This is a coloured copy of the mandala I posted yesterday. I used marker pens to colour it.
artwyrd
Focusing more on art…
It’s been a while since my last blog post. The reasons for this are many but include focusing on the art projects “Color Me Calm” and “Color Me Happy“, a return to work after a very extended period of illness, and now working on a book project called “Entangled” for Dover Publications.
It’s been a busy but exciting time with these projects, and I’m sure there’ll be more in the pipeline for me. I’m hoping that this will result in me posting to this blog more often, with updates and sneak previews from time to time of the projects I’m involved in.
I have also had to create a facebook page for myself, Angela Porter Artwyrd.
Here’s a sneaky preview of one of the Mandalas in one of the ‘Color Me’ books.
It’s been a while…
It has been a while since I last made a post to my blog.
I have been struggling with vagueness and lack of focus with the medication I’m taking, and this one I’m on now doesn’t suit either. As well as the vagueness, I’m constantly on edge and fidgety, and the medication is supposed to treat that not cause it. Have to give it a couple more weeks before it’ll be changed though. I’m still away from work as a result.
In spite of all of this I’ve still been busy with art, though the focus for the projects I’m involved in has been lacking at times, but just ‘doodling’ with no constraints or requirements does help me settle a little and also is something I can do that doesn’t need that focus.
In the summer I signed contracts to do the artwork for two books linked to art therapy. In the last week I was approached by another company to do one book for them in the first instance, and if it goes well then there could be a whole series of them. My hope is that I’ll have enough contracts and work lined up that I can go kind of part time at work. That won’t be for a while and I need to get myself better first, but the part time may be a way of helping me remain ‘better’ in the future. Time will tell.
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Half-term at last…pheweee!
It’s been a long half-term at school; eight weeks to be precise. In that time there’s been two training days, a twilight training session. a memorial walk to raise money for school funds and the Senghenydd Mining Disaster Memorial, almost daily incidents of poor behaviour/attitude to deal with, lessons observations, book reviews (as in how well and regularly work is being marked), a consultation with my union representative, a stress-meltdown and hopefully the end of three year period of what feels like persecution/bullying in a particular situation at work (culminating in the union consultation and the stress meltdown).
I still have a pupil to be dealt with who has been making threats to physically attack me because I apparently ‘start on him’ by asking him to do his work. How shocking is that, that I should request he stop shouting around the class, distracting others and to do his work?
Oh the joys of being a teacher.
Having said that, there are joys. The shared smiles and laughter with pupils enjoying the lessons. The ones whose faces light up when they see me and who never exhibit poor behaviour in my class, even though they may do in other lessons), the shared laughter with colleagues, morning breakfast with ‘the girls’, the helpfulness of the lab tech, the enthusiasm and questioning of pupils because they are interested in something, their kindness and thoughtfulness. And so much more that it’s a shame it can become dominated by the negative things that occur and dominate my ruminating, over-analysing, over-thinking brain.
It’s been really busy for me with having to prepare work for a new course I’m running with my special needs classes, as well as teaching mainstream classes that I’ve not done for years. It’s meant late nights at work and even bringing work home – something I avoid doing as I do not want to go down the route of being a workaholic as I was in the first decade or so of my teaching career.
This busy-ness has really eaten into my creative time. Little art has been done, and I’m am doing my best to settle back into it in this half-term, especially as I have two contracts to create artwork for two books, though I have been waiting for direction for what the artwork is to be for a long while now.
I’ve barely stopped in the first four day so of the half-term. I seem to be running away from time with myself. I can struggle with being alone, feeling lonely and end up keeping moving, moving, moving to avoid it. Today I am remaining at home and trying to get things out of the way so that I will settle to some arty pursuits, or de-stressing after the last half-term.
I do seem to be a lot more resilient than I was a year ago. Though things can get to me (such as loneliness, lack of a sense of belonging, the constant worry I’m doing things wrong that have precipitated the situation at work that led to a stress-meltdown), I often find there’s a content ‘centre’ in me that I can access when I do things of a creative nature or things that focus my mind away from it’s rumination and negative thinking. It’s a little easier to spot when this is happening, though I don’t always catch it in time to stop the tears, the self-loathing and the comfort eating.
I rejoined a choir I’ve been a member of since I was in school myself. Sadly, I had to leave again once the stress levels rose as my voice was, and still is, affected by the stress.
Out of all of this, and at odd times during the last couple of months, I have managed to do some arty things. Here’s two mandalas of mine.
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A different kind of mandala from me
This one is a little different for me. The colours are rather subdued for a start. It shows the influence of my love of Romanesque architectural details, geometric patterns, natural patterns, doodly patterns, and, dare I say it, zentangles, though I do have to say the use of repeated patterns and doodly patterns has been around for thousands and thousands of years not just through the cleverly packaged and marketed brand of Zentangle! I’ve used patterns like this in my art for a very long time, drawing on my own observations as well as those of others…
Anyway, this mandala has been created using Unipin pens, coloured pencils, a Pentel white hybrid gel pen, and gold and silver Sakura pens. Yes, there are some very subtle metallic highlights on this one that don’t really show up in the scan.
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Autumnal August Mandala 8
Yup, it’s the eighth one in the series this month. I really have become hooked on mandalas this past week or two. The repetition that’s necessary to complete them (well it is the way I do them) is calming and meditative; that’s not just for drawing the outline, or for the colouring, but for all the texturing as well.
