DAY 2 Visual Explorers

Second Period Class Showing Off Their Warm Up Exercise - Symmetry Challenge

Each artist was given a photograph of a face which was cut down the middle.  The assignment was to draw the missing half.  It was a very "thorny" task as the face was painted with ornamental flowers, but my students "rose" to the challenge.  (puns intended are marked with parenthesis)

Until tomorrow...

Hip Hip Hooray! Summer Camp Started Today

Today kicked off the first day of the Visual Explorers Camp at the Workhouse Arts Center.

I am teaching the kids to create their own series: 

REAL Life ART:  Kids Paint What They See 

 Mary Gallagher Stout Demos How Artists Use Photographs As A Resource

Students will be photographing a variety of subjects on campus. (YES each student is given a camera, and photography instruction this summer - lead by a super terrific photographer Melanie Beus)  These young artists will use their photographs as a visual resource.  They will reinterpret their visual explorations into a variety of media.

Emerging Artists Prepping Material

Check in tomorrow to see what the class produces.  This summer is going to be epic!

The kids are amazing and looking forward to creating their own brand of art.

I can't wait to see what they see.

Little Changes... Big Impact

                                                  A                                   B

Painting "A" was a little bit flat, but now it is something I can be proud of.  The double decker bus is no longer lost in the background and the statue has been hit with highlights.  How many other edits can you find?  I wonder?

Drum Roll Please...

Sizzling Saturday

Capitol Tour Acrylic, Pastel & Charcoal on the Washington Post by MG Stout

Even my hair is sweating.  Okay it's not but there is not a dry pore on my body. 

 FYI- I've decided that the smell of a hot dog is just as bad as the smell of a wet dog! 

QUESTION  

 Can you tell I was feeling "Hot Hot Hot" when I painted this piece?

I thought this painting was finished, but I do think that I am going to change the color of the 

DC Double Decker Bus to ______.  

It practically disappears between the two monuments.

I challenge you to try and forecast the new hue.

Until tomorrow.

James A. Garfield 1851-1881

When Jimbo Speaks People Listen? Acrylic, Pastel & Charcoal on Washington Post by MG Stout

I wonder how the United States of America would be different if President Garfield had never been assassinated?  He didn't have time to really get his Presidency on (he was only in office for about 6 months until some fart face, who shall remain nameless, shot him)!  JAG is on record saying, "I love agitation and investigation and glory in defending unpopular truth against popular error."  Amen, amen I say to you President Garfield.

Better Late Than Never

Feeling HOT HOT HOT

    I'm Ready for My Close Up, Acrylic Pastel & Charcoal 

On Washington Post by Mary Gallagher Stout

This stunning girl hammed it up for the camera on my last DC outing.  She reminded me of a ballerina dancing in place.  Her face brimming with confidence and beauty whilst her limbs glided gracefully through the atmosphere.  When I look at this painting I try to imagine what song was playing in her head during this "seated" performance.

Uncle Sam Let the Dogs Out

Untitled by MG Stout

I've spied plenty o' people parading their pup's all over the District.  Some folks carry a poop bag while others don't.  Very curious.  Does that mean that the people who don't sport a sack of shit have successfully toilet trained their bff's?  hmmmm...

ARRRRGG!!!!

Commanding Queen 12 x 22 Acrylic Pastel & Washington Post by Mary Gallagher Stout

I must have slept in the pretzel position.  My back is SCREAMING louder than the queen seen here!
I just want to hack up my spinal column with a butcher knife.  I haven't got time for the pain. (yes that is a Carly Simon lyric) I'm sitting here in my studio completely manic.  I can't think straight in this cluttered cubical.  The current state of my studio... can be described as the physical expression of my current state of mind.  If my brain could vomit ... well this space is what it would look like.  Books opened and scattered about.  Papers, pastels, paints, canvases, dust and dirty coffee cups everywhere you look.  Every square inch has been claimed.  There is NO empty space.  No place to think or create.  I feel so angry at myself for letting it get this way.  I am such an A-HOLE.

Hip-Hip Hooray I Sent the Work to the Publisher Yesterday!!!

Coffee Talk  22 x 12 Acrylic, Pastel & Charcoal on Washington Post  by MG Stout

Man oh Manischewitz!  I spent ALL day cataloguing images, writing, and finally burning all the requested information onto a disc.  Then I was off to the Post Office and express mailed it to my main man... Lawrence Knorr, Prince of Publishing, Sunbury Press.  We sorta have a title but I am going to tease you just a wee bit longer.  I implore you, ney urge you to send in your suggestions for the title of my up coming book.  Just click on the comment box and leave your submission. 

