Sue Clancy's Blog, page 43

time tavern sketchbook progress

The sketchbook I’m working on for the Brooklyn Art Library’s Sketchbook Project now has a name, a working title: “Time Tavern”.  As you can see from previous posts I’m thinking about time – and uses of time in cooking, food service, music and in telling wordless visual stories.

When I began this project I’d thought “Time Tavern” would be the title but I held off declaring it until I’d drawn a few pages.  Things sometimes change as a drawing progresses – particularly when I’m working on a wordless visual story.

In my earlier posts (see below for links) I’d shown close-ups of musicians and a chef at work. I’d also shown a birthday party in progress.  These 3 story strands are main ones – but they also need context in order to become a story.  The association or juxtaposition of images – and the sequence of them – is how I’m crafting my tale visually rather than by written words in a row.

The issue is how to do the same things writers who use written words do – plot movement, foreshadowing and character development – but in my case how to do those using only visual imagery.

As part of my original planning for this story I created a “layout” of the “Time Tavern” the pub setting where my story takes place.  This layout is part of my story strand weaving strategy.  Here you see my architectural layout:

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This architectural drawing won’t be included in my sketchbook – that’s just to help me organize my story.  The book to the side in the above photo is included as it shows me referring to my architectural drawing during work on that sketchbook page.

Below is one of the first setting drawings within my “Time Tavern” sketchbook – it shows the chef looking at his recipe cards. In the background you see the bartender looking at her recipe cards. You also see a bit of the stage area the musicians will use.  Perhaps you can see how I’ll be using my setting drawings as story context – and foreshadowing?

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I’m sure you’ll also note the large clocks in my settings – I’m using those as a story device to show the progression of time…

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Lots more to work to do…

My past posts regarding this project (so you can follow my progress) are here:  https://sueclancy.com/2017/08/10/sketchbook-project-progress/    https://sueclancy.com/2017/08/14/story-strands-in-my-sketchbook-project/  https://sueclancy.com/2017/08/16/sketchbook-progress-time/

General info about the Sketchbook Project is here: https://www.sketchbookproject.com/

sketchbook progress time

More progress in my sketchbook for the Brooklyn Art Library’s Sketchbook Project. As per my recent reading I’ve been thinking about time… and how food and music utilizes time.  So does sequential visual art. Anyway here’s some photos of my progress – and yes, I’m indulging by drawing some of my favorite recipes (for drinks and soup) as well as drawing metaphoric portraits of some of my favorite local musicians.

Here’s a link to the last post about this project (so you can follow my progress): https://sueclancy.com/2017/08/14/story-strands-in-my-sketchbook-project/

And here’s a post listing the books I’m currently reading (that I alluded to above): https://sueclancy.com/2017/08/07/reading-books-making-art-eating-popcorn/

story strands in my sketchbook project

I’m beginning the ink work on my sketchbook for the Brooklyn Art Library’s sketchbook project. I’m starting in the middle and working my way out. In my last post you saw me sewing the binding and adding a page that will fold out. The work you see in these photos is on that fold out page. It’s in the middle of the book.

The waiters are one of my story strands. The birthday party is another. The recipes are still another story strand. I’m doing my best to link them visually – non-verbally.  We’ll see how it goes. But it’s a fun experiment!  Photos of my most recent progress below.

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the beginning of a fold out sheet in a sketchbook by Clancy for the Brooklyn Art Library

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the inner spread prior to opening the folds

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the fold-out pages folded out

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the inner fold-out sheet folded back into the sketchbook

If you want to follow this thread here’s a direct link to my last post https://sueclancy.com/2017/08/10/sketchbook-project-progress/

sketchbook project progress

My first step in my work towards my Brooklyn Art Library Sketchbook Project was to brainstorm my story design.  I’m trying something new: weaving at least 3 different story strands together using a wordless picture book format. “Brainstorming” means that over several days I doodled on a few pieces of paper, doing thumbnail drawings, and writing my thoughts in long-hand. Many of my brain-storming thoughts were sparked by the books I’m reading now (see my last blog post for a book list). Eventually my idea for this project “gelled”.

The next thing is to rebind the sketchbook I’d gotten from The Sketchbook Project in accord with my design. I’ll be using a 5 hole pamphlet stitch because this allows me to securely add a new page that will open out larger than the original sketchbook.

In the photo below I’m cutting and folding the thin handmade paper to be inserted in my sketchbook.

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With my new paper now cut and folded I proceed to remove the staples from the bound sketchbook as it came to me from the Brooklyn Art Library.  I have my sewing needle and my black linen thread ready for sewing my new binding with the new cut and folded paper.  The wooden handled awl will be used to poke the holes for the thread. I’ll be reusing the holes made by the staples and adding one more hole.

