Texas Happenings

I have been wanting to update for the past two weeks, but somehow time escaped me.  While you may not believe it, it actually takes a bit of time to update my blog.  Between taking photos, editing them and then figuring out what to say, it can consume a good chunk of time. Which is why, as much as I want to update on a weekly basis, that just may not happen.

A couple weeks ago some pretty scary weather hit my area of Texas, causing freezing temperatures, icy roads and a school day off.  I took advantage of the day off and was able to get quite a bit done.

The first thing was starting a pair of gloves for my mom.  The yarn, Mountain Colors Twizzle, was picked out by her for this project.  I was able to cast on the gloves the evening of the day off and have since finished them.  They will be in the mail this week and I know she will love them.

I was also able to finish the third pairing in my triptych, which has been on my easel for far too long.  When I took on the full time position at my school a few things got tossed aside, mainly  my studio time.  But I am slowly making time to work on my paintings again.

Working Title: "Red Sea"

Speaking of full time, this past week I did a little painting activity with some of my students that involved learning about color values.  We took a color, added white and black to make shades and tints and are making pretty skies for our pictures.  Look how much fun we had!

The dye studio also saw some time that day, as I dyed up several skeins of my "light" yarn - 100% sw merino fingering - in my two new colorways. I also reserved a couple of skeins to just splatter leftover dye on.  I'm calling these "paint water" and ironically I sold those 2 skeins before I even made labels! My knitting group just loved it.

Sometimes life just gets busy, but I always thrive on being busy so I really don't mind.  Maybe I am tired a lot, but somehow I get through the day pretty well.  Remembering that I have the drive and ability to create and share my creations is always something that keeps me going.  What about you?

~Lisa 

Speaking to the Trees.

Well, I am one class, 2 crits, and 1 final away from being done with the semester. Too bad one of those crits and the final are both NEXT Friday :/

I want to start this post with a disclaimer, that it is very image heavy. Also I am sorry they are so small and tinted weird. I highly recommend clicking on one of them and letting the image fill your screen. You won't regret it, I promise. These drawings are epic.

But what are they exactly? Well I will give you a hint:

Ok, so let me explain this a bit. Our last assignment in my drawing class was to research an artist and have a visual conversation with him/her. The artist I chose from the list of them my teacher gave me was Tim Knowles. Tim Knowles attaches pens to trees. Naturally, my mind started thinking about my spindle drawings and how much this related.

So for awhile I was just hanging sharpies from trees and putting the paper undernigth, while I just sat there and watched. That's basically what Tim Knowles did. Well my teacher wasn't a fan of that, even though the images I yielded were pretty nifty.

I was pretty frustrated that day, but looking back I am so glad she pushed me forward, because the drawings I ended up with are so much better than the above image.  I took a bit of time to brainstorm and such, for I really had no idea how to take these to a different level. Then I was at the book store getting print making paper and I stumbled across Velum, which is a thin, somewhat transparent paper (not to mention on $.65 a sheet!) and I had another of my many art epiphanies. 

I bought a few sheets and decided to experiment. I used them instead of the normal paper I had been using and let the trees blow for a bit. What happened next was pure genius (or I think so). I decided to start drawing on top of what the trees had already done. At first I started by just drawing directly onto the same sheet as the tree had, and then layered 2 of those together, like this one:

                                     

Then I realized, "Wait, the paper is transparent, why not draw my own lines on a different sheet?!?!" and that's where the magic started happening. It began with just geometric lines, like connect the dots.

 As I started experimenting I realized I could do whatever I wanted. I could make nothing but dots, or connect the lines, or make shapes, or leave the lines by them selves. I could put my drawing behind, or put the tree's drawing behind. I could make a few marks in response to the tree, then take it away and make my own from there. I could flip mine over to have the 2 drawings contrast each other. I can use different widths of sharpies, or even brush and ink. Seriously, the possibilities are endless.  And the best part about these drawings?

I ABSOLUTELY LOVE THEM

Maybe even more than my spindle drawings...Holy cow did I just say that? It's so weird, but every time I look at them or think about them or work on them I get this amazing sense of pride that I am finally coming into my own as an artist and am doing something original and fun! 

