Tag: bones

Art

Art Excavation

Shelly

I spent the afternoon going through stacks of old work, most of it from when I was in school. I found the whole endeavor pretty amusing, so I thought I’d share. And remember, it’s okay to laugh!

Inside Pandora's Box V

Inside Pandora's Box IV

Inside Pandora's Box III

Inside Pandora's Box II

Inside Pandora's Box I
Inside Pandora’s Box (AKA Great Butts Alive)
oil pastel on charcoal paper mounted to cardboard
25 x 19 inches

The figure drawing is pretty awful, but this is the project that made me fall in love with oil pastels. I love the glowing translucence and blendability. It’s tedious, but if you layer and blend them well, the result is gorgeous.

Figure I
litho crayon on newsprint
18 x 12 inches

Figure II
graphite and ink wash on newsprint
18 x 12 inches

Nude II
ink on paper
18 x 12 inches

Skeleton II
graphite on paper
24 x 18 inches

Skeleton I
pencil on newsprint
24 x 18 inches

I still love drawing bones. The newsprint in the second skeleton drawing has yellowed quite a bit. I had to really knock up the contrast in order to get the pencil to show up.

Figure III
Gesture drawing
litho crayon on newsprint
18 x 24 inches

I haven’t done gesture type drawings in ages–probably not since I finished school. I didn’t appreciate this one at the time, but I kind of like it now.

Hand with Leaf
Hand with Leaf
ink and pencil on paper
12 x 18 inches

Stippling is right damn tedious, which is probably why I didn’t finish this drawing. I just don’t have the patience for it. I like the way it looks, though.

Weeping Willow
Weeping Willow
watercolor on 140lb hot press paper
3 3/4 x 5 1/2 inches

I hated watercolor class. I don’t feel like I learned how to handle the materials (or even what proper materials to use). The critiques weren’t helpful, either. I would much rather have a mean, but honest, critique than a nicey-nice one. The instructor seemed more concerned with not hurting people’s feelings than with giving us useful information. Hrmph. And that’s when I got a critique. Half the time, she skipped right over my work. I assumed at the time that she just didn’t have time for anyone who wasn’t a watercolor major. This is the only thing I was able to salvage from that class. Pathetic, isn’t it?

Cougar
Sleeping Cougar
Prismacolor on toned paper
12 x 12 inches

This is part of a triptych. The assignment was to show something morphing, so I changed a house cat into a cougar. The other two drawings have gotten damaged, but that’s probably just as well. They’re really not good. I love the rocks in this one, though, and the way the cougar blends into them.

Absurdist Theater
Absurdist Theater (or The Onion Head Bird People)
acrylic and oil on 140lb rough watercolor paper
15 x 22 inches

This is just a silly painting that resulted from me wanting to use up some odds and ends on my palette. I swiped the paper from the trash can in the painting studio. It’d been thoughtfully primed with a coat of black gesso.

Art, Collage, Poetry

Epitaph for Eula Strange

Shelly

Epitaph for Eula Strange
watercolor, antique curtain fragment, metallic wax, bone, Gepe mount, yearbook photo, and ink on paper

Epitaph for Eula Strange
I dread for me
living one mute day every time
an allusive and subtle communication
an ever present affliction
clutching to me
an old thought to gnaw on.
I am afraid
Out of worth
without words
caught and reduced and disorganized
like dreaming of sleep
and the taste of dry bones.

This is another of the watercolor collages I’ve been working on. I added a bit of antique Swiss dot material from a curtain that belonged to Pinkie Gray. She’s a watercolor artist who lived in Metamora. The jaw bone I found along the river in Muncie while walking my dog. The photograph is from another old yearbook.

Art, Collage, Paintings

I Shall Not Go to Heaven

Shelly

WCC01-1

WCC01-2

I Shall Not Go to Heaven
I Shall Not Go to Heaven
assemblage (bone and mirror) with acrylic and ink adhered to watercolor paper
5 1/2 x 3 3/4 inches

These are three steps in the collage process. I started with one of the uglier paintings, figuring I could hardly make things worse. I added a bit of metallic gold ink, which didn’t do a whole lot to help matters. The hand print was a step in the right direction, though. I like the way the metallic gold ink shows through the black ink of the hand print even though the black ink is on top. (And, for once, the metallic quality of the gold ink is actually showing up.) With the addition of a piece of mirror and some tiny chicken rib bones the piece is, I think, complete.