Painting and Chewing Gum

...is apparently something I can't do.

I painted in the morning, working on this blue face.

Blocking in Blue Face. Acrylic.

After lunch, I was chewing a piece of gum, and spent 30 minutes trying to get back into the swing of things. It had all been going to well before lunch! I spit out my gum because it was tasteless and hard anyway, and.. voila! I could paint again!

Further Progress on Blue Face (not finished). Acrylic.

So now I know! I will avoid chewing gum and painting (or drawing) in the future. My brain just can't take so much stimulation all at once.

Scanography!

Oh my goodness. I struggle so much to keep up with this blog, even though I keep thinking I should... and even that I want to. I just don't prioritize it. But I was overcome with the need to share this!

This afternoon, in the lazy part of "how are we going to entertain ourselves without vegging out?," I decided to jump into scanography.

I had never heard the term scanography until this last weekend, when my mom mentioned an artist friend of hers used to do scanography, but now does encaustic; I now think may have more of a connection than I would have thought. It's all about the surprise of what turns out after some not-super-specific set-up. Scanography, of course, is putting stuff on a scanner bed, arranging it artfully, pressing the scan button and seeing what happens. I have been wanting desperately to do it for days, now.

I engaged my daughter for a session, and 6 scans and some digital editing later, I got this, which I absolutely LOVE!

The upshot is anyone with a scanner and computer can do this. I printed it on my fancy schmancy photo printer on matte art paper, which gave it an almost sepia finish, which I love even more. I'm working on a frame right now.

And I'm figuring out who else I can convince to come smoosh their face on my scanner bed.... Interested?

The 100 Day Project: Clouds

Wooo hooo! Another project to start! Except this one is doable, different, and so far (three days into it- ha!), exciting.

Day1

Like everyone else, I had a list of "resolutions" that I thought really hard about around New Years. As if that list is ever completed... One nagging "resolution" for me was to Take More Photographs. But that sort of statement is too large, too vague, too unwieldy to be manageable. Photographs of what? Could I close my eyes, point the lens at something, take the shot, and call it photography? All year long? What would I do with 365 random and mediocre photos? Etc., etc.  Not surprisingly, 3 days into it, I was done. I think I kind of knew I was going to fail from the beginning, because honestly, I didn't really try very hard, either. 

Day 2

January marches on in its persistent way, and three weeks into it I heard about The 100 Day Project. My new favorite podcast, Art for Your Ear, produced by The Jealous Curator, interviewed Lisa Congdon and she talked about the Project. Approximately 72 hours later, I couldn't help myself: I finally got myself on Instagram and posted my Day 1 Cloud. 

Day 3: I couldn't find any photogenic clouds, so I drew my own.

Here's to new projects! (And the number 3, apparently. Maybe that's one of my lucky numbers in the upcoming year of the Monkey? Must look into that...)

This post is dedicated to Zen Habits and Leo's post on Unconventional Productivity that was in my inbox yesterday – so here's also to a new blog post after such a long practice of active avoidance!