Smoosh Clouds
Hellooo dear blossoming lumpsuckers,
It’s been a wild spring of bear spotting, slug hunting, and scenting rotting sea lion carcasses on the wind. Actually it’s been mostly weed-whacking, soccer practice and sourdough bread. We’ve retained all of our fingers and toes, how about you?
In this ditty:
Cloud Class Secrets
Minis
Opposite of Minis
Last month I taught a class on smooshing clouds, and it was such a sold out smooshing success that we’re going to do it again! June 18th at the Visual Arts Center.
Since all y’all aren’t in the Newport area, here is a morsel that students said they found useful -
I plopped our reference image into a photoshop-esque program, and sampled the color from spots throughout the image. Colors that appear blue are surprisingly beige, while shades that seem bright are actually subdued.
As we mixed our oil paint, we splotched it directly onto this piece of paper for comparison. We used those mixed piles of paint to create our smooshy cloud paintings.
(thanks to emy daniels for capturing the instructor in her natural habitat)
On to MINIS!
In the depths of my pirate booty stash I discovered two silver window locket-pendants, and have stuffed an entire moon into each of them. Not to mention a third moon upon a brass pendant. Plus two tiny lighthouses, which are like mechanically-caged moons. Plenty to howl at, no matter what your preference.
Opposite of Minis:
When it comes to making art, I like a hefty pendulum swing.
Fun fact: At 17, I was diagnosed with bipolar disorder.
I don’t think it was an entirely appropriate diagnosis, as I stopped medication after one year and gradually managed the symptoms. However, I full-moon-heartedly believe that making art is an enormous part of peace and sanity. And I’ve wondered if the polarity manifests in my love of these extremes: Murals to Miniatures. Private to Public. Corporate to Whimsical.
Alongside the miniatures shown above, I’ve been working on a huge diptych which I refer to as the “Big Ass Wave” or BAW. The BAW is a private commission from a dear friend from a past life. As you can see: the painter is excited in a pleasantly terrified kind of way.
Yes, that’s a full denim jumpsuit.
But after that (holy crabcakes!!), I will be working on a Big Ass Public Art Contract for the next 5 months.
BAPAC!
Too soon to reveal details, but here are a couple of perplexing hints from my design mockup.
Last Things:
I have two new paintings available as prints on Minted.
These are the coolest science comics we’ve been reading a LOT lately.
Bringing this scatterwompus newsletter full circle, here’s my ol’ Cloud Identification Flowchart.
Love and sunburns! xo, Khara