This one uses a rather unusual, for me any way, colour palette. The background has been left white as I really don’t know what colour (or texture) to do it in. Do I do earthy greys and black, rich earthy greens, blues the hues of autumnal day, twilight and night skies, or some other colour(s) that I’ve not considered yet?
It will come to me, and any suggestions are always welcome!
And here it is with a background. I’m ambivalent about the background; part of me likes it, part of methinks the colours are too similar to the mandala design, part of me wonders if I should have played around with colours more, and part of me thinks that the texture on the background should have been done in a copper metallic ink with dark inner shadows.
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Dragonfly
Well, I’ve just finished this dragonfly. Drawing pen and watercolours. 8″ x 5″, approx. (20.5cm x 13cm approx.)
Not happy with background, gave up on it really, but then I was more focused on the dragonfly, other things can happen with backgrounds later on I’m sure …
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Geometric arty goings on …
Both worked in the last 24 hours or so. Same media for both – Sakura Glaze pens, watercolours and Cosmic Shimmer iridescent/metallic watercolour paints.
Each ‘dot’ on the mandala has a metallic centre or ring around it.
Fun to do! Engaging to create and colour … very meditative.
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Arty goings on…
Non-dotty flowers – a reworking of the dotty flowers below. 3″ x 5″ approx.
Busy, busy, busy…
I’ve been kind of busy, but not busy-busy, since my last entry, busy with art. Being engrossed in arty pursuits has kept me up until the wee-small hours as the dark outside has given me no idea about the passage of time. Good thing I’m still on the long summer break from teaching.
I must admit that I’m not looking forward to going back to work. I think I’ve said before I need a different environment to flourish in. My only problems in changing career are that I need a certain income and I have no particular idea what I’d like to do instead of. I’d love to do more things that are creative – arty/crafty would be good. I’d also like to work in an environment where people actually get along, without the constant rumble of poor attitudes, disrespect for self and others and an unwillingness by the majority to want to learn or to see the point of having a good education and doing their best.
Anyway, before I drag myself down into a gloom, I still have two and a half weeks or so away (apart from a need to go in for a few days towards the end of the break to mark work, prepare work, and sort out displays for the walls) and so will be making the most of the time to be creative and explore my artsy-craftsy nature.
Torc – statement necklace – bib necklace – collar necklace.
I managed to complete this torc. It took over 30 hours of work. It is available for purchase at Etsy at the time of this blog entry.
As always, spirals, circles and curves feathre in my work, along with some of my ‘custom made’ sequins. I enjoyed the work in this, and realised how many of the ‘tricks’ I had forgotten from previous endeavours like this. My earlier torcs can still be seen on Artwyrd at deviantART.
Experimental landscape number two.
I’ve also managed to complete another experimental landscape – this one from a photograph of a ‘real’ landscape in North Wales.
A dear friend of mine has made some interesting suggestions about how I can approach the ‘patterns’ for different land-uses. When I’m ready to do another landscape I will take his suggestions to heart.
There are glimmering, metallic, glittery highlights on the drawing/painting that don’t come out well when photographed/scanned. I do think I’m beginning to find my ‘style’ when it comes to landscapes – and that style involves simplifying the shapes/lines of the land, trees and so on, and then working out how to fill those shapes in. Spirals are, as always, a favourite motif of mine, along with circles and curves, influenced as I am by prehistoric rock art, early Celtic art, and anything with curves and curls in! If I try to work with perfectly straight lines and sharp corners in my work, well it just doesn’t seem to work or scream out ‘Angela’ at me.
Abstract Floral.
This was an experiment in something a little different for me – pastel colours on a grey paper, with an open kind of design. The usual spirals and swirls are there, but there’s a lot of ’empty space’ which also works. The pastel colours are a definite change from me!
Flowers…
This started as a good idea and ended up a right ‘mare of an experience. A dear friend of mine reckons it is lovely and very William Morris…
I realised the rising flowers were on the wrong side if I wanted to add words to it as I was inking it all in.
Then, as I blended the coloured pencils, the ink rubbed off to mix with the coloured pencils, so it all had to be inked in again, which is often the case with my kind of work, but the ink subdued the colours somewhat.
I then started to fill in the blank space to the left with tendrils, without putting pencil lines down first as a guide, and ended up making a right hash of it. So, the shading under the leaves and so on was meant to disguise some of that, and cutting it all out and sticking it on blue paper … well it was a good idea, but not the blue! I also rediscovered how useless I am with a pair of scissors or craft knife too.
However, some of the most important lessons we learn are when things go wrong…
Geometricity 1
So, after the pastel colours and the disaster, a return to bright colours, and flashes of metallic gold.
A small piece of work – 7cm x 10.5cm, but jewel-bright watercolours used to fill in the pattern. I’m pleased with the work (though not with the scanned image – photographing/scanning my work is a major problem with the shiny Sakura Glaze pens that I use and the highlights of metallic/iridescent/glitter paints/inks that I so love. However, you get the idea.
I think that I’m going to play with geometric patterns and colour for a while, on a small scale, to see where it leads me. Of course, I may just change my mind as time goes along!
More flowers…
I completed this one with Geometricity1, and there are too many ‘dots’ on the flowers – another lesson to learn! I’ll be reworking this one in a little while. It will keep me occupied during the torrential rain that is falling here in waves. I love the sound of the rain…
Art is the Adventure 