Thoughts from Places: Almost a year ago

As I was looking through my Google Doc folders, and found this little gem tucked away. It's titled "Quilt Museum Updates" and I haven't touched it since August 17, 2011. It's interesting to see this preserved snapshot of my thoughts during that time in the project. I'm sharing it (picture-less) now because I feel it's worth sharing, and I'm neck-deep in a few reviews right now.
(Back to more quilt stuffs)
Enjoy this rare insight:

Recent Stuff

I was looking through a lot of folders of artwork and pictures of such artwork, and I realized I haven't posted some of them, so that's what I'm gonna do.

-Enjoy!

My Nightmare Before Christmas Jack-O Lantern of Jack Skellington! Everyone I was carving with was doing Disney themed characters, so mine technically fits. Design from scratch.

Part of the pumpkin collapsed, so I decided to try and save it by making it into a crown. Half success!

 Before I left the newspaper, I drew a little cartoon of a Newspaper Fiend on the whiteboard. This is where the staff writes what is incoming for each week and what's held, etc. so it was taking up too much space. To remedy that, I decided to ink a more permanent piece that wouldn't intrude with routine.

And voila! It's all grown up, and still enjoying chewing on papers! The frame I had I got from a thrift store. It was all torn up and dinged, so it looked like the "fiend" was trying to get out.

At meals, I've been drawing requests on napkins (I may snag all the photos other people have of them and compile them here soon). Anyway, my brother made a Deadmau5 costume for Halloween, and I decided to give him a gift to go with it. Double BAMF Deadmau5!

I find it ironic that I've been drawing on napkins a lot--the chat-drawing program on the threads I drew these on is called Napkin.

My friend Ethan, the one with the board, is living closer to me, so we've been trading art back and forth. We've been posting artwork on each other's doors to find, almost like a weird conversation. I'm gonna take pictures of mine and his, and hopefully in the future readers can follow the "conversation" on here.

Slow updating

So, with the rush of college I haven't really been drawing too much. Occasionally on napkins during lunch and dinner for people I know, but I can't show those here, as I can't scan them.

I've been doodling on the forums at Binarpilot's page -- Norwegian musician.

You can find my dinosaur ones here, and my Binarpilot-music-inspired ones here.

It basically all started with this one:

Well, one of my friends gave me a new skate deck to doodle and art on all over. Hopefully I'll work on that soon and post pictures!

Inspiring!

So, lately I've been gathering things together in piles for college and I keep asking myself while holding several items "Which one of these will actually be used/be useful at college the next few months?"

It is with this off-brand of Occam's Letter-Opener that I have been able to pare down my stacks of books, the drawers of old scraps, and whole notebooks of well...notes. (Don't worry, all those lovely notes are digitized and not taking up very much space).

While I've been making these moment-by-moment decisions, I have been questioning things that will help me be inspired while up North. I still want to continuously create art and stories, and I know sometimes with the work load I'll need a little bit of inspiration to spur me on.

I have compiled a list of things that are inspiring right now, this very week and day. They may not hold the same luster in the coming months, but for now they spark me to create:


Gerard Way's Umbrella Academy: Apocalypse Suite; a comic book written by the band My Chemical Romance's lead singer. Awesome story with beautiful colors and illustration.

Alex Pardee's Awful/Homesick art book (which seems to be out of stock now). One of my favorite graphic artists, Alex's work never ceases to inspire and beguile me. Also, the title is ironic for going to college.

My old notes, written hastily on scraps of paper, the corners of calendars, and the backs of receipts. A lot of them have lost their original connections and references, but still stir little segues and peeks into my subconscious/creative mind.

Barry Quinn's work. An awesome recycling-artist, Barry has turned his eco-friendly tendencies into a larger effort for global eco-consciousness. He's been creating artwork that once sold, the proceeds go toward a fund to help clean up BP's awful mistake in the Gulf of Mexico. It was actually Barry's post that inspired me to start this very post.

Go visit him, and maybe when he checks his blog's Stats page he'll see the awesome people going from here to there to appreciate his work. By the way, the new Stats page is just awesome, thank you Blogger team!

So, there's a few things that inspire me. And now I say to you, what inspires you? Comment below (anonymously or namedly).

Art Recommendations

To fill in some time and space before my next post, here are some of my art-related recommendations:


Artists to look for:
[I claim no rights to the artwork, the thumbnails are to show-off the skills of the respective artists.]

Eric Canante

 Eric is a crazy-awesome comic book artist that has a unique way of drawing characters. He tends to exaggerate aspects of an image to bring out more movement or emotion. He lives in California, in or around Los Angeles.

Alex Pardee

 Alex is a successful and very talented graphic artist who has collaborated with bands such as The Used, Cage, and In Flames for album-related graphics. He lives in Cali, San Fransisco Bay area.

Barry Quinn

Irish artist I stumbled upon one day, and have been hooked on ever since. He is very eco-conscious, and paints on cardboard and recycles materials a lot. He even found a use for cups full of paint-tinged water: stain paper with them for future works. He also gives great art recommendations.

