i art a day.

Earlier this month I took myself to see the ballet at the Academy of Music here in Philadelphia, armed with a sketchbook and camera. While the ballet certainly isn’t everyone’s taste, it’s still a very inspiring form of entertainment for me. At points during the performance the music and dance were so intense that I absolutely couldn’t pull my eyes away from the stage to put pencil to paper, and was almost overwhelmed by the performance in front of me. It helped sitting only 5 rows back from the orchestra pit as well.

If the ballet isn’t really your thing (give it a try – it captivated Degas after all) then you should still find some excuse to visit the Academy of Music. This historic building is one of the most moving I’ve been to in my not so fair city. Generally I’m not a huge fan of the Baroque (Roccoco?) but walking into the main performance space really is like walking down the aisle in a different time entirely. It’s not the largest classical theater I’ve been in, but it’s certainly one of the most beloved.

While waiting in line to purchase a copy of Stranger Than Fiction at Borders earlier this week my eye was pulled in several directions by a couple of very colorful and exciting items lining the check-out area for impulse purchasing. The first was one of these gems, the Buddha Buddha Bank (specifically the bright pink peace Buddha). About 8 inches high and made of resin from what I can gather, these little Buddhas which appear more like fat happy babies, have replaced the ubiquitous piggy bank. What the lavender Wisdom Buddha and my spare change have to do with each other is beyond me, but it sure would be cute sitting on my bookshelf. Or perhaps the orangish Love Buddha, my spare change could use a little love. (But seriously – these have as much taste as a Buddy Christ Bobblehead)

The second very attractively colored item I noticed is the new 12 month color-a-month planner set Moleskine has just released for 2010. Feast your eyes on this beauty:

It’s not really my organizing style – but how great is that little stack of colorful Moleskines?! Each book is set up in a daily calendar format, one day per page, with time notes and extra writing space. It looks like they even come with STICKERS! I’m more of a monthly calendar kind of gal (I like to see the big picture), but maybe they’ll apply this type of set to their art book line or something.

In the name of financial modesty and declutterizing my home for the pending move, I left with only the DVD and decided to stash these colorful vessels of change and dates on my wish list. Also, I made up at least two words in this post, but I’m not apologizing.

(designed and painted specifically for the occasion, yes that’s supposed to be me, no it doesn’t actually look like me.)

YAY!!! 100th POST!!!

So, I went back and peeled through the blog to post some favorite blogs, and well – I can’t really choose (but I tried). Starting in October of 2007, but not really getting off the ground till September/October 2008, the iartaday blog has been a great platform for me to play with ideas, catalogue some of the work I’ve done outside of the cubicle, and access so many great ideas from other bloggers and online designers & artists.

I think my immediate family, boyfriend, and one or two friends are the only people who actually read my blog – but to all of you that do, thanks so much for all of your encouragement and feedback! Sometimes the ideas and posts just flow out of my fingertips and sometimes they’re a little more hard-pressed to arrive, but knowing someone is reading definitely pushes me to keep coming up with something.

As promised, my top favorite posts are:
About Philadelphia: 39 – Nightscapes
Weekend Update: 47 – Weekend Awesomeness
Most popular with the search engines: Monday Warmth
About my home: Day 12 – Bedroom
About Photography: Instant Spring

I’ve been pushing myself to sketch as much as possible these days, and drawing inspiration from other sketchbooks both in print and online. There are several people out there with the discipline to sketch and even post those sketches online daily, which I may never be capable of doing, but in the mean time I’m pushing myself just to fill up all of the pages of one book. I’ve found that the more I make myself sit down and sketch something the more I want to sit there and draw. So far most of it has been relegated to sketching at home and at the coffee shop, but I have high hopes for making some sketches of the city in the warm weather. I use mostly pencil and pen, and at the moment I’m also experimenting with watercolor and pen & ink in my books. For slow days I’ve got a list of 20 or so ideas to sketch out which I’ve definately used a couple of times.

Lasy week one of my friends sent me the link to Elizabeth Perry’s daily sketchbook site, woolgathering, which shows that a daily sketch doesn’t always have to be extremely detailed to be charming:

While the sketches don’t come rolling in daily, DC Comic’s David Hahn posts some entertaining comic sketches via his blog All Nighter:

Illustrator Daniel Stolle has revived his daily online sketchbook, much to my viewing pleasure:

The biggest hurdle at the moment is trying not to take my sketchbook too seriously. On the one hand, looking at other people’s sketchbooks is always exciting, but just as long as I don’t spend too much time comparing how good theirs look with mine. I’ve finally started using the book as a place to experiment and try out new ideas, and not really worry about if they fail and look terrible or not.

Today the 4th of 5 new books will be added to the Etsy Shop! All 5 are sturdy hardcover books filled with recycled sketch paper great for a variety of media. Two new cover patterns and a new large 8×10″ size are all here! As always, the shop can be found over at http://iartaday.etsy.com. More preview photos below!

5×7″ Hemishpheres Hardcover Notebook

8×10″ Map Hardcover Notebook

5×7″ Mixed Greens Hardcover Notebook

8×10″ & 5×7″ Mixed Greens Notebooks (comparison)

5×7″ Street Cafe Hardcover Notebook (Rome, Italy)

At the moment I’m going through all of my closets and drawers, cleaning off shelves and pulling out boxes in anticipation of moving (again) in August. In the process I’m finding a lot of things that I’m not really using but am having trouble parting with. For example, my grandmother passed away last year and left behind so many great collections of art supplies, vintage boxes and papers, and lots of seashells. My grandparents collected shells from all over the world, large and small, and brought a handful home every time they came back from the beach in Charleston, SC, often bucket-fulls.

