Old Art

Juvenilia

Image | | sandpaperdaisy

I’m sure it’s hard to believe, but even I was a kid once. A very creepy and morbid one, as you may have guessed. And being the very obsessive and painstaking person I am (in some regards), I have preserved almost every scrap of art I have ever made in my entire life. This website in itself can serve as somewhat of a window into my journey as an artist, since I have been updating it since 2010. But even before that, I was making art. And since most of that childhood art is now irreparably damaged, I have been photographing and backing up every single lick of it before burning it in a series of bonfires with my best friends.

Here are a few of the pieces I have documented (there are hundreds, if not thousands, in total). Hover over each image to see the story behind it, or click for a bigger view with the description.

Oh, happiness! New shirts up at Threaded Canvas and an announcement

Art shirts by Heather Landry featuring horror art about Lilith, Adam, Cthulhu, Darkness by Byron and a faceless crowd.
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Yeah, I just happened to see that my new shirts are up at Threaded Canvas!!

(I’ve been kinda busy)

Anyway, I’m especially happy to see my Darkness linoleum block print on there because I will be launching into a NEW series about the poem after finishing up some jobs…AND IT IS NOW A CONFIRMED SOLO EXHIBITION FOR SUMMER-FALL 2015 WITH A VENUE. I’m going all out on this one. For those of you who haven’t read my earlier posts, I did a series of traditional prints to illustrate Byron’s poem back in 2001.

Now, 14 years later, I want to show myself and one very special fan how far I’ve come.

Glass clouds

light and dark blue-gray cloud elements and shapes
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Banner for an old website idea I had. Back then I liked to make interesting images by layering many different photoshop brushes and continuously erasing parts, merging, and continuing to develop it until I liked the end result. The glass panes in Nascent were made using this technique. I need to do more of that, it’s really fun!

The Fox’s Wedding

paper mixed media tableau of two kitsune spirits in kimonos getting married
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In Japan, I am told that when the sun is shining brightly through the rain, they say “Today is a good day for foxes” or “Today is a good day for a fox to get married.” Such days are supposed to be dear to kitsune, the mischievous fox spirits of Japanese legend.

A couple of years back I determined to try and do a piece based on the idea of a kitsune wedding. But all my efforts to make a digital painting or drawing left me unsatisfied. Finally, I hit upon an unusual idea. I would make paper dolls from origami paper and stage a diorama where the foxes marched in their wedding procession. A red candle served as the curved red bridge that so many of us think of when we think of Asian imagery, and a rippling blue and gold scarf made a lovely river. I folded origami trees, painted a sunny yellow background and placed old soapstone fish in the river beneath the bridge. My paper foxes were aided by pipe-cleaner skeletons to stay upright, and one bold little fox held aloft a ribbon banner fixed to a chopstick. And so my fox wedding was born!

I photographed my fox dolls in different situations, doing another series of photos of two girl foxes carrying a lantern through a dark forest. I’ll post more photos of my fox photo-session later, along with this other series “Enchanted Forest.” But for now, I hope you enjoy my wedding foxes on their special day! …a sunny, and rainy, day.

The Balance: Resurrection Field

a sinister man stands alone in a field of flowers.
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Here we have a character of mine, Burke, standing in a field of chrysanthemums. This was originally intended to be the front cover of the first comic in The Balance series. The back cover would naturally feature my other Resurrection Man, Hare. I picked chrysanthemums simply because I love the movie Curse of the Golden Flower and so I will always associate this flower with sinister and horrible things.

The Resurrection Men pop up again here and here are my other old Balance art posts: More old comic art from The Balance || The White Robe || The Balance sketch001

O-Iwa and Iyemon

from the first big kaidan, a noh play about a faithless murdering husband and his vengeful wife.
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O-Iwa, the woman with the bird skull, and Iyemon, the terrified man drawing his weapon, are a diptych I did for my Patchwork Dragon solo show at Winzerwald Evansville Wine Tasting Room. I decoupaged origami paper, typing paper and joss paper (ghost money) on wood. Incidentally, while I wanted to use “ghost money” paper in a piece about an Asian ghost legend, I did NOT use the actual ghost money itself, white paper with a silver square in the middle. It can be insulting or alarming to use those publicly as some people think it is ill luck to look at them. Finally, I augmented each piece with black and white ink and comic zipatone. Below the images is a short description of the story these pieces are based upon.

