2012/365 - Day 116

building a marsupial part five

Where are the Universal collaborators -- that is what I'd like to know.

I have such trouble with mirror image things/things that come in pairs...hands, eyes, etc.  I can usually make one (or the other) that I like...but then making something even similar is really tough for me.  Two and a half hours straight...no break...that's what it took to tweak these hands to fit the pouch.

These are the original hands...the ones that needed tweaking.

This is where they need to fit...to be wide enough to hold onto the pouch.

Okay.  I like this hand.  This is the glider-creature's right hand but for me it is the left hand -- looking straight onto the creature while I am building it...the one on the left side of the assemblage.

And finally...here is the creature's left hand -- the one on my right, facing the creature.

See...sort of close, but not really.

Here is my left hand taped sort of in place.  

I need to leave room for plaster cloth on the fingers and hand.

This is my right hand taped sort of in place.

These are going to be a real trip to try and attach to this creature,  I'm telling you right now.

I'd like to shoot for making arms and attaching the hands to the arms tomorrow...we will have to see how far I get.

Friday is the road trip to South Haven.

2102/365 - Day 111

building a marsupial part two

I never got back to work on the glider-creature last night.  But I just now had a flash of an idea and it might be good.

 I was cleaning up the kitchen counters late this morning and this was in my "wash-it-now-and-save-it-for-reuse" stack.  It seemed to me it might be just the right width for the pouch.

I want the smallish pouch to have a rounded over edge so it is easy to put things into it when it is completed.  It makes my life a whole lot easier if I can get the shape partially ready in the prep stages.

This tray seemed to fit the bill -- but I had to figure out the right configuration for cutting it and putting it together in the new way.  You know me and math-y problems...so frustrating.

I cut it in half and kept turn the halves over each other and every time I thought I was "getting" it, it just wasn't it. 

Finally, the collaborators stepped in...good thing they stayed for a while, too!

The collaborators and I looked at my sketch and sort of pieced together temporary arms and taped the pouch and arms in place.

Hmmm...not too bad for a first stab...but we need some hands.  Sugar gliders have those creepy/cool long fingers on their hands.

A-ha!  Remember those really long wooden paint stirs I tried to make hands/arms with a while back?  I still have them!

(oh my gosh -- when I went back in the blog to look for the entry to link to I had NO idea I was working on this guy with these hands!)

Maybe these can give us ideas...

Well, they'd have to be cut to the right size and angles...but this is the general idea I am going for.

Oooh -- good idea, collaborators!

The spots on the creatures neck are made from these glass pebbles.  How about if we take the already cut fingers from the wooden hands and use them on more of the glass pebbles?

We got a better feel for it on the second hand.

Yeah...that's getting there now!

And this is where they wanted to stop for now...everything just kind of faded out and I think we need to leave it and figure out the "real" arms.

I will need to take it apart and plaster cloth the elements in the right order for attaching to the main piece...and that is a whole 'nother session's worth of work.  

The actual plaster cloth work seems to be a better fit for later in the evening.  I think it helps me to have the day behind me and nothing else poking at me...then the plaster cloth is really relaxing and that is when the ideas really start to flow... collaborators partytime.

2012/365 - Day 110

marsupials and other Australian oddities

I belong to EBSQ and they have monthly online art shows.  At the beginning of the year they issued a challenge for artists to commit to submitting art for at least one show a month for a year.  That seemed to me to have my name written all over it.

One of this month's shows is Marsupials and Other Australian Oddities.   I already have an older ATC I can submit, but I wanted to make something new, too.

This guy has been morphing into a lot of different things.  Right now he seems to be some sort of totem animal.

I looked up the word marsupial and found that there is something that he kind of sort of somewhat resembles.  I am going to work off of that...and he certainly will be an oddity.

I had heard of sugar gliders before, but I had never seen a picture of one.  Imagine my surprise to learn they were marsupials  -- and -- it already partly looks like the guy I made up.

How odd.

This has so much potential...and its little hands and fingers are so creepy/cool.

The photo is from here.

Okay -- so this is the glider-creature as it is today.

How can I give it a pouch?  What else will I do with it?

I found a sheet of styrofoam packing material that was in my reuse bin and I cut it into strips.  What a mess -- all those little static-filled tiny balls floating around!

I cleared up all the debris and quickly put aluminum foil around the pieces...whew!

At first I just tried to cut the pieces and hold them to the body to see if I could make arms and hands...yeh...that wasn't very productive.  It became a major math problem very quickly.

No getting around it, I had to try to sketch it.

Then I went shopping in the basement...

...I wonder what will make the best pouch?

I will work on this some more tonight.  I wanted to blog it now before I got too far along when I wouldn't want to stop and take photos and blog about it.  I am hoping my Universal collaborators are planning on coming over.

When I was looking for marsupials I also looked for Australian myths and legends and that led me to The Dreamtime/The Dreaming and after that I also looked at some aboriginal art to see what possibly might work its way into the piece.  

There is another upcoming art exhibition I have in mind that calls for collage and assemblage.  I am hoping this finished piece will work for that show, too...but that isn't until July.  Plenty of time to keep morphing.

365 Day 224

going to an art opening and making fun art

Carla and Andrea and I went to the opening of "Inside the Box" -- a wonderful showing of assemblage art by two artist friends, Joan Potter Thomas and Leann Meixner.


Click on the postcard for hours, directions and info -- Liberty Street Brewing Company in Plymouth, MI.










Leann and Joan



















one of Joan's pieces










one of Leann's voodoo boxes that I bought


















another one


You can see more photos of the show and the fabulous artwork at my Facebook album here.







Another really cool and F*U*N thing about the show was that there was a table laid out with pipe cleaners and hand carved eraser rubber stamps by Leann. You were able to stamp cards and leave them in the stamped art "gallery" along the top of the wainscotting.













































my inky fingers...I canNOT stamp without wearing the ink








Carla and Andrea and their cards


















my first one -- I love the images carved by Leann -- and I like how the bats are carrying this guy off














my last one -- I LOVE the crow on the triangle















Carla made a tiger with a pipe cleaner






awwwww

365 Day 134

three assemblage artists -- one fantastic show


I don't generally venture out to openings on my own and I nearly didn't go tonight -- but wow -- am I ever glad I did!

Three very different assemblage artists, each with a very distinct and strong artistic voice, are showing together in "Part of a Whole" at Art & Ideas in Plymouth, MI. The show runs through July 2.

Each artist gave a brief talk, explaining the thread that runs through her collection of work for this show. It was a packed house and I was totally captivated by each artist's story. Admittedly, I am fairly new to opening receptions, but this is the first one I've attended with the artist(s) speaking about their work and telling a bit about various pieces...what a wonderful idea and a marvelous way to be introduced to an artist who was previously unknown to me. I really really really enjoyed myself!




Joan Potter Thomas and one of her pieces.















Leann Meixner and one of her assemblages.



















Lynn Krawczyk and three of her circular pieces.


















Joan Potter Thomas












Leann Meixner















Lynn Krawczyk