pecans

I feel like there was not much intention behind the painting on the right. I have learned a bit more to create a focus for the painting before I begin and this painting didn't necessarily have one. I began with imitating the texture, shape, and size of pecans (lower left corner) and from there I was just looking around my room for ideas from different textures. It is too congested for my liking but I do like that all the parts seem to be connecting and that they have a wide range of colors. At the time I painted it, I felt that a wide range of colors was necessary. I was sitting listening to music ( a tape with Native American chanting) next to an window which was open to the early spring weather at the time.
I wasn't able to crop this picture, so there is another painting on the page that I didn't mean for it to be put up.

not able to crop

the pictures

Seeds

Along with my rattie's finger paints, there are two separate paintings on this page.

On the left: the colors I use are more unintentional. I have a set of watercolors that have oranges, browns, greens, blues, yellows, and a white. I begin with one simple color and as I continue, all of the colors mix on their own. I began with simple lines and the further I went, the more I found that I was making round patterns. I noticed that I stayed away from to much layering compared with the paintings I've done before. The original size of both of them is about 3 by 3 inches. It took me an couple hours to paint but then again, I was staring out the window half the time. I enjoy the spacing between the lines.



On the right.

I was borrowing a necklace that came from the region around Nepal from a friend last week. It is used to cleanse your energy before you go to see a baby. There are seeds, bones, and beads hanging off of it and one seed in specific stood out to me. This painting was influenced by that seed. It resembles it with the sharpness of the edges mainly. I like that it resembles so much like bark to me and that there is such depth from the shading. My intention was to take characteristics that stood out to me from the seed on the necklace and put them into a painting.

fossilized bird

Collage by Alex Makenzie

headorn

This pattern of human faces is an example of what I have been drawing all over my assignments for the past couple months. I've been practicing to explore the different positions of the face. Drawing the average hair which falls to the shoulder doesnt interest me when I'm just drawing heads because it leads my eyes away from the face itself and makes it seem as though there is something missing. I'd like to look at these heads as just heads and not a piece to a missing body. The head piece is stretched and either wrapped around the head as a bandage or scarf or it appears to be shooting/shining out of the head in geometric shapes. The larger they got, the more I disliked them and ended up working them to much causing them to look scribbled out, which I dont mind. Because they all came without influence from the people around me, I find them to all look quite similar to each other, which I'll be able to work on because I'm aware of this habit now.

After struggling how I would describe this painting, my sister talked to me about concept art. I basically describe this painting as my mood for the day. I worked on this slowly throughout the day and I can see a difference in style as the I progressed. As the beginning there are much smaller lines in bunches and as I went on not only did the lines thicken but they began to layer. There is also a repetition of spreading and growing circles. The first half I painted(the left side),I was sitting outside. I used watercolors and the original size is 4in by 10in. This is the most humbling process because I able to see how I perceive my own mind without any self criticism. Simply contemplating the colors and my own movement that comfort me. Looking at it now, I feel that it is too concentrated but love that it tells me about my mindset for that day.

a druid little rat was she

Last semester, in my creative writing class, we had to write a self portrait. Here was mine.

A druid little rat was she.
A druid little rat was she.This quiet brown field rat had once acquired, in the prime of her time, specific skills known by man. One of which, involved searching, in the proximity of the humans, for the deceased (certainly not mutilated) critter bodies, who have dared with their lives with the step onto the solid stone path. Taking this whole little body and opening it, cleaning it, then transforming the furry remains back into its original, yet empty, form with a needle of an acorn stem and thread of the fresh leaf veins. She stitches all but the stomach closed. With this, she wiggles inside the hollow body mask. Each leg adjusts in each hide leg, the tail slides to fit its new skin. A comfortably loose fit, although the nose of the hide is too broad, causing her eyes to only see half of their view. Through the guidance of the new coat, she stitches up the stomach opening. Warm, is it certainly in the late summer forest, which is why she begins wearing the coats in the early Fall then until the middle of Spring. Each year, she plays with a different cover. She practices each type of animal's own habits, diets, behavior, living arrangements, and defense mechanisms (which of all the animal's characteristics, can be the most challenging bodily functions to adapt). For these next few seasons, her natural rat joggle would not be quite so distinct in this squirrel hide compared with the other forms she has taken before, for the rat and the squirrel have quite similar body movements (her time as a rabbit was quite the floppy mess). Her new rusty red coat was just the gem to spark her personality, which would not change through the wearing of the variety of coats. With this coat though, it had simply fit her true self. Depending on her seasonal suit, she would be treated differently, but would not effect her, for with each new look ,she develops for her own self and becomes closer with her humbled self.