I've been in a paint block recently. I draw and sketch but only in black or greyscale. I haven't brought any of my sketches in the rendering stage. I have this mental block that I am trying to get through.





My boss told me about this t-shirt contest yesterday and I decided why not. She asked me if I had enough time since the deadline is less than two days. Thing is I've completed art school assignments with less time.



I drew this about half the size of what the painting is on 60lb sketch paper.
Scanned the drawing. Enlarged it and reprinted. Traced the printed version on carbon paper to make an imprint on cut up arches hot press illustration board. Hot press watercolor paper has tooth, texture to it. Erase the carbon lines to be lighter and rendered this in watercolor and added a few violet color pencil strokes.

I decided yesterday to do something hand-drawn instead of anything on the computer to have a different approach. I drew a misshapen heart beet.  Rendered in watercolor.



Watercolor painting goes back to my roots. My first art teacher was when I lived in Germany. My sister and I took private art lessons with Ms. Urich. A master watercolor artist. Looking back I gave her a hard time. If I could apologize I would. She would always get on my case about tapping my brush too hard and loud on the glass water containers. When I would do this water would spray everywhere. Like any correction of a bad habit I would be mindful for a few times but then continuously do it.

On another note is I remember I would always bother Ms. Urich about drawing a toaster. In my 8 year old mind I thought that was going to be my magnum opus. This is it. The painting to end all paintings.

My masterpiece.

I honestly don't remember if I drew that toaster in my free time.

At an early age I learned the my art teacher won't let draw what I want in class lesson....well just do it on your own time. Boohoo.



It wasn't until recently that I've gotten a better handle on watercolor. Less is more and watercolor is very easy to overwork. I love how the cleanup is easy compared to oil paint and other mediums I use. I look forward to doing more work in watercolor. Maybe this will be the thing to help with my art block with painting. Trying something different and pushing myself in a medium I thought I would in time eventually come back to.

The only thing I can do to get myself out of my paint block is to paint it out.





If you are so inclined please vote on the best design. Click here to vote until the end of the week I believe. 
Thank you!








Of course I'll beet myself up if I don't beet in some puns.

Verbal beetdown.
Just beet it!
Beet me if you can.
Beetchu to it.
Sure Beets me.
Beet it everyday.
Beet it and eat it.
Let the beet play.
The beet is definitely off-beet
This moment is totally Beetiful.

Heartbeet.
Ba dum tss!!
Excuse me while I show myself out the door.
(I have more delightful puns that I need to stop coming up with)

If anything this piece is called Heartbeet.

In the age of digital computers I was able to clean the edges.

Help! The ink in my laser jet printer has exploded! What am I to do????!

  

The laser jet printer I have at home is the HP Laserjet Pro 200 color M25lnw.

I save money on ink by purchasing  recycled ink from this company called V4ink. In all the years I've been buying from them I never had a bad cartridge until now. Of course this had to happen after I promised to meet someone with finished product in an hour or so. It wasn't a total disaster, I work at a print shop and I do have keys to go in after hours. I didn't feel like going back in a mild snowstorm and waiting like 10 minutes for the printer and computer to boot and warm up.





When I installed the new set of ink, the printer was taking longer than normal to calibrate and made an awful screeching noise that definitely was not normal. I ran a test page and instead of the ink levels being on the lines it was supposed to the whole page was a shade of magenta! It was very surprising and caught me off guard. It was a mess on both sides of the paper.

Pictured to the left was the front test page in all of it's magenta glory. Right is an example of the back of the sheet.

I ran two test copies hoping that problem would go away or improve. It did not.

               The middle sheet is what it is supposed to look like and an example of the cleanup I did.







                                         









I've been working in the print industry for several years now and can do some printer repairs. My test pages my first clue was to inspect the magenta cartridge. I lifted the flap protecting the roller, turned out the magenta ink was all over the ink roller. I took a tissue and wiped the entire roller. I used pliers to gently turn the roller turner things on the side. I checked the other cartridges as well and they looked ok and I did not need to clean them.

Once I installed the cleaned cartridge I let the printer calibrate. Ran the test page,
but then ran a head cleaning for good measure.

I was able to fix this minor problem and didn't have to send the ink back.
Which would of taken more than a week to get a replacement or credit.

Tada~
Simple problem solving to fix the problem!

From messing around with my other old printer...I've learned things about buying non-oem cartridges.

-  It is ideal you replace all the cartridges at once.

- Make sure it is the same brand, don't mix brands.
Reason being is the ink colors won't mix, won't bind and dry to the paper properly.

-Make sure the company is reputable and has good reviews.
Don't experiment with an unknown if you can avoid it.

Hope these tips help!

Pretty cool that the ink cartridges are in this pull out drawer when you open the front door. 

Before I forget again I entered artwork for the 

18th Annual Millicent Rodgers Museum Miniature Show. 

The opening is February 7th.

