I was happy to be back. Upon returning to the studio, I felt as though I knew exactly the next steps to continue moving in. I built a wood holder, then a bookshelf. I unloaded my spray cans and tools. I installed a pegboard and a bicycle hook. The studio now feels like there is more of a flow to it. I took the advice of my friend Shaun in relation to setting up a studio. His advice was to arrange in this order from left to right: books, materials, tools, work station, preparation station, and finished work. With this set-up it is easy to view myself as a cconduit through which art is channeled and created. Flow.
I finished a logo that I'd started for a local church. The second visit entailed some detail work on a scroll with a heavily seriffed font on top. I enlarged the font digitally and brought it to a print shop where it was printed to size. I made a carbon transfer onto the church wall so that the font would be exactly as pictured. After a total of 20 hours or so, I am happy to be through with the logo. And it looks wonderful.
I helped a family who I met in San Marco (trying to seek refuge from churches with no luck). I helped them get back on their feet by buying them lunch, paying for a night at a hotel, buying them groceries, and subsidizing their bus tickets to Michigan. They were very grateful. I am blessed to be able to help those in need when the case arises.
I also finished a drawing that I began down at my folks house. It started as a doodle, then progressed. I outlined the initial pencil drawing with a gel pen, then went in with a 3B pencil to establish some rough values in the case that I choose to paint it or finish it with markers. Well, that was a slippery slope, as I began to enjoy shading the drawing deeper and deeper. I took it back to the studio reluctantly, dreading having another piece of unfinished artwork lying around, but to my great joy, I found plenty of time to finish it today.
I am now working on more black and white studies of graffiti-inspired landscape/cityscapes. I enjoy the process of making them as the options are merely to go black or white- no colors or midle tones to crutch on. Working this way has been a fear of mine for some time, but it seems to act like a crossword puzzle at the end of the day. The rules are simple- if you're looking to show a defined line, black must touch white to the point that the eye can recognize a pattern. Becoming comfortable with this one rule, and learning its boundaries is wonderfully rewarding. I feel that working with a full range of values after working with hard black and hard white will be less difficult in many ways.
Laurel left town for a family trip to Europe and while I do miss her, her abscence represents an upturned hourglass in which I can create in the studio without the option of distraction.
I may move into Shaun's studio a stone's throw from my current studio. We are moving his belongings out now in preparation. I plan to use my current studio as a woodshop where I can work large scale, and the CoRK studio as an illustration lab.
