Skipping Painted Stones
An entertaining art blog based in rural Iowa and written by author and artist Haley McAndrews.
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At some point I'm going to write about my kids' art, because I have the privilege of watching a tiny artist grow up to be an even bigger artist in my daughter, Emma (no pressure, toots.) My four year old, however, says she wants to be an artist but has no patience or desire to actually make art.* *Disclaimer: We may not have found her medium yet, but she definitely does not enjoy drawing and coloring. Her preschool teacher even told us, "Alex doesn't like to sit down and color." And we replied, "I know." Back to the point; as an artist and mother, I talk a lot about art to my kids. They see me actively working on art. They also see me writing (for example, Emma is watching me type this out and asked me "Is that about me or a different Emma?") Sorry Jon, but we are an art family now. And what better way to keep kids interested in art than through children's books?  The first one, and one of my favorites, really, is the Draw With Mom! collaborative sketchbook. It also comes in other versions like Draw With Dad! etc., which makes me love it even more! Each page has a kid-specific prompt on it, and the next facing page has suggestions for the grown up to add to the child's drawing. Once you've completed the book it becomes an instant memento to be cherished!  Art & Max, by David Weisner, was given to us as a gift. My husband isn't as much a fan of it as I am as the story is mostly told visually, rather than through the text. It's all dialogue between two characters, which makes it easy to make up voices for them, which my girls love. The story is about some lizards in the desert, one of which gets into a mess and ends up being artistically deconstructed (down to his outline and then unraveled in a not-scary sort of way) and then remade again. The illustrations are stunning visually, and I'll be happy to keep Art & Max on the shelf in my studio long after my girls grow up.  Mini Masters is a set of four small books but I believe there are more in the series. In the Garden with Van Gogh is one of them. The illustrations are all paintings by Vincent Van Gogh. The authors picked a series of his art and created a short rhyming story to connect them all. Alex's favorite Mini Masters book is Dancing with Degas, which focuses on Edgar Degas' ballerina series. She loves it because she has also been a dancer on stage with her dance class. I like the exposure to famous works of art, as well as the quick read at bedtime.  We have had Alan Baker's White Rabbit's Colors for years now (note the well-loved cover and spine - yes, that is a picture of our actual copy) and my girls still pick it for bedtime! The illustrations are simple and clear to understand and the text explains both color mixing of the primary colors (as the rabbit jumps into different pails of paint) but also touches on warm and cool colors. My girls have outgrown it now, but as a bonus book I also want to mention the Watch Me Paint baby book! It's a soft, puffy, water paint book (as the pages get wet, the art appears). It has images by Georgia O'Keefe, Leonardo Da Vinci, Johannes Vermeer, and more! This one is great for the tiniest of artists, with its waterproof pages being great for gum-chewing on. Interested in more children's books about or related to art? Check out my first blog post reviewing kids' art books here!
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5/14/2024 2 Comments Looking BackOne of my (too many) projects this year has been building my new website. It's broken down in a logical way - separating my art from my books, one page for drawings, one page for paintings, a contact page... Pretty standard stuff. But I've also added a page called "DemoniCat" that I lovingly refer to as "ye olden days" page. It houses the old artwork from my awkward, emotional teenage years.  It doesn't show EVERYTHING, because there would be hundreds (yes, literal hundreds) of pieces to wade through. I certainly can't handle that much reminiscing - can you? I wanted to include this page on my website for multiple reasons. One, because I cleaned out my and deleted my DeviantART account after seeing them officially encouraging the use of AI generators to make "art". I won't get into the topic of AI generators right now, but you can read my thoughts on it in a previous post. My DA account, ~demonicat, was over 20 years old. I began posting my art there when I was only 16. I bought DA shirts (I still have them!) and art prints, followed my favorite artists, and met other artists my age. To this day, I still sign all my art with "<3DC!" When I draw self-portraits, I draw DemoniCat (aka "DC", a demon-cat princess). For many years, if you Googled "demonicat" 95% of the search results were my art. With the end of my DA account comes the end of the online artist demonicat, leaving only Red Stone Art Studio to continue my journey.  It wasn't an easy decision to close my account, but it felt like the right time to do it. It took me hours to do, going through each posted piece, saving it, then deleting it. ...Did you really think I was just going to wipe that slate clean without keeping some mementos? Silly friend, I still have it all stored digitally! ;) The main reason I kept the account open (even though I wasn't posting new art there anymore) was to use as an example for when I was talking to kids! See, when I was a kid my parents were my cheerleaders. They always encouraged me in my artistic pursuits, listening as I would talk about my weird characters and drawings, pushing me to enter shows and contests, taking me to art openings at the local college and art center - they even paid for a year long subscription to DA for my birthday once! But they are my parents, they have to be encouraging, right? (Sorry Mom and Dad!)  It would have been incredible if I had an older artist as a mentor, or even just to encourage my shy, insecure self every once in a while! So when the opportunity comes along for me to step into that role for a young person... I will jump on it! But there's one small snag with that. See, those young artists are seeing my current art. I very specifically tell them, "Don't compare your art to my art now, look at the work I was creating when I was your age." I've had over 20 years of practice since then, and that's the key to my success today: decades of practice.  I am not ashamed of the artwork I made as a kid - it was my best at the time, just like the work I create now is my best, and my art and skills in the future will continue to grow with every drawing and painting I make. This is the true journey of an artist, and I'm proud of the journey I have had to get to where I am now. (Screw you, imposter syndrome!)
