Archive for ‘Journals’

30 items.

October 21 – 24, 2009

by Cathy on November 1st, 2010
October 21 – 24, 2009

Page 1: If you’re my friend, or just starting to be my friend, and then I get really insistent that we all have to get together and talk oddly seriously about art, or do something musically, it means that I really, really like you. This is a lesson on me.

Page 2: I feel like I have to apologize to Tansy for talking about the BNP on the same page as a drawing of her. I got really into British politics when I was over there, because I think it’s more palatable to be into other people’s politics and just nerve-wracking and upsetting to be into your own country’s. Also, it was hard to avoid the BNP controversy, and if you aren’t sure what I’m talking about, I suggest looking it up and educating yourself. It’s a scary thing.

Pages 3 and 4 are a spread of the Stop the War Coalition rally. The spread was painted in the rain, which is where the white spots came from. A woman next to me held an umbrella over me as I worked. The rally was a powerful experience, I’ll talk more about it on this Friday’s update.

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October 15 – 20, 2009

by Cathy on October 29th, 2010
October 15 – 20, 2009

These few pages may be a little personal, but, well, it is a journal.

Page 3 features a long list of artists’ names whose work I enjoyed at the Frieze Art Fair in London. The piece on the right is Carson by Tomoaki Suzuki. You can look at photos of it on her gallery’s site here. I really like it a lot; although I don’t necessarily do wooden sculptures myself, I enjoy the simple mystery and endearing quality of this character and think it relates a lot to my own work. The dog biting the gull is also from an artwork, a huge piece by Charles Avery. It’s a drawing of a beach battle between dogs and gulls. Unfortunately I couldn’t find a picture of it online, but believe me, it was epic.

(Also, on page 4 I mention I e-mailed my gallery proposal. Spoilers: I didn’t get it.)

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October 3 – 4, 2009

by Cathy on October 22nd, 2010
October 3 – 4, 2009

More in Scotland. Page one is an American I met at a bar called the Bowery, one of the first Americans I had talked to in a while. It was weird. When I was in Edinburgh I found a free newspaper to find stuff to do, and this said they were having a show with “Tip-top Edinburgh indie-pop.” But they didn’t list addresses, so I actually called my dad and had him look it up on the internet for me. Technology has made the rough backpacking life… not as rough. It was an awesome show though, the bands were great, and the place served their drinks in teacups. And it was in the basement of a cultural center I think, and on the main floor there was a group of people who were… dancing in kilts. I boggled at it for a little bit, it was way too cliche’. But there it was!

On page 2 I copied a soldier’s letter I saw at a military museum. It’s so formal and riddled with fear.

I took a train to Stirling, Scotland because I read in my guide that it had an awesome castle that wasn’t ridiculously touristy. When I was, man, 7 years old or so, my parents took me and my brother to Germany, and all we did was go to castles. My child mind remembers the amount of castles we saw as approximately five-billion. So I had to see a castle sometime on these travels, and boy did it take me back. I actually kept a travel journal then, and have tons of little observational doodles by 7 year old me, so it was sitting down and drawing page 3 and 4 that really threw me into nostalgia. Hahaha, yes, apparently I have been doing this for a while! Hmm… I should find those…

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October 2 – 3, 2009

by Cathy on October 18th, 2010
October 2 – 3, 2009

Mmm. Pages 1 and 2. I hardcore wandered around Edinburgh late at night. I get anxious when I consider “turning in early,” because I feel like I’m wasting opportunities, so I just wandered around? Going to a bunch of pubs? Doing whatever?

This trip was a bit manic for me because I was still getting used to the concept of visiting a city for only a few days. It’s intimidating because I think time is so precious and fleeting, and these cities are so huge and fantastic. I get to be a much better traveler later on. But it’s kind of fun seeing how easily stressed I can make myself; I’m a very self-induced stressed person. Funny, I think I got a little looser towards life after visiting Europe, or maybe I just got more aware of myself.

Also I should mention that while I was painting page 2 some Asian tourists took a photo of me. This was the first time of many.

Page 3 and 4, the spread on the bottom is Edinburgh Castle. This is when I am starting to figure out how to paint bricks. The thing with watercolors, I think, is that you basically figure out tricks to make things look like something, rather than actually painting it.

