Still movie making!

    Movie making continues from last month. I found I could Save a movie to a Quicktime video on iCloud for a limited time, or load it onto DropBox where people all over the world could see it. Friends were very gracious to brag on it.

     Surprisingly, Joe decided he wanted a movie. I suggested he make his own, that it is easy. People don't realize how simple it is or they are not so interested in the craft. Hard to imagine, for the ease and fun is what drew me in to learning and buying a computer. And Joe could choose his own music!

     I found I couldn't make Joe a movie similar to mine.I realized it has to be his relationship to me. So I chose Linda Rondstadt's Someone to Watch Over Me. I titled it "The Watchman," but will surely change it to Watch Over Me. I don't sound too liberated...but those are the facts. I didn't take it too seriously...just relaxed while dropping photos onto the line of music in iMovie (see last month's post).

     I highly recommend making a big deal out of major birthdays and a movie gets you started., The movie is so therapeutic to return to often in order to tweak it. As in editing an article, editing is never over. Plus, Linda Rondstadt has an amazing voice that is so relaxing. Sorry I lost her CDs in the fire, but they are on my computer! What an artist, she!

Sometimes you have a photo and want to paint it

    Sometimes you have a photo and want to paint it, regardless. Painting is never easy, no matter what. The most fun was taking grandchild's photo of Harry on a rug and making a quick sketch of it to see if an oil could be interesting. I was surprised a black dog showed up better on more color! I had the painting 3/4 finished when it was time for bed, so I scribbled on the last 1/4 of the canvas to use up the paint, and the brushing made the little canvas one I love. I intended to return to the painting, perfect the rug, and give Harry more dimension; but I like it as it is, messy and lovable, intractable like him.

    Next, Joe wanted me to paint the photo of Hannah running in a track meet. The frame helps. Then, I thought I would make a quick portrait of Joe and dog in the reading chair. Straight from a photo (almost), it needs something more interesting...a bigger rendition, wilder colors, Gauguin type composition? But sometimes this is all one is ready to do. I've been looking at paintings at the Clark, Fogg and MFA, am inspired to paint more, and this is a toe back in the water..

     With my new pochade box and the urban sketch group inspiration, I must work more from life, but this was fine for lazy summer's play which for me was really getting back to work. The three aren't framed yet, but Joe will do!

March Madness with oils, yarn and wood

      School is over, but I am cheered to be painting in oils again rather than acrylics. I changed models and Joe was the victim. Also, I worked on and added to some of the self portraits (last blog) and did a painting that only the children, their mother and I like. I wanted to paint them in front of the stage set of our house which they love, but it was too saccharine. So,  I added above the house, part of Rousseau's The War to suggest the troubled times that hover over the world. Nothing connected or was unifying, so I took fence, windows and flowers from Rousseau's other paintings, but I couldn't paint the children in his naif style. An art teacher once said that if you try to paint in another's style, it won't work the same, because you will miss some elements that unify, make it original and fresh. Click photos to enlarge.

       For a break, Joe and I headed to NYC and ended up looking at a lot of contemporary art. What variety! I won't say "anything goes," but the thought is liberating. In the car on the drive home, I crocheted a Ninja, brontosaurus or alligator scarf for David. He had asked, "Linlin, will you make me a scarf?" when he saw my knitting the girls one. He will never use it, probably, but I stitched 2 1/2 feet from NYC to Boston. It was hard to get back to crocheting, but I kept trying and now I am fast. I was interested to see the pattern the yarn made. I tried knitting it, but the crochet made a better design.

        On return home, Joe cut back panels for the 1/4 inch plywood tile squares Beth cut for and corralled the children at the elementary school to paint for a fund raiser. Joe sanded the edges and glued them on the birch panels and evened the sides with his power saw. He varnished with polyurethane and added hangers. The class offerings will be auctioned.

      At the same time,  I took up Kathryn's new beginning art class charge to use cad red, cad yellow, ultramarine blue and black and white to paint gradations of these colors. That was fun, but I realized that the turpentine from my earlier painting life seemed a bit toxic. I did some research and think that Gamblin has made some healthy offerings for painters these days. They list these at their website re "studio safety." I will use more brushes in the future and try Gamsol. I am looking forward to making 8 or 9 blocks for Katie's quilt for Project Hope, a children's book theme, all after Easter this weekend.
Spring brings new life :*) Thanks for dropping by!

