Just some additional miscellaneous Good Things
about our art field trip day:
Really, what is more fun than sitting around a cozy living room full of artists and looking at books and talking All-Art-All-the-Time!? The visiting and questions and comparing of notes was certainly a highlight.
As is seeing all the
accoutrements that an artist living artfully surrounds himself with. Even
Richard Jesse Watson's sketchbooks were a thing of coolness and creativity.
As were his 3-D creations. I *loved* this approach to picture books.
RJW says that he tries to always do something to 'prime' the current creation - be it spending time at the zoo doing life drawings of chimpanzees (as for "
The Boy Who Went Ape" book - sketchbook seen above) or building a model of the rocket-sleigh his Santa drives in his version of "
The Night Before Christmas". I love making three dimensional objects but when I'm under contract don't feel like I can justify the time. This approach makes it *part* of the project and therefore a perfect excuse! (I am happier when I am working in a variety of media, so yet another good strategy for avoiding burnout or stagnation).
Another fun detail of note were all of the light fixtures - most of which had been made over out of various found materials - pipes, car parts,
colanders, etc... Personal touches at every turn.
And to top off our visit, we all got signed and personalized versions of the books of his that we purchased. (I must practice more so that I don't freeze up at the thought of drawing Sharpie pictures on the title pages of my books that someone has just paid good money for. :-)
And we ended our arty day at
RJW's suggestion by going to a local gallery to see the art and listen to his friends, the artists,
Cory and Catska Ench talk about their life, painting and collaborating. They were a charming and crazy-talented couple - who work successfully in a wide variety of art genres (and are musicians to boot).
*
A day well spent, I say!
We had discussed various online networking and marketing approaches during out day together, and I tried rather strenuously to twist his arm re: blogging, I think. :-) For not entirely self-less reasons either. He is a completely delightful human being, who (along with his equally delightful wife) leads a rather enviable, thoroughly artistic life. And I, for one, am looking forward to reading more about it as it happens.
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