Friday, December 4, 2020

“Awaiting Dawn”

 Another finished piece, “Awaiting Dawn.” This piece is currently on exhibit at the Brentwood Arts Exchange, Brentwood, MD. “Symbiotic Presence” is the 2020 Prince George’s County Juried Exhibition, from 9 November 2020 thru 9 January 2021. There is also an online viewing.

“Night

Beating heart

Dark churning thoughts

Whirling emotions spiraling into the abyss

Reaching for the light

Awaiting dawn“



Virtual Gallery Tour and Artist Talk via Facebook Live: Saturday, January 9, 2021, at 2 pm

For art purchase inquiries or to schedule an individual viewing over FaceTime or video chat, email: pgp-brentwood-arts@pgparks.com




Tuesday, November 3, 2020

“Beneath the Crying Moon”

 Finished this piece just before Inktober madness began. This is “Beneath the Crying Moon”

“Drifting along

Across the empty sea

That’s where I’ll be

Trying to find your tune

Beneath the crying moon


This vast emptiness

Darkness all around

Can I be found

And be near you soon

Beneath the crying moon“




Monday, November 2, 2020

Inktober 2020 Part 2

Continuing my Inktober 2020 in the same manner, with just laying down India ink and some color inks loosely and randomly, and then pulling out crazy, weird, random, strange images from the chaos. It has been so much fun to create these wild images.


A “family” gathering in the peaceful forest beneath the strange lopsided tree.


“Won’t you come down and play with me?”


Making magic


Don’t wake the sleepy bear in the forest.


"Is it lunch time?"


Just a nice fall day.


A motley crew of ghoulish Halloween trick-or-treaters.



Friday, October 23, 2020

Inktober 2020 Part 1

 I love Inktober, whether taking part and creating the artwork or viewing all the artwork created by other artists, from those I know to those I don’t and discovering new-to-me artists. I had wanted to try painting this year and decided that I would try this method during Inktober. For the first few pieces, I mostly start with a small wet watercolor paper (around 5 x 7 inches) and applied ink on the wet surface with a brush in wild strokes, sometime going for an image, mostly not having anything in mind.  Later, I start applying Winsor & Newton India Ink to a very wet surface and let it run around the paper for a while. For some of the pieces, I add some colored ink, which added some nice effects when the acrylic ink hits the India ink. Sometime I applied the ink lightly and loosely, sometime heavily. After the paper dried, I stare at the piece at different angles and decide on an image from all the shapes I can see (or not see) on the pager. I use a black ink pen and white gel pen, and sometime white ink, to shape and mold the chaos until I get an image that pops out at me. The result is a very fun whimsical image that I am starting to really love to do. I did miss a few days at the beginning of inktober because of a funeral, but I was able to do one each day (except for Day 19, I was overwhelmed with emergencies). I do hope you enjoy looking at these as much as I love creating them. Creating art should be a lot of fun.

This one starts out with just a cloudy seemingly windy fall day over a plain field as the fall leaves float along with the breeze.



Another windy cloudy days with some strange furry birds flying by (or heading south for the winter?)



Storm clouds over the mountain range



Another fall day



Just trying out strokes



Once I played with the W&N India ink, shapes started popping out at me.



Now I see lots of small critters in this strange forest, even a few ghostly birds flying by



An abstracted symbiosis happening between these birds and the strange forest.



I can’t help but see a giant something or other (bear? wolf? or Ewok?) next to the jutting black shape which turned into a mountain. I had to bring him out.



Strange alien fish-like creatures moving through space and creating more little fishy creatures.



A motley crew’s leisured walk through the forest.



“Can I get a ride on the 3-horned beast strolling through a field?”



A tiny whimsical dancer twirling herself round and round without a care in the world.



Friday, September 11, 2020

Playing With Dots


 I like the idea of just putting dots on a page and then seeing what pops out of it. Most of the time my mind wanders and when I refocused back onto the page, time has passed and a pattern on the page is beginning to form. It’s like my hand is independent of my mind and has a mind of its own.

Monday, August 31, 2020

Various Papers Test with Pencil

 Over the years I’ve collected a variety of papers.  Everywhere I go, if I see an art store, I always go in and see what kind of papers they sell that I haven’t seen before. Some of these papers I’ve owned for a while and never used. Recently I gather a sample of all the papers I have and just test them with pencil.

I’m using Koh-I-Noor 8B and 6B lead as follows (mostly): Top left of the sample paper is just 8B lead. Top right is 8B lead over 6B. At the bottom left I brushed on 8B that is ground on sandpaper, and then go over with the 8B lead. Bottom right is 8B brushed onto the paper and going over with the 6B lead. On some of the papers, the effect is very interesting.


On some of the papers, I didn’t follow the above process. I just make marks using Mars Lumograph Black 8B, my favorite pencil. Then I went back and added the MLB 8B to the middle of the other paper samples as well.


https://youtu.be/qMHfL2zvuGI

Tuesday, July 21, 2020

An Obsession or OCD?