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O-Iwa and Iyemon are an iconic husband and wife from Yotsuya Kaidan (四谷怪談), the most famous Japanese horror story of all time. The story is rather long and complicated, but in short Iemon/Iyemon, the husband, became tired of his devoted and loving wife O-Iwa. Wanting to marry a richer and more influential woman, Iyemon poisoned O-Iwa shortly after she bore their child. O-Iwa did not die but became horribly disfigured, and ultimately took her own life. At Iyemon’s wedding, her vengeful disfigured ghost appeared right in front of his new bride. Enraged, he drew his sword to slay the spirit, and in so doing ended up killing the bride.

I created the ghostly O-Iwa with a bird skull as a substitution for her horribly disfigured face. Many of the pieces in Patchwork Dragon involved skeletal imagery, so I wanted to retain the theme as well as portray O-Iwa in a way she’s hopefully never been seen before. Ghostly blue flames (kaika) creep up the side of the screen next to her, while threatening black flames hover on either side of her and swarm around Iyemon’s scabbard, foreshadowing the horrible mistake he is about to be led into. The screen on the two pieces lines up perfectly so that when hung together, O-Iwa is clearly seen as advancing on the horrified and guilty Iyemon.

Sadly, this couple was separated! I only have Iyemon left now, frozen in the eternal fear his abominable actions have condemned him to suffer for all time. If you wish to have him, contact me and we’ll talk.

Darkness, plate one

the wildest brutes Came tame and tremulous; and vipers crawl'd And twin'd themselves among the multitude, Hissing, but stingless—they were slain for food. Lord Byron, Darkness
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Back in 2001 (yes!! the Stone Age) I illustrated the poem Darkness by Lord Byron. I made and bound a single book that contained a series of linoleum block prints, copper etchings, and monoprints illustrating each scene in the poem.

This linoleum block print, on the inside front page facing the title page, is a man eating a serpent. It is in reference to these lines from Darkness:

–the wildest brutes
Came tame and tremulous; and vipers crawl’d
And twin’d themselves among the multitude,
Hissing, but stingless—they were slain for food.

I am currently revisiting this series with new works which I will eventually make the subject of a solo show. As the book’s creation was in 2001, the pieces in this solo show will all be dedicated to my wonderful father, who introduced me to this powerful poem.

The print looks curved because this is a photo of the book page. I have no other copies of the print and no good way to photograph it again, as it has been damaged in a flood. The exploding planes at the top of the picture were achieved by me physically cutting the top of the linoleum block apart and then printing from the pieces!

Grandma’s Nightgown

the big bad wolf slipping into grandmother's bed after eating her up. Red riding hood. Heap of bloody clothes and body parts.
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This is an old drawing, soft pastel on black paper. The subject is the Big Bad Wolf from “Red Riding Hood,” after (mostly) consuming Grandmother and then slipping into her bed.

I still have this one around and it’s even creepier in person. Email me if you’re interested!

More old comic art from The Balance

An unfinished splash page from my comic project The Balance.
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I forgot to post this yesterday, whoops! Anyway, I’ve got plenty of old drawings and concepts from The Balance so I’ll just go ahead and throw another one out there. At the bottom I have a larger version since it’s a wide picture.

I’m deep in the middle of a bunch of contract work at the moment, but I plan to try and do one of my more detailed blog posts soon. Lots of shows to cover and review for example, and I have some animation projects coming up.

Related posts: The White Robe || Resurrection Men || The Balance sketch001

An unfinished splash page from my comic project The Balance.

Ramping up for SPACE MADNESS 2014 with a look back at SPACE MADNESS 2012!

photo by Jeane Worley
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As you may see in the “Upcoming Events” section below, I hope to be at The Arts Council of Doom‘s Space Madness II: There is No Cure group art show this summer.

The first Space Madness show was back in 2012 and was absolutely amazing. I was just becoming aware of the Arts Council of Doom’s activities when they were doing this show. Therefore, I missed it. So how do I know how stunning the show was?!

JEANNIE WORLEY’S AWESOME PHOTOS DOCUMENTING THE EVENT!!

