Life as I see it - a sketchbook

Illustration Friday: Silent

2011-11-13T18:18:00.000-08:00

This was something I doodled in my sketchbook this weekend while at TAEA. He's silenced indefinitely until I choose to give him a mouth.

Illustration Friday: Stripes

2011-11-06T06:32:00.000-08:00

an idea that's been kicking around for the last week

2011-11-05T22:33:00.000-07:00

Get the flash player here: http://www.adobe.com/flashplayer

Illustration Friday: Scary

2011-11-05T10:56:00.000-07:00

Get the flash player here: http://www.adobe.com/flashplayer

The Kid

2011-11-03T19:49:00.001-07:00

Made a cubist style doodle of the kid.

Killing Time

2011-10-30T18:16:00.000-07:00

I drew this at a training. The clock face is a way to partner up and share information. I added the rest of the image throughout the day. I have been making a conscious effort to create settings in my drawings.

Dia de los Muertos

2011-10-30T17:52:00.000-07:00

I cannot believe I haven't posted anything since 2009. Among other things I've been making skeletons. I'd never heard of Dia de los Muertos before moving to the valley. The idea of decorated skeletons seemed a bit macabre which is why it probably appealed to me. The holiday is about remembering those who've passed away and celebrating their life. My skeletons are happily celebrating.

Illustration Friday - idle

2009-07-25T22:22:00.000-07:00

"Idle Chatter" - Micron Pen on Bristol

doodle feb 19, 2009

2009-02-23T18:47:00.001-08:00

doodle feb 19, 2009
Originally uploaded by gydnew

sitting in a meeting

Work from my Photography class

2008-07-10T12:18:00.000-07:00

2008-06-11T13:48:00.000-07:00

In my photography class one of our first projects was to take pictures using a pinhole camera. This was my first shot. I inversed the image using the computer in order to create one that looks normal.

2008-05-11T18:43:00.000-07:00

2008-03-15T15:36:00.000-07:00

You can read about the clay workshop I attended last weekend on my regular blog. Sometimes I just don't know what to post where.

my sketch in 3 dimensions

2008-03-12T21:57:00.001-07:00

visiting artist

2008-02-28T20:31:00.000-08:00

I'm writing this at the end of a very long day so there may be major grammar and spelling discrepancies.

Earlier this month a collection of drawings by artist Stanley Lewis went up in the Clark Gallery at UTPA. Mr. Lewis happened to be a former classmate of Philip Fields and the former instructor of Jerry Lyles. Giving them each a unique perspective to talking about his work.

Last night, Mr. Lewis visited UTPA all the way from Massachusetts in order to show some of his work and talk about landscape art throughout history. His talk was entertaining and from it he made two statements that really stuck with me because I completely understand them, "There is a hopelessness about painting" (i'll insert drawing in my case) "everything you see." He also mentioned "wisdom through suffering." I completely get that - the hopeless comment particularly because I have felt overwhelmed when confronted with so much information that I don't even know where to begin.

So after the talk we were invited to participate in a drawing session with him the next day at 9am.

So this morning I was there at 9am. Only Jerry and a grad student showed up so it was just the four of us. We spent a good portion of the time in discussion. One of the best things about Stanley is that in spite of his many years of experience, he is still pushing himself. He's looking at great art and trying to discover and then solve problems in those works as well as trying to take their deliberate/accidental distortions of space and try create problems and resolve it in his own work. He thinks out loud and puts forth theories about how and what artists are doing in their work, to prove or disprove, again in order to create and resolve problems that he can apply. His desire and excitement to try to understand these issues, is infectious. He approaches these issues like a philosopher putting forth evidence to support his theory and hoping someone will shoot him down so he can approach it from a new direction. It was a lot of fun! At one point we did actually do a little drawing - of this piece

Femme nue a la Source by Pablo Picasso 1962 linocut

While drawing the image there would be an excited shout "hey try this...!" experimenting with space, trying to understand what Picasso was moving forward, backward, both...

I ended up focusing on the figure itself. I love the repetition of curves. Stanley has encouraged me to use of one my drawing from this session to try to render it in 3d using clay. I've already started and it's an interesting challenge simply because one angle, which is twisted and distorted has been defined through the drawing while I will need to discover the others through the sculpture.

