musicians at the farmers market
Originally uploaded by petescully

Another PeteScully winner. Love the simplicity of this one.

I come from a long line of craftspeople and you wouldn’t believe but musicians. The most identifiable part of my heritage is German and Swiss. Both my great grandparents hailed from Germany and came to the states very young with large amounts of their extended family, apparently because this is how it was done. My Great Grandfather, in addition to working for the Buffalo Grain Company for something like 50 years, was a decorative wrought iron worker, you know the black metal gates and things you find all over the place with curly-qs and ornamentation. There is a subset of blacksmithing where you create ornamentation that looks like such things as grape leaves and grapes as well as other items from nature. I’m sure these initially occurred because some dude somewhere wanted to show off his skills but it became in and of itself a true art form. I’m sad to say that the craft my great grandfather excelled in is dying. Much like the Micmac* basket making (a whole other subset of my mutt-like heritage) it’s going the way of the dodo. I suspect this is true because both of these crafts require hours of labor at their respective benches and years of skill building exercises to learn the skills needed to turn something flat into a hollow wrought iron ball.

Because my Great Grandfather worked for a large company little of his work is something that we still have in the family. There is a banded box, containing shot glasses and a “keg” for liquors, some shelf ornamentation that he created for my grandparents when they bought “the farm,” and several shelves at my great Grandmother’s home. One is spectacular and a showcase of his work, and I’m sure he was proud of it. It stands about 8 inches high and about 8 inches wide, he shelf reaches out from the wall about 4 inches. The base is dark black iron formed into hanging grapes and rippled leaves. The shelf is gorgeous in its ornate delicacy. At nearly 70 years old it looks exactly as it did when it was first made, a tribute to its fine craftsmanship. Someday I’ll get a picture of it and post it here. It’s one of those things that goes unnoticed when visiting family.

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The first couple of weeks of any online class are usually filled with minor but annoying tech issues. This class seems to be no exception. I was unable to find the first week’s video anywhere, and then redid it, only to find the original video hidden in the edit video section of UStream. Then I had what seemed to be a calm week with the tech. I figured that I’d worked out the kinks and things would be smoothing sailing from here on out. I apparently thought too soon.

I received a DM on twitter from a wonderful honest person who told me my private classes as soon as they were saved were appearing for all to see on UStream. This is not something I would be able to see as I’m signed in. I signed out and sure enough there they were. Frustrated and angry I started looking at other sites. I signed up and checked out and tested about 15 different sites. One had the capability to go private, if I paid them $350 per month. Another wanted $25 a quarter (doable) but the videos only stayed on line for 6 days and there was no way to download them. MY frustration built up until I was at a fever pitch. Frankly the LIVE video portion of UStream with the chat is exactly what I need for my classes. It MAKES the class what it is. It allows me to toss information out, students to “raise their hands” and question me in real time. It’s damn near perfect.*

So as my carriage was about to turn into a pumpkin the simplest solution hit me in the forehead. In my panic I completely looked past my blip.tv account. I ran my last class in hi def video in 10 min 2 gig chunks of video. I pay for an account to keep it private. The simple solution: After my show I mark the archived shows as “private” then download the .flv file to my computer and then turn around and load it to blip. Sure it takes TIME but that I’ve got, sort of, but it’s also a secure and easy things to do. Because it’s in an .flv file I can load it up with no quality changes. Blip doesn’t have to process it anymore, .flv is what it broadcasts.

I can’t believe I didn’t think of the simple solution first. Panic, it makes the head cloudy.

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Hand Art Therapy 8/18/10 :: Close Up
Originally uploaded by In My Head Studios

I love these doodles.

For the last week or so I’ve been busy. The DayJob has demanded more than it’s usual 40 hours per week, AJ Ning has required an untold amount of time (read the rules please,) and I’ve just started up a class. All these things, sans the DayJob, are all things that I love and have necessary and needed bits of required attention but I don’t always suspect the shear amount of time that they will require. IN this case, AJ Ning has required an extraordinary amount of attention these past few days, in that a lot of people simply aren’t reading the rules, and then I (or one of my fabulous mods) have to fix the issue and send an email of “uh, so, you messed up, we’ve fixed it but please don’t do it again.  Then I’ve got the class and it’s required and expected amount of work. Add to that pile of stuff to do the DayJob’s extra stuff and then pile on some severe allergy issues and you got the makings for a week from hell.

Don’t get me wrong, I love AJ Ning and my class but last week, due to mostly the extra coming from the DayJob and my allergies, I felt a tad overwhelmed. I was also super irritated by my screwing up the recording of my class. Seriously it was a pisser, especially when the class went so damn well.

So this weekend I slept in and caught up on some MUCH needed rest and hit the 3 canvases I’ve got rotating through my easel. I’ve finished 2 of the 3 plus a board. I then did my thing and added another canvas to the mix and really look forward to watching that canvas develop over time.

