Saturday Creative Spark

Mehmet Ali Uysal’s Ten / Skin © 2012

Mehmet Ali Uysal is a Turkish artist with a great sense of humor. He starts with a common object, a clothespin, let’s say, and changes what it does. The reaction is to stop in a space you would never even consider and look, smile, or begin to think about the space and the use of space as we go through life.

Clouds are the perfect symbol of the ephemeral–they appear, disappear, move, cast shadows, change shape and amaze. In the desert, clouds are rare most of the year. In New England, a cloudless day usually makes the news. But what about indoor clouds? Dutch photographer Berndaut Smilde’s creates his own clouds, in beautiful rooms, to otherworldly results.

He has a careful process blending humidity and air flow, but the best thing is watching the cloud drift. If you are in a hurry, it starts at 01:23 in this video.

Ogilvy, France (a branch of the original Ogilvy and Mather) created a clever series of billboards for IBM. Normally, billboards are eyesores, something we want to avoid. This series of billboards help city dwellers cope with the environment a bit better. There are billboard benches and ramps, and even a billboard that helps you stay dry if it’s raining. This is a clever blend of creativity and marketing, not offensive, not loud, just simple. Olgivy’s trademark is simple.

Canadian photographer Ulric Collette is fascinated with the familiarities of of family features. In his photographic work, he blends facial halves (right and left) of two related people to show relationships both physical and photographic.  Some of the photographs are startling, but the one that fascinated me the most was the combined image of the two brothers in row six, right side. Amazing family resemblance.

Have a creative weekend!

–Quinn McDonald is amazed at the ability of art to transport.

Saturday Creative Love

No-fat potato chip.

Creativity can come in many styles, including cooking. Potato chips are not on any of my menus anymore, until Cooking Man made me some. He sliced washed, raw potatoes on a mandolin, soaked them in cold water, spread them on a paper towel, and cooked them in the microwave. Presto, amazing potato chips! No fat, low calorie and even low carb, as long as I don’t eat a bag full. He got the recipe from another blog, and am I glad! Here is an extra:  low-carb, gluten-free chewy almond bars. I’ve made them twice and they are delish!

Joshua Katz noticed that even though we have cable TV and hear each others languages, we in the U.S. still have different words for the same thing and different pronunciations. So he made 22 maps for different words pronounced different ways. They are fascinating to look at, particularly if you feel strongly about how the word “caramel” is pronounced.

Paddi McDonnell did an article on typographic art. I love typographic art–the subtlety, the cleverness. The portraits (scroll down on the link) are really well done.

BrussPup’s  YouTube channel is a mix of art and sound. He sprinkles sand onto a metal plate and connects it to a speaker that plays various frequencies. The sand vibrates and moves to areas of no frequency (so no shaking) and fascinating patterns are formed.

Mircea Popescu does linocuts. That’s sort of like saying that Bach wrote some music. Her linocuts are so complicated, it is difficult to imagine how she does them, and how she keeps track of the layers. Or the lines.

Have a creative weekend!

–Quinn McDonald is chief curiosity officer of QuinnCreative.

Tips, Quotes, Ideas

On this morning’s walk, I photographed some “alien alphabets” –marks on the street left by the utility company. The name needs to change. In Arizona, “alien” is not a little green humanoid from outer space, it’s a slur for people not born here. On the same walk, I added other alphabet figures  based on shapes–gates, grates, tree limbs. No new name yet, but a lot of exploration ahead.

You probably have a file of quotes someplace on your computer. Me, too. I got a gift of a bunch of quotes from Traci Paxton Johnson, and added to it. Today, I noticed I had 27 pages of quotes. Printing them out (back and front of the pag, of course) and storing them in the studio for future use (I have that alphabet to try out) made sense. So did sharing some of the quotes that slid by on the screen on the way to the printer:

“Vision without action is a daydream. Action without vision is a nightmare.” –Japanese proverb

“Fear is the natural reaction to moving closer to the truth.” –Pema Chodron

“If you think you are too small to have an impact, try going to sleep with a mosquito in the room.” –14th Dalai Lama

“In the end, we remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.” –Martin Luther King

“Patience is not about how long you can wait, but how well you behav while you’re waiting.” –Buddhist Bootcamp

Tip: If you live in a hot climate and have sliding doors, don’t grease them with oil. The heat degrades it and makes it stickier. And it collects cat hair.  Instead, rub the runners with plain candle wax. Works wonders.

