A Roaring In My Head.

The wind is so strong

That it roars in your ears

A Very Strong Wind

The Wind is all around you,

It burns your eyes,

It dehydrates your skin,

It is an intruder trying to get in

Mosaic Monday

1. Random Embroidery on Felt, 2. the first traveler, 3. "SPRING FLING #6..."  Flipped :), 4. City of Denim Close-up

The Wind

The wind was constantly blowing. 
It nearly blew us off the road on the highway.

It was a cold and steady wind. 
As it got darker it started blowing harder.

Lighting the Candles

It is getting dark outside so we lit some candles.

We are not on the grid (the electric grid).  It is incredibly quiet here, except for....

Miro's Study Journal Page 12

I like the different colored back grounds against the playful images.  

Miro Book Finished!!!

"Escape From the Blame Game" 2009

The idea is that we get caught in a web of expectations and roles that cause us to react in certain ways.  We have to stop and become "Re- sponds - able".  Creating enough perspective or objectivity to be able to chose  our own response.  You don't have to stay stuck in something that can never be resolve or lead to love. 

Grounding in the midst of a confusion.

When I first did this applique I was discouraged because of all the business of this piece.  After studying Miro and seeing how much he used black to create a sense of grounding...I decided to use it in this piece and see what would happen.  I am enjoying the result.

Dug Outs.

  This is a small applique art quilt of a place that we visited in New Mexico.  This is a house that is dug out of the desert sand near Socoro, New Mexico.  My husband was interview for a job at the NRAO, when we went to look at these dwellings.  We had been in contact with one of  the builders of these little earth shelters for 2 years, so we were very excited about getting a tour.

Miro's Study Journal Page 11

I think that this is another great study of balance.  The shaddow adds some grounding to  the white form.  I like the texture inside the form.  The circles and line also provide interest.  But I cannot find this image on the web.  I don't know if this is just the elements that I liked and the arrangement that I preferred or what might have been omitted.  Read more to see how selective I was and how my images were a study and not a true copy.

Mosaic Monday

1. Microscopic Image - Synapses, 2. Schumann Piano Extravaganza, 3. fireflies, 4. The Dreamcatchers (please bless me with sleep ...)

Miro's Study Journal Page 10

Here are a few little motifs that I found in different paintings of Miro's.  I like the fish and the little microscopic swimmer.  I like the reflection of the bird and the feather that is in the bird's shaddow.  The markings of black in the eyes, swan and fish really are dramatic and create motion.

Miro's Study Journal Page 9

I love the feeling this picture has.  He is singing his heart out.  You can just feel him inhale as he looks as he has a lot of air.  I like the frets on the guitar and how they run off the image.  The keys are interestingly placed and provide more feeling in the picture than realism.  One thing I would not have noticed before I started to draw this was that there is a little bird, it looks like a parot, that comes to get the flower out of his hat.

I used markers for this and it was kinda a new experience using them on this hemp paper. They kinda ran or wouldn't get a medium color that I wanted.  What I learned?  Just keep drawing and keep having fun. Experiment.  Let go of expectation and learn from the markers what they have to tell you about themselves.

Miro's Study Journal Page 8

I love the use of the foot motif in Miro's work.  It reminds me of the 70's and how they used to use this motif in decorating.  I also like the bold black lines that Miro uses.  He was really into the black line and the color black.  I hadn't noticed how useful black was before.

I want to continue to explore the artist that influenced Miro.  The next one on my list is Maurice de Vlaminck.   Vlaminck along with André Derain and Henri Matisse  is considered one of the principal figures in the Fauve movement, a group of modern artists who from 1904 to 1908 were united in their use of intense color.

In 1900 his exuberant paint application and vibrant use of color displayed the influence of Vincent van Gogh.

"Miro Dreams a Circus" by jenclair

Jenclair from Bayou Quilts did this wonderful embroidery inspired by Miro.  There are other close up pictures at her blog.  You can also visit her flicker page.  Here is a link to a cute picture that mixes applique and embroidery that she did.  I love the simplicity of it.

Miro: A Study Page 7

One of the artist that influenced Miro was Henri Matisse.
    Henri Matise first started to paint in 1889, when his mother had brought him art supplies during a period of convalescence following an attack of appendicitis. He discovered "a kind of paradise" as he later described it,^[2] and decided to become an artist, deeply disappointing his father.^[3][4]

         The paintings of this period are characterized by flat shapes and controlled lines, with expression dominant over detail.  The paintings expressed emotion with wild, often dissonant colours, without regard for the subject's natural colours. Matisse drew and painted from nature,
       His Blue Nudes series feature prime examples of this technique he called "painting with scissors"; they demonstrate the ability to bring his eye for colour and geometry to a new medium of utter simplicity, but with playful and delightful power.

