Miriam Badyrka is The Doodler

Doodle of Last Week

This week's doodle is pretty fancy-schmancy, so I think it is worth making you wait. Ok, not really, but it would make a good excuse.

It was waaaaay too hot, and turning on the computer when it is super hot is bad. Ok, the computer thing is true, but not as much of a reason as it was way too hot in the room where the computer is for me to set foot in there. And believe it or not, the weather isn't even the real reason I didn't do it. The real reason is that Kira left for New Zealand where she will be studying for a semester. And it was too hot!

This doodle was done in pen on a square sheet of paper while watching an odd movie with Kirk Douglas called Ace in the Hole. 

I cut a bunch of paper squares to deliberately force myself to make square format doodles. That's about as premeditated as I can get. Even then, I thwarted myself plenty and just made random doodles anyhow.

Never heard of this movie before watching it. Apparently, it bombed on release. I don't know why, because it was well acted and a great story. Ace in the Hole is about media manipulation and exploitation, something we take for granted as the truth now, but it must have been pretty shocking when it came out in 1951. My only objection was the annoying ear worm Leo song (if you watch the movie, you will know exactly what I am talking about). The stupid thing stuck in my head for 2 days. The movie was a bit quaint, but thoroughly relevant.

Contemporary Northwest Art Awards

(Long Post Alert!)

On Tuesday, I made the pilgrimage to the Portland Art Museum to see the first Contemporary Northwest Art Awards exhibit, which is the replacement for the Oregon Biennial Show

The curator, Jennifer Gately, picked 5 Northwest regional artists that are under represented on a national scale to showcase at the museum, and there is a cash award. The common denominator between the artists seemed to be that all of them moved freely though multiple media.

The primary draw for me was to see Marie Watt’s work because I adore her and want to worship at her feet.

Watt works in natural materials and common objects like blankets to tell the stories of beginnings and endings and the life in between. She calls herself half cowboy and half Indian, but hews to her roots in the matrilineal Iroquois traditions.

Since I saw her show several years ago at PDX gallery, and was blown away, I always make a point to see her work whenever I can. I was thrilled to hear that she was chosen for this exhibit.

Her tour de force, Forget Me Not: Mothers and Sons, was up in the museum sculpture court. This powerful piece is a remembrance of mothers and the sons and daughters who went off to war. It consists of sewn portraits hung on a web made of blankets hung on a circular frame. To stand inside it is to wonder about and consider each of these individuals and the sacrifices they have made for all of us.

Dan Attoe, the son of a forest ranger, painted outdoor scenes in oil on board and then continued or annotated each piece with graphite drawings done on the gallery’s walls. I especially liked his piece Remember This, a painting of a family on vacation at a scenic overlook (just like that snapshot we all have) with the cars from the parking lot overflowing out of the painting and onto the gallery walls drawn in graphite. He pokes fun at himself and shows a great love for the outdoors, so how could I resist his work, which is witty and sentimental all at once? This exhibit is my introduction to his work, and I will be watching to see what he does in the future.

I couldn’t really connect to Whiting Tennis’s work, although he was the one awarded the Arlene Schnitzer prize. He draws, paints and builds structures that deliberately look ramshackle and poorly crafted. He feels that architecture is shorthand for the human figure, which I see directly in his work, especially the sculpture White Nun.

I really liked some of Tennis’ pieces as objects, but I also felt that the only reason I was looking at them and trying to think of them as Art was that they were in a gallery. They seemed too much like the faux rustic decorations available in any current home décor catalog for me. I liked the idea of his work better than the work itself, which is unusual for me.

Jeffery Mitchell’s work seemed to be trying too hard. It called to mind a combination of childhood whimsy and your great aunt’s living room crowded with totchkes. The only piece of his that I even kind of liked was a rather ordinary geometric painting, Black Star, consisting of alternating concentric lines of black, done in oil and charcoal. The difference between the ways the two media caught the light appeared to be the point of the painting. Mitchell is the technical master of many different media working in printing, ceramics and I felt like I should enjoy his work because most light hearted and fun, but it just didn’t grab me at all.

