Flight is a bit personal for me–i spent a while developing it.  To me, it remains a work in progress (on all fronts…lol)

Every now and then, I give little coded messages to self. Friendly reminders and gentle nudges. I’ve a real bonafide interest in illustration–and every once in a blue (or purple one)–I’ll try my hand at it.

My thoughts on flying…if I were to hold a 3 second class on the subject, of course.)

FLYING 101–

1. “Find friends with wings…”  As they say, “birds of a feather…” best to find those already in flight…and then ask them if they’ll take you up and show you the ropes…
2. “Close your eyes.” Have a little faith…
3. “Chase your favorite dream.” self explanatory, IMO.

Flight

He often gives me gentle nudges…charged with affection when trying to steer me out of a creative rut, keep me from subjecting myself to self-imposed limitations or just give me a refreshed perspective. (he’s also just a great teacher…in that regard…)

Among my favorite gifts from him are a Parker Pen and Pencil combo…the pencil with the script “I love you” engraved on it. They’re packaged in a leather green case…and I take it EVERYWHERE.

So it was…for almost every morning I spent tucked away with him his is cozy little town of Barrow-in-Furness, England, he’d make breakfast and have me sit at the breakfast bar, doodling away on one of his many sketchpads and sketchbooks (or one day, a yellow sticky note)…playing with multiple subjects and tools: a mechanical pencil…a fountain pen, an eraser…6Bs, HB, #2…whatever was around.

Apart from sketching on his own iPad and Bamboo, Shaun always carries around a 3 x 5 Moleskin sketchbook.  I’ve known this about him forever…and one of my gifts to him was a leather case for them…with the words “MULL” engraved. And now that I have my own pen/pencil set…i found it only fitting that I’d invest in my own pocket sized moleskin. Not as a means to abandon Digital…but as a means to enhance…as a discovery I made while waiting for my very delicious morning and evening meals…is that…limiting myself to a traditional tool like graphite and paper–which has no “undo” button…no layers…no “delete this” or “paint over that”…allows me an opportunity to develop some technical skills that can often be “covered up” in my paintings…

the idea is to grow…and sometimes, i find that working through some challenges…can help the greater body of work to grow and develop…and also…as I’ve come to realize–helps me to be more deliberate with my “output”…yes, I do like the whimsy nature of my work…but sometimes things don’t turn out the way I intended because I couldn’t figure out how to do it the way I wanted it…

So playing with as many tools as possible…well it all feeds it…right? And playing with subject matter too.

Hence the Samurai.  Shaun suggested that I draw one…and after being like “why in the world would I, Mia Robinson, be drawing a samurai…” for 15 minutes…I decided to take on the challenge…turns out…I quite enjoyed it.

I’ll likely keep on with this side sketchbook…and keep on with crazy subject matter as well…in hopes…that it will feed my digital work and vice versa. Grow grow grow!

OTHER SOURCES OF RECENT INSPIRATION were suggestions made over dinner in NYC with a few good friends and even greater artists.  Raheem Nelson had highly recommended a book called How to Steal Like an Artist by Austin Kleon.  Micheline Hess had recommended that I subscribe to Gurney Journey, a daily web blog by artist and illustrator James Gurney (not surprisingly, Shaun gave me an art book by him in September…also brilliant!) And Barbara Jaye Wilson (I love her!) suggested that I read a book called Let the Great World Spin by Colum McCann, although not art related per se, it was a wonderful read…and sometimes, i think the mind needs to break away from its usual sources for creativity…and rest in a good book. I was really grateful to have read it!

For now…the Loo woman…

DETAILS:

SONY ARTIST IN RESIDENCE: Mia Robinson

Datavision, 445 5th Ave, NY, NY

December 15-16, 2-6pm

UPDATE: This was a really fun project and launch. They had us sitting in the store window at the Datavision store–which pretty much made portraits a little difficult to do. So ended up painting whatever it was that we wanted to paint (obviously, this was a very fun alternative!  The TAP was like working on a HUGE iPad (who wouldn’t love that?!)…really big canvas–and also appreciated the fact that we got to run the full program of Artrage (not the app)–since the Tap is also a full fledged desktop tablet.