My First Book Cover

This was the first book cover that I made for my Miro study handmade book.  The image was too large for the cover so I had to start over again with another image.  I really enjoyed working with line and images to create this Miro influenced book cover.  It was also designed while listening to A Small Blue Thing.

I consider this art therapy for dealing with the feelings of being an only child and feeling bullied by adults.  "When are you going to grow up" was a constant theme.  And then the nit pick that would find the tiny ways that I didn't fit in and try to get me to fit.  I just couldn't spend all my energy pleasing people and grow up at the same time.  It made me feel shattered.

Miro's Study Journal Page 6

"I subjected myself to the Cubist discipline in order to train my muscles.  To me, painting is like the dance before executing  'entrechats,'(*) one must have good leg muscles.  It was in this senses that Cubism could be useful to me....Since at that time I had the impression that I could not see form.  I thought Cubism would help me learn to see."
Some believe that the roots of cubism are to be found in the two distinct tendencies of Paul Cézanne's later work: firstly to break the painted surface into small multifaceted areas of paint, thereby emphasizing the plural viewpoint given by binocular vision, and secondly his interest in the simplification of natural forms into cylinders, spheres, and cones.

Win a Bike or Help me Win a Bike!!!

14 Secrets to a Happy Artist's Life

1. Find 3 good things every day, whether they are experiences, or objects, or both. Find a way to use them in art.
2. Make everything special. Embellish your life.
3. Look for Fairy God-mothers and Angels. Be ready for experiences that will delight and surprise you.
4. Play more often.
5. Look for the smiling faces.
6. Wish everyone a happy life.
7. Find something to love about where you are everyday.
8. Make art everyday.
9. Create time for yourself.
10. Honor thy grandmothers as much as possible. (Of course grandfathers need honor too, but historically       and  culturally we are a little weaker in the honoring grandmother side of things.)
11. Play with the grandchildren as much as possible.
12. Create beauty with what you have on hand.
13. Make art with friends. Make art as gifts.
14. Create a list of secrets for a happy life and pass it on.

I got this from a wonderfully inspiring blog called:
14 Secrets to a Happy Artist's Life..

Just had to try this cool feature.

1. Arlee,s page, 2. new zig zag necklaces5, 3. Valentine-all-mothers, 4. Penny Rug

http://bighugelabs.com/mosaic.php

Miro's Study Journal Page 5

Why should someone decide to do a style study of an artist?  When my children saw me drawing and coloring the works of Joan Miro they thought his wook was childish.  They wondered why I wanted to "waste" my time draing like a child.  At first I thought it might be a waste of time but if so it was a fun waste of time.  It was hard to really do it wrong since it was child like.  I enjoyed the freedom that this allowed me to explore composition and color without feeling hung up because I didn't have good perception....or even stress over details in concerning color.. 

Here is an aritlce on developing you own style by trying on a few different artist. 
 
It reminds me of the AA saying.  "Keep what you want and forget the rest."  That is what I have done in drawing the Miro Study Journal.  These pages are not to be rendered as copies but they simply contain the elements and arrangement that I like.  Sometimes I would like one thing about a painting.  I would draw a collection of these favorite details on a page till I had a picture..  I tried to arrange these things in ways that pleased me.

I have been using what I have learned from this study journal to create a book cover for this journal.  I am presently working on the book cover.  The first one that I made for it was too big.    I really like translating my interpretation of Miro Style into my embroidery and thus making it my own.  I will be posting pictures of my first attempt at making an embroidery book cover soon. 

Miro Study Journal Page 4

Miro's issue with seeing only subjectively was helped by a teacher, Francisco Gali.  He advised Miro to learn to feel or touch objects such as clay, then draw.  So Miro would manipulate the clay into a shape and then he would draw from "memory" that the clay left him.  Miro claimed that these exercises were crucial to his development as an artist.

"Even today, thirty years after, the effect of this touch-drawing experience returns in my interest in scuplture:  the need to mold with my hands - to pickup a ball of wet clay like a child and squeeze it.  From this I get a physical satisfaction that I cannot get from drawing or painting."

I think that Miro shows us the value of trying different mediums as they help us to see things in different ways.

Kristin Andreassen - Crayola Doesn't Make A Color For Your Eyes