IN addition to the all the other stuff I’ve been working on I’ve realized I’m going to need to invest in a new camera- either a new SX#IS series or a for real DSLR. *grumble* I’ve also learned that to do some of the stuff I want to do I’m probably going to need to invest in either a mac or a better laptop and a terabyte hard drive.  Every single video I’ve done takes up massive amounts of hard drive space. Not to mention that all the photos I’m taking for my new redbubble account are freaking massive. As well as the stuff I’m taking for the classes, it’s all big stuff that gets smaller the more I work on it. My 250g external is nearly full as is the 250 gigs on my laptop. I’ve got another 80g external to use but a terabyte will be needed in the future. I have about 7 years of bookbinding photos, articles, art and videos stored up in there. I suppose that the 500g of stuff I’ve got stored up isn’t bad considering its 7 years work.

Back to the canvas. Having not painted in nearly a week, it was good to look upon my 3 canvases and board with fresher eyes. Eyes not irritated by hours of work but eyes adjusted to regular life and looking upon each canvas as a puzzle. Pieces fell into place, a layer of glaze here, a layer of this color there, some thinned white here, etc. That went on until 2 of those canvases were finished. I’ve still got a big puzzle piece going but it’s manageable.

Painting, it makes you feel good.

I'll be participating in the 21 Secrets workshop. Head here for more info

DSC_0043
Originally uploaded by Sketchbuch

I love everything sketchbuch does great command of line and color, so simple and so nice.

pages two-three
Originally uploaded by align

I stumbled on align's flickr a month or so ago and I fell in love with the art, but also the poignant words within.

Originally uploaded by featherbed

If you've had a pet die, esp, one you've had for a long time you know how Laura feels.

Our Cocker Spaniel is 13 now and though still mostly healthy she's getting those near the end of life things elderly dogs get- benign fatty tumors, frequent ear infections, flaky skin and has slowed down a lot. I'm not looking forward to the morning when I wake and I have to break the news of her passing to Christie. I hope it's a few years off.

As a kid I was always science and technology minded. I was the kid who, to her parents horror and dismay, took apart all of her toys to see how they worked. I’ve drawn all my life but my parents and I fully expected that when I went to college it would be for physics and not art. Instead my Junior year of high school I plotted ways to get into RISD. My friend convinced me to sign up for calculus and another science class I dropped them in the first week to make room for senior seminar art and to give myself an extra free period to spend in the art building.  My parents and the friend were not happy.  I was.

As soon as I’d dropped the weight of the silly calculus class (I hate math, have always hated math and most likely will always hate math.*) I began to hang out in the art building. My now former friend was sure this meant I was doing scary drugs and cutting class. In truth I was wandering about the building and school with a box of pastels and a sketchbook drawing everything in sight. I suppose slightly dusty pastels could be snorted if one was so inclined, but suffice it to say that I was not doing any drug but art.

I was building a portfolio. My first week of class I talked to Mrs. Burrows about going to school for art and she was thrilled. We discussed what I’d need to do- lots of drawing from life, larger pieces and taking slides of a select group of my work. I did the work and Mrs. B took lots of slides for me.  It was a thrilling and interesting time for me. I had my heart set on RISD but applied to UMaine Portland and Orono.

As I try to rediscover my focus on art I’m reminded of this time of my life, 17 years old and driven to succeed, driven to get into the school of my choosing and driven to make it work in any way possible. After graduation (read my last post) discovering myself over the years and being horribly disappointed with the education system I had to rediscover that drive. How do I make this work? How do I get my work into the hands of the people who love it? How do I do what I love in this life? I revisit that time in my mind, the wise and sage words of Mrs. Burrows, “Listen kiddo, being an artist isn’t easy. I spent 15 years in the Navy, hated every waking moment of it now here I am doing something I like. But I’ll tell you the road isn’t easy, you’re going to hit some bumps and you may end up being 50 before you get to where you want, but you’re ambitious, you’ll get there. Just don’t expect to get rich; the road isn’t paved in gold.” **

So here I am 12 years after graduation and I’m rethinking my approach again. Thinking about how I’m technology minded, how I’ve been able to create an education system of my own. I’m teaching art the WAY I want to teach art. I have a curriculum that I created. No ifs, ands or buts about it, it’s mine and mine alone. I have a path and a direction for the way I want to teach. I could go on here about how the modern American educational system is broken beyond repair and how art is being cut from school daily, art teachers like myself, talented devoted people left without jobs because there isn’t enough funding to go around. Math and science have to be funded but something like art that teaches students how to think outside of the box is cut.

Knowing how to use technology has been very important to my ability to develop my classes and curriculum. Learning to use it has been interesting, challenging and wonderful. It’s opened up doors to me that would have been closed just a year ago. My friend Jane has asked me to speak to a local arts organization about social networking and technology for artists. I’m hoping after OSA: Drawing 101 is done for the year I can fit it in. I think it’d be wonderful to meet some local artists and expand my stuff to an in person venue, don’t worry though, if and when it happens I’ll UStream it!

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