Preparations

This week. This week, was a long week. Grant preparations were far more time consuming that anticipated (although isn’t that how everything always goes?) and with All Student Exhibition pieces also do, it meant a lot of writing and a lot of drawing. The grant application took me a good 4 or 5 hours, and the time I spent finishing my drawing, which I then proceeded to submit to the All-Student Show, was a good 10 hours or more. I lost track after so many, but I think it was worth it. It’s nice having a finished product, even if its only a study of sorts. But you can at least check out the final thing here:

To be honest, this isn’t even all the final work. Silly me didn’t take pictures of the framed piece, and there was a definite darkening of certain areas, other areas with details added, etc…but I like it. It has me intrigued to try new stuff on the other drawings. It also has me hyped to start experimenting with the paper from Hollander’s, which is what I plan to do this coming week. I bought paper and lemon juice and coffee and I’ll be calling an artist about coffee staining techniques this week (I got the go ahead from Joe Trumpey) and overall I’m pretty pumped. I’m kicking it into high gear these next few weeks, cause I know next semester will fly by and I want to feel like I’m standing solid ground by the time January rolls around.

For the grant application, I also did a sketch of a final display plan (at least what it is at the current moment, lord knows how these things change…). Here is the diagram:

Here are my thoughts: I am definitely doing one large-scale drawing. I would like to do more, but I am trying to be reasonable here. If I want to devote the proper amount of care and attention to detail that I cherish so much in my work, I will reasonably only have time for one drawing. But, I would like to supplement that with multiple other drawings, a network of drawings, systems, and thoughts. I figure the frame, made from reclaimed wood as illustrated above, will add one last dimension to the networking/system theme. Plus it would look super cool (but that’s an added bonus). The number of drawings will also allow for interpretation of process, and an overall feeling of complexity. The goal number right now is 15, and I’d like to the largest drawing to be about 10 feet long by 5 feet high. Ideally, that is.

Needless to say, I have some work ahead of me.