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I took these photos last year in my backyard but am only now getting around to posting them. The first two are the iconic California Poppy, the third are tiny flowers I don't remember (but know I took the photo with my reverse lens), the last photo is of star jasmine's interesting pinwheel shape.
flowers (37), garden (21), jasmine (2), poppy (1)
Hamilton holding a blue-bellied lizard for me to photograph. Taken with a Nikon D300 with a 50mm lens on backward to get close.
creatures (34), hamilton (4), hands (2), lizards (4), macro (11), potter-valley (65), reverse-lens (5)
When my siblings get together, our conversation often goes into the realms of quantum physics, science vs religion, spirituality, "magical thinking", consciousness, medicine, healing, singularity, etc.... There are usually a few who dominate the debates while others sit by and occasionally chime in, or busy themselves preparing food, and the children play together in a world apart from the adult colloquy.
There are four children in the newest generation: my three nieces and one nephew, though my older brother's two daughters have been living mostly in Japan the past year. From that generation, this Mother's Day weekend visit to my parent's house included only Bella as her older brother stayed home sick with their father.
Immediately after arrival, the adult siblings went at it with each other, and even I got myself involved in the dialog after turning my father's espresso strength coffee into a couple iced coffees (partly diluted by Alicia's ingenious coconut milk based "non-dairy creamer" invention) and drinking enough to see an increase of color saturation in the world and make my brain feel like it was full of helium with electrically charged colloidal lead.
I became aware of Bella's behavior on the sidelines, her complaints of tiredness, and Alicia considering if Bella was coming down with an illness. I offered to take Bella out on the pond in the raft and she began to cheer up. Bella and I played pirates in the boat, keeping a watch on the shore where the pirate zombies were gathering to eat us, and staying clear of the water where the pirate zombie fish were waiting to bite at our limbs. After our playtime Bella's energy and mood had substantially improved and I realized how draining or boring it must have been to be the only child among adults having such a tired discussion.
Children need to play and children need other children, even if it's an adult pretending along with them.
bella (5), boating (2), family (35), pond (3), potter-valley (65)
Even though I've had a varied background in arts, crafts, and drafting through childhood and high school, as well some college education in digital arts (Photoshop, Illustrator) and a couple art classes on composition and color theory, I've never felt well trained or skilled in the art of drawing: creating a 2-dimensional rendering of the 3-dimensional world by hand. I knew it would be good for me but the thought of taking a drawing class made me feel fear, so I avoided it. After leaving school, I continued to feel like developing such a skill would be beneficial to my job as a graphic designer and to growing in my arts and crafts hobbies. In the fall of 2009 I finally found the courage to take a Drawing and Composition class at the Santa Rosa Junior College. Following, are the assignments, in class and as homework, as well as a few items from the sketchbook we were required to keep.
A couple of the first classes focused on beginning to really see objects and develop eye/hand coordination. One of these exercises (with no examples so show here because I think mine always look so terrible) was to create "continuous line drawings" of objects, by drawing the contours of an object without lifting the tip of the pencil from the paper. We also made large drawings of charcoal marks using big arm movements, called "gesture drawing" and began to render the mass of objects. We were taught that using these exercises — making gesture or continuous-line drawings — was a good warm-up before moving on to more detailed drawings of a subject.
The next lessons focused on organizing line and proportion by penciling in planning marks and creating searching lines, isolating and enclosing space to take measurement of parts.
In order to learn about the containing shapes and how they fit together, we used pencil to draw just the contours of items, showing volume and shape without rendering light, shadow, or texture. These are some of my sketchbook drawings using the contour line:
The next lesson was devoted to organic objects, the textures and contours. We were told to use a mixture of pencil and charcoal to see how the two mediums interacted.
Several classes followed which discussed value, the differences between white, black, and the grays in-between. We created value scales using pencil to learn the layering and pressure techniques to create equal value steps in a 10 value scale, rendered stacks of cubes using the values on the different sides, and a sphere using all the categories of light. The first drawing assignment was of a 3-dimensional folded paper with half and full circles cut out or popped out, standing up, with light shining through.
Then we drew objects with charcoal on newsprint, rubbing them out, and drawing over them, to create an interesting layered effect as a warm-up exercise before doing a 2-value drawing of the same objects: solid black and white shapes. Another value assignment was to do a 4-value drawing of objects by first hand-toning white paper using charcoal and then wiping it off to get an even midpoint value, then, one at a time, using black, dark gray, light gray, and white in drawing the objects. White was created by erasing, or "working reductively".
Moving on in value studies, we did a single-directional hatch drawing (straight diagonal lines) with pencil to emphasis light over volume.
After doing several fast warm up gesture drawings of stacked cups, we drew a stack of white cups, fully rendering categories of light: cast shadow, reflected light, core of the shadow, shadow, light and high light. Also following, are also some of sketchbook drawings that proceeded this assignment.
We did several perspective studies, using one and two point perspective, drawing cubes and then learning the technique of drawing a stairway in two point perspective. We were given a complex assignment to draw a cut away view of imaginary space starting with a horizon line and a checkered ground plane then adding walls, stairway, cubes, cones, pyramids, columns, doors, and windows.
In class one night the instructor draped fabric and we were to render the values and contours using charcoal.
Our midterm "exam" was to draw pottery the instructor placed out for us, including broken pieces. I really enjoyed the class critique on my drawing and found it especially cool that the instructor thought it was narrative and told a mystery story. A crime was committed.
We moved on to study texture the next week or two. The following images are a simulated texture drawing assignment, a large drawing of a small toy dinosaur assignment, and a sketchbook drawing of bamboo.
