A very busy few days. The first picture is of an ink wash done by one student in the North Hero class Monday morning. What a GREAT group of folks. They work so hard and did some wonderful work for a first time effort in ink. The course will continue. Dorice is planning to turn her store into a Gallery. No details yet, but courses could be offered there.

The next picture is from last night’s class. Annie did a nice landscape with watercolor and ink wash. It isn’t done in the picture shown, but she was quite happy with it and hopefully will work on it at home. It is the end of the semester, and some of my UVM students came in with NO materials and were clearly unprepared. The big topic of discusssion was the giant snowball event on campus. (SIGH…). Luckily I had enough of my own materials to lend those who brought nothing. I was not pleased for a minute or two. I prepare a LOT for these classes and when students don’t bring their assigned materials, even after I remind them in class and by the listserve, it takes me a moment to get back into the joy of art. Needless to say, I did. Some excellent work resulted from their efforts. The intense discussion over food issues for the final celebratory party seemed to engage all (Domino’s vs. Big Daddies, vs. Leanardo’s followed by topping dialogue, cheesy stick discussion and cinammon stick debate.)

The last small picture is a very simple Rorschach, in 3 dimensions (if you are able to fuse the left and right images with a close up look). If you are unable to do it, you may need some 3D glasses which help do this for you. I’m getting quite fascinated by the process of taking invisible molecules in three dimensions and using them as a source for abstract digital painting. Going from these things we can only see instrumentally to abstract visual expressions which seem to have meaning in more tangible events in the world of visible things is a fascinating journey. The number of viewers shot up into the hundreds last night, and I still can’t figure out why that happened. Something about Thursday nights? Or are they all knitters who frequent the tales of Norma the Knitting Court Reporter, Classroom Sage/Interpreter and Humorist (who I think probably moonlights as a writer for Jay Leno.) YES… that’s probably it. Sneaky me… I bold faced that to up my ranking.

Another quick note to 3D viewers. The Rorschach today (at the bottom) is a VERY simple line drawing, with only a bit of the 3D effect. If folks can’t fuse this simple one, then I better just stick to the more elaborate one dimensional designs. They are interesting to me in themselves.

Now I must begin to read thousands of pages of portfolios, papers and journals. I should emerge bleary eyed, next week, to greet Bert Dodson our textbook author who will appear and do demonstrations and a portrait prior to our party.  Then classes end and I can get back to some oil painting and the wise words of Tad Spurgeon.
I’ve just completed a series of new abstract and very colorful digital paintings which I hope to post tomorrow. I need to show how the process occurs, and so this is a series in stages.

Several names came up for yesterday’s and the early today image posts, including “Crocodile Snatching Poodle off Riverbank,” and “Dog Leaping Fence” for the doggishly one, and “Grapes from My Fridge” for the fruitish one.   Thanks to Norma, Carrie and Doris for suggestions.  Some may well appear as titles in the Art Path exhibit coming up in February.   In honor of these highly creative titles, I’m posting another this afternoon to see what turns up, if anything.   Now off to my LAST drawing class.  My students are as happy as I am that the semester is coming to a close.  We all need a break.

A comment I got yesterday was that the imge in the post below looks like “the word “fruit.” I’m not sure if this means I’m psychotic, or merely longing for the grapes I have in the fridge. Clearly not a mathematical sort, though.” —> from http://rabbitch.blogspot.com. So like most folks, we hunt for representational meanings in these mathematical abstractions. Small submicroscopic worlds represent macroscopic experiences, real or imagined. I do the same thing all the time. When I saw the above image flash by in a meander journey, I immediately saw the “creature” there, even though it’s molecular origin was clear because I started the journey there. It’s partly a symmetry thing, but shape placement and size play into it also. It’s definitely kind of a molecular Rorschach test. So does anyone out there see anything in today’s post? What’s the fragment in the lower left corner?

Ended lunch yesterday and Willem’s friend Norma (of the famous Norma Knits blog) stopped by. My first real meeting with a court reporter, who is, in part, doing her thing in UVM classes. This is a great service for many on campus. As an occasionally hearing challanged person, I know so well how valuable her services are. We had a quite humorous discussion and I got to ask my favorite question of court reporters who I meet ALL the time of course. “Why don’t you just tape it?” Since the answer to that is so obvious, I’ll have to just say I asked to it make conversation. Lucky for me I didn’t get clobbered immediately. Thanks Norma. I’ll know next time it isn’t a good idea. You can read about this exchange on Norm’a blog: http://nownormaknits2.typepad.com/ or you can just type “Now Norma Knits” into Google and you’re there.

Last night in A&S the students did watercolor. Some great paintings, but a mess to clean up afterwards. I’ll try and post some of the results later today. Right now I’ve got to move quickly into the day which is fast disappearing.