I will post my drawing next week as well as my sculpture as soon as it is done.

It was a great experience! So many people missed out on a great opportunity but I'm thrilled that I got to participate.

sketching in clay

2008-02-26T17:53:00.001-08:00

a headless body

feeling disconnected

2008-02-12T18:04:00.000-08:00

Video of art at the Santa Antia Gallery including Mine!

2008-02-12T17:49:00.000-08:00

see the amazing self destructing robot - 1 performance only

2008-02-06T15:21:00.001-08:00

see the amazing self destructing robot - 1 performance only
Originally uploaded by gydnew

yeah...my robot didn't survive the bisque. at least a few other pieces did. I'm starting on another one.

fun with collage

2008-02-06T05:29:00.000-08:00

The Art House has a great display of collages from the San Francisco Collage Collective so my friend Carl organized a collage collective last night. I had a blast! Here's 2 I made and took with me. I left the other 3 there. I forgot to take a picture of them. Oh well! It was a great, relaxing, no pressure way to make some art.

The Moggie Monsters

2008-01-28T19:03:00.000-08:00

In my mind, the pieces I make are characters in their own little world. These two were made to be stackable pieces where the one on the bottom simply seemed a bit despondent to be, well, the one on the bottom. Since they could be separated I decided to have one portfolio shot of them side by side. Imagine my surprise when I discovered that cropping them added a whole new dimension to their personalities. The guy on the left is clearly wondering "what is his problem?"

I think it would be great to take some of my pieces and line the up for what appears to be formal portfolio shots but with some editing creates a whole new scene.

camera phone comparrison

2008-01-20T16:30:00.001-08:00

getting bisqued

2008-01-20T16:29:00.001-08:00

My Market-O-Matic Artist Statement

2008-01-18T06:56:00.000-08:00

I'm working on an artist statement for my BFA show so for fun I decided to try The Market-O-Matic artist statement generator:

Work of Meta-Art in the Age of Artificial Reproduction
The matrix creates, the chaos accentuates. In the material reality, art objects are reproductions of the imaginations of the matrix -- a matrix that uses the chaos as a machine to represent ideas, patterns, and emotions. With the synergy of the electronic environment, the matrix is superseding a point where it will be free from the chaos to transcend immersions into the contortions of the delphic reality. Work of Meta-Art in the Age of Artificial Reproduction contains 10 minimal flash engines (also refered to as "memes") that enable the user to make inorganic audio/visual compositions.
measuring chains, constructing realities
putting into place forms
a matrix of illusion and disillusion
a strange attracting force
so that a seduced reality will be able to spontaneously feed on it

Wendy Gilbert's work investigates the nuances of modulations through the use of slow motion and close-ups which emphasize the Artificial nature of digital media. Gilbert explores abstract and expansive scenery as motifs to describe the idea of infinite reality. Using translucent loops, non-linear narratives, and interactive images as patterns, Gilbert creates meditative environments which suggest the expansion of time...

100% Attitude

2008-01-06T15:25:00.000-08:00

I started substitute teaching this year. Based on the various looks I get from the kids as I explain the "busy work" that has been left for them to do that day, I started my attitude series.

I picked this particular one because today I feel "Blah!"
For Sale: 4x6 original, comes framed $20.

jumpstarted

2008-01-05T11:24:00.001-08:00

so after bemoaning my lack of creative energy, my brian kicked into gear the other night resulting in a revamp of my entire website as well as a ton of progress on The Robot Invasion site.

a minimum amount of creative energy

2008-01-02T09:46:00.001-08:00

I've been out of school for over two weeks now and my time has been sucked up watching movies and playing games with the family. I did manage to do a few creative things this break including my first entry into the NFAC "nibblefest" art auction on eBay, an Illustration Friday, and a weird little Sculpey creation.

I also made two clay small sculptures:

a mini test robot for my bfa show

a silly little cat to sit outside our door as a welcome sign

I also started adding color to my "attitude" series of doodles

Day Dreaming

2007-12-28T20:13:00.001-08:00

Roger dreamed of one day soaring into the stars

does sculpey go bad?

