Walking through the Walker

This past week I went to the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis for the first time. I was so excited, but as I was walking through the different galleries I become very confused with the art I found. In the Benches & Binoculars gallery they had 90 famous paintings from all different artists. The part that I did not like was the paintings were so high up you could not appreciate them as much. Other than that the instillation by Robert Irwin called slant/light/volume, I found to be the piece that moved me the most.

The piece is not like any other piece at the Walker. You walk into a white room that is not lit so most of the walls are gray. Then you look at the main part of the piece which is a slanted area of the room that is lit with translucent scrim. This gives the the room a relaxing and peaceful feeling when you sit and look that the white. I never knew how something so simple could have such a powerful effect on a person. I would go back to the Walker for just this piece.

Sheldon

Everyone I would like to introduce you to Sheldon. He is my Life Drawing skeleton that I am building clay muscles for. He was named after Sheldon Cooper who is a theoretical physicist on the TV sitcom The Big Bang theory, which is one of my favorite show. Sheldon Cooper is calculating and cynical, he exhibits a strict adherence to routine, a lack of understanding of irony, sarcasm and humor, and a complete lack of humility. So, by those characteristics and the fact that he is looks like a twig were the deciding factors to why I called my skeleton Sheldon.

Sculpting the muscles for Sheldon have been an enjoyable learning process. Spending hours making a muscle that is three inches can only be enjoyable when you are around the right Chicas. Thanks Emily and Kelli!

Seashell by the seashore

For the past few weeks this seashell has been sitting on my book shelf staring down at me. It was given to me the second day of life drawing and we are to be drawing our shells over the semester. I find myself distant from it because I don't know anything about this shell. So, I did some research on the shell and I found out all sorts of things. I still don't know what I want to name my shell, but when I find the perfect name I will let you know.

The Horse Conch is the shell I have. It is commonly know as the Giant Band shell and its scientific name is Pleutroploca gigantea. These shells are found mostly in bays along the Gulf coast and can be up to 24" long. They can come in a variety of colors from orangish, cream to brown on the outside with a thin scaly covering. The opening of the shell is an orangy-red color and it is a spindle-shaped shell. The creature that lives inside is a snail that is brick-red color and feeds on bivalves and other snails. A little piece of fame that my shell has is that it is the state shell of Florida since 1969. Doing this research on this shell has allowed me to become more attache to this shell.

Spine

Oh the spine. What an amazing part of the body. It is the first set of lines that you draw first in a drawing. Who knew? Also, it is made of four different and distinct curves. These curves allow for the movement of the body. Other than learning about the spine this past week I learned another important lesson when it came to drawing the human body. The important lesson was that it is good and bad views of the model. the best views are when you see the side and either the back or the front of the model. So ya that is the big secret.

Blind contour

Hey again! I know this does not look like much, but that is because I drew it without looking at the paper. If you use your imagination you will see a leg an part of another leg underneath it. If you don't see it don't feel bad I did not see it at first, and I am the artist.

You may think this is a very different style of contour drawing of legs. That is because I was drawing the legs cross contour. Which means I was trying to draw the leg as if there were strings wrapped around the leg.

Three words that describe this drawing are:
Fuzzy, Bumpy & Soft