All the Words of a Language | Blog

things i've made recently // Little Miss Muffet

 Little Emma Muffet sat on her tuffet eating her curds + whey 

 When along crept a spider 

 Who belly flopped down beside her 

 and splashed little Emma... 

...away! 

Art + Design Grievances: I'm NOT Thomas Kinkade

It really gets my goat when I have my mom call me saying: 

"Oh, so and so asked if you would be selling prints of that illustration you made of that building. The one from a few years ago? And you know that other person, well her mother called her asking if you were going to sell postcards this year."

That's when I lost my shizz. All over my poor mom.

"Ma, listen, I love that people are supporting me and all and that they want reproductions but I don't have the time to sit at my computer for a week printing ink jet images of an illustration I made 4 years ago that just won't effing die because it is the most commercial thing I've made. And I certainly don't have the funds to pay for a bulk order of postcards of recent work which probably won't even sell because all people want are a picture of a freakin' house. If you want random floating girls heads with hands, or an overtly optimistic hairy ghost, or a dog with a mohawk, or hand lettered Kerouac quotes or a girl drowning in water grasping a red rope for survival, then have them call me. But if that's not what they're looking for, tell 'em go buy a Kinkade."

I mean, she cut me off in the middle of my first sentence with "ALLRIGHT, I GET IT" but I'm certain my point was received.

I'm not trying to be Thomas Kinkade (and kudos to the man for filling the market where us too serious artists don't want to go) but I'm trying to make children's books here and it's my own fault for previously selling people crap.

La Cirque du Famille du Freaks en Paris

 

I just got back from Paris. I was intending to use this sketchbook to record the trip through drawings but considering there were 11 of us total, the freaks ran rampant among the city and the only thing I could do was accept it and leave my sketchbook in my hotel room.

I can't draw all the time, vacations included. I'm no machine, just a side show freak.

I did however soak up the city and collect tons of graphic design and typographic treats to tantalize your tiny eyes. 

So come one, come all to La Cirque du Graphisme et Photographe!

weekly Tao #10

The problem is that I will not sleep, I will skip meals, and sometimes I refuse to go to the bathroom all for the love of art. I think some people call it passion but I know it is definitely unhealthy. I've hit my tipping point.

Zen Habits recently had a really great article on killing to-do lists and Michael Nobbs has been writing some awesome articles for Underground Art School which got me inspired. They were about measurable goals and creative routines. 

Recently, I have started working on my own routines. 

A few of my important ones are to be in bed by 11, the first Thursday of every month are when I set up blog posts for Underground Art School + Pikaland, and soon I'm going to implement Internet Sabbaticals; pre-planned Internet vacations because man, social networking art sites are suffocating my work. Now I'm working toward daily routines in regard to art + work.

How do you set limits on a limitless activity?

One of the selling points of freelance was I didn't have to work a 9-5 and I could wear hats all the time and now I'm discovering that routines fuel accomplishment of goals, ideas, productivity, and a balanced life. The silver lining is I still can do all of that while wearing hats.

 

scribble sheet

I needed to do something creative but fun today so I made a Scribble Sheet! Apparently, only a few minor details have changed since childhood, such as the ability to listen to explicit music legally. Have you checked out Lisa Currie (aka OPPY's) The Scribble Project? Do it! You should totally make one of these too!

While you do that, I'm going to write Maria a letter and we both can wait for Jonathan Taylor Thomas' comeback!

Weekly Tao #9

One of the greatest challenges of being an artist is never being satisfied. Does this sound familiar to you: once I make something the next thing I want to do is create something new. OR, and even worse, start judging and editing the piece I just finished. Can a girl get some satisfaction up in here?

 

I edited this post because I didn't know what I wanted to achieve with it. Such a fantastic example of how blogging about art even leaves room for expectation. Ok, I feel satisfied now.

Weekly Tao #8

 

I had some hand surgery two weeks ago on my money maker. My other hand, the right hand, is completely unavailable for any type art making whatsoever so I've been itching to make something. I'm pleased to report that I can draw again, and that my left hand hasn't felt this great since...well, along time.

The first thing I made was a Tao Te Ching quote.

I know you're probably wondering "what happened?" Honestly, I'm thinking about making 'zines where I get real and talk about the stuff I don't share on my blog because I don't like and/or want to. I'm sorry, I just can't get that personal online, but I find drawings and writings in small booklet form a completely acceptable mode. This blog just can't do what I want it to in order to tell a story.

I'm not going to try to fight this, forcing some personal blog entries here. This is just the way I feel. Time to flow around it and make some 'zines.

The Weekly Tao #7

Obvious metaphor: the heart is the compass. At this depth is the  place to make decisions about art + career; which projects to pursue, which projects to move away from, which elements need to be in a piece, and so on and so forth. Otherwise, your decisions will be impulsive, floating, unanchored.

Real simple.

The Weekly Tao #4

This one is hard to discuss. I mean, logically, I totally get it. But to put it in terms of making art, being an artist, running an art career, I can't niche the message down and apply it to a specific topic. I'm breaking the flow of the message by forcing a written discussion about it! Heh.

Things I've been fighting for: a career in children's books, praise for my work, acclaim for my art, health, happiness. Things I stopped fighting for: health, happiness, and praise. Things that have recently flowed back into my life: health, happiness, and praise (not all the time with every piece I share, but just enough when I need it).

For myself, I changed my definition of praise and started looking for it in different forms. The number of views on my Flickr is irrelevant. Receiving no comments on work is not bothersome anymore. Number of friends and followers on social networking isn't true praise anyway. Using analytics and finding out that people are looking at my website not from outside sources such as Pikaland (although grateful that there is that source) but that people are directly clicking onto my site and blog is praise. Getting an email from an art student in Switzerland asking for help and questions for a class project is praise. 

The thing about children's books is I feel like I'm still fighting a little bit, only because I'm working on a promotional right now. My biggest flow breaker is the internet. Which I'm allowing distraction right now. So yea, it stills feels like a bit of a battle. I SURRENDER INTERNET!

WHAT ARE YOU FIGHTING FOR? WHAT IS BREAKING YOUR ARTISTIC FLOW?

The Weekly Tao #2

There's two sides to my art personality. There is the encouraging artist (positive towards my own work) and encouraging art director (positive towards other artists work). "Wow Rach, see, you DO have skills," I remind myself. "Yea! Do it! Make art! What you are doing is wonderful," I remind others. I mean what I say when it comes from the heart.

Then every once in awhile when I'm feeling rotten, the passive aggressive art bitch shows up. "Really Racheal? You can't draw a hand without reference? LAME." I criticize. I use my full name when I'm disappointed in myself. When it comes to others: "AWESOME!" Two seconds later in my thoughts: "that is the fugliest thing I've EVER seen." It's not the truth when I speak from my mind, especially if I'm exhausted or hungry.

It seems easier to judge whats in front some times than to understand how it became what it is. I guess that's artistic evilness. I am taking off my hata blockers so I can see what's for real.

Do you judge art? Should art be judged? What's a beautiful piece of work and what's ugly? Do we know ugly because we know what beautiful is?