Tuesday, August 16, 2016


I have found Blogspot to be really tricky when uploading pics and adjusting their layout, so I have decided to move this blog over to Weebly.



http://gravenblog.weebly.com/





See you there.

Saturday, November 14, 2015

Artist Date

Today I visited the Maritime Museum to study the surreal murals.














Saturday, November 7, 2015

Artist Date

I visited the art gallery across the street for an art show featuring collage. It was great to see work by Winston Smith.







Tuesday, October 27, 2015

Artist Way Meeting: Week Nine

Week #9: Recovering a Sense of Compassion



Morning Pages
Morning Evening
    2     4
This week, I wrote a lot about living in the Midwest, and how it affected me just being me. I was often shamed, humiliated, and abused.


Artist Date
I went to Creativity Explored to visit their current show called Dance Party! Then visited the library to scan the art magazines.


Exercises
Section 1) Fear - “Procrastination is not laziness, it is fear. Fear of not being good enough. Fear of failure.” “The need to produce a great work of art makes it hard to produce any art at all”
Section 2) Enthusiasm - I disagree about discipline. It takes discipline to clean, to stop, to eat...
Section 3) Creative U-Turns - grieving about rejection from grad school, AIR’s, and local group show with good financing.
Section 4) Blasting Through Blocks - List resentments and fears
#2) Visualizing - amazing clean studio with stocked kitchen
#3) Priorities - Year, Month, and Week goals


Last Week’s Action List
X 1) Test carving sticks for torches
X 2) Test gluing mirror shards for hanging sculpture
X 3) Research on how to cut glass
  4) Review art website on large computer
X 5) Research art museums in Berlin for 1 hour  [½ hour]
  6) Research art galleries in Berlin for 2 hours
  7) Review AIR in Berlin for 1 hour


Next Week’s Action List

o
Test goldleafing branch and setting on fire
o
Test using wood rasp
o
Review art website on large computer
o
Research art museums in Berlin for 1 hour
o
Research art galleries in Berlin for 2 hours
o
Review AIR in Berlin for 1 hour


Studio Photographs

Today I visited my art studio to discover some mold growing in a cup. I spent quite awhile photographing it.




Saturday, October 24, 2015

Artist Date

Today I visited Creativity Explored to see their current show entitled, "Dance Party!" There were some really fantastic works. Afterwards, I went to the library to look at the current art magazines.


Musette Perkins

Paul Pulivano

Charles Cruz

Kathy Wen

Anna Tuori

Michael Mapes

Sedrick Huckaby
Danielle Ezzo


Tuesday, October 20, 2015

Day in the Art Studio

Today I worked on a couple of experiments for two upcoming projects. The first involved carving 50 torches from reclaimed branches. I quickly realized that I need to figure out a faster way to carve them. Not only was it taking a really long time, but I eventually ended up with blisters. I will visit the hardware store soon to see what I can find to help.

The second project was to start attaching broken mirror bits to an armature. I also realized that it was going to take much longer than anticipated. I need to add a lot more shards to the layers on the neck before I can move up to the head.











Artist Way Meeting: Week Eight

Week #8: Recovering a Sense of Strength

We had two weeks to complete this chapter.

Morning Pages
Morning Evening
    x     6


Artist Date
I went to pick out a pumpkin and found a rusted out truck and took a lot of photographs.


Exercises
#1) Name your dream. I fantasize about being an artist that shows internationally and is highly-financially rewarded.

#2) Early patternings, an exercise.
  1. The teacher who shipwrecked my confidence was…Gustavo. “Explain your installation to us”
  2. The teacher...high school teacher because he had very little to offer me.
  3. The teacher...Robert Hunter because of his comment “Get over it”
  4. The mentor who game me a good role model was...Paul Mullins.
  5. I remember one time when...The museum-goer who asked about my art being abject.
  6. When people say I have talent I think they want to ...compliment me and share their own experience of my work.


Action List
1) Test carving sticks for torches
2) Test gluing mirror shards for hanging sculpture
3) Make Photoshop sketch for laying sculpture
4) Research on how to cut glass
5) Review art website on large computer
6) Research art museums in Berlin for 1 hour
7) Research art galleries in Berlin for 2 hours
8) Review AIR in Berlin for 1 hour




Sunday, October 18, 2015

Collage Day

I created two collages today, however the first one needs to have a larger background, so will have to majorly rework it.

I need to fix it, but it's a beginning.

My second collage
Ken hard at work doing lettering


Ken's work

Ken's work

Ken's work

Mark's work unfolded

Mark's work folded

Stephen's work

Thursday, October 15, 2015

Santa Cruz Trip

Headed to Santa Cruz today and ended up with some artsy photos.