2007-12-26T08:44:00.000-08:00

I've had a package of Sculpey sitting in a drawer for probably almost a year. I've only used it once before to make a small object for a friends project. I decided to try it out again and was frustrated. No matter what I did to knead it and make it pliable it was still crumbly. Generally, I found the process frustrating. I've seen the stuff people make so maybe it was the kind I was using or maybe it does go bad. Don't know. Am going to go make something in mud instead.

My 1st NFAC entry on Ebay

2007-12-23T18:20:00.000-08:00

Decembers theme was nudes. Click on the image to get to the Ebay listing.

taking notes

2007-12-23T15:58:00.000-08:00

I take notes for school on pads of 8 1/2" x 11" yellow lined paper. This is a typical example of my inclass notes. I've discovered I focus best on lectures when I'm drawing. I've gotten some great ideas from these half focused ramblings so now, at the end of each semester I go through all of my notes and cut out the images.

Since my notes only make sense to me, I rarely have anyone request to borrow them. :)

IF: The Space Man

2007-12-21T15:57:00.001-08:00

Instead of creating random floating people and robots I have been attempting to actually place them in a setting.

So here is The Space Man on a video screen with his space ship in the background and the horizon of the moon. There also appears to be a small flying saucer...he might be getting a visitor.

This is one of about 50 4"x6" pieces I have been working on for the past month and a half. This one was done a few weks ago.

really quick paintings

2007-12-18T23:08:00.001-08:00

"doodles in acrylic"

These were canvases that had been left laying around the ceramics studio and had a paper-mache base on them. I didn't have anything in mind, just simply wanted to work quick. Each was done in under 10 minutes with the skeleton being finished the fastest. I call the one on the left "The Villain," the one in the middle looks kind of like Harold minus his purple crayon, and of course there's a happy skeleton on the end. Maybe it's the same guy as a kid, an adult and passed on. What do you think?

you can buy them here

A Bird in the Hand...

2007-12-08T19:15:00.001-08:00

My piece "A Bird in the Hand is Worth More When Standing on the Head of a Giant."

IF:a momentary lapse of reason

2007-12-07T15:15:00.001-08:00

It's all the little things that stack up...final papers, final critiques...This is how I've been feeling for the past two weeks. Technically finals are next week but apparently everyone wanted to finish the semester early because the only critiques I have left are next Wednesday and are both are for Ceramics.

video from last months art walk - the next one is this Friday

2007-12-04T22:52:00.000-08:00

from the Visual Arts Network

painting 2 is finished

2007-11-30T08:29:00.000-08:00

here's what I managed to accomplish this semester:

painted doodle

2007-11-26T06:18:00.000-08:00

If you execute a doodle in oil on canvas rather than in watercolor on bristol does that elevate the status of the work?

I have my final critique in oil painting this Thursday. Overall I've come to enjoy the painting process. As for oil painting:
I hate the cost, acrylics are much cheaper, watercolors - even more so which is why I've mostly been doing watercolors
Oil dries VERY slowly allowing me to do blends days later
Oil dries VERY slowly making transportation of work to school a messy process
Cleaning up oils is messy

The bonus is that I'm more patient when glazing my ceramic pieces.

At this point,since I already have the paints, I'll continue to use them rather then let them dry up. Will I be an oil painter in 20 years? It's hard to say.

painted kid x 2

2007-11-25T18:40:00.001-08:00

shameless self promtion

2007-11-25T12:24:00.000-08:00

Painted the Kid

2007-11-18T20:04:00.000-08:00

For oil painting class one of my pictures was open subject as long as it was from life. The kid suggested I paint him. Knowing he wouldn't sit all that still for all that long I banged this out in about an hour. He wanted the background to be black but it was too dark so I softened it to a gray.

I'm pleased with the result and so is he. This is his "serious" face. BTW, I've never painted a portrait before.

