What’s new at the studio

Studio art projects took a vacation during the last few weeks as I recovered from foot surgery. But before I took time off, I completed my submission to the Brooklyn Art Library Sketchbook Project.

My book, along with hundreds of others, will be cataloged, digitized, and packed up for a “road show” of sorts, traveling all over the world for all (interested) eyes to see! The goal of this project is to encourage creative storytelling within a global community. To learn more about the project in general, go here, and click the “Sketchbook Project” link: https://brooklynartlibrary.org

To view my piece, watch for a link to be posted in an upcoming blog entry, sometime during the month of September.

The biggest takeaway I’ve learned from my pandemic clay project is that even the most skilled clay artists don’t know EXACTLY what their piece will look like until after its final kiln firing. The whole process has some unpredictability to it, and the big reveal is when it comes out of the kiln for the final time. I was pretty pleased with the results of my first attempt at this. I learned a LOT and had a lot of fun.

I am still learning.

During the pandemic, I have taken many online courses and tutorials with a number of artists in a variety of mediums. I’ve explored pottery building, mosaic creation, abstract art techniques, digital illustration and even cookie decorating – anything to stretch my mind during a time when the danger of creative stagnation is REAL. 

The digital illustration pictured here was created in Procreate, a digital illustration app that, until now, has scared the beans out of me. “Too many brushes! Too much of… everything!”  But watching YouTube videos and various training sites has helped me take baby steps into the big, (not so) scary world of drawing on a tablet.

This is “Olive Moon.”