making an impression…

Posted on May 21, 2012 by

the lovely Griffin

 The lovely Griffin etching press that I was able to buy years ago (with a professional development grant while teaching ) has been patiently waiting in my basement studio for me to return.

plate ready to go

This past week, I had to crank out an edition of 15 prints for a show/print exchange at Pierce College in Tacoma, WA.  I had been meaning to get back to this, but as so often happens, a deadline does the trick.

So… now the ice has been broken and I can keep at it during the summer.

Making a ‘series’ of monotypes is a bit of a contradiction, since each print is unique and can’t be replicated.   What we’re talking about is making 15 individual paintings and then squashing them one by one onto dampened paper under pressure.  The other exciting part of this is that I will get 13 random little prints sent back to me.  What a great idea, and only possible when working in this medium.

laying the paper on the plate

After this brief interlude, I’ll get back to prepping for the 2-day studio tour in June.  Maybe do some prints to expand on the ideas for the new series of grass/weed imagery.  It was a very nice interlude, indeed.

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and Reaching Out….

Posted on May 9, 2012 by

ImageSo, how is it possible to do both. Stay put and reach out.  (Always gotta love a paradox.)

Well, one way this year that I have stayed put is physically. But perhaps more importantly, I’ve leaned to prioritize my time and energy. At least I’m working on it. In the past, I’ve signed on to several art related activities that seemed like a good idea, only to realize that the time and energy they took away from my own studio work and ideas was not worth it.   (‘been reading Gifts from the Sea by Anne Morrow Lindbergh after first getting the book about 30 years ago! and she describes this feeling very well)

This year, I have declined or ignored several calls for response.   There are other ways I give back in the communal sense. In fact, my community service for the past four plus years has been as a patient care hospice volunteer.

So, having turned my attention to my own work and questions has meant: absorbing a lot of new information via: Creative Capital, submitting work to juried shows in Denver, signing up for the 2-day studio tour, getting an exhibition slot at a local theater, even submitting again to New American Painting (was in 2 previous editions), trying to meet and network with more arts professionals and most importantly, gaining traction again in the studio.  

One of the things that was repeated in the earlier mentioned workshop, was that if you weren’t getting any “no’s” then you weren’t trying enough things.  Basically, that your chances of success at something are diminished to Zero, if you are not in the mix.

Considering I was in a bit of a funk a few months ago about where to proceed, and even if it made sense to keep making paintings, this is progress.

 It’s a truism that most artists can bounce back with even the most meager of encouragement. You get a show, and suddenly, your work IS good enough…. you sell a drawing and there IS an audience.

And I’ve done this long enough to know that there are slumps, and also periods where it seems like everything is going your way.  Currently, I’m feeling a bit of the latter, but not dwelling on it, since I know how ephemeral these things are.  In fact, working with hospice patients has taught me a great deal about how silly we are in worrying about lots of the things that are rolling around in our heads.  My last patient- still going strong, was 104 years old. She taught me, among other things, that there is no sense is being afraid of anything. Really, she had seen and done a lot, and just felt- what’s the point. We can prepare, but we shouldn’t waste our time being afraid.

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staying put

Posted on April 28, 2012 by

On the shelf next to my drawing wall, my studio bunny keeps an eye on my progress. (and also holds spare change, since she’s a piggy bank). Getting ready for the studio tour, I’m doing more drawings, and trying to keep a steady momentum going.  I used to keep a small Kathe Kollwitz self-portrait sternly gazing out at me, but the bunny seems less accusatory somehow.

Now, that I am home more, there are upsides to be sure. The garden is really taking shape early, and it’s wonderful to sit and enjoy the birds and flowers during the day.  But those pleasures come with a price of distracting me from the painting and drawing.

Recently I told a friend who also has a studio in her home, that I’m still a bit challenged when it comes to arrivals and departures from my basement… ie: I can’t stay put all the time.

There’s a difference between leaving the house at 10am, going downtown to a small room where nothing else can happen vs. being at home, and needing to tell myself that I should be downstairs working, and that nothing should distract me from that process.  In fact the building where I used to work was often very quiet during the day, so I could work with my door open.  I had my supplies, and my pot for heating water for tea, and could occasionally walk a block or two for snacks, or head to the library.

So, how do I replicate that focus in the midst of this largess of distraction?

My friend’s ingenious solution was as follows.   Leave the house through the back door, walk around the house and come in the front door and down the stairs.  There needs to be some ritual that triggers my brain to make the transition. I have a suspicion my best working hours are afternoon, evening- but that also depends on what task I’m tackling. (still figuring out that one)

Just finished this one…

"In the Weeds" 22x30, charcoal pencil on Stonehenge paper ©Nanci Erskine 2012

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New Work – Sprouting up

Posted on April 17, 2012 by

My strategy in this year has been to back off the unnecessary and clear my head….decide if I wanted to keep painting, decide how I would go about that, decide what really intrigued me enough to make work about it.  The Creative Capital workshop seemed to help propel me past my earlier funk, and gave me the courage to just do what mattered to me.  The result has been more drawings, and the beginning of an exploration of things that evoke the quality of being grounded AND tangled…in fact, they are about grass and reeds and such things.    Here are a few of the smaller pieces, hanging on the wall in the “done” section- yay!   

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another new thing I’m learning…

Posted on April 13, 2012 by

My last studio newsletter was a number of months ago- and I like to put out a couple a year. Because my list is nearing 200, and I’d rather not deal with composing in a Word document- which makes the file wayyyyy too large. I’ve decided it’s time to buckle down and learn how to use Mail Chimp.

Which gives me way more functionality
and easier ways for people to opt in or out.(plus did I mention it’s free for a nice small business like mine)

Wow- they provide so much support and tutorial help, I’ll be swinging through the email trees in no time.

