Music Monday - Dreams to Dream -

Yeah, I know it's from an old animated film, but it is still inspiringly beautiful....

Succulent Saturday (field trip!) - the Seattle Library

Awhile back I got to visit the architectural oddity that is the Seattle Central Library-

It was completed in 2004 - to both acclaim and ridicule,,,

They have maps at the front door - which you totally need. It is huge, and oddly laid out. And as you can see, the upper floors are all angled. If you drop a marble on the top floor, it would roll all the way down to the bottom.

The escalators leading up to these angled floors are a brightly lit frighteningly acrid yellow-green. You can't miss them at least.

You pass one level, known as 'the red floor' (and walls and ceilings and doors and stairs) which looks for all the world like walking through an enormous intestinal tract...

The multipley-manned information desks came complete with moving LCD text boards...

The view as you get higher - the floors and books are all around the perimeter, which become more and more industrial looking. The center is empty all the way up...

The view down to one of the reading areas...

The view into the central 'courtyard' (see the fluorescent escalators???  They might blind you!). The other things are bookshelves - arranged rather haphazardly...

And as you get near the outside walls, it feels rather like an atrium...

So I've seen it. Twas interesting to see to be sure. What is less sure is if I ever need to do it again...

Gallery Friday -

 Tonight, my critique group got to attend fellow-member, the lovely Michelle's, open to her gallery show.

 She had an impressive collection of paintings - big and small.

 This large one was "The Cabinet of Curiousities" (my personal favorite. Wish I had an extra $1000).

She had a wonderful variety of subject matter - from architectural landscapes from her month-long stint in Europe last year -

-to drawings of sculpture from the same trip,

to portraits, and still lifes - from her quirky collection of antique-objects-of-great-character.

(The wine-and-cheese table was decorated with some of these fabulous finds).

Here's the bulk of our POBL group - loved the show, and reveled in the after-show Thai food next door together. Critique groups are not just great - they are vital for artistic growth. And sanity. Thanks gals.

WIP Wednesday - Greensleeves

I've been chugging along on some personal work (here I am returning to my Greensleeves piece). As a side-note, I've also been trying to learn my various calibration tools - attempting to calibrate both my monitors as well as my scanner and printer... So far, I have not been very happy with the results (as in the above picture differs significantly from the actual painting...)  More to learn!

Succulent (late) Saturday, ie. the Harry Potter Exhibit

Got to spend a lovely evening in Seattle with friends...

Seattle is a beautiful town, especially at dusk. Glass windows and sculptures are figured prominently...

We took a stroll across the Seattle Center - pass the EMP/SFM (Experience Music Project/Science Fiction Museum - which has the best logo evAR) - which is sporting signage for the current Battlestar Galactica Exhibit -

- and the Space Needle is always an impressive sight at night...

But it was the Pacific Science Center - specifically, The Harry Potter Exhibit that we were there to see.

Sadly they wouldn't let us take any photos at the exhibit (which was pretty spectacular) - so I had to buy various swag, including an exhibition book to commemorate... (Even the bags were cool.)

You can see a bit of the exhibit on the video at this link, or I can give you a glimpse of the exhibit book -

(The photos are not as clear as I wish in the book, nor as close-up in most cases - but it it pretty darn comprehensive...)

It was incredibly fun to see. Wish I could have lived there! :-)

Lovely night, great company,and fabulous exhibit. Yay.

Figure Friday - (plus, *Fowl*!)

Long pose day, so only a few, brief warm-up gestures..

Long pose, toned paper - about 2 hours...

It stopped raining long enough to take a brief meander outside, and remember what a lovely place I have to go drawing every week... This time of year, we have an enormous paddling of ducks that hangs out around our buildings ( a small sampling of which you can see here...)

Lots of ducks - mallards, wood ducks, domestic white ducks, as well as Canadian geese and a number of crows....

...all being herded around a bit by the various local, lovely roosters...

...and to celebrate, I ate a curried chicken pasty from the British tea shop next door. An all bird day!

WIP Wednesday - Baba Yaga

I've been experiencing a little bit of deadline-downtime and thought I'd try to wrap up some of my unfinished projects that have been laying around and glaring at me balefully from various parts of the studio...  This one is my version of Baba Yaga - and I suspect you don't want to make her mad!

(If all goes well,  I'll submit the ones that are effective to Spectrum next week. Good practice at least...)

Music Monday - Saving Grace

It's ironic how much of my contemporary music exposure is from TV and/or movies (I haven't listened to the radio since the 80s - how else are you exposed to new things? I guess Pandora is my other source).

From the now defunct Saving Grace... Loved the theme song.

Sunday Sketching -

Tiny heads in my teensy purse Moleskine.

Only one more spread and this one is full!

Figure Friday -

 1 minute gestures...

 5 minute poses -

 10 minutes -

20 minutes and 40  minutes....

Music Monday - Theme from Caprica

I watched the final five episodes of the short-lived Caprica this weekend. They got progressively more compelling and I'm sad that the series is canceled. But Bear McCreary continues to be my current favorite TV-music composer, and I am posting Caprica's opening credits in his and the show's honor.


Youtube won't let me embed the equally awesome visuals that accompanied the opening theme, but you can watch it here - highly recommended 46 seconds of awesome.

Sunday Sketching -

Today's quickie heads in the teeny purse-Moleskine balanced upon my knee....

Figure Friday -

 It's amazing what a small vacation from drawing will do....

 It's been 3 weeks since my last life drawing session, and I've drawn very little during that time due to vacation, holidays, etc...

 And my drawing abilities seems to atrophy frighteningly quickly! Boy, it was hard today trying to get figures down with any semblance of proportion or value...

Hopefully I'll pick it up again relatively quickly (or at least within another 3 weeks?) Goes to show that there is no taking time off if you want to keep up the skillz....

WIP Wednesday, er Thursday

I've been working (unsuccessfully) towards cleaning the studio since mid-December. Decided it was possessed and needed clearing or smudging or a full-out exorcism or something. I did burn some sweetgrass incense and finally started making serious headway this week -

 It still could use a serious sorting and purging, but at least it is currently navigable, and I am hoping to now get some more studio-specific work done. 

 (Studio Cat gives me the stink-eye in case I am even thinking about touching her studio nest...)

Here's to a most creative and productive 2011!