Quote...

 "Painting is about surface. Surface is, in my mind, always the thing that draws the viewer to the form."
-Lynda Benglis
Lynda Benglis at the MoMA

A little Refresh

Website Refresh...long overdue.  CHECK. HER. OUT. www.laurelsteckel.com

More Crayons...

So for today 4/19, I decided to use one of these itty bitty crayon self portraits.  Quite nice.

I Heart Crayons

So these are a little old but nevertheless curious and noteworthy.  I have a love for Crayola crayons and so about a month ago I decided to use them in conjunction with my hot-plate in order to make these small paintings.  They are mostly on paper, except for the flower which is on a 3x3" canvas.
They are all around 2x3."  All Melted Crayons (Crayola only)
Take a gander-

4/18/10

I skipped Thursday, Friday and Saturday.  End of the semester is BUSY.  But anyway, here is today's.  Working on the computer hurts my eyes.  Hand-done vectorized image.
Illustrator document 7x8.

Lists...

Here are works from yesterday and today.  Yesterday's is clearly an "I'm busy doing real work so I can make it through graduate school" kind of piece.
Today I read something in a CAA publication about lists making art.  I decided to compile a list (during art history class) of certain things I am able to quantify.  They are limited, but here they are.  I realized this questions the idea of substance in art as well as aesthetics (I used a stabillo and ended up smudging it some out of habit.)
4/13- crayon and graphite on bristol 3x5
4/14- stabillo on moleskin watercolor paper, 3x5

4/14

4/13

Works in Progress

These are some relief paintings (additive process) involving spackle and paint on board.  Also there is a clay piece I was experimenting in order to have a full understanding of subtractive relief.  (My first time with clay, bear with me here.)  I have been working on them this semester in preparation for my reviews which will come in 2 weeks (AHHH!).  Again, apologies for the poor quality of images.

Ink drawings

Here are some ink drawings from last semester where I was focussing on intuitive/continuous line and color.  Sorry for the poor imagery, still waiting on replacing my stolen camera :(

Monday Monday

Kinda dropped the ball over the weekend, but I am moving onward with Monday's daily self-portrait.  Here it is.  Ink on colored cardstock.  9x11.

brown paper packages...

So I got distracted with preparing for our sock hop last night.  Just got this small stylized sketch out on brown paper. Up late... It's kind of cartoon like, which is weird for me, but the features just got distorted somehow, maybe because I was looking at my face through my webcam.  Anyway, here it is.

Tired

I didn't have time today. But in order to follow through with the project I did this.  My eyes were red from being tired and working in the studio on my real art.  Yeah I said real art.  Even though I like this stuff more sometimes.  Illustrator document. 

Watercolor Series

This is a series I started this semester.  I only have two and go back and forth about how I feel about them.  Nevertheless they are part of my work for now.  Excuse the second one (phone picture because I still haven't replaced my stolen camera).

Take that Jonathan Brilliant

I was at Starbucks with Kevin and wanted to get my daily sp done but didn't have anything with me except a moleskin.  I found some honey and used that.  They created an interesting ink-like image, and when held vertically created even more curious drip marks from gravity pulling the honey.  A guy at the shop suggested I do more works in honey...might try that.  
Honey on moleskin sketch paper 5x7".

brown stabillo

My professor Sara (www.saraschneckloth.com) had a brown and white stabillo pencil in her drawing class that I assist.  Having only used black (and I LOVE it), I decided to try the brown and white.  Didn't scan so well so I had to [poorly] photograph the first.  Stabillo on 3x5 watercolor sketchbook.  

Puff Paint

My roommate Katie gave me puff paint for Christmas and I didn't know what to use it for.  I figured this would be a productive usage.  It scanned really nicely, and went really quick since you can only make a few chosen marks.  I think it will work well for a plate project I have to do for an auction.  More on that later.

4/4/10

Did this one at midnight 4/5 technically.  But I am counting it as 4/4 because it is the 4th on Central time, and this computer is from Illinois.  I noticed the features got bigger from eyes to nose to mouth.  At first this was subconscious, but then I intentionally implemented it throughout.  Like drawing on the basswood.  Hope to do more.  Thanks for the suggestion Kev. 

Graphite on basswood.  4x24". 

4/3/10

Did this one this morning in about 10 minutes after getting out of the shower.  Ran a little late meeting Kevin because of it...dedication?  Drawing my wet messy hair made me realize I need a haircut.  Also working with a 2B pencil made a somewhat rudimentary drawing.
Graphite on Handmade paper (rose petals in it!) 9x12"

4/2/10

This was a quick assignment my Painting professor asked some of us to do for next week.  A self-portrait composed looking only at darks and lights, shapes and no line.  I may have cheated in some areas with erasure.  Graphite stick on white paper.  18x24".

4/1/10

OK, so the first week of daily self portraits was kind of a bust.  But it's April now, so far I'm 2/2.  We'll see how this goes.  This is what I felt like drawing to depict myself that day.  It's a week after I dropped a piece of plywood on my left big toe. Black pitt pen on moleskin watercolor paper 3x5".

5/26

The second one I did.  Ballpoint pen on Moleskin watercolor paper.  3x5".  In the car on the way to Kevin's Dad's 50th surprise party.  Bumps in the road made it kind of a challenge.