So what do you think? I am just so excited to get to share these with all of you! I have one heck of a semester, I feel like I discovered so much and this project just brings it to an amazing close.

Not to mention my teacher loved them too :p She has some stuff she wants me to think about this summer, but it's safe to say I may be doing these for awhile...

~Lisa

Discoveries in Painting

I've mentioned a few times that I was working on a 'super secret art project' and also that I was REALLY excited about. Not only is this project itself amazing, but the doors it opens up for my future are (as of right now) endless.

I guess I should explain. I'm in a painting class right now titled "Mixed Media Painting Workshop", which was required for my major. I had absolutely no interest in taking this class prior to the beginning of the semester. 1) Because I am just not a 'collage' type person and 2) I heard the teacher is rather odd. Turns out I was wrong about both. The class is so much more than collage and the teacher is a little weird, but I love him. He lets us do pretty much whatever we want and really helps us expand our thinking. 

Anyways our latest project was a 'surface' project, as in we had to explore different surfaces for painting.  The first day was our workshop, where we just had to bring in random surfaces to experiment with paint on. Being a knitter, I decided to knit up a swatch of white Red Heart (What else would I EVER use it for anyways). Doing that was torture, I couldn't believe I ever LIKED Red Heart! But that day in class I did some experiments with the paint and mediums on it and I really liked was I saw. My teacher then told us that we should try and make 3 dimensional surfaces, his example being using wire to build a structure to put paper around. The second he said 3D the wheels in my head started turning. 

I think the work speaks for itself:

There are so many things I really like about this project. I got to knit for school, which was a plus. The ball pattern was easy and quick, as well as Red Heart being more manageable in balls than swatches. For every ball I just went at it with random paint, no real plan in mind. Each one is unique and shows a different technique of applying the paint to the surface.  I originally wanted just the balls to be on the wall, but then I thought more about it and how the project was structured and figured they needed to be mounted, so I went with some super cheap plexi glass. The painting of the glass came as a second process, for I wanted the balls to look like extensions of the glass more than added on after. 

This project has opened up so many doors for senior studio next year. I am slowly filling a special sketch book with ideas for where I want to take the knitting and painting thing. Some of them are very interesting, let me tell you. I think I've also finally figured out what I want to do with my degree (cuz I haven't said that before!). I plan on going to grad school for painting and then teaching at a university while being an artist. If I can keep doing things like this for awhile, I will be more than content with being a 'professional painter'.

I hope everyone is having a great weekend! It's in the 90's here! Maybe I'll spend some time outside this weekend.

~Lisa

PS: The title for this work is (appropriately): Yarn Bombs.

Things I'm Looking Forward to in October.

Well, October is here already. Who can believe that? The first 6/7 weeks of school have flown by, making my life that much harder as they went. I just wanted to make a quick post about all the things I can't wait for in October!

1) My Birthday! Of course! I turn 21 on the 21st! Yay! I get to finally go out (if I want) and drink (if I want...). It's going to be nice to have that option. Plus, I always love birthdays anyways.

2) Halloween. Because I'll be old enough to go out! And because I already got my costume yesterday (I told myself I wouldn't buy anything, but I caved).

3)Starting my giant self portrait. This thing is 7ft tall by 5ft wide. It scares me just looking at the canvas frame. I will no doubt spend many late night painting it-- but it will be worth every minute

4)The weather! I love the fall weather, when it's just cool enough to wear a jacket. And walking to class will be nice.

5) A good excuse to knit a sweater! You heard me, this girl wants to start a sweater! Ok well maybe not a sweater, but I'd love to make a jacket!

6) Relay for Life. Relay for Life is finally getting in, we will be having our first of many meetings this week, which means I will soon be going into full fundraising mode! Oh and I'm chair for Luminaria committee too!

7) Cat sitting :) I get to cat sit for my aunt's friend again! I love being able to hang out with cats, especially since I can't have my own here.

