Gel Pen Rescue

For those of you who use gel pens for your art work, don't throw them away yet! They can be revived if they still have ink in them.  Things you'll need are: 

1. A Straightened paper clip

2. A glass of hot water

3. A lighter

Here's what to do.  Remove the pen cartridge. Dip the cartridge point into the hot water. (This seems to draw the ink down) Use the paper clip to plunge the inside of the cartridge several times while the tip is in the water. Test it out on some paper by drawing in circular motions until the ink starts to flow.  If it does not flow, repeat the plunging action.  If it still does not flow you can heat the metal tip of the pen with a lighter, then try plunging again.  Sometimes it takes several tries.  If that doesn't work, my advice is to toss 'em and buy Jelly Roll gel pens!  I never have to resort to any weird tricks to get those to work. 

Display Dilema

I am currently wrapping my mind around displaying my artwork during the month of May in a hair salon.  Nothing too fancy but I want to create an inexpensive yet effective display of my work.  The wall space available is huge.  The art displayed this month is also huge and very now.  

It is somewhat intimidating to see this art up there being so different from my own. I pointed out to my friend who introduced me to the place, that it takes me about three weeks to create a large piece and that is without the planning of the subject and the time it takes me to get inspired.  I often wonder what inspires other artists and how fast they are able to turn out their work.  Nonetheless,  I am forgeing ahead.  

This weekend I decided to forego picture frames as I will need to cover a lot of area and most of my art work is in 11x17 prints.  That's a lot of frames folks!  So I decided on mounting the prints on foam core.  I would prefer framed art but I was pleased with the results.  The foam core shows off the art very well because there is no frame to inhibit the work.  It can be seen just as it is.  The limitations are that if someone wants to buy a piece they have to frame it themselves.  Some people may not want to do that.  I know I wouldn't want to but I figure this is my first time displaying any of my work and I can't afford to frame it all.  I honestly just want it to be seen and I guess you gotta start somewhere. 

My other thought was to enlarge some of the work which looks great because you can see very clearly how each dot makes up the picture.  This would take up quite a bit of space but it won't fill all of it.  I really only have 12 different completed pieces to display and only so many copies in different sizes before that becomes boring.

So back to work.  What more inspiration do I need than a place to display my work!  

The Magic of Masjutin

There is something intriguing about Tarot as an art subject.  There is so much meaning in each card that must be conveyed.  How to do this in one piece is tricky.  Recently I had discovered Masjutin's work.  Masjutin was a Russian Graphic Artist in the 1930's.  He created truly inspirational imagery in all of his work yet his Tarot imagery is just that much more powerful in it's ability to evoke an array of powerful emotions.  To see his work check out this link http://www.alchemywebsite.com/Tarot/Masjutin.html

The Wheel of Fourtune

Finally Getting Started

It has taken quite while to transition this blog to a subject that I hope will prove to be interesting. Finally after having settled into a new career I can begin to think about art again. Art has always played a fundamental role in my life, helping me to express my ideas and feelings and most of all allowing me to capture the beauty around me through the filter of my mind. How my mind translates reality to paper always amazes me and keeps me searching for more ideas to express. That being said, I thought I would try to give my work a little direction. I thought it might be fun to use pointillism technique to create my own Tarot deck. Tarot illustrations are loaded with symbolism. What a fun way to think about composition. So here are some examples I have been working on. It has proven to be challenging with 75 cards to a deck all having distinct meanings. I think it's just the thing to help my art grow.