Day 14

Cellular
acrylic on canvas panel, 6" x 6"

Day 13

Compulsion part iii
watercolor on paper, 6" x 9"

I'm posting a couple days ahead since I've got some things going on. I do hope to be back at the brush/pen/camera/computer on Friday to post day 14, but I may not quite be ready. I'll catch up (or at least try to!) with everyone's work over the weekend. Happy arting!

Day 12

Compulsion part ii
watercolor on paper, 6" x 9"

Day 11

Stella's treading

Day 10

Bamboo
Watercolor on paper, 6" x 9"

There's not much order in my world.
I get caught up in watching the paint leave the brush, so this type of piece is fun to create. I can ponder the process while processing.

Day 9

Paper flowers
paper, wood, glass beads, glue, tin can & salt
(whole piece)

I'm not sure how much "academic artists" dwell on whether they're creating art, but I spend a fair amount of time thinking about that very thing. I suppose some of what I create could be considered folk art (in that I'm self-taught, self-motivated, unrepresented and uncommissioned). I'm not sure that today's 100 Days entry counts as art, but I am including it as my day 9 piece because it is the product of a specific pursuit of creative expression...even though that isn't necessarily how I would define art if asked for a definition. But I enjoy spending time with materials, thinking about how they're supposed to go together, and then finding new ways to mesh them.

Day 8

Bending wills

Day 7

Stella's Wave #19
acrylic & watercolor on recycled masonite, 4" x 6"

I felt I had to take my own advice as I readied myself to participate (and hopefully complete) this year's 100 Days...I tell my students all the time that they don't need fancy supplies to become artists, but then I'd wonder how I was going to afford the supplies I wanted in my own pursuits. Except I've got a bunch of stuff, including old mass-produced picture frames that I don't use anymore. Voila, canvas. Sort of...but at least the holes fit it with the oddities already found in my Stella work, and I can see where I'll likely play with using the holes somehow to attach media. Maybe. Something.

Day 6

overandoverandoverandover; meditation in vermillion
(watercolor on aquabord, 4" x 6")

Day 5

Pulling back (ink, chalk & watercolor on found chalkboard, 11.5" x 17")

Day 4

changing tides (ink on found chalkboard, 11.5" x 17")

Day 3

Murky creatures (ink on found chalkboard, 11.5" x 17")

Day 2

A clean (enough) slate

Day 1

Unlearning (educational toy found on road)

A new summer, a new series of 100 days

Just last weekend, I was driving around and thinking that if 100 Days was happening this year, it was probably going to get underway very soon. I also had the thought that there's no way I'd hear about it since I gave up on the project in its last iteration so soon after it began. But then up popped a facebook email saying, essentially, GAME ON and well, here I am.

The last year brought a pivot of sorts in my work and I really started to focus on creating written art (mostly), poetry for lack of a better word. I took two classes through the University of Arizona's Poetry Center and completed two unrelated bodies of work, Threads of Stella and Bird Poems. I guess "completed" isn't quite right as I see them as ongoing pursuits, and as such I suppose it's more accurate to say I finished versions of them. I know both bodies will see new breath this summer as I interpret the daily themes and work on stitching together some cohesion between those themes and the ones I explore in these narratives.

I still consider myself a crazy, obsessed amateur photographer, but I also started playing with video (a tiny bit) during my Stella project. And creating visual art to accompany the language I craft is still top priority. Basically I'm still exploring that intersection where the visual and the language arts collide, I've just gotten better at examining that crash site and piecing together written fragments that illuminate slices of the story.

This is a huge commitment and I'm un peu worried that I'll wind up giving up again, but I want to push through and finish. I hope that's enough. I've got some stuff going on 5/31 - 6/3, so posting will be sporadic at best those days, but other than that I plan to be here, crafting, creating, collaborating, pushing myself and sharing what I create with you (and the rest of the world).

Thanks for letting me give it another go!