Forging On!

Okay, so I am going crazy trying to get a drawing done a day for my final outside project in drawing 2. Basically I am supposed to "draw" something in less than 15 minutes about my day. I don't know about you but to draw something in less than 15 minutes is a feat for me. I am in the practice stage but as of yesterday I began my 15 day drawing spree (15 days!!! .....I have an excedrin headache!)

Here are my first two attempts at creating a mood with something about my day. Each of these drawings is done in Charcoal in a 9x12 format.

From Saturday I drew the temple spire with the angel Moroni. I just felt I needed to share my feelings about our weekly service and the blessings of the temple...I call it "Out of the Darkness."

This next one is a piece inspired by the Lord's visit to the Nephites and my feelings about my granddaughter, Ivy. I call it "Behold Your Little Ones."

Here's More Art!

Okay, so not everything we draw in class is my favorite so I am sometimes changing the composition to fit what I like. Here is a Marilyn likeness that I did in pencil today. I only really rendered the mouth to create a focus.

This piece is the view out of my art class window, done in charcoal....



I suppose this is an "Ike" disaster tree.....done in charcoal and worked off a picture my professor brought in to class.


Well...I didn't like the still that was brought into class (two dolls hanging by a wire) so I created a piece with Gepeto and Pinnochio.

This is a piece I reworked from the beginning of the year....done in charcoal.

Greater Houston Puppetry Festival

This past Saturday we held the annual Greater Houston Puppetry Festival. We had people from all over come and participate in workshops and performances. Chuk and I taught a class on Shadow Puppetry and I decorated all the tables for the luncheon. Here are pictures of some of the puppets we made to show educators that

you can make puppets out of anything!

Below are pictures of a girl scout group that we had in our workshop

and the shadow puppets they made!

Trunk of Treat

Our Baybrook Ward Annual Trunk or Treat was so fun for our grandkids this year. Just look at their costumes!!

Christian, Sandra, and Evy. We thought Sandra looked like Holly Cuevas when we saw her from a distance, but then up close we decided she's a dead ringer for Brook White (from last years American Idol.....and yes we watched! Go David Archuleta!)

Reagan, Jeannie, Ivy, Chuck, and Jocelyn. Jeannie made all their costumes!!!

Our Brood after the costume parade and waiting for dinner to begin.

I had to include this picture of Chuck and Adam Barnes with their Star Wars costumes. I can't wait to see them dress up one Halloween as OB One and Sith Lord with their light sabers and reinacting the epic duel scene!

Just Doodling and Remembering Ike.

Another just for fun to characterize McCain. Below are some picture I took in the aftermath of Hurricane Ike. Notice our scruffy menfolk!

Piling matressing on the back porch for our kids who could not get back into their Seabrook Condo after Ike. We had no electricity and were cooking meals on a camp stove outside!

Grilling the steaks we had to unload from the freezer because it was all going bad!

Camping out at Sandra and Ernest's while they were still evacuated to Dallas. They had electricy and we still didn't. Eight days of living together. It was AWESOME! By the way, don't the grandkids look great?

Hmmmmmmm...........

This is really an interesting art class I am imersed in this semester. I am having to delve outside my norm to conceptualize and using subject matter that is sometimes outside my normal areas of interest. You'll notice that the last couple are less realistic....experimentation to try to discover a style I suppose. This first one is a continuation of our atmospheric study done in conte'.

This next piece is one of my random marks with a presidential candidate.....a close likeness to John McCain but his nose is too long. First time to really study a face and try to capture an essence of a person. You'll notice that the random marks are a reminder of his days as a POW, which totally shaped his choice to serve his country for the remainder of his life. Hopefully his face captures the hope and freedom his espouses.

Towards the end of this month I will be keeping a 15 day art journal entitled, "My life as a black rectangle." This was a practice piece from class....done in charcoal and collage and color....taking a section of my art easle and drawing it...the red represents the amount of blood sweat and tears I am putting out to try to accomplish something of worth!