The final artist is Cat Clifford whose photos, video and drawings told the story of place and time passed in rural western landscape. I was really drawn to her work, and how it all seemed to be of a piece, even when rendered in different media. Her drawings seemed almost storyboards for videos I could imagine her yet to make. Her short videos were simple and compelling. Everything felt cool and serene. I could feel the place where she was and understand why she was drawn to it, why she had to move through those particular places.

I also caught the museum’s exhibit of glasswork by Klaus Moje, which I will write about later. My eyes were exhausted by the time I left, but I was really glad that I took the time to visit this show.

Both shows will be up all summer.

For even more, you can listen to this podcast with all 5 of the artists in the show.

Crop Circles

Here is a link to the top 10 British Crop Circles. Don't you love Google Earth? It is my favorite place on the web. I waste way too much time there goofing off.

Wouldn't it be awesome to make a crop circle? How do you go about getting permission? What do you use to make one? How do you insure it comes out the way you envision? 

I keep thinking that it would be so incredible to make one out of one of my many circular doodles. Like one of these or maybe one of these. Heck, out of any doodle for that matter. I am not aware of any law that says it has to be a circle, although most of them must be circular, hence the name. Duh.

Here is a rather funny beginner's guide to making a crop circle from Circle Makers. Org, home of England's crop circle makers. This is a contender for the world's ugliest and hard to look at website, but they have lots of information. If you have any interest in this at all, their Top of the Crops 2007 gallery of crop circles is well worth looking at. 

Submitted for your approval is an article from the Skeptics Dictionary about crop circles. I like his suggestion that pretty much anything that used to be attributed to Satan, has now been usurped by Aliens. 

I would like to go on the Glastonbury Symposium Crop Circle Tour. They believe in the alien theory, so it should be lots of fun. 

Personally, I believe that they are man made. I don't see why that makes them any less cool.

(Images swiped from the Telegraph Co. UK, and the crop circle poster is from here).

Doodle of Last Week

I am a day late and a dollar short this week, but fear not, your doodle is here.

 

My daughter has been sewing a top. My fantasy was that she would make her top, while I work on art.

She was making a particular pattern (this one, if you are curious). Except for changing this, and that, and this other thing. So, I got fully sucked into the project, figuring out how to make the changes, fitting, pinning and basting to see how it could be done. And, get this, she blames it on me!

Okay, after typing out a paragraph trying to justify why I think this is above and beyond, I realize that she may be right. I am an enabler. I have always modified patterns and assume that instructions are merely suggestions. So she thinks it is normal.

Here is a bunch of random doodles, also pretty normal for me. I like how bold and graphic these doodles look, and the top came out pretty darn cute too..

Embroidery II

Here is another embroidered piece adapted from a doodle. This one is about 7.5 inches (more or less) square, sewn in black thread, on a 10 inch square canvas.

The doodle is 2.5 x 3 inches, and done in black ink on paper. As you can see, the embroidery is faithful to the doodle without being an exact copy.

Doodles just happen. I don't make any conscious decisions regarding content or design. I just let the pen wander where it will.

Once I begin to make a finished piece, using a doodle for inspiration, I also start making conscious decisions regarding content and composition.

The first choice in the translation process was to make a square embroidery out of a rectangular original. I had to make design choices regarding what elements were to stay, and which were going to be left out.

I also shuffled some of the light and dark elements to give the piece visual balance, and varied the size of the repeating elements for variety and movement.

Doodle of the Week

An impressive amount of doodling going on this week. I picked this particular doodle because it seems to be both one big cohesive doodle and a series of random images all at the same time.

According to this article 

Intricate Patterns:

Very detailed doodles are often drawn by people who have an obsessive nature, and who simply will not let go of their ambitions or loved ones. They are also likely to be jottings of highly introverted people

Ouch! I might be hurt,  if I make absolutely every single kind of doodle mentioned. And then some. So what does that mean? Multiple personalities? 

Have you ever heard of a Droodle? It is a riddle drawn as a doodle. 

Q: What is this doodle?

A: A whale about to floss.

If you feel the need to interpret your doodles, I tend towards interpretations that make me laugh. 

I don't feel the need to figure them out any more than I feel the need to have my dreams interpreted. I am content to allow them just to be, and to enjoy them on a visual level. 

