What's On My Work Table

Not sure where I am going with this if anywhere. This piece was born at New Moon Art Gallery this past Saturday. I did it in my collage journal using a stencil, green acrylic paint and my fingers. While that was still wet, I added a dark blue acrylic around the edges and smooshed it in with my fingers in a circular fashion. It came out darker than I wanted so I wiped it off with a damp paper towel still in a circular design. I added white acrylic with my finger and didn't blend it in as well as the blue then again wiped it with the damp paper towel (which had the blue all over it too. I don't worry about that stuff.) I added bits of white by thinning down the white paint and flicking it from the brush I had. Finding it too light I remixed with less water and applied it again. That's it! 

Interesting that tonight is a lunar eclipse. Maybe I will be motivated to do something more with it after tonight's celestial exhibit!

On My Work Table

Just in case you are wondering...I call it "on my work table" because my easel is over at the gallery. And technically, these were on my small easel but whatever! 

These are 8x10 canvases. Acrylics. Apparently I am feeling dotty or like I'm going in circles?

This one came about after a discussion with one of the other members of the gallery (Geoff) about being centered and staying on true north and how we are both intrigued by compasses, maps, globes, etc. I purposely did not want it to be like a clock or symmetrical which is kind of surprising for me. But as a symbol of where I am at in life; there are so many directions to go and one path might lead to another one in reality. Regardless of the choices though I always come back to what is at the center of my life. 

Available for sale at New Moon Gallery, Waimea, Big Island or contact me directly!

     

On My Work Table

Do you recall the sneak peeks I gave you of these on facebook back in June?

I was able to finish up this past week but I needed Randy's help to come up with a way to be able to hang the pieces that would allow them to still move! Why? I wanted them to retain some of their original intent. Do you know what they are now?

THAT'S RIGHT! OLD VINYL LPs!! They were beyond use from scratches but they sat still long enough to get paint on them! I have 3 that are with two each and one that has three. Every one still spins! They are able to be hung on the wall in this vertical position. They have a protective matte finish on them as well and as you turn them you get ever changing art! I would recommend limiting the amount of handling if you want them to last YEARS. Oh and yes the grooves are still visible. They also have a decorative bead in finish the center. 

The Pages of My Life (aka: My Current Art Journal/Calendar/Planner)

The other day on facebook I mentioned I would tell you about my new calendar/art journal. It was getting annoying to have too many places to "keep track" of my life and I wasn't enjoying having my sketch books serving as my calendar. My sketch books are just that...a place to plan and work out future pieces, do sketches, draw, etc. It bugged me that in the middle of a bunch of lovely pages I would have decided to jot down some stupid thought or shopping list. I knew that could not continue. I also knew that I have never been good at maintaining a regular diary or journal...I'm an art journal kind of gal all the way. Any words I put in mine are usually art related, quotes, song lyrics, etc. I'm not one to write long entries about my day.

So what's an artist to do?

Simple! I found a spiral bound planning calendar for teachers (nod to our homeschooling years!) that has both 2 page spreads for                   monthly    and              

weekly pages. 

I keep track of appointments and activities on the monthly spread. And yes...I doodle on those pages as the month progresses. Nothing formal usually...just those mindless oddities that occur while I'm waiting on the phone or contemplating plans. I liked this one for lots of reasons but the great color scheme was a big one!

Then...on the weekly pages...since I don't have a super busy schedule any more (yay!) I really don't need both pages to keep track of stuff. I designated the left side for journaling about my days and the right side is for art play. I experimented for a while and because the paper is not meant for art work, I've gone ahead and spread gesso on a  few of them to make them sturdier. Right now the thing I'm loving most though is to use my gelli printing plate to apply the paint. I've also been writing some of my favorite art quotes on them. I attach lists with staples, paper clips, use post-it notes, add ephemera, tape, you name it.

Currently I have about 13 weekly pages prepped. This just means there's something spread on the page to create a first layer. I tend to use leftover paint and gesso from current projects in this way. Cuts down on waste. My sharpie pens work pretty nicely on top of the acrylic paint so I'm sticking with those for now. I keep this open on my work table most of the time and it sits inside my business notebook.

