Historical Sarah Comics, Part 1

I haven't posted in over a month. That's so very highly not okay.
I just drank some coffee so I'm not going to be over thinking this post, I'm just gonna type and get it up impulsively and it'll probably turn out fairly dumb-headed.

I haven't been drawing much lately, I'm gone from Ontario now, and am hanging out in Portland Oregon for the summer with my handsome young man-slave Eliot. I get to molest him like a creepy old woman on a regular basis, and in return he seems to be fond of me. I don't understand it, but when you luck out, why over-analyze?

So the point I was getting to is that I've been moving and checking out Portland and all that, and doing a whole lot of not drawing. In fact, drawing has totally fallen out of favor with me for a while, now. I'm going to be doing some sort of art activities over the summer, but the precise form has not fully gestated yet.

So since I don't have anything exciting to post (two days ago I did two of the worst paintings that have ever been created on this earth. Should I suffer the world to see them? perhaps someday. not today.) Instead, I'm going to post some of my old works... not old as in a year or two old... oh, no, old meaning pre-art school. Dating back to those painfully self-conscious yet innocently non-self-aware days of jr. high. Some of my favorite work dates back from them. I was bursting with unfulfilled romantic yearnings, obsessions with drawing Disney characters, super social awkwardness, absolutely no writing talent, and a history of reading much too many Archie comics. A powerful brew.

Pocahontas in "High Flying Ride". Late elementary school... probably Grade 5. I drew Pocahontas obsessively. She walked the line between being my "I Want To Be Her" idol of feminine grace and charm, and my first cartoon crush. I was able to enter into her romantic world by drawing her constantly, and the comic form allowed my drawings to have that added dimension of life that story lends. Note the Archie comic-like layout and title.
This is, if memory serves me correctly, the first comic I ever created. Luckily, I can lay blame for this limp piece of writing with my childhood chum Melissa Harder. For all my future comics, however, the bad writing is all me.

Pocahontas, untitled comic. Maybe late Grade 5, or Grade 6.
Colored in pencil crayon, this time. No one understood the story of this comic. Come on, people... see, Pocahontas takes Meeko berry picking with her, because he can carry the extra berries in his cheeks. Isn't that HILARIOUS and CLEVER?
Cripes.

Pocahontas in "Just Kidding". Grade 6.
Wait, how about this for a plot- have two characters being total asses to each other over something completely petty. It's funny! The structure of this comic is really reminiscent of the one page Archie comic gags, and is a formula that I start to repeat over and over, and over again. I guess I just found the world to be a playfully cruel place.

COMING UP IN THE NEAR FUTURE:
Pocahontas engages in some ironic twists and witty word play on the original movie script; Hercules and Megera act like jerks to each other; Esmeralda is cruel to the well-meaning Phoebus; and tons of other mythological fun-filled adventures!!

Pigeon!

My dad has fallen in love with pigeons, and his birthday is tomorrow (eep, can you say express post??) so I attempted my first stuffed animal ever. I used wool, unbleached cotton muslin, and a whole lot of making-things-up-as-I-go.

crane and kittyness! oh my!

Thanks for the kick in the pants, Melissa. :P Got me off my lazy bum to post.

First off, here's my latest textiles print (well, this is the ink /n gouache version, to be transferred to silk screen). It's kitties! And German words! whoooooh! My favorite is "nicht bohrend", with the corresponding kitty in glasses with awesomeness lines around it.
I am going to make a skirt from this print. With BIG dots!

And this is a logo for the Cranedance Retreat (commission).
Oh brushpen, why'd you gotta give me the what's what like that? Man. We reached an understanding, but it took lots of time and negotiation. Eliot's making a font to go with it. He's good at fonts (among many other pleasant things). :D

And... my last textile print was with salamanders, which was pretty bloody fun, so I'll get to the scanning of that! ciao, kittens!

connection scrawlings

Textile madness!

A handbag I made... get it, HAND bag? There's a hand on it?
That's right, I'm funny. I'm not quite finished it yet, I still some embroidery to do... a twirling stream of red thread is going to be coming out from the clenched hand, and hanging from the thread is going to be some teeth made of sculpy that Miss The France made for me!
The bag brings together lots of themes I love- plaid, skin textures, and sketching bodyparts.
My sewing skills are still crude at best, but growing in power with each passing day!!

This is the silkscreened version of the pattern I designed (the rough version was posted in this blog about a month ago or so.) It's a two color print (with overlap to create the dark purple) and using hand painting for the long purple stripes. I had to print up a meter of yardage, and because the project was done with the little silkscreens (about 14" by 14"), it took all day to do. But I'm terribly happy with how it turned out. I think I'll probably end up using it to make the most rad set of curtains ever. Yes, curtains... it's almost like I'm nesting or something. Gah!

I'm going to Montreal tomorrow for spring break! Whooh, frenchies everywhere!

sketchbook bag and new figure photo

This is the sketchbook bag that I made for Eliot for Christmas! It's handmade felt with hand sewing and embroidery, and is the first thing I've ever designed and sewed. And he hearts it. score!

This is a less crummy photo of the figure that I made recently... she has just too much hair, I think. It's just too fantasy-barbie-esque. Note were I burned her foot at the bottom. I can't wait until the oven is fixed so I don't have to use the toaster oven anymore.

Sarah Anne Johnson

Sarah Anne Johnson is an amazing artist who works in photography, as well as painstakingly creating figures and settings to photograph, which she shows alongside the "real" photos. Beautiful beautiful fascinating work.

Tree Planting Project

Either Side of Eden

Her figures have such subtle and intuitive gestures, and she creates brilliant atmosphere.

some notes from my sketchbook

words,
communicating with others in language is difficult for me,
words are tricky, untrustworthy,
(with absolute meanings that may not be agreed upon)
they can help understanding,
but fuel misinterpretation.

But physical communication
is so very intense, direct,
harder to fake.
No wonder people put up
barriers, avoid eye contact in elevators.

Eye contact disables me,
because it is pure communication,
blows past interpretation to immediacy and moment,
it is basic and naked.

paint and hair

These pictures are pretty sketchy- her hair is actually a fantastic blood red mohair, and looks like arteries when held up to the light.
She is a wheat-field siren. Isolated in a sea of grain, amid flag-strewn powerlines, she waits for victims. (someday when I have the materials I'll create the scene.)




I think what of the biggest challenges using sculpey and acrylics is keeping it from looking cheap. The idea behind doing these feels more like sculpture than Barbie. In the future, covering figures with acrylic medium will be nixed from the program, because they make the flesh too shiny. There are some artists who use heat-set oil paints for a more natural looking flesh, and although I like the idea, I don't have the money to invest in anything like that as of yet. There is also some breathtaking work people are doing in porcelain, but that's in a little deeper a commitment to process and equipment than I have access to right now. So I'll have to keep experimenting with different combos of what I have.

Oh, and she has a broken neck. APPARENTLY these sculpey things aren't like plastic kid's toys that can take abuse. Which is going to cramp my clumsy, dropping things style.