You can see them two different places, on The Arts Council of Doom’s tumbr, and in this Facebook album. They give you some idea of how truly mindblowing this upcoming show promises to be. Check ’em out! And then come see the show. I’ll have more information on the 2014 show when I have a firm date, flyer and etc for it. Stay tuned!

Rhyme and Reason and my Kids Book obsession

a picture with a fairy castle in the clouds made out of paper collaged onto an old page from The Phantom Tollbooth
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This is a little quasi-3D piece I did for two very close friends as a Christmas present a couple of years back. I used a deep frame I found along with a scan of a page of one of my favorite children’s books, The Phantom Tollbooth. This page introduces the twin princesses Rhyme and Reason, rulers of the kingdom of Wisdom. After the princesses were imprisoned in the Castle in the Air, the kingdom of Wisdom fell into chaos. Since my two friends remind me of these princesses, the page seemed ideal. I scanned it to get that nice yellowed color (it’s from the 1960’s).

I made little rolls of paper to act as supports for the clouds and part of the balcony of the Castle in the Air, and cut everything else out of origami paper which I then drew on with white and black ink. My friend Amy Wilke of Paper Raven Art + Design does this kind of thing all the time, a lot better, and would probably wince at the methods I used. But I managed to achieve something workable.

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On a side note, I adore children’s/young adult books and still buy them for myself often. Books like The Phantom Tollbooth and The Faery Flag are chock-full of interesting ideas, while no one who’s ever shuddered at Stephen Gammell’s illustrations for the Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark trilogy or seen the breathtaking art of a Leo Lionni book will soon forget it. If I ever do a children’s book, I will consider it a high point of my career and not some sort of emergency financial concession.

The Art Vault 4: Bind

a sad woman with a ponytail crumpled up and drawn with an almost rock-like texture using charcoals, surrounded by white stitching
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I’m honestly not sure when this is from…at a guess, 2001 or 2002 at the latest. I used charcoal to draw the woman and managed to get a nice rocky texture for her skin by using the sides of my charcoal stick. (it happened as an accident the first time, like most of what I do.) I added to her sense of confinement and hopelessness by stitching the matboard around her with embroidery floss.

I thought she was sold for the longest time, but then she turned up again the other day. I guess she’s imprisoned by my horrible storage techniques. I’ll try and remember to actually take her to my next show.

Nascent

a gasmask dripping some sort of poison fluid in a broken glass setting
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This creepy little guy took an Honorable Mention at Digitized 2006 and finally sold at my solo show God From the Machine 2013, where it ended up getting a lot more attention. Many people assumed it was new work, when in fact it hadn’t been seen anywhere for years after dropping out of sight in 2006. It just goes to show you, never give up on a piece of art you have faith in!

Tree linework!

clean, complicated and numerous lines begin to suggest the form of a deciduous tree.
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This is most of the linework from Elegy, the only progress shot I think I have of it. I just love the complexity of all the lines in an organic shape like a tree, and these lines here don’t even begin to touch on the millions of actual lines that are really there: in the bark, the outlines and veins on every leaf, and so on. A tree really is a stunning visual overload!

So occasionally I just like to stare at this piece every now and then and lose myself in lines. They’re so much easier to see and appreciate without any shading or color to distract from them.

The Art Vault 3: Moon-Making

an old watercolor and pen and ink by sandpaperdaisy
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an old watercolor and pen and ink by sandpaperdaisy

This is a very old work, back from when I didn’t have a scanner and I had to get my friend to try and scan my things for me on her ancient, horrible scanner or snap pictures of them. …so you can probably guess what’s up with the image quality.

Regardless, this is a watercolor with pen and ink that I made of some sort of goddess or Artemis-like figure with her back turned to us, making moons out of the formless void. I’m very fond of it, and I hope I find the thing again someday! I think it may be somewhere among my things but I don’t even know for sure.

A Girl and Her Mod Podge 2: Fox with Lantern

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Another one of my little lacquered boxes, this was done for the same person who commissioned Kitsune. (She’s heavy into foxes, which is fine because I love ’em too.) Here are some shots of this playful little fox with his lantern, cut from different pieces of origami paper and glued onto a wooden jewel box.

As you can see I glued paper on the sides too. Apologies for the odd background, it’s my kitchen!

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