Self-Portrait Wednesday

It was a beautiful day for a walk in the rice fields with the dog. Couldn't ask for more perfect weather- sunny but not hot (the only kind of weather I really like). Many of the neighbors were out harvesting their rice, so the air was filled with the scent of freshly cut rice and the buzzing of tiny Japan-sized combines and trucks hauling the rice to and fro. Both the dog and I were very happy.

Silver Week

We are in the midst of "Silver Week" holidays. Silver Week is not really a week, but 3 days in a row of holidays strategically created by the Japanese government to give all us hard workers a nice break before the very busy Fall and Winter seasons hit us. The 3 days come right after the weekend, giving us a 5-day holiday this month. One other such string of holidays exists which straddles the end of April and the first week of May, and it's called "Golden Week."

I have been enjoying the extra time off by spending extra QT with the dog and kitties:

Charles David Wilson

I had to fly back to the USA in mid-August at the last minute to attend my father's funeral. He passed away unexpectedly in his sleep. The coroner listed the cause of death as "natural causes" but we think it was possibly a stroke, a seizure, or a heart attack. I just wanted to honor my father here by uploading a photo I took of him the last time I saw him alive this March 2009.

Charles David Wilson

November 28, 1952 - August 11, 2009

Interview with William Morris, Glass Artist

"You'll never be sure. You don't wanna be sure. It's not a matter of being sure, it's matter of having enough faith and love for what you're doing."





Interview at Road Trip Nation:
http://www.roadtripnation.com/WilliamMorris


William Morris Website:
http://www.wmorris.com/index.html

Scanner Art Challenge

Been playing around with my scanner after my "mentor" Gary Reef posted his video and challenge this month. This is my first scanner artwork, though I have done plenty of copy-machine artwork in my college days. A copy machine is really just a scanner that's sitting atop a stack of paper trays! Lol! Click on this posts's title to see Gary's video instructions on making scanner art.

New Art Journal

I started a new art journal in a proper sketchbook with nice thick paper. To break it in, I felt it was only proper to create a first page which said something about me, the author. I decided on some sort of of self-portrait but I didn't want it to be complicated. Inspired by my interest in palm reading, I created a zentangle work using repeated tracings of my hand to create overlapping spaces. I shift the angle of my hand and traced it probably nearly 20 times (which may have been a bit too much) to get lots of small spaces in which to doodle. I decided to leave the center hand empty so you could still make it out amid all the chaos.

This was fun and easy to do. It came out darker than I wanted with all the black sharpie doodling, so I plan on doing this again. If anyone else wants to give this a try, I would love to see your work! Post a link in the comments section!

Marine Biology

These are scans from my sketchbook on the theme of "Marine Biology." I was supposed to make some ATCs (artist's trading cards) as part of  a group project going on at Artfest on this theme, but work and other things got in the way, so I ended up not participating. I procrastinated like crazy because I was worried that just submitting a card with a simple drawing on it wouldn't be "artsy" enough (I was going to color it, though). Most of the ATCs I have seen online contain all kinds of collage and other ephemera (read: 3D stuff glued onto the surface), and I am just not into collage or ephemera, unfortunately. So anyhoo here are the drawings: