Working Through the Memorial Day Weekend

My days have somewhat worked into a routine where I get up, drink coffee, start working on my National Board portfolio, exercise, nap, read, and so on.  I feel as if the days are slow and comfortable yet I fear they will pass by much too rapidly.  I am enjoying the moment.

This artwork a day is certainly representative of the fact that my mind is currently wrapped around portfolio 4 of the National Board entry.  It is titled "A Writing Framework", is 6" x 6", and made of acrylic paint, papers, and a button on watercolor paper.  Portfolio 4 is a documentation of accomplishments and contributions to student learning.  It is the only portfolio entry that I can really work on before school starts.  I am trying to build an outline to work from when I take the National Board workshop in early June.  I will post how that goes.
This entry is short.  I have more work to do plus I would like to paint or work on a drawing this afternoon.  I will see how that goes.

I did get a couple of quick artworks finished before the Memorial Day Weekend came to a close.  This one, "Forever", is my last 6" x6" artwork a day for the month of May.  I applied the base image using matte medium as a photo transfer, then added a thin blue ribbon to each side of the image.  I then strung black and blue seed beads along the woman's back.  To finish it off, I added the forever stamp, like a tattoo, on her butt.  The stamp is a little strong, but I liked the added a color and sense of humor the head of the statue of liberty added to the collage.

I also made a graduation collage for my niece Kimmy.  I started with a photograph of Kimmy when she was a little girl (eating eichuka).  To this I added memorabilia from the graduation event and a photograph of Kimmy that Mike took at the graduation ceremony.  The key was added to symbolize doors opening to her future.  The collage is 8" x 8" and I put it in a white frame for Kimmy.  It is titled "A Lot can Happen in 21 Years".

I did work on 3 unfinished oil paintings that I had brought home form school.  I should be able to finish each of them in the coming week.  I hope June is a productive month with relaxing and fun experiences.

It has been a long time!

My last post was almost 2 months ago.  Wow!  It's not like I haven't been making any art as I have been going to my Tuesday night life drawing sessions.  Honestly though, other than the life drawings and my small daily collages, I haven't been working on any thing spectacular.  I have been busy finishing up at school for the year and I have been taking a National Teacher Certification Pre-Candidacy course which has filled up my mind and my time.  I have a candidacy number and have applied for the scholarship money that would pay for the National Board certification process.  I am scheduled for a 4-day workshop in early June which focuses on what I need to do concerning the entire process.  Then, once school starts up again in August, I jump in and start working on my portfolios which will be due in March 2012.  I am both excited and anxious about the process so my blog will deal a lot with what is happening on that front.

 The first 4 examples are of my daily collages where I have been using images from magazines transferred to the paper with matte medium.  Can you tell that my new subscription to National Geographic has influenced my work?

These last 2 images come from my Tuesday night life drawing session.  I am very grateful to have found this group to draw with!

This post is short, but I am off to do some pre-candidacy work/thinking.