365/2013 - Day 354

practicing the shirt

Today I had the "brilliant" idea to maybe avoid painting the young dog guy's shirt by cutting papers to color it instead.  I traced the shirt and sleeves (it is supposed to be sort of a baseball shirt style) and cut some practice papers to see a few different combinations.  

Oh -- and in the meantime while I was cutting the papers, Twink decided to "help" and was making me nuts so I gave him one of his catnip fish...he got a bit 'nipped.

All ready to get started on practicing with the papers.

Gah -- Twink wants to "help" -- he helps by rolling and rubbing and flipping around until he knocks something onto the floor and then acts all innocent and adorable.  Yeah.

I tossed him one of his catnip fish.

That worked -- now he is all 'nipped and wants no part of my papers!

The first sleeves - cut from the "wrong" side of some beautiful marbled paper.  I was thinking of this young dog guy being painted in light or pale blue...so I don't know if these sleeves will work, but they look good.

And a pale blue piece of mulberry paper for the body of the shirt.

Or how about the "right" side of the marbled paper -- no...too busy.

But I do like this pale blue paper -- it is like other papers already in the collage background, only it is blue.  It will definitely let the dots and other things show through.

But then again...how about a different "wrong" side of another sheet of marbled paper?  And an egg yolk yellow shirt part?

Maybe the other yellow is too strong...maybe just another layer of the same yellow from the background.

Or maybe the strong yellow underneath with the pale yellow on top -- I am pretty sure stuff will still show through like I want it to.  Decisions...decisions...

And later on in the evening I got busy cutting the last of the bodies for the Animal People...then I noticed it was already 11 so I stopped to come in here to post this blog entry before midnight.  There are only 3 images left to go!

I will cut those last three bodies out and then start thinking about the collage some more.  The papers will look different once they are put in place with the matte medium.  I wish there was a way to practice that before making my final choice.  Hmmm...

365/2013 - Day 132

to frame or not to frame...and moving art around again

I had some errands to run today and while I was out I decided to go to Michaels and see what they had available in the way of open back frames.  I have three delightful paintings by Jeff Hughart that I have been debating whether or not to leave as-is or put them into simple frames.  I went ahead and purchased three frames and I figured if I didn't use them for this project I could always use them later.

my audience  -- Bootsy and Twink

frame?

no frame  (24"x30")

frame?

no frame  (9"x12")

Well...after much switching back and forth between frame/no frame (and making myself nuts about it) I decided to go with the no frame look.  The edges are painted black and the paintings look just great without frames.  The larger one was the one I was really waffling about but I decided in the end to just put a wire on the back.  Maybe these "inexpensive" Michaels open back frames were just not the right ones...maybe I will find a nicer one sometime and snatch it up.  There is nothing wrong with the frames I bought...they are just not right for these paintings.

Bootsy checking out the new arrangement.

The right side of the wall is temporary -- I have one more painting that should be arriving soon -- more shuffling and rearranging to come.

This is where the William Hessian buffalo ended up.

I really REALLY like it on this wall.

The other day when I was wrapping up the "buy 5/get 1 random free" Art-o-mat artpacks I decided I needed to get some nicer green wrapping paper -- the white paper and green tissue paper were not really what I had in mind.

There...that is MUCH better...regular green wrapping paper, one of my business cards and green ribbon.  The image on the business card has absolutely nothing to do with the artpack inside...it is just my contact info for the blog, etc.

365/2013 - Day 126

hanging/rehanging art

This afternoon I finally got out the tools and hardware to put some art up on the walls.  I was going to wait for Joshua to do the pounding and banging and reaching (and measuring) for me but I decided I needed to see them more than I needed to wait.  I did some rearranging, too.  I tend to start out well with the level and a yardstick but that gets old quickly (for someone who is numbers-challenged).  

I even drilled pilot holes first

I scooched the bear underneath "Time for a Nap" and added "Foxish Thoughts"

in this area the lovely Peggy Kerwan birds are new and the Jeff Hughart beast is now underneath the William Hessian buffalo

I added/repositioned the two Kate Paul pieces on the left, moved the Ruth Calacci small collage over to the right of the Leann Meixner voodoo piece, added the Carla Morabito crane next to her giraffe, and I put the John Soukup octopus underneath the Juana Moore Marc Bolan piece.

I started out just moving the Kill Taupe robot to this wall above the Art-o-mat pieces but then I decided to group all of my smaller Kill Taupe pieces there...I didn't move the robot and just eyeballed the other pieces.

