©2011 Jaimee Todd
There’s a beautiful old graveyard near this church across the street from where I work. It seems like an odd place to find a sense of zen but it very peaceful, especially in the Spring. It’s not uncommon to see people sitting peaceful amongst the old tombstones, some of which dates back to the 1700′s. It’s such a beautiful contrast that I had to capture and luckily, Lulu was with me to do that.
I’ve gotten back into making more inkblots, but this time on a larger scale. I feel like after working on something as detailed and time consuming as Yemoja, I needed to free myself up with something that is more spontaneous and less planned. Besides that, I hadn’t really a chance to work on them as much as I wanted to and there’s so many angles that I want to explore. Because the possibilities really are endless, I often find myself staring at the collection that I’ve amassed, trying to figure how I want to present them.
As I just mentioned, I decided to go bigger in scale. It seems like everyone is getting back into large scale paintings and I think that making the inkblots larger makes them more mesmerizing. It’s so easy to get sucked into the bright colors and watching the ink spread all over the page. Right now, I’m especially found of magenta and red and orange combinations, as well as blue, turquoise and green. In some cases, there has been a little too much spread and I’ve been frantically scrubbing ink droplets out of my carpet in my studio (time to break out the old beat-up towels that I amassed from the gym).
This time I also decided to use a paintbrush to help move the ink around a little more and add a little direction to the works so it doesn’t just look like I randomly threw colored ink on some paper and has some type of coherent movement. So far, I have been really trying to duplicate that tree blot that I did a while back but I keep forgetting how I exactly put the ink droplets down, so until I do, I just keep making more and more blots that end up turning into something else that is mysterious, surprising and beautiful. I have so many that I’m beginning to think that one day those people that host those shows about hoarders are going to knock on my door to find my apartment filled from floor to ceiling with inkblots and there I’ll be, sitting in the corner, rocking back and forth, covered in purple, blue, and red ink, mumbling something about trees, shadows and faces.
Anyway, I will continue making them and sharing them.They’re such wonderful celebration of the warmer weather and freedom.
©Jaimee Todd
I couldn’t resist taking a shot of this funky car parked in an alley as I was on en route to the art store in Soho.
I was about to submit one of my designs to H&M’s T-shirt design contest, but like a good little lawyer, I decided to go through and read the terms and conditions of entry. Man, I’m glad that I did. I was all set to enter when I read the following provisions:
3.7 Submission and Ownership of Content:
(a) The website will enable entrants to submit to H&M the form of the original artwork (the “Content”) for display on the website and potential use by H&M in connection with the sale of its products, whether as a Submission in the Contest or otherwise. Upon submission, the Content, whether or not protected by copyright, will be the sole property of H&M. [emphasis mine]
Yes, my dears, that means whether or not your artwork is selected as a winner, once you submit it, it belongs to H&M, meaning that they can use your art however and whenever. Is this legal? Yes, indeed, thanks to the Work For Hire Doctrine. Just read a little further in the contest rules:
b) All results and proceeds from the Content (or in connection with any ancillary, subsidiary, supplemental, promotional or derivative work relating to any version of the Content), and all other materials of every kind whatsoever created by an entrant if relating to any version of the Content (or relating to any ancillary, subsidiary, supplemental promotional or derivative work relating to any versions of the Content) (collectively, “Work”), are a “work made for hire” (as that term is used in the United States Copyright Act) for H&M, prepared as a work specially ordered or commissioned for use by H&M; of which H&M is to be deemed the “author” within the meaning of the United States Copyright Act. All such copyrightable works, as well as all copies of such works in whatever medium fixed or embodied, will be owned exclusively by H&M upon their creation and entrant will have no interest in any of them. Without limiting the foregoing, if any of the Work, or any part or element of the Work, is not deemed to be a “work made for hire” for H&M, the entrant irrevocably and exclusively grants and assigns to H&M (or, if any applicable law prohibits such assignment, entrant hereby grants to H&M an irrevocable royalty-free license of) right, title and interest in and to such Work, throughout the universe, in perpetuity, in any and all media, whether now or hereafter known or devised. [Emphasis mine]
Sorry for all the extra emphasis but I only do it to drive home the point; when you are submitting art to contests such as these, it means your artwork forever becomes property of H&M. So let’s say later on you decide that you want to use your work to design your own line of T-shirts or something else; according to these provisions you can’t do that without permission of H&M because your artwork isn’t yours anymore; it belongs to H&M. Unfortunately, a lot of artists aren’t aware of these provisions within copyright law and things can get so nasty that an artist can get sued for copying his own work.
Crazy, right? It very well may be but it’s totally legal under copyright law. That’s why it’s always important to always read terms and conditions of art contests before you submit your works to competitions like these or enter into such an arrangement with an employer or someone who commissions you.
That said, the only way I could envision myself submitting to these kinds of set-ups is if I am getting paid substantially and deriving massive benefits for giving up rights to my own work. Being somewhat of a control freak, it would drive me crazy to think that I would have to ask someone else’s permission to use one of my own creations.While I’m intrigued by the idea of having my art on t-shirts, I’d rather do it through an agreement that I broker myself.
