Painting Date

This Spring Break I decided (last minute) to visit Gerred in Texas again! Come to think of it I've spent each Spring Break in a different state to visit him. I spent 2011 in Albuquerque, New Mexico, 2012 in Washington D.C. (and a little day trip to Connecticut for Katie's Maury Bachelorette Party), 2013 in Pensacola, Florida, 2014 in Corpus Chrisi, Texas. I guess seeing the world is certainly one of the perks I can check off for being a Navy wife. Speaking of perks, we went on a date last night and we had a blast.

Gerred found a groupon for Pop Goes the Easel! a painting BYOB party place where you learn to paint with a drink in your hand. Gerred and I chose whiskey sours in the always respectful Bubba Cup. Let me tell you what, it made him in artist. Maybe it was the whiskey or maybe the sour, but he was painting like Van Gogh for someone claiming to have zero artistic talent.

Actually the whole time I was reminded of our last artistic endeavor in Disney World. We drew Woody and Stitch. Let me tell you he's come a long way since drawing "the cowboy who has seen things."

Our instructor, taught everyone how to paint a seaside landscape. But I saw this painting of an anchor on the wall and I asked (since there were only 8 attendants) if I could try my hand at that. She said yes and made sure to check up on me in between the explanations of how to make a cloud which was seriously channeling up several images of Bob Ross in my head.

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Anyways, I got a pretty neat how to course on how to paint a striped background (tape it, paint it, dry it) and free styled from then on. 

I loved our end products and would definitely do this in the future. Maybe when I reach my dream goal in life of joining a wine club fronting as a book club I'll do this again.

College Art

I mentioned I took a Creative Process class this past semester where I mixed stories, watercolors, and portraiture. It wasn't my first art class in college I took for fun. During my first semester at Washington College I took a beginning drawing class and produced some of these pictures. I happened upon them when I was organizing iPhoto and I thought I'd reflect on them. Caution: Nude pictures up ahead. Calm yourself, it's art.

This was a picture that I was allowed to do whatever I wanted with. I used chalk to draw and had a fun time with all the colors. I don't even know what the meaning of this is. I think I just drew what was a dream turning into a nightmare.

Ah, nude models. There was a creepy man that came in and posed in a million different ways. I then was assigned to do a large scale drawing of five different poses. I wound up with this. I remember not wanting to draw the penises at all so there are mostly blue shadow ken doll areas.

The assignment for this one was to take a photo from a magazine, cut it up and come up with what the rest of the photo would look like using oil pastels. I used an Annie Leibovitz photo from Vogue of Lady Gaga and Lily Cole and Andrew Garfield from the Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus.

Printing Press

The Rose O'Neil Literary House is where all the literary and cultural happenings go on at Washington College. With a cup of tea in hand you can walk around the house filled to the brim with books and jammed pack with broadsides of all the famous authors who have stopped by the house through the Sophie Kerr program for years. There's a kitchen, a garden, a classroom on the porch where I've had Foundations of Western Lit and Creative Process, and a ceiling painted with authors stringed together in a 6 degrees of Kevin Bacon way. 

Now as wonderful as this house is, I know I do not use it to it's full potential. In fact, the only time I really ever enter the house is for class or for a class project. Well, the King Lear video I filmed had me investigating the greatest resource available to the literary house, the antique printing press. Master printer, Michael Kaylor, was printing out 75 special broadsides for the play and one of my partner's Maisie and I, made our way down into the depths of the workshop to see Mike in action.

We were there to film, we didn't plan on interviewing him, but he wound up explaining his entire process to us. He set up the machine, slapped on the ink and would run the paper through the machine as he cranked the wheel. He'd pull it out and remark that the print was either too inked or too dry. Mike would then take the paper out, measure it, and go back to the machine and adjust. He also insisted on not filming any of the "before" prints that did not qualify for the final 75. The man is a master and his work certainly reflects it.

Soon the prints were cranking out one after the other. Maisie and I enjoyed the experience, seeing and learning the process we had taken the time to watch before. The end result was fantastic, an old illustration of King Lear and the Fool paired with the poem "On Sitting Down to Read King Lear Once Again" by John Keats.

I enjoyed myself so much, I might want to take one of these workshop classes one day. I'm glad I got to  take advantage of a resource I had long forgotten.

Creative Process

This semester I decided to entertain myself with taking an art class, The Creative Process. In the course of the class I could come up with any idea and create projects while getting critiques from my class. Many chose to do musical pieces, toy making, book making, feminist art, performance art, documentaries, creative writing exploration of the outdoors, stop motion slutty dolls...you name it they tried it. I chose to go with idea of storytelling through portraiture and watercolor. I asked people what made them who they are now, what are they going through right now, and who are you? I looked at four different people and one fictional character and decided to represent their stories in pictures.

This is Katie of Tips From the Mrs. with Bear Grylls. She is figuring out what it's like becoming an adult and growing and mentions that the day she figured out she had to become an adult was the day she bought a washer and dryer.

This is Gerred: "Now, in the military, I have more order to my life than I ever did growing up. It helps me. It calms me. I still enjoy spontaneity, but I respect the discipline involved with life being a pattern of lovely things.” He says that patterns are what helped him shape him into the man he is today.

 

This is Nina. She has a tattoo on her side of an Indigo Bunting. I painted the tattoo and overlaid it on top of her. The bird represents her brother.

This is King Lear. This piece begs the question that Lear asks throughout the play, “Who am I?” The fool’s answer that Lear is only “Lear’s shadow” is represented as the light above him reflects his shadow below him. The shadow here is meant to be the man that Lear once was; the man that had everything. The watercolor represents the division between the kingdom and the division of the mind in madness. The fleck of gold in the center is the man in the epicenter of the universe being reduced to nothingness.

This is my grandpa. We went out to where his garden used to be together and talked. He told me stories about growing up on the farm, leaving for the Army, and now seeing his garden gone.  

Apres La Guere

For Screenplay I was assigned to write and film my own movie. It certainly posed a challenge for me.But, stress aside I finished the movie and had a great time filming Apres La Guere. It's about a WWI soldier, Jean Marc Marin, who returns from battle back to his family in France. At first he has a hard time adjusting to society since he has shell shock (PTSD) and though he is trying to cope, his Sister-in-law believes the devil has possessed him.

Though, the exorcism scene is not seen in this sequence, the part that I did film involved a flashback to the Battle of Verdan. Honestly the trench scenes were really fun to film. Now kick back and watch this "drama," even though it could be taken as a comedy.

Thanks to everyone that was apart of filming!

Shannon

Draw Something

So I might be a little bit obsessed with Draw Something.  Just a little, but so is everyone else out there. I mean, it's just a glorified game of pictionary with anyone on the go. I really get into it though and love seeing the same amount of zest in other peoples drawings and having to guess them. Here's a few of the weird things I've drawn.

So...you should play me in Draw Something and send me weird drawings too.

Shannon