Ballookey in Roma's

I don't know where my brain is - I totally space-cadet forgot to post pictures of my drawings in Roma's book. I just downloaded the photos off my phone and saw them, so here they are.

An owl wearing a bunny hood:

A bunny wearing an owl hood:

And a spirit creature wearing a hooded sweatshirt:

I'm most happy with the last one and I'm going to keep trying at these - I love drawing in white on black! :)

Last one in Roma's

It was exactly a month ago today that Roma's mole arrived. I say this because I am feeling a little guilty that I have a pile-up of moles at my house--THREE of them. I have finished with Roma's, finally! I had a terrible time with this last picture for some reason and I am far from satisfied with it, for which I apologize. But I was determined to complete it and get it mailed off. I probably will not be able to mail it until Monday at the earliest, but it will be on it's way ASAP!!!!

I forgot that I had originally intended to do the lettering for the captions. Here is the caption for this one, "Jacob is a crabber and clammer who lives with his fisherfolk parents and the way long time ago times when there was still magic in the world." Actually, I think I have rewritten it slightly, but I cannot locate the current version. (DUH!)

I had trouble reproducing the drawing, so have two versions of it, neither of which are quite right. The last one is the two-page spread. Click on the images to view them larger. The middle one gets bigger (for inquiring minds). I am hoping that these will become illos for a children's book for my grandson.

Lotus Meditation for Lost Souls, 3rd in Roma's

This is done in Faber-Castell PITT Artist brush pens, pens, pencils, colored pencils. The second is the two-page spread. It wouldn't fit on my scanner so I took a snap. Sorry about the reflections. Image size increases slightly when clicked upon.

3 collaborations and a troubled sketch

1)My collaboration in Mike's round 2 mole for him to finish. It is called, "Alas Poor Yorick," or "Self portrait of the artist as a young Woman looking into the future II"

2)I did not find any half collaborations from Steve for me to do in Mike's round 2 mole, so I went to Steve Splotch monster site and downloaded two splotches and made my own monsters from them. Since I couldn't decide between them and Mike has LOTS of pages left in his book, I decided to make two collaborations. The first one is called "Georgia on my mind." Here is Steve's splotch.

3)My second splotch monster is called "The Orange Bow." Here is Steve's splotch.

4)I am feeling bad because I haven't made any new progress on Roma's mole. Sometimes things come easy and sometimes, they are difficult. I have struggled and struggled with a sketch to make the next piece for Roma's mole and have decided to show you the very lame sketch for the sketch--it just isn't working out--I may give it up for now and do something different just to get it going!!! This would be a companion piece, were I to get it done, to the other from my children's storybook, Jacob and the Sea Witch, or Jacob and the Great Fish. You can see lots of erasures and false starts here. :-(

each image will enlarge if clicked upon.

Self Portrait of the Artist looking at the Future

Of course, this is me YOUNGER than I am now (not really me at all). Done in Roma's with markers and pens and a little colored pencil. The top one is the newer version--I'm never sure when I am done with a piece and I decided the lighting wasn't right on it. The bottom one, for inquiring minds, is the original.

The third picture is me last night with a hastily rendered copy of Cezanne's 3 Skulls done at the DIA in ordinary pencil. They have drawing sessions and provide seats, paper, pencils and easels every Friday night. And I think Sunday afternoons, too. It;'s the first time I've done it. If I do it again, I may bring my own pencils, stubs etc. It was a huge paper to fill in a short time with a pencil, and I didn't get it quite right--but I had a good time and looked CAREFULLY at the painting--more carefully than ever before.

Click images to view larger.

below is a pocket item for Roma's pocket, it is a super-quick mini sketch of BB, my husband Keith. I did it last night on a very small "art pad." (Sm Assignment notebook-size.)

On my screen, the image is larger than the actual sketch. It is done in pencil, markers and colored pencil.

in Roma's Mole (two from Texas)

Here is what I accomplished in Texas. We had a kind of busy schedule, so i didn't get as much done as I hoped, but I did get some done.

The first one, the old peddler woman, is an illo for one of my children's book, Jacob and the great fish. The second one is the first half of a collaboration for Ammon to complete. it actually is meant to go 180 degrees around. Sorry about the bookmark.

Half a collaboration in Roma's: Flying fish

This is done with Staples metallic and iridescent pens. A little acrylic, also. Click image to view larger.

I will be at a poetry workshop all day tomorrow, then leaving for Texas. May not post again for a while? I'm not even taking a computer with me to Texas. I will probably take the mole, though.

I took this with a camera because it was still too wet to put in the scanner.

Celebrate Celebrate! YAY I got a moley in the mail

Woohoo! Spring has come and a new Moley has arrived, Roma's has arrived from Gretchen, Round 3, and it's here in time to travel to Texas with me, though my schedule is pretty busy. Maybe I can work on the plane coming and going. Click image to view larger. I was trying to showoff my forsythias and daffy down dillies that just opened today. But the forsythia in particular doesn't show up too well.

At last -- Roma's Moley Ships

This past two weeks was one of emotional ups and downs, and the Moleskine got put on the back burner. I was lacking a collaboration page, which I only finished tonight. The sketchbook is in an envelope, ready to take to the post office tomorrow and ship to Gretchen. Sorry you're getting it almost two weeks late!!

Looking forward to working in other people's books. What a great group of artists. I'm so happy to be a part of this.

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!