those to use as the ashes we put on our foreheads. I used the burned scraps of paper as the subject for my first photo. Once lent is over, I will try to post all of the images here as a set.

For the worship time that I planned, I took everyone slowly through T.S. Elliots "Ash Wednesday" poem (which is fairly cryptic). Really it is an incredible poem.
You can read it here:
http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/ash-wednesday/
While we were reading through the poem, I put images on the screen that reflected the passages. My favorites were from "State of Minds" flickr page.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/stateofmind_77/sets/274589/

They illustrate the poem. Beautiful.

Photo #2 - White section of books

Photograph Day 1

The other thing I am going to try to do is to take one photograph a
day and just see what happens...

#1 - Take a walk, and either write down or draw everything you see on the sidewalk

So, here it goes. Number one. "Take a walk, and either write down or draw everything you see on the sidewalk."
We had Atlas this afternoon, so after Tim left, I decided to walk there with camera in tow before the service. Rather than drawing or writing about the objects, I took photographs of them. It made the walk go so much slower than it normally would have, but it was amazing how much I noticed that I never would have if I had just been walking. It made me realize how much trash people make. So many cigarette boxes. And lots of dog poo. My favorite find was a wasp's nest that had fallen beside the sidewalk. A lost little piece of summer. I picked it up and kept it. Automatically, it made me think of Lauren (my painting instructor). I think I am going to give it to her as a gift (good will offering?). I am tempted to put little messages in the hexagonal compartments. They seem like the perfect place for tiny scrolls. Here is the complete list of the objects I came across.
1. Ice
2. Leaves
3. 1/2 walnut shell. No walnut
4. Empty ziploc bag
5. Amoeba blobs in sandstone
6. Cat in the hat brochure
7. Honey Comb wasp nest
8. Colorful crumpled trash
9. Very faded comcast(?) ad
10. Cigarette buts
11. Tiny pinecone
12. Broken Christmas candy cane
13. "Need Nap?" moist towelette
14. Almost heartshaped rock
15. My reflection
16. Grafitti
17. Smashed pencil
18. Feather
19. Gummy Lifesaver
20. Book of Matches
21. Ratty cloth
22. Paper towel
23. Fake Christmas tree branch
24. Blue plastic screw
25. Newspapers
26. Broken glass
27. Blue rubber medical glove (freaky)
28. Juicy juice box
29. Banana Peel
30. Cigarette boxes
31. Seed pods
---> to see photos of all the items, visit my flickr site - http://www.flickr.com/photos/23431213@N05/sets/72157603842490820/


Besides just enjoying myself, doing this exercise will lead to two things. First, I am making a conscience effort to understand and connect with Lauren better. And second, whenever Tim and I go on a walk, I want to bring a trash bag and pick up garbage. Maybe it can be my small contribution to restoring Greeley.

A new Beginning

So, I have not been very good at posting to this blog, because it seems like it has been a waste of time. I seem to just post when I have new works of art to display, but I am not sure that anyone ever looks at it anyway. So, what is the point? However, today, I spent most of the morning looking at other people's creative blogs - most of which I cannot remember the name of off the top of my head, but who I found so inspiring. (I will post some names eventually) So, I decided that instead of just posting finished pieces, that I want this blog to be more about the creative process. I found a list of creative ventures that I am going to explore. Unfortunately, right now, I am a little tipsy - some delicious organic hard cider (because of super bowl - yeah giants!) and I can't remember or find the name of it. I will get it tomorrow. Anyway, I am going to try to do one venture a day and then post my explorations and what they lead too here. Hopefully, it will find someone (you?) and they will be inspired to do little creative acts as well.

New Paintings

Two new Painting. The one with the figures is called "In the Shelter of Each Other, the People Live", and the other is "The Nest" Both Pieces are very large. The bird piece is 5 ft by 3 ft 9 inches (approx).

Color!!

Some Pictures of the collage I made for the wall of my art classroom.

Here is the rest of "moon." Although, it is still not done. I want to incorporate all the pieces a bit better.

This is one I did a while ago, but only just finished.

Just a sketch...I am having a great time going through "Keys to Drawing" it is a great book.

A sad dead butterfly by Willow's apartment in manhatten.


These are pictures of a mural I am working on for Atlas's new child room.

Moon

A section of a larger painting I just did for "Moon"
Enjoy!

Come to the Edge

"Come to the edge"
He Said
They Said
"We are afraid"
"Come to the Edge"
He said
They came
He pushed them
and they
Flew

Just in case I don't get around to doing a new illustration for this topic. This is one of my painting I did a while ago. It is still one of my favorites. I have 18X24 prints available if anyone is interested... :)

Illustration Friday: Discovery

Geeky

Illustration for illustration friday...

Pangea!

Pictures from Pangea! A celebration put on by Wolverine Publishing and New Belgium Brewery in Fort Collins. We had a great time, and met some really awesome people. Thanks!

These are some paintings I did in my Watercolor Explorations class I taught this summer. I had a wonderful time. There was about 5 of us (it varyed per day). I usually do not do much with watercolors, so I found it so refreshing to try something new. Next week I am teaching digital photography. I hope it is fun!