Tuesday, September 26

It is finished!
(Art is a labor of love)


I was up till midnight last night finishing my art piece. It has been in the works for about 3 months, but now it is finished! I must say that this was the most time intensive piece I have ever done … this is not obvious (in my opinion) when compared with past works. My previous pieces were very often based on other artists work but this piece was done completely on my own - from beginning with the idea in my mind to the last few strokes with my charcoal pencil.

I will humor anyone who has read this far by telling you about that journey from the idea to how I got it on paper.

It started in the front yard with myself, my camera, and my tripod. I would set the automatic timer and then run around in front of the camera and pose for each figure in the picture … any cars driving by must have wondered what was going on.

Then using my favorite program (photoshop) I merged all those pictures of me together. It was kinda scary seeing all those duplicates of myself (artists go to great lengths to create art)



I then created a rough sketch from the photomerge … I was beginning to conceptualize the idea on paper.


Once I had the basic idea I created a small values image. This showed the tones – the lights and the darks, and overall what the picture would look like.



I then transferred the photomerge to a large draft paper using the grid method (breaking the image into squares and drawing the same number of squares [on a larger scale] on the large paper and then copying the image square by square). This is a legal form of cheating in my humble opinion however since this was not a project for self enjoyment but rather an important project with a deadline I made the exeption which helped me on my proportions. Proportions are hard to capture especially after not having done art regularly for over year.
Once the image was transfered I went through several versions and a few sizes. Here are my two first drafts




I then started on what I thought would be my final but when I was nearing completion I was not satisfied with the gray areas of the art … they looked muddled and not clean. I also had some new ideas for the angels which sprung from sculptures I had seen by the artist Bernini.


So I sacrificed my image for the greater good of a new piece which if it turned out like I imagined would be much better than the one I was working on. I decided to try it out on gray paper. This way I would not have to draw the gray tones as much, and I would use white pencil for the highlights and rays of light. BTW the dark tones were done with charcoal pencil. I used ‘transfer paper’ to transfer the old picture to the gray paper. Once I made the leap of faith everything began to take shape like I wanted it to. I spent several very productive late nights to complete the picture. And now it is done! Yeah! And my room is back to normal (instead of the typical artists studio look).


I brought the picture to the monastery today and left it with the monks. Sometime this week it will travel with Br. Jerome up to Tulsa to wait for the auction on October 21. I hope it does well!

Monday, September 25

I have been tagged by Ria - so here it goes:

1. A Place You've Visited and Your Favorite Thing there
Colonial Williamsburg – The beautiful buildings all together in a cozy town, the beautiful dresses and hats, the rich and civilized dialoge of the citizens, the lush gardens, and the people working with tools like those used centuries ago ... was that supposed to be one favorite thing? =)

2. A Country You'd Like to Visit and Why
Rome! Rome is where the Holy Father lives, it is my spiritual home on earth, and it is filled with tons of beautiful art and sculpture. What more could a young catholic artist ask for…

3. A Place From History You'd Like to Visit and Why
The Holy Land during the time of Christ. Why? - Could it be more obvious? I could meet Him, meet His mother, and I could follow Him ... what a blog post that would be!

4. A Place You Know a Lot About
San Diego CA – I lived there most of my life. Though it is changing so much I won’t know it well much longer.

5. A Place You'd Like to Learn More About
Africa. So much is happening there, the little I know makes it seem like a different planet.

6. A Fictional Place You'd Like to Visit
The places from CS Lewis’s Space Trilogy

Ria tagged my twice so here is the other meme ... thanks Ria =)

Five things in our freezer:
1. Frozen bananas (we use them in smoothies)
2. Ice cubes
3. Ice cream (leftover from dad’s birthday)
4. Ice pack
5. Frozen steralized mason jars (after we milk the goats the warm milk is chilled right away when we pour it into the mason jars. This helps keep the milk fresh longer)

Five things in my closet
1. Clothes
2. Clothes
3. Tripod for my camera
4. Empty frames
5. Large pad of paper for drawing

Five things in my car
Since I don't have a car, I'll just say the family car
1. Water bottles
2. CDS
3. Work gloves
4. Rope
5. and, of course, the diaper bag

Five interesting things in my backpack
Since I don’t have a backpack my purse will have to do:
1. wallet
2. burts bees lip balm
3. 2 zebra fine point pens (my favorite)
4. my cell phone
5. and a bag of lemon drops from my trip to Williamsburg

I'll tag my Dad, Femme Fascinante, Muse, coolrich59 and Moms for kids


BTW I am working on a post about my Williamsburg Trip. There is so much to tell and so many pictures ... so as you can imagine it is taking a little longer. Also I am finishing the art piece for the monastery and my Christmas Project for Catholic Answers. Both are due this week so I will probably post after they are done.

Monday, September 18

Full Scale Chicken Farming
The chicks arrived today. Drew raised them the first month or so and now they are ready for the pasture. David and Joey built the coops after the Joel Salatin method and now the happy chickens are happily pecking away out on the pasture. The chicken pens are moved a few feet to a new spot each day so the feathered residents have fresh food. This also is a natural way to fertilize the grass for the hungry cows. Enjoy the pictures.
Farm boys (and a little farm girl)
Our little country girl showing interest in the latest additions to the farm


Monday, September 11

Remembering September 11, 2001

Eternal rest grant unto them, O Lord.
And may perpetual light shine upon them.
May the souls of the faithfully departed
through the mercy of God rest in peace.
Amen.

Never Forget Video

Tuesday, September 5

Quick notice : I am sorry to those that have tried to leave comments. Since I switched to blogging in beta the comments have not been available it seems to those logging it using standard blogger. I regret the switch now but it seems I cannot switch back.

From Blogger: Users who have not switched to Blogger in beta will not be able to login to comment on blogs that have been switched. Commenting using the “anonymous” or “other” options will still work. — latest update on 9/05/2006 04:44:00 PM

I apologize and I hope to find a solution soon. Thanks.
Latest Pictures From Vita Bella Ranch
(Pictures are worth a thousand words)