Makeup and Hot Glue Guns

Anyone like lichens?  This is what I've been drawing in the sketchbook lately.

Sketchbook, lichens, Krystal Booth, 2013

After years of drawing pads, sketchbooks, and journals, I have found my favorite one - Crescent RendR No Show Thru Paper Sketchbooks.  The one I'm working out of now is the hardcover 8.5x11" version.  In terms of my excitement about this sketchbook, it can be summed up by the audience member (Amy Poehler) at 2:39 of this Oprah's Favorite Things skit on SNL.

I watched a couple of Ryan Trecartin's videos online this morning and I was certainly entertained, horrified, and completely disoriented at times.  It was as if I was watching my brain's understanding of what went on in my early twenties or what a condensed bad acid trip would be like if there were endless amounts of makeup and hot glue guns.  Trecartin made my morning coffee time seem like an experiment of the mind.  Would my brain explode if I actually made it to the thirty minute mark?  Will I go insane and never come back?

In the end, it just made me want to go play with him and his friends with costumes and wigs overflowing.

If you want to be confused, overwhelmed, annoyed, and entertained, watch these:
http://vimeo.com/trecartin/roamie-view-history-enhancement
http://youtu.be/Z5nclmEYkqk

Snail Mail

Good Morning from the Pacific Northwest! 

I found this little fellow on the tree outside on a tree outside our window...peeping Tom perhaps?

 

 

I've been busy working, sketching, reading, and researching.  The library has been very popular with us lately as the books pile up and I want to read them all simultaneously.  I hope all has been well with you and thank you for visiting.  I'll be posting more regularly again as I push towards the 100 Works goal and there may be another project in the works that would appreciate your input!  More on that in a little while...

 

Love to all!

 

An Unfurling

This is the drawing that is now finished, and I'm kind of struggling with a title.  For now I'm calling it "The Unfurling of Eight".

The Unfurling of Eight, 2012, Krystal Booth

Ink and watercolor on paper collage, 18x24".

I am pleased with how the drawing and layer studies have combined.  During one of the last posts, I wondered if and when these experiments would combine - little did I know it would be this week!

The oil painting series - "Object" - is going to be an ongoing thing, I've decided.  Time needs to lapse between the works for content reasons.  In the meantime, I'll be making horrificly arranged chicken scratches in the good ol' sketchbook to figure out the next drawings in this series.

Not to mention, I'm still wanting to do some more landscapes.  This is getting to be ridiculous!  I'm putting too many things on my plate at once perhaps, but I just would really love to work on all of these.  Is it possible to be too greedy with ideas?  I know that there are two more ideas waiting in the wings as well that I have put on the back burner for more development in the future.

Sometimes ideas are difficult to come by and those times are frustrating.  However, when the ideas are too many to be carried through all at once, it can become equally torturous.  I am on an uncertain time limit and I have to choose somewhat wisely while still allowing for creative play.  Ever since I turned thirty-four I have felt more urgency.  Is it an age thing, or just part of a creative cycle?  Perhaps a combination?  Do you go through this?

 

The Changing Landscape of Things

This is the current landscape as it sits upon the easel today.  It is still in progress and patiently waiting for me as I write this.  My first intention was to get it done a couple of days ago - instead, my progress has been slow while imposing shapes upon the surfaces of the forms and messing with the color relationships.

To my absolute surprise, I've been painting landscapes lately and really enjoying it.  They have captured my imagination.This is another one that has been in the works -   

I've always had a bit of a yawn when it came to landscapes in the past.  I don't know what it is, but they can bore me to no end....however, my opinion is changing.


I would like to blame or thank the Pacific Northwest for this unexpected change of attitude.  There is not a day when I am not in awe of the natural phenomena here taking the form of moss covered branches, mountain peaks that seem suspended from the sky, and the smell of pine needles blanketing the walking paths.  Even if garter snakes are sunning themselves in the said paths and I have to find a way to stomp louder while suffocating Matthew's arm in my grip, I am thankful that I can finally see why nature is the master of art.