Voodoo, Mojo & Mr. Johnson ...

Spent more time in the studio this weekend and the Voodoo art journal is ready to send on its journey! Hard to see this one go - really enjoyed creating the Robert Johnson shrine - but happy it's going to Deb (sure hope she likes it).

The music selection for the last phase of the journal moved into some current material, but still with a strong blues influence ... and an edge.

Conjured up the seedy underbelly with Nick Cave and 'Dig!!! Lazarus Dig!!!' Catch a bit of their own hoodoo on the Nick Cave & The Badseeds site -- Mojo voted this the best new album of 2008.
Next up, Detroit rockers, The White Stripes with "Icky Thump"
Finally, wrapping things up with Joe Strummer delivering his influences on 'The Future Is Unwritten'

So now to the Voodoo journal. As I thought about Voodoo and Mojo, I thought about the story of Robert Johnson selling his soul at the crossroads ... the inspiration for the spread.




The words are from an article I found at the Mudcat Cafe ...

"If you want to learn how to make songs yourself, you take your guitar and your go to where the road crosses that way, where a crossroads is. Get there be sure to get there just a little ' fore 12 that night so you know you'll be there. You have your guitar and be playing a piece there by yourself…A big black man will walk up there and take your guitar and he'll tune it. And then he'll play a piece and hand it back to you. That's the way I learned to play anything I want." ~ Tommy Johnson

The rusty bits started out as toys. The larger of the dolls is from Hannah Grey Curiosities & Drygoods and the smaller doll is a mardi gras baby -- one of a handful I bought some time ago.


In addition to paints n' patinas, I also used my vise and dremel on this journal. Something satisfying about drilling a hole into the tiny fist (1/32" drill bit). I ordered the vise & dremel from The Artists Nook ... sure, you could go to the local Home Depot but better to support artist-run businesses (besides, it's the vise that Michael deMeng recommends so you know you're off to a good start with your tools)



The snakes are from the local party supply store ...




Might try to grab a few more pics before shipping this off ...

Forget to Learn ...

On Saturday, I went to an "Intro to Voice-Over & Acting" class in SF. I've been wanting to do VO work for years and, in fact, have done some off-n-on, here-n-there, mostly for friends and at various companies I worked for. You see, I was a radio broadcasting major and I intended on working in radio but, as many of my friends have heard the story patiently over and over, the talk radio station I was working at just before graduation went bust -- the owner came in and fired everyone except for one engineer to keep the station running on satelite feed -- and, to make the story short, I ended up going the 'practial' route and got a job in tech.

So, hear I am years later and the urge to really pursue the VO path has finally pushed me to sign up for some classes at a local studio. This first session was an overview of the business but there was a point where everyone had a chance to be 'on mic' and read some short copy to see how they liked it. I know I like doing this but found the nerves kicked in when I got in front of the room and suddenly I couldn't stop over-thinking the delivery. The result, besides a stiff read, was the realization that just like when I work on an art project, a writing project, or any other creative endeavor, I need to get out of my head, get out of my way and just go with the process. If I think it through too much, the end product doesn't work.

Moving forward, I need to forget everything I learned in my years of broadcast training and open up to all the new information to be learned about voice-acting. I think it's going to be a fun ride.

More Voodoo ...

Spent some more time over the weekend working on the Voodoo art journal. I was immersed in making things old and weathered - so much so that didn't really think about blogging the effort. Between the art process and the music, not much else came into play.

The music? Been pulling out several CDs that I haven't listened to in awhile to provide the backdrop for this art journal.

Reverend Gary Davis, in particular the album 'Harlem Street Singer'

Next up, some Muddy Waters, from the fab compiliation: The Chess Box.

And, most recently, Lazy Lester, songs from the '50s and '60s collected on 'I Hear You Knockin'! The Excello Singles'

The art bits that happened while listening to these albums? More rusty toys and prepping of a few pins ...




More to do this weekend ...

Voodoo In Progress ...

I've slipped behind on the art journal project (late sending the current journal in my posession off to the next artist) but last weekend I made some headway. The theme for this particular journal is Voodoo - so it wasn't so much a lack of ideas as picking a place to start. Once I decided I wanted to create a bit of a shrine within the spread, things started to move.

I started by creating some structure ...




Then it was time to start playing with toys ... I love the Modern Masters paints (learned about them when I took a class from Jane Wynn)




Of course I wasn't about to stop with just one baby doll ...


In between painting the layers and patina on the toys, I worked on altering a laser print photo of Robert Johnson ...


More ideas cooking. More time in the studio needed this weekend.