Posts Tagged ‘drawing’

Lot’s of updates

Thursday, March 13th, 2008

Hello everyone, life has been somewhat busy for me lately. A few folks have contacted me about the lack of blogging on my part, so here goes a blog to update you on the last month and a half of my life.

Vacation

I took a very nice and relaxing vacation to Florida and then took a cruise. Friends from LA flew down and we all visited friends in Fort Lauderdale. The house we stayed in was very lovely and our hosts were superb. The 6 of us had a great time, just like we did when we cruised around the Baltic Sea last year.

Drawing Class

Here is the picture of my last drawing – of hands and feet, done in very early February. Because the start date for my new job was moved earlier, I was unable to take my final 2 classes, but the instructor has allowed me to put them on hold. I hope to make them up at some point (before a year is up).
Hands and Feet

Job

The new job is going very well. The project is a very exciting project and the project team has some great people on it. I am learning lots about library data and more about the reasons that this new software project is needed. It is a very complex situation. In fact, there are all sorts of initiatives brewing in the library world.

Pillows

These pillows are the last creative thing I have done, and again this was in early February, before I started the new job. Due to a snow and ice storm, my plans for the day were cancelled and I had a whole day at home. I probably should have worked on a drawing or a quilt or cleaning or any of a hundred other tasks, but I felt drawn to make these pillows via a little game I made up. My rules were as follows. Start with 2 squares of matching linen, each 18” square. Use one as the top and make only vertical slices (at least only have vertical slices that went from edge to edge). Do not draw out or otherwise plan the piecing, but just cut. These are what I came up with. It turned out to be a bigger project than I had thought and it took me most of the day to make the 5 tops. It took me half the following day to insert the invisible zippers and complete the pillows. And now the pillows’ new home seems to be on the floor beside the couch as there are far too many of them if you actually want to use the couch. Basically it was a bad idea all the way around and making a batch of cookies would have been more rewarding.

Pillow 1 Pillow 2 Pillow 3 Pillow 4 Pillow 5

Houston 2008

I am very excited that I have been accepted to teach 3 “Stretching for Quilters” classes at the IQA fall Houston show in late October. The class will be a 1 hour class and will be timed in such a way that people can still take my class even if they are enrolled in half or full day quilting classes. I will primarily be focusing on stretches and breathing to make sewing and quilting time more enjoyable and less fatiguing to the body.

Quilting…argh!!!

I absolutely MUST find a way to get something made in time to submit to Houston this year. I have no idea if it would get accepted or not, but I have to find a way to get something made to submit….and I only have about 2 and a half months to do it in. My friend Hollis has told me that I had good success in 2007 and that I can’t just “disappear” because I am working full time. It will be hard, as I teach 7 exercise classes a week and am working full time, but I will try to find a way.Stay well and stay in touch and I will try to post again soon.

Arms and Legs

Wednesday, January 30th, 2008

I have been enjoying my figure drawing classes and think that it will make my figurative quilt work much better. This week’s class was on arms and legs. Here is my best drawing of the week. I think it is pretty good, but it was work to get even this much. I wish I had more innate talent.

arms and legs

A quote attributed to Michelangelo is “If people knew how hard I worked to get my mastery, it wouldn’t seem so wonderful at all.” I think it is worth remembering this quote the next time you see a wonderful quilt or other piece of art.

I have not done any quilting in a while. I have however painted another small piece. I don’t like to show pictures of just the painted image as the quilting gives so much more to the piece.

On a personal note, the UR has asked if I would be able to start earlier than March 3. I will now be starting my new job on February 11 but will be taking my vacation at the end of February as planned. The reason for starting sooner is that the UR was able to hire enough of the development team to enable the project to move along sooner.

Figure Drawing

Wednesday, January 23rd, 2008

I recently started an 8 week figure drawing/painting class. The first two weeks were spent on gesture drawing and human formulaic proportions. I hate gesture drawing, partly because I suck at it. Actually, I pretty much suck at drawing too so I am not sure why I am tormenting myself. My instructor tells me I need to draw a lot. Argh! Who has the time? I don’t seem to be able to ever get a drawing line in the right place. I am always moving “this” or lowering “that”. My kneaded eraser is my new best friend.

We just completed week 3 – The Torso. Here are my homework assignments. I had to do a torso from the front, side and back. Have a look if you are interested in what I have done. These are not final drawings and are done on newsprint but I am pretty happy with my attempts.

torso-back.JPGtorso-side.JPGtorso-front.JPG

I have been cooking this week, but not really healthy meals. Things like homemade macaroni and cheese, roasted Brussels sprouts with apple wood smoked bacon, cracked wheat, black eyed peas and tomato salad with pomegranate dressing, roasted chicken, beef with cabbage. A new lunch sandwich I made up is to take Panini bread and spread it with a good layer of herbed chevre, a whole roasted red pepper, red onion and leftover roasted chicken. Mmmmmm! Do I have an eating disorder? Look at what I have made this week and it is only Wednesday.

I have washed out my large dye painted figure piece and have just started drawing on another smaller figure piece. The large piece is acceptable but I am not happy with it (but I seldom am happy with anything that I do). I don’t think I will be posting anything from it for quite some time, at least until I get a section of it quilted. I plan to paint the smaller figure piece in the next week or so.

With the new year came a new gym schedule. I added two new classes to my teaching schedule and I now teach 9 classes a week. I added two evening yoga pilates combo classes. All the prior mind-body classes in this timeslot have failed due to poor attendance but so far I am very happy. Attendance has been averaging around 25. It is hard to drive to the gym twice in the same day, at opposite ends of the day, but the new classes and students are great and I feel awesome when I leave there.

I hope all is well with you.