After months of secrecy, I’m finally allowed to share the story of my Herky sculpture! Before we go any further, you can read my announcement post here. I found out about the contest a few days before the deadline, so I had to submit my design quickly! When I talked to Jon about it, he told me not to put corn on it because everyone will be putting corn on it… But I put corn on it anyway. Nearly 250 artist applications were submitted for sponsors to choose from, and mine was selected! Herky isn’t the first public sculpture I’ve painted, the first was a lighthouse for the City of Storm Lake and you can read about that project here. I drove over to Iowa City to pick him up – the trip was over 4 hours one-way! We loaded him up into the back of our minivan and I brought Herky home. I knew he was going to be big, but when Jon and I got him into my (very small) in-home studio, he filled up all the empty space! As I was painting, moving from one area to another, I had to shift him and slide him around. I started with a pencil sketch of the design, which took me a full three hours to do.  Normally I add layers to a piece all over the surface, working the whole thing evenly. I tried a different approach with Herky – I would work on a section until it was complete, then move on to the next. I worked on him in three sections: from his waist down, his torso and arms, and his head. When I was ready to start adding paint, I began with his feet and legs. Most (but not all!) of my besties are artists, and we regularly share images of art and discuss our works in progress with each other. It was extremely difficult to keep quiet about my progress (secrecy was part of the contract I signed,) especially when I would have doubts about what I had just painted. One example of this was when I painted the rocks on Herky’s feet pink. It sounded like a great idea at the time, but after I did it I second-guessed myself so hard I avoided working on his feet again for two full days!  I asked my kids what they thought of it, and they always said, “I love it!” …Which is nice to hear but ultimately unhelpful. That left only one other person I could talk to about it: Jon. Love of my life, always supportive, but in the end a non-creative normie… Jon. “Jon, come and stare at Herky with me.” “Jon, what do you think of this area?” “Jon, how does my corn look?” “Jon.” “Jon?” “Jon!” It took me over 17 hours to finish what my family and I affectionately refer to as “Herky’s corn pants.” After I asked him about the pink rocks, he replied, “I don’t know, I’m not an artist.” After I fixed the pink rocks, he said, “That looks a lot better than it did a few days ago!” (He’s a smart man.) When I I started adding the black lines, he said the outline was the perfect finishing touch. When I finished the corn pants, Jon said he wanted to keep the sculpture for our front yard. That’s how I knew I was on the right track; Jon never wants to keep my art! 😉 Next I painted the barn, followed by the blue sky on Herky’s chest, back, and arms. The sky went a bit faster, although it did require multiple coats to get the texture and look just right – especially on his shoulders and neck! It took a little over 5 hours to complete. Another 4 hours and I completed the night sky on his head. All I had left to do was paint the windmill and clouds white, add the lavender shading, paint the rest of the black outlines, and finish the stars in the night sky. My total painting time was 30.5 hours (I kept track of each session) over the course of 34 days. I returned him to Iowa City on February 19th, 2024, to get his clear protective coat. And because it’s me, I also stopped at the future birthplace of Captain James T. Kirk (another shoutout to Jon for encouraging me to go!)  My Herky sculpture is titled “From Soil to Sky” and is meant to replicate a cross-section of the rural Iowan landscape I, and many other Iowans, are surrounded by every day (well, we don’t have corn in the fields year-round, but still.) I won’t be there in Iowa City at the grand unveiling of the Herkys (there are 100 new Herky sculptures being revealed!) but I am very excited because my statue will be placed at MacBride Hall on the University of Iowa campus. This project is massive, with so many people and artists involved, and I am honored to have been chosen to participate! Someday we will take a trip to go visit my Herky, but until then my kids continue to fondly recall: “Hey, remember that Herky statue you had in your studio?” I’m not sure I’ll ever forget him, to be honest! To learn more about the Herky on Parade sculptures, go to the website at www.HerkyonParade3.com or follow @HerkyonParade on social media. And because a number of people have already asked, no, I did not paint or hide a toaster anywhere on the statue. Trust me, I’d let you know if I did!
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