Hitting the Books

As you might have guessed I'm an art student. I'm currently taking 18 credits and working at the Woodbury Art Museum 30 hours a week. That kind of schedule is enough to make anyone crazy. Besides my art history classes there are no text books. But that doesn't mean that we artists don't read. There are over a dozen books that are piling up in the chair in my room that I am currently reading, skimming, and studying from. I thought it might be helpful to share with you some of my favorite books in future posts. Right now, "Book + Art, Handcrafting Artists' Books" by Dorthy Simpson Krause has really got me excited. I like this book because it combines artmaking and bookbinding ideas together. It even explores boxes and unbound collections. The instructions are easy to understand and inspirational.

I am currently learning some simple bookbinding techniques that I will share in a later in a post. For you local Utah readers, the Woodbury Art Museum will be having a book binding work shop very soon. Will let you know about the dates soon. Let me know if you are interested so I can get a good idea about how many to plan for.

50 Drawings in 50 Minutes on Top of Each Other

After the previous assignment with Catherine Downing, (50 Drawings in 50 minutes) my instructor Tawni Shuler, recommended me to do 50 drawings in 50 minutes on one big piece of paper. She asked me to use an organic form. I chose a piece of burlap paper and twirled it smashed it up a bit and then arranged it on the table in front of me. With this approach I never rearranged the object. I just moved my drawing paper around and changed mediums each time I drew it. I drew small parts of it, I drew it very large and very small. I drew it with my eyes closed. I tried angular approaches and soft circular approaches. The time went by very fast. As you can see the result doesn't look like a still life drawing at all. I had fun just playing with different materials. Sometimes,"Unexpected paths lead to great discoveries"(Wayne Hodgins).