Petri Dish Street Art Series

It's been far too long since I hashed out a street art idea to completion....well, actually any art project for that matter. Over the last year, I've been doodling a lot and jotting things down in my sketchbook...but I haven't actually finished much work. This week that's going to change.

A box of a couple dozen heavy duty glass disc things came my way a while back. I knew they were too awesome to pass up (especially since they were free!), but didn't have any idea what to do with them at the time. They've been stuffed away in my parents' basement until just a few days ago, when I was picking up some more of my art materials. That box of potential has been in the back of my mind for a while--I was just mulling over the possibilities of what I might do with these glass objects. 

Behold, the Petri Dish series! 

Petri Dish #2

Colin actually suggested that name, and it's perfect. The glass circles reminded me of looking through a microscope. And I like microbiological lifeforms, especially creating art that looks like those microbes out of craft supplies.
So, in the next couple weeks, I'll finish creating these and send them out into the wide world. If you want one, just let me know, otherwise you'll have to keep your eyes peeled while out and about in the Twin Cities.

Petri Dish #4

Telling a tale

I wrote a kids' story this morning. The idea came to me while I was taking a shower this morning and coalesced as I ate breakfast. By the time I made a cup of tea, I'd written it all down. It's just the first draft--there's a lot of editing I have to do now--but it's the one of the few times I've actually finished a story. Usually I have great beginnings and no idea how to create a satisfactory ending. I don't know how many times I've gotten inspiration for a story, wrote a few pages and then had it fizzle out in my head. It's like one of those dud fireworks--shooting up into the air with a bang....and nothing happens. Just a big pile of failure.

Since I was little, I've always read voraciously, I know a good story when I see one. I wasn't interested in writing some derivative dreck or copying someone else's style. If I'm going to write something, I want it to be my voice telling the tale. There are authors I enjoy greatly, and one of the things in common among them all is that their individual voices comes through strong and clear. Neil Gaiman, Tolkien, C. S. Lewis, Tamora Pierce, Madeleine L' Engle....I could go on.

I know I have stories of my own to tell...but I didn't feel like I had anything special to say until very recently. I've created blogs over the years, only to give up on them after a while. I wrote angsty poetry in high school about boys and deep emotions; journaled intensely during college, coming to terms with my chronic health issues and riding the roller coaster of a tumultuous relationship. Blogspot, Xanga, Myspace, Deviantart, Facebook, and now Blogspot again have all played host to my musings and declarations over the years. But that's just cataloging my life, sharing what's going on within my heart and mind. But I've always wanted to write and publish a book....about something.

It's been one of my lifelong dreams to write a children's story, but there was never anything cohesive that came to mind. An idea here, a scrap of a character there. I never had been hit with any inspiration until just last month. I now have sketches for a kids' series stacked in my bedroom. I have two main characters and have been figuring out who they are and how they relate to each other. I have the basic elements and need to flesh them out. There's a general direction but no clear story yet. That one is going to be like a painting that refuses to coalesce until I put a lot of effort and time into it.

Today however was a different story. Like a flash of lightning, I saw the first line: "Thomas Doorit was a naughty little boy who loved destroying good books." And then I had an ending right away too! I quickly scribbled out the story on some notebook paper, my thoughts going faster than my pen. It's already transcribed into Word so I don't lose it, and will lend itself to easier editing that way. The working title for now is "Thomas Doorit gets his comeuppance." It relates to books and classic literature, but I'm not going to give the ending away here. I think I actually have something this time. I even know what kind of illustration style I want and someone in mind to create them for me.

I'm really excited about this book, and I'll be sure to post more about it as I go.

Jewelry ideas

I've been asked by many different people whether I make jewelry. I never really felt any inspiration because most of my ideas had already been done and much better than I could do. But I've sketched out lots of ideas. I drew some recently that I decided to try to actually make.

I get a lot of my inspiration at work

Cardboard is plentiful at my job, so that's the material I chose for my first go at it. It's easy to work with and if something doesn't work out, it's not a huge loss.

Attempt 2

Attempt 1

I wore this one at work the next day.

I figured out that I need to paint both sides--more mileage out of the same piece! Also, I'm going to coat these in resin so they're more durable. I wore the second necklace all day at work, and it held up really well.

It was really fun playing around, and I'm definitely going to make more! 

Sketching 9

I drew this in church last Sunday. There was a lady sitting in front of me wearing a really cool crocheted shirt,  and I just had to make sure I remembered the part of the pattern I really liked. I never know where inspiration will strike, that's why I always carry a small sketchbook with me.  

Collage 3

More collage fun! 

Collage 2

Same collage, two different color choices. Sometimes I just like to see if the composition holds up if I take the colors away. Color can distract from poor layout. I actually like both of these a lot--the colored one for the bright popping hues, and the sepia one just has a completely different feel even though it's the same image.

Collage 1

A pen pal friend of mine sent me a small sketchbook to fill up and send back to him. It's kind of like what I did with the Sketchbook Project a couple years ago, except this is just for one person. I haven't gotten very far on this book though--life has gotten surprisingly full of late, in a good way.

Anyways, this is a collage I put together earlier today (it's page 19, so it's not like I've been completely slacking off). I usually make pretty detailed, complex collages, so it's fun to try to make very pared down, simple ones. I've always enjoyed creating these--I find it very relaxing, especially all the time it takes to cut out all the pictures. People sometimes just assume it's a print or something I've put together in Photoshop, because I can make the edges really seamless. Nope, all done by hand. I've just given myself a lot of practice over the years cutting very delicately with scissors and exacto blades.

Fresh inspiration

This is a magnified view of a bacterium. Sort of looks like a doily, doesn't it? I've always been interested in microbiology actually--I like looking at diagrams of cells and other micro organisms because they're so visually appealing to me.

My sister, Hannah, recently shared this pink image with me, and suggested I might want to look at other magnified images like it to inspire me. I Googled a bunch of different diseases and found some interesting images. Horrible illnesses, bad bacteria and viruses can be quite beautiful when seen under a microscope. They're obviously some sort of coherent structure with their own symmetry, but organic and natural enough that it's not too geometric. It's natural not man-made. I'm intrigued by that balance between structure and randomness.

My work in the past has been slightly influenced by this background interest in microbiology but only subtly. I've been thinking about genetics and inheritance off and on for awhile, but I didn't feel like I could convey those ideas in the way I wanted to. As I've expanded my repertoire of art making materials and played around in the studio recently, I feel like I'm getting closer to the heart of what I want to convey with my art.

I think this is going to be a more overt inspiration from now on. More to come....