Ultimately, a large bag of their seashell collection was left with me and up until now it’s been sitting without seeing much use. I found it last week while cleaning out and reorganizing some of my closet drawers and decided to make use of the collection. Chances are I won’t be using most of the shells, but I found it hard to part with them without feeling like I was giving up part of my family memories. So instead I laid them out on the floor and picked out a hanful of shells that I really liked and some I thought I may be able to use in the future. The rest I photographed in the sunlight to hang up and see all the time.

In September I wrote about a couple of artists that really impressed me at the Rittenhouse Fine Art Show here in Philly, and the show was held once again this past weekend. There were several of the same artists as last year (including most of the ones previously highlighted) and a couple of people who caught my eye for the first time this year. Two are printmakers (etching) and one is a very unique mixed-media painter.

Grant Silverstein www.grantsilverstein.com Etchings

Another Difficult Kiss

These etchings immediately brought back to life images from storybooks and historical illustrations, Renaissance romances and plagues. With subjects including myth & allegory, realism, nudes, landscapes, as well as miniature works, Silverstein’s etchings are infinitely fascinating to look at. The detail and style of each print draw the viewer in and invite them to stay for a while, to meditate on the subject as well as the technical mastery of the print. He has also illustrated two published books and has hundreds of prints to date, all of which can be previewed on his website.

Keith Grace www.grace-design.com Mixed Media Paintings

Ad Man Blue

Fun and bright, the work of Keith Grace caught me off guard. After spending a couple of minutes looking over the pieces on display I was unexpectedly hooked on the images. Part collage, part painting, part photography, these pieces are absolutely delightful and appealing to the eye. Perhaps they aren’t soothing in the diluted neutral bowl of fruit still life kind of way, but they certainly elicit a lifting of spirits and ease of demeanor. Grace has also launched a line of prints and products called “Hip Dog Cool Cat” based on his animal works which can be found at www.hipdogcoolcat.com.

Fuchsia & Hero Hat

George Raab www.georgeraab.com Etchings

Mystree V

Many of the prints in George Raab’s collection are extremely large and executed with such expertise that they appear to be vintage black and white images. Some of his pieces have also been colorized for an interesting effect. These large prints are both elegant and eerie, with a cool aura even during the hottest months.

Mystree VI

Have you seen President Obama’s Flickr Photostream?

At the beginning of the year I found myself in a couple of uninspired positions, including an empty sketchbook and dried up palette. Over the past couple of months, in an attempt to recharge the drawn and painted batteries I’ve been searching for what it is that has inspired or prompted other artists. More specifically, what do their sketchbooks, letters, and scraps of drawings look like? What were they thinking during the slow times as well as the explosive times? In the process I’ve picked up a couple of books that have reignited some of my creative exploration.

At the moment I’m about halfway through An Illustrated Life by Danny Gregory, and the inspiration to sketch all day every day is overwhelming. There seem to be a couple of cliches with many of the artists featured (a lot of New Yorkers, scribbling away in their Moleskines while waiting for the subway or train), but the work is so wide ranging in both content and talent. It has reminded me that I can really put whatever I want down in my sketchbook. I’m the type of person who’d like to have a couple of guidelines for my sketchbook (otherwise it’d be filled with grocery and to do lists), and it seems like with a little bit of thought and a lot of passion is really all you need to keep a sketchbook. Some of my sketchbook “rules” are:

1. No tearing out of pages – even if it’s incredibly terrible. If it really kills me I’ll gesso over it and draw something else.
2. Use every page. This is a new one since I’ve never finished an entire book, so it’s really more of a goal this time around.
3. Sketchbook is only for sketching and some supplementary writing. Unless it has something to do with the drawings on the pages it belongs in my separate journal. Some things have to be entirely private and other people look through my sketchbooks occasionally.

Other than that I’m open for anything these days. Flipping through An Illustrated Life has sparked so many new ideas while reading that I’m torn between reading more or putting it down and running to my sketchbook. It’s great to see rough thoughts of other artists rather than elegantly finished pieces hanging in a gallery. The sketchbook is a platform for personal and raw ideas which often translate much clearer in their preliminary forms than in a final image. If you’ve got a couple of minutes it’s definitely a book to peel through at the bookstore or checkout for further investigation at the library.

Over the past two weeks I was commissioned to paint up some backdrops for a children’s theater group and I’m here to report that they’re finished! (Yes, a vast empty white canvas was what my sweet turtle was crawling all over.) They were actually finished and delivered on Sunday but it took this long to get my life and apartment back together. Anyway, there were 3 sets:

1. 8′x6′ Classroom setting, original sketch and final backdrop:

2. 8′x12′ Kitchen setting, original sketch and final backdrop:

3. 8′x6′ Girl’s Bedroom setting, original sketch:

All in all, it was a fun project which I would undoubtebly do again. It was a little pressing doing all three of the rather large canvases in 2 weeks, but they came out mostly well. Hopefully I’ll get to see the show next week and get some photos of the backdrops in action!