Creative Path Studio: Trish Roque’s blog, studio, and musings on living a purpose-filled life.

Once upon a time, I made etchings with the Santa Fe Etching Club. This occurred on a weekly basis when I lived in Santa Fe from 1994-2000. And now, I’ve been included in the recently published book, 100 Santa Fe Etchers.

I received my copy this week and as I flipped through the pages, I became distinctly aware that I am in a book with some of the most amazing artists working in Santa Fe. What an HONOR!! Even Jon proclaimed: “You’re in a book with Bill Mauldin!” Yes, that would be the Pulitzer-Prize winning cartoonist and creator of the characters Willie and Joe, Bill Mauldin.

And as I turned the pages, I began to proclaim, “I’m in a book with –

• Ron Adams, an amazing printmaker and artist;
• Ron Pokrasso, one of my favorite mixed media artists;
• Willard Clark, who is mostly known for his wood engravings;
• Michael Bergt, an artist who I befriended when I lived in Santa Fe;
• Anne Sawyer, one of Star (Liana York)’s very good friends;

And then of course, there are the artists who made my life in Santa Fe a lot of fun because of their friendships with me. I am certainly honored to be in a book with my friends. Artists like:

• Norma Evans, to whom I owe much with my move and transition to the Bay Area; she was my connection;
• William Gonzales, whose work was recently published in a book of this same series;
• Brian Bari Long, who introduced me to the Etching Club;
• Elizabeth Cook, whose framed print is at the center of our living room; I love her work!;
• Jo Basistse/Eli Levin, who is at the heart of the Etching Club;
• and of course, Dr. Bob Bell, who has been supporting the club since 1980, and without whom the book would not exist.

And there are other artists in the book who I never met but whose work makes me want to pick up etching again. Wow! I’m almost embarrassed to be in a book with them, they’re so good!

Needless to say, you need to take a look at this book for yourself. You can purchase your own copy by contacting Argos Gallery in Santa Fe. The book is $30 plus shipping.

That would be me.

We spent a nice long weekend in Tahoe. (Actually, it wasn’t long enough!) It’s a trip we make annually to get our fix of snow - yes, Jon and I are from the Northeast, and yes, we actually love snow. The fortunate part about living in the Bay Area is that we have the option to drive to winter, unlike the Northeast, where one does not have a choice in the matter…

We rent a house with our good buddies, drink beers, snowshoe, play scrabble, ski, and not necessarily in that order. And this time, I actually drew in the sketchbook that I brought up with me. I drew almost every day. And here are the results:

The drawings above are of the one and only Siwa, sleeping, of course.

The drawings below are of Jenny’s dog, Bailey, who was an excellent model because she actually has form, and not so much fur, though she moved a lot… I couldn’t quite get myself to do gesture drawings of her, and that would have been perfect for her.

Where is Sammy in all this you ask? Well, our young pup is maturing. He tolerates only so much from us. After Jon had his fun with him, he decided to tell us in his own special way: “Screw you guys, I’m going upstairs…” (do you hear Cartman?), and immediately his fuzzy butt could be seen going up the stairs to the loft where Jon and I slept, no doubt climbing onto our bed to get away from all the hands groping him.

Sho ’nuff, there was the monkey butt on our bed:

And finally, I had to attempt a landscape. It’s funny how even with drawing, using the wrong tools can make or break the sketch. Guess who had the wrong tool?

Can I really do this? I think I should try.

Today’s entry is, guess who?

The itchy fingers are scratched but once again (!) I’ve managed to make myself more busy than I really wanted to…

I’m working on a personal web project that I’ve been wanting to do for a long time now. I’ve promised the Santa Fe Etching Club that I would make them a website all these years, and FINALLY, I’m getting to it. Here’s a sneak peek:

I have plenty to do still - like gathering images of etchings from the artists, and their bios, but heck, it’s a start! It’s also my first pure CSS liquid layout! (This means absolutely nothing to everyone but web designers.)

And, I started drawing again! Yay! Below are a couple (a quick gesture, and a more refined drawing of the same pose and model):

So what do I do? I draw.

And even though I’m the least exciting person I know to model for me, I’m also the most accessible at ANY given moment. So, yes, I did another mirror image.

