Exploring Memory

Memories of my clothes making days, working with tissue paper patterns, made me think that if these hard pencils I've been using that leave groves in the paper and can be filled and smudged with graphite and chalk, why not try the old tracing wheel and transfer paper. I really like the idea of making marks using tracing paper; leaving traces behind, a faint image. An added plus, I love dots.

Experiment 1

And More Black

Interesting things happed where the masking tape was. I was using 5H, 3H and B pencils and when I laid down the chalk line I saw that the pencil had left indentations through the masking tape, which the chalk filled in when I smudged it. Ghost lines. Love when things like this happen, what a treat. I sense a lot of smudging coming up.

More Black

Some of the drawings have met the computer. This really helps me see what I wish I had done and what I want to do. Back to work.

On the computer

From the black notebook

Black Notebook

Found a lovely square black page notebook while cleaning the studio the other day. Making these line drawings is rather like playing scales. Line carries the same resonance as sound, Even graphite lines seem to have color and body; form to them. And at the moment I'm finding the repetition so enjoyable, the scratching sound on the paper, the scribble motion, and especially the endless combinations of patterns one can play with. The only down side is how tricky they are to photograph.

You can see where this is leading

Brillant November

This is the best November I can remember. Bright, deeply slanted light, hard frost which never quite burns off during the day, wondrous clear nights filled with stars. Not the November that I have been dreading. This is  a November of dreams;  everything has been pared down to architecture; of trees, of grasses, of weeds; and light and shape and line. A minimal time. A time to give thanks for.

at the edge of the pond yesterday morning

Stacks of Lines

I keep telling myself to get organized, make lists of all the things I want to do and need to do. Make a master list and prioritize. Good intentions. The studio beckons. Where I make stacks of lines. As if it were my list. With everything crossed off.

Just Lines

My fascination with lines continues. Love how much a line can say. Love how it feels in my body when I make repetitive lines, like kneading bread; breathing with each stroke. Then the rhythm changes, becomes faster, the emphasis is on the out stroke of the pencil. And then it changes again. I am loving this dance.

The Black Quilt

Another Path

Last week a couple of friends [thanks Fiona and Jennifer] suggested I use the list of Words for November and do a book. So while I was working on Lines and waiting for Big Blue to resolve it's problems, I started to visualize how I might approach this. The piece I was working on was perfect for sleet, the 6th word. Velum sheets for the numbers and words, paper for the image. The trick will be to find velum I can put through my printer, and that won't smear when printed.

November Rain, mixed media

page idea, number and letters on separate vellum pages

Random Bits

Some times the best part of your day happens so unexpectedly. Things just fall into place in front of your eye or beside your hands as you work. As I was laying down washes and lines, I realized my eye kept being caught by something on the table beside me. Splashes, ends of pencil line, things that had fallen off or away from the paper I was working on. These little random bits had me enthralled and somehow filled me with tenderness. And gave me some new ideas.

Random bits 1

Random bits 2

While I Wait

Back to lines. And more lines. It's the thing that intrigues me most in "Big Blue" [see previous post]. And while I'm not sure what it wants, I'm sure that I want to to make more lines.
Lines > paths
Paths > forest
Forest > horizon
Horizon > sound waves

Pencil, charcoal

Pencil, charcoal and worked on digitally

The Big One

So this is where she is. And this is where she was. [link here] I could say still percolating, but I 'm not sure. More sitting and looking and waiting needed. And work some more on the actual coffee cups. Up to number 70; finished. [link here]

The big one is blue ....again

To Gaze

gaze |gāz|verb [ intrans. ]look steadily and intently, esp. in admiration, surprise, or thought : he could only gaze at her in astonishment.nouna steady intent look : he turned, following her gaze | offices screened from the public gaze.• [in sing. ] (in literary theory) a particular perspective taken to embody certain aspects of the relationship between observer and observed, esp. as reflected in the way in which an author or filmdirector (unconsciously or otherwise) directs attention : the male gaze.DERIVATIVESgazer nounORIGIN late Middle English : perhaps related to obsolete gaw (seegawk ).

Time to gaze, sunset on the pond, Nov . 2012

Decided to Play

"The Coffee Cantata" has turned blue, literally. Decided I'm taking this piece way to seriously, a fatal mistake so decided to play and what I really wanted to do was draw lines. Lots of lines. And it was hugely pleasurable.

Lots of lines

Continuing, The Coffee Cantata

Still working on the big piece [link here] from "The Coffee Cantata" which seems to go here, and then there, then sliding this way, then that. Some times I feel like throwing it away. I still may cut it up or tear it up into little tiny pieces, but while it has me in thrall, I'll follow.

On Top, from "The Coffee Cantata"

A List of Words for November

Wet, damp, dark, cold, line: sleet, ice, bleak, dark, bare, bright, shape: glimmer, dusk, narrow, tight, gloom, blue: umber etching, umber cave: cocoon, sleep, eat, studio:  silver, charcoal, desolate, dim.

Shades of November