30-Day Photo Challenge, Self Portraits and Unflattening

Very busy with packing. But I must find time to play with PicMonkey and connect back with Kevin and company (Moshie, Tania, Anna, Autumm, etc.). For this post, I'll communicate with images, rather than words. 

BTW, I got this 30-day photo challenge from someone my husband was following (not an endorsement). 

Gerhard Nel, another photographer, is my husband's friend. He lives in Netherlands and takes stunning photos. I love this one,

Posted by Gerhard Nel Photography on Tuesday, July 21, 2015

A shot of Jev and Mel with their cute little baby boy. This weekend is an extreme busy weekend corcerning photography assignments. Plenty more to come in the coming days.
Posted by Gerhard Nel Photography on Sunday, June 14, 2015

I'm always inspired by his pictures. I hope to have some time soon to go on an observation trip and take some shots of people in uncontrived naturalistic settings.

So here's one I took of myself using my mobile phone. I used layers to change the look a little. Maybe I'll create a collage... I'm not having a breakthrough with this play. Sometimes, one has to step away to come back with new ideas. 

Digital Abstract

I've been creating representational art with pastels since I started learning to express myself with the medium, for a rather functional purpose -- to de-stress while writing my dissertation. I love pastel painting but I feel it sometimes cramps my style; I want to be more loose, imaginative, expressive and create from within me.

So at times, I play with PicMonkey to turn my imagination into reality.

I took this photo with my Samsung mobile phone:

I like the look created by the interweaving of the branches, but the image still looked pretty bland to me. I fiddled with the colors. It looked somewhat better but did not exactly capture what my creative muse wanted me to unleash. How do I describe this force? The urge to express is powerful. If I don't find an outlet for it, I feel all bottled up and oppressed like a coil of spring.

Without a digital tablet to brush or swirl colors around the way I do with ink, I played around with layers to change the winter mood to something free-er and more expressive of how I felt at that moment, intuitively, spontaneously.

Here's what it looks like then, when I turn something authentic into abstract art. Just let your imagination lead you, from within. 

P.S. There's no formula for it.  Just play. 

The "Proper" Artwork in Office Space

Is an office setting an appropriate place to hang nude artwork? I've been asked by a colleague why I don't hang my own artwork in the office -- I do have a few pieces up. I didn't answer him directly because I've done mostly figure drawings of nude models. I hesitate to hang any of these pieces in my office.

The question surfaced again, today. Someone stopped by my office and looked around my office environs. He asked if I was an artist. I am not a trained artist but I would say I am one. As a designer, I'm an artist. As a hobbyist, art in various forms is my delight. The conversation turned to art pieces and what I'd done. I gave a quick sweep to the two framed figure gestures I had propped on my desk.

"I don't have more up because some of them are figure drawings that might offend some people if I have them in my office," I said. "Do you think it's OK to hang them in my office?"

"Well, I didn't even notice them when I came in."

Suffice to say, I didn't get a direct answer to my question despite some more chatter about it. It is a touchy one. I wondered if I had posed an uncomfortable question to my office visitor. I came home, thought about the question and wondered about the implications of posing that question. Lightweight research reveals these findings:

1. An Admissions Office in a university had refused to hang such an art piece. 

2. It appears to be a controversial issue. At first glance, it seems to divide the art folks from the non-art folks. By that, I don't mean to marginalize or be divisive. I regard nude artwork as tasteful because of my own frame of reference. But other people might be offended because uncovering the human body in public is alien to most cultures, including mine.

3. There is no right answer. It depends. The question raises more questions about difference -- respect for difference in upbringing, definitions about what is considered beautiful, artistic, tasteful, degrees of realism in the nude artwork (the more realistic, the more uncomfortable some folks might be when confronted in public about it), sensitization to the nude human form (are the models in the nude or "naked"), some people's pretentiousness, etc.

I had asked a question that challenged an individual to think about his/her assumptions. It is provocative I admit. But people's response to whether it is OK to hang a nude artwork in a higher ed office setting that doesn't have high traffic volume helps me to learn quite a bit more about the respondent in a short time. And it is not information that puts anyone down.

P.S. I'd add that sometimes, we need to deploy some humor when confronted with these sorts of questions. 

Thinking through Art: How Prior Knowledge Paralyzes

4th Figure Drawing Class.

We warmed up with 10 gesture drawings. In one minute, I must capture the outline of the model. It is especially challenging when the model knows multiple unusual ways to contort himself/herself. I struggle to capture the essence of the gesture. The bodily muscles exert themselves in peculiar ways that I find difficult to sketch rapidly. Today, I  also have to learn how to use new tools -- it is Conte Pencils instead of the familiar charcoal pencil or vine to quickly build the "armature" that my teacher requires. I try, probably not very successfully. 

He tells me not to use just lines but to use the conte pencil as a tool to show "mass." He walks around again and offers more feedback.

"Don't draw something from what you previously perceived a human figure to look like. You need to capture the impulse." He tells me not to draw something that looks like a human figure and then try to make little changes to it to fit what the model looks like before me. Aha 1.

"Do you mean to capture the essence? The emotion?" I ask. "Do you want us to emote through our drawing?"

He stops the class to address my questions. "I know this sounds abstract. Have you all seen the Raft of the Medusa?" We shake our heads. We google for it on our mobile phones, which we are typically not allowed to use in the class. We found the painting by Géricault. "What emotions does the painting convey?" Danger, shipwreck, fear ...? 

"Try to capture feelings like these in your drawings. Like what Géricault did." [Not his exact words] On the side, the model says quietly, "It is not about likeness." Figure drawing is not about replicating likeness, but about capturing an impulse.

I feel like I have a bad drawing day, but in learning psychology terms, no matter how bad a day it is, I learn how our prior knowledge causes rigid thinking. Art teaches me to let go and to unlearn so that I can have new ideas. Aha (over and over again!) 2.

"Use your imagination. Look at what is before you, not what you think it should look like." Am I looking? Paying attention?

In a previous class, we had to draw with a paper covering what we were actually drawing. I love figure drawing.