You know, as I get close to another idiotic, self imposed deadline I mutter about my own stupidity etc. etc. but find that in this time of crunch and focusing down, I discover stuff about my work. What I have been discovering in the framing and making sense of the illustrations from Memento Mori and now the sketches/illustrations from the Garden of Eden are the following things:
> I have changed and improved since last October when the original roll on Memento Mori happened. The design is better, tighter, and the hand is surer. The black and white patterning is more deliberate and considered.
> Since Hartford, the work has gotten better, tighter and more graphic. Versus fighting it...I am giving it a bit of head...and trying to really work with it. R. says to the better. Yes, there is a place for my obsession with detail and twiddly stuff...but to have some restraint versus binging in every image with pattern, line and swirl.
> This decorative, hand drawn work, I felt was weaker and not at strong as the vector work. Well, when printing it out bigger than usual, matting it and treating it with a bit more respect than a wiggly ink drawing in my sketchbook--these babies can stand up as well as the vector work with a bit more whimsey and imagination than the original group that comprised my Syracuse thesis. To my great surprise and astonishment. Hurray for the Art Trail...new views.
> The new vector studies (something I want to tune my hand and eye do do)--essentially limiting the palette to maximum 2 greys, black, white and a single color) really sing. I hadn't really finished one up until yesterday and they are really going some place. So, new goal in place (which I was mouthing but not believing) is that I need to do a few more of these (maybe with the city pictures) to build that work out as well. This minimal vector approach was inspired by the first one of the series, the Chicken Chokers logo/illustration which was/is harder than it looks...but with it's success...these images have potential insofar as shows, but also in the world of graphic design as logos, images, symbols beyond the usual cutting into letterforms, spinning shapes etc. that often become rote. Acceptable and to many companies, well worth the investment...but not putting more me,, more humor, more touch to their marks. I am hoping that the logo I may be working on soon (this week we work on names) may have some of this illustration assigned to the process. Plus, the portraits I have done for the Masters of Studio Glass.
Recycled soup is on the stove. A gargantuan lasagne using up all sorts of bits and pieces from the refrigerator is done and ready for this evening. K R and I have bets on how many sittings this monster will last...I have it that it will be gone by tomorrow dinner ( size: 4" tall, 16" x 20"). Wow.
Gotta go now.