a book ! and cyclical studio stuff

so susan schwake from artstreams has a new book out. cool art projects for kids [or actually not just kids]. it's full of really great ideas - and you can get your copy here.



and there's a project based on my work and my love of vellum paper. so true. i do love my duralar. can't deny it.



i've been working on this project in the studio - actually let's tell it like it is. i engineered the background in the studio, but have been stitching while i watch TV at night before going to bed. stitching these little red circles. they are markers for something that landed from the sky.

it made me think about how some things just end up as constants in your art life. like these dotted line circles. when i was in grad school i used to spend a lot of time at the library. mills had this amazingly odd collection of old old books which you actually were allowed to check out. when i first got interested in world war II planes i was enthralled with all the weird military books i could find.

one had a series of images of planes flying over maps. bombers. with their targets marked by dotted lines on the pages. when i saw those  i knew i had to draw them. and those dotted circle outlines just HAD to be stitched - because that's what they looked like to me. stitching.




this is one of those drawings. done on really fragile onion skin paper [before i discovered duralar].

makes me think about how there are just certain constants that emerge in a studio practice. things that reoccur even if you don't intend them to. materials, ideas, concepts, THINGS that just need to get made or done.  what keeps coming up in your making? i'm curious.



the other thing i do all the time is draw the dogs. they are always there. and easier to draw than people - at least for me.



fast. lines. wrong ones left there or re-drawn. simple. black and white. quick before they move.
not really looking at the page. just moving the pen.

sometimes i'm sort of surprised when i stop and look. did i do that?

i can't remember if i posted here... did you know i was interviewed on dog milk - talking about millie and tonka? happy february.