Working Around Sickness

 

You learn to juggle when you work full time at one job, and then go home and work on art pieces full time. Weekends become work days where you spend 11 hours a day trying to catch up on all things that have deadlines, and I can honestly say as tired and sick as I am, I am enjoying every minute of it. My body, on the other hand, crashed. That is alright, spent all day in bed, trying to get better, and then woke up and worked some more. Things happen and you learn how to move around them to get other things done as well. Im working on commissioned bowls, bowls for an event at the American Embassy, and bowls for Holy Land Design’s store, where I purchase the wood and I am proud to say they sold out of all my pieces.  I’m also in the process of working on collaborating with another wonderful store here in Amman, that truly is an inspiration.

With all this going on, you start to learn what is important and what isn’t. I am definitely spending less time wasting my hours on Facebook, yet still trying to keep my art page up to date for all you wonderful followers out there. I am hoping on taking a week off work where I can sit down and work on art pieces for the upcoming exhibit as well. You get to the point where the only thing that keeps you sane is all the to do lists you keep creating and the satisfaction of crossing things off it, yet I still feel like I haven’t quite accomplished enough. I know, I am a tad obsessive.

Here are the prepped bowls from last Friday. I have almost completed most of them, and will be sharing them in another post soon! Through all this craziness, I try my hardest to remember to update my blog. It is the least thing I can do for my followers!

 

Jordanian Illustrator – Ibraheem Alawamleh

I had the privilege of meeting an illustrator / cartoonist a year ago who had such a different style from all most in Jordan. Being inspired by the world around him, Ibraheem uses illustrations with images, bringing together reality in images and illustrations in a mix that makes you truly question what is real and what isn’t.

Inspired by Shaun Bryant and Cory Loftis, both incredible illustrators, Ibraheem tries to learn from the best. One piece of advice that he lives by is constantly practicing to fine tune his work. Being around him, he has inspired me to continue working even if I feel like quitting. Constantly posting images of works in progress while showing us the steps he takes in creating his incredible pieces shows all of us how without practice, without document the steps needed, you can never see how truly progressed you have become.

His dream is to one day work on a Pixar movie as an artist, and to live in South America. Knowing him and all his hard work, I truly see that happening in his future. You can check out Ibraheems work on his Facebook Page.

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Special Commission

I was commissioned to create a very unique bowl where the bark would be completely removed, and the entire bowl would be painted. After the bark was removed and sanded down where I could draw and paint on it, I proceeded to sketch out the leaves and paint them. Due to the curves and angles it was not an easy task to create the leaves in a way that would not only  not be warped, but proportional.I ended up not only painting over the sketches, but sanding it all down myself again to start all over. Eventually, I got the hang of it and sketched out the leaves where I wanted them  to be. Then came the paint, and what a task that was! Trying to create it semi realistic enough where they actually looked like leaves, and were still interesting enough to look at took some time. When I started to cover the entire bowl with black my heart sank. The beautiful grain of the wood was disappearing before my eyes and I thought the piece would be too simple, but it surprisingly seemed to create a sort of mood that was needed.  I actually really like the way this bowl came out and the client was extremely impressed. Im not sure if i would do it again, simply because I love see the raw wood along side the paint. Let me know what you guys think.

Update

I have been working the last few weeks on paintings for a group exhibition that will be held in a month or two. It’s been hectic trying to figure out how to balance my day job with creating paintings for the exhibition and all the rest of the orders I’ve been getting for the wooden bowls and keychains, but I’m learnign to prioritize my work, and stay focused. I wanted to share details of a painting I completed last weekend, but will keep the whole completed piece a surprise until the exhibit, this way, people who come won’t have seen it before. I was thinking of calling the piece ” Laced Ribbon”.

Project Unbreakable

An art project can mean many things to me. If it communicates an idea, is emotional, interactive and visual then to me, it’s an art project. For these reasons I would have to say Project Unbreakable is not only a community, a support unit, but also an art project worldwide.

Reading the sentences, looking into peoples eyes as you see the pain, but also the strength and watching the video makes you heartbroken, but it also makes you proud of how people refuse to be broken and how strong they truly are. I want to hug each of the people and tell them thank you. Thank you for being our strength, and hope.

You are all our rocks.

Untitled

This piece has been completed for a few weeks now, but haven’t had a minute to share it. This was created for a dear friend of mine who went out and purchased me some sketchbooks and pens as a birthday present. I do love my friends! There are three images of the process, the last being the final product.

The Blue Carpet

No words can describe the intricate, insane and beautiful work of Jonathan Bréchignac called The Blue Carpet made out of Bic pens. Simply jaw dropping. Thank you My Modern Met for sharing this with us… Wow.

Through Darkness & Light

I need to catch up on some blogging, don’t I? I have truly been awful lately with showing you guys the pieces I’ve completed and explaining my thought process. Life does take over sometimes, doesn’t it?

Continuing in the dark mood I was in since my art piece, “Raw”, I created something haunting. ‘Through Darkness & Light’ is a complicated art piece where I try and merge both sides, light and dark, into one. Dismay and depression into hope and faith. The escape of the orderly into an abstract soul. The ability to let go of one’s fears and be set free. If you look closely the empty space in the designed pattern look like little arrows which moves your eyes from them up through the art piece, as if you are floating, into the whiteness of what some may feel is hope of a better tomorrow.

Rebirth

This piece may be the piece that best describes my personality to date. It’s hard to put into words how my mind works, and to be honest, I’m not even sure it is possible, but creating this piece became somewhat obsessive to me. So obsessive that almost 5 days later I feel the pain in my fingers and wrists.

I started it out with paint strokes and left it for a few days wondering what to do next. Should I leave it empty, paint the entire piece the same way, or do something semi different? It finally simply came to me. The best way to describe the piece is by either looking at it as destruction, something being torn down, creating chaos, or construction, something being built from chaos. Your experiences in life, and who you are will decide which way you look at it.

I think for myself it’s both, construction and destruction simultaneously. While something may be breaking down, something else can be being built. Either way you try looking at it something is coming from something else. Something is being created from another, be it from an organized and well thought out thought, to an abstract, chaotic one. For these reasons I named the piece “Rebirth”. It is the rebirthing of something into something else. A chance to look at things differently, whether it be more abstractly or in a more organized manner.

A 3.2 feet x 2 feet mixed media art piece. What do you guys think?

Samantha Keely Smith

I stumbled upon Samantha Keely Smith’s website  and fell in love with her work. The subtle way she tries to combine realism with abstract by using color, brush strokes and thickness of paint allures you into her art pieces. A few of the pieces seem to fight for you to understand what exactly it is making you feel, yet you realize that is the concept of her work, feelings. So full of energy, soul, and expression, her pieces mesmerize you into a dream like state and in some ways put you in a trance where you want to explore each inch of the painting.

Here are a few of my favorite pieces: