2012/365 - Day 112

yikes -- I've got my work cut out for me today!

Yow!  I have GOT to clear up the clutter in my studio in the area(s) behind my desk and chair!  These pictures don't even come close to showing the mess...LOL

 

Overall view from my desk chair looking left and back a little.  I couldn't get into the corner to get the whole shot -- that's how crowded/cluttered it is back here...LOL

A shot just beyond into the CD closet...

  

...this is just scratching the surface of the number of CDs that need to be sorted and put back on the shelves in alphabetic order...but you know what...this is one of my favorite chores.

Swiveling my chair completely around, this is part of the task...this includes putting papers away and sorting through my Art-o-mat stock.

I am going to be SO busy today/this evening/tonight!

I will take some time late tonight and reward myself by working on the plaster cloth part of the marsupial I am building.

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.

2102/365 - Day 109

can a change be big AND subtle at the same time?

I've been trying to find a way to tone down the giraffe/llama's neck area and cover up the blue and pink spots, but still be able to have her neck stand out from the background papers AND look different than the horse's nose.  This is canvas #6.

Last week I met up with Karen Monroe to talk about Art-o-mat prototypes.  I know Karen through Leann and the Artist Trading Card Exchange group.  At the end of our session Karen gifted me with some really great rinsed out and dried tea bags...in two colors (from different tea types) (sorry, I'm not a tea drinker...not sure if that is the right terminology).

Karen said one color was from the kind of tea she drinks and the other is from the one her husband likes.  She hadn't had much luck yet with working with the tea bags for her artwork so she brought me a good sized stack to try out. 

VOILA!  They are JUST what I needed for this canvas!

I am working with the lighter ones on the left.

Here is a long-ish shot of the area I need to tone down.

A little closer...the pink and blue aren't quite right for this canvas.

A close up of the area I will work on.

I've never handled tea bags much -- not to mention used, then rinsed out and dried ones.

They are very easily torn and you can keep the thinly folded over edges in tact!

And best of all for my purposes -- you can see right through them once they are applied to the surface of the collage!

I was able to put on a thin layer of matte medium, cover over the Neutral Gray outline I have and adhere the torn pieces to the areas.

You can see in this photo that the edges of the tea bags make marvelous new outlines for the neck.

AND...

...they alter the surface color just enough, plus it is a whole different texture and weight difference from the horse's nose.

PLUS the areas where the torn tea bags shapes overlap create another dimension of color spots for the giraffe/llama.

Most of the left side of the neck is covered -- see? --

BIG changes, yet subtle changes -- both at the same time!

I can't wait to see how it looks when it is totally dry.


Thank You SO much, Karen!

2012/365 - Day 108

here's the thing...

I'm feeling a bit scatterbrained today and I forgot my camera at home when Juana and I went to collect our unsold pieces from the Grosse Pointe Art Center (Where the Wild Things Art show).  Juana also dropped off two pieces for the upcoming show there.  It is kind of hard to document things for posting on the blog without a camera.

Then we went to LIFT to change some of the art in the Art-o-mat machine there.

I am really worn out tonight and I honestly can't think of a project I can work on.

But here are some photos I took this evening once I found my camera.  Sheesh.

Twink was cracking me up with the expressions on his face and that painting behind him.

This is one of the pieces I brought home today.

And this is the wall space I chose for it.

I am actually pretty happy this didn't sell because I really love these guys and the way the whole canvas turned out. 

This was the original repurposed canvas #1.

I missed this guy while he was gone, too.

I love his face and his hands.

For now -- until I find more permanent spots for both of these guys -- they can hang out right here in the studio and be wild together.

I got the giraffe the night of the opening of the show...he was not in the show, but another giraffe by the same artist was.

So...yep...this is a sort of lame blog entry.  I am not going to pretend -- sometimes it is just plain dull around here with nothing much happening...still, I wanted to check in and be accountable to myself and the blog.

2012/365 - Day 107

getting started on a new batch


Yep...it's that time again.  Time to start on a new batch of Tookies finger puppets for Art-o-mat.

This is selecting the solids and stripes/patterns and choosing buttons for them and then sticking them in an envelope.  

Next up will be sewing mouths and eyelashes.  I am NOT going to do this batch at such breakneck speed as last time.

2012/365 - Day 106

WOW!

It happened!  THE best possible outcome happened!

One of my two submissions to the West of Center show at Northville Art House was accepted!

This is a sneak peek of Baby Beast.   I won't be blogging about this again until the show's opening reception on June 1.

I am so excited I can barely type...the camera was shaking so much when I took that photo I didn't think it was going to turn out...LOL.

Now the other piece that was not accepted for this show will be submitted to another show along with one other piece.