I have been teaching myself guitar for the past year and a half, fiddle for the past month. Took piano lessons for two weeks as a six-year-old. Have been in school-provided vocal training as a first alto in chorus for six years. I write songs (instrumental and verbal).
I also write short stories, most of which are supposed to be funny. Skits on paper. Major written influences are Monty Python, Douglas Adams, and that sort of nonsensical humor (tho’ in my case, because I write for a small audience, there are so many in-jokes that unless you’re part of the target audience you’ll probably think it’s semi-humor at best). I’m currently working on two non-humor pieces, both set against the background of auto racing, because that’s what I know best. I don’t have a “serious author” writing style, because I tend to either write exactly how I talk (unusual phrasing, my own redefinitions of words, odd colloquialisms and all), or come off sounding like I’m writing an essay for a history exam.
I occasionally do one-panel cartoons, usually just to illustrate a quip I’ve come up with in conversation with one of my friends.
I find peace in art. When I’m uptight, sad, bored, lonely, I pick up my guitar or sit down at the typewriter and find release. I find joy in art. When I’m happy, thankful, excited, proud, my first impulse is to sing and make music. My friends tease me for reading into things. I analyze music – what went into the writing of the lyrics, the composing of the accompaniment, the production of the song. I’m often struck by the beauty of some everyday object – a blade of grass or an ordinary drinking glass. Whether this is artistic or autistic I’m not quite sure. Neither are my friends.
Lux Fiat: Yes, Hogarth was fabulous! He helped me a lot. He would often give these great off the cuff “lectures” about art as well during class. Wow. It was wonderful.
When people talk about how “relaxing” art is, yeah, it is true. When I get my pencils out, or paints, I lose time. However, people still think pottery is relaxing. They’ll say “Oh looking at the pot on the wheel, spinning around, it must be so relaxing.” And I say “NO!”
Oh my gosh. You have to fight the clay - make sure it is centered, make sure it the pot’s walls are even, not too thin, make sure the pot is not getting too soggy and wobbly from too much water…ARGGH! I love throwing on the wheel, of course. And part of the stress for me is that I never have been the greatest wheel thrower (decorating the pots are where I excel.) But just so you know, for me at least, throwing on the wheel is not sooo relaxing.
Good second-rate portrait artist checking in. Went to the Philadelphia College of Art when I was but a tad.
I can’t paint worth a darn, but I am handy with pencil and pen, in the style (though with none of the talent!) of Holbein and Ingres.
My Mom was a great oil painter, landscapes. My sister and I have a few of her paintings, and since they’re signed “E. Golden,” I can pass 'em off as mine.
Aw, I think pottery is relaxing, y-babe. I can brace my elbow and really put some muscle into centering the piece, then just dig in with thumb or fingers and pull up a pot. I like the sheer physicality of it; I used to work from 10pm til 2am on the wheel, and it was very peaceful. I admit it’s uniquely frustrating when the pot gets off-center or too thin and falls apart, sometimes even flinging itself straight off the wheel. Of course, your hands go numb from being stuck in the cold wet clay if it’s winter, unless you add a lot of grog and then it’s like placing your hand fimly on a sanding belt. And I’m a slob and always end up looking like I’ve been mud wrestling after a session on the wheel, and I never can account properly for the shrinkage of the pieces and they’re always a little too big or a little too small and I kept making the tolerances on my teapot lids too close so they’d get wedged permanently on the teapot when I fired 'em and the damn glazes are either so thin the colors don’t show or so thick they melt your piece onto the kiln shelf so you have to chip it off with a screwriver and why can’t a throw a decent large piece without the walls being so thick that they could withstand a nuclear blast…
But frustrating? Nah… Damn, now I want to go do some more pottery.
Gaudere I really liked your work, especially the one in the second link. I am also very impressed that you did cover art for Neil Gaiman (one of my favorite authors.)
I do art stamping, collage and other paper arts.
Thanks, lunasea. Sorry, the Gaiman “Game of You” cover is just me playing with Photoshop, it was never a real Sandman cover. Would that it were, but I have no complaints about Dave McKean’s cover art for the Sandman series–he’s brilliant. I really should put a disclaimer on the page; everyone always asks me if I really did a cover for Sandman and then I have to admit that I did not. Still, at least that means it looks good enough that it could be a cover, right?
I apply the rule you can’t be an artist until you’ve been a model too. So I model once a year.
I’ve been to more than 1,500 art openings. Nothing suprises me much anymore & it’s a rare occurance that any artwork gives me a double take.
I went to Carmel, Calif a couple months back. They have 80 art gallerys in a half square mile area. There were numerous nudes right there in the window & wondered if kids should see that stuff?
I’m a writer. I write a column for a local newsletter that actually won a national award for gay and lesbian journalism. I also write poetry, short stories, and plays- in late June, my first play was performed. It was great.
I have a few artist friends that I collaborate with- we take turns going off of each other’s work.
Amateur artist here. I’ve never really taken any formal art training at all. I’ve been drawing since kindergarten (probably even preschool). Teachers have always been amazed at how well I used to draw. Most people can’t believe i’ve never taken formal training, but, i just tell them it’s all practice. I have taken one class here in College, but it was mainly for credit. My teacher said that my line technique was good, but I need to work on my shading ;). One piece I did during class got very good reviews by everyone (we had to show off our portfolios). You can find the link at the end of this post.
