Today marks the beginning of a website re-design and truth be told a finer tuning representation of myself as an artist making some very unique new art.
I’ve always been one but have made a broader, deeper and wonderful career as a photographer/photojournalist. These days, armed with my iPad, Apple Pencil and photos I take on professional gigs or with my iPhone I’m also making art that comes from who knows where. It arrives in my minds eye and something new is born when I put pen to digital device. Figured I’d keep you posted on the changes you’ll be seeing along the way right here on the website. Pages will change, offerings too and there may be a few obvious things that aren’t quite right– YET. It’s a work in progress a little each day so thank you in advance for your patience.
Alien Nation Art Piece by Charr Crail
This accompanying image is an example of the unique kind of hybrid art I’m very involved in creating. The original inspiration for this art piece was from a photograph I shot during a theatrical production of Seussical at a local Sacramento elementary school.
Pretty much no matter where I go I find some delicious visual morsel or two worth capturing with my iPhone that I know I can use later in some interesting way.
On jobs, may of which are from theatre productions, I have living art performance photos to draw from like this one. During the performance there were a few seconds open for me to consider some of the background characters and snapped a few faces in the crowd. This photo was almost an outtake but had some fine qualities that made it stand out to me– faces, lighting, body language for example. Using my iPad and a favorite art app I rearranged the characters in the art piece as I developed it so it’s very little like the original photo at this point.
I’ve been actively exploring creating my own gorgeous patterns too and in each of the characters is a variety of patterns I’ve made that turned into fashion/clothing seen here. I’m using that technique A LOT these days and am even planning to have yardage made so I can sew some clothes from it for myself to wear my art!
My husband and I take what we like to call “mini-moons”, which are very short vacations- 2-3 days on average- to places that inspire us. Our last mini-moon was earlier this month to San Simeon to take a tour at Hearst Castle, which is fantastically beautiful. I wanted to get some great location photos to use as backgrounds for future art pieces too and this is the first one I’m showing. The background is from the indoor pool there. A truly magical place.
The colors? Just used the minds eye suggested and it felt right when I began making choices for skin tones. Seussical is whimsical, colorful and quirky so an odd mix of colors, textures and attitudes made perfect sense.
I am planning to be blogging more again soon and keep you posted on the art I’m making along with some back story on them too.
I’ll also be setting up a way for you to buy these brand new art prints, something I’ve been wanting to create for a very long time online. You can do it now via the link in the Buy Prints tab above from some of my earlier works– digital art, music and more. Visit there and stay tuned here!
If you have questions and want to get in touch with me please do! You can email me direct: charr@me.com.
