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

CBLDF Auction @ SDCC

I am excited to say that I am participating in this years Comic Book Legal Defence Fund at the San Diego Comic Con. I am unhappy to say that I won't actually be able to physically be there for it, so those of you who are going have to have an extra good time to make up for me not being there.

This worked out brilliantly. I needed to draw a portrait of my friend, John C. Worsley, in return for him drawing me (see his version of me below)


He happens to have a bit of a (possibly) unhealthy obsession with the numbers 12 and 24, but then again, so do I. Being that this is about Comic Books, I decided to use this opportunity to draw Worsely as his comic book identity, which is clearly DC's "The Clock King".

I'm smitten with Batman TAS, and used their version of The Clock King for the piece.

Here it is, as a scratchboard numberism drawing (1 - 12, to mark the hours of the clock, of course). Original is 8" x 10" and will be available at the auction. If you will be there, you should go, and bid. Not just mine. There are many awesome artists participating, including one of my favorites, Jim Lee.






detail


deatil


reference photo

First Friday in Milwuakie - June 4th

I will be at First Friday in Milwuakie tomorrow, June 4th with all my little goodies. Come down and join in on the fun. They gave me a nice big space to play with. :)

For more info on the show, check out their website at firstfridaymilwaukie.com or fan them on Facebook

Captain Ankeny's Well

I put up some work at Captain Ankeny's Well, which is a pub a few blocks from where I work at Saturday and Sunday Skidmore Market.
I put up pieces from the last series as well as a couple from my Math and Science Series. Go on by, grab a beer, and enjoy.










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May's over? What?

What a busy month May has been! The art walks we have been to have been a lot of fun, but that's not even the half of it! I can't believe it all fit into one month, and I'm still having a hard time believing that tomorrow is JUNE! Aiya!

Well, my biggest focus right now is the new series. I am etching away and am excited about this series more every day. It's starting to take on a life of it's own and will most likely go places I'm not expecting. It helps that a lot of my material I am getting from my photographers. I am interested in what they bring me. What they see.

I am busy busy busy preparing for our show in the fall. The big question is the speakers. We're looking for some scientific lecturers to come in and wow us with the wonder of the natural world. The question is "who". If you know of someone, send the info my way. I have a few people I am looking into, but who knows what I'll find if I ask you. :)

I just took down my work from PCA's A Rainy Day Wildfire. That was a great show, with some exceptional artists, and I was happy to be a part of it. It's also the reason for the Fall Show, "Here and Now", which I'll be exhibiting at PCA's new gallery in Pioneer Place.

There isn't all that much news in this post, just a little me update really.

Oh, wait, no there is. We are probably going to be vending at First Thursday this week in the Pearl, and at First Friday in Milwuakie. We're looking to add a few new additions to our little company, so you'll be seeing us at more shows, building up our resources for our little plans. Basically, we're saving. Wish us luck. We're always full of big ideas. It's the funding and follow through that really counts.

Okay, and now for some daring heroics..... Not really.... actually I'm just going to go draw for the rest of the day.

Art Hop on Alberta

The sun came back to play in Portland just in time for Art on Alberta's 11th Annual Art Hop!

15 blocks on Alberta will be closed to traffic and filled with over 150 artists, crafters, musicians and foodies. This event is free and runs this Saturday, May 15th, from 11 am to 6pm. There will also be a series of live murals that the public can participate in!

The sun is shining, music is playing, artists are arting, and there is so much to see. Come see me at my booth. I'm on block 14 on the North side of the street.

We've recently added a new addition to FrogFaith with our new 42" printer, whom we've dubbed "Morgan", and we've been printing all week. We will have "C25H52" , "2 AM", Tab's new manikin series, more photography from Benjamin Frothingham, as well as the usual assortment of our work.

Art on Alberta
Saturday, May 15, 2010
11am – 6pm
NE Alberta Street, Portland
artonalberta.org/arthop


"Cold People" by Tabulanis Snow ( 3D modeling and FX)


"C25H52" by Sienna Morris (Numberism Etching)


"Greenlake" by Benjamin Frothingham - Photograph

(Tabulanis will be set up at our usual spot at Saturday Market as well, with the same selection of works).






"Fibonacci's Snail" by Sienna Morris (Numberism Etching)






"2 AM" by Sienna Morris (Numberism Etching)

C25H52

(Fibonacci's Snail. Click Here To Learn About Fibonacci's Sequence)


The Universe is a complex and awe-inspiring place. It continues to challenge and surprise us at every turn, opening up new perspectives and opportunities the longer we look.

As far back as we can look into our history, we have been awe inspired by the seemingly magical world around us. Magnets. Perfect Spirals. Rainbows. Animals that live in unlivable conditions; at the Oceans floor around lava flow, worms in solid ice. The Universe thrives, against all odds. Not to mention meteors and the complex Celestial world above us.

In the past, we attributed these things to gods, magics, karma. Now, we are able to watch in wonder at our world, and then take a closer look, inspecting and decoding these wonders into something we can understand, something we can track and predict. Beneath the surface is a world teaming with information: numbers, genomes, orbital patterns. It can all be tracked. Those things we don't understand now, we will later. Our understanding evolves, and grows exponentially.


(Click Here to see a diagram of the temperature of Plasma on a candle.)

I'm just an artist. A human being with a lot of curiosity and an addiction to drawing and numbers. I'm trying to bridge the gap between the wonder we see in our every day lives and the fact that it is made of reliable, organized information. After all, it's the numbers, the code that make it beautiful.

These are 2 of my newest pieces that I will be showing in August and September with Portland City Art at Pioneer Place in Portland Oregon. They are from the Science and Math portion of the show, and are an effort to show that the beauty we see in the world around us has a method. This is the secrets beneath the beauty.

"C25H52"
14" x 11" Scratch Board Numberism etching.



The Candle wax is drawn with the molecular make up of Paraffin ( C25H52). The flame is drawn with the temperature of plasma at it's different points on a candle (800 C - 1400 C). The woman is drawn with the numbers of the clock, 1 - 12, signifying time in this fleeting moment. All of my people in my Science and Math series will be drawn with time, as this is all we have, and all we can hope for. We are experiencing this moment as sentient human life against all odds. We might as well take advantage of it while we can.


Details:



"Fibonacci's Snail"
4" x 7" Scratch Board Numberism Etching



Fibonaccis Sequence maps out a naturally occuring phenonenon that we see in nature and space. Pine Cones, Pineapples, Snails, the arrangement of seeds on a sunflower. They all follow the pattern perfectly.

Mathematically speaking, you simply start with 0 and 1 , add the two numbers to get your next number and do so again and again, adding the last 2 numbers.
0 1 1 2 3 5 8 13 21 34 55 89 144 233 377 610 987 1597 2584 4181 6765 10946 ...
Creating a perfect spiral. This drawing is drawn with these numbers.




Detail:




Both of these pieces are available as prints on our FrogFaith online gallery at www.FrogFaith.com/gallery

I will be exhibiting these along with the rest of my Evening Series and Math & Science Series at Pioneer Place in Portland Oregon, August and September 2010. More information coming soon. These are Numberism drawings etched on Scratch Board.