Oh entomology, where is thy sting?

So this is my first attempt at entomological illustration, and I think I'm hooked. I'm just debating on whether I should invest in a basic compound dissecting microscope. It's awfully tempting, since it would open up a whole new world of visual exploration. But on the other hand I can't keep up with what I can already see! I guess I'll try a few more specimens and see how it goes....

click for sharper version

This little study is one I did years ago, and even after my microscopic study of the hornet, I think it stands up pretty well. Well, not exactly stands, I didn't know the technique of relaxing and pinning the specimen back then, but he curls up nicely anyway...

I'm starting to organize the art team for this year's Bioblitz on Jamestown, where there will be tons of creepy crawly things to draw. Maybe I can bum some surplus bugs to bring home and draw. If not, my windowsill is a good place to find insects who have met their maker.

The world of little

This is a shot of my entomological illustration class at RISD, as seen through a fun little application called Tiltshifter which makes photos look like little model train landscapes. It works best with a small central subject and wide foreground and background. I couldn't resist trying it on some of my Alaskan photos....


An idea is fermenting in my brain concerning this world of macro, a big lens, dioramas, landscape and paint. I hope it's the kind that ages well, since I see a very busy spring coming up, lots of paintings already circling the runway and so little time!

The girl who drew the hornet specimen

Just when I think I know what a hornet looks like, I get a look through a fancy compound microscope and a whole new world opens up. I get to see the level of detail that this hornet would have seen when he woke up and stumbled to the bathroom to face his 10x mirror. He probably bemoaned his scraggly antennas and sagging mandibles, but I think he's beautiful. Anyway, this is my drawing from my Entomological Illustration Class that I'm taking at RISD. Tomorrow I get to finish him in color. 

 

This class is so much fun that I wish I had tried to make a living doing scientific illustration. It seems a bit late now to try to make an inroad into what I'm sure is a very competitive field, but it would be fun to do a bit of freelance if I get any good.  My dad was an incredible jewelry renderer, back when catalogs were full of pen and ink and painted illustrations of tie tacs and earrings. (I'll post some of his work one of these days)  If I have near his talent in rendering bugs, I'll do alright...if the chip is off the old block, and they tell me it is.

Of course I'd have to learn about all the bug parts and their latin names, but that would be the fun of it. Just think how smart I'll sound, talking in a language no one understands. Sort of like explaining computer code. Now, if I can only get my hands on one of those microscopes.

Getting stuffed at lunch

Lunch at the RISD Nature Lab

Now that's it's getting a bit chilly outside (but not nearly as cold as it should be for January) I've resumed spending some lunch hours in the warm and cozy RISD Nature Lab. I had drawn this raccoon before (left) from a different angle, but this is the pose he is taking up in my latest painting (see the study below), so since I have the opportunity I thought I'd do a sketch from "life" instead of only relying on my photo.  It's a challenge though, with all that fur. So far I've spent two lunch hours on my drawing. One more should do it, I'll post it if it comes out decent.

That little fox is catching my eye too, he may have to be drawn soon.

Here I sit, broken and rejected.

Ok...repaired and rejected. My torn menicus (go ahead, ask me about knee anatomy) has been neatened up and my knee should be unwrapped and crutches tossed aside soon, but I'm still not going to Juneau Alaska this year to climb glaciers and hang out with the rangers as artist in residence. I know, I've already got the AIR in Petrified National Forest this September, but now I'm getting greedy and want TWO residencies a year. And the Tongass National Forest residency sounded really awesome.

But there's always next year to try again, and my rejection letter was one of the more thoughtful ones I've received. It actually referred specifically to my application, which feels better than the generic rejections that tell "Dear  artist " how tough the decision was and how many wonderful artists applied. So I will try again, even though I already have an application in for 2012 at Grand Canyon National Park. But I can do two a year, can't I?


So, I can concentrate on looking forward to the incredible color and cool rock formations of the Painted Desert even though September seems so far away. As any New Englander knows though, our precious summer goes by in a flash, and while I wait to go to Arizona I'm gearing up for a more local exploration at the Rhode Island Natural History Survey's Bioblitz. We've got a great response from artists of all media, and are teaming up with RISD's nature lab to offer things like microscopes and flower presses just for the artists, as well as expertise in specimen gathering. We also have some members of RISDs natural science illustration program, so it should be very interesting to meet this year's team. And next year we have an exhibit scheduled at the Warwick Art Museum to showcase the work of the 2011 Bioblitz artists. 

Once I can stand at my easel again I'm close to finishing some paintings I've been working on in the studio as part of my next series which I hope to post soon. Until then, I may just hobble into my backyard to take advantage of the first dry spring day we've had in about 2 weeks and do a little "plane ear" painting.

Pomegranate from the past

 

I've had a box of old slides scanned in recently and it's fun to see what was in the mix. It also gives me material to post when I'm too busy or lazy to come up with fresh new content and my blog starts nagging at me. This painting was about 3x4 feet and was done way back in my RISD days. I have no idea what happened to it...hard to think I could lose one that size!