But it is fun to check it out, just like reading your horoscope. And you do that too don't you?

Things I Am Looking At (Textile)

I sketched these bird shapes from the book African Majesty, The Textile Art of the Ashanti and Ewe. 

I have been visiting the reference copy at the Central Library. Now that I have discovered the library catalog on line, I found a lending copy over in deepest darkest SW, where I never go, and had it sent to St Johns, where I go all the time. Isn't it funny how you can live in a city and not ever visit certain parts?

I have spent days poring over this book, drawing the motifs in the cloths and oogling the fabulous color combos.

Putting all the motifs together like that, on a few pages of the giant pad, is really fascinating. The weavers have really sophisticated abstraction going on. 

The abstraction is particularly noticeable when you put all the bats with the bats, all the birds with the birds etc, etc, etc (™Yul Brenner in The King and I). 

It allows you to see how some of the images got abstracted to the point of pure geometry. I might not have noticed if I was not already thinking about that shape. 

Look at these amazing bats! Many of them are reduced to to mere suggestions of themselves.

A drawing of anything is a symbol of something that exists. Even the most realistic depiction is not the thing itself. I think the ability to see in a shape the abstracted image of something is amazing. 

Gallery Hopping

I went to see Raina Imig and Dan Bronson's show at Talisman Gallery. Both of them are friends of mine, so it was a show I couldn’t miss. Neither should you!

Raina is from India, and she draws on her native country’s folk art for inspiration. She recently returned from India where she studied rangoli, a beautiful and fascinating ephemeral art form practiced by the women of India.

This exhibit, perfectly timed for Portland’s June Glass Month, showcases her work in fused glass. Raina has worked in many mediums while exploring the Mandala. I think that the round glass plate or bowl is a wonderful vehicle to showcase the circular form.

I wish I had imagery, but you can take a peek here. I love the spiral galaxy plate, and the cracked earth looking plate in the third row. Raina always does wonderful things with blue.

Raina seeks “to show the organic processes of nature and spirit in moments of time. There is a sense of movement and dynamism in all my art, as if the process has been captured in transition.”

This show is holds many delights, because photography by Dan Bronson is also on display. I am a flat out fan of Dan's work.

Dan’s primary subject is the female form. This show features new work based on the feminine in myth in which Dan revisits what I think is his favorite subject celebrating Woman as Goddess.

Buy a Goddess for your Dad for a Father’s Day. He will be thanking you for it! This lovely is Blodeuwedd.

You can see more of Dan's work at his website. Be sure to check out the gallery of dancers, these are some of my favorite photos ever.

This show runs through June 22nd at Talisman Gallery in the Alberta Arts district.

Doodle of the Week

That is one big doodle!

This kind of rectangle to free form doodling has been a feature of my recent pages. I seem to I have decided (Decided? Like I seriously think at all while I am doodling!) to break free of the box or something.

As you all know by now, I think doodles are the drawing version of dreams, so it follows that I must believe that dreams are the sleeping version of doodling.  Here is the scenario: you are on the sofa and, suddenly someone says you are asleep. But you are just awake enough to object, so you deny that you are/were asleep.

I am sure there is some sort of special scientific term for this, but around here at the Circle B, we call that state you are in just before falling asleep "Pre-sleeping".

This link all about pre-sleeping was emailed to me by a friend (thanks Jo!). It is a series of short pieces of what people think about right before they fall asleep. I have no idea where it comes from, or what this project is about, but you should go and watch it. It is very creative, original, and a real treat to watch.

What do you think of before you fall asleep? I watch patterns form and dissolve. Red, yellow and orange in a field of black.

Silly Fun With Color

Ever wanted to know what your birthday color is? Want to know what it says about you? Check out colorstrology.

My color is Ibis Rose (aka Pantone 17-2520).

"Financial security is important to you. Resist the urge to obsess or get stuck in limiting circumstance. Your depth of feeling can at times be overwhelming. Your personal color combines the passion of red with the detachment of purple. Wearing, meditating or surrounding yourself with Ibis Rose allows you to share your insightful perceptions without getting bogged down by too many emotions."

Hmmm....