Drawing Joe at LindaDrawingTime

      What do you blog about when you have a series of failures? Something else. However, although I still have hope for the botched quilt, I have been getting used to my new computer. I had to exchange the new one and start over. Since my last posting, I did find I could project old Super 8 movies onto a screen, film the old reels with iPhone or Flip, then digitize and edit on the computer. The results were good but not great since the old projector is deficient. I finally took two movies, rolls of The Ram (live action) and Beowulf (claymation) made by son (he just turned 50) when he was in junior high, to Costco to have the short movies put on a DVD. Theoretically, in a month, I can take the .VOB files and raw footage off the DVD to put on my computer for better results, music and more. Do we see hope, or more failures.  And I like visuals in my blog.

      In the meantime, I must not delay a posting. Thinking NYC would be fun for the holidays or sometime soon, I enjoyed reading Deborah Soloman's article in the New York Times on the paintings that the great artist Cezanne made of his wife Hortense, many of which are at the Metropolitan Museum. According to Soloman, Hortense "sat for 29 paintings by her husband and smiles in none of them." Hortense has suffered verbal abuse by critics and artists but Soloman is glad Cezanne's wife and mother of his son is having her day with drawings, watercolors and 24 paintings from over a period of 20 years. "Aha!" thought I. To get into the zeitgeist, I will show a few paintings and sketches that I have done of Joe. I seldom paint anyone smiling and certainly not myself as you may know from my website (which may go by the way with the new computer since Apple no longer supports iWeb). It was great to get back to my wild sketchbooks. Enjoy my favorite model who mostly smiles in real life. Click to enlarge the photos, I hope!

A Week with Art on the Go: four things

   In order not to lose my website in June, when Apple drops Mobile Me, I had the task to find a domain name for myself (http://Lindahicksweb.com). At Go Daddy where I chose this new URL, I found I could upload my present website for them to host. Task one (big deal) complete.

   Earlier, we had Easter ahead of time with the grandchildren and I especially liked the photos of Joe reading to the children. I may want to use them to develop a big painting.

   Recovery was at Summer Shack where I sketched Joe on the table cloth. He always picks up the crayons meant for children as we are led to our booth. That was the art for the week, except for the Sashiko I embroidered in the car on the way home from NYC as we listened to a CD recording of London: a History, by A.N.Wilson.

Click to enlarge photos.

The Brave Robin: a July Journal Quilt

    April showers bring May flowers, but in July, Joe's watering plants encouraged a guest who likes to play in the sprinklers.

     A long weekend prompted Joe to purchase some more plants and to keep his earlier efforts alive. Every morn he waters the hanging gardens and other hopefuls; and every morning this skinny robin pads right up to be sprayed. Today Robin Redbreast brought a friend who was not so bold. The sparrows are equally interested to run through the rain but they keep their distance.

click on photo to enlarge

   This is my fifth journal quilt on the theme of Beginnings...in this case, beginning the day. I found the bird print and the batik that looked like sprayed water at JoAnne's. I fused the square to the batik and then machine-blanket-quilted around three sides with a zigzag at the top. What to do for the hose, I wondered, late at night. I looked in a drawer and found some yellow piping which I first basted in place and then machine stitched. Next, I cut close to the stitching so I probably should find some fray stopper for greater security. For the hose nozzle, I again used three widths of zig zagging. I sew with gray thread and use Sharpie permanent markers to blend on both sides. For the binding I fused on strips of fabric and then secured with stitching.

     I probably should get out some of my bead drops to sprinkle over the piece for water. Where as I spend only two hours on my 8" x 8" journal quilts, these 12" x 12" pieces are bigger and seem more serious. I haven't decided how much time to spend on something due every fortnight.

Super Joe to the Rescue: a journal quilt

   Usually I make an 8" x 8" journal quilt a week, in a couple of hours; but given all the recent exciting events, of Bill's traveling and accepting a position in NYC and the grandchildren's moving away, I have fallen behind. One reason was I simply could not think of a way to capture the idea of Joe's taking care of the three grandchildren in extraordinary situations.

    I thought of Juggler Joe and had them pose...but nothing came to mind that I could do in a couple of hours. Finally, I decided to portray Joe as Superman, answering many calls from the parents, rushing to their home. I found some fabric to do the job. You can click to enlarge.

Father's Day Laborers

Father's Day, Joe pruned the bushes and made frames for the girls' Jackson Pollock-like drip paintings, created in school on canvas. He said it was fun to be making frames again. (Hint hint) He wanted to go to Summer Shack for a family dinner and that was his reward. He braced the backs of the canvas and then put strips of lattice work on the sides.

I helped with the gardening and then threw together the three 12 1/2" blocks I had signed up to do for Katie's Project Hope nautical theme quilt, due in July. I hope to do more. Most people improve as they go along. I think I am getting messier and weirder in my handiwork. Maybe I need to retrieve my old A Type personality. Unfortunately I didn't "measure twice and cut once" and had to come up with a solution. The flags spell both "Play" and "Vote", and were the only words I could come up with from the flag scraps. I need to get back to work!