Ammon's Mole Goes to Washington

Ammon's mole enjoyed a trip to Washington, DC over Spring Break. Together we spent two days in the National Gallery of Art, which was a real treat. I worked on the spread above on the plane ride back, and all I can say is that it felt good to get all that minutiae out of my head! Detail shot of one of the pages below.



The spread below was a bit of a shortcut, as I used the image from the map of the National Gallery of Art. I'll try to find out who the famous artist is of this classic and let you know in comments, if you're interested.




Finally, here is the collaboration that Mary worked on when she had Ammon's mole. I added to it on the left side of the spread. Lots of fun.





Also have to apologize for the poor image quality. My scanner is not working, so took these with the good ol' iPhone.

At the Blonds at Roma's book

 What a cool show this was! i love The Blonds, the whole thing was variation on the playboy bunny theme with as many sparkles, sequence and crystals as you can imagine. This specific piece was made from broken gold mirrors and was blindingly sparkly. Here is the original:

s k y l a r k puzzle in Ballookey's

Ballookey's Round 3 Mole is coming along, although I still have a full page and a collab half-page to finish before sending it to Gretchen. The s k y l a r k puzzle (above) was the most fun of the various things I've tried in this Mole, although the collab with Mike (below) was a close second. The flowers piece was an experiment; didn't go exactly the way I'd hoped. The pink background piece still needs a foreground, which I plan to finish now while I'm in Arizona with my husband, who is going through a lot of testing at the Mayo Clinic.

(Sorry for the blurry images, taken with my iPhone in a not-so-well-lit hotel room. Also, the black borders are from a Photoshop app and not in the actual images, although I kind of like a border, especially for the Mike collab piece. Might add it now that I see it.)







Many apologies for being late in getting Ballookey's Mole finished, as well as for my absence from the blog. Between the stress of travel (this is my fourth trip in a little over three weeks) and caring for the family, I am moving slowly with the Moleskine Exchange. I do want to say, however, that having Ballookey's Mole with me along the way--working on it in hotels, hospitals, clinic waiting rooms, and planes--has been a lifesaver. The healing power of art! Sometimes I really do believe it is what saves my life.

Collaboration with Roma in Mike's Round 3

I tried to follow suit with themes of color and shape already begun by Roma. (Click image to view larger.) It's fairly textural, which doesn't show up in the scan. See her part without mine here.
here are some details:  (Click images to view larger.)

Andrea's Mole in Vietnam Round 3

I never did post all the pages from Andrea's mole before sending it off to Gretchen. It is a world traveling book, since it's now in Hawaii with Gretchen. Here are the images I completed, most done during the weekend while I was in a heavenly beach resort called Phan Thiet in Vietnam. The rest were done en route to or from Vietnam.

When I asked my daughters what I should do on Mike's collab piece, they immediately said, "Worm on a hook!" Which is what I did, although there's room for further collaboration if anyone wants to join in later on:



This piece kept me awake once I landed in San Francisco after the long flight home. I exaggerated a bit about how long I'd been traveling. Door-to-door, from my hotel in Vietnam to my house in Corrales, I was in transit for about 24 hours. But believe me, sitting in the airport lounge trying to stay awake, it felt like I'd been on the road for at least 36.



I was already at least ten days late so I rushed to do this collab piece for Gretchen. Not to mention, my black pen was almost out of ink!



I'll end with this shot of Ho Chi Minh City from my hotel window:

Made in Vietnam (Andrea's Mole - Round 3)

I've been in Vietnam for almost two weeks, and guess whose Mole went with me? Andrea's Mole enjoyed Vietnam very much, especially the weekend at the beach. I'm not finished with all my pieces, but by the end of this weekend I should be able to ship this to Gretchen. (Sorry, Gretchen, I hope you're not without a Mole.)

The particular spread here still needs some black added to the left-hand-side page, but both pages were inspired by Vietnam. On the right I attempted to write some Vietnamese characters. Mostly I wrote a bunch of jibberish, but it was fun studying the alphabet. Many, many of my characters are completely made up.

The color page does actually say something in Vietnamese. Problem is, I don't know what. But I'll try to find out before I send it. And I will post the final version, since I expect that side to change a lot.

Cheers from a jet-lagged Roma in the San Francisco airport (after a 12-hour flight from Hong Kong)

Mike's Mole shipped to Gretchen - Round 3

Yay! I got Mike's Mole to the post office before it closed at 1pm today. I wasn't sure if I could, but I did a quick-and-dirty collage this morning for Gretchen to complete. I used different Washi papers, some old airport tax fees from China (as I know Mike traveled there before), and a few little doodles.

And guess what was waiting for me at the post office when I got there? Andrea's Mole that Mike sent. Woo hoo! I'll wait a few days before I start drawing in it. Andrea's pages have a lot of texture and surface, planes and dimension. They make me think of artists like Kandinksy or Jonson. I might ruminate on that and see what comes up for me.

Ah, it feels good to finish a Mole. Is that how it is for everyone? BTW, here's another photo of the spread from my previous post. The colors are a bit truer than the scanned version.