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September 30 – October 2, 2009

by Cathy on October 15th, 2010
September 30 – October 2, 2009

Here’s an article on the Anish Kapoor show at the Royal Academy, specifically photos of the piece I drew on page 1, Svayambh. I wasn’t too into the show, but yeah. What I really enjoyed was the drawing show at the Jerwood Gallery, whose artists’ names are listed on page 2. In the future, there will be a lot of random artists’ names in these journals; fair warning. Also, page 2 features Holly, one of my fellow art students and friend. Not the most flattering picture, but I think in a few months I draw her again, and it’s much better. (Sorry, Holly.)

Then my trip to Edinburgh! I know you can’t tell, but I suffered for page 3. Well… confession time, I get really, really sick on transportation. Moving things. As a child, I don’t think I could make it in a car over 30 minutes before seeing my lunch for the second time. So watching the landscape rush by and trying to draw it –backwards even, my seat was backwards– made me more than a little nauseous. But I like getting the view out of all of the train rides I went on, because you can see a progression of autumn into winter. Journalling! Pure torture.

Page 4, hahaha, that horse is like, wailing. That is an upset horse. Man, I’ve never looked at that closely. Gee. That is creepy.

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September 25 – 30, 2009

by Cathy on October 11th, 2010
September 25 – 30, 2009

A few things around Farnham. I am starting to settle into my life in England and school at this point. Note on page 3 I mention that I wanted to make two albums; that’s what “True Stories & Songs For The British” was originally. Some were true stories and some were for the British. And then they got all mixed together.

That guard really was that ghostly. There’s more on the Anish Kappor show on Friday.

Not much to say with this one! It’s rather sublime.

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September 19 – 22, 2009

by Cathy on October 8th, 2010
September 19 – 22, 2009

The top spread only has a time on it, but it’s from September 19, 2009 (thus the Title of the post).

Beach spread, then I went for a night on the town and didn’t draw during it (that’s weird) but it was the best. I think about that crazy concert all the time, the bands were so different from one another, I was so lucky. Brighton definitely in a rad city, I’d love to go back some time.

Then two days pass, which were school days. And a portrait of my ukulele! It has a funny dolphin on the bottom which I named “Annie the Anarchist Dolphin,” as in “Anarchy in the UK,” as in “Annie from the UK.” It is not a very good joke.

The “songs” I think I’m referring to in this are This Is A Train With Twelve Cars and Puppy-dog Eyes. Yes, I think those are the first two I recorded. You can listen to all the songs I recorded in Europe at my music site here: True Stories & Songs For The British. If you haven’t heard my songs yet… well, you should hear them.

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September 14 – 17, 2009

by Cathy on October 1st, 2010
September 14 – 17, 2009

Some introspection at my house in Surrey, and another trip to London.

Page three; I like the mechanics of the windows I had, they had these bars that attached to the frame and.. it’s hard to explain. Also a look into my garden.

One thing I wish I could convey to you guys is how it is to curl up on my couch on rainy days to write and draw in these journals. These journals are so much about holding something and investing into it, but by presenting them in this format all you see is my projection outward, when journals are really very inward. Hmm. Maybe that’s just the nature of it all. Hey, maybe you should keep a journal, then you’d get that feeling for yourself.

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September 12 – 13, 2009

by Cathy on September 27th, 2010
September 12 – 13, 2009

I apologize for the slight delay for this update, I’m sick and went to bed early last night.

On page 2 is my kitchen. In England, most places have their washing machines in the kitchen, with no drier. I went four and a half months without a drier, hanging my clothes everywhere: curtains, the stair railing, off the front of the bed. I think the English just hang them outside, but I didn’t have a line in the garden, so I improvised.

The Clydesdale was just… there. Off this little path in the neighborhood, and if you kept following the path, you got to the highway. It was relatively magical.

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September 8, 2009

by Cathy on September 13th, 2010
September 8, 2009

Here we’ve got it, the first four pages!

I have to admit, I started out on this journey like a lot of people do: sleep-deprived and crazy. I’m not too nuts for the first few pages artistically, but hey, you have to start somewhere.

What I’m referring to on page 1 is that my pen exploded ink all over the page (as you can see from the sploches). Ink got all over the place on this trip, I got used to having it imbedded in my fingernails perpetually.

The intersection I drew on page 3 became an intersection I crossed everyday to get to class. It’s interesting to see how I first saw it, when later on it became a staple of my experience in Farnham. I drew it rather… wildly.

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