Art 4/29

I am so tired. I really think I am sick. I was standing on a chair to take these pictures so I could be closer to the skylight, and my legs were shaking, it was sort of scary. So I climbed down and used the flash, and the pictures are terrible. I could have gone onto the balcony but the dog would start crying, and she cries for at least 20-40 minutes every time she notices people are around and not playing with her. Going outside to take the pictures would have the same effect, as the balcony is over the front door.
In art yesterday we played Exquisite Corpse, the juxtaposing co creation game. We made dozens of little creatures, then pinned them to the wall, drew numbers, and chose a creature. I was #1 and picked the deer headed creature on the left, and then we got to go back up after everyone went and I picked the half headed girl on the right (no one had chosen her! And she was my tied for first choice!) I was using blue crayon, so both of these are ones I co created. I do not know if that is why I picked them. There was a really nice fish headed boquet that I didn't choose because everyone else wanted it, and I wanted to see what someone would do. And then we were supposed to create a narrative or context for our characters. I was so excited to have a half headed zombie squid and a steampunk robot deer devil to work with- it is a very liberating game.

When I first made this I was really pleased, because it is so different from my usual thing, except that it has in it bones, tentacles, and a dik dik. So it is kind of my usual thing. I feel like it is more involved and chaotic than the sort of placid fantastic scenes I conceive of left to my own devices. But at the same time it turned out really generic. I decree that I like it, with reservations. I am so tired.

Now, the spine->skull transition is not very good. I did not want to deviate too much from the original character, and I did not want it to be a human zombie with a jaw. Whatever. If this was a homework assignment (those are more intensive than the studio assignments) I would sketch a few different skull/mouth/spine combinations. I wanted it to look sinister but not threatening. I don't know.

I fell asleep at 6:30 last night, and was wide awake by 2:00am, but now it is 10am and I am either tired, or hungry, or sick, or something. But, between 4 and 6:00am I had a lot of fun padding around the art studio at school (parking is free from 8:30pm-7:00am!), drawing on the chalkboard and sketching and eventually leaving because of the chill.

Now I am supposed to do the mentor dialogue on a digital ground and/or grid distortion. I have some thumbnail sketches that I like, but I feel like they aren't engaging enough. Instead of a dialogue with Bosch I am more having a listening-in-on-the-Bosch-Dali-dialogue. I was kind of interested in a Boschian fantastic hooved biped creature with a Dali kind of terraced pavilion saddle. Like on the spindly legged elephants. But I don't know. I feel like that is kind of boring and static, and the ground I have prepared so far is a pamphlet of magic tricks glued to a sheet of paper. I don't know. Seeing my sick reflection makes me want to do a hellscape of black buildings and smoking lakes and turbulent clouds with a little curled up caitlan in the foreground. (sane!) But how does the magic tricks background connect to that? I don't want to stretch it like if I was doing a critique, I want it to legitimately add a layer of meaning and intrigue. I also don't want to make a different background, because the only things I really have are xeroxes of Bosch paintings, Dali postcards, scrapbook paper, a map, library card catalogues, and an old course catalogue.

Well. It looks like adding depth and layers to my background will be a good start. Also maybe I should change my mentor to Dali. I sort of feel like basing things on a 15th century flemish painter makes my sad little derivative drawings better because they are not immediately, iconically recognizable.

I am stalling from climbing all the way back up to the living room.
Ugh.