Scanning

This is the part that begins some really tedious work.......

As I did with the long drawing of the Green Bridge...
I'm doing with the long drawing of Vernon's Farm...

(Booger (Muse) oversees the ordeal)

The drawing is too long to get one good photograph....
the 3 pieces didn't really fit....
ends further from the lens were smaller...
assembled, it's internet worthy...
but, not up to my standards for a Giclee.

problems...

I didn't want to attempt to scan this one....
photography was easier...
but, wondered if it could be improved upon if I scanned it myself.....

It's mulberry paper
that got stretched and moved around by crayons and water and pressure...

6 pieces are now matched up in overlapping sections...
which I've got to re-size in Photoshop...
to reassemble in Painter...
Painter is having problems with my larger ideas...
might be the computer...

This has become a real pain....
but, I'm going to see it through to a remarkable print...
which, I do myself.

Oh, this part of it all is so not fun....
but, there is only one long drawing...
only a few know about this one, and most of them want a print....
and I really want to be able to give them the best I can....
that's all there is to it.

Hatching hungry misquitos
are keeping me in the studio....
no more long drawings for a while.

Sardine Tin #6

Sardine Tin #6...completed August 5, 2007

I just took a look at the work-in-progress scan...
it didn't look that good in person.

Sardine Tins #1 & #2

I guess I've got an attraction to fish:
SardineTin #1 is sold.

and, just completed...SardineTin #2-->

Fish

I was going to print....

...paper wasn't ready...

so, I went to the studio to work on bees....

but, got involved with this:

Poundings

A friend made 3 chasing tools for me
with which I made the RedHerrings and other "poundings"
from left over aluminum flashing.
Technically, it's chasing and repousse...
but, what I do, doesn't hold a candle to the skill of the official chasers and repoussers.

A couple days a week, jewelry artist Maya Madden...
has been trying to teach me how to be an extra couple hands for her...
teaching me some things about metal....
fine silver actually...
that's what Maya likes.


I bought a set of small tools from Rene Bluhm on ebay.
Today I started playing with them.

could I do that again?

...and...I couldn't help it...had to see it........

...TheReligionator...which wound up with a much deeper relief than the scanner can deal with....
again, I've no idea what I'm going to be doing with these...
at least I've gotten them out of my system.

Persuader 1

I'm picking up where I left off ...
can't cut for long though...
not yet...
not yet....
the wrist complains...
it's getting better....
I have to be patient...
and try very hard not to get lost in the arting.

(The Great Persuader......rubbing of what I've got so far.)

Small Print Proof

I haven't forgotten how to print..... (artist proof of 4 blocks..it needs some fine tuning)
I was taught that black should have it's own brush...the pigment never really can be completely washed out....
so, the black just sat there....
finally, I bought a brush!

Biker

I thought I'd get this done, and framed by Christmas...

(acrylic paint on frosted mylar, or acetate)
it got away from me...still working on the frame.

Metamorphosis...2

I'm slowly experimenting to see just how the wrist and back hold up to cutting woodblocks.

....biggest problem is taking it slow enough...taking breaks...
or the wrist and back complain fiercely.

I get lost in this, and the dogs have been failing in their duty to interrupt me every hour or so to go out...

they don't like it cold....

(These are rubbings from what I've got so far. Metamorphosis is ready to print...
the one on the bottom has two more blocks...
red and black were the crayons within reach at the time.)

If you are looking for the Elves, you'll find them all over at Artings.

posting problems

System problems have prevented me from posting here...
so, I've been posting at Artings.

Carved Soap Photographer....& studio progress update

This may be the oldest bar of soap I've got...

The Photographer....with his Deardorf view camera....1974
Views of all sides can be seen here.

Getting the studio back in working order is slow...
the Wrist not dealing well with too much activity too quickly.
I want to get back to the woodblocks.
I'm making plans for a very small one....
a little tester...
just to see how the wrist does...

Geez...I just want to have that feeling again.

My Carved Soaps

(Naked Lady on a Couch...bath-sized bar of Ivory soap)
I decided to have a friend photograph them...
which I should have been doing all along...
there are about 27 left.
This is the last Naked Lady on a Couch...
two sold, the other was a birthday present for a friend.

It started when I was a kid...
me and dad at the kitchen table.

I know there are better ways and better things to pour my hours into.

I've been successful at staying away from the soap
for a couple years now.....
but, these pictures that Eric took...
geez....
he made them look so good...
just like I see them...
just like I think about them....
that smell....
that feel....
how the knife eases through the soap.....
finding the surprize within each bar....
looking at these pictures...it's all back.

I've been so good for so long...
maybe a bar or two would be ok................

I'm posting the other views at Artings if you want to really see it.

One by one I'll get them all posted...
and probably eventually give them their own blog
(especially if I find myself cutting again).

