Monday, January 17, 2011

I'm still here!

Do not loose faith, friends! There has been a bit of family business demanding most of my attentions the past bit of linear time, so I have not found a moment to share with you my latest creations. One day very soon I will catch up and post plenty of squirmy things to satisfy. 

Until then, enjoy this cute video a friend sent me...


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FOHJUrcVdJk&feature=player_embedded

Good night, talk to you all soon. <3 <3 <3
~Courtney Elizabeth

“The world itself is the will to power - and nothing else! And you yourself are the will to power - and nothing else!”  Friedrich Nietzsche

Saturday, January 8, 2011

Day 7 & Day 8

Day 7 - Microcosm



Combining my fascination with tentacles with my near-obsession with things encased under glass (taxidermy and other pretty little things) was more difficult than I imagined, and much more satisfying than anticipated. The idea of macrocosm vs. microcosm appeals to my brain in a myriad of way, and now I find myself looking in my immediate environment for things that could be vessels for these little examples of the sub-conscious. 


"Our self discoveries make us each a microcosm of the larger pattern of history. The inertia of introspection leads toward recollection, for only through memory is the past recaptured and understood. In the fact of experiencing and making the present, we are all actors."
     -Terence McKenna


Day 8 - Tentacled Necklace #2

Another pretty little thing...ink on plastic.

"Talent without discipline is like an octopus on roller skates. There's plenty of movement, but you never know if it's going to be forward, backwards, or sideways."
  - H.Jackson Brown, Jr.

Thursday, January 6, 2011

Wednesday, January 5, 2011

No time to say "Hello"! Good-bye! I'm late, I'm late, I'm late!

The night just got away with me yesterday and I was far too tired to post...it's something called grumpy-baby syndrome, and it's been popping up around here the past few days...exhausting!

So, I present my project for last night, as well as for this evening. Day 4 is a quick sketch I did, in the little book I carry about for just such things. I am looking forward to creating so many tentacles that I can draw them in my sleep...hmmm, that's an idea. 


Day 5 are some little tentacled magnets I made. I apologize for the mediocre quality of this image, as well as some of the others...a decent digital camera is on my wish-list, for sure.


Goodnight!!!

~ Courtney Elizabeth

Monday, January 3, 2011

Geisha

For quite some time, I've had a penchant for the color black. I've stuck to a black wardrobe, with very few exceptions, since middle school, and artistically tend to stay with black inks and paints, only more recently embracing various shades and hues of browns. Well, a little while back I began to notice that this new color kept coming up in my life...it would catch my eye in all sorts of ways, where it ( and few other colors ) have rarely evoked as much response. I suppose you would call it turquoise, that beautiful blue-green color, and I love all shades of it. It caught my eye adorning two beautiful women with red hair in the same day, and then I noticed it in abundance in an antique store, in various ceramic objects. While attending a lovely birthday party for the young son of an artist friend of mine in her amazing home, I was admiring the colors she had painted the walls. She is most certainly of a darker aesthetic taste, the way I am, and I was intrigued that she had chosen to paint the walls in two rooms two differing shades of this same beautiful blue-green color. I asked her about it, and as she often does, she fascinated me with some interesting, extensive, and rather morbid information. She said it was a color that was often used to paint the ceilings of porches, around Richmond, and in other Southern cities. It was called "haint blue", and was believed to keep away all the "haints", or haunts. Intrigued, I did some more reading, and the whole history of this color is really quite something. The color was meant to represent water that the spirits could not cross, and was reported to be used first by the Gullah culture, a mix of African tribes that made up a large part of the slave population in the Carolina Low Country. They would use this color to paint the doorways and trim of their homes, and the tradition spilled over to porches across the south. I will never think of colors quite the same way again, and am eager to learn of more that appeal to my rather dark tastes.

In the spirit of this discovery (no pun intended, of course) I present this piece. Enjoy. <3
~ Courtney Elizabeth







Sunday, January 2, 2011

Tentacled Necklace

I really enjoy shrinking plastic...here is some I drew some tentacles on. Enjoy!

(I enjoyed quite a few mugs of the mulled wine at the Winter Gathering I hosted tonight, so I'm off to bed with no further explanations.)


Goodnight!

~ Courtney Elizabeth

Saturday, January 1, 2011

A Fish Out of Water

This will be a brief entry, as like usual I have procrastinated to the point of being ridiculous, and find myself sitting here at 1am posting the first day of my 365 Project technically a day late.I intend for this to be a project that will force me to deal with several proverbial ghosts that have been haunting me...including the aforementioned habit of putting things off. I am excited to explore more about why I am so mentally turned on by the imagery of tentacles, and also pushing myself to explore new mediums and techniques. So, here it begins...

This is a piece I made several years ago, and I present it to you as my first. This was the first time I used tentacles in one of my works, and I still recall exactly how curious the resulting image made me feel.

But, this we shall explore another time, as my bouncing baby boy will be waking long before I am ready to rise, so I must be off to sleep. Thanks for sharing this with me...I can hardly wait!

Goodnight! 
~Courtney Elizabeth