I’ve been obsessed (again) with inking and dotting. These are wips of a triptych I’m working on. Lots of swirling, undulating movement going on. These 3 images came to me as I was sitting at one of my previous conventions (Remember those? So long ago?), just watching people walking by. My first attempt was in pencil. I think I like ink better, even though it is taking a very long time with my slow moving meticulous brain. I find this process works better for me and I may stick to ink stippling … maybe. It’s so much cleaner! And precise! I still love working with pencil.




Monday, June 29, 2020

“A Moment” Totems


I used to have objects that I can hold and look at, when I’m in the chaos or darkness, to remind me what is real.  The object provides me a moment, just one moment, for something, anything.  A moment of thankfulness for the things I have.  A moment to realize maybe things aren’t so bad.  A moment to reflect.  A moment to make a different choice.  A moment to change a mindset.  Sometime it only takes a moment.  And that moment can be a good thing.  I want to provide that moment through my art.

This project is something that has been on my mind for many years but I never really know how to present it.  I didn’t want the art to just be on the wall.  I wanted it to be something a person can hold onto, to keep with them for those times when the art can provide that one meaningful moment, a “totem” of sort.

Each totem contains a small print of the original artwork, is matted with either a solid color circular mat or a one of a kind hand painted mat.  Each print with mats and circular backing is sealed.  I’m still working out the final seal medium.  I’m considering sealing the entire totem in resin.  The totem is meant to be touched and handled as well as viewed.

Sometimes, it just takes a moment …

Tuesday, June 2, 2020

Tough Times

This is very hard for me. I’m usually a very private person and I’m used to keeping my thoughts and feelings to myself. I’m not particularly very vocal about world events or political point of views. That doesn’t mean I don’t feel strongly about what’s going on in the past few months, from pandemic to shutdown to protests to riots to curfews. I feel so sadden by what’s going on but I don’t know what I can do about it, to help. We artists are like visual reporters. Some of us can express current events in dramatic beautiful imageries that encapsulate the state of affairs of all our communities in the past and more importantly right now. That’s much harder for me. I like expressions in terms of inner emotions, forces and turmoils. This is something I have been working toward for the past few years, and now it seems relevant even more so than in past years. This angst, frustration, feeling trapped, caged and cannot breathe that a lot of people have been feeling are coming out in roves. I’m not very good in the political realm, but I do want to help in the emotional realm. Art for me is expressed as an emotional rollercoasters of chaos and calm, darkness and light, a breath in and a breath out. I especially work very slow and I cannot do anything fast. I think most of the time by the time I get something going, the moment has passed.  I don’t want to let that stop me from capturing how I feel about current events right now. I’m just going to take a moment to gather myself and find my center. I hope to come back soon with something I can contribute to help calm the chaos. Stay safe.

Thursday, April 16, 2020

Dreaming

This is the first time I tried doing an animation based on my finished artwork.  It was first released on my Patreon page to paid patrons a month ago.  I want to make these types of art available for all to enjoy but I want to give my patrons something for their continued support for my creations.  I will be creating more of these “art animation” and also other animations created on the fly.  I love the process of old ways to create animation, one drawing at a time, either on my computer or on paper, which is my favorite.  I hope you enjoy the video.

Tuesday, March 24, 2020

Fun with drawing over graphite powder

This is where it all started.  This was the first time I tried out applying graphite powder onto illustration board and then going over it with pencil marks.  This was the making of “Look Up”. 

Enjoy this video and I hope you are staying safe, both physically and mentally.  


For more relaxing videos to lift your mind and spirits, go to my YouTube channel and just sit back and relax:


Friday, March 20, 2020

Dare to "Reach"

I started creating these short video where I animated my finished artwork digitally.  I enjoy creating movements in still images and enjoy it even more in moving images.  I hope this helps give the viewers peace and calm in this turmoiled uncertain trying times.  Please enjoy.

Dare to wander out into the darkness and reach for the stars

Monday, March 9, 2020

Monday, February 24, 2020

First Art Animation - "Shine"

I kept forgetting that I started this blog to capture my artistic journey.  I’m so use to keeping my thoughts to myself that I hardly think to talk about them here.  

I’ll start with what I will refer to as my “art animation.”  I don’t know if this a thing artists do and if they do, what is the term they use to describe the work?  I don’t know, so I’ll call it my “art animation.”  I take a scan of my finished art and attempt to animate some movement in the image using an open source art software Krita.  I don’t consider myself a “digital artist” as most of my work is done traditionally.  But I do enjoy certain aspect of digital art, mainly to create movements I cannot create in a still image.  This a lot of fun for me and I can see it as part of my creative art process.  


In this first art animation, I want the lighted part of the cloud to come alive and “shine” even more.  Here is a link to the video on my YouTube channel.  I hope you enjoy it:

Tuesday, February 11, 2020

Creating "Where the Wind Blows"


Where the Wind Blows is where the wind takes me, off to the distant land, world or universe, exploring new places, new experiences, new joy and fantastic adventures.  Where might the wind takes you?

Monday, January 27, 2020

Tuesday, January 14, 2020

Shine

The ray found its way through the thick dark clouds, determined to shine and brighten the surrounding darkness.  
A Moment … 
to look up …
to shine …