A quick brown fox

 

I'm so lucky to be able to walk to the RISD Nature Lab at lunch for a walk on the wild side. The hard part is tearing myself away to report back to my cubicle.

Lunch with the coyote

 

I was going to draw the raccoon today, but the coyote was still where I left him, and I just couldn't resist.

Howl

 

Just a little lunchtime sketch at the RISD nature lab. 

Drawn to stone and stuffing

Click to enlarge

Click to enlarge

Click to enlarge

I was breezing through the RISD museum recently when this sculpture (sadly, I did not write down the label info) raised his stony hand and demanded I STOP.

So I did, and stood mesmerized by the power of that hand.

Today, I went back at lunch to photograph it and then grabbed one of the little folding stools RISD has in the museum and sat down in the peaceful medieval gallery to sketch.

The medieval gallery had been closed for a long time while they expanded the museum and just recently reopened, New and Improved. They even added subtle medieval-style music, which is nice to listen to while drawing. Though the sculptures and paintings only fill two small rooms, I am very glad to have them back on display, since each piece has the potential to suddenly reveal itself, as this one did.

I think I'll spend a more of my lunch breaks drawing in the museum. I don't know why I never thought of it before that sculpture ordered me to STOP.


I also spent an hour earlier in the week in the RISD nature lab drawing a little brown bat. He was pretty cool but a bit (a lot) worse for wear, as are many of the smaller specimens. (I was hoping for some spiders, but most were just little boxes of legs). Of the bats though, my guy was one of the handsomest, a few of the others looked more like roadkill. Who needs taxidermy when you have a speeding Jetta?

But there's lots of cool stuff in the Nature Lab, so that will be a good lunchtime sketching destination too. Maybe if I sit quietly drawing I'll spot the little newt that made a break for it and I can nab it and return it to its nice moist tank.

Hanging out with dead animals is giving me the urge to take some more classes at the Natural History Museum. The specimens there are in better shape since they haven't been checked out like library books by decades of college students.

And if I get sick of dead animals I might just head out to Woonsocket where I hear they have a fine flock of Turkey Vultures.

When the chickens come home to roost

Lots of shuffling around of artwork is going in the next few weeks, which, if nothing else, justifies my driving a pickup instead of a Mini Cooper which I would LOVE.

Today I dropped off the above painting which just barely fit in the bed of the truck for the Art League of RI show at the RISD Museum. The show is not going to be in the big new gallery after all, (I thought that was too good to be true) but instead it will be in the OLD new gallery (the Farago wing), which is still pretty cool and a nice big space.

So I headed up Benefit St., and you know how it is when you are trying to get down really narrow street and cars are parked on the other side so you can barely get by if a car is coming the other way as it is, and then someone makes it even worse by just PARKING on the wrong side so you have to wait till traffic clears and then squeak by them. Well that was me. Not the one squeaking by. The obnoxious jerk who parked. But my painting was big, and a gusty thunderstorm was threatening, so...tough!

And it's now official. I have a painting in the RISD Museum.

Most of my other paintings will be coming home to my studio though. Monday I'll be taking down 5 church paintings from my art window . It sure will be easier to take down than to put up.  A lot of the installation is made up of branches, shells and thorns and can go right into a composting bag, the canvas curtains can get wrinkled, and only the paintings need to be saved from demolition.

My show at RWU library comes down on the 22nd, which means I'm really going to run out of room in my storage racks. This will be a good time to reorganized and clean my entire studio, try to beat back the clutter sprawl and find space for all these damn paintings.

Luckily it's off to Colorado and the Great Sand Dunes for the painting I'm working on now. Now I just have to find good homes for the others...

In progress

I think I finished a painting today. I hope I finished a painting today. The reason being that it now only has a week to dry before being dropped off at the RISD Museum for the Art League of RI members show. If it seems like I've been working on this painting forever, its because I have. I even showed it once, in my show at the now defunct Gail Cahalan Gallery. But it wouldn't stay finished so back in the studio it went. If it's really finished when I look at it tomorrow, it will be the grand finale of the shoemaker series. After 4 years, it's time I moved on from the machines.

Besides, I'm really anxious to concentrate more on a few other paintings that are in the works, especially my painting from the Great Sand Dunes. I know I have a couple of months before my year's deadline is up, but I feel it's really inexcusable to have taken this long to send it. So if you're reading this, kindly Great Sand Dunes ranger, it will head west soon. Below is a snippet of the painting in progress.



I've also got several other paintings that were started ages ago. It's been so long since I really worked on them it will take some doing to reconnect, but I feel ready to follow this new direction to see where it leads.



So I'll give the big painting a good night's rest, and a signature tomorrow....I hope!

