I'm Having a Cow A to Z Challenge

 I took this picture years ago on the Aron Islands on a photography trip. I have wanted to play with sketching it ever since.

What does Cow have to do with art?  Have you noticed the colorful cow art that is around these days?

They have sweet faces & are fun to draw. 

  This hangs on the wall in the office of one of my bosses...a hand surgeon.

 Doing more sketching is something I want to add to my artful life. My skills need honing to be sure, but I am putting it out there for all of you to see. Maybe next year I should do a sketch a day in April & see how I progress.

Close to the Bone Day 2 A to Z Challenge

B is for Bone. A wonderful medium for tools used in book binding as well as other paper arts. Silky, translucent, hard, durable. They are a joy to hold.

 Bone folders are indispensable. I have 3, so far, & this little guy is my favorite! The tip is perfect for scoring paper for folding. The curve just right for creasing or smoothing down glued items.

Made by Jim Croft. A masterful book binder, tool maker, throw back to an earlier time. If you are curious take a cruise around their site. Off the grid, use of raw materials, talk about building an artful life, this couple has done it to the extreme.

 Another rock star in the bone implement arena is Shanna Leino. As it happens she moved to a town very close to mine recently, I want to learn to make these tools from her! Both Shanna & Jim sell their folders at Talas

 Another fabulous bookbinder, tool maker is Brien Beidler.I had the opportunity to meet him & get a tour of his work a couple years back. If you have time check out his work on his site.

 

 I have had these two for about 17 years, since I began book binding. They go everywhere with me if I think any art will be involved.

Driven to Abstraction

My fascination with art & art history gained traction when I took a contemporary art history class as a freshman in college. I went on to take graduate level art history classes as an undergrad at Michigan State Univ.  Dada, Abstract Expressionism, those things were not my favorites then, but I've gained an appreciation in recent years.

Wassily Kandinsky ranks up there on my list of favorites. I'm a sucker for strong color.

Mark Rothko's simple strong  pieces give me ideas for layering color in
 monoprints on a Gelli plate.  Again the colors grab me.

Dada is strange, but appealing from a collage & assemblage perspective . Leave it to the Germans to be weird. That happens to be my heritage, so I can say that.

 My feeling is that abstract art is seeing a resurgence.

Jane Davies gets my admiration. her sense of balance & color are striking.

My friend Sharon Kelley took a class from Jane last summer & has been churning out little masterpieces ever since.

 My own venture into abstract done during out play day. 

See you tomorrow!