2012/365 - Day 121

no blog entry today

My allergies are reeeally horrible this evening and on top of that, my back is killing me.  I'm having difficulty staying awake now that the Benadryl is kicking in.  Plus, I am in a rotten mood.

I will try to post two activities tomorrow.

2012/365 - Day 120

a reminder (for myself)

Every so often -- when I beat myself up about a blog post -- I need to remind myself that the blog is basically for me.  It is a tool for keeping myself busy and accountable.  It is a way to document my projects and the process and progress of each one...but it is all done for me.

Today I wanted to come to the blog and talk more about the road trip we just took.  I also wanted to work on the marsupial.  I wanted to have the marsupial (at least "stage one" of it) done in time for the deadline of the online art show I chose to participate in this month.  None of that is happening...and it is okay.

Instead, I am choosing to be give myself a break and enjoy today's incredible "find".

Ruth and I got together late this morning and went to an estate sale, then to lunch at the yummy Thai restaurant (mmm-mmmm!) and then we stopped by the antique mall so Ruth could see if she could find any vintage buttons.  She did, and I also found something that I thought was long gone.

LOOK at this marvelous piece of horse tack. 

It is SO cool -- I don't know for sure (yet) what the material is.  It sort of feels like bakelite or something.  I am also not exactly sure what it is -- perhaps a section of bridle or halter -- my sister or niece will be able to figure it out.

I think it will be a great accessory of some sort for a (future) plaster cloth creature.

The pieces are so smooth and feel so nice when you touch them.  The colors are really good.  

The rusted metal parts look really neat next to the worn and weathered leather parts.

When my sister and I went back to the antique mall (about a month ago) to look for this piece it wasn't where it was when I first saw it with Joan and Leann...and I thought it had been sold.  I am SO happy I found it again today!

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.

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.