Wait for the Clouds to Clear – In progress
Baby Bird Paper Cuttings
Just hatched today.. each measures 1 1/2 x 2 1/2 inches. Framed slightly larger.
Night Riders – Cut Paper Art
11 x 14 inch paper cutting. I decided to change the birdhouse that the donkey was previously carrying to a lantern. The lantern was my first idea and then I changed it to the birdhouse after thinking about it too much.. I should know better by now not to second-guess myself because I almost always revert back my first thoughts.
Waking Moon – Cut Paper Art
Waking Moon – 8 x 10 inch paper cutting. Used for the cover of Lantern Journal, Vol. II, Issue I. Check it out here: http://lanternjournal.org/category/v2i1/
And here’s a little article about my work with pics, etc: http://lanternjournal.org/wp-content/uploads/V2i1/Pickman%20-%20Praecisio%20-%20v2i1.pdf
Mandalas In Their New Home
Melissa L. recently acquired four of my mandala paper cuttings. She was kind enough to send me these pics of them hanging in her home. She also owns 4 of my other paper cuttings, including my favorites “Ties That Bind” and “Midnight Garden”.
Donkey, etc..
I’ve put the donkey on hold while I finish up the backside to the record cover for band Maria the Mexican. Hoping to put the final touches on it tomorrow evening.
Tomorrow I’ll be visiting the Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art in Kansas City. I’ve never been there before and it seems like a good time to go. I’ve spent the better part of the last 10 days a bit down and out while nursing a cold (I get one cold a year.. of course on the week winter transitions to spring), so it’s time to get out and do something mentally stimulating now that it’s on the out and out.
The exhibit for the Lawrence Arts Center Annual Art Auction is hung (my piece “Budding Moon” is in it), so go check it out. And… one of my favorite paper cuttings, Ursa Major, has found a permanent home after I take my exhibit down from the Douglas County Law Library Gallery at the end of the month. If you haven’t been over to see it, it’ll be up until Mar. 31. Til next time…
Donkey?
I’ve got lots of strange little trinkets and such that I’ve found here and there, and some of them make their way into my paper cuttings.. I was sitting on my couch staring at a large stuffed donkey statue (can statues be plush?) that I bought at an antique store half a block from my house.. At least, the owner told me it was a donkey, or in his words ‘a burro, an old one, handmade in a small village in Mexico’ — he said he had picked it up at a museum that was selling it’s inventory and gave it to me for $20 (after I didn’t want to buy it for $30).. Turns out it’s not a donkey at all. It’s some sort of oxen likely made in India (that guy had a story about every object in there. Entertaining at least!). The more I look at it, it probably came from World Market and got dirty and worn in somebody’s storage. But I still like it, and I still like to think of it as a donkey, and while I was looking at it, I thought I should make a paper cutting of a donkey.. and then I realized it would only be complete with birds in 10 gallon hats riding on its back. Finished paper cutting to come.
Birdsong Paper Cutting
5 x 7 inch paper cutting.
New Bird Paper Cuttings
Each bird measures 2.5 x 4 inches and is matted and framed to 5 x 7 inches.
Monday Things
I called in sick to work today.. haha.. sort of. As Jorma Kaukonen said in his blog, when you’re self-employed, there are no days off. True.. although it’s easy to push things aside, they’re always right there in my head letting me know they’re waiting to get done, and they don’t relent until I git’em done. There’s probably treatment for that. Anyway, winter cold’s got me down, but an hour extra of evening sunshine, spring temps on the horizon, my Beachwood Sparks record on repeat (makes me think of summer), and a pot of rice pudding on the stove has got my engine revving a little..
Progress shot of the record cover I made last week.. trying to figure out the layout for the backside so I can finish it up this week.