Stuck in the Mud?

 

This week's theme at Illustration Friday is "muddy."  I'm feeling this one as snow melts and the driveway and walkways become mud pits.  I also feel a sodden metaphorical weight as obligations increase, health stumbles a bit, and suddenly I don't seem able to do as much as I would like.

I'm afraid that my output on this blog is suffering for it not being my highest priority.  But for Illustration Friday the last few weeks, I might not have posted at all.  Still, I remain firmly committed to at least one blog post a week and will try to ratchet up the frequency.  But who can say?

In the interest of keeping any and all who might be reading this post updated on all things Bungy in the blogosphere, here's a short list of links where you can find me (as well as items of interest):

• I've been contributing a bit over at the "poemicstrips" blog, including a very exciting project putting together an issue of Xerolage on the theme of dialogue balloons.  Check out the open call for participation here and then check out the other beautiful work on the blog. Consider posting a link in response to the current Poemic Inquiry prompt "What might a love/romance poemic look like?"
• @Platea recently completed is sixth project, "PlateaKnit."  It was a wonderful collaborative project thematically linking fibre crafts with networking and producing a crowdsourced knitting pattern on Twitter.  You can read about the project here, and check back at the blog as we anticipate a wrap-up post soon including lots of pictures of the works people produced.
• I follow Artspark Theatre regularly.  Recently, one of my comments was highlighted there as both a post and an invitation to others to do art.  I'll be posting my contribution here soon to Susan's Valentine's challenge.  Artspark Theatre is another one of those gems of a blog that never disappoints.  I only wish I could post with something more like Susan's frequency (and, well, depth).
• I've been following Andre Molotiu's "Abstract Comics" blog, including both amazing artworks and really sophisticated analysis of classic comics.  I comment regularly there, but lately Andrei's post about similarities between our contemporary reception of comics compared to 18th Century debates over musical form has really got me thinking.  
• Finally, Piotr Szreniawski has started a new blog for "experimental comics."  It's new and eager for both regular readers and contributors.  Why yet another blog?  Well, his thinking is that many of us are doing work with comics that aren't quite poemics and aren't quite abstract comics.  This is a place to share that work under the broader rubric, "experimental."

So, did I mention I have a day job?  Quite a busy one, too.  And yet, somehow we make time for the work that matters, whether it happens at work or on our own time.  Maybe I'm less stuck in the mud than just really committed to getting my hands dirty.

Focus -- Losing It While I Gain It

 

This week's theme over at Illustration Friday is "Focus."  Yet another one of those serendipitous confluences as the theme itself seems to come into focus in my life.

It's that time of the year when my profession requires me to engage in the ritual of the annual review.  Polish up the CV, review what I accomplished in 2009, match that against what I said I would do, extrapolate from all that my plan for 2010.  I always put this bit of administrivia off until the last moment.  I loathe it, and I am convinced it will yield nothing but internal angst over my lack of direction, my lack of clear focus.  And yet, every year as I fill out the paperwork, I find I was more productive than I thought, and that there is a more or less clear direction in my labors.

And that's the point of it all, I guess: to demonstrate for others but also for myself that I am delivering on my commitments to profession.  To bring into sharp relief the fruits of those labors.  Still, it is exhausting work.  Even if the message is ultimately confirming, I find myself drained by the effort.  All evidence to the contrary, I feel like I've lost my way. 

So.  A dark illustration in shades of gray.  A lonely alley with noir shadows.  A face lost in black ink and crosshatch.  Call this an illustration of inner turmoil.  See in it how too much introspection, even if required, ends up being an exercise in beating your head against a wall.  And somehow, at the very edge of the frame, my life swimming in and out of focus.

2010 -- A Year of Renewal?

The good folks over at Illustration Friday have kicked off the new year with a great prompt, "Renewal."  Indeed, as we put away the old and face the new, now is a great time to consider renewal.

Surely, 2009 gives us a lot to be cynical about.  In the US, Health Care reform consumed our political process, demonstrating that even though the bulk of the population wanted meaningful reform, special interests were able to clutter and stymie the process so much so that the current compromise(s) offers little in the way of real reform.  We thought with its hopeful beginning and a new President, 2009 might see significant changes in our foreign policy -- and we have.  But that change still involves more troop deployments and daily news of unrest in the places where we are involved.  Christmas Day reminded us that the free world is still vulnerable to terrorism -- avoiding it often only with a little luck.  And then, with a heavy sigh, we look at how little was accomplished at Copenhagen with regards to meaningful international agreements on climate change mitigation.

Now is not the time to give up hope.  And so, we recycle the wrapping paper, compost the holiday leftovers, pick up the party detritus, and come back from this liminal solstice time to the work of the new year.  The planet is doing its yearly tilt-thing, and the sun is coming back in the Northern Hemisphere.  Let us take energy from its shine and renew our commitments to getting it right. "It" being our lives -- individually and, more importantly, collectively.  We are all in this world together.

Pioneer Spirit -- Looking Forward/Looking Back

This week's prompt at Illustration Friday is "Pioneer."  To the stars and beyond! Actually, I came close to drawing a cobbler on an ear ("Pie on Ear"?).  Fortunately, my inner SF geek won out over my incessant need to make puns (visual or otherwise).

This is also that time of the year when everyone is doing some sort of retrospective.  I've put together the following 2009 retrospective of my Facebook profile pictures.  Perhaps this is a tribute to the unavoidable narcissism of Facebook (and really, blogging and web presence, in general).  But I also find that, seen back to back, they reveal much about not only the changing events but also my shifting aesthetics in 2009.  I'm not much of one for chronicling my activities with my profile pic, but I do use it as a place to share new skills and visions in digital art.  Prior to finding sites like Illustration Friday, The Green Palette, and Artspark Theatre, my Facebook profile picture was my greatest "prompt" for doing art regularly.  And, of course, toward the end of the year I stopped even trying to make those pics look like me.

Anyway, enjoy.  And if you have any questions about how I made any of these, don't hesitate to ask.