So, fellow artists, beware! You don’t have to be a lawyer to be cognizant of these things; just be sure to read the rules and conditions and fine print before giving your artwork up.
Click here to read more about H&M’s terms and conditions regarding their “Your Art Here”.
©Jaimee Todd
Me... in all of my hooded splendor
More often than not, I don’t have an artist at my disposal when I’m in the midst of sketching. I needed to get a hand gesture down for Yemoja’s hand and was sans model so I had to improvise a little.
Music plays an integral role in my creative process. I simply can’t paint without listening to music to set the tone and the mood for the work. In the past I would usually just put on my iPod on shuffle mode and went along with whatever randomly came up. Other times I would gauge the kind of mood that I was going for in the piece and play music that went along with it. When I was doing something upbeat with lots of color, I tended to gravitate to sounds by Groove Collective or The Brand New Heavies (I think my absolute favorite by is still “Dream on Dreamer”). When I wanted something a little mellow and tranquil, I’d also gravitate towards Amel Larrieux and her moody vocals.
Sometimes playing the really upbeat stuff proved to be problematic because I would myself dancing around instead of actually painting, which can be a real issue when you’re dealing something as watercolor, so sometimes I’d switch on NPR to keep my mind somewhat stimulated wile I worked. There are times when I have to switch that off too because the news can get a bit weighty and totally depress me.
Lately, I’ve been heavily in Pandora and I’m especially into the Pat Metheny playlist. His music seems so fitting lately because it has a mesmerizing ambient quality to it that can gently ease into a day with its tranquil sounds from the guitar that are often beautifully accompanied by Lyle Mays and other members of his group/quartet. My dad, who is a big jazz-head, first introduced me to Metheny by pumping his music throughout the house ever since I can remember. I think I really got hooked with his Quartet album when I heard “When We Were Free” for the first time. As I listened to it, I imagined the landscape of New York on a grey day as seen through the window of a car. Another cut, “Sometimes I See”, is wistful and sounds like a soft lullaby crooned by a lonely guitar.
I’m also a big fan of We Live Here, which I grew up listening to as a kid. I was reintroduced to the album when I was in my spin class (of all places) and heard “To the End of the Earth”, a ten minute voyage that starts with gentle intonations that gradually crescendos into chants that are finely edged by beautiful electronic arrangements I think I hit the repeat button on that song several times as I painted Yemoja.
If you haven’t checked out Pat Metheny, please do so! His music evolves and changes and he’s not afraid to experiment, so just placing him in the jazz category doesn’t quite cut it and really doesn’t matter when it comes down to it. His sounds will take you on a journey that is often ethereal, haunting and invigorating.
In the meantime, the musical journey continues; I’m sure it won’t be long before I’ll be meandering down a different road as I look for new background inspiration as I pursue another artistic venture.
©2011 Jaimee Todd
Yemoja is finished! I put the final touches on her this past weekend and I’m so excited to share her with everyone! It was definitely a labor of love and the process was challenging at times but I’m very happy with the way that she turned out.
Most of the final touches went into making all of the other details stand out, which I did by adding my signature strong lines to the figures to make them really pop out against the background. Take, for example, my little seahorse here:
Since Yemoja’s name literally means “mother whose children are as numerous as the fish”, I figured I would make fish an integral part of the piece and emphasized her relationship with them by having them surrounding her, especially around her hip area:
Overall, I really wanted to celebrate the serenity and beauty of a very important Orisha that is also celebrates the beauty of black women and the mother figure. Even though Yemoja can also be associated with tempestuous mood swings, I thought I’d cast her in a more serene state. Painting in that blue background was pretty soothing and that’s definitely a feeling I wanted to share. It’s funny how in the process of painting, I developed sort of a bond to her so now she will always mean something special to me. I think I’m going to get pretty attached to this painting.
So here she is! Say hello to Yemoja!
Without giving too much away, just wanted to share what the painting looked like once I filled in Yemoja’s face, features and braids. Not too much longer now!
People often ask me how long it takes me for me to do a painting and what kind of work goes into it. A lot of it depends on size and what kind of effect you’re going for but to give you a better idea of what goes into creating a watercolor piece, I thought I’d take you through the different phase of painting Yemoja.
Usually when you begin a painting, you start with the background. Before I could lay down the colors for that though, I had to block off the areas that I wanted to preserve, or keep by laying down masking fluid.
I don’t use masking fluid often because it’s smelly and a bit of a pain to apply. It’s basically liquid latex that adheres to the paper and resists the watercolor paint. It can be really effective but also a headache (literally) to put on when you have a lot of details that you’re trying to protect, which is the case in this painting. It will also tear up your brush if you don’t keep repeatedly washing it out with soap and water so it’s not a good idea to use that expensive sable hair brush that cost a small fortune. At any rate, I applied the masking fluid to the different areas and waited for it to dry. Here’s how it looked when it was finished:
The whole process took about a day and a half. It’s not until I’ve developed a big headache from the liquid latex and a stiff back from trying to apply this stuff carefully do I realize that putting down a lot of detail can be a painstaking process. Also, keep in mind that after you put down all that masking fluid, it has to come off again and sometimes taking it off can be a bit challenging too, but we’ll get to that later. Read more after the jump! Continue reading »
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