Seahorses, Fireflies and Beaches at Sunset

Recent Happenings:

We have been meeting more and more of the friendly neighbourhood PSM regulars, as we have recently started setting up shop on the Portland Saturday Market side as well as our usual Skidmore location.

I have been delegating stretching our canvas prints to other people in our company or friends, as the last time I stretched these prints, my hand was out of commission for over a week. I injured it after having stretched about 100 prints, and it hurt so badly, I couldn't open a door or flick a lighter, let alone draw for my usual 6 hours a day. So no stretching for me! - Many thanks to my friends who have been picking up my slack.

I will be painting live next month for a local charity, and I plan to paint in numbers. The piece will be auctioned off at the end of the show, so this might be a good way to get an original numberism drawing without having to pay a couple grand to do so.... I will devote another post to that next week. It will be August 12th, in Portland.

* We will be at Last Thursday tomorrow with all the new work I refer to below. :) Come see us.

I have a few new pieces to speak of (come on Sienna, get to the good stuff! ) ;)

From a recent comission, here is my newest scratchboard etching, which is currently titled "Seahorse", unless one of you have a cleverer name for it. I wanted to draw the seahorse with the remaining population, as they have recently entered into the endangered species list, but there are no accurate figures curently. (Anyone who knows good resources for genome data, please send me links, as I have a frog to draw that I could use that information with.)

Anyway, so the seahorse itself is drawn with the numbers of the clock, 1 - 12, which I think is relevant, seeing as their time here has a ticking clock these days. The sea grass I drew with the number 12000, to signify the 12000 square miles of sea grass destroyed in the last decade. With those two pieces of data combined, I think I got around the fact that there is no hard data on their estimated population, while still getting my point across.

Below, is the finished scratchboard, with watercolour wash, as well as some detail images.




You can purchase this at our FrogFaith gallery at www.FrogFaith.com/gallery , my Etsy account at www.SiennaMorris.Etsy.com

Next up is a new piece from my Math and Science series. My friend, Traci, (who is a killer stylist at the Chameleon Salon) let me use her beautiful daugher, McKenna, as the model.
The Firefly's abdomens are drawn with the chemical formula for their bioluminescence, C12H13N203S2. The light emitted from the fireflies (the jar and everything in it that is visable due to light), is drawn with the speed of light, 299792458 m/s. The girl is drawn with the numbers of the clock, 1 - 12, to signfiy time in her fleeting moment. All my people will always be drawn with time.

Completed piece and details below. Buy a print at www.FrogFaith.com/gallery







Next up is actually an oldy... kind of. I drew this etching of Cannon Beach a couple of months ago and never got around to getting a good scan of it in full colour. I'm finally printing it now. I used a local photographer that you can find at PSM for the refernce photo of the beach. I am a terrible person, because I can't seem to find his contact info right now, but I promise to let you know as soon as I get it. :)

Completed piece and details below. Buy a print at www.FrogFaith.com/gallery

299792458

I've been feeling a little low lately. Generally if I don't get to work, I go a little nuts. If I don't get to draw, I get worse. Apparently, if I don't get to draw numberism for too long... well you can probably tell when talking to me that it's been too long.

I have a handful of ideas/plans I am working on or planning to work on that are sitting in front of me. I haven't quite decided how I'm going to attack them or in which order. So, stuck in a stalemate of artistic frustration, I needed an outlet. I needed the calm of numberism. I needed to key in and have nothing in the world exist besides numbers; gloriously simple, reliable numbers.

I don't draw fire or elementals nearly enough, so I decided to draw a candle. This is drawn with the number 299792458, which is the speed of light.

299792458 m/s

I am enjoying it and I can start to feel my mind center, finding clarity in the busy mess my mind has made for me to sift through. I hadn't realized just how helpful numberism is to me. I set up all the trouble in the world, and it knocks it down. Against the madness I am capable of creating, numberism consistently finds a way to quiet the storm. I don't know where I'd be without it.


This is one of those ideas I mentioned before. One of the many. Using formulas or equations to represent scientific theory through hopefully leading illustrations of the numbers' context...

There are more ideas.

One has to do with music... another with literature.... another with anatomy.... another with transportation.... another with time... time time time.....

I couldn't begin to assume which one will win out in the end, and I'm beginning to think that I will end up working on more than one...