let's get the show on the road!

well, this is what it looked like during the hanging process... we JUST BARELY had enough room for all 100 drawings!!! i was afraid that with the mats, they might be so much bigger that they wouldn't all fit, but they did. a little squishy, but it still looked awesome! i think it actually added to the visual impact, and the gravity of the whole event (100 drawings in 100 days?? are you MAD??)

100 drawings in 100 days - preparing for the show

i have been delegating jobs out to friends to help me get ready for my show. tomorrow morning we hang it! i will be really relieved to get it up and on the walls. here is the stack of stuff to take, and my work bench where i did all the mounting... whew! i'll take lots of pics at the show for you all to see.

the polar bear, the jack-in-a-box, and the ringleader

FINISHED!!!! I DID IT!! I ACTUALLY DID IT!!! 100 DRAWINGS COMPLETED!!!! wow, how excited i am that i had the opportunity to do this, and how amazing it is that i find myself drawing a lot easier now.

the 98th and 99th drawings were still circus animals, one of which is a jack-in-a-box. i have always loved jack-in-a-boxes, and a dear friend gave me a vintage one for christmas a few years ago. it still works, and is just gorgeous, even though it's a little tatty, it's still a wonderful toy. i have called these two, "the fortune teller" for the polar bear, and "the cow-in-a-box".

now the last drawing is kind of a self-portrait, using my face but the pose of a different woman, so it's not terribly precise, but i was too anxious to get it done to get a great picture taken. and seeing as how it was the last drawing, and most of the drawings have some sort of circus inspiration, it only makes sense that i be the ringleader... so that is what i have called it, "the ringleader".

the snake lady - 100 drawings in 100 days

i'm still in a mad rush to get all the drawings scanned, and uploaded onto my website, still having some issues with all of the devices, so... this will have to be brief.

after watching "carnivale" about 78 times, i think i know all the lines that each actor has, but i just love the imagery, and the characters. one of them is a snake charmer, and her arms and back are covered in snake tattoos which i find visually intriguing, but the snakes are pretty wild too!

i once was drawn by a tattoo artist, whilst i had two baby albino pythons wrapped around each arm - it was oddly enough a very thrilling experience!

this drawing is called "the snake charmer".

bananas and cannon balls - 100 drawings in 100 days

almost there!!! 4 more to go...

"carmen bananas", a macaque monkey, and "cannonball sam", the cat.

deer in drag - 100 drawings in 100 days

not too long ago, i was at an antique store and saw a deer head on the wall for sale. it made me think about the history behind the head, and what it's life would have been like, who hunted it, what the house where it was hung was like, and why it was here in an antique store, etc. and then, as it does so often, my mind wandered to having a deer in drag on the wall...

now, i definitely do NOT condone hunting and killing a deer or any animal for it to become a trophy on a wall, nor would i ever WANT one. however, if i were to come across one that was already for sale (such as the one at the antique store) and i could afford it (far too expensive at that store), i would like to get it and dress it up in drag. i think that would be a discussion piece...

so, this one is called "deer in drag".

the jester - 100 drawings in 100 days

when i was living in oklahoma city, i had a mama raccoon that would frequent my back porch each night for food, as the upstairs neighbor would leave a bowl of dog food for her and her babies. now, granted, they do carry rabies and other nasty things, but they are just so cute with their little "bank-robber" masks on!

and what makes them even more interesting, is that they have opposable thumbs, so they can get into things like doors, and drawers, and carry plastic bags of food away from your back door (i know, because it happened to me - fortunately it was just a sack full of bagels, so no big deal).

so i decided to make this raccoon into a jester, and thus, i have called it "the jester".

the bird-watcher and the viking - 100 drawings in 100 days

i cannot believe how many ink pens i am going through!!! and i cannot believe how much the price varies from place to place on the exact same pen! sometimes almost 1 1/2 times the difference... fortunately for them, this pushy american lets them know that the newsagent around the corner charges a lot less than they do for the same pen... i'm sure they really don't care what i have to say...

anyway, here i have started with an ibis, a bird that is quite common here in brisbane. they are actually quite ugly, the black-headed ones we have here, if you look closely (however this particular white ibis is quite pretty). they can be found in the park or in the front yard, or sidewalk, merrily picking up scraps of food people have left behind. i heard someone sarcastically refer to them as "dump chooks" (in other countries, that would be a "trash chicken"). but here, i have him bird watching, so i called this one "the bird-watcher".

then on the bottom, i have a brahma bull posing in a striped cap, with his striped horns, and looking very much like a viking i think. this one is called "circus viking".

see no, hear no, speak no evil - 100 drawings in 100 days

it's been a few days since my last post (sounds like a confession...), but i really wanted to post these three together, as they are a set in a way.

i started this series of drawings back in 2000, but i never finished them. they were all three, 22" x 30" in size, and graphite with charcoal and red pencil. they were slightly different, but i think i like these three women better! 

so from the top we have "speak no evil", "hear no evil" and "see no evil" - a different take on the three monkeys...

scuba bird and the fox - 100 drawings in 100 days

as i am nearing the end of my amazing drawing journey, i am finding it a bit more difficult to cultivate ideas. however, the ones i do get seem to be the most interesting so far!!

i have only 13 drawings left to complete, and the show is in 15 days - but the ideas are still trickling in. it has been my experience that the creative process here has been an ebb and flow, which is unlike any other body of work i have created. usually i have a rush of ideas, frantically sketching or painting them as i think of them, and then it dries up completely. i think the concept of having to really search for 100 ideas has changed the way i approach my inspirations - a lot of it depends on mood, but if you press on, they are still there, and the energy keeps flowing.

i wasn't sure about the crow in the antique scuba apparatus at first, but once i finished it, i loved it. the title of the top drawing is "circus scuba crow". and the lower image of the fox is called, "andy you're a star".