Among the Living

I guess I'm officially Among The Living, although some days it doesn't seem so. That's the name of the latest group show at Bert Gallery that includes my painting "Fourth Church". The show is up until June 18th, so if you're in the neighborhood, maybe sitting by the river and sipping a cool one across the street at the Hot Club, stop in. Or see the 3-D version just east of the gallery at the Holy Rosary Church.
The opening is on Gallery Night, June 17, which is also the opening of the Art League's show at the RISD Museum. I have a painting in that one too and will post more about that soon.

Hanging at RISD

You know when you finish an large and ambitious painting, hang it on a gallery wall and feel that it accomplished everything you wanted it to?  Neither do I.  In fact, I'm now reworking a painting that I tried to convince myself was finished, and had the nerve to hang in my show at the Gail Cahalan Gallery in 2009. It's getting better now though, I think.

One reason I'm pushing this one is that the Art League of RI, of which I'm a member, is having its annual show at the RISD museum in June. And they're not shoving us into a little local artist corner, it's being hung in the huge new gallery space that usually hosts national shows. Since this is probably the only chance I'll ever have of hanging in the RISD Museum, the pressure is on.

So that explains the lack of blog posts lately, I'm too busy painting to write about painting when I'm home, and my day-job has gotten too busy to sneak it in at work, so there you go.

RISD Graduate Student Show

This week I went to the opening of the RISD graduate student show at the RI Convention Center, conveniently across the street from where I work. The opening was mobbed, mostly students and teachers, so it was hard to really see the work, but the snippets of overheard conversations were priceless. I wished I had brought my audio recorder so I could do a sound piece. Hmmm, then I could have loaded it onto an ipod, come back and surreptitiously attached it to the wall, hung a pair of headphones nearby....and yes, I'll accept that MFA now for my brilliant thesis project, thank you.


I went back yesterday for another look, and found my first impressions, or lack thereof, lingered. Nothing really struck me, I left feeling very flat, and I'm not really sure why. A few pieces were interesting. I played with a piece that recorded my movements and rendered them with sketchy lines, that was kind of amusing in a techy kind of way...


This hot pink sculpture was covered in cotton candy at the opening, and a few students added "interactivity" by handing out wads of the stuff. A few days later, this is what cotton candy looks like. Who knew? Much more interesting than the original piece.



And of course, what would a exhibition these days be without the obligatory bunch of stuff piled in a corner.

I just got the feeling that a show of brand-new art should have more of an impact. I reject the idea that I just didn't "get it", because even if I didn't understand it, it should have made me curious. Some pieces just looked so bland I wasn't tempted to invest any time in trying to figure out the point. Some seemed to be heavy handedly illustrating an ironic idea. But sometimes an idea is just an idea. I dunno, maybe I just DON'T get it...

Owls with stuffing for souls

This is the final version of a drawing I started in the class I took at the Natural History Museum. I'm afraid my owls look rather doll-like. Screech owls are such little fluffy things that they must be hard to taxidermy without making them look like well loved stuffed animals. I'm working on another at the RISD Nature Lab, but I'm not sure I can get any more life out of him...I think I'll have to wait and see if I can spot any real live screech owls near the street lights this summer. But if I do decide to paint them at least this drawing is getting me familiar with their anatomy. Maybe I'll draw the owl skeleton they have in the Nature Lab next!

Still employed, thank goodness for lunch...

It looks like I've survived the latest round of layoffs at my job, but 100 of my co-workers didn't, about 20% of the company. I don't know how it's going to go once the dust settles, but I wish everyone who was let go a more interesting future than they would have gotten if they had stayed.

I guess I'm relieved. Money is good to have. Time is better. Money plus time would be the best, but hard to arrange.

So I'm still coming into Providence every day, and still get a lunch hour. I took advantage of it today to mail off a couple of applications for national park residencies and take in RISD's faculty biennial.

I enjoyed the biennial more than previous ones I've been to. The work seemed more interesting, not as sterile or contrived. The extra space is really luxurious too, now that the Chihuly show is down and the full extent of it is visible.

I was immediately taken with a painting by Todd Moore "I Rest on the Way to Church Point". It's a large painting and loses something in the photo, but when you see it in person the space is kind of skewed, the big rock at the top seems to move forward, giving the boulders weight and presence. It has a gritty feel that reminds me of the feel of stones crunching under my feet as I walk the shoreline.


Another piece which I found intriguing was John Supancic's photo of the Johnston Landfill. I recognized his name on the label because he's been a stringer at a few newspapers I've worked at and was also my (excellent) wedding photographer. So I was surprised to see what looked like a painting next to the label. On closer inspection I could see some photographic details, but thought for sure he had overpainted the image. I looked even closer at the "brushstrokes" and was surprised to see that they were actually bulldozer tracks. It's more obviously a photo when it's reduced to the size you see here, but at actual size (about 30"x34") it's beautifully brushy and expressive.

I also liked a video by Dennis Hlynsky that showed birds in on wires and in flight, with motion trails that looked like charcoal drawings.

It's up until March 13 and worth a look.