Mind

I'm no comic book artist, but last night I got a chance to hang out with four of them:  my friend Joe Emery,Matt Knieling, Kevin Steward and.... sorry, fourth guy, Matt botched the intro so badly that I can't remember your name!

I discovered that I'm definitely not keen on drawing in front of people... I really need to brush up on my drawing skills.

Instead, I watercolored another henna-esque sketchbook page (and made a chainmaille hackey sack).

Do  you dig these?  Should I do them as bigger paintings?

Today I didn't have a lot of art time ... my creativity time slot was taken up with finishing up and mailing out some jewelry orders.  But I stole about 40 minutes to work on the yin/yang piece.

Have you ever tried to draw Vitruvian Man.  Trust me, it sucks.

The green side in this piece (as yet untitled) is meant to represent Body.  Vitruvian man was an obvious choice.   The blue side was supposed to be Mind.  What to use for that?

Ultimately I decided on a Phrenology map.  It's a good bit later than DaVinci but still has that "ancient science" feel, and the 19th century's best efforts to figure out how the mind works.

I had enough time to ink Phrenology Man in on the painting but I decided to leave Vitruvian Man for another day. 

(Particle man, Particle man

I'm reading a book called The Divided Mind that talks about the relationship between Conscious and Unconscious, and their effect on psychosomatic disorders, which it says are FAR more common than contemporary medicine acknowledges.  I was diagnosed with Tension Myositis Syndrome.... my brain is causing all sorts of havoc, symptoms of neck pain, and fibromyalgia-like symptoms.  The good news is, it's not that difficult to cure.  Thus, exploring the Body/Mind relationship in art.  I've come to the conclusion that Mind is not all in your head... we have a sociosensual awareness too with loci throughout the Body.  Did I lose you?  It's cool.  You can read whatever you want into the art, that's the point of it.

Still not sure what I want to do with the space outside the little circles... I thought maybe some Zentangle-y type stuff, but I dunno yet. 

The good news is, I'm back in Art Mode.  Thanks, comic guys!   Looking forward to next time.