Huey Takes Flight

"Huey-Fireweed Song"  12x18

 

This is Huey!  Some of you may have seen Huey fliting about.  He is a new character I have been developing.  How do you develop a character?  Good question.

 

When I first painted Signore Greve I really had no bigger plan than to paint a fun picture of an Italian man with his dog on a bike.  Really, that was it.  One painting became five, become 20 became a book.  It was awesome!  Through no real plan of my own Greve took on his own life.  It was as if HE developed his own personality.

 

Wanting a piece of art for my bathroom I painted a cute little singing bird.  Man, that bird is cute so  I painted him again and named him Huey. (obvious name choice)  It sold.  Hmmmm, I could be on to something.  I painted three more, they too found homes.  Recently, Huey with a fox ( see post June 4th, What's the Password) was presented at the illustrators show at Blue-Hollomon gallery. What a great opportunity to get some feedback.   It sold!

 

So the answer to the above question is that I don't really know how to develop a character.  I am going to go with what I know.  Keep creating Huey.  Sketch him here and there.  Paint him here and there and slowly he will tell me more about who he is.  The cool thing is often a sketch won't come together and you realize it's because that's something the character just wouldn't do, a place they just wouldn't be.  I know, I know it sounds silly but it's true.

 

Like my journey with Greve I am now enjoying the great part of it all.  Pick up my pencil and brushes and see where Huey takes me.

Copy Cats

Wasn't Freud who said we all suffer from the delusion of originality.  I would  like to think I am special and different, unlike any other.  But we can almost always find someone who share our quirks and preferences.  Maybe not the entire package but close.

 

As an artist feeling original is HUGE. Being special with your craft is what makes us go into the studio everyday.  When someone says they love our work and ooze with a genuine energy we glow feeling that we did something no one else can.

 

This is a painting I did several years ago after a bike trip through Portugal.  We loved watching the fisherman bring in the nets in the mornings and sorting through their catch.  That delicious bounty would most certainly be lunch and dinner in the little fishing village where we had rented a room.  I wanted to capture that moment.  Fish in a net aren't pretty so I was happy when I came up with this composition.  Original don't you think?

What is this????  I walk into a furniture shop this week and I hear my husband gasp. I turn around a see this pottery. I know!  They totally copied my work!  Wait, that is unlikely.  I am pretty small potatoes in the art world.  I am actually just a potato eye lying on the barn floor.  So it's almost worse, my idea wasn't original at all!  I mean look how close it matches!  Is it possible that some potter who mass produces designs for furniture stores saw my work on line and copied it.  Again, unlikely but I want it to be true.

Sorry Freud, I want to keep thinking that I am original.  I know my doppelganger is out there with her pointy nose and big hair.  But I will ignore her if we pass on the street.  I can't explain this pottery or the origin of the design but I do plan on continuing my delusion of originality.