2012/365 - Day 253

tubing and cutting

Today I finally got tired enough of manipulating those gigantic carpet tubes on the back stairs landing.  They have nearly gone through the glass panes on both the back door and the kitchen door (several times), I have come close to tripping down the stairs because of them and I am tired of them falling on me and/or near me and blocking my way. 

Yes -- those three hard cardboard carpet tubes are huge!

I had to do the prep work/masking tape on the dining room table...no room in the studio right now.

Bootsy insisted on "helping".

I will probably need to do the plaster cloth work on these longer tubes down in the basement.  Even if I cleared space to work in the studio, I think they are just too long to deal with in there.

One of the tubes had a taped on part that I decided to leave on.  I didn't want to tear the surface by taking the old tape off.

Plus, it could be the foundation for a neck of a snake later on.

There.  I moved the container that holds the prepped cardboard tubes to a place where it is out of the way.


Before, I thought the other tubes were long.  I thought I was going to have to cut some of the middle-sized tubes to make smaller ones and maybe join one set to make a longer one. Now I have a good variety of sizes -- and I think they will probably all become some sort of army of snakes.

 





I think that somehow they will be grouped with that army of round headed guys (built on the tomato cages) and they will all become one installation.  Mind you, I've never even tried to make something as involved as an multi-pieced installation...but right now it is feeling that this is where all of this is headed.  (interesting side note:  I just noticed when I added the link about the round headed guys that I finished the sixth one almost exactly one year ago!)

 Also today -- time to start to finish off the DIY version of Penciled In for Art-o-mat.

I have everything I need to put together 100 art packs for this edition and this was an afternoon (and early evening) of cutting labels...paper cutter and hand cutting with the big scissors.

Bootsy thinks he is going to derail me by laying next to the pages.

Twink steps in to show him how it is done.  

(Bootsy is taking a play-swipe at Twink but the camera was too slow to catch it.)

Twink is trying to show Bootsy you have to lay on the pages, not next to them.

Twink's occupation of the pages delayed my progress, but did not derail it totally.

Okay!  

100 information inserts
100 caution: small parts labels
100 series labels (top of box)
200 end labels  (one for each end of the box that could show in the column in a machine)

I am out of Xyron refills, so I will be manually gluing all of the labels with a glue stick.  Waaaah, poor Took.

First I need to figure out how I want to fold the info inserts and package up the block, insert and colored pencils. But that is for tomorrow.

2012/365 - Day 234

free art materials and dropping off a submission CD

This morning I got a call from Joan and Scout when they were on their walk.  A house near their house had hard cardboard carpet tubes out at the curb.  

I thought about it for a few minutes and then decided I'd pass on them because I still haven't done anything with these yet, beyond covering them with masking tape in preparation for the plaster cloth.

I thought about it a little longer and I had to call Joan back and get the location of the tubes.  At that point Joan and Scout were just coming up on a whole treasure trove of stuff!  Joan was describing things to me and saying how great they'd be for me.  Then the taking-away-the-good-stuff truck was approaching and I made a mad dash up there.

Here is my haul (back at my house).  Three good carpet tubes, a wooden table base, a wooden lamp base, three old yardsticks and some sort of framework thing...maybe a kid's easel or paper holder (?) -- I am sure these will ALL come in handy in future projects.

I think all of the tubes are going to turn into an army of cool snakes...but we'll see.

 Today was also the day before the deadline for submissions to the 20th Annual Canton Fine Arts Exhibition 2012 at the Village Theater at Cherry Hill in Canton, MI.

Peggy had a fabulous solo show there a short while ago -- it is a really nice space.

A couple of days ago I was having trouble printing the entry form and juror's results card/return postcard from the PDF file and I suspected the form was some sort of larger two-sided thing that wasn't translating well into a printable form.

Luckily, Peggy had also entered and was able to tell me about the form.  I called Joan and asked if there were any at the Art House.  Joan checked the next morning and YAY there were!

So I was able to pre-fill out my forms and put my submission CD together.   I dropped it off today.  (Plan B was going to be to fill out the forms at the theater when I arrived.)

This is a shot from my car of the Village Theater at Cherry Hill (across from where I was parked).

I will take more photos when I go back to see the show -- fingers crossed one of my three submissions is accepted!

365 Day 212

new project...and accepting physical limitations

Several months ago my fellow artist friend Juana Moore gave me a 48-inch long hard cardboard tube when I started collecting cardboard tubes for my Studio Snake. The tube Juana gave me was way too good to use for the Studio Snake, but I layered it with plaster cloth back then and set it aside with no specific idea in mind...other than I knew I wanted to make something big with it.







trying to show how l-o-n-g this tube is











I am working on starting my Studio Snake (I wrapped a huge basketful of cardboard tubes with masking tape a few nights ago), but in the meantime I had a minor brainstorm and was inspired by this little guy that sits on my cable modem.





this little inspirational guy is posing on the plaster cloth layered tube


Obviously I am going to make a snake with this tube as the main part...but I will show more later as it develops.


Okay...onto other stuff.

I need to pull good prints of two carvings for that upcoming show in Detroit. I am not having very good luck. I am fully aware that I need to learn by doing and keep practicing until I "get" the feel of printing and understand more about using various inks and carving materials and papers...wow, there are SO many kinds of paper!

But I also learned tonight that I need to accept that I may not be a printmaker. I really really love carving the blocks. I really enjoy finding creatures and images in the "automatic drawings" in my sketch book. However, after going meticulously through each step of the printmaking process tonight...over and over and over again...being very careful and keeping all of my work areas clean, etc. -- like Shaqe taught us in class -- I have to admit to myself that this is just plain physically painful for me. I made over 20 prints tonight...not one of them was acceptable. There is a major flaw in each one...some are better than others...but each one is too flawed to frame up and submit for the show.


This is one of my designs that was accepted for the show -- and I cannot pull a good print from it to save my life. I even tried cleaning up the carving. I tried to tidy up the lines of the leaves. It just isn't happening.

These are the worst two prints.






These are the best four prints.

I just need more practice. I need to do this a billion more times.

I know I will get better at it, but it is just too soon for this show. That, and I am not happy with the way the carving has been altered slightly by the clean up of the lines.

I'm not complaining or making excuses. I'm just stating facts. It's a learning process and I am a beginner. Period.









This is a detail from the best of the tree guy prints. You can see that even though I tried to re-carve some of the leaves, the lines of the branches are flooded with ink and it is just a mess.

And yes, I did clean the block a couple of times during the printings...LOL.




I had to scrap the printing of the other design that I originally submitted to the show. I got the okay to choose a different print, and these are the three best prints from tonight...but none of these are good enough for my liking.

I will try this one again tomorrow, and maybe I will be able to pull a decent one after a good restful night's sleep. I hope so anyway.








This was the best one of the three. Wow...I went through SO much good paper tonight...this is getting pricey...sheesh.

Juana helped me name this piece. I knew it was a fox-creature and we came up with "Kitsune"...a Japanese fox spirit.


This print is almost good enough...








...but the face isn't printed well enough.



Fingers crossed for a successful print tomorrow!





It absolutely kills my back to stand and work on the prints at the table. At the printmaking class the table was a little bit shorter and it was even harder (physically). Tomorrow I will try some at the marble table in the kitchen, which is slightly taller than the long dining room table. I will also try the kitchen counter by the dishwasher...there is room over there and it is the tallest surface in the house...maybe that will help. I have a couple other physical problems that are getting in on the act, too...but hey...I am doing pretty well for someone my age who has never been physically fit. I will manage to overcome this...plus I need to practice more!