Tran Nguyen

Tran (pronounced Tron) I found through a recommendation by Barry Quinn. She is a young and flourishing Georgia (US) artist. Very ethereal work.

Myca Gilkey

Washington artist who plays around with photography once and a while. Recently, she's expanded into other realms of art, including painting and drawing.

Gretchen Bennett

Gretchen is a Seattle-based artist. Her work is inspired by urban and natural environments. She creates pieces out of stickers she finds all over the city. To give back to this community, she has creates a few of her own stickers.

Ukitakumuki (aka Kai)

Kai is a very awesome artist I found on DeviantArt. He's done artwork for games, trading cards, and the works. We got talking when Avatar came out, and also about a zombie story I was somewhat writing.



Art Supplies I tend to favor:
[I am not being paid to advertise the products, these are merely what I have found to work for me]

Higgins India Ink
Pilot pen, Precise V5 (extra fine)
Ticonderoga pencils
Sharpie markers
Faber-Castell markers
Golden liquid acrylic paint
White nylon erasers
GIMP (editing/drawing program)
Genius Tablet

Art Event(s):

If you live within or within driving distance of the Skagit Valley, WA, come over for a weekend for the Museum of Northwest Art's 18th Annual Art Auction--June 18-19.

 Crane Guarding Pine by Curt McCauley

You can check out the Museum's page on the auction here. Images of this year's work, as well as contact info for tickets and places to stay are listed.

 

Resonating...

Even though I've been having trouble lately staying put on an artistic technique or style, I feel as though everything is resonating and going on a good path.

I keep jumping around with ideas and use of media, everything from painting acrylic on seram wrap to sketching on long, long sheets of paper (think of the paper rolls for older, print-calculators). Other art and artists keep pushing, influencing, and driving this jumpy, subject-to-subject, artistic ADD I am experiencing. And I don't care.

Actually, I care a little bit. I get frustrated at the idea that I can't keep still, yet invigorated at all the fresh ideas streaming through my head. Very conflicting, I know.

The whole resonating thing keeps cycling through, and I can feel it everywhere. It might be sort of influenced by the Museum of Northwest Art's newest exhibit, Resonances: Contemporary Echoes Modern.

Four Northwestern curators (of galleries and art museums) have come together to do an excellent show. Each curator chose an older Northwest artist, and then paired their work with the work of another, present day artist. Some of the pairings were obvious, some subtle, but you can see the works all resonating.

It is this vein of at-one-ness that I feel. Maybe because it's Spring time, and everything is changing? I don't know, but we'll see where it takes me.


If you were curious about what sort of things have been inspiring me, here you are:

Resonances: Contemporary Echoes Modern, new exhibit shown in a local (and well-known) art museum, where I've interned for a while.

Tran Nguyen, who I found through Barry Quinn (see below). She is a young Georgian (US) artist. Her name is pronounced "Tron." Most of her paintings are realistic people, with hints of the ethereal and other-worldly.

Barry Quinn, who I found through DeviantArt. He is an Ireland artist, and I like his progression through characters and green-minded tendencies. He also posts about other awesome artists, so its a great reference.

Every Person In New York (aka Jason Polan), who I found on the Yahoo! mainpage. He is fervently trying to sketch every person in New York City, and has been working on it for two years now. Gotte admire the drive.

Alex Pardee, a Californian graphic designer of awesome shirts, as well as The Used's heart-logo (since redeisgned). You just have to see his art for yourself.

BLDGBLOG, which I have no remembrance of how I stumbled upon it, but have loved it since. A blog pertaining to architecture, and pretty much Everything surrounding and paralleling the field. Very intriguing ideas.

Northwestern weather, you gotta love it. If you don't, then wait a bit.

About Me...Really

I am Alexander Kramer, born in New Mexico, and moved up to the Northwest in the last five years. I've acclimated very well, and love the weather. Even though Seattle is known for its constant rain (it really doesn't rain that much), I really miss New Mexico thunder and lightning storms. And the snow--seriously, New Mexico gets more snow per year than where I am.

Since I could hold a marker, I have been constantly drawing--on everything. It wasn't until seventh grade when I actually started getting serious about it and trying to find my technique. This also happened to be the time I got really into Japanese and watching anime. I've noticed this to be a very common behavior with creative people around my age. (Left is a vector of a friend)

I have what some people might call "a lust for books." Growing up the terms "nerd" and "geek" were used in grade school as bad things. In high school, it was accepted and a good thing.

My favorite author is Ray Bradbury. Along with Chuck Palahniuk and Anne Rice. Of course, the list goes on and on, but why should I bore you on the first post?

My taste for music is very wide and tolerant. The only thing I can't handle is really hardcore rap. I have an appreciation of music, and respect for bands: I try to get hard copies of albums whenever I have the choice.

I am fresh out of high school, and am currently working at a library, art museum, and as a freelance writer. I continue to practice my artistic talents, but not as often as I'd like. Portraits have been my focus for the last year and a half, and I keep experimenting with practically everything else--from vectors and renders to watercolor and collages.

If you're curious, my art is posted on DeviantArt

My other blog, SeattleWhispers is here.