Happy weekend!

Bearing Fruit in Mike's Mole

Mike's Mole is almost ready to ship. Here is a spread I did, completing my own full compositions. The theme is Bearing Fruit, inspired I think by the fact that our orchard is in full bloom. We have about 200 trees, which are mostly apple but also include plum, apricot, and pear. Our trees bloomed beautifully last spring and then were hit by a late and hard freeze the first weekend of May. It turned out to be a blessing, though, because my husband had a heart attack that spring (which he thankfully survived and is now thriving) and so harvesting the fruit would have been challenging last year.

This year, however, we're ready for a bounty, literally and otherwise. And the pomegranate? I lived in Granada (Spanish for "pomegranate") in my 20s, trying to be an artist and writer and failing miserably due to loneliness and being lost. But the pomegranate shows up a lot in my art these days, I think as a symbol of bearing fruit.

By the way, one thing about Mike's Mole, which he warned me about: He picked up a notebook instead of a sketchbook, so the pages are very thin. I used a light gesso, applied without water to avoid buckling. The dried gesso surface adds enough thickness that you can paint and do a few more things than if you draw directly onto the pages.

Happy Spring all!

and EVERYTHING in BETWEEN

Well, didn't finish Mike's Mole this weekend, but I did finish this one drawing. The facing page, as you might recall, has the words "Life and Death." So this one has "and Everything in Between." Wax crayon for the backgound color, then I fix with a matte spray, then pen and ink for the lines.

OK, onward.

Life and Death

The past two weeks have been tough, so I haven't worked much on Mike's Mole, but his collaboration page was exactly what I needed to reflect on the cycle of Life and Death.

I'll need this coming weekend to finish out my pages, Mike. I hope to add more color to your book.

Flight or Fight?

The last page of my own Moleskine deals with a theme I think about, which is Flight versus Fight energy. I am naturally Flight energy, something I've known for a long time. But lately I've been wondering why it is I always notice birds all around me. Ravens, cranes, brown birds, woodpeckers, all sorts of birds. I'm always aware of the birds around me. And then I realized, they are all about Flight energy!

So I'd like to embrace my Flight nature, even as I try to figure out when it's good to Fight back and not flee the scene.

This weekend I'll work on goodies to include in the pocket of my Moleskine, and I should be ready to ship it off by mid-month. Cheers everyone!

Self-portrait Time

Lately I've wanted to paint myself. By way of background, I hate seeing photos of myself. I'm always putting my hand in front of my face when someone tries to take a photo of me. And when I see the image, I think to myself, Is that how I look? Really??

So I have this idea that if I paint myself over and over, I'll overcome the disconnect I feel whenever I see a picture of myself. That's my theory anyway.

This weekend I worked on another self-portrait for my third Moleskine piece in my own book. Oddly, it started out kind of looking like me but the more I worked on it the more it ended up looking like an elderly woman that owned a card shop where I worked when I was about 13.

Taking Aya's cue (of photographing herself with her journal) I snapped a shot of me next to my self-portrait. The good news is I don't look like Mrs. Kinney--yet. The bad news is, I'm still not so good at doing my self-portrait. :)

Eyeballs on a Plate

I finished my first spread last night. Those are eyeballs on a plate--strange, yes, I know!

I was inspired by my favorite saint, Santa Lucia, who carries her eyeballs on a plate. She is the patron of clarity, vision, lucidity, light, anything to do with eyes or seeing or blindness.




So here's to having clarity about what's important in life, and about my creative passions!

Holy Moly!

I got my moleskine yesterday, and last night I started work on it. I bought the A4 Sketch book, not the Watercolor--the store I found them at didn't carry Watercolor, and it was getting too late to order. I kind of like the way the pages in this book buckle a bit when I paint with gouache on them, but I'm going to have to be careful to not use too much water. If you have any hints or tips on this, let me know.

What I'm working on is a self-portriat for the first spread. The photo above shows how far I got last night. I'll try to finish the spread tonight or tomorrow night. That's me on the left, or at least, my interpretation of me. (My husband doesn't think it looks much like me at all.) In my hand, which will show up on the right side, I'll be carrying something on a plate. The theme of this piece will be Vision and Clarity. I'm trying to gain both in my work and my life in 2011.

A little about myself. I work under the pseudonym "ybonesy." It's pronounced ya-bones-ie. It's a word my youngest daughter made up when she was eight or nine. I have two girls, now both young teens. I live with them and my husband in the Rio Grande Valley. I paint and do collage (in my spare time, as I have a full-time job) and I write. I also make jewelry with my paintings and doodles. I had a blog with a friend for four years; it's called red Ravine. I published a lot of my work there. I just left it this year. It's a great blog. I miss the camaraderie, and I didn't want to leave but felt if I didn't, I wouldn't be able to focus on my art as much as I want to. I hope this project will keep me producing throughout the year.

I guess that's it for now. I'll post the finished spread in a day or so. Cheers to you all.