#superbOwl

The Super Bowl is on. But as I mentioned a few years ago, I kind of prefer Superb Owl.

SF MOMA has been tweeting #superbowl images of superb owl artworks in their collection, so I thought I'd add the questioning owls from my recent Sketchbook Project to the celebration of the day.

This was one of my dad's haiku poems that made me smile. I hope you'll check the sketchbook out if you're ever at the Art House Library in Brooklyn since this isn't the greatest photo and the owls actually have a bit more color and detail. (You might find them to be more superb).

The game goes on, and here I'll give a little cheer for the underdogs in this game ~ Go Broncos! :)

spring blooms & garden notes

"I perhaps owe having become a painter to flowers." -- Claude Monet

Spring is a time of year when I wish I didn't work and could just hang out in the garden, painting the view. I'm so pleased that my irises are starting to bloom, along with just about everything else in my garden. I received a large variety of irises from a friend last fall, planted them and have been hoping they'd be happy and thrive. The one above is one of my favorites and the one below is a new bloom for me called "Hers". All their ruffles and folds remind me of fancy dresses and their colors are inspiring me to paint in watercolor.

I also have the idea to make a little notebook of my irises, marking where they're planted and how the blooms look of the different varieties. I've made some maps of my plantings but keep misplacing them as they're not in a book. The irises that get the morning sun seem to be doing the best, but a botanical drawing book of notes could help me keep track and get them all to do well.

I moved one grapevine to a new location, hoping it would fare a bit better than it has in previous years. In the meantime, the other vine (which has always been the swarthier, more vigorous plant) has shot off in all directions and is sprouting signs of future grape clusters in most promising way. Aren't they cute?

I've photographed the lavender at the end of its bloom, but it's still pretty. I've another variety of lavender that is getting ready to bloom. It's all shoots and buds, ready to spring into color. I can't wait.

I bought a new plant and already forgot its name. If anyone knows what this one is below, I'd be happy to be reminded. It has been blooming for a month now and grows as a tidy, spherical bush. I like the bluish tint to its leaves and the long-lasting flowers.

The azaleas really went crazy while I was on a trip to Oregon, so when I came back they weren't quite as fresh but they're still quite bold. They make this beautiful display every year and light up my courtyard. Since they blossom at the same time as all the roses, it becomes quite colorful.

We'll finish the tour with a quieter plant, the wisteria. She really peaked a few weeks ago, but is still putting on a pretty show. I missed photographing the cascades of blossoms that attracted so many bees a little while ago.

I've been wanting to paint on several canvases that are quietly blank, waiting for me to help them say something meaningful to the world. All the colors and shapes of these blossoms, especially the abstract shapes and negative spaces do inspire!

book sculptures

I've always loved books, but now I'm falling in love with altering books, folding books, transforming books... All I've done so far is fold them into new shapes and photograph them ~ I haven't even added any color to them yet or experimented with scissors, embellishments or inks ~ but I'm in love with the process and the resulting shapes, texture, and transformation into a new geometry.

It was a little hard to transform my first book, as I've always respected books and tried to keep them from not getting bent and torn. So far, I'm only using old, rescued books that were destined for the rubbish bin. They're actually good books (I'm reading them before I fold them) which somehow makes me more appreciative of their new shapes. 

I'd been admiring Bronia Sawyer's book sculptures for the past couple years and was delighted when she wrote to me about my painted autumn leaves. She's always impressing me with the beautiful and imaginative things she does with books. Some of my favorite works of hers were recently featured on Discover Paper with an insightful interview. As we were talking together, the idea emerged to combine the two ~ books and leaves ~ and share our creations with each other. We wanted to put something together fairly quickly, so the time limit pushed me to get started right away.

With my first attempt, I've come up with a book sculpture still life. I liked the idea that the books are natural objects found in a surreal landscape. I would like to keep pursuing this combination of topics since this is just my first try and I've only barely scratched the surface of the leaf/book connection. Trees/words, leaves/books, paper/bark, poetry/flowers, seeds/ideas... it's quite intriguing!