Skeleton Crew

2007-11-15T06:09:00.000-08:00

I made these for Dia de los Muertos which was on Nov. 1

stacked monsters

2007-11-08T21:06:00.001-08:00

These are made from a high fire (on bottom and bird) and low fire clay (red clay) as part of a Ceramics 4 project. We going to fire it a little higher than the lowfire clay likes to go in the hopes that it gets a bit melty. It should be interesting.

i'm working on some new doodles

2007-11-07T09:25:00.001-08:00

ceramic pain

2007-10-30T15:19:00.001-07:00

This is what happens when a bisque fire goes too fast and the pieces aren't quite dry enough. The surviving piece was made by a friend of mine. The crumbs are two pieces I made.

a recent doodle in my moleskine

2007-10-30T06:02:00.000-07:00

skeleton crew...works in progress

2007-10-17T08:54:00.001-07:00

skeleton crew...works in progress
Originally uploaded by gydnew

a collaborative project

2007-09-14T10:48:00.001-07:00

My 1st contribution to a collaborative project for AU: the UTPA art club. Next week I will give it to someone else who will add to it and I will add onto theirs. It's an exquisite corpse collage per say.

latest in seasonal stump

2007-09-09T21:45:00.001-07:00

I recently finished the third piece in my seasonal stump series. This one will be called Summer and also function as a bird bath. It will be in the Art of the Earth show on Tuesday Sept. 18th at UTPA.

One more to go that will be made from wood.

Push for the Robot Invasion

2007-09-09T18:53:00.001-07:00

At the suggestion of the new UTPA art club president the theme for the first Art Walk of the year was to make an interactive diorama. I decided that instead of doing a traditional scene in a box I would create an image that worked kind of like shadow puppets.

I cut out a window in a cardboard box and taped in tissue paper as a screen. On the inside I placed paper cutouts of robots, clouds, lightning and rubble. It took some trial and error with the light on to figure out how to get good silhouettes with both clarity and depth. I added red tissue paper in the background for some additional color. To make the diorama interactive I wired a button into the front of the box with a sign and and arrow that read "PUSH for the Robot Invasion." When the button was pushed, the light came on. When the button was released it was just a black box with a white screen.

It was wonderful to hear the laughter of the viewers as they pushed the button and the image was revealed. The best part was that I sold the piece that night.

new doodle with color

2007-08-18T21:39:00.000-07:00

3" x 6" size, micron pen and water color on bristol board

cut in half and framed

stitching photos

2007-08-09T18:59:00.000-07:00

I found this really cool FREE program for making panoramas from multiple pictures called AutoStitch. Very easy and straight forward to use. Here's one I made from pictures I took using my cell phone this morning. I was sitting on a bench opposite of the one in the center of the image.

I decided to do one of my new studio room as well. I didn't in the exact same place the whole time so it's a little glitchy but you get the general idea. Click on it to see notes in Flickr.

waiting for Harry Potter Book 7 sketchbook page

2007-07-21T08:38:00.001-07:00

click for notes

waitng for Harry Potter Book 7
Originally uploaded by gydnew

sunshine on a table

2007-06-30T23:17:00.001-07:00

sunshine on a table
Originally uploaded by gydnew
There was this little sanded spot on this very much used table in the woodshop. He appeared there with the help of a few colored pencils.

Help the RGV Foodbank by Donating Art

2007-06-30T20:49:00.000-07:00

On October 18, 2007 the Foodbank of the Rio Grande Valley will hold their 3rd Empty Bowls Lunch and Silent Auction.

How it works:
For $25 a person can purchase a ticket to the lunch which gets them a nice meal and allows them to choose a bowl made by a local artist to take home with them. The bowl is both a piece of fine art as well as a reminder that there are many empty bowls here in the Rio Grande Valley.

How you can help:
The foodbank is looking for donations of handmade bowls made by local artists - they do not have to be functional.

The foodbank is also looking for donations of art to be part of their silent auction.

This is a great way to support the foodbank - especially if your short on cash or time to donate.

If you are interested in donating art or would like to know what you can do to help you can leave me a comment, contact me the.wendy.lady[at]gmail.com or contact the RGV Foodbank.

Join UTPA, Artists Unanimous - the UTPA art club, and the RGV Foodbank on Sept. 8 for a Bowl-a-thon, a day of bowl making, in the UTPA ceramics room.

Empty Bowls Lunch and Silent Auction
October 18, 2007
11 am - 2 pm
Pharr International ConventionCenter
3000 N. Cage Pharr, TX 78577

click HERE for a brochure

new painting

2007-06-28T10:55:00.001-07:00

My Drawing 3 Project

2007-06-22T08:09:00.000-07:00

I took my Drawing 3 class as a Mini-mester class - that is three straight weeks of class everyday that counts as a full 16 week semester. It was intense. Our finished project had to be LARGE. Much larger than I had ever worked before. Luckily for me I walked into the class with a pretty good idea of what I wanted to do.