My Mike Kelly collage is now in my studio by the door above my favorite switchplate.

And here is Twink modelling Peggy's "Chickadee-do-dah".

...can't leave Bootsy out of the action

365/2013 - Day 71

a day of cats

Today has been a delightfully cat-filled day.  Twink and Bootsy were arranging themselves for photos all over both of the cat trees...all...day...long.  You'd think they were super star cat models or something -- they were entertaining and just beautiful.  This is my favorite photo of the day -- reflects both of their personalities pretty well.

 

Aside from this, I am not going to write a whole lot tonight.  I want to do some serious research about something I am going to start working on.  It involves deconstructing a papier mache cat (same artist as the unfortunate black sheep that my cats busted up and that is now becoming the camel-like creature.)  I haven't been able to find any information about the artist online.  Today I found a photocopy sort of bio/info sheet that must have come with one of the pieces I bought way back then.  I want to see what else I can find out before I talk any more about it.

But I will say that part of my "punishment" for deconstructing this current piece is that I inhaled an awful lot of paper dust and the saw cuts turned the sawed edges into paper fluff (almost like blown-in insulation material) -- I was covered with it...I needed to change my clothes and leave the room there was so much dust.  I'm not complaining...just sayin'...I probably should have been wearing a respirator mask -- I really ought to invest in one I suppose.

365/2013 - Day 27

Sunday afternoon (and evening) stuff...and lots of printing

I got down to work early this morning by printing out all of the various labels I use for packaging up my Tookies finger puppets for Art-o-mat.  This time around I will be hand gluing all of them with a glue stick.  I am out of Xyron supplies.  I do a label for the top of the box, the two ends of the box (not knowing which end will show up in a column in a machine), a caution note for the side of the box (warning that the finger puppets are not meant for young kids or pets), an info insert (which will be glued to a small MDF block this time), and a new little label that says the block is added as weight for vending).  But all of that comes later...this morning I just did the printing.

In the afternoon I wanted to get to work on plaster cloth...little did I know how long I'd be at it!  I had an idea for legs and a body for the bear-ish creature.  I taped three empty prescription bottles together for each leg.  I added one more bottle to the bottom of the creature's torso.  

Then I took the pieces into the temporary plaster cloth studio and got to work on wrapping the legs and attaching the bottle to the torso.  Next I started to assemble the parts together, filling in the gaps with plaster cloth.

I eventually started to add used paper towels that I had been mopping up dripped plaster cloth water with.  That made a couple of the gaps go more quickly and gave me some form to work with.  THEN I remembered using discarded gloves with the manikin to give it a round belly.  I tried it today with this guy in places where I wanted a rounded look.  It worked great...and now those gloves won't be in a land fill.  (I just re-read this part and it really isn't as gross as it sounds...the "used" paper towels and gloves are just in a bag right where I am working on this stuff and are from the day before.  It's not like I am pulling them out of the icky kitchen trash can.)

It gets a little tricky working with the gloves sections underneath the plaster cloth...you really have to keep working the area and get it pretty wet and smooth it down and add more plaster cloth and keep smoothing and shaping because there is always a small bit of trapped air in the glove parts and I think that is what helps to make the roundy look. 

Then I started alternating between paper towels and glove parts until I got to the point that I thought I could stop for that session.  I am really happy with the bear-ish creature.  He is a lot cuter in person than he is in the photos.  I hope I can come up with a good method of finishing him.

When I got up to dump out the plaster cloth water and clean up the space a little I noticed I didn't see either cat and couldn't hear them.  Quick panicky feeling...did Twink get the door to the basement open?  Did they go outside somehow?  Nope...whew!  Twink and Bootsy both went back to bed -- my bed.

I just had to go back and look at the bear-ish guy one more time...did I mention I am pretty happy with today's results?

Okay...it turned out I was working with the plaster cloth for a little over three and a half hours straight.  Time really does fly when you are having a good time!  I needed to medicate, elevate, and cold-pack myself in my recliner in front of television for a little while.  Then I got down to cutting the labels that I printed this morning.

Some of the labels (like the Tookies picture for the top of the box) need to be cut by hand because I just can't gauge really close cuts with the paper cutter.  After feeding the cats and making my dinner I got set up in front of television again and cut the remainder of the labels.  I think I am done for tonight...unless I get a head start on some of the gluing tonight...but I most likely won't.

All in all, a good day's work -- yay!