The next two classes focused on teaching ink drawing techniques, using India ink with a pen and nib. In these evenings we drew a bottle and then a deer skull, using cross hatching, parallel hatching, short hatching, and/or stippling (dots) to make tonal gradations.
We worked on portraits one night. This is the charcoal portrait I did of classmate Lorelle. The assigned homework of a self-portait is not going to appear here.
After learning to use India ink, we got to pick up the colored pencils and draw a cow skull. We had the use of four colors: canary yellow, ultramarine blue, crimson red, and black. I separated the warm and cool colors "which gives the drawing a sense of time and place. As in the last glowing rays of the sun as it sets", as my instructor put it in his blog post featuring my drawing.
One evening we did an exercise called "Exquisite Corpse", based on the French Surrealists' game of folding a page into thirds and drawing on one third, then passing it around to have the other thirds completed by two other artists. We were not allowed to look at the other parts of the drawing, but to only make two marks on the next section so that the next student knew where to begin. My first drawing of a bird head (colored pencil with India ink) had such terrible drawings added to it, I did not bother to photograph the whole thing. The second drawing (the colored pencil worm body part is what I worked on), I was able to photograph in entirety, but the third drawing I worked on was taken, by the student who began it, before I got a photo at the end of the class.
We were given two required writing assignments and two required drawing assignments based on time spent in the campus gallery. I've posted the writing assignments: DHR1 and DHR2. But here are the drawing assignments. One is a drawing of sculptural tube drums, the other of a portion of a painting. I did not get a photo of the painting.
We spent a couple classes working on division of field. We learned about the nine general divisions of field that have figure/ground, positive/negative, up/down, and left/right relationships. We practiced implementing these by finding areas of the building and drawing them from perspectives not looked at before. Following are two such drawings, then a few from my sketchbook, and the last one from a class which we were given more time to turn the exercise into a finished drawing.
In the beginning of the semester, the instructor spoke about how, even though it may not always seem so, abstract and surrealist artists have usually studied drawing and practiced until mastery the techniques and honed their skills of rendering objects and space. They then apply those skills and their ability to subjectively create their art. As I had began the class knowing I wanted to do the same, to really learn to draw, after a semester of focusing mostly on objectively rendering objects and working on developing my skills and techniques, I had difficulty suddenly being required to work subjectively on this surreal cubist final project. I was given a lantern (the most difficult of the objects my instructor used for the assignment, according to him) and was told to draw it from different perspectives in one drawing as well as use other surreal styles. I turned in the drawing thinking there were areas of it I'd rework, though I still have not done so.
art (21), drawing (8), sketch (3), srjc (3)
Rosemary is one of my favorite herbs to use in cooking, particularly in chicken, salmon, and potato dishes and in breads. Rosmarinus, "Dew of the sea", is not just delicious and wonderful smelling, but it also has many traditional, medicinal, and superstitious uses, as well as a mythological history connecting it to Aphrodite and the Virgin Mary. It's a natural food preservative and moth repellent and has been scientifically shown to protect the brain from free radicals, lowering risk of stroke and diseases such as Alzheimer's, as well as having anticarcinogenic effects*. In the same botanical family as mint and sage, this aromatic herb is a drought tolerant and somewhat hardy perennial that grows well in the Mediterranean-like climate where I live.
When the plant is not flowering, and the spiky leaves are younger and less tough or woody, I'll use them fresh from the plant: whole sprigs, finely chopping the needles, or crushing them with a mortar and pestle. I also like to have dried rosemary on hand for use all year around. To dry rosemary, you can tie the sprigs up with a string and hang somewhere that gets good airflow, though keep it dry and out of the sunlight. I often dry sprigs for use later by rolling them up in a paper towel and leaving on the back of my counter for several weeks. The paper towel protects them from collecting dust—which seems to happen in the air since rosemary has a little bit of a sticky sap coating. Folding it into a paper towel doesn't cause mold or prevent the drying of the herb in my climate.
After the rosemary becomes throughly dry, strip the needles from the woody stems and put them in sealed jar to retain pungency. If the herb is fully dried, the needles should easily break away from the sticks.
I keep a jar of these whole needles for cooking, but often I like to use rosemary powder for recipes such as soups and especially for adding to homemade salad dressing. Dried rosemary needles can be easily turned to a powdered herb using a coffee grinder. Clean the grinder first to remove all traces of coffee grounds and oils and then again after to remove the rosemary powder and resin. Grind for a couple minutes, until a fine powder.
Your kitchen will now smell amazing.
A small funnel is a great tool to have in the kitchen for bottling seasonings, whether you buy them in bulk or make them yourself!
cooking (4), diy (6), frugal-living (2), garden (21), herbs (1), homemade (3), homesteading (4), nutrition (4), recipe (3)
I spent the past year crocheting this blanket. It began with the intention of creating a blanket out of 12" squares of crocheted stitches, making the squares and then joining them together. I crocheted two to three dozen squares with a few different yarns and stitches, probably about half the blanket, before I got too bored of making squares to continue with the project that way. I put them aside and began to crochet a spiral, the spiral that turned into the center of the blanket. At first I planned to do the center this way, and then join the squares around the outside as the edge but ended up un-crocheting all the squares, as they no longer seemed to fit, and as yarn was needed to continue crocheting around and around the spiral, as I developed it into a sunburst shape and then began to work it to have square edges. I intentionally made it so that the bottom two corners were fitted to the bed.
It's certainly the largest crochet project I ever undertook. I watched 10 seasons of the show "Friends" while working on it, as well as many hours of other television and movies. The name "Creation Blanket" comes from someone who was admiring it while on 3,4-Methylenedioxymethamphetamine as they found it appeared to them as the sun, the energy and creation of life, and the earth... which is pretty much what I was imagining as I created it.
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Arianna Helen