Here is the finished work. The working title is "Everday Hands - connected."

The concept was to incorporate contour drawings of my hands, rendered on a variety of surfaces with photos of objects I use every day.

Here is the basic process I used for each composition-

1. an initial background drawing of doodled contour hands in Sharpie marker on a 20"x20" piece of cardboard.
2. photographed the drawing and altered it in Photoshop to make it black & white, erase and stress areas as well as resize it to 30"x30"
3. drew image of hand of a surface - in this case, using chalk on a concrete parking lot.
4. photographed high resolution image of drawing and then erased background in Photoshop.
5. photographed high resolution image of object and cut it out using Photoshop.
6. gave background a color
7. incorporated hand, object and background in one composition and printed it out on a large format printer 30"x30" with a 3" border making size 36"x36"
8. reworked printed image with marker and pastel chalk.

some of the various images I worked with:

The final image:

Red: hand rendered in clay using scraffito holding my favorite clay tool - a pencil
Orange: hand rendered in India ink of various pieces of paper (bills from the mail) simply laid on top of each other holding my cell phone.
Yellow: hand rendered in chalk on a concrete parking lot holding my car keys.
Green: hand rendered in the steam on my bathroom mirror holding a cup of coffee.
Blue: hand rendered in gel pen on yellow notebook paper holding a gel pen
Purple: hand rendered using my Wacom tablet on my computer over an image of iTunes holding my iPod.

The unconscious subtext is the rampant consumerism of ever day life. It was until I had the whole piece put together that I realized nearly every object's logo was clearly recognizable.

Neighbor

2007-05-08T20:48:00.000-07:00

For Illustration Friday
We've been living in an apartment for 3 years. Generally it's good but sometimes the neighbors can make the apartment seem very small.

progress

2007-05-03T09:18:00.000-07:00

The jar on the left is the very 1st cylinder I threw this semester. I added a slab bottom, coil lip and a slab lid with pinched handle.

The jar on the right is one of the last I've ten pieces I've thrown - somewhere between 55 and 65. I stopped numbering after 50. Both the jar and lid are thrown and the jar has a trimmed foot. The only hand addition is the pinched handle on the lid.

I'm greatful my instructor encouraged us to keep those first "wonky" cylinders because it's nice to see the progress.

I'm going to see if I can find my images from ceramics 1 - talk about wonky - I'll post them if I can find them.

UPDATED: found them
turns out they weren't as wonky as I'd remembered. I gave them all away in the Pottery Lottery.

showing off

2007-05-02T21:57:00.000-07:00

I've got ceramic work in a couple of shows this month. First is the group show at the Blue Onion in McAllen.
It's a group show of student work from UTPA and STC.

Next, at STC a larger group show has been put together that features work from five texas colleges. It should be a really great show.
The opening is Tuesday May 8th at 7pm. Come by and check it out. There will be free food!

Finally, on May 10th the annual Texas Clay Arts "Six Pack" show opens in Austin. My musical monsters will be in it. I'm gonna try to do my best to be there for the opening.

glitch

2007-04-23T21:51:00.000-07:00

In trying to create a second page in which my work was grouped by themes I managed to delete the original setup. oops! It's going to take a while to rebuild that. :(

an ancient relic form the future v1.0

2007-04-18T13:35:00.001-07:00

an ancient relic form the future version 1.0 Originally uploaded by gydnew.

Robot! I'm going to paint this to look like stone. I hope to make a few more and then eventually place them around the valley.

Meet the Bindlebottoms

2007-04-18T13:33:00.001-07:00

Mr. and Mrs. Bindlebottom
Originally uploaded by gydnew.

These are the partiarchs of a whole narritive idea I have involving my jestor, my robots, my monsters and more.

upcoming group show

2007-03-24T06:12:00.000-07:00

The opening is Thursday March 29 from 6:00-8:30pm at the UTPA Library Annex Gallery. Come check it out.

new art

2007-03-10T22:22:00.000-08:00

I've been working on new work for a show that just went up at the Blue Onion. Thanks to some inspiration from some friends I've been trying some watercolor with some of my robot doodles. I like the way the look. I think I'll continue to mess with color.

