fifi’s graffiti and graveyards

I like stencils. One of my goals this year is to work more with them. I saw this class from Mary Ann Moss on Stencilry and I’m itching to get out the spray paint. I’ll be spending the afternoon clearing a space for mess-making in our storage building so I don’t stink up the house with paint fumes.

In the meantime I’m continuing to dab paint onto the cardboard letters-and-numbers stencils I got at Home Depot. Yesterday I found some mesh joint tape left over from a home repair project and wondered how it would work as a stencil. I dabbed white paint onto a piece and thought it worked great. This fiberglass tape is 2″ wide with 1/8″ squares and is slightly sticky so you can press it firmly against a surface. It’s easy to pull the tape away, too, and it can be reused several times (probably more). You can get a 65-foot roll for just over $2.00 at Lowe’s; it’ll probably last forever.

Cheat your landlord if you can and must, but do not try to shortchange the Muse.
– William S. Burroughs

I don’t like to make New Year’s resolutions, because I seem to break them within a few weeks. This is one of the busiest times at work and after a few ten-hour workdays my schedule becomes “sleep, drive to work, work, drive home, repeat.” The Muse, however, doesn’t want to be denied, so I’m breaking my rule and making a few resolutions, only I think I’ll call them my “Want List”.

Top Ten things I want to do this year:

I just subscribed to the Art Newsletter from artquotes.net. The site says they will send you two inspirational artist quotes three times a week. I found the William S. Burroughs quote there, along with many more.

Prospero Ano Nuevo Everyone!

You lookin’ at ME?

The goldfinches are back! We saw what we think may have been a scout a few weeks ago, and when we had a brief cold snap, the whole gang arrived. There are at least six of them. Sometimes they’re all on this feeder at the same time!

I love these quotes I clipped from an old magazine. They’re from painter Robert Henri, from his book “The Art of Spirit”.

You can do anything you want to do. What is rare is this actual wanting to a cetain thing; wanting it so much that you are practically blind to all other things, that nothing else will satisfy you….I know I have said a lot when I say ‘You can do anything you want to do.’ But i mean it….Blunder ahead with your personal view….The real work of art is the result of a magnificent struggle

The part that’s particularly inspiring to me is the “Blundering Ahead”. It seems to describe the way my non-photographic art comes about. It reminds me of a word some friends were talking about: Bushwhacked. The word has some negative connotations these days, especially referring to a former President, but it was born of the “mountain men” of the American West, who went forward blindly through the thickest brush, whacking a trail as they went. So if you don’t take kindly to the “blundering ahead”, go ahead and bushwhack your way with your art.

For Illustration Friday theme: undone

For Illustration Friday theme: hatch

Cropped from a recent journal page. I meant to rework it but didn’t have time.

Trying some new things - especially crayolas over random blocks of text.

Most of us have heard stories about the tormented artist suffering for art. I don’t want to be one of those wretches. I decided if I’m feeling frustrated or disgusted I’m walking away for a little while. If it’s not fun, it’s not art.

I’ve been working on a Moleskine Japanese-fold notebook. The pages are thicker than the regular moleskine, so I can paint and glue to my heart’s content. I’m working on two-page spreads, but maybe by the time I get one side of the book done I’ll be ready to move on to 3 or 4 pages at a time. I’m just happy my brain has grown beyond the ATC-size layout.