OOPS! Forgot to tell ya that it has plastic pockets on the covers...so I added a collage of sayings that inspire me in the front one! (Part of the process of the Right Brain Business Plan which I will be talking about on and off again) And I hung a few charms on leather to the spiral coil to use as a place marker.

So what kind of journal are YOU using? Whats great about it or what's not so great? Let me know! I'm curious.

The Documented Life Project is doing something very similar and gives weekly prompts for ideas to do on the art side if you are interested. They also have a Flickr and facebook page to share your pages.

This is what happened when I was playing with paint

I shared on fb that I was going to play with paint and someone asked me to post pictures! This made me giggle because I didn't intend to get a finished product and expected nothing worth sharing. But in the spirit of seeking "perfectShun" I will share. These are just technique exercises that are in my daily calendar/art journal. (Btw...I'll share about this fun idea another time! You're gonna love it...and hopefully give it a try too!)

These were done using my gelli plate and liquetex acrylic paints. The pages already had a layer of paint on them so after I applied paint to the gelli, I used a cotton swab to remove some and just drew quick circles with the swab. Place the page over the plate, press evenly and voila! Loveliness! See? Just throw the paint down and see where it lands! Have fun! Create! (Be sure to share with me when you do! I'd love to see your work.)

Evolution of a Painting - Part 2

So now I am ready to put paint to canvas. Let's begin! I basically just block in with color where thigns are going to go. Notice the wave?




Well I had to change it. Composition wise it just wasn't coming together the way I wanted it to. Once I reversed the curl...it flowed so fast I was thrilled! Her hair becomes the wave and it all comes from her tears. The lava comes from her lips - deep beneath the surface.


For this painting I did something I normally don't do and that was to turn the canvas as I worked on her face. I wanted to make sure she wasn't wonky! Her fern haku blends the two planes together.



More details in her eye and...voila!

The Legend of Haumea

Evolution of a Painting

I realized that I never posted about this painting so here we go...

While toodling around in my sketchbook one day I was reminded of the legend of Haumea. I have often seen works that portray Pele in the volcano fire but couldn't recall seeing Haumea's legend done in any form. Depending on which version or source you get your legend from will make the "facts" vary but she is known to be the "mother earth" and deeply connected to childbirthing. She has numerous daughters but I focused on only two; those being Pele (fire) and Namaka (sea).

So I began to sketch ideas....
  

Normally I do not remove sketches from my books but I used these as references as I painted.

Here is the initial sketch on canvas done in water soluble pencil. You can see the changes in details and how things evolve as I work through the concept.

I will share more tomorrow

Dreaming of Lantana

Stepping out of my favorite color palette and into green, orange, pink and yellow brought memories of Lantana flowers to my mind. Does it conjur up something else for you?

Exploring Aboriginal Art

Since I posted about this art challenge I have been playing with this art form and am thoroughly enjoying it! For me, it includes many of my favorite things, dots. circles, symbolism and my focus for this year - mandala.

I have not decided if I am participating in the challenge yet (based on some travelling coming up and time issues) but am still creating some pieces for my own enjoyment (and possibly selling if you are interested!)


So I shared this sneak peek the other day on facebook....

Here's the entire piece and an explanation of the symbolism for me....

If you are a regular reader ( and I hope you are or will become one!) you know that I have chosen "complete" as my word for this year. This is a representation of that word. The very center image indicates a camp or home with symbols for people surrounding it. I chose one male and 4 females since that is what our family consists of. From there, the blues represent water with the final outside row being tracks that people would make on a journey. After traversing the world for 30 years, we are about to come full circle in our journey to create a home for our family in the islands later this year. I think this says that rather nicely and I can't wait to hang it in our future home!

Today I have been working on something less "personal" but still within the art style of Aboriginal Dot art. But I will only give you the sneak peek from facebook for now...and say I am thinking of lantana.

Rob's Painting

I already posted this on facebook but thought it was a good way to get back into blogging.

