Tag Archives: art

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Gallery & Goats

Good news from a budding artist-entrepreneur: I’ve just been approved to sell work on Artfinder.com. Artfinder is a gallery/sales hub that links fine artists with international customers including businesses and collectors. I think it will be a good venue for dispersing the nudes I’ve amassed from years of figure studies. Eventually I hope to design a sales gallery directly on Draws the Eventide, too.

Here is the link to my AF shop (also listed on my contact page):

http://www.artfinder.com/genevieve-bergeson (2023 update: I deleted my Artfinder account a few years ago due to lack of activity & sales. Link will no longer work.)

It also delights me to announce that the illustrations for Do You Have a Pebble in Your Pocket? have been digitized and therefore are truly finally complete. The author does not have set publishing plans, but meanwhile, enjoy this preview. (The left piece has now appeared in three main stages in this log: sketch, wash, and final painting.)

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An Artist in Retrospect

I’m sure a number of people think Racing Pajamas is my first book. In some respects this is correct. Yet a few weeks ago, I realized… *pause for effect and grammatically incorrect use of ellipses*

…I’ve been creating books my entire life.

Not just writing stories. Not just drawing pictures. Actually making books.

Certainly there were the fill-in-the-blank “About Me” books from kindergarten. (The teacher gave everyone blank, white books and had pasted sentences like “My name is … My hair is … My eyes are … I like to …” The students finished the sentences and drew the pictures and covers.) In first grade, my class received such white books again, this time completely blank; I wrote and illustrated a trip to the zoo.

Then there was the Eastbury Elementary publishing center. Every year it printed an anthology of student writings (poetry, narratives, etc.), and every student had a contribution. But the really special thing was that we could get our own stories bound individually. Now and then, the teacher would send students, usually two at a time, to the publishing center with a story we each had written. We chose a binding/cover pattern, a title font (which was printed on a white sticker), and a “This book belongs to” sticker. Later, we received our books, each paragraph on its own white page, waiting for our illustrations.

Now for a special treat–here’s mine from second grade: The Wolf Named Acorn.

It’s great fun for me to read this again (and chuckle at the childlike things I came up with, like red wolves hunting zebras and antelope). It’s also neat to note my artistic decisions and development even then. For instance, look for these as you read:

  • A wolf ear poking out from somewhere on almost every page
  • Aerial perspective (bird’s-eye view)
  • The Protestant birthday cake (orange on St. Patrick’s Day–for some reason, this one really tickles me.)

What else do you notice? Leave a comment–I’d love to know what you see, too!

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Alice Moran Makes Port

Not-so-sticky greetings from the Tar Heel State! This past weekend, I delivered the finished painting of the Alice L. Moran to my great-uncle, framed it (in a frame he made), hung it, and rearranged the furniture in the room (so the Alice & the M. Moran are more viewable). My, is he pleased.

Again, as with the M. Moran, Uncle Joe (Joseph F. Hack) designed the Alice, and at the time (1966, I believe), she was the most powerful tug in the world. (The M. Moran is similar in that it was the most powerful in the Moran fleet when it was constructed.) The Alice was assembled in Japan, then sailed to England; she is still in service in South America but under a new name. Originally she had four engines (totalling 9600 bhp), but when she went south of the equator, two were cannibalized.

Uncle Joe shared that Admiral Moran (alias “the boss”) once confided that he did not know how he was going to crew the ship since she was so powerful; he thought perhaps a Dutch, Scandinavian, or German crew. Later, the Admiral’s son took over and hired a less-qualified Spanish crew for much less money. They took her on her maiden voyage from Japan to England. There, they tore up the dry dock because they didn’t know how to handle her. The lesson? Cheap isn’t always cheaper.

ALMweb2a

Although Alice has seen her share of toils, troubles, and disassembly, she still makes for a lovely painting.

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Moments of Gratitude

As it is the back end of August and the summer, I’ve been reflecting on my progress. Some projects did not move as quickly or as easily as I would have liked, and it was tempting to get frustrated. But the other day, before working on anything, I sat down and wrote a list of things I had accomplished and was grateful for this summer. No matter whether it was something only started or an event unrelated to my projects, it  went on the list. Acknowledging the good, the building blocks, the stepping stones–it truly lightens loads, kindles inspiration, and revives desire. That in turn hastens progress and fruition.

I am grateful to say that the illustrations for Do You Have a Pebble in Your Pocket will be completed this week! My concurrent book projects are moving along, too, from thumbnails to full-sized rough drafts; when Pebble wraps up, they’ll pick up the pace. Additionally, I am grateful that one of my haiku was accepted for publication! I am also glad for some short, quick projects (comparatively speaking) requested of me now and for the future, including a little graphic design job I launched into this very afternoon.

Now I invite you to your own private moments of gratitude.

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August Advancements

And very distinguished ones, too.

Alice Moran:

She’s finished! No photo this time–I’ll wait until she’s framed.

Illustration:

Do You Have a Pebble in Your Pocket? (the goat book) is coming along slowly but surely. All the spreads are beyond the base layers of paint and, for the most part, unified in their color and value (light & dark) schemes. There are a few stowaways that I’ll bring into harmony with the rest. (What is that sea foam green doing in the middle of a tree?) Then I can think more about details as I brush up my rendering skills.

And because I’m sure you’re all curious about what the duodecimo happens at a haiku conference…

Haiku-coo for Cocoa Puffs:

First, let me say that last weekend was surprisingly successful! Hard to believe it was already a week ago. Made some contacts, sold a few books, wrote lots of haiku, discovered figgyhobbin… (We’ll see how many comments that garners.)

Friday was casual–registration, reception, a group reading of haiku by three poet-scholars they were honoring at the festival, followed by an open reading (for anyone to share). Let me say that when I stood up to share two poems I had penned that very evening, I did not expect 1) enthusiastic applause, 2) that I’d end up the rising star of the conference. I mean that in a very humble way. Throughout the weekend, several attendants (including some top-tier people) shared how much they enjoyed my haiku and that I had a very natural, intuitive sense. In fact, Sunday before I left, two ladies of the Haiku Society of American (HSA) conferred and said that to keep me writing, they would see about using the HSA scholarship fund to gift me a membership (and some HSA haiku journals) through 2015. This has been confirmed with the president of the HSA. I’m quite honored.

Back to the schedule. Saturday consisted of several workshops on different genres incorporating haiku (eg., haibun, which is short prose followed by haiku, and haiga, which pairs art and haiku), talks on the development and status of haiku, and more reading. Sunday, the group took a ginko (not to be confused with the Chinese ginkgo tree), which is a walk to gather inspiration for haiku, had lunch, and held a final reading.

Now that I’ve learned a few more things about haiku, I’ll expand upon my syllabic comments from last time (for your edification and enjoyment, if not my duty as a new HSA member). Haiku is, of course, brief, and it juxtaposes images, traditionally two concrete images, at least one of which pertains to nature or the seasons. Modern haiku and senryu often incorporate abstract or subjective images or ideas, too, such as an emotion. Both forms include incomplete grammar or syntax and a kire (“cut”), simply a pause or caesura, which aids juxtaposition (and may create an “aha!” moment).

Animal Art:

Since this post is getting quite long, I’ll keep this short. My panda project, Pandagrams, is well underway. Stay tuned to learn just what that includes. I also completed a portrait of a Norfolk terrier I dogsat about two weeks ago; scoot over to the Animal Art portfolio to see it.