Tip: Tired of drinking water all day long? Gather up some stray tea bags, brew them and make a blended ice tea. Choose a mix of fruit flavors and green tea–rose hips, hibiscus, mango, blackberry, and green tea. A great refreshing drink. No calories, lots of flavor, lots of antioxidants.

Tip: Have blank pages at the end of your journal? Fill them with an index–using page numbers or dated pages, so you can flip to the back and know what’s in each journal. Or use the back pages to test colors of new inks, paints, or pencils.

–Quinn McDonald is switching to summer hours, not because she likes getting up at 4:30 a.m., but because the sun rises early and so do the cats.

 

 

 

Newsletters: Worth Considering? (Plus Giveaway)

Yes, I’ve had a newsletter. Twice. Each time, it became too unwieldy to manage. Too much content. When I switched from newsletter to blog (which seemed sensible at the time), I deleted the newsletter address list, after I invited everyone over to the blog.

That left me with, umm, no announcement or contact list. Sure, the blog mentions my classes, but if you ask “Really? Where? ” you aren’t alone. The Workshops page on this blog is often overlooked. And updating it often happens only after I announce something on the blog. (See my upcoming demos at Arizona Art Supply).

I can’t really expect people who are waiting for me to announce the poetry-writing class to read the blog every day to see when it will run (Late July, early August start) or to check the Workshop page. A newsletter would be a great way to do that.  I am grateful to everyone who is signed up to the blog, and to everyone who tells me they start their day reading the blog. Realistically, though, a lot of people check in once a week, Or once a month.

So here is the question: Should I start a once-every-two-week newsletter? Or are newsletters passe? (I don’t want to create a business Facebook page. Yet)

More information:

• The newsletter would list my classes and demos, in person and online, local to me or local to you.
• It could contain a few other items not in this blog–a link to a clever tutorial (not necessarily mine), a book suggestion (creativity-related, including books I quit reading or didn’t enjoy), or a creative-life tip or quote from my reading.  It would be short (not like my blogs, I know).
• You’d be able to subscribe and unsubscribe anytime you wanted (you’ll have to unsubscribe from the same email you subscribed with). No questions asked.
• I’ll start small, just an email list I handle myself. No cookies, no tracking, no selling or renting your name. I have enough trouble managing my time.

Leave a comment if you have ideas, suggestions, or thoughts about a newsletter.

Giveaway

Oh, and of course there will be a drawing for leaving a comment and taking the poll:  a copy of Creating Time, by Marney  Makridakis. The subtitle is “Using Creativity to Reinvent the Clock and Reclaim Your Life.” You can read my earlier review here.

Note: Thanks for the 76 percent of readers who would read a newsletter. Another 11 percent said “It depends if I like it.”  So, it looks like I’ll be starting a newsletter soon. Stay tuned–I have to create a space to sign up and get the first copy together. Thanks for voting!  Barbara I is the winner of Marney’s book!

–Quinn McDonald is curious, again.

Lost in the Forest: A Painted Collage

Today was a prime-the-pump day: I spent all day in an art class at Arizona Art Supply in Phoenix. Lauren Griggs IV was teaching Arboles de Papel (Trees of Paper), the full class of the demo I had seen him do several times at the Women’s Expo several weeks ago. Lauren is the manager of the Scottsdale store, and a force field of energy.

