Category: Thoughts

Things I’m learning in Artworld.

How splitting wood is like drawing with pencils

Sports are not for me – in fact, I’ve been known to say that I have only two sports: walking and splitting wood. I love to split wood! That is the axe my dear husband gave me for my birthday, and this weekend I was thrilled to get to try it.

As I was splitting wood, it occurred to me that there are many parallels between splitting wood with an axe and drawing with a pencil. Look at these:

1. Neither require electricity.

2. Both require a sharp edge – blade or point.

3. For best results, start with the large and move to the small.

4. They both make wood bits – shavings from the sharpener or splinters from the axe.

5. Lots of strokes are required for results.

6. One has to start with good stuff to get decent results – great scenes make great drawings, and good clean-grained wood makes good shaped pieces.

7. Both require paying close attention to what one is doing, unless one doesn’t mind wasting time and energy.

8. The terms “hard” and “soft” are always being flung around, both with wood and with pencils.

9. Cedar makes the best pencils and also the best-splitting wood.

I’m sure there are more parallels; can you think of any?

Because

Remember when you were a kid and someone would ask you a “Why” question and your answer would be “because”? If someone asks why Zeke is today’s posting, that is the answer!

Inspiration through change of scenery

We snuck off to a different place for the weekend, and it was beautiful. There was almost more time on the road than at our destination, but it is better to view that as an abundance of knitting time. Artists are told to see new places for fresh inspiration and then come home with “new eyes” (I could use a bit more distance in my vision, but I don’t think this is what “new eyes” means.) Here is some of what we saw: This is Kokanee Salmon, swimming upstream to spawn (that means to lay eggs). Nice color – the shockingly brilliant red against the duller greens, complementary colors.

It snowed up high. The orangey-yellow and blue are good together, almost complementary colors.

Tahoe means “big water” – it is! And in this shot the mountains are bluer than the lake, although there were other views that showed the reverse.

The aspens are changing more slowly than in Mineral King, even though the elevation is the same here. I saw a tree with orangey-red leaves at the top and it was still green at the bottom! There were cars pulled over all along the highway – lots of cameras out there!

New Camera!

This is a photo taken with my new camera, even before I wrote the check! This was an important test of my new Canon Powershot ( with a whole series of letters and numbers which I have not yet learned). The ability to photograph art is as important as the ability to photograph scenes from which to make art. I learned a new word in techno-speak while buying the camera – it is not an “eye-hole” – it is a “view-finder”. Good to know (i guess). Anyway, the camera has been bought, and I can now get on with the business of art without that annoying twitch under my eye.

And speaking of making art, this is a commissioned pencil portrait. She was a pleasure to draw, and now I get to draw someone else in her office! (I think this is the sort of face that is referred to as a “natural beauty”.)

Borrowed camera

My friend, whom I shall refer to as (the other) JB (she says that brings to mind images of someone chewing on a cigar!), expressed a desire to hike to a lake out of Mineral King. Because we would be driving up from the flatlands and hiking on the same day, I chose Monarch Lake for its well graded trail. That is a lake I rarely visit. It has no trees, and in my memory it isn’t as attractive as other lakes up there. So, it seemed like a good time to compare my mind’s image to reality. Wow! If this is ugly, a pretty lake would strike me blind! So here we were in this beautiful place with its fall colors coming on and I HAD NO CAMERA! Fortunately, JB had her point and shoot (forgot to ask how many megapixels!) and she was more than willing to share. I’m sure her generosity was not affected in the slightest by the slightly wild look in my eye and bulging vein in my forehead. I confess: I filled her memory card and drained her battery. She continued to be gracious about it all, because that is the kind of person JB is. It was a wonderful time together, and an altogether terrific hike!

Broken camera

When I bought my digital camera, I successfully avoided several things: research, decisions, reading the owner’s manual. A friend of a friend was selling hers, and without asking too many questions (megapixels? what means that??), I paid her and then spent a day on the trail with her teaching me how to use it. The party is over. I am reading stuff in magazines, catalogs and online. It is all just words on paper, because until I see what is available at Mike’s Quality Cameras in Visalia, there is no point in choosing a camera. Turns out 3.2 megapixels is a joke in Camera-land. Guess it is time to get a Big Girl camera. Here’s what I don’t get: if our stuff is outdated about every 2-3 years, is it expected that we will buy new phones, cameras, computers, refrigerators, water heaters, printers, ipods, et cetera every 2-3 years?? Who has that kind of money? Who has that kind of time to read and understand all those owner’s manuals? Who wants to figure out to do with all the old stuff that is still good?? Not this little gray duck. Here, look at this nice photo that I took before my camera broke: See? there is nothing wrong with 3.2 megapixels!! (so there)

Gross

Today I planned to paint all day, and was moving right along at a nice clip. Then, lunchtime came and I headed back to the house, and there was a rattle snake on my front porch. It is a long and boring story that eventually ended poorly for the snake but well for me. I am a pathetic excuse for an outdoor woman, and once again had to call the Very Capable S to rescue me. She can do almost anything! The long and short of it is this: my painting got the short end of the stick today, and the length of the snake was 4′ with 10-1/2 buttons on its rattle. Hard to paint when my hand is trembling. I have to go lie down now. No photos – it was too gross for this little sissy. (Dad’s word was “panty-waist”) On days like that, chocolate helps.

