2020 Day 46: Out with the Old...

“Master”: mixed media in my art journal

“Master”: mixed media in my art journal

I made a demo tape in 1992 and have kept the master tape, a 1/4” reel-to-reel, all these years, until today. I used the reel as a stamp, and six strips of the actual tape to represent — can you guess? — guitar strings. And now, into the garbage it goes.

2020 Day 44

Notecard, acrylic

Notecard, acrylic

I managed to squeeze another mini painting out of that old piece I’ve been cutting up. I just added a couple of spots of red to make it “sing” and stuck it on a notecard.

2020 Day 42: Lost and Found

“Forest Floor III”: watercolour, 18 x 24”

“Forest Floor III”: watercolour, 18 x 24”

While sorting through stuff in my studio today I came across a large watercolour that I had given up on, and decided that for my art of the day I would try to redeem it. I had to add a bit more paint and crop it down from a full 20 x 28” sheet to 18 x 24” (to fit a wood panel that I have lying around). It’s an improvement, I think.

2020 Day 41: Decisions, Decisions

“Master Tapes”: ink, art journal

I’m getting to the stage in my packing for my move where I have to make some difficult decisions (or else defer the decisions yet again and just pack and store the stuff). One such decision: what to do with the master tapes from my 1994 CD “On the Dream Road”? I have kept them all these years, through the demise of cassette tapes and now the near-demise of CDs. My album is now available on Spotify and iTunes, so another decision is what to do with the few hundred CDs I still have left. Years ago a few hundred cassette copies went into the dumpster. Will the CDs end up there too?

The master tapes can be reused, so I have put an ad on Kijiji. We’ll see if there are any old-school recording engineers out there looking for a bargain. Meanwhile, I have commemorated them with this drawing. (It’s a bit out of proportion, because I’m out of practice!)

2020 Day 40: Travel Bug

“Where Do We Go Next?”: magazine collage, art journal

During my daily art project of 2016-17, whenever I got a CAA Magazine in the mail I would do my “CAA Magazine Challenge”: I would leaf through the issue and tear out the images that struck for me for whatever reason, and find a way to make a collage with them.

I saved the issues that arrived after that daily art project ended and this one began, and today I pulled one of them out to do the challenge. But what struck me this time is that the magazine is full of travel ads, and as such is likely to lose a good deal of its revenue — not to mention its very purpose — at this time. Will there be any more CAA Magazines arriving in the mail? And this led me to think about how the future of travel itself is a big unknown at the moment.

So I broke the self-imposed rules of my CAA Magazine Challenge and added some images that I had come across recently in other magazines, in an effort to express the sadness and uncertainty that the pandemic is causing for those who can’t pursue their dreams of travel, at least for the foreseeable future.

2020 Day 38

Pencil sketch on acrylic on a notecard

I had a successful trip to the grocery store this morning. (Remember when that was nothing to write home about?) Included in my haul were two pears. So I took another piece of that painting I’ve been cutting up and used it as a background for a pencil sketch of one of them.

2020 Day 36

“Isolation Exploration #3”: acrylic on paper, mounted on canvas, with image transfers, 12 x 12”

This is another piece of the same old painting I used for yesterday’s notecard. I just added the image transfers (script and beetle).

2020 Day 35

Acrylic, notecard

I found an old acrylic abstract painting on paper from years ago, which I had kept because I liked the colours, but it didn’t really work otherwise. However, cutting it up produced some quite interesting mini paintings, like this one, now attached to a notecard.

I am building up quite an inventory of notecards these days!

2020 Day 33

“Stuff”: ink, art journal

My house is a complete disaster. Stuff piled everywhere. So much to get rid of, and with all donation drop-offs and pick-ups suspended, it’s difficult. A word to the wise: try to avoid downsizing during a pandemic!

2020 Day 31

“Duly Noted Zoom Get-together”: ink and watercolour in my art journal

Duly Noted is the a cappella singing group that I belong to. Since we can’t have our usual Tuesday evening rehearsals, we have a weekly Zoom meeting to chat and stay connected. It doesn’t work for singing together, but at least we can virtually be together.

All the proceeds from our concerts go to charity. Because our spring concert is not happening, we are having an online fundraiser instead for AFC, The Lifeline for Canada's Entertainment Industry (helping entertainment professionals when they are at their most vulnerable). If you feel so inclined, you can donate here.