Also got to drop in on Raheem Nelson at Sony Plaza.  He was doing really awesome portraits of folks on the Duo (regretfully, there was no time for me play  on one.) A great event…plus gave us artist an opportunity to reconnect…(not just Sony artists, but other mobile artists in NYC came together for dinner on the 15th.  A REALLY nice prelude to England trip.

Abstraction of sleep by MiaBia_DC

Seems life catches up with you, then grabs you by the feet and flies off with you and all of the sudden its a whole year later and you’re life is COMPLETELY different…

Anyway, my last post was me going to the Sketchbook Creative Studio Suite–in Vegas–to sit on panel alongside one of my favorite people (and best friends) Benjamin Rabe (aka Benj…aka Bean…aka B…aka Bunnyman)–and it was all to chitchat about mobile art and all that stuff we love so dearly that makes making art so easy and simple to do…

Anyway, at the event I met a LOT of fantastic people who have inspired me in major ways–from peaking my interest in illustration and somehow navigating my mind from Fine Art to possibly something a tad more crisp and precise (and technical in some ways too)–to new friendships and even…well…falling in love…

Anyway, this is an artblog–so I won’t go too far into detail. But the whole thing that happened was…I fell in love with a brilliant and beautiful guy…we’re getting married now…and YES, for that whole time…I have been painting…not as incessantly–but regularly and definitely more inspired than ever.

I’ve also been in a couple shows–I got to travel to the Stylectrical show in Hamburg in January–which was absolutely awesome. I was so proud–and was happy to go the Museum of Arts and Crafts with Bean on the final days of the show.  (I ALSO ADORE HAMBURG–I had the greatest hosts!

Plus–was in the Los Angeles Mobile Art Festival which was created by iPhoneArt.com. The biggest display of mobile digital art to date–and with a killer turn out, I am told.  I had works featured in both the Sketchbook display and the Artrage display…plus my Self in Backroom piece–which was later sent to me mounted on bamboo. A GORGEOUS GORGEOUS print…

Apart from that, I’ve been traveling back and forth to the UK to spend time with my Love–hence…this most recent piece…”I love him so…”

There’s more…more love…more updates…and more shows (ONE that I’m really really excited about…)…but this is all for later posts…for now…I will post a few of my most recent works…and make a promise…

That I’ll never abandon my blog for a year again…

I Love Him So… by MiaBia_DC

- SketchBook News – Creative Studio Mobile Art.

So, ya probably heard by now–via Facebook, email, text, phone call…that I spent a good chunk of last week participating in Autodesk University’s Creative Studio Suite.  It’s a spin-off from the very successful mobile digital art gallery they launched at last year’s conference.

I was fortunate enough to make this one and MAN, was it absolutely fantastic.  some of the most inspirational, fascinating and uber-talented creatives in the world were at this event.  So you can imagine how inspired I am at the moment.  There’s a whole line-up of artists on the Autodesk Sketchbook blog.  And I even had an opportunity to sit on panel with my good friend, B. Rabe, for a little pow-wow about iAMDA, MobileArtCon and my personal artistic journey after going mobile.

An unreal experience–made even more special by the wonderful group of artists I got to spend some extra quality time with. Jewels and very very good friends.  and yes, I cried when I left.  It is really special to grow with this group–and this was a monumental moment within OUR movement. As this event was my first moment of commune with the greater pool of digital creatives and “technologists”.

I did a blog post on the iAMDA site about it (for detail). But here, I just want to send love and hugs to my favorite peeps. ALWAYS special to spend time with you…and I will see you all soon!

Susan Murtaugh (i love you!!!!), Deb McMillion (I love u too!), Benjamin Rabe…(wait…I think I love you all!!!! :-/), Luis Peso, Shaun Mullen, John Halliday, Matt Connors, Sal Navarro (and Maria too!), Jacques Pena, Chris Cheung…was so great to see all of you. And yes, I really do think I love you all! Such a great group of people. So fun! (way too many laughs! haha) But beyond that, I was so inspired by ALL of your work and learned tons.  Awesome time!

Next stop: Hamburg/London…Whoop!

Wisconsin Wood Violet by MiaBia_DC