I mostly draw using pencil. It’s very hard for me to draw using ink because I always want to erase mistakes. I’ve done some painting, but it’s really not my favorite medium, except for Chinese ink. Chinese Ink painting is something i’ve been practicing on an off by myself. I dont have the benefit of a master to guide me, so it’s been through books that I have. It’s just so fascinating how using different tones of ink, and different brush techniques, you can create entire landscapes. It’s just so simple, yet complex at the same time.
My favorite things to draw are things from nature. I dont really do landscapes because I want to get detailed with every little bit in the picture (they take me forever to do, and I lose patience after a while), so I focus mostly on parts of things, like a certain leaf, or a flower, or a branch (i’ve also drawn up plants that dont even exist). It’s something of a challenge for me to capture the detail of something on paper.
I’m also a bit obsessed with drawing buildings. I love Japanese and Chinese architecture because of all the details, yet the simplicity. I also draw buildings that dont exist anywhere but in my mind. I like to think I have a good imagination, because one project for my art class was to draw something that doesn’t exist. So, i drew a kind of metallic bamboo with spines all over (my Prof. liked that one too). I must be good enough for friends to notice, because i’ve had 3 or 4 requests for me to draw people’s tattoos for them.
I’m a writer. I write poetry when I’m inspired and short stories when an idea hits. I won first place in a short story contest last year and plan to enter this year as well. Odd thing was, I didn’t really like the story I sent in. Go figure. I tried my hand at script writing this summer. A friend and I are writing a novel together & I’m working on my own novel, too.
I’m also a singer/actress. I’m involved in all the school theater/chorus stuff and take voice lessons. I sing at a restaurant every 3rd Thursday.
I just enjoy expressing myself through the arts. Writing, singing, acting, dancing (which I like but can’t do) and drawing (just doodles), it’s all so enjoyable.
Still in high school, but I consider myself an artist. I want to be one, anyhow. Painting is the most therapeutic for me, I can do a few things w/ ceramics, and of course drawing is how I avoid death by boredom in school. Currently I’m playing around with glass - stained and beads. I really enjoy that, and someday, someday I swear!, I will try glassblowing.
Zoing, I know all about drawing to get through the boredom of high school! I did actually listen to the lectures, and get decent grades, too. There is something about doodling and listening…I can do both at the same time. I think many artists can…but other people just don’t understand!
I had to check back in and give an URL to some of my artwork. A few digital pieces, a cowboy plate (I have this hokey “Cowboy Plate” series I’ve been doing for a while), and some portraits. The URL is: http://home.earthlink.net/~yosemitebabe/pics/
“Warning” on that URL I just gave: The file that has “figure” in it’s name is a (gasp!) nude. A very tame, tasteful nude, but a nude nonetheless. I want to warn anyone with delicate sensibilities about that.
Gaudere, yes, I know exactly what you mean about “relaxing” pottery! I am not the best wheel thrower, that is part of my problem. Throwing never came natural to me. Though, through LOTS of practice, my pots are OK. Not too clunky, not too ugly, nice shapes. But never that exquisite elegant stuff that seems to come so easily to some. (Dammit!) But I try to make up for my ordinary throwing skills by spending lots of time painting and decorating the pots! And yes, ah, the thrill of the glaze running, or turning weird colors, the pots shrinking too much, that damned grog…crazing, shivering, thermal shock…ah. Pottery! Totally stress free!
That sounds like me. I’m almost always constantly drawing something in the margins of my notes. Usually gemometric designs, or a tree branch with something like flowers, etc. I remember my friends were watching me draw, and we were in Japanese culture class. I drew an image of the character “happosai” from the Ranma 1/2 series. They all thought I was doing a cartoon of our teacher (who is short, squat, and round like happosai). Anyway, only in classes where i’m actively doing something i don’t draw. However, I still catch the important things said in lectures.
Something I also do that I consider art is making up writing systems. Nothing complex, usually alphabets or Indic style scripts (i even did an arabic style script). I believe their creation is an art because you have to have an eye for aesthetics to get a nice looking system, and also to make the characters go together (trust me, i’ve seen many an ugly script made up). Most of my time on them is spent tweaking each character’s design until it’s just right.
Something very vaguely (wow people’ve been using that phrase a lot now!) artsy is to use Crayons for writing. Learning how to write legibly and colorfully with those fills in all the boredom times between note-taking.
Anyway, I guess I would consider myself an artist. I’m a published poet, I’ve been writing all manner of works all of my life (short stories, plays, a novel), I’ve also painted and drawn all of my life (including several runs of cartoons), I sing and write songs, I am an amateur photographer, I have acted in plays and in improv (and continue to do so) for 8 years, I have made and do make movies, and I am now going to university for a degree in Film Production.
I like to express myself in many different ways, since different aspects of my personality come out in different ways.
Another painter checking in. Watercolor, collage, acrylics, and mixed media abstracts. Some sample work can be found here: http://www.angelfire.com/tx2/merrymonkey/index.html
I also act and have been known to write poetry.
Damn, now I want to go do some more pottery.
