dusty apples

something to look forward to

dustyapples — Thu, 16 Feb 2012 01:49:18 +0000

15″x20″ charcoal, sharpie, and acrylic on illustration board

Brunch at Nicole’s place on Sunday was full of beautiful people to shoot, including Heidi. I took the liberty to add a traditional tattoo to her chest-she does have a tattoo in Thai that I omitted from her forearm.

Progress pic of the vulture and horse piece that I have been adding embroidery to:

Here are some pics from Sunday:

warm is the new cool

dustyapples — Sun, 12 Feb 2012 02:41:00 +0000

This is a quick painting that I started earlier this evening-hmmmm maybe it’s finished-I’m not sure if I’m finished but I’d hate to over work it. I was looking at myself but there is no discernible resemblance. Not that that was the point but I’ll try again anyway.

14″x22″ spray paint and acrylic on canvas

It’s half time America

dustyapples — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 16:58:52 +0000

This is going to be all about the super bowl.

Even though I have been all over the place with my direction of my next series-I think I finally pinned it down. I was focusing on things that I am reading about or looking at to paint, which is all over the place and too narrative. Thinking about what I should focus my next series on is like searching for the sock that is under the pants that I’m stepping on. It’s right there but I just have to shove something out of the way to see it. I’m obviously a native American- so I am focusing my next series on that. Inspiration list: Portraits of American Women(self portrait with my traditional tattoos; other ladies with trad tats, pow wow garb, women in levis, cowbow hats and ladies in rugby ralph lauren with red hair), portraits of wolves, bison, mustangs, paint horses, eagles, maybe a boston terrier for humor-large drippy sparse paintings in watercolor, acrylic, maybe thread but I’m not going to force it and krink markers.

Things: attended the Anobium issue release reading and party on Saturday. Ben, I’m very proud of you! In the beginning thinking stages of a photo/embroidery collaboration with Chisum. Taking a critique class at the Art Institute. Going to Texas. I’m sure that will inspire my Americana series.

Probabilities: For Whom the Bell Curves

dustyapples — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 19:54:38 +0000

Some of the paintings that I’m experimenting my mixed-media thread approach with. Now, there is either paint or thread but I’m digging into that shortly. I feel like I can work everything out so smoothly in my sketchbook -canvas has been another issue. I picked up some graffiti markers and I am prepared to throw a lot of canvas away and pretend it’s a sketchbook. Last week, I spent an entire day-from 5 a.m. until 7 p.m. cutting stencils and working on a piece that is total trash. The stencils could come in handy sometime in the future though. I don’t regret it, everything is an experiment. I’m reading, The Canon: A Whirligig Tour of the Beautiful Basics of Science by Natalie Angier. Her introduction made me fall in love with her as she doesn’t take herself too seriously but she is really passionate about science education. There is a lot of underlining going on. Working on some sketches and photographs for a self portrait painting.

Something Will Be Here

dustyapples — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 03:37:36 +0000

I stretched seven canvases and gessoed a few black. They are all on the smaller side-for planning purposes. I’m also prepping some paper and expeiementing with my layers before I go big.

This is an experiment, I was going to gesso over the entire thing black first but then I decided that I should play around with it first. Then, if my playing turns out cool I can keep it but if it turns out ugly I can still gesso the entire thing.

The anatomy of domestication. The first two layers of watercolor on this sketch and a mixed media drawing on a wallpaper sample.

Dictionary Heart

dustyapples — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 00:53:58 +0000

Today at work, I sketched this little heart from a dictionary with no cover and profanity scrolled throughout.

Nikki’s Teaching Portfolio

dustyapples — Sun, 08 Jan 2012 23:23:56 +0000

I’ve spent the last three days working on this:

Nikki’s Teaching Portfolio

2011 in review

dustyapples — Sat, 07 Jan 2012 20:52:43 +0000

The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2011 annual report for this blog.

Here’s an excerpt:

A San Francisco cable car holds 60 people. This blog was viewed about 3,000 times in 2011. If it were a cable car, it would take about 50 trips to carry that many people.

Click here to see the complete report.

stroke as vent

dustyapples — Sat, 07 Jan 2012 17:40:17 +0000

The first stage of my anatomical drawing reinterpreted in thread on lambswool. I’ve been thinking about my heart a lot lately. The artery serves as a taproot-which is going on the other piece of lambswool that I have reserved. It will be an embroidered image of the thistle with taproot that I drew some time ago. This break I have been working on an online portfolio to get a job teaching art and I have been taking my camera out on many adventures.

no snow for sinners

dustyapples — Thu, 29 Dec 2011 16:14:51 +0000