Pooch Parade....Put in a Submission for Next Year's T-Shirt

This is a graphics composition created by my daughter Langley Melendres using a charcoal drawing of Calamity Jane -- a friends collie, and a pastel I did of the Texas flag to serve as a background. 

We toyed with several versions -- one of which was an artistic rendering of the two pieces which worked very well. 

However, with some suggestions from Mary Kay Stewart, we added a little more Fiesta Pizazz -- and tried to keep it all integrated.

We hope it works for Therapy Animals of San Antonio -- TASA.  They are a wonderful 501c3 Service Organization that raises money through the Pooch Parade every year.

Win or lose, it was a pleasure putting it together.

Drawing for a Friend - Calamity Jane Pencil 20 x 18 Roughly

A friend has a lovely collie who asked about getting a drawing or painting of her.  This is she, Calamity Jane and in this best of the reference photographs she had some antlers to chew on.  

This was a great reference image -- a little wild which was even better.  It had a lot going near like it is, but I thought cropped down it was going to be easier to recognize the dog, portrait style, and cropped down it still made a good composition, which might even have included some of the background branches which drew my eye to the dog's eye.

Drawing it got me out of a tug of war I was having with a landscape, and so I was glad Calamity came along! 

Art Competition Dot Net Entries

A friend brought to my attention Art Competition.net and that they have virtual exhibitions, and one coming up on dreams.  So I have submitted two submissions on two different kinds of dreams.

I wanted to put them up here too -- frankly the difficulty was to get a handle on the artist statements.  Any suggestions from anyone on how to do a better job with them would be greatly appreciated.

So, here they are...

I am a representational artist and photographer and I enjoy finding the nuanced and subtle beauty or narrative of a scene in work about nature or people.   

In this dream exhibit I have submitted three oil paintings which all relate to the narrative of global climate change – Rape Victim of Sudan, Aylan, and Louisiana Rains.  In them I find a narrative about both nature and people and present several ideas.  I think that I do not understand the many forms of the global impact of climate change.  These do include rain and climate refugees.  Refugees who can no longer sustain their communities where they once did because the weather has changed and who find themselves in new struggles with their neighbors – and therefore more conflict.  The significance of these changes I fear is like a shark in the sea, where I carry on my live swimming around, oblivious to an existential danger.  The defenseless and the weak among us feel the impact first.  Should I be listening more closely?  Who holds the light with the answer, perhaps it is I? 

     

In this dream exhibit, I have submitted three digital photographs of the San Antonio River which all relate to the narrative of water and the river – River Upon River, Water Flows Through Us, and Built of Water.  In western United States, as in many parts of the world, water is a precious commodity.  The San Antonio River is a remarkable geological gift from God.  A ridge of hills to the north catches the intense rainfall which is common in Texas and channels it into porous rock storage from which springs flow and water is pumped.  Our water storage is rapidly recharged in San Antonio, but we are careful stewards of it.  River Upon River echoes dreams of Rome and Greece to me with marble columns and the majesty of cascading plants and distant architecture.   In Water Flows Through Us, I feel like the trees, the sky, and bicyclist and the duck are all so clearly infused with the flow of water; and of course, we are.  Lastly in the Built of Water image, the base of one of the first mill dams of the river is in the foreground and behind one of the newest condominium complexes.  We are all a mirage without our precious water which we all must collectively care for.