National's Golden Boy

Stephen Who?  MG Stout on Washington Post

So I hafta admit he's pretty good at getting the ball over the plate.  He's seems like a nice guy too, but come ON! I am a Philadelphia Phillies Phan.  It is very difficult to get tickets in Philly but that hasn't posed much of a problem for us as we live in the DC Metro area.  We simply watch the Phils them when they come to DC.  HERE IS MY BEEF:  Now that what's his face has signed with the Nat's...tickets are going to be impossible to get as all the fair weather fans crawl out of the woodwork!  Hurrumf...  What to do...

Bicycle Oh Bicycle

Bike To Work Day 2010 MG Stout REAL Life Drawing

Today we had our monthly studio meeting.  Newsflash... meetings put me into a coma. So I sat and sat and sat and sat.  I just kept thinking about how much I'd rather be PAINTING!   I recalled a bike I saw chained to a meter in the District.  A locked up bike ... a trapped artist... both screaming with potential energy.  So I painted this sweet ride.  

Today I bathed my Puppies

This is Scottie.  He is a grouchy old man who really needed to be groomed.  I took advantage of the lovely weather - cut his mane and hosed him down.  Then the smartest dog in the world decided to roll around in a dirt pile.  Now he is muddy and wet sitting on my deck begging to come inside.

HE IS NOT COMING IN!  I am so annoyed.

Ready For Their Close Up

Retaining Water, Cramps, Headache ...

Man, I feel like a woman. I am afraid to go into the District this afternoon as I've heard menstruation attracts bears! (a very funny fallacy)  Anywho... today I'd like to thank Dr. Earle Haas and Gertrude Tendrich.  In 1929, the modern tampon was first invented and patented by Dr. Haas.  His patent description was for a "catamenial device," derived from the Greek word for monthly.  He later trademarked Tampax as the brandname for his tampon product.  Ms. Tendrich founded the Tampax company for the mass production of tampons after buying the patent and trademark rights from Dr. Haas.

The tampon is one of the greatest inventions ever invented.  Think about it for a moment.  From the dawn of man,  women have been trying to deal with this monthly mess discreetly.  Nobody wants to advertise that their uterus lining is falling out by sporting a bulky diaper!  Historically tampons were made of lint wrapped around a small piece of wood (No joke! It has be documented by Hippocrates in the fifth century B.C).  Other materials used for the first tampons have included:  wool, paper, vegetable fibers, sponges, grass and finally cotton.  Aye ca-rumba!

Look What I found

Doodling on My Music Homework c.1979 MG Stout

So I found this piece behind a framed picture in my closet.  What a pleasant surprise!  This delicate flower was created on the back of a music worksheet.  You'll be happy to know that I received a big star AND a sticker that says OK decorated with two half notes and two additional stars.

The worksheet asks...What do you hear? Circle one:

1.  ABA  AB

2.  ABA  AB

3.  ABA  AB

4.  ABA  AB

I heard everything correctly.

I know your impressed with my listening skills.

Great Books In Philosophy

Friday's Food For Thought

Meditations 

Marcus Aurelius

Translated by George Long

27.  Constantly consider how all things such as they now are, in time past also were; and consider that they will be the same again.  And place before thy eyes entire dramas and stages of the same form, whatever thou hast learned from thy experience or from older history... for all those were such dramas as we see now, only with different actors.

DISCUSS...

Daniel Her Brother...

Prime Time Daniel

Meet Chef Daniel. See him here in one of his favorite places (the kitchen).

 Doing his favorite thing (cooking up meals with love baked in every morsel).

His smile radiates, shimmers & glows unseen colors.

I am going to take Danny out of Kansas and into the land of OZ.

Standby...

I'm Just a Squirrel Tryin' To Get a Nut or Apple or Commission

Nuts Art For the Birds...I'd Rather Be Eating Apples by MG Stout

FYI...

Just landed a portrait commission and I am totally tap dancing (not well mind you, but tapping)

I will certainly be sharing the progress of this new painting. I asked the "commissioner" for permission to share the reference photo and the creation process with both of you.  

She said YES.

Hip hip HooraY!

Pumping The Breaks on Painting

Super Big Feet of MGS - File Photo

  Today I declare NO JOY! 

As much as I hate cataloguing inventory it must be done as my publisher eagerly awaits.

 I have created over sixty paintings in the past three weeks for this book.  The pieces are high octane!  Each work is brimming with social commentary and capture the intensity of the District of Columbia  with color and line.  I am so proud and excited to share this book with all of you.

Next on the TO DO list is:

Write a few little ditties about my favorite pieces

Write my book dedication

Elaborate a bit on how the series came to be

FedEX the images

Have a bucket of Wine!