Besides, I really needed to update the image I had of me on the “About” page of this site. That drawing was done over a year ago, and my hair has grown quite a bit since then. Anyway, that’s the new drawing there, to the right.

It’s always an interesting exercise trying to get a likeness of a face that you think you know really well. I don’t know if I succeeded or not. Regardless, it’s what’s on my “About” page and my LinkedIn account.

The itchy fingers are still pretty itchy though. I’m hoping that attending the drawing groups at my local community college will soothe the fingers. They certainly can’t get all their satisfaction from these keyboards which seem to hog up most of their time. But I’ve already written about that in a previous post. I’ve signed up for portrait and figure drawing sessions. I will be posting those drawings on the site so, stay tuned.

In the meantime, I’m now just discovering the fascinating world of DeviantArt.com. Though I’ve known about this particular site for a couple of years now, my recent foray into Photoshop art led me here. I’ve spent too many countless hours this past week at that site, browsing the works of a number of Deviants.

Methinks I will be doing some art this year. (There’s a resolution if I’ve ever heard one!)

My relationship with my computer has been quite exciting with my recent Photoshop projects. These most recent pieces have shown a merging of my “old media” and “new media” training.

Here are four versions of what I call: Diemos in the Sky with Catnip (or High)

(Yes, this cat is a real cat.)

Presenting art done with new media.

(Note: the original image was taken by Flickr member Chrisada Sookdhis, which I used with a Creative Commons license. Thanks Chrisada!)

I call it Tree Portrait:

I’m quite happy with the way this turned out mainly because of my love for texture. Here’s a couple of close ups:

And for posterity, I include scans of an etching I did in 1995:

And the close-up:

Yup. I LOVE TEXTURE.

And I find it quite fitting that the first artistic medium I fell in love with would involve a printing press. (It’s that Old Media vs New Media thing.)

I’ve been hearing this term Web 2.0, pop up so much in the last couple of years. When people ask me what exactly is Web 2.0, I don’t quite know how to respond. Probably because I don’t know the answer myslef. Recently I ran across a video on YouTube that explains it far better than anyone ever could.

The Machine is Us/ing Us

So, I’m a late bloomer. I began my web design career kind of late in the game (one can even argue I’m still at the starting line). My blog was a recent addition , and only now have I discovered the fun that could be had with Flickr.

This is not good: I do not need more distractions. I just couldn’t help myself. I wanted to find groups of everything related to my photos: Border Collies, Cats who Lounge, Ducati Monster, Shelter Critters, and on and on. See my problem?

I’ve spent the last two days uploading images of our critters and our 2004 motorcylcle trip through the Four Corners of the southwest. Even though we nearly died several times during this trip, it was too memorable to not include in my photo album. Looking at those pictures has made me yearn for another motorcycle tour. Uh oh… the itch has started, but that is for another post.

Earlier this week, my eye caught the motorcycle of a woman who parked her bike next to mine. I quickly took my helmet off to ask her some questions about her beautiful BMW F650 GS.

Before I continue with this story I have to place my disclaimer: I have no desire to sell my girl. My Ducati Monster and I have bonded through many miles (close to 20K in fact). She continues to be a reliable AND fun way to commute daily to Berkeley. She’s quick and zippy up in the curvy hills of Berkeley and Oakland, and I lane split through the morning traffic IN STYLE. She’s a Ducati after all. Then there was the infamous 3,700-miles of a trip through the southwest several years ago: we both did just FINE thank you very much.

Having said (written) that, I have been thinking about my next bike. I guess this is a common problem for many riders - the constant thought of the next bike. I know Jon has that problem.

I asked this woman what she thought of her BMW F650. Was I surprised by her response? She loved it! And she went on to say that when she first started looking at bikes, her choice was between a Monster or F650. She hasn’t regretted her decision.

I’ve been thinking about a BMW for my next bike, mainly because I know Jon and I have some future bike trips ahead of us. Trips that will probably make me wish for more comfort and capabilities in my Ducati.

When I saw this woman get off her bike I immediately noted that she was about my size. I was even more encouraged when she told me that the bike was not lowered. I just about started to drool.

So, for all you out there who really wanted to know what I want for Christmas…