odd

I'm oddly obsessed with old houses right now. Done with Micron markers and Art markers.

It's crazy to think that 6 years have already flown by since I first moved onto the Xcel gymnastics team, let alone the fact that I've spent 15 years of my life as a gymnast. Tomorrow, August 6th, 2021, marks my last day as a gymnast on the team since I'm officially a college student. I've genuinely been dreading this day, but it's not the ending I expected...in an oddly good way. I know no one expected to spend the past year in a pandemic, and I definitely didn't think gym would shift so much in the following months, but here we are. Gymnastics has taught me more than I ever imagined it could, and my coaches (especially one of them) have become two of the people I'm closest with, words can't describe how grateful I am for everything. This 'ending' doesn't feel like an end, more so a closing to this chapter. Honestly, my love for the sport has only grown, and it feels like I'm finally figuring it all out. So, although my final practice as a team member is tomorrow, my journey is not over yet. "Goodbyes are the hardest part, and this ending has been something I’ve been dreading, although I know it’s time to let go. I’d like to say this isn’t a permanent goodbye to you or the sport, it’s more of a natural conclusion. Thank you from the bottom of my heart for everything you’ve done for me and managed to teach me in this short amount of time, I couldn’t have asked for anyone, or anything, better. Thank you most of all for helping me achieve my dreams and for helping me get to a point in which I can say I’m proud of my journey. All that’s left to say is I care about you, I love you, and take care."

Where do I begin with this one? This is a drawing of my dad and I; the picture was taken back in 2006, a happier time, I suppose. I don't commonly think about my dad, I don't necessarily think about how much I miss him or how I wish I could see him again, so it was odd for me to sit and look through old photos. I don't really know my dad; I do, but I don't. My dad was physically part of my life for 10 years, the second half of those were not the best. Mental illness, self medicating for years, debt, heroin, arguments, threats, uncertainty. I feel like I remember the negative more because I was older, my parents couldn't hide it from me like they used to. At the same time, when he was sober and stable, life was good. Life was great, things felt complete. So here I am, 6 years since he died. I don't want to say his image is fading, but I know less of who he was than I did before. I see the good from some (the ones who praise him, who act like he was a saint), and I see the bad from others (the one who felt the pain). I suppose I no longer see my view, my memories aren't there anymore. I don't necessarily feel sad, the anger has faded, and I can't say I'm happy. Maybe I'll figure it out one day, but, for now, it is what it is.

7" x 9" pen and graphite and paper

All the faces above have the same blot or cloud as a base. When I am sick of the faces I draw automatically, I make a nice, oddly shaped blot and then look for faces (or whatever) within it. This time I did it digitally so I could see how many different faces I could get out of the same cloud. This time I stopped at thirteen, but I am sure there is more.

A silly watercolor sketch, I know, but there's a lot tied to this little thing. There are so many bittersweet feelings lately. I tend to avoid putting a numerical value to time, I don't like the count-down aspect to things, especially knowing how obsessive I can be with that. It allows me to live in some semblance of ignorance (they say ignorance is pure bliss). There's a lot of tip-toeing around what I want to say and what I'm afraid to say, or even what I'd love to explore and embrace and simply afraid to. It's something I'm not used to. It's taken me quite a while to finally sit with certain things, or even acknowledge them, and it feels like there's so much more I'm now realizing. It's odd to be so frank to some and worried that others may find out. There's a lot of shifting again, goodbyes coming soon, complicated feelings and situations.

Annuals are encouraged to seed in the less formal beds in our large garden. We tend them, photograph them, and I draw and paint them. This is a colored pencil (Prismacolor) drawing of one of our seedling poppies. It was an odd form. Not exactly a single, nor a double and lacked the common cross markings in the throat.

Oils

Chromatography is used in chemistry to dissolve a mixture and place it into a "mobile phase," which allows the solvent to carry it and its components up the paper. It shows the layers, exposing deeper, hidden tones and colors, something only seen when a solvent of the same polarity is used. It's odd. Life feels a bit like that, and I'm seeing the colors separate for the first time. It's all there, everything that's been hidden in the inky mess for the past however many years. And now it's smeared. Bold. Clear. But blurry. What's on me and what's on you? Where do we go from here?

This is my first plant abstract in over six months because college takes up all my time during the school year now. This one was supposed to be more pastel, but the scanner washed out some of the lighter colors.

Yet another plant abstract. This one was built around the red outlined flower in the semi-center, and that’s where it gets its name. Colored pencil and pen on paper.

Fairly recently I was "commissioned" to paint a picture of my cousin and grandmother. I'm pretty happy with how it turned out, but painting this was a bit of a challenge. There were definitely moments where I stopped painting and completely hated how it looked/became frustrated with myself, and I wouldn't work on it for days. I felt an odd pressure attached to making this... or maybe I'm crazy. 16x20, acrylic.

I don't know why these all upload sideways, but here's my latest work for the sketchbook. I created the electric field pattern and printed it on photo paper then doodled these rainbow trout (at the suggestion of my friend Andrew) and glued them on.

One of my abstract mandala-type designs. It is available as a print on products on Redbubble, Society6, Zazzle, and Threadless. This link will take you to all sites: https://linktr.ee/okhismakingart

I made this grid for a small daily doodle, and I really loved it. I'm still note sure If I should color these or not.

A linework ink drawing of the Gladekeeper, the dragon goddess of nature on dragon pet sim Flight Rising. Drawn for inktober 2019!

Odd Botanicals 2

One of my botanical abstracts, this one centered around a pond. Though I will be selling the original locally, the print is available on thousands of clothing and home good products across my many websites. Browse them all here: https://linktr.ee/okhismakingart

The cat in this doodle is inspired by "The Beast" from a cartoon that ran when I was a kid. The abstract mushrooms are a slight deviation from my usual botanical abstracts.

#Golgaaryol Injured into symbols The wounded Shadow The ink flows and carries nonverbal oddities [April, 2023] Danielle East - Broken Butterfly https://youtu.be/4WiMDebAnzo?si=k2yO1ALrmwyysOt4 I wanted a picture of a sad dragon - finally I turned ordinary doodles [from 2023] with brushes into something like this, blur and softening effects were also added.

Oils

A pagan goddes. (Water colours. 2013)

Not true to size, but we do hold 'hands'. Toddy is a big boy, a 36kg window-licking Boxer. Best thing in my house by far.

Oils on Illustration board. Third(so far) in a series working on.

this is an odd body painting of a mime

These are some flower studies of what I admit are rather odd looking flowers. They are a lot tougher to draw than I thought they would be.

Plantain, Plantago major, was considered to be one of the nine sacred herbs by the ancient Saxon people, and has been celebrated in Anglo-Saxon poetry as the "mother of herbs." In Russian this plant is called Подорожник - meaning near the roads. Native Americans called it "white man's foot" as it is often found growing along well-trodden foot paths and it was brought to the Americas from Europe. The Latin generic name means "sole of the foot." When I was a kid, we would use the leaves of this plant for small hurts and scratches. We would spit on the leaves and stick it onto our scratches. https://www.instagram.com/p/CSE9jT9LqUY/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link

I truly died drawing this. And while I died, I kept adding and adding grrrr. Anyway, my new version of the goddess of nature that I did in 2014. But wanted to be truly different. The 2014 version had no flowers and was a full tree. Now she has ‘hair’ . Spectrum noir markers, white gelpens and glitter gelpens.

Goddesses don’t just do yoga. They skate & box too!