Click Here for more information

Make it if you can!

& check out my "Berried Solutions!"

Hihi! Its been a slow rough late start this year.
Things have happened I'm doing better but ok.

Probably the past ten years or so my New Years Resolution has been not to make one. Honestly I don't think I have ever seen a successful resolution that someone has truly kept all year in fruition. I see so many people get discouraged and give up on their goals. I find it that when you set smaller achievable goals eventually they add up to something bigger. I don't see the logic of why wait till January to become a better person or delay the do the thing you want to do?

It can be hard at times.
Enthusiasm is like a flame they say, you have to keep it burning, going, feeding it consistently.

One thing I don't get with people and their resolutions is like why wait until January to go on trendy diets. I am one of those that sees the word DIE in diet. I don't diet but do things my own way, and eat what I want. With light exercise and cutting out sugar I lost over 20lbs this summer.

I didn't wait until the new year to do that. Losing that amount of weight takes consistency and time. It isn't easy and with my health condition it makes it harder than a normal person. My lack of progress was thwarted by weighing myself on a broken scale at work. I didn't think I was going anywhere and thought something was wrong with me again. I didn't know the scale I was using was broken until I went to the Doctor. I couldn't see my progress clearly as I was going through it. I was discouraged and frustrated at times but I didn't give up.

One of my major pet peeves is I get tired and annoyed after awhile of when people complain about the same thing and do nothing to get out of said situation. Especially if its something they can be changed in their control.

Complaining is a luxury.

_________________________________________________________________________________



The other day I got an ipad pro! I was going to buy buy myself a kindle tablet for Christmas but then realized I could get an old ipad for almost the same price. It has more accessories and support. Before I bought one I mentioned it to my sister. It turned out my sister had an extra ipad pro she thought was broken lying around and gave it to me.  Never used really. After looking at it I don't really consider it broken, it is bent and has a few scruffs but fully operational. It is essentially new. She even gave me her apple pencil! It is incredible it picks up line sensitivity and pressure! I'm a late adopter to new technology!

I am super excited and can't thank her enough. I can sketch digitally on the go. Or I don't have to be at my desk to draw. My command station isn't mobile but part of it is now. This weekend it was nice I could wander around my house and draw and watch tv where ever!
There are many art apps on the ipad to experiment with. Everyone likes the drawing app Procreate, but I like Paintstorm Studio.  PSS is modeled after photoshop with the menus and terms so the learning curve is a little easier for me. I haven't created a full on painting but I like starting the sketch, and hopefully will learn soon how to export layers as well.

Well stay tuned! And Sorry about the wait!
-K

Happy New Year...!,
I cannot believe in a day it will be the year 2020. Overall when people think of bucket lists and such 2019 overall was a terrible year. A lot of bad things happened that I don't want to recount. Only difference this year I had more strength to fight off some of my demons.


It wasn't entirely bad but one good highlight is I went to see my best friend of 20 years who we didn't see each other in person for 14 years. It started when my boss asked if I was going anywhere for the summer and quickly said nope! I thought about it all weekend, took a long 6 hour round trip drive then realized the barriers I had before preventing me from traveling wasn't there anymore such as having my own car and listening to my Dad's lame excuses of not doing things. I said yes instead of no and because why not?



Today I got this with a fortune cookie. Does this mean today with half day work and middle of the week day off??? Ha! I don't do much on the weekends except work a little, play games and catch up on sleep. Funny how some people won't bother me at certain times in the day because they know I am asleep!

I hope this year will be better and more exciting. Best wishes and regards. Hopefully in 2020 I'll be able to see with my blind eyes and realize and work on my core goals. It will be difficult to write 2019 and try to loop and fix it with 2020!

Thanks so much
See you next year.
-K

Anyone else upset about the 120k duct taped banana? I sure am. This further muddles the world of Fine Art and Abstract art. Earlier this week Maurizio Cattelan duct taped a banana to the wall at the Miami Art Basel that sold for 120k. Someone later ate the said banana and called that performance art.

Man if only I can get a prestigious art grant and showcase my work in a prestigious gallery/museum super glue a $100 bill on the ground and name it Frustration.

I've been wanting to share one of my run-ins with abstract art. In art school critiquing an abstract artist's work was a total minefield. Anything you say will cause an explosive response. If you said anything one was attacking their very being.

Colors can evoke emotions. People feel a certain way when exposed to certain colors due to color psychology. One of my opinions with art is I think it severely detracts from the artwork when one has to explain what the subject and intention is.

I somewhat remember a piece was called "Melancholy" and it was painted in bright colors, like orange and such. Unfortunately I had to open my mouth to provide critique for a grade.
I suggested something along the lines of using a cool color palette. Just a suggestion, something to think about. Boy was I ripped to shreds. If I didn't know the title of the piece my interpretation was not what the artist wanted me to feel. There are certain laws and rules that exist, like primary colors is the base of practically all color.  And you cannot control what people feel, you can help guide the spectator there.