The folded books have an organic, moody sort of feeling, as though they are cousins to the natural world (and I suppose they are, having their origins in wood, ink and ideas). Perhaps because of the stories they contain, they seem to have a rich inner life and a personal history.

After I folded my first book, I felt such an affinity for it. I carried it back and forth to work with me each day so I could have it near me and think it over. Then I folded another, trying something slightly different, and then another that failed (the book was too old and the pages too brittle). Finally, I folded one more in a taller shape and photographed them all together.

Bountiful Harvest

This book landscape reminds me of a harvest, which I didn't plan in advance but which hit me after I put the books and leaves in front of the big sky. (The background is a photo from our road trip last year, passing through Nevada on our way to Park City, Utah).

I love how dramatic these book shapes are, all on their own. It's fun to give them new settings and meaning. I'm looking forward to seeing Bronia's books-and-leaves combo and will share my next steps into the book sculpture world as I make further explorations!

observing the magnolia

Large magnolia trees grow outside my new office. I see their dark leaves and large white blossoms from my window, and walk under them on my way in and out each day. When we first moved in, the flowers were bright and fresh, but lately they've begun to wilt and then drop their stamens to the ground.

You can see the little anther head peeking up from the center of the flower.

When they fall, I like to pick them up. The seeds are fuzzy and so closely packed. It feels like a little paw.

 I kept one that I picked up on my desk at work. It had the anther and pistil of the stamen and was absolutely fascinating. At home last night, I was thinking about these curious plants and decided to try to draw the stamen from memory. This is how I drew it:

And this is how it actually looked when I checked today:

All dressed up with fishnet stockings! Elegant!

Not quite right, is it? The real one has so many more details that I neglected in my sketch. The anther looks really fuzzy and the seed bits look like claws, whereas I drew more of an asparagus head with strawberry seeds. I forgot the ridge around the middle and quickied the net "stockings" even though they're one of my favorite parts.

It was fun to check my powers of observation and memory, however. A good drawing game I'd like to try again!

a few nice things

The orchid that I placed in the window near my desk is blooming. I am fascinated by the interior pattern and layers of soft, translucent petals. Sometimes I find the center exquisite and other times it looks like some kind of futuristic symbol. Am also wondering how all that flower fits inside that tiny pod?

At the beach there was a giant driftwood log on the sand. It looked as though it had been there a long time. It looks like part of a large redwood, so as a living tree it could have lived nearby. I love the rough texture and wish I could mimic it in clay but I probably lack the skill and patience.

And at home, these two young doves sat on my fence for hours and let us approach them very closely. We were surprised they did not fly away. Sometimes they cocked their heads at us, and other times they rounded their feathers and sat, puffed up, as if they had no necks at all. Even though they have plain coloring, I really like their neutral tones and sweet shape.

Speaking of sweet, my bunny is weathering the hot summer days by spreading out flat in the cool dirt. She's also become a bit naughty and refuses to go in her cage at night, but we love her anyway.

Hope you are also enjoying your summer days (and nights)! I'll soon share some sketches and crafts that I've been working on lately.

xo kimi

honeybees

We were surprised after dinner the other night to find a bee on the floor in the dining room. She looked weak and parched, so I put her outside with some sugar water that she seemed to appreciate. When I checked on her later, she was gone and I hoped she'd recovered her strength and found her way back home.

I began thinking about bees and their mysterious disappearances lately. When we visited my uncle in Illinois last summer, he commented that 2/3 of his hives had collapsed without warning. Only three were still carrying on.

I had been bouncing a variety of ideas around in my head for a theme on my Limited Edition Sketchbook Project without being able to settle on one, but the little visitor helped me decide to focus on the little creatures that keep our plants pollinated and our garden humming.