I’m fascinated wandering through all the images which keep appearing in this odd digital world I’ve discovered. While patterns of connection are recognizable, it’s clear that bonds are broken and sizes are morphed. Fragments appear and disappear as I wander. Stopping to grab and post one, like the image above, is like taking a picture of flowing shapes and colors. A movie would capture it better perhaps. Having “taken” the photo, I’m stuck with wanting a verbal characterization.  I’ve got readers around the US, a few in Canada, and some in India, China and Australia. It would be interesting to see what different folks perceive.  Those with a mathematical bent may discern a sine wave.

A reminder to students in A&S 095. Your portfolios are due this week, as well as the final version of your papers. The images should be included in the same format as the paper (nothing larger than 8.5 x 11 inches.) Also, please hand in your journal book. Put your name on the portfolio (Windpower Notebook), your journal and your paper. Late submissions are not accepted. This week’s classes will be on ink wash combined with watercolor. Bring watercolor paper and brushes. I’ll bring the paint.

Spotted this fragment early this morning while traversing through a glowing edges, sine wave distortion of Luciferin. Luciferin is responsible, in part, for the glow of summer night fireflies.

Class at North Hero this morning. Everyone did very well and some great ink wash drawings resulted. This will be our last class until next year (perhaps January 2008). More about this possibility after I talk with Dorice and get feedback from individual class members via email. Thanks to everyone who attended and worked so hard. Great community spirit and talented artists. My apologies for not getting everyone’s work in the photos. There is limited space in a post.

Sunday night.  Class in North Hero in the a.m.   Will pick up all my paintings from Charlie and Dorice as they close up shop in their gallery in North Hero.   Then Wednesday and Thursday will pick up all the portfolios of students from my UVM classes.  This will be followed by a week of reading their papers and commenting on drawings and making up final grades.   It’s always the hardest part of the semester.  The watercolor, Middlefield Road, is a composition which is part photographic and part memory – growing up in Menlo Park, California many years ago.   Nothing like this exists except in my mind at the moment when it was painted a year or so ago.

The ink wash painting at the top was done by drawing a stuffed critter with a pencil, followed by going over the pencil drawing with a black ink TOMBO pen (which contains water soluble ink). After the ink dries, most of the pencil is erased, and by careful use of a watercolor brush and water, the ink dissolves to give the wash effect. Controlling the wash to put the darks where they are needed is key to doing a painting of this sort. It takes some practice. Water is brushed on only one side of a line of ink, and the wash blends out in that direction. Several additions of water are needed, and the drawing must dry in between each (it takes only a minute or so). The critter is stuffed, and was on loan to me from Marsh Life Science at UVM for my drawing class.

The digital painting at the bottom was spotted in a meandering random walk from a crown ether. It is indeed a bit Disneyesque. I saved it and continued my journey to another destination. The “save” is what you see posted here. The final destination will probably be on exhibit as a hard copy in February at ARTPATH, thanks to an invitation from Ellis Jacobson. More about that later.

Snow has arrived, then melted, but more is predicted. The above appeared after a series of digital manipulations last evening in a long sequence from a very simple molecule. It’s great fun to watch these images appear and morph over time. Creating them in real 3D requires them to be very small so both can be fused without special glasses however.

Next week there are three classes. The first is an ink wash class in North Hero. The second and third are the Drawing classes at UVM where portfolios and papers are due for the semester. The following week it all ends with Bert Dodson’s visit.  I’m working on an ad for a class in South Burlington in the Spring which I’m thinking of putting in the local paper for a few weeks to gauge any interest. The draft is below (missing the graphic):

Drawing for the Terrified

A Series of Spring Workshops in South Burlington

These workshops are for beginners as well as those with some drawing experience who feel they might benefit from more instruction. They are based on the premise that drawing can be an acquired skill, not just a talent, and that most can learn how to draw if they spend the time and energy needed. Since drawing is foundational for painting, those who paint can benefit by taking these workshops. They will be a collaborative learning experience, with individual assistance from the instructor, as well as class critiques. Come prepared to draw, share your work with other beginning students, and have a good time.

If you might be interested in attending these workshops next Spring (April, May and June) and want to know more, visit the following web site for a more detailed synopsis of the classes (Click the Courses and Workshops page): http://mjstrauss.com/

To get your name on the list of interested students, or if you have any further questions, email: Michael.Strauss@uvm.edu

I’m trying my hand at digital painting in three dimensions. To do this one needs to create both right and left eye images of an object close up, so that each eye has a different view. There is software that does this for chemical structures. The one above is a molecular view of 2,2-dimethylpropane, including the electron clouds around each atom. To see it in three dimensions, you need to stare at the images until you can see the left one with your left eye and the right one with your right eye. This can be done by blurring your vision when you look at them close up. When you do this, you will see an image in the center. Then your brain can snap onto this central image, ignoring the blurred images to the right and left. The central image is then seen in three dimensions.  The longer you look at the central image, the clearer and sharper it becomes.   This is similar to the “Magic Eye” books, but here the right and left eye images are created next to each other and do not overlap. Now I’ve got to begin manipulating the filters to paint this way. It’s a task!!