The sticky note art project continues. As I contemplate my position in life and reexamine my priorities, I find myself with a need to MAKE MORE STUFF. Unfortunately I have a day job and can’t spend an entire day in my studio painting, sculpting, and generally coming up with art out of thin air. I have to make do.
I started with pencil and added ink. I don’t like using text in my compositions, but I’m not trying to be original here. My only requirement is that creativity flow from my brain to my fingertips through the tools I have at the time. I am inspired by whatever seems to be on my mind at the time. When I can’t come up with a composition I will force the issue by eavesdropping. Or finding something ridiculous on Facebook.
Bikini Body is my own. I’m not a slender woman at all, and that has created some problems in my life. This piece is me trying to convince myself that what I’ve got is worthy and beautiful. While I enjoy the result and the sentiment it did nothing for my self-esteem. Is it a self-portrait? I don’t know. The girl on the sticky note sure is cute whether she is me or not.
I recently did an acoustic show at The Mix in Seattle’s Georgetown neighborhood and took my sticky note pad and pens with me. I had recently discovered a set of watercolor pens I thought might be fun to work with and brought the black one out of the set. Shows are rarely one act, and I think it’s rude to avoid other artists’ sets, so I will often bring something to do with my hands. I figured something would inspire me and it did.
Irene Peña moved to Seattle from L.A. and has been making the rounds with an acoustic set of songs. Like most non-Seattle people, she’s warm, friendly and very likeable. She’s also a little nerdy – something I figured out just by looking at her guitar.
The guitar image was the first one I tried to use the watercolor pen on. In this case, I drew the bubbles on dry and added water later. To create the shading on the guitar I took the still-wet brush and used the residual color to create the shadow. Over on the right where it looks like something went wrong? Well, something went wrong. That is what happens when you draw on wet paper with a watercolor pen. Whoops.
Lesson learned, I moved on to the next idea a couple of days later.
Oh the curse of being moody — it’s great for art, not so great for everyone and everything else. God forbid something truly terrible actually happen when a major mood swing is going on. I rode out my last major mood swing with this little composition, complete with Rage Comic rageface. For the wash I ended up using the marker on another sticky note and using a water-dipped brush to get the desired tint. I find this wasteful and am experimenting with alternatives. Until I find one, I think this worked out okay.
There are more sticky notes, but I am out of steam for today. Check back later and I’ll have more stories for you.
Wayward Clay and other fine messes 
Leave a comment