This morning I spent some time with them in our back yard, near the rosemary bush that they favor. I've only a few weeks to start and complete my LE Sketchbook, but with these little fellows for inspiration, I hope to meet the deadline.

Will begin to work this weekend and hope to have some art to share with you soon!

a new favorite ~ {american buffalo}

I've been painting and drawing bison lately.

Our road trip this summer took us to the Grand Tetons in Wyoming where we saw our first group of bison, or American Buffalo. Such a thrill to see them grazing on the high plains, almost as big as our car, so top-heavy with their hunky shoulders over tiny legs.

Slightly north, in Yellowstone National Park, we came upon this one grazing next to a mini-van.

And he answered the question for us, "Why did the buffalo cross the road?"

Think you know the answer?

A: To poop on the other side.

Is that inappropriate? Sorry, I thought it was cute the way he went all knock-kneed to do it. :)

The Yellowstone Hotel gift shop was selling buffalo-poop Christmas ornaments. Imagine, I could have collected this and made some of my own! A missed opportunity, to be sure...

Look how cute they are when they rest in a field. Reminded me of my bunny relaxing on the lawn at home. (And just to be clear, bunnies remain my #1 favorite. I can't be disloyal to my bunny.)

Hard to imagine them ramming and goring anyone with their horns when they look so tranquil, but the park brochures warn that it does occur. Yikes.

When we got to South Dakota, a young bison led us to our hotel in Custer State Park. A very charming escort.

We felt really welcomed.

Incidentally, they have a buffalo drive every fall in the Black Hills and park rangers on horseback do a big cowboy-style round-up of all the buffalo in the park. They count them, check their health and monitor the population. It's a big event that draws a lot of visitors.

Whoops, this darling creature is not a bison. 

But he's so cute! We met him just outside Mt. Rushmore, drinking water off the rocks. These goats are another new favorite of mine because their mouths turn up in little smiles. They're just so sweet. But back to this post's main feature...

The funny thing about buffalo is that they have "extra" fur over their backs that are kind of like blankets. Some are really ragged looking (more like the buffalo that crossed the road's irregular look). But some, like this young fellow, are very smooth and pretty. I wonder if it has to do with age?

Well, I thank you for bearing with my bison adoration post. I leave you with a last look at a group of friends grazing in the Black Hills and another silly joke.

Q: What did the father buffalo say to his son when it was time for him to leave home?

A: Bison

inspiration ~ {champagne grapes}

About three years ago I planted two grape vines in my backyard. Each year they've produced more grapes and this year we have the most bunches yet. They are sweet (slightly tart if you pick them early) and so delicious!

More ripening soon!

I decided to paint them to record some of my summer bounty, and that's what started it all.

Watercolor on a greeting card.

As I'd just sent off mail art packages to Toni Rica, Jeannine Saylor and Jessica Gowling, I decided to make a package for someone that was completely not expecting it ~ my sweet mother-in-law. She lives far across the ocean in Italy and I think she has been feeling a little lonely as of late. Once the card was ready, I gathered a number of other surprises to brighten her day.

I hoped to help her feel closer to us by sharing some of the things around us right now. My bunny was hopping about in the back yard, a joyful little creature, so I carved the flat end of a wine cork into a bunny shape and stamped it on a tiny card to fit inside a tiny handmade envelope along with...

... yes, that's a bit of bunny's fur. (She's shedding a lot in the summer time!) 

The back of the card says 'bunny' in Italian.

I am pretty happy with how the bunny stamp came out. You might remember my first cork stamp that I sent to Jessica Gowling long ago ~ a 'Secret Agent Man'. Jeannine Saylor has also been making sets of cork stamps. They are fun to make and fairly easy as long as you keep your fingers shy of the blade!

Anyhoo... a few more things jumped in the envelope to Italia: a literary bison (to remember our recent road trip), some colorful printed and letter pressed items, a nice long letter in the best Italian I could muster, and some photos of the fam are now on their way across the Atlantic.