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Below you can see my almost finished binding and a bit of the way the new paper will unfold from the book.  Now I’ll finish off the stitch and trim the excess thread.

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In case you’re following my project’s progress my last post about it is here: https://sueclancy.com/2017/08/01/me-and-the-sketchbook-project/

General info about The Brooklyn Art Library and The Sketchbook Project is here: https://www.sketchbookproject.com/

reading books making art eating popcorn

Below are some books I’m currently reading that are “feeding” many of my upcoming art projects. That’s art exhibits, illustration projects and yes even my sketchbook work for The Sketchbook Project I blogged about last post.  Even though it may seem that I produce a random variety of things – there’s a uniformity to my randomness and it begins with what I read. I see all of the things I make as telling a visual/tactile story about being human, enjoying life and living well.  And to help me develop my visual story I read…

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In case you can’t see all the titles in the picture they are:

“Wonderland; How play made the world” by Steven Johnson

“Books for Living” by Will Schwalbe

“The Creative Spark; How imagination made humans exceptional” by Agustin Fuentes

“The Foundations of Mindfulness” by Eric Harrison

“Like Water for Chocolate” by Laura Esquivel

All of these books relate to themes I’ve been working with artistically for some time now:

How being willing to try new foods, to eat diverse foods, has helped us develop biologically as physical human beings. And how it helps us still.

Playing music, playing games, “playing” with our food – each kind of play in it’s own way has helped humans as a species develop and maintain physical and mental structures as individuals – and also social structures as communities. This is still true today. When we do not take time to play we hurt ourselves and each other.

Reading books (and writing them) has helped us – as a species – to pass on information so that each generation doesn’t have to completely reinvent the world from scratch.  This ability to collect information, and learn from it, informs our abilities to play – to playfully combine/recombine things – helping us to develop and maintain our mental skills.

Which leads me to mindfulness. Mindfulness for me is the human ability to pay attention, to focus attention and also to have a state of open/non-judgmental acceptance – curiosity even. This is essential to developing, having and keeping our human ability to imagine and be creative.  Mindfulness is part of being able to play and learn…and being able to play and learn is a way of being mindful. And for me, keeping a sketchbook, making art, is at it’s heart an exercise in playful mindfulness – but more about that in another post.

The novel by Esquivel is included in my current reading list because woman does not live by non-fiction alone.

Now please pass the popcorn. Thank you.

me and the sketchbook project

I’m participating in The Sketchbook Project – https://www.sketchbookproject.com/ and I’m excited about it! I love the democracy of the project. That us professional artists are on a shelf along with school teachers or students, with college kids and with art-as-a-hobby enthusiasts. I love it that we’re all in this sketchbook project together!

I’ll be trying something experimental with my sketchbook. I’ll be working at creating a somewhat wordless story that combines my interests in food, music and…. dogs!

Here’s what I got in the mail from The Sketchbook Project:

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And yes, I’ll post updates periodically about my progress.

demo dogs done

Here are the 6 pieces I created last night during my 3 hour demo at Burnt Bridge Cellars. I worked on these dog portraits while people talked, drank wine, watched me work and asked me questions. One of the staff at the winery took a brief moment to watch and said “Oh! Each of your pieces have either a glass of wine or a wine bottle in them!”  I grinned and said “Yes, I’m aware of where I am!” And everyone laughed. It was a fun evening! Thanks again everyone!

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Dog portrait’s Clancy did during a demo at the Burnt Bridge Cellars winery

5 dog drawing demo directions by Clancy

Tomorrow at Burnt Bridge Cellars I’ll be signing copies of my book “Dogs by Sue Clancy” and doing a dog drawing demonstration.  This means you can drink wine while watching me work.  Here are 5 things I think about when getting ready for a dog drawing demo:

What dogs shall I draw? I plan in advance, sketching lightly in pencil, what dog breeds I’ll draw during the live-action demo. In other words before I even go to the demo I’ve already done the largest part of the “creativity” and double checked my dog-breed drawing accuracy.  This way people can talk to me while I’m doing the demo and I don’t need to be concentrating on getting a dog breed drawn correctly.
Locate my demo apron. Ink is messy. ‘nuf said.
Pack all necessary materials in one portable container in a “push-here-dummy” fashion. People will often start talking to me while I’m setting up to work. So I make sure to have all of my necessary materials packed – but I also take care to pack in such a way that I can unpack in a distracted manner and still be set up correctly to work. Keep it simple!
Remember to smile and talk to people. A demo is about sharing – not about zoning out into creative never-land.  So if a drawing isn’t “perfect” because I was answering someone’s question and not paying attention to where my ink was dripping – I don’t sweat it – in fact I’ll freely tell people that 90 percent of being an artist is knowing how to fix mistakes.
When the demo is done I make sure to thank everyone for coming, for hosting the demo – for doing anything anyone did that helped me out.  The world doesn’t owe me a thing. In fact I’m grateful I get to do what I love for a living – and people around me help make that possible.  So in advance: THANK YOU!!!!!!!

