May 5, 2009
I’ve had a great time at college this semester. My favorite class has been Adobe Illustrator 1 , and I’m looking forward to taking level 2 this fall. Adobe Photoshop has long been a favorite tool and plaything both, but although I had an ancient version of Illustrator, I didnt use it. I’d poked around with it a few times, but it’s not intuitively easy to pick up just by poking the buttons, and the Pen tool is downright scary without a little guidance. But Oh—–!!!! Once you get a bit of familiarity, this program is the Magic Coloring Book that I dreamed about when I was little…the kind that can be any picture you can imagine and drawn much more smoothly than I could manage by hand. The kind you could color in and then change all the colors to different one just by picking them!! “Darker green there…no, blue.” And the 3D modeling makes this program extra sweet. I’m not so great with perspective and mathematical formulae, but the computer is, and it makes creating images a LOT of fun. Of course, there’s so many choices its also difficult, but thats the way it is with any art, and its all part of the fun.
Here are two images I created using Adobe Illustrator. The assignment was to make two calendar pages. You can see the other one over at Aunt Acid’s blog.
Aunty is a wonderfully patient model. She’s shown in these two images in homage to the art nouveau stylings of Alphonse Mucha. I’m looking forward to spending months learning more about this program, now that its not quite so intimidating.
Feb 20, 2009
“You are what you love–and not what loves you back”.
That’s so true–and its also part of a line from a song by Jenny Lewis and the Watson Twins from a CD that I really love, “Rabbit Fur Coat”. It is a delightfully witty and beautifully played set of songs. I’ used to love to listen to music and do my homework….Recently I went back to college after a long winter break that lasted 30 some years. I’m enjoying all of my classes, especially learning about Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator. What wonderful tools!! I’m learning a lot of things that I had no clue about in these programs; some of the tools just don’t lend themselves to easy self-discovery. Even reading about them isn’t the same as having someone show you what the tool does and how it works and then practicing it for a while. Oh, the joy of realizing that something you’ve been frustrated at can indeed be done!
Now I am doing something I really love a lot; taking bits and pieces of art that I have and re-contextualizing them in new ways. Collage and mosaics and masks and miniatures and textiles and image manipulation all play a large part of “what do you do?” for me, and its wonderful to be moving into the next layer of “how do you do that?”. School can be really illuminating; and it certainly lights up lots of new creative connections, even in older brains like mine! Using what’s old and making it new again is what creativity is all about. Here’s a recent assignment; a collage that uses Photoshop layers and masks, plus a quote. It features a doll (BonBon Bertie) and her setting that I made with fabric and FIMO polymer clay photographed by Bob Grieser back in 1999, and other images–plus the quote by Jenny Lewis!
You can see more dolls here, and at Aunt Acid’s blog.
Jul 25, 2008
I went to Jackson Mississippi and conducted a week long seminar at Tougaloo College Summer Art Colony where we explored the uses of polymer clay. We had a wonderful time!
The only “downside” to the week were travel oriented, and even that wasnt too unexpected or awful. My luggage is ALWAYS gone through, so I’m careful to put all my blades in metal tool boxes (lunchboxes from
American Science and Surplus ) that have a flat magnet on the lid. Meant to hold a business card, I put these magnets on the inside of the lid, and they do a great job of holding all the extremely sharp blades flat to the surface so that nobody gets hurt. The pointed sticks, though, people will just have to watch for themselves when rummaging through my things. And the multiple X-Acto knives, and the cookie cutters…. Ok, so I have potentially dangerous luggage. I find it to be MOST dangerous when I’m hauling both 49 pound check-in bags and my 30 pound carry-on and the ten pound purse by myself across the concourse, trying to make it to the next stop. A pasta machine can leave a pretty good bruise, if you arent carefull! But the BIGGEST danger was to my luggage itself this time. After 5 years of vigorous travel experiences, my favorite toolbox got a little smashed. Its fixable—just a few pieces broke, includint the nose of the face. I was wondering when it WOULD break, actually! We tell students about “The ToyBox Test” in which I rated the strenghths of various brands of clay by making miniature teapots and putting them in my son’s toybox with the tonka trucks, etc. and then checking on them several weeks later. The FIMO and CFC (this became Premo) teapots were OK, the Cernit teapot had a ding in its spout, and the Sculpy teapot was some colorful chunky dust on the bottom of the box. This test can also be done as The Bottom Of The Purse Test for those without a toybox and helpful assistants. Or, The Airport Test! This Premo clay made it through quite a few trips before coming to its smashing conclusion. And since I felt a little bashed myself (can they MAKE those airplane aisles and seats any narrower??) I do understand!
