“I Dream on Sunsets with my Head in the Clouds” is a collage that I completed back in high school. This was back during my phase where I’d draw on top of my collages with oil pastel – which you can see a little bit of here.
This piece is a little more abstract than the other collages I was making at that time. And yet again I find myself getting inspired to make new work as I sift through pieces I’ve made in the past.
Today I received an email from a teacher at the British School Caracas in Venezuela. Her class of 7 year students studied my work and made their own collages.
The teacher was kind enough to send along images of the student artwork. It was a lot of fun seeing what they created – and how each piece has its own style.
There’s no better feeling than hearing that your work has inspired others.
And here’s to hoping that this budding group of artists keeps making art!
I think this is one of the first self portrait paintings I ever made. I created this piece back in high school – I think I was around sixteen at the time. It was also the first time I really learned how to mix acrylic paints and create a wash before I started the whole painting process. You can see a little bit of purple from the purple wash shining through, since I used it to help with the look of the shadows.
I made this painting through a mentor program at the Torpedo Factory Art Center in Alexandria, Virginia. I was paired with a painter who taught me about the basics of painting. I met with her about once a week, and she critiqued my work and gave me some helpful advice. In fact, some of her advice is something I still remember and think about when I make artwork even today. She told me that I shouldn’t assume what things look like in my mind, I should pay attention to all the shapes that make up objects in real life. You can see I did a little bit of assuming with this piece since my eyes are football shaped instead of being more rounded.
What’s a little amusing about this piece is that you can see that I had orange streaks in my hair at the time. I had a habit of dying my hair a lot in those days.
Again, self portraits are pretty tough, and you can tell that I was new to the painting process. This piece just goes to show that you have to start somewhere.
This is a charcoal drawing that I did back in college, when we were studying the figure. In college I really enjoyed making figurative artwork, especially portraits. People really fascinated me, as well as the broad range of emotion that can be conveyed in different facial expressions. I also liked how every person has something about them that makes them their own character.
Anyway, this drawing really does show off that I was way more interested in drawing the sitter than capturing the environment he was in. I remember my professor critiqued me on not putting as much effort into his surroundings. What can I say? People are more interesting to me than a classroom full of empty chairs.
This is the first collage that I’ve actually completed in the New Year. I decided to tackle another animal portrait, and this time focused more on using texture and loose lines.
Lately I’ve become increasingly interested in changing things up with my work. I plan to not only experiment with different collage techniques, but also with different mediums. Stay tuned for more…
The other day, I mentioned that I was going through old sketchbooks. This is actually another one of the drawings I came across – it’s a self portrait that I made with color pencil.
I’m realizing I really need to revisit other mediums and play around with them. These older drawings of mine are inspiring me to start changing things up a bit. As much as I enjoy making collages, I’m gearing up to start having my variety in my artistic life.
The other day I was going through old sketchbooks that were in my closet, trying to figure out what to get rid of. Most of the pages were full of notes, jotted down back when I was in college. However, on some pages I found a few drawings, so I removed the pages that had drawings and threw out the rest of those books.
This is one of the drawings I came across – it’s actually a self portrait. Self portraits have always been a bit of a struggle for me – it’s really difficult to depict yourself. So whenever someone says one of my self portraits doesn’t look like me, I like to say it isn’t supposed to. It just represents a version of me.
Bosty realized it had been way too long since his last adventure, so he decided it was time to head to San Francisco to check out the West Coast. He also wanted to explore other places in the area, and his first stop was Stanford University.
Don’t forget to check out the latest exhibit at the Stanford Art Gallery!
After making it all the way over to California, he figured he might as well visit the house where Steve Jobs, the mastermind behind Apple computers, used to live. Are those apple trees out front?
Finally he headed to San Francisco to take a look at the view of the Painted Ladies, which are a row of houses that are painted in several bright colors. He had to see them since they’re famous – they were on an old TV show called Full House.
Next he wandered over to the Palace of Fine Arts so he could see even more beauitful architecture.
He couldn’t get over how huge the arches were!
Bosty still wasn’t done walking all over the place. He wanted to hike across the city to take a look at the view from the Lyon Street Steps.
Up next? The Golden Gate Bridge, of course!
After walking across the bridge, Bosty wanted to hike far enough away to get a great picture of it.
Then he walked over to the Point Bonita Lighthouse – just look at that view! He decided to watch the sunset and then call it a day.
The following day he travelled along the coast so he could get plenty of pictures of the ocean. He definitely took plenty of pictures of Big Sur – which is a stretch of California’s coast between Carmel and San Simeon.
All morning and afternoon he wandered around gazing at nature and the water. So when evening slowly approached, he knew he’d have to wait to see the sunset on the water.
For the night, he decided to tour Hearst Castle, and take a look at the lavish home where William Randolph Hearst lived. There were so many different types of antiques and works of art to look at!
The following day he toured the Winchester Mystery House in San Jose – another large building that seemed to have it’s own fair share of unusual tales and theories.
Before long it was time for Bosty to pack his bags and head back to DC. I wonder where he’ll go next…
It’s been a while since I’ve had a chance to make a new work of art – life has been keeping me busy! Earlier this year I went through a coding bootcamp, and recently I moved to Maryland, so needless to say, life has kept my hands full. However, I finally had a chance to put the finishing touches on this little guy. I definitely plan to start making more collages soon.
I’m pleased to announce that I’ve donated this “Dachshund” collage for an upcoming charity art auction event called Pawcasso. The event will take place on November 5th, and will raise money for Homeward Trails Animal Rescue. You can find out more about what’s up for auction, as well as getting tickets to the event, by visiting their website.