Here’s me in my demo apron

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And if you’ve just arrived at this party you can find copies of (or info about) my book “Dogs by Sue Clancy” on Amazon or here: https://store.bookbaby.com/book/Dogs-By-Sue-Clancy

Other relevant links:

Burnt Bridge Cellars http://www.burntbridgecellars.com/

Caplan Art Designs http://www.caplanartdesigns.com/

 

memory music mountains and living rooms

Sweetie and I did a short road trip to Mount St. Helens in Washington. We hiked around, saw a lot of birds. Sweetie heard the birds singing and said they were quite a musical chorus.  At the visitor’s center people “danced” about getting photos in front of the mountain. I drew this in my sketchbook using ink and watercolor:

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Sketchbook page by Sue Clancy

Then at the visitor’s center we went into the Mount. St. Helens gift shop. From past experience we’ve learned that their collection of books for sale on the topics of botany, zoology and biology is a gold mine. Several books come home with us each trip. This time was no exception. One of the titles that came home with us is “Natural History of the Pacific Northwest Mountains.” by Daniel Mathews.

On page 429 I read (about birds caching food) “Phenomenal ability to remember precise locations evolved separately in the chickadees and the jays that cache food for winter, and in many migrating species. Some of these species have nonmigratory or noncaching relatives whose powers of recall don’t amount to diddley squat.  Another kind of memory that must be worth holding on to is a male warbler’s memory of conspecific males’ songs.  As long as each singer remembers his neighbor’s song from the year before, and stays on his own territory, both are spared a fight. They remember songs from year to year as they return from Central America to reclaim their old haunts.”

That got me to thinking about the traveling troubadours of ancient times.  And from that thought I migrated (pun intended) to thinking of how, here in the Pacific Northwest, there is a “new” tradition of traveling musicians who give what is called “living room concerts” in private homes.  The home-owner hosts the musicians, putting them up for a night or two, and invites a number of family and friends to come to a concert. A certain amount of money is collected per attendee and most of that money goes to the musician.  The musician also sells their CD’s and what not during the evening.

I’m quite addicted to this ‘living room concert’ tradition. I find that even though I’m deaf I can “hear” the music better in a small intimate setting. There are also several local small independent theatres – and there’s fairly good hearing there too. My point being that the music I’ve heard since we’ve lived here in the Pacific Northwest has inspired a lot of my recent artwork. And I suspect this trend will continue.

The concept of a birds ability to remember where they put their food also made me think about the seasonal offerings at the local Pacific Northwest restaurants.  When I say “seasonal offering” I mean it. There’s a short time when a certain fruit or veg is available at the local farms so the pubs and restaurants will offer special dishes that use that fruit/veg and then when it’s gone. It’s gone.

We’ve lived here long enough now that I’m beginning to remember, for example, what pubs will offer the “fresh asparagus ‘fries’ ” during peak asparagus season. I’m also remembering which farmers market stands sell the freshest berries and apples. I love the seasonal randomness it’s like a perpetual surprise party but the ability to remember what is ripe during what season is helpful to know.

Needless to say I’ve been artistically inspired by the food. And that’ll prolly (as they say here) continue too.

There’s something about memory and food and music…. something that I just itch to make fine art about. So stay tuned. (pun intended again)

drawing more dogs in the winery

Next week at Burnt Bridge Cellars the evening of the 27th I’ll be doing another art demo and signing copies of my book “Dogs by Sue Clancy”.  This means that you can drink wine while watching me draw dogs in permanent ink.

I’ve a whole exhibit’s worth of artwork hanging in Burnt Bridge Cellars. My exhibit is titled “Dogs In The Winery” and in this post are a few examples of what you’ll see at the exhibit.  The new artworks I’ll make on the 27th while you watch will be like the black and white ones you see in this post – and in my book “Dogs By Sue Clancy” https://store.bookbaby.com/book/Dogs-By-Sue-Clancy

More relevant links:  www.burntbridgecellars.com  www.caplanartdesigns.com