Melancholy...having the blues. Er not having the oranges. Or mix some blue with that orange, but that would create some brown... The fact that orange Melancholy had to be explained, detracted ones interpretation of what that piece meant.

I do respect some Abstract artists like Rothko and Jackson Pollack with what they were doing.  Frustrating how in the era of becoming viral people resort to provocative quick gimmicks for money and fame. Or the umpteth Rothko ripoff. 

 Then again this whole banana thing if from the guy who steals a golden toilet and sets it up as an installation and then proceeds to sell it. The fact the installation was called "Comedian," seems like a taunt and instigation.

On both sides I like to have an academic discussion about art, in my experience people on the Abstract side aren't so open minded and tend to be more defensive.

The Concept/Fine Artist Karla Ortiz has a good articulate response to the duct taped banana  Instagram Post Link

Somehow I just knew and had a strong feeling the day would come this year... Marvin Grey passed at 14 years old yesterday. He is a Russian Blue cat. Was a silent meower, had a speech impediment, he could not purr or meow. He was the last of the bunch to pass on.

Marvin technically was not my cat but he was became most attached and bonded to me. My ex step mom named him Marvin, and my sister and I came up with his middle name of Grey. Marvin was Marvin grey because he wasn't cool enough to be Marvin Gay.


He waltzed into our lives when I was ending my freshman year in high school when I was 14. Earlier in the day my dad and sister scared off this cat that was lingering in the backyard.  The back sliding screen door was open for the dogs to go out. Later on that evening my dog was acting strangely and he kept on wandering between the garage and laundry room. The dog food container was in the laundry room. This dog was pretty low energy like me and when he was focused or riled up something was amiss.

After wandering back and fourth I noticed this small grey blob on the laundry shelf and shouted to my sister who was upstairs, "Oh my god Dannica there's a rat in the house!!" Somehow I got her to come down the stairs. Thats pretty hard to do when you are the younger sister.
I left the room and she ended up coming down with her dog and pulled it off the shelf and proclaimed the grey blob wasn't a rat but a kitten.


We kept Marvin for 3 days and then gave him to our step mom because we didn't know how to take care of cats. It was hilarious during that time he would try to get close to Monte who was the furrier dog, and he wasn't having it. It freaked him out.  At that time we trained the dogs to chase cats because they were a local pest problem. When we all moved in the same house that was a nightmare to get all the dogs and cats acclimated to each other.




Marvin was an asshole, but a lovable one. He would make me so mad because he liked to lay on my on my stuff and even my Wacom tablets too...which are $500 dollars!! Also I am allergic to dust and he would roll on the ground outside and make himself nice and dusty and proceed to rub my face, which would make my face break out in an instant rash. It started out as a joke that he hated but I would hold him like a baby to the point he eventually liked to be held that way.

At times I was able to tolerate him because he acted like a dog. When he was happy he would drool, when we had dogs he'd hang out with the dogs, get into the dog food, his life revolved around food.  He was smart for a cat he learned how to open the back screen door by head butting it.

Marvin was feisty and would get in fights, One time he got into a fight and lost to the neighbor's cats who happened to be our Veterinarian.  That was pretty embarrassing, because he was an instigator. Another time he started a fight and then fled and the opposing cat bit him in the butt-cheek. That was a major pain because we had to put hot compresses and squeeze his booty twice a day for a week.


One fight that was life altering was he somehow escaped at night and got into a fight with a skunk and hit his head pretty hard while escaping. The layers of his left eye scrambled. This was around the time when my ex step mom dumped both of her cats on me to take care of, regardless of how I felt. I paid more than $400 to get his eye removed. Which was the less expensive option compared to reconstructive eye surgery that wasn't guaranteed to work.

At one point I'd sleep with all 3 of them on my bed. I had to arrange their section of the bed. Worst part was when one would step on another in a sleep state and get in a sleep confused scared battle and wake me up.  Monte liked to sleep on the pillows, and I would place my head near his stomach, Claudia on the sides but she tended to roll and Marvin at the foot of the bed, If I moved the fuzzy blanket Marvin I could direct where he would sleep. 

Its his fault and Claudia's fault I cannot stand the smell of skunks. If I smell a whiff the memory of that foul smell comes up full blown, regardless how far I am.  3 times in my life that I was up close and personal to the smell, I have a overall bad sense of smell, and when I can smell it I know its bad.
One time we had to put tomato juice on the white dog and she was a shade of pink for like a month. Twice he was skunked, TWICE. I nicknamed him Mr. Kitty and he would respond to it.




He always loved to be outside and in his final years lived in a hole under my dad's house and got fed when he wanted. He was my first and last cat. I would never get another cat again, I was never much into cats, but Marvin Grey was a special cat. He passed right by the Paz de Cristo stone. May he rest in peace.