Whence Comes December

Detail from The Snow Bees

Thanksgivings is such a darling holiday. Christmas is great, but by the time the bells have been rung and the holiday adds have been played ad nauseam, the tinsel is starting to look a little wilted. Thanksgiving, on the other hand, slips up and puts her arms around you quietly--a blessed reprieve for a while. This holiday however, did not care to stop for me.

I completed two and a half out of the five drawings I aspired to have. But I am almost completely content with them (the pine one is not quite finished). I've started another one that is the interior of a room, and a billowing bed of pillows. Right now it's somewhere along the lines of "In February I should be happy to be snowed in for a month!" We shall see where that one ends up. I'm also working on one that regards an ode to a left over robin.

                     The old Pines shook their silver heads and murmured of the evil that would befall them, they warned of sharp blades and the crunching boots that come after the first snowfall. The young pines flexed their boughs and compared growth; they ruffled their thick spiky needles and tried to look important. The pinelets shared whispered tête-à-têtes, and dreamed of the coming snow to adorn them in white crystalline skirts. 

(Excerpt from The Procession of the Pines)

The deadlines do continue to loom, don't they? On Saturday I have a one page abstract about the work due. Next Thursday is my final class critic before the December review, and I'm going to be presenting my keynote (as it will exist then) which will include the spreads (the book layout of the combined images and text) and other aspects of the work. I still have to do the beginning layouts with the text and image. I would also like to have thumbnail sketches of rest of the book, as well as some letters scanned in, and reference images I am using.  My plan is to finish the keynote on tuesday and use wednesday to practice before presenting the following day. In many ways, figuring out how to present the work is like writing a story, and I don't yet know how I want the story to unfold.

At this point I have very evident "holes" in my work. In many ways I feel like I'm on a really long Rummikub turn. I've got all these reshuffled pieces and I can't quite figure out how they fit together, but I am certain that they do, and that the answer is hiding away somewhere in the corner of my mind. All I have to do is hold out my turn long enough to figure it out. So for now I am still working on several threads simultaneously.
   They are:

• Delicate watercolor illustrations
• Finding the everyday extraordinary
•  Letter writing, and the idea of correspondence
• A year | the seasons    
• Prose (with a 19th century flare)
• "A Year of Insignificant Happenings"                 

"When January came, I heard the sky singing:

                          'Get your hat! Grab your scarf!  

                          The world is a whirl of snow bees and white sailed ships, and we want to play in it! 

                          Out, out!  

                          We must go to that high hill over there,  and you must bring your sled, 

                          the old toboggan that floats on air.' ”

As Far as Thanksgiving Break Goes....

I am admittedly rather behind in posting about my senior project. Last Tuesday was taken up with voting, and last Thursday with getting a grant proposal writen, work photographed, and all of it bundled up and in the office by 5 o'clock pm (of which I barely made the deadline!). But I am rather happy that I did spend so much time on the grant, not because I have any grand hopes of receiving money, but because it enabled me to hammer out several ideas and deadlines I was allowing to squirm. 

As per creative work, I am not sure through what sieve all my time is leaking out of. 

This week as produced something I am rather happy about. I've been working on an illustration based on a pice of writing I did last November. The writing is about all the pine trees that congregate together after the autumnal procession of October blazes by. The pine trees are quaint folk who like solid, congenial (and a trifle gossipy) conversation. 

Here's a photo I took of my favorite "studio." I seem to be able to get twice as much done when I am in the quiet and solitary atmosphere of home. Perhaps it is because my work seems to always be slightly steeped in a homey atmosphere. 

Here's a bad photograph of my painting "The Procession of the Pines." I've redrawn a few of the elements and inked it already, but haven't any photographs of the updated work (and since this post has to be posted at noon....). 

I've also included a few sketchbook pics (since I had it available to photograph) of some planning I've been doing. 

(small enough that you can't read what I wont accomplish)

It feels in many ways like my process so far has been like peeling and slicing an apple. I've been pulling away all the different useless ideas to get down to the core of my project, only to discover that what I really want is to gather the apple pieces and cook them all together in an apple crisp.

In other words: I've begun to start to find all the project tangents I had early in the semester working back on themselves and weaving back into my project. Different tangents I had were: creating a children's book about an author writing a letter to his editor about an extraordinary sighting of a creature in the woods; working with letter writing and letters; and using my own creative prose about the seasons with illustration. Now I'm working on a book about a character who is corresponding via letter and retelling their inconsequential year. My thought is to focus on retelling the year to show the ordinary things of the year in an almost miracular, or extraordinary way. I am able to carry on the interest I have with letter writing and correspondence, and weave together creative writing prose about the seasons. 

So. 

All that long blather to talk about what I would like to have in 2 and a half weeks for the December reviews: 

I would like to have five solid illustrations completed. I want to have the prose that I am paring with these illustrations pretty hammered out, though I am leaving room for more revision. And I would like three preliminary spreads to show my intention for the design of the book. 

My current questions I have about my project are figuring out the narrator character, and who he or she are writing to; and finding ways to weave as stronger presence of the correspondence elements into the story.  

As far as thanksgiving break goes, I don't think I'll be emerging much from my "preferred" studio beyond the Thursday's dinner. 

Nov. the First

WHAT I DID: 

This week I continued to watercolor the two illustrations I've been working on. I completed the forest pathway illustration, though I have plans to go back in and rework a few parts. The second illustration I am still working on painting. It is with trepidation that I am proceeding to color the piece. My intention is to create a frame with the medium ground space from the crumbling wall and bough of trees, and to color it the deep dusky color somewhere between the hue of late dusk and early dawn. I wanted the background to be a golden contrast, breaking across the landscape--the new regenerating the old earth. But at this point it is all more grand in my mind then on the page. 

Detail

WHAT I ACCOMPLISHED: 

Wednesday night was an IP meltdown. I've been waffling about what to create in IP this year, and it all seemed to crescendo, with the notes being evidently in the minor key. I'd come to see that I was not really (seemingly) progressing towards a desired direction. I haven't created as much work as I should, and in many ways have been treating this class like a three credit instead of a six credit course. And I've become more frustrated and boxed in as I've struggled to find a concept and direction for my work. Though painful, I think it was a helpful refining process. I was able to let the old ideas burn off, and was left simply with what work I had created and was returning to create: illustrations. 

The half-group crit on Thursday was immensely helpful in cementing my direction towards illustration and narrative. I also had a really helpful conversation with Camilla who gave me great ideas about ways to think about construction of a story. She encouraged me to look at the ways different writers I admire sculpt their stories, and gave me a few illustrative books to look at. She also mentioned looking into the construction of songs and the repetition they have. We talked about a more fluid construction, less linear, more subtle. I had already been thinking about making my book less dialog or narratively based. At this point I don't foresee a clear "children's book" coming from all this, though it could contain one if my illustrations and writing tend towards that bent. 

 

 I treated myself  in good faith to a tube of black paint.
(This is monumental in that after three years, I shant have to mix it from a menagerie of colors).

ONWARD:

More watercolors and illustrations lie off the starboard bow. I'm hoping to get into a more earnest creating mode. I'm thinking about spending some time creating a simple "story board" of sorts. I want to start to create with intention and to begin to collect assortments of paintings. I also am planning on editing and printing bits of my writing to use as direction for my illustrations.

Finally, I have a grant proposal to write, with earnest hopes of getting some money for more paint, better paper, and a bit of binding for the future.