8) C.A.R- Concentration Admissions Review. I'm so sick of talking about whether or not I'll get into digital arts to double, so once this finally happens I'll be so happy, even if I don't get in.

I feel like I should think of 10 different things, but I just can't. Oh well, October promises to be a good month none the less, so cheers to that!

~Lisa

I'm a 10 Year Old in a Twenty Year Old's Body...

or at least, that's what my alter ego is.

Let me explain. My latest (and first) assignment in my Drawing III class was to prove how well we could render things from life. But the catch was that the things had to be objects that represent our 'alter ego'.

Me being the non-creative person I am, I went with something I've done before-- kid's stuff. Yea I basically said that I was a 10 year old. I made the theme work by saying that I only show that side when I'm around my friends, so the images are all of the items 'exploding', opening up, or scattered around, to imply that my alter ego wants to let that out. Finally I also decided to go with the concept that I want my childhood back, by making the objects much larger than they are in real life, saying that these things are made for someone older than a child.

I'll let you decide for yourself.

So overall, these are the best drawings I've ever produced. However, I am the only non-drawing major in that class, which makes me think maybe I should have taken figure drawing 2 instead, because I can't draw the figure and would like more experience. Also because the next assignment in this class is gonna suck, big time, period.

Welcome to the life of a busy college student!

It's FINALLY Summer!

It's very hard to believe that another school year has past and that I will soon be a JUNIOR (gasp!) in College! Wow. Alot of things have happened this semester, so I'm going to take some time and reflect as well as share my recent creations.

First of all, Relay for Life came and went. I expected so much, so I guess I had high hopes. Sadly, we got rained out and were only able to stay until 10 :( But we still kicked KU's butt on funds!

Second, ART! I went through C.A.R. (Concentration Admissions Review) this semester, hoping to get accepted into the Painting Program, and guess what? I DID! I was so happy when I got the acceptance email! However, I still have this crazy dream of working for Disney, SO I am going to go through C.A.R. again next semester, to try and get into the Digital Arts. This means that if I get in I will be doubling in Painting and Digital Arts, and I will probably be stuck with atleast an extra semester of school But this is what I truely want to do with my life, so I think I can handle it.

As for the summer, well I plan to knit like crazy, mostly dishcloths (Explaination below) but also socks and all the projects I didn't finish over Christmas Break. Also though, I will be in SCOTLAND! Yep, I am taking a study abroad trip with a class for 3 weeks to Scotland! I'm really excited, I've never been outside the USA.

Besides Scotland, I will be working 40 hrs a week all through June, then taking another class when I'm back as well as working, so I don't honestly know how much free time I will have, but it will still be better than normal school.

Ok so here are some of my recent projects:

Multi-directional scarf for my friend Rachel, who turned 21 in February. I just always like making things for my friends if I can! This is a nice heavy scarf made with Deborah Norville yarn.

Headband and Scarf I made for my friend Lynnsey's Birthday. She loves pink and I knew she'd love these! I feel bad because I used "cheap" yarn,but I was on a budget and I knew she wouldn't mind. She loved them btw.

Blue headband I made with leftover yarn from that hat. I LOVE this! I have even had a few people ask me to make them ones also. Maybe if I ever have time I'll set up an Etsy shop and sell them. :)
So I am making dishcloths. Not my favorite project, and I sometimes wish I had more time to make things for me, but it's for a good cause. I plan to be selling these, as well as homemade dish soap and other things, at Farmer's Market to raise some money for Relay for Life next year. Yes, I'm insane. Whatever. I think that the profits are going to be pretty good, because cotton is super cheap and the amount you can make with one ball is nice too. Wish me luck!

Besides all of these, I also have a lacy purple scarf started, a pair of socks with just one done, and I also learned 2-at-a-time socks, so that pair is about half done. I'm really excited to get some time to knit, even with work and summer school, hopefully there will be time! I've also learned how to spin on a drop spindle, but I'm no where near good enough to feel good about it yet. Maybe once I am I can make my own yarn!

Hopefully I'll update this more often as the summer goes, I can't wait for it all to begin!

~Lisa