The class was the kind I’m fond of–a bit more expensive, but everything is provided

Acrylic on tissue and canvas, by Lauren Griggs IV. This was the sample for the class. If you look closely, you can see the tissue texture.

the  36″ wide x 24″ high canvas, three tubes of acrylic paint, brushes, water containers–everything. And to spoil us further, Kevin came along as assistant. It was really great to have someone who helped carry canvases outside to dry, fetched water, made tape appear. Bliss!

We started out by coating portions of the canvas with Liquitex gloss medium, and, while the medium was still wet, applying tissue paper. We pressed folds into the tissue so the wrinkles run in the direction of the planned work.

Once it was dry, we coated the entire piece in gesso, making sure the folds got gessoed down. Lots of texture, and it took a long time for this layer to dry.

The next step was to tear pieces of blue painter’s tape and applied them to the canvas, grouping the lines to look like trees. This is the hard part, as you are working with positive and negative space. The two small pieces of tape on the right and left margins helped me establish a horizon line.

Once the tape was rubbed into place, we began mixing and applying color. No surprise to anyone, I chose to do a monochromatic piece, and applied a coat of warm gray to the middle section. My trees were going to be a stand of aspen after a snowstorm. Then the fun began. I applied a mix of Payne’s Gray (both Grumbacher, which is more charcoal and Golden’s, which has blue in it), Blue Violet and Ultramarine blue. As soon as the paint was applied, you squirted it with water, to allow the paint to run and create more texture. We worked from top to bottom, encouraging runs and dribbles.

We then broke for lunch, while the work dried.

Once we touched up the paint, we pulled the tape off. The paint has leaked under the folds of the tissue and tape, creating interesting tree trunk effects. Unfortunately, some of my tissue came off as well. Fixes were in order.  This stage shows half the tape removed.

We were now well into the afternoon. I’ve never worked this big and it felt like I had to paint a whole, real forest! I glued down torn tissue with gesso, smearing it with a wet towel. (An art technique called Frottage). We added detail along the tree edges, created more detailed bark, and added some shadows. I also added some small specks of orange in the darkest section to create depth.

And the painting was done, ready to go home. It was a wonderful way to spend a 106-degree day here in Phoenix!

Here is the finished work of two other people in class. Each painting was so very different. And while the person who did the work on the left claimed she wasn’t creative, her finished piece proves otherwise.

Thanks to Lauren and Kevin for helping us get great results!

—Quinn McDonald is proud that she did her first really big painting at Arizona Art Supply where she will begin teaching next month!

 

Creative Weekend Boost

Some interesting creative ideas on the intertubes:

Not nearly as weird what you are thinking, it’s a colored pencil drawing of chewing gum.

Julia Randallis a colored-pencil artist. Having taken colored pencil classes, I think it’s a beautiful medium, but very, very difficult to get right. Randall does. In this beautiful collection, she draws. . . bubble gum. In different colors and at different stages of use. It’s funny and weird and somehow lovely.

Looking closely at the work, the incredible patience needed to be a successful colored pencil artist becomes obvious.

Not into gum? She also has a series called Decoys, on the dangers of genetically modified plants.

Eric Cahan’s painting. This is a sunset.

David Emitt Adams is a photographer. It’s always fascinating to find someone who has a clear vision of something totally different. Adams does. In Conversations with History, He finds old cans in the Arizona desert, then prints desert photographs on them. “I use these objects to speak of human involvement with this landscape and create images on their surfaces through a labor-intensive 19th century photographic process known as wet-plate collodion,” Adams said on his site.

What? iPhone oil paintings? Not what you think. If you’ve talked on the phone and then discovered oil and makeup on your screen, you are in tune with  JK Keller’s vision. He wipes his face with an iPhone, and then uses them to create screen art. To advance the show, look for the green triangles on the center, outer edges of the page frame.

Eric Cahan is a minimalist. His paintings are all either dawn or sky. He identifies them only with time. Somehow, no more is needed.

Have a creatively exciting weekend!

Creative Weekend Links

Note: Congratulations to Jen from Pierced Wonderings–she’s the winner of Eric Maisel’s book, Making Your Creative Mark.  For those who did not win this book, there will be another book give-away this week. Stay tuned!