Resuming Studio Normality

The FallArtTour is over....and the Convent Gallery's Breaking the Habit show was a sucess!
I want to thank all who visited my studio....
who marched through the mud, to climb the "treacherous" rock steps...
and who used my "lumpy carpet" path through the snow.
It was a lot of fun....thank-you.

The studio doesn't look like that all the time...

It was fun to have the arting around for a few days...
but, it's time to get started on whatever is next....
the remaining completed work will be put into drawers,
packed away, or brought into the house.
Out will come all my scribblings, boxes of stuff, and notes....
clipped together, taped to the windows or pushpinned to the walls.
Piles of books and things will begin growing again...
and all sorts of items will begin crawling from the drawers and boxes....

The studio is for work in progress....it's not big enough for work that's done...
besides, I'm sort of uncomfortable with completed artings out there.

So, I put them away...or sell them.

Ha...that's how I lost track of 12 paintings....
I forgot where I put them...
I think I mentioned something about this....
studio archeology? maybe that's what I called it....
Yeh, I just ran into them not long ago...

Today I found a box of 15 monoprints....
while looking for a couple oil pastels I tried to find for someone last weekend.
I'd been looking for the monoprints for 5 months.
The oil pastels will turn up.
They're just really safe.

The Barn

I just saw these barns side by side for the first time last night,
when posting them on my Artings blog...
the first one was done in the summer of 1996...
our house burned down in December of that year.
This next one
was one of the 4 I did (this was the second)
right outside the studio...in 2002.
I always felt that I saw things differently since the fire.

October Art Shows

FallArtTour and Breaking the Habit
I'm posting mostly pictures at Artings .
It's going to be an interesting weekend....
I've got a tiny studio...and because I can't seem to stop arting...
I've got lots work....and with the cleaning and attempted organizing...
I'm running into artings done in the last 12 months that I've forgotten about...
arting I seem to have just had my hands on, has been misplaced...
but, in looking for it found other arting I thought was long gone in the fire....
so, it's been sort of fun....
although, I would like to finish a couple paintings I started up before the extrication took place.
but, now, I've got elbo room!

Re-organizing

We moved a lot of stuff out of the studio...
carousel posts, huge freezer, doors, etc...and I'm finally able to get at areas I haven't seen in years.

This past week I've not been arting...
but, spreading out into spaces finally available.

For those more interested seeing what I've been up to...
I started http://lindakelen-artings.blogspot.com/
with my own name in the address, which might make it easier to find my work.

It's to be mostly all arting...
probably a wider variety, as I'm just going to post pictures...
so, little chatter, if any....
except for what is generated from comments/emails....

I think I just want someplace unincumbered with stuff
just for pictures.
.......something new to play with.

SOME DAY I'll have my own official website...
where all will be in one spot.

Some Art

I'm trying to complete a variety of artings between now and the ConventShow/FallArtTour....
and rather than post them individually, I'm just going to gang them here...
unless I find this page becomes a real bear to load.
My studio...
BlueMounds...
landscape painting , studio

Technorati Profile

The PigHouse

It started out as a chicken house on a farm about a mile the other side of that hill.

The story is....
50-60 years ago, the chicken house got moved to be near a newer farm house, a couple hundred yards behind where I stood to paint this....
and stayed planted there until they decided to raise pigs....at which point it got moved far from the house to this side of the barn.

They gave it fine plaster walls and a wood stove to keep the pigs warm.

It was the easiest of the out-buildings to doctor up
for me and my stuff when we got the place 15 years ago....
no one lived here for years....
and the pighouse, unused for 10-15 years before that...
housed generations of vermin.

It's too small, but it's "home"....
all sorts of artings at varing stages of life....
when something is completed,
it goes...either sold, or moved into the house....
but it can't stay here...
I don't like what completed artings feel like in here....
not enough space...
the process is more important to me than the result...
although, I am really hoping I'm able to achieve,
with one painting, a kind of big deal feeling
some religious paintings have...
just because I want to see it.

Downtown Vermin Bob

I have FOUND the original drawings
from the tale of
Downtown Vermin Bob...and his son, Benny....

















which started out as a thank-you note
to the Chicago Police Department for the rescue of these courageous beasts
who bravely pursued a garage burglar....
and got lost....
but, my note with a small drawing of the dogs
turned into a 12 page tale of adventure
in Bob's own words...with a color cover.

I made enough "books" for all involved....
and a few extra to have around...
which now amount to about two.

I'll make a few more...
and maybe, hopefully, have this fall.

Left's first time with crayons

The studio looks as though it was upended and slammed down.
I'm cleaning and attempting organization...
it could be that I'm only rearranging....
fooled into thinking it is organization
when it's really only organized chaos.
True order has always been way out of my reach.

I found several crayons that slipped behind a printcase...
and some paper that got away a long time ago.
I've been wanting to give my left hand a go at some color....
so I took a break:
















...must do more...