In spring, he returned to the vicarage of Etten and spoke again about going to London, "If he really wants to, I shall help him go," wrote his father. But finally he went back to the Borinage, and that summer of 1880 he lived in the house of the miner Charles Decrucq at Cuesmes. There he wrote in July the wonderfully touching letter which tells what is going on in his innermost self, "...my only anxiety is, how can I be of use?... Can't I serve some purpose and be of any good?" It is the old wish, the old longing to serve and comfort humanity, which made him write later, when he had found his calling, "And in a picture I want to say something comforting as music is comforting." Now, in the days of deepest discouragement and darkness, at last the light began to dawn. Not in books would he find satisfaction, not find his work in literature, as his letters sometimes suggested; he turned back to his old love, "I said to myself... I will take up my pencil... I will go on with my drawing. From that moment everything has seemed transformed for me..." It sounds like a cry of deliverance, and once more, "...do not fear for me. If I can only continue to work... it will set me right again." At last he had found his work, and his mental equilibrium was restored; he no longer doubted himself, and however difficult or hard his life became, the inner serenity, the conviction of having found his own calling. never deserted him again.

- from The Complete Letters of Vincent van Gogh, Volume I

DIY 2009 Calendar In-Progress, Part 2

January:



Illustration of Krystle "K-Roll" Gemnich, A little bit of Robert Buscemi, Kristy "K-Rock" Mangel, at the very first Comedians You Should Know Show at the Fizz on Wed., Jan. 23, 2008. It was a SUPER COLD January night.


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1 image down, 11 more to go, then 12 captions to go under each illustration. Glue illustrations and captions to calendar. Bind together & hang.

2009 Calendar In Progress

I've decided to start a new ritual for myself in which at the beginning of every New Year I will make a calendar for that year. As well as draw or paint a new self-portrait.

I've been working on the calendar all week. This is what I have so far:



Applied copper leaf to the calendar pages.


Created a calendar template out of a lino block. Next year I will clean up the squares. For now, I am satisfied with the "messiness" of it. I find something authentic about the print this way, with it's spots and glitches.




Making borders. On these pieces of paper I plan to draw an illustration for each month of the year. Each illustration will be of something that happened the year before on that month. For instance, for the month of August I am going to draw a picture from my goodbye barbeque in Chicago from 2008.


Writing in the dates and months.


Laying it out.

So now, I'm just working on the illustrations to be glued onto each month also adding in a caption below the illustration. And then I will bind the calendar and finally hang it on my wall.

Next project: self-portrait.

Other: Update website (artist bio, artist statement, resume, etc.), New comic

New Additions to the Studio

Along with my drafting table--since I got a $35 gift certificate to Target for Christmas--I bought two cork boards for the studio. The top cork board has items that have special significance to me and collected postcards that are visually inspiring. The bottom cork board has my favorite picture of Lynda Barry in her working space. I plan to use this board to thumbtack notes of my current art projects and/or to do lists, reminder notes, etc.



At some point, when I actually have some sort of income, I plan on getting bamboo blinds for the window, as well as bamboo blinds to mount on the plain, blank walls. (This idea, inspired by my friend Jen.)

Simone Weil

A full-length documentary on Simone Weil? I am looking forward to this so much: www.linestreet.net

Resist the Temptation to Talk About Your Work Instead of Doing It.

I just finished "How to Get Hung: A Practical Guide for Emerging Artists" by Molly Barnes about 2 hours ago. I am inspired to update my resume, bio, create a new artist's statement, and to re-organize and simplify my website. I find it a bit scattered right now and seems confusing of what kind of artwork I do (Artist books? Sound? Teaching art to kids? Comics? Painter?) I'll have to find a better way to present this in a less confusing matter.

The problem: I'm trying to figure out how to cater to the different people who I want to look at my site. If I'm applying for a teaching artist job, I would like to direct those to my educational category. What if I do start that mural business? But what if people are mainly interested in my illustrations like I did for ArtWalkRavenswood? Or what if I am applying for a job that would take interest in my sound and video editing experience. I'm trying to figure out how to show this on my site, without making it look like too much stuff. I need to weed out my more weaker pieces and keep the strongest pieces. I find myself more confident in my painting and illustration skills and am debating to cut out all the sound stuff altogether even though that is what I focused on entirely in art school. I'm trying not to get sentimental of what I cut. Do I really need my sketchbook pieces out there, even though I love how much it shows my etching style, but it also reminds me of my favorite high school art teacher that made me the artist I am today?

Also, I find this excerpt very useful:

"Finally, resist the temptation to talk about your work instead of doing it. It is true that if all you do is chat you avoid creating pieces that deserve to be crushed in the disposal. You avoid these dreadful, gut-sinking, morale-lowering moments that come with unsuccessful experiments. You escape the numbing fear that comes with exposing your soul.

There is no substitute for work. Whether or not you have already found your form, your theme, the most important task you have is to keep at it. Keep experimenting. Keep exploring new territories. Keep defining new boundaries. Each new technique you master, each new material you solve, each problem you resolve extends your ability. The more you are capable of expressing the more you'll find to express."

Now, we shall see what 2009 brings out of me artwise. Excited? I am. I bought a used drafting table from Craigslist for $65. (I'm happy that it was from an alumni of Center for Creative Studies and he was happy to give it to someone who would put it to use.) I spent the majority of New Year's Eve moving around furniture in Space 311 so it would be ready to shine in time for the New Year. Much work will be created on this table.

Similiar Techniques

Last week I finished reading "The Artist Within: Portraits of Cartoonists, Comic Book Artists, Animators, & Others" by Greg Preston the same time I was looking over my sketchbooks, notes, journals, etc. from the last four years in preparation for my next comic. I was excited to find out that graphic novelist, Craig Thompson, whose artwork I admired from his well known illustrated novel, "Blankets" works in the same technique/order as I do. (I'm sure many graphic novelist work in the same way, but like everyone else I really loved "Blankets" when it was released!)



It reads: "Thompson's technique is as unique as his medium. He begins by jumbling words and pictures together in a shorthand which is nearly illegible. He then goes over the work again, drawing everything in a crisp, clean style to iron everything out. Thompson insists on doing a first draft in ball-point pen before the more time-consuming brush and ink method."

Before I read this page, I had found my own draft from one of the stories I did for my Morning Star, Issue #3. Here is that draft:

This draft turned out to be a 9 page story. Here are 3 pages out of 9 (final print) that was based off of this first draft:

Ninja Kneesocks

Here is a comic book character (alter ego, aside from Geli Girl) that I wanted to create a couple of years ago, that never developed into anything more than just rough draft sketches. I thought it was cute enough to make it to a Geli Girl Notes post though:


Ninja Kneesocks