12

A year ago, I started a series that became the most challenging and rewarding artwork I've ever had the pleasure of working on. Yesterday, I celebrated the completion of this series at the soft opening of our gallery in NW Portland.

"Perpetual Motion" came out of necessity. I needed the reminder to live in the present. Knowing that my life is a collection of "now", I had to motivate myself not to waste a single moment of it. It was the worry and anxiety that was ruining it for me, and I needed to replace that with gratitude and wonder.

So first came the concept, and then out of that came the technique. How could I draw a moment? How could I illustrate just how fleeting it is? I wanted to show the singular point in which the moment exists and how the procession of time is constantly taking effect and moving that moment to the next, always reinventing the "now".

So, I decided to capture the fleetingness of time in a moment by drawing the piece entirely with the numbers of the clock, 1 - 12, so that my pieces could depict all 4 dimensions in how we experience life. That is how Numberism came to be.

It all started with anxiety. I imagined that my first piece would be wrought with it. Instead, something beautiful happened. The first drawing was Falling To Pieces, and instead of an anxious, panicky piece, it was wonderful, showing the beauty and potential of a moment. I look at them and see a couple who are truly alive, living for the moment and taking everything from it that they can. It's clear that the moment is temporary, that it's already going away, but instead of worry, I feel calm looking at that piece. It's okay that it's passing; in fact, it's wonderful.



Each successive piece that followed brought me closer to being at peace with now. To have hope and determination for the future, but to be actively a part of what's going on around me now. It seemed the most honest thing to do.



If I found a way to actually be present for each moment in my life, in the end, despite what happens in my life; if I fail or succeed at each venture, in the end, it would be MY life. I could not ask for more.




We are here for such a short time, and I'd hate to waste this one great opportunity with meaningless things as worry, doubt and busy daily life.


For the past month, I have been working on the 12th and final piece to "Perpetual Motion". Last night, I showed it for the first time. It is a 19" x 24" full color numberism illustration. This piece breaks away from the rest of the series as it is the first to completely come from my mind. No photos were used for this piece. In a way, that makes this piece more intimate for me.

This final piece, which is still unnamed, seems the perfect end to the series. Showing the changing colors of fall, it depicts the passing of time in a way we all know well. The leaves turn yellow, red and brown, allowing the tree to survive the coming winter by falling off it's branches. This gives it new life, new opportunity. Rebirth, if you will. The passing of the leaves allow the tree to go on.

I think this is an important part of the piece to focus on. If those fleeting moments hadn't passed, and if we were not able to let them go, then we could never reach the opportunity of the next moment. It's with each passing moment that we get a new one.




So when I look at this piece, I am grateful for the chaos of our lives, for the constant stream of opportunities laid before us with the death and birth of each new day. Each person you meet, each project you begin or disband. Each success and failure. Each time a moment passes. I'm here for the next.




That frame, by the way, is a window frame I painted. When you think of fall, don't you think of watching the leaves fall outside your window?

Thanks to Hassy, we have good scans of this image and are working on making prints now. (Small prints will not be available for this, because the numbers are too small to begin with).

We hope to have prints of this tomorrow at Saturday market.




Click on the close ups for a better view.

FrogFaith Gallery Opening!

It's been a long time coming.

The humble FrogFaith gallery is opening it's doors for the first time this First Thursday, November 5th, and you are all invited! I'm very excited about this. Not only are we opening our gallery for the first time, but I've decided this is the perfect opportunity to show my new piece.

It is the 12th piece in "Perpetual Motion", and as you know that is the end of the road. I can't believe I'm finished already...

It's bittersweet. I feel a sense of accomplishment, but at the same time, I've grown quite attached to this series and don't feel ready to put it down. I have a few ideas for my next series, but that can wait. First, let's give the series a good show!

My new piece, which I have not named yet, will be on display in our gallery along with the first ever prints of it. There are also some little-known pieces that never seem to make it with me to art walks that will be shown, as well as some new work from Tabulanis.

So come see us on
Thursday, November 5th

at

1216 NW 21st ave @ Northrup.

We open our doors at 5pm and will be open all evening.

*Click to view larger, printable version*

Enjoy a cup of coffee next door at Anna Bannanas Coffee House. I recommend the Joel and the Do Do Do.

View Larger Map

Fall News

I haven't been blogging very often lately, so I have a bit of news to catch up on.

First off....

New Work:

I'm still working on the final Perpetual Motion piece. It has proved to be more time intensive than I had anticipated. However, I have finished 2 of the leaves, both of which are now available on our FrogFaith shop at www.FrogFaith.com/gallery.



I am still working on this project and hope to at least finish the large piece in a week. Wish me luck.


Tabulanis:
In other news, I have nagged Tabulanis enough to get him to put the majority of his work on the site as well, so now most of his work is also available for you to view and or purchase right there on the same site.

Sale:
I've decided to have a bit of a sale for all the wonderful people who have bought my work before. To those of you who have ordered from me before, and are looking for more of mine or Tab's work: send me a photo of the print showing ideas for framing or interior design and I will knock 10% off your next purchase. For those of you who are also students, I will knock off 15%. I want to fill up that buyers booth with more beautiful pictures. This also gives me a chance to thank all of you who have been so supportive to me through this series.

Send photos to Sienna.Morris@gmail.com


Soft Opening:
In other other news, which is actually fairly exciting news, Tab and I are planning on having a soft opening soon for our little FrogFaith gallery in NW Portland. We are planning it for later this month. For now, we are painting, arranging and planning, and soon we hope to nail down a date. We will send out an invite to everyone on our guest list just as soon as we're ready. If you're not on our guest list (you'd know by all the emails I would have been sending you), just subscribe to this blog and I'll be sure to put up all the info just as soon as we have it.

And last... but not least
There are a few of you who have been waiting for me to finish this last piece so I can get started on your custom pieces. I will be ready to start on yours next week. I'm holding myself to that, so feel free to nag me if I put it off. Very excited about the pieces. The ideas that are coming to me from my customers are very exciting, actually, each with their own new challenge for me, and I'm eager to show everyone just how inspired they are.


That's all for now, though there are a few other irons in the fire that I'll talk more about later. :)

The Leaf

I drew all day yesterday. Okay, I stopped once or twice to eat and smoke, but mainly I drew. This is what I was working on. An 8" x 10" full color fall leaf in numberism. I won't go into too much detail, but this is part of my plan with the Autumn tree exhibit... more on that later.

First Full Color Numberism Drawing

(Click the image to see full view)

I'm taking a break from working on my latest drawing and I thought I'd put up some shots from it.

It's exciting to be working on this. Another challenge: color.


It's interesting to see how this series/ technique has evolved. From a 10" x 8" pencil drawing, to a 19" x 24" numberism drawing in full color. If you line them all in a row, it's like watching the technique come to life.

So this is my first attempt at drawing with numbers in color. I bought a bunch of pens (in different sizes), a large pad of paper and started sketching. There's a few differences in this one from the others. For starters, this drawing is completely out of my head. There is no reference drawing. I stared at leaves and trees all day, then went to my drawing table and drew the most interesting tree that came to mind. Later I put in the woman reading the book.

Also, in this, I overlap the numbers often to get the color depth I'm looking for.



This is a rather large piece, so it will take some time, but I can't wait to see how it turns out. I also already have a plan for displaying this one. Along with this I will have... oh, you know what, I'm not going to ruin it. It'll be so much cooler when you see it for yourself. As soon as I find a place to display the finished piece, I'll post photos.

This isn't a very good photo of the image, but it gives you an idea. I'll put up more as it progresses. I'm also recording a time laps of this, so I'll have the video when I'm finished as well.