But- on a larger note:  it’s challenges like this to the brain that keep us mentally sharp as well!  So, I may never get around to learning Spanish like I probably should- (or maybe that should be Mandarin Chinese?) …  but my little synapses are getting exercised by all the tasks I do to try and generate interest in the work.    So.   Be looking for my latest newsletter soon….

plus, ya gotta love the Firefox cupcake header on my browser!

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the end of this beginning…

Posted on April 3, 2012 by

Many artists around the country have had the distinct opportunity to participate in a Creative Capital Professional Development Weekend.  And this last weekend was my chance. (big shout-out to Beet Street for bringing in a second annual one)

The presenters, Maureen Huskey, Colleen Keegan, Aaron Landsman, Jackie Battenfield, and Byron Au Yong, were all incredibly generous and helpful- I think everyone felt like they took away quite a bit that was not only useful, but truly personal and meaningful to each participant.

At the wrap-up, Colleen used the expression the “end of the beginning” to refer to our impending activities- filtering all this good stuff, starting to address issues unique to our own practice and moving forward, armed with clearer intentions (can you say “strategic planning?”) and optimism.

As it happens, I have been following “Communicatrix”,  Colleen Wainright’s blog for a while  (although it is much more than that) and today, something arrived in my mailbox with her last in a series of “embracing the tiny” observations.  Coincidence?   I think not.

http://www.communicatrix.com/2012/04/tiny-day-21/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=tiny-day-21

For my part, I left the two days, filled with new energy to lead myself back to work that was more personal and meaningful to me- something that made me excited to keep moving forward, not something that I assumed would be embraced by a too-specific audience.

I (re) learned that I need to make the work that matters, and then move it out into the world, so the right audience can find it.  I will feel blessed, and I think those finding it will feel fortunate when they do.

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little geeky pleasures- images instead of icons!

Posted on March 20, 2012 by

I often have way too many things cluttering up my laptop screen- because  of wanting to have everything at my fingertips…. but!  It was getting awfully crowded around here, so I remembered that there’s a way to make the folders more individualized, instead of so many redundant, generic blue rectangles. 

Imageso, now all my various projects and important tasks are more attractive and easier to see at a glance.

I love making my MacBook Pro more my very own!

to do yourself:    open an image in preview, select all, then copy.

Then highlight the file you want to “decorate”.  In “file” menu, get info, highlight the small icon near the top, and paste your image – easy peasy.

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What doesn’t totally confuse you makes you stronger…

Posted on March 18, 2012 by

20120318-145022.jpgas in… making your brain learn new things is a good thing.  My most recent venture is to finally learn how to put together a presentation in the post 35mm slide era.  This does truly make me a relic from another time.

Most of the work I did prior to 2004 is still in slide form and I have to give a power point presentation, for the upcoming Creative Capital workshop…so that means scanning a bunch of images into digital files.

“Why this is child’s play”, you say.  Indeed, my kid was learning how to do this in school.  But, unfortunately, the last time I was a visiting artist/public speaker, they still gave you the option of slides. Now of course, projectors aren’t even being made anymore.

So, I spent an hour or so scanning some older images at the local university library.  A mere drop in the bucket considering the three drawers full that will need my attention later at some point.

What’s your latest brain challenge?

(Instead of powerpoint, I’m going with Keynote, the Mac application that seems to get more votes for being visually elegant and easier to deal with- so far I agree)

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isn’t that my drawing on the floor?

Posted on March 5, 2012 by

well, parts of it.  As you can see, I love to erase. Actually, I think of it more as drawing with a skinny stick of rubber.  I just bought a new little gizmo that holds these round white erasers in a holder, and you click it like a mechanical pencil.  Sweet.

But I digress.

fallen crumbs of drawing.. plus a small cobweb it looks like

There are several ways to modulate a line when drawing, which is another way of saying, to make it more expressive and responsive to the subject.

One technique involves learning how to alter the pressure of your touch when you are moving the medium over the paper. Pushing and releasing as the line is moving along, and perhaps turning your hand as you go.

Another method would be redrawing the same line again, but adding bulk or weight in certain places.

Then there is the reductive approach. Which can happen at any time, really.  This involves using an eraser to carve away at parts of a line, or erasing the line and redrawing it slightly shifted to another place.  You can see evidence of this kind of work in Matisse and Diebenkorn, and many other artists’  drawings.  The ghost of the former line creates a visible history of the artist’s process.

this is what brought the end results of all those erasures on the floor… I’ve been carving some lines.   Do you draw?  Is the eraser your friend too?

 

p.s. I think it’s a hoot that there is a Wikipedia entry about erasers!

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pruning and editing

Posted on March 2, 2012 by

Yesterday was a winter anomaly. A day in the high 50′s with sun shining.

Well, OK it’s almost March, but in these parts the snow can seriously fly this month.

prunings on the ground

30x22 charcoal, ©2012 Nanci Erskine

So, after consulting our recently made list of “stuff that we need to do around the house outside” I set out to get some pruning done on some bushes.  There is a lovely place by the side of our house where a natural doorway is made in a tangle of trees and shrubbery, that fleetingly bloom in late spring- but with winter snow loads, and time, it can get a bit out of control- bending and spreading in ways that become too dense; starting to shade out a bed where I put in some lilies a few years back.

As I began to sort and cut, deciding which branches and twigs to eliminate, I was struck by how analogous this process is to what I do in the studio with drawings and paintings now.  First, the impulse is to let things fly and get too overgrown,  and then I am compelled to go back in and start wacking away; removing and letting air and space back into the work.

It’s a process I like and find challenging, because it often means painting over passages, and then repainting on top of that, or scraping off something and rehashing how it works.

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