Today was a far cry from Monday in terms of the weather.. I love it either way. It’s winter — I’ll take all the snow I can get. This squirrel was braving the freezing wind while waiting for me to lay out some sunflower seeds. Animals are so much better equipped for the weather than us humans.
Some of my artwork making itself at home in Morocco. (Thanks Susan & Abby!)
8 x 10 inch paper cutting. The black & white tree design was commissioned for a tattoo based on the classic design “Book Tree” by artist Robert Whitmore, frequently used on bookplates starting in the 1930?s and still popular today. I then added color to make it complete for my own use, and it’ll be part of my exhibit that I’m hanging Friday in Lawrence (see calendar in the sidebar for details).
The story that I’ve been working on for my next animation is somewhat folk-tale like, and is inspired by Carl Jung’s account of the Pueblo Indians in New Mexico. He found that they believed that the sun was god, providing light and life, and through their own ceremonial practice, they helped the sun move through the sky every day.
In usual Kansan fashion (we like to talk about the weather), it’s a beautiful day in January. I just enjoyed a few minutes on my deck without a coat or shoes drinking up a concoction of freshly juiced beets, carrots, apples, ginger and cucumber.. Revitalizing. And this is after running this morning in short sleeves. The downside to the amazing weather is that I have a to-do list 60 miles long and I’m trying to get through it at my desk, and I’m aching to go lay on a soft patch of ground in the sunshine and soak up the warmth while it’s here. My tulips and crocuses (crocii?) are already sprouting out of the ground. I’m afraid they’re in for a shock at the end of the week…
Today I delivered two originals to a collector in Kansas City: “Ties That Bind” (one of my very favorites) and “Sun Children II” – a commission based on my original “Sun Children” (I didn’t take a proper photo..). These joined the same home as one of my other all-time favorites, “Midnight Garden”.
I’ve got a couple paper cuttings in progress. The tree design was commissioned for a tattoo based on the design “Book Tree” by artist Robert Whitmore, frequently used on bookplates starting in the 1930’s and still popular today. The bird is just a design that popped into my head and I felt like doing it.. It’s a sunbird. So.. there you go.
I’ll be hitting up the Final Friday festivities in downtown Lawrence this evening to consume some art (and food). I don’t have any originals up anywhere but I do have prints and greeting cards at both 1109 Gallery (1109 Mass.) and Essential Goods (17 E. 7th) and they are both open tonight for Final Fridays. See you out there perhaps.
“Friends… They cherish each other’s hopes. They are kind to each other’s dreams.” Henry David Thoreau
I threw these together to help myself along in the planning of my animation(s). For anybody that wants to use these, click on the images to download a printable PDF file. The storyboard is used to sketch out the images, plan the scenes and duration of each scene.. a sort of overview of the entire animation.
The exposure sheet is used to get into the nitty gritty and plot out actions along with dialogue and any other details. The numbers running down the sides are for each shot — I skipped in two’s because I usually shoot at 24 frames per second, shooting two identical frames in a row which breaks down to 12 movements for each second. In other words, for every second of animation that I make, I have to take 24 photos. There are 18 seconds on this sheet, so for a 5 minute animation, I’d basically use about 17 of these sheets (I won’t lie, I’m not that organized and will probably just scratch notes for certain instances rather than plot the whole thing in such detail).