Hope they make their journey intact and give her a pleasant surprise one day soon.

in the forest

 

I made some drawings during our road trip (since painting in the car was logistically impractical). Going through rural areas, spotting wildlife and hiking in the forests with my kids must have got me thinking how brave one has to be to go through the dark woods alone.

Later, we drove past a handmade sign someone had posted on a fence in the-middle-of-nowhere New Mexico that said, "KEEP YOUR PETS AND CHILDREN CLOSE! RECENT WOLF ATTACKS." Yeeps! Too scary for me.

colors of spring

Outside my window everything is growing. Grape vines are climbing, wisteria are blooming, trees are sprouting tiny bright-green leaves and of course, there are weeds poking up that have to be plucked. Color is popping up everywhere and I long for a vacation week to sit around painting and making art from all this inspiration.

This past week was a bit rough with lots of work and overtime and deadlines. Not that it wasn't fun ~ it culminated in a very charming day of art and culture at the school where I work ~ but my own creative energy was a bit drained by the time I got home. I just wanted to go to bed!

As a result, I don't have anything new to share with you this weekend. *sigh* But I found these watercolor flowers from the archives that I thought to share with you. They reflect the colors of spring that I'm starting to see around me.

Hope you're enjoying a good weekend and that the new week brings more time for art and dreaming.

Oh ~ one more thing! A twitter friend @jojoebi in Japan is holding a bracelet/necklace raffle on her blog that is open to anyone that donates to Japan Relief. The raffle ends tomorrow, so please visit her site and enter today!


Happy Weekend!

the forest

Got my sketchpad and pencil...

 I went for a hike at Mt. Madonna with my sister, her boyfriend and my mum.  As we walked along, I sketched material to refer to for my Sketchbook Project.   I had already been hiking there this summer and found so much inspiration for a little sketch story.  Giant hollow logs, clusters of graceful fungi, wild huckleberries, steep trails and tall, tall trees.

I was curious to know how many photos it would take to photograph the trees from top to bottom.  It took six:

We climbed to the ruins of Henry Miller's summer home.  This little photo was displayed there, but there are just some old stone walls and foundation pieces left, so it was impossible to figure out exactly how the house had been situated.  We tried to picture the hillsides with forests cleared, providing views from Santa Cruz to Santa Clara, and what life must have been like for such a wealthy landowner and his family.

One interesting thing we noted was that the foundation under the mess hall seemed to be hollow underneath.  Perhaps I'll imagine and draw what's under there in my Sketchbook Project...

At the end of our hike, after visiting the pens of white deer, we were heading to the car when we were invited to join the celebration party of a wedding.  The couple was from Monterey and I believe the husband was a marine biologist.

Champagne and sangria with the groom's work colleague
(in amazing, colorful dress!), my sister and her bf.

Sangria and wedding revelry were a charming and unexpected way to end off our hike.  Perhaps I shall find a way to include all of those elements in my sketchbook.  It was a good day of research, nature, family and inspiration. Happy day!

jerry

The ground has been parched as summer has suddenly returned upon us.  I went out to water the garden and who did I scare out of the flowers but Jerry, the praying mantis. 

Jerry had not done any modeling before, but turned out to be a natural.  I offered him/her a part in my sketchbook project and we shot a number of different poses and angles for future reference.  Jerry has the amazing ability to move very, very slowly while hanging on to smooth, impossibly vertical surfaces with tiny feet that don't even have gripping toes.

Performing acrobatics on the manifold, Jerry told me the critter that had nibbled the edges of all those leaves was now "handled".  I didn't ask any further questions, but I did recall that I used to hear a cricket in the bush and hadn't heard its song for a couple evenings.

We hung out until Jerry began to look off into the distance, dreaming of greater things.  I guess that's how it is when one befriends a praying mantis.