Friday I went galley hopping with some friends from school. We went to the Brownsville Museum of Fine Art where I saw that my photo "Ford F100" won 2nd place in the photography category. Two of my friends, who also had work in the show, won 1st prize in their category. Very Cool! We stopped by Gallery 409 in Brownsville and checked out the Wild Style Show and then headed across the border into Matamoros. There we visited the modern art museum - they had a fantastic display of print work - and another gallery with local artists from Brownsville and Matamoros.

This week is spring break - I'm going to use the time to work in ceramics and in my sculpture class. I have an idea for a large thown piece that will be a whistle. We'll see what happens.

what I've been working on

2007-02-19T15:02:00.000-08:00

Fast, loose and fun!

Some 4" x 6" abstacts for an upcoming show - water color and India ink.

some fun with Photoshop

2007-02-11T18:12:00.000-08:00

A few weeks ago I got to check out a local foundry with some people from school. You can see pictures HERE.

Besides taking pictures of the action, a few other things caught my eye. One was a bucket and rope.

the original pic stright from my camera

made black and white

altered with Photoshop

work for school

2007-02-07T20:36:00.000-08:00

so i've been busy at school making stuff - 3 & 1/2 studio classes this semester (the 1/2 is my art ed class which requires some studio work).

Ceramics 2 is mainly about throwing, throwing, throwing. I have some pieces bisque fired but nothing really totally finished. I did get my "a more treelike form" back from last semester. It had been on display in the library gallery for the past month and a half. Here's a better pic than the cell phone pic I'd posted earlier.

In sculpture I've been working on a wire kinetic piece. It's pretty much done. i just need to create some sort of stand for it. it's supposed to spin when the wind hits the wings. It's some sort of insect.

My next sculpture project is going to be made out of 1/4" rod and require some welding. Fun!!

My 3rd studio class is Printmaking. We spent the first couple of classes experimenting with monoprints using plexiglass and a variety of materials. I think the one that came out the best was my octopus.

The blue was an experiment with water color and wet paper while the black was black speedball ink on plexiglass.

Our next project involves using dry point. Stay tuned for pics.

cool sculptures!!

2007-02-05T06:04:00.000-08:00

This month I had the opportunity to put my "Treelike Form" on display in the courtyard of The Art House in McAllen.

I got to share the courtyard with some other great sculptures created by friends of mine.

"Chicharra" and "Dandelions" by Carla San Martin

"And Sat Down Beside Her" by Kate Roach

"sculpture as chair with periodical rack" by Kris Ohlinger

I'm thrilled to say that these will all be on display and for sale during the month of February in the annex of The Art House. Go see them in person because the pictures do them no justice.

fun with stencils

2007-01-27T22:47:00.000-08:00

Finally made it to an {i} menos stencil workshop. I had a great time and made two stencils. The first was a goofy pirranah I had doodled on my notes in school. The second was a face I call "The Jestor" that I made last semester in my notes.

These aren't great shot s of them because I used my camera phone to take the pictures, but you get the idea. I'm very happy with how they both came out. I now have the irresitbale urge to use my stencils on some public place.

fun with clay

2007-01-11T21:54:00.000-08:00

School starts next week but I've already been in the ceramics studio making stuff. My current theme seems to be sci-fi with aliens, robots and space ships.

brain sucker redux

2007-01-06T23:07:00.000-08:00

added more color and made into a t-shirt

robot

2007-01-06T17:31:00.000-08:00

I liked one so much I've turned it into a t-shirt.

Free art to a good home.

2007-01-03T12:10:00.000-08:00

I have a few artistic experiments gone bad that need a good home. The listed price simply to cover shipping.

Click on the FREEBIES section of my store.

brain sucker

2007-01-01T22:44:00.000-08:00

drawn in pen with a bit of color added in Photoshop

work I've made this semester

2006-12-16T19:01:00.000-08:00

Some of this was the result of an assignment and some was work done in my "spare" time.

fun with ceramics

2006-12-07T20:03:00.000-08:00

For some reason it never occured to me that you could do silly goofy stuff with ceramics until I met this guy. Inspired, I decided to have a little fun with some of the doodles I've done while listening to lectures.

