New Drawings

Roosters Song, mono-print with gouache and pencil

Untitled, pencil with gold leaf

 Just finished the Roosters song drawing above. not sure how happy I am with it. been struggling with my drawing and finding inspiration. I need to get out more maybe. Finding the act of drawing hard and not liking my painting/colouring or compositions. Its difficult. Wondering what the hell I'm doing half the time. What its all for, what am i supposed to be working towards besides the cheap high I get from the few likes on Instagram. It has to lead up to some sort of acknowledgement from the art world at some point, some sort of an exhibition. I'm sure it will work out.

Yesterday was my last day of chemo. Six rounds done and dusted. Just need to get over the sickness this round will cause and its onto surgery then radiation. The ride isnt over for another year. Another year of medication to keep the cancer at bay, every 3 weeks. The consultant says there is no reason why I cant have a normal life, but it will still be hard having it hanging over me. What is normal anyway?

It has to be done.

All Dogs go to Heaven

All Dogs go to Heaven, installation ceramic sculpture.

I'm to nauseous and tired to do anything in the studio thanks to chemo, even typing this is a hardship, so I have been contemplating this piece I made a few years ago. Sadly packed away, awaiting its time to be exhibited.

Above is a digital mock up of the piece installed, (not to scale).

One of the sadest things I heard while going to Catholic school was that our dogs don't go to heaven. They don't go anywhere, they just die.

What a devastating statement to hear and being told that a perfect heaven doesn't include the animals we held so close and dear during our lifetime.

It didn't seem much like heaven to me.

To me Heaven is seeing all ones beloved pets again in the after life.

All Dogs go to Heaven is my homage to all those dogs who were told they weren't going to heaven. 

Each dog is hand made and fired in my pit. Some are broken but that's OK, no pup is perfect. Ideally they would be hung on a wall galloping towards the bisque fired church which is filled with a gold tinged forest.

My journey to MidJourney

I'm very interested in this #midjourney app. I spent an afternoon telling it stories about dreaming of fancy pigeons and finches and so forth and this was the best image it came up with. I loved it. I love the abnormalities and the colours. I was very much against the AI apps when people were making the self portraits that were just nocking off digital artists styles. But after seeing artist who are using #midjourney in the paid app,creating their own style to fit their work I have become very interested. Especially for those bad pain days, days of nausea and fatigue when you just can't manage the studio. It could come in handy as a sort of sketchbook or extention of ones work and thoughts. 

So maybe I will jump on the band wagon but only if I can make it work for me. We are always learning and growing as artists. There's no harm in that.

As they say, watch this space...

Dry-point, Hugging the dog roses,

My first dry point in a long while. Not to happy with it as the lines could be better  but I'm trying to do fine lines on a material that blurs the line. I also found it very difficult to wipe maybe this was the new water based ink I was using instead of the oil based? I did about 10 prints. It was exhausting and I ached all over after. I don't think I would be able for a large edition. I can well see the benefit of sending a print to be printed by a professional print work shop. I'm just not able anymore. 

I printed these on my x-cut press, a4 in size, with the help of josie the parrot who happily threw and tore newspaper while also watching my progress from my shoulder.

New Drawing, Budgie Keeper

'Budgie Keeper,' 2023 pencil and gouache on paper

Untitled Drawing, 2023. Happy New Year'

'Untitled,' 2023 pencil on pastel paper

 Technically this drawing was completed in 2022. I was so desperate to have it finished before my fourth round of chemo. I hadnt drawn in a while and man is it hard to get the brain and hands working again. Im glad I got it done though as I am feeling so sick after chemo, so tired I just coudnt face it.

Its very frustrating as I am brimming with ideas and the best i can do is to just sketch them out in hopes they wont be forgotten, then try and get the hands and brain working again after another hiatuses. What is worse this week is my fibro kicked back in after taking a back seat. The cancer nurses all said that those suffering with fibromyalgia find that during chemotherapy it tends to go away. Wish it would stay away. Such is life. just take it day by day.

Happy New Year to you all.

Healing

'Healing,' mixed-media 2022

 

 

Probably my last piece of 2022. Healing is a pit-fired ceramic cone figure that broke slightly during firing. I attempted to repair the break with hand sewn patches which are then sewn into the piece itself, like giant itcy scabs covering a gaping wound.
The fabric flowers were found in my grans dressing table in a wooden box amongst a collection of saved fabric flowers. Probably from old outfits or maybe saved to be used in new ones.