Art Supplies

This is one reason I try to carry art supplies in purse or computer bag at all times:

Antsy lad became concentrating artist. 
He created a focused-lad drawing, featuring a lovely blue sun.

Now I have to go home and work at creating art.  Focusing on a pastel cat. It will be fun and a challenge.

But right now I'd much rather continue sitting at cozy busy coffee shop, sipping a Thistle Milk tea and stitching stuff on to paper. And helping spread the love of art as far as it can go.

On to the day. May it be of your choosing. 

I heart the power of art.

Fare-thee-well.
Sue

100 Days - 100 Dreams: 3

DREAM ABOUT CUPS ~~~~~~~~

A few years ago I needed a new way to think about drawing and writing. Sketchbooks aren't "precious" to me, but they mean "work." If you looked through my sketchbooks you might not think this, but this is so.

Tin Bins is an all-purpose eatery in downtown Stillwater, Minnesota. It's built within an old grain elevator. It serves lovely pastries. And good hot beverages. My daughter and I started spending many early mornings there. I began to amass a stash of tall while paper "to go" cups. I would use these to water plants, as paint brush holders, that sort of thing.

One day - no, I have no memory of "why," I decided that the PAPER these cups were made of was too good to waste. Taking a scissors and trimming top and bottom I then pressed the Once-cups under a Plexiglass sheet on my work desk. Ta da! Strange partial disks ready for whatever might happen.

What happened is an on-going accidental project. Because the paper is not a rectangle, and is just a junky old cup, my brain feels more able to play with whatever I'm using to cover the surface.

Here are just a very few:

See? It's O.K. to admit to mistakes! It's O.K. to draw lines just to see what happens! Maybe to Dream a little landscape.

Another:

And another:

Yes, many hold words of personal motivation. That's peachy. I need a mild command more often than I'd like to admit. And if it comes from a flattened cup so much the better. But some are more artsy. You never know until one is finished!

There is a small box filled with these objects now. I've shown them to a few people. Some are impressed. Others - not so much. LOL.

It doesn't matter. The cups, well, not Not-cups now, have their own power and reason for existing. They have truly been re-purposed.

A small dream is to present them in an informal exhibition. I have not thought this though at all, but I know that putting the cups on view might suggest people look at common objects in an uncommon way. Or to show how one thing can turn into another thing, simply by looking at it from a different perspective.

Tea or coffee, anyone? One sketch, or two?

Fare-thee-well,

Sue

www.suerowe.com

Facebook Page: Sue-Rowe-Studios

A Simple Paper Cup

PAPER & Words are Amazing Things.

A coffee cup can hold more than coffee.
It can hold a message.
Or an image.
An Idea.

Fun.

I must Remember to make more of these.
I keep forgetting to make more of these.

Re-use. Re-tell. Remember.

Fare-thee-well,
Sue

Another New Beginning

Greetings - at long last. No Excuses. Back to "work."

CLEAN: kitchen counters and MUCH of studio. Thanks, Sir Todd. It will be wonderful when Sir Todd Organizer gets done. As for now - well, yes, I get anxiety bouts. Another person touching all my stuff and making lots of decisions without consulting.... well... that's where Trust comes in? Lately, he's bee n asking me about stuff more often. Thanks, Todd. And thanks for showing me where you moved the African Violets!

HARD: how everything outside is. As is FROZEN. Can't bitch much about our -11F because of friends dealing with -40 F. No, that's not "windchill" - that's frickin' COLD.

FAST: how birds and squirrels are chowing down on Christmas gift of more sunflower seeds and even fancier goodies. Thanks, Tyler!

Now on to new goofing-offs:
I really dislike pitching paper coffee cups - so this year many will become a journal of some sort. Not a Wonderful Piece of Art. But paper on which to write or paint. Here are the first two:

I like that they will stand up in a lovely arc. And supply surfaces upon which to use up art supplies. And might just lead to new designs for "real" work.

So there you are. May 2014 be a year of great creativity for you, and/or hold the opportunity to witness it in others. If you are not an artist your kind word to one just might keep that person's spirit raised just enough to carry on.  If you are an artist may you have those great chats with folks who admire your work -  (and on those Best days - enough to purchase it)!

It's application-to-art-fairs time for many of us. Months of mixed emotions. Trying to guess which of our works will make the jurors say "YES!" to our images and words. If we appear to be a tad stressed - well... we might actually be more stressed than we appear. And this is during our "down time" - hahaha.

So, forever-head-clanging, I nonetheless join others among our family and friends in making 2014 The BEST YEAR EVER!!

One paper cup at a time....
Fare-thee-well!
Sue