First is the Cyclops, inspired by the image of a Gorgon in a Greek urn and the "She-clops" because he seemed lonely. Her eye seems very Leela like.

Next is the "fish face monster" and "eel like monster."

I don't really know they were really inspired by. I simply draw goofy little monsters like this.

Last Friday, during the Art Walk, the art club hosted a ceramics show at Douglas Clark's Gallery. My "treelike form," on the right, was selected to be in the show. It will be on display in the library starting on December 12.

Also at the Blue Onion...

2006-12-04T05:28:00.000-08:00

...along with a lot of work that belongs to other people is my "Flounder Claus" and my "Morbidly Obese Santa"

fastest painting ever

2006-12-01T06:51:00.000-08:00

"M" done in just over 30 minutes. it will be part of a sign the reads "merry xmas!" at the Blue Onion.

a few images from Guerrerro Viejo

2006-11-13T05:05:00.000-08:00

for more about my trip click HERE

inspired by Dr Suess

2006-11-05T19:35:00.000-08:00

I was using Picassa today to look for images on my computer when I came across this. I made this image for an Illustration Friday back in May and then for whatever reason I never posted it. I don't even remember what the topic was but this is certainly a birthday cake and it was inspired by the work of Theodore Geisel.

Once Upon a Time...

2006-11-02T22:14:00.001-08:00

my art on display
Originally uploaded by gydnew.

It's not a great picture because it was taken with my phone and through a glass case but... here's my last Metals project.

It's going to be on display at the UTPA library for the next few weeks. I'll post a better picture when I get it back.

Playing with Shadows

2006-11-02T22:10:00.001-08:00

The sun was shining brightly Monday morning.

a visit to an exhibit

2006-10-31T14:11:00.000-08:00

Today I stopped by the Clark Gallery at UTPA where there is an exhibit on display entitled Duality: La Muerte y La Vida (death and life). The exhibit consists of almost 30 retablos and ex-votos, devotional and religious icons, created by local artists and staff at UTPA.

I find iconographic religious art interesting because it tends to have a folksy and somewhat overly sentimental quality, which for some reason I find appealing even though I'm not religious. I was curious to see what had been done locally. Overall, I was somewhat disappointed. The quality of the art and style of the retablos and ex-votos in this exhibit was very inconsistent. Given the area very few seemed to follow the style of Mexican style retablos. Most of the work was devotional but there were many of the pieces were satirical. (Which, I have no problem with. Had I been asked to do one, it would have probably been a satire.) Unfortunately they were not separated from each other so after looking at a piece of satire it was hard to take a truly devotional piece seriously. Had I set up the exhibit I would have placed the devotional work on one side of the room and the satire on the other and would have placed the more ambiguous pieces in the middle as a transition.

The exhibit will be on display till November 11.

met an artist

2006-10-29T11:51:00.000-08:00

On Friday I got to meet and work with artist Jim Toia from Pennsylvania . He was down here at UTPA making plaster molds of some ant mounds. He works with nature in creating his work. Artnet has some photos of his paintings rendered with mushroom spore. They're beautiful. I love to see one in person.

Digging up the ant colony was incredibly interesting but also a ton of work. It's not the kind of work I'd want to do in a regular basis but it was fun to uncover the unusual shape of the colony. We dug for most of the afternoon and still didn't get the whole colony uncovered. It just kept going deeper. Luckily the weather was beautiful, in the 80's, very pleasant. We were also working in the shade. We did suffer a number of mosquito and ant bites, but what's art without a little suffering? ;^)

The image on the left is a colony we were uncovering. It was taken with my cell phone so it's not all that clear.

I got to help him simply because a friend of mine had been in the right place at the right time to hear about his work. UTPA does not make any effort to involve undergraduates in anything special going on in the art department. It gets discouraging sometimes.

the beginning of another painting

2006-10-24T04:14:00.000-07:00

Here's the beginning of the third painting in my complimentary series. It will be titled "My Regrets" simply because the red and green color sceme is not a pleasant one to me.

met an artist

2006-10-08T14:10:00.000-07:00

Friday night I got to meet artist Veronica Jaeger at the Art House during the Art Walk. I found her work to be whimsical and fun in a slightly disturbing kind of way. The limbs of most of her figures are stretched and elongated while their faces are dull and emotionless. Most of the figures are marionettes connected to their surroundings by strings. Surrounding the figures are a variety of motifs that repeat in her work; crecent moons, checkerboards, fences, ladders, bicycles, doorways and windows. Many of them have a watch or clock in the proximity of where the heart should be.

