Baseball Series II

Title: Homerun
Medium: canvas, old baseballs hit over the fence, 1940s baseball glove
Enriching music: Joltin' Joe DiMaggio

Baseball Series

Baseball series I. 

Medium: baseballs hit over the fence at Bowie High School

Anyone who knows me, knows I enjoy baseball live. During a clean up day of the fields, I gathered all the balls over the fence to make several art pieces. I thought of how much joy they meant to boys because they hit a home run. 

Enriching music: Trace Adkins, Swing

Signum Majoritatis

Title: Signum Majoritatis

Medium: canvas, acrylic, broken clear glass, glue

By: Clara G. Herrera

(Enriching music: Weightless, Marconi Union; 

Weird Is Relative, Everyone Discovers

Title: WIR,ED (Nerd alert: If you rearrange these letters, you can spell weird;)

Medium: Canvas, acrylic, toilet paper procured from a local art museum, wooden dowel, pencil, all linear except for the writing on the toilet paper 

By: Clara G. Herrera

(Enriching music: Wake Up, Arcade Fire; Wake Up, Rage Against the Machine; Wake Up and Live, Ella Fitzgerald)

Behind this piece: So my kids have acquiesced. They no longer question the art and writing. Weird leaves their lips and I say, eccentric and smile. If only they knew...It was during one of these conversations, that I thought, what is something that everyone uses, that is completely mundane and part of everyday life that I can turn into an artistic expression? Writing on toilet paper ain't that easy.

Reflection: I thought about the science behind this piece as I was creating it. All is linear except for the writing on the toilet paper. It is not written in a straight path, just like life is not. I thought it down to the letter size, punctuation and lack of it. I could have used other colors, but black and white were chosen for a reason. White is all the wavelengths of the color spectrum reflected equally. Black is the absorbing of all colors. In life, we are constantly reflecting on and absorbing all that is happening and has happened to us. The result, in my opinion, is gray. Our brains are gray.

Written mathematically, it would be W+B=G; If W>b=W/g; If w<B=B/g. 

Nomenclature broken down: If white and black are equal, the hue will be gray in equal proportions. If there is more white than black, the gray will be a lighter color. If there is less white than black, the resulting pigment will be a darker gray. However in all areas of life, at all times it is either black, white, or gray. Each includes all colors of the visible spectrum.

Gray is balance. It's like those clouds that shield the sky. It is that crisp wind that kicks up suddenly creating goosebumps on your skin. It is the light rain that follows quenching your epidermis for further growth. It is calming. It is peaceful. It is the day and night mixed together in the hues of life. 

It's a God Deal/Home

Title: It's a God Deal/Home
Medium: Canvas, acrylic, paper ashes from a letter written to God
By: Clara G. Herrera, for my son

(Enriching music: Welcome Home Son, Radical Face; Favorite Place, Black Books)

A midsummer's night

Yesterday was a day of creation. I woke up at 5:30 a.m. and began painting and writing. This went on until about 3 a.m. this morning. My hands are green. There's paint all over the place. My house smells like acrylic. Art pieces started, four completed. My mind spills out as if an overflowing sink. It is a wonderful feeling, but also challenging.

I have given up trying to figure it out. My art friends just say go with it. So, I am. I figure God is trying to help get much of this out of my head and into production before I go back to school grading papers and teaching science. Two phrases have entered my mind as of late, "Production is everything. and Continue the Path."

In the midst of this painting frenzy last night, that is certainly not random, as each stroke, color, song I listen to as I'm creating has meaning and purpose, I told my daughter, "Can you imagine that there are some people who go through their whole lives never asking themselves, what will I create today? I can't imagine living my life that way." 

Creating for me isn't a want. It is a need. I don't know anyway to describe it except that I must do it.

I told a friend of mine the other day, I got a lot of art I want to throw out into the world but I have to wait because some of them are not very "teachery". Some day, that will come, I suppose. But for now, here are some tame ones from yesterday.

Title: The Dog Messed Up This Painting
Medium: acrylic and tempera
By: Clara G. Herrera
(Enriching music: Searching With My Good Eye Closed, Soundgarden)

Title: Red

Medium: acrylic and tempera

By: Clara G. Herrera

(Enriching music: Spring, Giuseppe Verdi; Hey Man Nice Shot, Filter) 

Title: Self Portrait 2017

Medium: acrylic, tempera, kissing the canvas (that's the red lips;), all painted with my fingers

By: Clara G. Herrera

(Enriching music: Nothing 'Bout Me, Sting: Korben Dallas, Eric Serra from the Fifth Element soundtrack)

see ya later

Title: see ya later

Medium: alligator skull, sunflowers

By: Clara G. Herrera

(Enriching music: I Come From The Water, the Toadies; The Collector, NIN)