journal

POSTED ON Friday, August 26, 2016 - 15:14

It's going to be an exciting Philadelphia Open Studios Tour EAST weekend for me. In addition to having my studio open, I have been invited to show work with the fabulous Marguerita Hagan in her studio just north of Spring Garden Avenue.

I'm very excited to exhibit my 15-foot-long drawing, soundings : fifteen seven, and several smaller indigo blue field drawings. Marguerita's La Mer series of small sculpted organisms will dance with my soundings pieces.

Open Studio 2016 exhibition in Philadelphia
POSTED ON Friday, August 26, 2016 - 14:11

Getting out for a walk and stopping at a sidewalk cafe before temperatures made it into the eighties is my daily goal this late summer. Late summer leads to autumn and a very busy and serious season. It's open studio time in Philadelphia during October. I begin thinking about what new work I will have to offer and what projects I will be working on leading up to open studio

In my Moleskine I was making sure I had captured several ideas for drawings that came to me in a dream state. It always important to note what I can as thouroughly as possible for my next visit in the studio.

cafe and art planning
POSTED ON Wednesday, August 17, 2016 - 13:48

In the studio or on the road I try to make little drawings. I love making small single-sheet books and carry one or two with me at all times. I'm almost finished with this book of rhythms. Using metallic ink and some opaque colors it is starting to take shape. 

These resemble embroidery or weaving with luminus thread. The result is a pleasant surprise worth exploring more.

I hope to have several of these at Open Studios in October.

 

metallic ink small book
POSTED ON Wednesday, August 10, 2016 - 13:27

I've taken to doing some video spins around my studio lately. Basically to catch the state of my studio at different points of time and projects. Thay are for my memory as well as to share. I always find that first look at the condition of my space is something that leads me to new work, new details, new materials.

I just got back into the studio recently after a rather long interval. It's changing again and I hope to give you a peek in a couple weeks.

Stella Untalan's studio in South Philadelphia
POSTED ON Monday, August 8, 2016 - 20:05

I've begun making some drawing in the same influence as drawings I made for the grass is greener show. This drawing also resembles drawings I made in my iPhone drawing-a-day project.

This week I'll cut some more musum board to make more.

metallic experiments begin
POSTED ON Sunday, August 7, 2016 - 11:14

Many new experiments in several small sketchbooks these days. When I open sketchbooks I don't have any expectations when I draw. I'm looking to keep my hand moving and my brain away from concious decisions even more so than when I am in the studio with a goal to make a drawing.

I have many, many different sketchbook, They have different paper and they are different sizes. Sometimes I use a whole sketchbook to investigate a kind of mark or a particular drawing substance or impliment.

graph drawings and their ghosts
POSTED ON Friday, May 27, 2016 - 16:00

I keep a number of single sheet blank books folded so that I can always grab one and start drawing. I took one off the shelf a day or so ago. I had made some marks previously and decided to buff them out.

It was great to draw with these metallic inks. Each layer blocks out the previous. Density and pattern revealed by the overlays. This is the current state of the book. It may be finished. I'll know the next time I look.

a new single sheet book by Stella Untalan
POSTED ON Thursday, May 26, 2016 - 14:01

I'm working on a commission that is based on my soundings drawings. The new form factor of mounted paper on cradle boards required a different set up. For many drawings I may draw on the wall. For ink drawings I usually draw on a flat surface. I have to reach across a distance and an incline can usually help. Using dip pens or droppers means the positioning of the pen holds the ink in place. 

Kids building blocks work just fine
POSTED ON Tuesday, May 24, 2016 - 16:04

I've created a series of drawings that are driven not by results but by process. Each of these drawings is made using the same ink, the same pen, the same unrelenting process. The results reveal themselves to be reminders of my walks and runs in the woods. The straight trunks making blurred lines that suggest motion, space, and time — a DNA image of being in the woods.  

We start installing this weekend.

Six drawings for my show being in the woods
POSTED ON Friday, May 20, 2016 - 17:14

Magnets and vinyl washers with monofilament. That's the way I expect to hang my drawings in being in the woods. This afternoon over lunch I sketched the possibilities for hanging drawings in my upcoming show.

There are many issues to consider. Keeping the drawing taut, keeping the method for hanging as invisable as possible and maintaining an immovable space. Time to make some prototypes to test results. I happen to have all the components to build a test installation in my studio. Fabrication time.

Photo of my sketchbook hanging plans for my drawings for being in the woods

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