21 Drawings to fight cancer

So, as most of you know, I made a promise recently to give a piece of art to anyone who donated to the American Cancer Society in my name, all as part of this big Relay for Life event, which my gracious sister has been very involved with, in our hometown of Lake Stevens, WA.  (I have done many paintings loosely about Lake Stevens, including this one here)  We started getting really involved with this great fundraiser after my mother was diagnosed with breast cancer a couple years ago (she's doing great, by the way!)

But I'm not writing here to bore you or ask you for donations, especially as I have mentioned, many of you have already been asked, and many have given, THANK YOU, and all that.  And many gave last year too!  I'm here to talk about these drawings, and show you a bunch of snap shots of the work I've been doing.

I gave this promise around the time I did the piece, Feldspar, which, essentially is a magenta version of Devil's Tower, which has been on my brain ("This means something") ever since I saw it while at that residency in Wyoming.  And the piece has been a big hit, several folks asking for it...so I figured I could use it to lure in some donations, oh wait, I'm not supposed to say that.  Well, I didn't promise folks this drawing, I said I'd do a drawing, a serious work, and perhaps it would be along those lines....the point I'm slowly getting to, is that I did, and am doing some versions of this piece, for the drawings, but I certainly can't do 21 versions of the same thing.  And 21 I have to do, thanks to all the generous folks out there!  4-5, maybe, but what about the rest?

But that's the beauty of this project - folks donated with little expectations about what sort of drawing they might receive, and now I have the opportunity to really push some of the ideas I've been working...ideas like what I did for LxWxH , but also it gave me a chance to build upon the skills I've been working on ever since I really dove into the use of gouache in Wyoming.  It's a forced exploration - you see.

The thing is, when I got back to working full time, and I have all these ideas for serious art projects, projects that you know will take time and resources, it becomes so much more difficult to just freely explore and experiment with materials and ideas.  To be loose.  But taking on this commitment has given me the chance to really delve into some just loose, fun drawings...well, paintings really.  I'm very much enjoying it, even while some of my larger ideas are still warming on the back burners.

In any case, thanks for reading this long winded into to some snapshots of these new works...without further adieu....

  remember, these are just loose snapshots, I didn't even set up any lighting...so forgive shadows and blurry shots and such.

This piece started by tracing 2 sand dollars while on I was on holiday in Moclips...

 

 

These drawings will get some color too, just thought I'd show 'em as well for kicks

Alright, looks like I still have several pieces to make!