Sweet Treat, 5″x7″, unframed, oil, $35

Dad’s Desk

This was my Oh-So-Wise-Dad’s desk. He had wanted his own dad’s rolltop, but a brother spoke up sooner. So, a brother-in-law found this one as a replacement, and it served Dad well. He was a farmer, and from this desk he paid many bills, made phone calls, sat and thought and probably prayed quite a bit and sometimes even dispensed fatherly advice.

Dad used a manual Smith-Corona typewriter and a hand-crank adding machine at this desk. (I declined both of those items on the basis of one of my guiding principles in life: The More Stuff You Own, The More Stuff Breaks.) He didn’t type very often, but wrote by hand in all capital letters. He liked to write, and in retrospect, I have decided that words were his art form.

One of the many benefits of getting the desk (which neither of my sisters were interested in, thank goodness!) was that we got rid of a filing cabinet and 4-5 bags of papers! (Another guiding principle in my life is this: If You Can, Get Rid Of It!)

Now the desk is in my house, and its very presence is reassuring. The massive size, the memories, the timelessness of this piece of furniture actually caused me to sit and HANDWRITE SOME LETTERS!! Really! I ignored the clicky noises of my computer behind me and used a pen and paper!

I wonder if this desk will help me be a better artist. . .

on selling

Oak Grove Bridge II, oil, wrapped canvas, 11×14, SOLD

People ask from time to time, “Is it hard to sell your work?” My first smart-alecky response is, “It’s only hard to sell the ugly ones”. However, I don’t think that is the answer anyone is looking for. They are asking about an emotional attachment to a personal creation, something akin to separation anxiety. When my students ask if they should sell their work, my answer is, “Always, and as often as possible!” Often, a result of growth is that we quickly become ashamed of (or even disgusted by) our earlier efforts. (My Oh-So-Wise Dad said, “Simply refer to those as your Primitive Era.”) So, if one has $50 to buy more supplies or another month of lessons instead of owning a piece of work that she now finds embarrassing, then she has come out ahead! The more work I sell, the more I paint and draw and thus, my abilities are refined through more experience. The more work I sell, the more space I have for more work. The more work I sell, the more my confidence grows, enabling me to say “YES I CAN!!” The more work I sell, the less inclined I am to believe that I should hone my job hunting/resume writing skills.

Talent?

A friend stopped by while I was working on the mural. He said, “There is definitely some talent going into this project.” Not having the grace to accept a compliment, I immediately responded with, “Not really. It is mostly hard work, desire and determination.” We had other business to conduct, so it didn’t develop into a discussion. However, I pondered this for awhile, wondering if I am talented, or if I am just determined. (Dad used to call me “bull-headed”. Not sure if he was praising, warning or reprimanding. . .) It has been observed that an innately gifted athlete who does not train very hard can be beat by a less gifted athlete who works very hard at his skills. Seems the same can be said for almost any area of accomplishment. There were people I knew in high school who were very gifted in the area of art – their portraits were recognizable, their perspectives were always accurate, their lines just seemed to flow and they never seemed to have a shortage of ideas. How many of them are artists? I can only think of one, Kenny Cardoza. He was the best on-site sketcher I ever witnessed as a teenager. Despite his inherent gift as an artist, he works as a respiratory therapist in addition to painting murals. Here is a link to see the one he painted for Exeter: http://www.waymarking.com/waymarks/WM34QJ When I teach people how to draw, I always preface their first lesson with “Drawing is a skill, not a talent”. Think about it like typing or “keyboarding, if you are under age 25. Everybody can learn to type. Those who hit 90 wpm are the talented ones. Those who only hit 30 wpm are still typing, aren’t they? Drawing and painting are similar. And if a 30 wpm typist practices constantly, he might one day outdo the 90 wpm guy. I was one of those, but I got fired from a job for too many mistakes. (It was a stupid temporary job, nothing important. No, it did not scar me.) The point is, I knew I could fly over the keyboard and not need to focus, so I didn’t bother to focus. Besides, it was boring. . . yawn. In art, I always knew I loved it, but I was never the best. My work got criticized, sometimes harshly (no, that did not scar me either!), sometimes in a helpful manner. I could see when things were wrong but didn’t know how to fix them. Mostly, I wanted to get better! The point is, I have worked very hard, seen much improvement and am now earning my living this way. There might be some talent involved, but I believe more of my success is due to determination, hard work, a willingness to learn and a refusal to give up.

Favorite Parking Place, colored pencil, framed 14 x 18, $299