When looking for something to sketch, so many things entered my mind.  Today, I went to an Escondido Art Talk meeting at the Escondido Municipal Gallery on Grand in Escondido.  We meet on the first Tuesday of each month, and the artists that attend usually bring whatever they’re working on to share. Today we had a wonderful mix of artwork, all different kinds of mixed media!  For a mixed media artist, this is heaven!  We are able to see art created with a different flair, all the while getting to know people we may not have met before.  New ideas, and creative energy is  abundantly  flowing!   Now that’s what I like, the sharing and mingling of creative minds!

Today we had  an artist there from Africa, who brought  some wonderful artwork with him.  We were all in awe as he showed off what he was working on.  Not one of us had ever thought of anything like this, and he was so incredibly talented, and humble!  As I drove home there were so many thoughts, and ideas in my head I probably wont sleep tonight!  That wouldn’t be good!  In my studio there are many pieces of unfinished artwork just sitting there  patiently waiting their turn to speak to me, but I just can’t get into them.  My guess is, they have nothing to say to me at the moment, and I’ll just have to wait for them to speak up.    Rather than beat my head against the wall, another piece  will be started, and older ones will just have to wait tin line!

Part of the  technique  I’m doing today is from this gentleman, and part is my spin on it.  We’ll see what happens…..

Meanwhile  starting this collage, it came to me that nothing was as easy as it looks!  This is ever so evident when you stand in front of an abstract painting, and exclaim,  “What’s the big deal, my three-year old could do that?  All you have to do is slap some paint on a canvas!”   Sure you could, just try it!  I’m here to tell you, it is monumentally more complicated than that.  Sure it’s easy to slap,  drip, and spatter paint around, just look at the work of Jackson Pollock!  But to make it work, is so much more complex than one can imagine.   Even Mr. Pollock had a plan, and if you take the time to read about him, it will become evident that he wasn’t just dripping paint, he really did know what he was doing!

Me, I’m a mixed media artist – everything is an experiment.  Sometimes I repeat the experiment, sometimes I’m over it in a flash!  We mixed media artists are a strange bunch of crazies, and most of us agree on this!  Digging through the shredder is oh so much fun!!!  You look for just the right piece of trash to create a one of a kind artwork!  This is exactly what I did, I went digging.  Shredding paper to  collage is extremely labor intense, this of course would be common sense, but apparently when I’m in my right brain, there isn’t any  common sense available!  Once my collage dried, the sketch began, but it wasn’t as simple as I’d expected.! Since the medium was slick, the graphite pencils wouldn’t show up very well.  This leaves the sketch rather bland, and mid to light range.  It becomes very difficult to lay any darks into this…...lesson learned!   I probably should have tried some Derwent Inktense Pencils.  These are great water-soluble pencils by the way, that dry permanent.  The colors are intense, and if  they aren’t in your studio my suggestion is to get a small pack.  In my opinion, there aren’t any mistakes, only opportunities to be more creative, or at the very least, learn from the experiment!

Today is a college of Daisy’s friend Chesley.  He and Daisy are both  mutskies (new word),  and they have fun running, and playing together in the yard.  I apologise to Chesley’s Mom because this really isn’t a very good render of her baby, however it’s been a great learning experience, and I may even use the collage of shredded paper again.

By the way, if anyone is interested in reading of the life of Jackson Pollock, this is a really interesting  book!

The drip paintings of Jackson Pollock trailblazing the Abstract Expressionist movement appear to be the polar opposite of Thomas Hart Benton’s highly figurative Americana.