One of my favorite painting was "The Warrior" (pictured below). It's a large 4' x 5' canvas with numerous small details that can only be seen in person.

She said her art is a reflection of her idea of reality. She looks at reality as internal and therefore unique to each person.

spooky

2006-10-06T05:21:00.000-07:00

For Blind Contour First Friday October

Have you ever had a bat fly at your head? That's spooky!

my newest painting

2006-10-03T20:38:00.000-07:00

I call it "My Apologies." It's a companion piece to "My Compliments." My Compliments is made of my two favorite complementary colors thus the name. ;D My Apologies is so named because I don't find yellow and purple to be a very pleasing combination to me. I will probably do a 3rd image already entitled "My Regrets" with the red / green complementary combination just to have done it.

Value Excercise

2006-10-02T04:35:00.000-07:00

For my design class: a water color based on Marc Chagall's "The Blue Circus"

Focal Point Excercise

2006-10-02T04:31:00.000-07:00

for my design class: collage made from magazine ads and a greeting card

for metals class

2006-09-27T14:15:00.000-07:00

My first assignment for Metals class was to make a small 2" pin using a realistic image of an animal. This was my image:

Here's the finished product made of copper.

I should really take a picture of the profile as well.

I'm really happy with the final result. I've NEVER work in metal before so I'm completely out of my element. My next assignment is a narrative image that will much bigger and require me to join various pieces, not simply manipulate one piece of metal. It's a little overwhelming.

Phobia

2006-09-26T21:11:00.000-07:00

For Illustration Friday

My phobia is fear of swarms. Any insect on its own is no big deal but when they swam....*shudder*

I wonder if there's a technical term for fear of swarming insects.

Under Construction

2006-09-22T21:59:00.001-07:00

Watch out! I'm messing with the template.

The Adventures of Bulletin Board Boy

2006-09-22T07:11:00.000-07:00

I was bored waiting for a class to begin the other day and noticed how empty the bulletin boards were in the art depertment so I decided to have create a little public art. I was hoping that the balloons would invite commentary. When I went back just over 24 hours later Bulletin Board Boy was gone. :( Now was he removed because someone admired the skillfull way in which he'd been rendered or was he cluttering up an empty bulletin board? I think the latter.

Have no fear, Bulletin Board Boy will return to another bulletin board that hasn't been cleaned since the school was built and we shall see what happens.

Scale Proportion Excercise

2006-09-15T05:07:00.000-07:00

For my design class: Photo Collage

for design class

2006-09-04T19:19:00.000-07:00

Design 1 has not been available as a night class and so even though I'm technically a Junior, and this is a freshman level class I need to take it. I don't mind, it should be fun.

Each excercise and project is going to be an example of a basic design principle and so my instructor wants us to create a book out of them. The first assignment was to create the front and back cover and author page.

The top image is the cardboard cardboard front and back.

The second image shows the cover covered in black paper.

In the third image you can see the inside cover. I had a bunch of tissue paper scraps that I randomly laid out and attahced using glue and water.

The forth image is the finished cover. I used a digital collage I'd created by doing searches in Google for specific colors. I decided to call my book The basic Elements of Design and had a bit of fun with the fonts.

The fifth image is the back cover. We didn't need to do anything but I thought adding my personal logo would be a fun touch.

The last image is the authors page with my name and my latest painting.

Safe

2006-09-01T08:15:00.000-07:00

For Illustration Friday
I haven't done an Illustartion Friday in months. I was with my son the other day in this store that happened to have some absurdly large safes. Here's some poor short robber confronted with one. You can tell he's a robber because of his eye mask. :D

Used Photoshop and a Wacom Tablet

Hobbies

2006-09-01T07:59:00.000-07:00

For Blind Countour First Friday September
Here's a painting that's been sitting unfinished on my easel forever. I hope to work on it this weekend. You can see a photo of it in the sidebar.

2006-08-09T19:42:00.000-07:00

a silly green face doodled in Illustrator.