Need a template for an envelope? You can download several sizes and styles here.

From the studio of Ana Ter Haar.

The street artist Levalet paints on kraft paper with India Ink and then uses wheat paste to attach the scenes in urban areas. The result is interesting black-and-white scenes in startling city settings.

Erdal Inci is an animator who creates using video talents. He develops gifs that are both fascinating and slightly sinister. He clones images of people and then animates them to create mesmerizing repetitive gifs.

Daniel Sierra is a digital video artist who created a video on sine waves–the waves seem to move mildly at first, then they begin to get more alive, flick dust and smoke. His video, Oscillate, is mesmerizing.

Anna Ter Haar designs functional furniture and fashion accessories that drip. Glass. The colors against the wood look both soft and pliable.

Have a creative weekend!

—Quinn McDonald is going to spend part of the weekend reading poetry books and searching for a ripe honeydew melon.

 

Saturday Surprises

The winners of the free creativity coaching have been notified. Because of my confidentiality rules, the names won’t appear here. Thanks to all of you for participating!

Skywhale, being inflated.

What’s new for Saturday? For a whole new way of thinking about creativity, visit Patricia Piccinini’s site, and read about her amazing hot-air balloon sculpture. Part pre-historic fish, part breast, it was commissioned for a Canberra Centennial. The photos are amazing, beautiful and funny. Of course, I think flying breasts are funny.

Geraldo Feldstein is an absurd super-realist whose work is both familiar and reminiscent of outsider art. His installation work is startling and humorous, and his paintings are spare but rich in color.

Yep, a record. Of wood.

Amanda Ghassael combines science and art. In this project, she laser cuts a record. It’s entirely playable, but instead of vinyl, it’s made of wood. She also has one of paper.

The world of creativity is large and interesting and not always about painting or mixed media. Enjoy the weekend and  wherever your creative explorations take you!

—Quinn McDonald is looking through books for a project. Uh-oh.

 

 

Collage and Perspective

This gallery contains 2 photos.

Working on another letter-and-number collage, I made a few decisions. Just letters and numbers is tedious. More color is needed to keep the work visually interesting. So I added maps pieces for mountains. But something wasn’t right. The piece looked … Continue reading →

Saturday Dip in Creativity

It’s Saturday, so it’s time for a skip through the interwebs, looking for creative ideas and projects. The Wellcome Collection describes itself as: “Wellcome Collection is a free visitor destination for the incurably curious, exploring the connections between medicine, life and art in the past, present and future. “ Sounds good. I was intrigued by an exhibition called Souzou: Outsider Art from Japan, which talks about identity and the relationship between names and letters.

Rome Rooftops by Isaac Tobin. Details below.

There are many other areas on the site that I haven’t checked out yet, including High Tea, a game you can play on line, in which you try to make money in the teas and drug trade, 10 years before the Opium Wars. Before you wrinkle your nose, there are related articles including one which considers whether or not drug use is a sin, a crime, a vice,  or a a disease.

The Color Of is an app that shows you the color of abstract ideas. It does it by going to Instagram, grabbing photos that mentions the word, then creating an abstract by overlapping the images. Interesting.

The Graphics Fairy publishes hundreds of copyright-free images that you can use on cards or stationery. Sort of online ephemera, printable.

Nerhol is a two-artist collective who uses photography in unusual ways. In this series, subjects were asked to sit still for three minutes, while a camera clicked away, taking a series of photos. The photos were then layered and cut to show the subtle movement and facial changes of the “sitting still” subjects.

Isaac Tobin designs typefaces and works for Chicago University Press designing book covers. But the work of his I love are his minimalist collages. That’s one of them up there, but there are many more, some of them so spare, so not “layers on layers” we are used to loving now, that they are refreshing.

It’s the weekend! Enjoy your own creativity.

—Quinn McDonald is working on a collage of her own. It’s done with letters and numbers. Again.