2012/365 - Day 119

wow -- I'm wiped out!

I am not a good (or frequent) traveler...I am not fond of road trips...but I LOVED my overnight whirlwind road trip with Ruth to South Haven and Kalamazoo for a Michigan Art-o-mat tour!

I will talk more about all of it tomorrow.  Tonight I am just really wiped out...but here are photos from the albums I put on Facebook:

Michigan Art-o-mat Road Trip

A Visit to Bonnie Pfingst's Tiny Studio

2012/365 Day 118

Art-o-mat road trip

Michigan is getting its fourth Art-o-mat machine!  (I am so excited I barely slept last night!)

Ruth and I are making a road trip to South Haven, MI to go to the opening reception at the South Haven Center for the Arts.  Arto-Founder and Bureau Chief Clark Whittington will also be on hand to give a presentation about the Art-o-mat project.

On the return trip we will swing by Kalamazoo and visit Michigan's third machine at Bonnie Pfingst's Tiny Studio.

I will have plenty of photos to blog tomorrow -- but in the meantime, have a look at the links below (if you haven't already).  

Art-o-mat

South Haven Center for the Arts

Tiny Studio

See you back here tomorrow!

2012/365 - Day 117

building a marsupial part six

I am seriously beginning to doubt that I will complete even "stage one" of the marsupial in time for the EBSQ "Marsupials and Other Australian Oddities" online art show.

The hands and arms are proving to be a whole lot trickier than I would have imagined.

I am trying to give the aluminum foil covered styrofoam packing material arms a little bit of shape and make the hand attach as part of that instead of doing it all separately.  I think that the plaster cloth step and attaching the hand/arm will go better if this is one piece.

So far today/this evening I have only gotten this far with the one 3-piece section.  I am trying to shape as I go along.

 

This is the three-piece section lightly taped in place.

I am also trying to figure out how the arm/shoulder will look.  I don't want the elbows poking waaaaaay out to the side, either.

I just don't know.

I will figure it out...just not tonight.

Tonight I still need to do laundry, pack, and GO TO BED AT A REASONABLE HOUR because Ruth and I are taking a road trip to South Haven tomorrow to go to the opening reception for the newest Art-o-mat machine.  I am SO excited!  I need to start winding down early so I can sleep.

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.

2012/365 - Day 115

building a marsupial part four

Tonight I worked on the glass bumpy areas on the glider-creature and smoothed on the sides of the pouch.

"We" are still working on the design of the arms and hands.  This prep work needs to be done first, anyway.

This is how the area looked tonight as I got started.

This is a side view of the glass bumps and pouch.

This is one of the old glass bumps that was loosened when I was de-constructing this piece earlier this year.  Tonight I reattached this bump.

These are new glass bumps...the one on the farther left is positioned over the edge/corner of the body...

...I wasn't sure I could get it to stay the way it hovered over that v shape...but it stayed!

I pushed small pieces of wadded up plaster cloth underneath the glass and then quickly smoothed small triangles of plaster cloth over the area and it held.  I am pretty darn happy about that.  The one on the other side of the body worked, too.

This is a close up of the touched-up pouch.

I still have a long way to go with this.  I am now not so sure it will be ready for the EBSQ marsupial show but I am still working towards that.  I have a couple of Animal People collages I can submit to the show, but I'd also really love to have at least a very basic version of this guy to submit.

2012/365 - Day 114

building a marsupial - part three

This was a quick plaster cloth session tonight...and a very simplified blog entry. 

Two things are at work against me...the Bendaryl I took for my horrific allergies is kicking in much, much quicker than I thought it would and I am getting pretty loopy.  The second thing is the outside edge of my left hand started doing those painful -- but very wacky (and a little scary) to look at -- cramps where (in this case) my baby finger is being pulled away from the rest of my hand and twisting a little bit downwards.  I shake it out and it stops but then another wave starts...maybe I am a bit dehydrated or something.

Anyway...here are the photos from me covering the marsupial's pouch with plaster cloth and then attaching it to the body.  Besides the aforementioned problems, I also need to see how I make the arms and hands before I get the plaster cloth too built up.

(ow...now my upper arm (like where they would give you a shot) is starting to do the cramping thing...maybe from typing in this odd position?  I'm going to go and watch tv and drink water all night.)

2012/365 - Day 113

wheeeeeeeeeeeee!

I did it!!!  I cleared up the clutter behind my desk in my studio -- I can spin around in my chair again!  I can dance around to music!  I can walk into the CD closet and find music I am looking for!  The paper is all together! 

 I have a good feeling that the Universal collaborators will be showing up later tonight -- especially now that there is so much room!

You can see the "before" photos in the post for Day 112.