Kittens everywhere!!

"Are we getting close?"


"...No, yeah, we're wayyy out there"


Our trip to Franco-land is turning out to be an adventure itself - but it is only a taste of what's to come.
We find the house...but there is also a minor deterrent (namely, a lack of road from where we are and where we need to be).  


As we pull up to the house, I am immediately entranced and engulfed by the atmosphere of the place.  The layers of history and energy swarm me, much like the plants that have immersed this pair of unassuming lots in west San Antonio.  While being introduced to Franco and his studio/home/installation piece, the onion skin peels back even further, revealing a life of stories and vivacity.  One thing I always find, and come back to often, is the intrigue of the curious tales we all possess - everyone has a story, and there are always interesting things to find.  


Amidst the cats and kittens fumbling about, I enjoy a moment to take it all in - the plants and animals, the stories and advice given by Franco, the pieces of people he meets, everything.  We talk, paint, laugh, and eat.  Seeing Franco work, and hearing what he has to say about making art, I get another spin, another method of approaching the ever-elusive "Art World."  He has given me plenty to think about, and really, just a great day - which is all we need, sometimes.  






"In Tao, the only motion is returning.
The only useful quality, weakness.
For though all creatures under heaven are a product of Being,
Being itself is the product of Not-Being."
Ch.40 of Tao te Ching , Lao Tzu

The World is a Vampire...

Well,


It's late, and I am just now getting around to toying with Photoshop.
I am finding that I enjoy it a lot - and even though the two pieces I had completed are nowhere near perfect or amazing, I am pleased with the turnout.  The simple fact that I understand this particular technique a bit more is motive enough for me to dive deeper.

So, here ya go - the pieces I had been kicking around for the last few hours:

:P

So yeah, I was fairly enthused...thought this was pretty decent for someone who never did anything like this before.

**nods**


"If you do too much, people get dependent on you. And if you do nothing, they lose hope...If you do things right, people won't be sure you've done anything at all."
-God, to Bender, from Futurama

Alligator to Zest

There they are...

After rummaging through my apartment, I had all sorts of things lined up along my dinner table.  Fire extinguisher, Milk jug, Wah pedal - one by one, I lay each down in front of me and sketch away.

One thing I start to find is that the more I sit here and draw these things out, the longer I am taking, which is not a bad thing.  These little drawings are turning out rather interesting.  Truthfully, I often find that my drawings can be really great (and I surprise myself sometimes), but only after I have taken too long on an image (at least, what I feel is too long).  One of the hurdles I need to get over is simply drawing faster, and trust that I know where to place the next line.

Of all the sketches I have done for this project, there are a few that I like, especially when they are situated next to each other.  For some reason or another, I am drawn (pun, much?) to the pack of gum.  I have done another drawing in a similar fashion, back in the Spring semester, where I was drawing an image with just a couple values of one color.  I am only using two colored pencils here, and I like the way the two mingle with each other.

hmm.

As I was saying earlier, too, I really like the way this image sits with the Headphones, iPod, and Joy sketches.  Each image is fairly simple, with not too much going on in the background, but the colors of each picture tend to complement the others in a way that I did not plan.

"Sound comes to the ear, the ear goes to the sound. When you blot out sound and sense, what do you understand? While listening with ears one never can understand. To understand intimately one should see sound."
-from Bells and Robes of The Gateless Gate.