Sneek a Peek – 3 Faces of Me, Self Portraits

In my self-imposed isolation from all things and people Covid-19 my only interaction with humans has been through the computer screen and on-line art classes.  The assignments have been keeping my brain from completely atrophying.  Although after seeing some of my pictures you may think otherwise. 

I’ll do my best to describe what the teachers assigned.

1. We were to pay attention to our dream messages and do a picture representing “The Other Side of Me”.  My dream was struggling to walk uphill (no interpreting please!).  The drawing uses a hyped up mixture of instant coffee as “ink”.  The ballerina is the opposite of me – I have no rhythm, would not describe myself as graceful, have never been very limber and she is resting, unlike my dream where I struggled to move.  I tore her out and pasted her on black paper.

2.  Assignment was to use the artist Giuseppe Arcimboldo as  a reference

Arcimboldo painting example

and create a self portrait using a combination of painting and collage.  The snails were my starting point because a previous assignment was to use a picture of a snail somewhere in a collage.  So here I am with caterpillars on a flower field, butterflies, lady bugs and snails.  This is one of my favorites!

3.  This assignment was to do a self-portrait pencil sketch and incorporate symbols that reflect something about ourselves.  As I was sketching one fine day, feeling like “death warmed over” the images of swords flashed so that’s what I incorporated, not thinking about the symbolism until . . . .

. . .  one of the participants asked me “why the swords?” and here’s what came to mind:

I was very fatigued and couldn’t bring myself to move to a table so sat on couch, my sketch book in my lap, holding a mirror in one hand, sketching myself with the other hand. The image of swords popped in my mind.

They are a part of my hair because I (we all) carry a sense of the precarious, the dangerous with us, each in a different way. As I drew myself I was struck by how my internal image I have of myself is not what I saw in the mirror and what I saw has become someone I don’t recognize. The knives evolved in my mind of living on the knife’s edge.

There were originally 4 knives and I eliminated one. Now I’m wondering if they are also symbolic of “time” – past & present on the left (touching/intertwined) and future on the right??

Looking at the picture now, more detached, it appears almost as if my throat has been slit (I drew the shadow/wrinkle on my neck). It’s a disturbing picture but very reflective of how I feel when I’m in a flare of symptoms.

NO MORE INTERPRETING PLEASE!

I call this “Self Portrait with Pears”.  I tore up another charcoal picture that I didn’t like and pasted it on an acrylic painting of a bowl of pears that was a practice assignment from 2 years ago.  The bowl of pear picture is upside down . . . if you’re wondering where the pears went . . . 

Judy

Sneek a peek at my skechy life

What did I learn today in class?  Drawing is just like life! 

I used to think that great artists, good artists got it right on the first pass.  It’s taken me 7 decades to understand that all artists continually make corrections.  Draw, adjust, erase, draw, redraw, erase . . . 

Luckily, it only took me 5 decades to figure out that life was about continually making corrections.  That reminds me . . .  I need a new eraser.

Here’s my sketches for today – One is loose and the other uptight

#CreativeSprint

Graphite pencil, I shaved his head so he’d be more “hip”.

Vine charcoal, Dilly Dolly

Sketchy Sneek a Peek – Summer of Color

Always on the lookout for things to divert me from mundane living I stumbled on Summer of Color – A weekly challenge that gives you a color palette to use.  Any medium goes: sewing, jewelry, quilting, art journaling, digital art . . .  even NAIL ART!  

Since my nails are broken and split I resorted to my recent scribble-a-face “kick”. (the first color palette of the Summer is . . . . 1 Blue + 1 Blue + 1 Green)

judy’s sketchbook, colored pencil

Summer of Color

Freddie Parker Westerfield, CDT, Chapter 1

Once upon a time, in a land by the sea, physically far, far away and imaginatively very close, there lived a brrrrriliant psychotherapist who specialized in human psychology and foibles.  He took care of two humans who he unexpectedly found wandering in life.  Freddie Parker was a keen observer of human nature and able to pick up on changes in the human psyche long before the human psyche knew it was changing  . . .

 judy, Judith & Freddie Parker Westerfield, CDT

A look into my sketch book

The Year of the Fairy Tale has been on “vacation” for a couple of months now.  It is hard for me to keep creating without an outside “container” or “reason”.  The other day  I decided to break that pattern and just DO IT on my own. (knowing that The Year of the Fairy Tale was about to start again!)

 I have always been fascinated by figure drawing, probably because I’m fascinated by people.  This pencil sketch was done fairly quickly as I was trying to capture the essence of the figure – rather than realism.  (Also, it’s easier to sketch essence!) Here’s what evolved from my DO IT.

Three “Muses”

Inspired by The Seven Valleys – a mystical book written by Baha’u’llah.  This Baha’i book doesn’t specifically focus on longing, pain or remorse – it’s just what evolved in my psyche.

Longing, Pain & Remorse – Pencil Sketch

 

Sneak a Peek into my Mind – it’s still the same.

This weeks’ haiku prompt is HOME.  My Haiku (which I’ already posted the last time the prompt was “home”) is inspired by Gene Autry singing Home, Home on the Range.  

Panic on the Prairie Haiku

Home, home on the range
it’s much more comfortable
when the gas is off

by judy’s brain

Haiku Horizons Prompt HOME