This is what I've been working on recently. A mixed media piece that was commissioned from me. I gave the flag a dimensional element as well as the Chief's headdress with individual paper feathers that are hand cut and placed. The chevron is the rank insignia for USAF Chief Master Sergeant. I painted one of these for my husband and have had others request variations on his original painting. The writing in the background is the creed they live by along with personalization - this one has the words to the Texas state song since the guy is from Texas. He also requested the Texas state flag be included.

Blog Tweaking and Color Crazy

color crazy, originally uploaded by Trish Nonaka.

Morning all!

A quick note to let you know that I am hard at work revamping my blog in order to make it grow along with my art life. Initially this blog was simply a place to "begin to share my art with the world". I have grown to a place of being quite comfortable with this and am no longer afraid to say, "I am an artist!" And although this coming year is going to be filled with big changes in our life, I am ready to take my art to the next level. What is that? Glad you asked! I am ready to use this blog as a place to begin to connect and network with other artists and continue to step out of my comfort zone. There is much more to this that I won't share right now but I hope you will continue to support me as my creative journey changes and grows! Now back to tweaking!

Completing a Full Circle

So before February gets too far along I figure I best post about resolutions, goals, etc. I don't do resolutions as most of you know and I don't do too much specific goal setting but I do choose my One Little Word for the year and determine certain focuses for the upcoming year.

First, my One Little Word for 2013 is "complete" (along with other forms like completion, completing, completed - you get the point) I mulled over "finish", "ending" and some other similar words but didn't like the feel of them as well. 2013 is truly going to be a year of completing things. For me it means a ton of projects I have had for a while now. Its time to either finish them or toss them. Over the holidays I did complete about 6 of them and was pretty happy with that.

(Celtic Heart)

Scrapping Focus - The main thing is to continue using the great plans I already have in place and keep moving forward in my scrapbooking. Although with 40 plus albums I am not sure how much more I need to document! *L* I plan to keep going with Library of Memories for storage, do another section in my OLW album (for now I keep a few years worth in one album), pick back up with creating my  Monthly book, and doing all this using the plan from Twelve! There are a few specific albums and projects I am either completing or tossing. 

Art Focus- This year sort of came about after my OLW was decided. I decided I want to work on mandalas/zendalas this year since they are usually circular and remind me of completions. I've attempted them before and have never been happy with them. It seems they are not as perfectly geometric as I think they are intended to be. I am excited to see if I can either improve them or find peace with them as they are. Expect to see a bunch of them. There are other things that will pop up as the muse and mood strike me so be on the look out for those too.

(mandala for my olw "complete")

Life Focus - The biggest thing that we are working on completing is our life in the military. After 30 years in the Air Force, Randy is set to retire at the end of this year. Hence the need to complete as much as I possibly can. At this point we are "staying fluid and keeping our options open" which can be translated to mean we have no idea what we are doing when we grow up. I do know we will be moving again but to where, remains to be determined. 

(USAF Chief's Creed and Insignia - done for Randy's office)

Health Focus - Now this certainly will not be something I complete since it is an ongoing lifestyle! I have not shared this directly with most people but I was diagnosed with Type 2 Diabetes late in 2012. It was not a total surprise since I had gestational diabetes with all three girls and it got progressively worse with each pregnancy. I have seen figures ranging from 20% to 60 % of women develop Type 2 later on. I have worked very hard to keep this from happening and did quite well until my fibro hit and I became less active. I need to work even harder at it now. I am trying something different for me and that is to incorporate my reactions and emotions as I deal with this in my art journaling.

Fricken Chicken See is Cooked!

The photo isn't the best (its cold and overcast here today)

 but I am really happy with it. Hope the buyer loves it!
(She did! And so did the husband! YAY!)

Red Ginger Update!

How do you like me now?

Keep watching!

1124

Now this lauhala I am happy with!

210pm

banana leaf added

318

blocking in for ginger

um....sometime before dinner....

1150 am Weds

HAPPY!!!!

Lotus

Lotus, originally uploaded by Trish Nonaka.

A tiny acrylic painting added to my journal with washi tape. It measures 2x2. Just trying to get a feel for lotus blooms for some reason. You can see others at the end of the week when I post my entire journal spread.