365/2013 - Day 365

I lost a day somewhere in the count, but today is 365

Okay -- I couldn't wait it out until my sister comes over on Thursday...I had to put Leann's art quilt up on the wall in its new spot...the emptiness was driving me nuts.  I got brave/extremely foolish and went out to the garage and brought my six foot ladder into the studio.  Lucky for me, I got the hanger in the wall the first time.  Then I was bolstered enough to also put up Renee's skeleton doll.  I really love how this area in the studio looks now.  I put out some of my non-wall pieces of Arto-art, too.

Not the best idea I've ever had -- to get up on the ladder with no one else here...luckily things went smoothly.

The new view from my desk!

And tonight I started pairing up dog heads with bodies for the dog guys in this batch of Animal People for Art-o-mat.  I like this first guy a lot!

Time to start pairing up dogs with bodies.

The first of the dog guys for this batch of Animal People.

This is the second year that I have somehow screwed up the day-count at the end of the year.  I think it must come from a day that I didn't blog or a day that carried over to the next day.  I need to think of a different way to title the blog entries...LOL.  Happy New Year!

365/2013 - Day 363

geez...

Why yes, I am taking another night off.  Shame on me.  Yet another massive histamine over reaction kind of thing...very hard to concentrate on anything.

365/2013 - Day 362

moving stuff around on the walls - day three

I'm back at it again today...but included in today's activities was a massive sorting of my personal Art-o-mat collection...and then regrouping my inventory of Arto-art for my machine at LIFT in Royal Oak.  It has taken all day -- there is a lot to go through.

The walls are looking better -- art-wise!

I put magnets on the back of these Woodie Anderson "Wood | Play" pieces.  Man -- I stirred up the Liquid Nails today because the stuff finally started coming out of the tube in the consistency I have seen before.  I guess the material had separated in the tube because it was stored in my basement unopened for so long.  MAN -- what a difference fumes-wise and drying time-wise!  I won't be using Liquid Nails in my not-very-well-ventilated studio again!

Clamped...drying time is much longer today.

Sorting my Arto-collection...

...two boxes underneath this one...

...and THESE -- four boxes of small non-wall items and a box and a half more to go on the walls.

And tonight when I was finally ready to put those magnetic strips in their new wall space -- POW! -- the wall threw me a curve ball.  It was as if Babs Johnson and Crackers (Pink Flamingos) had licked the wall so that it would reject anything I tried to do.  SO frustrating!  I had a phone conversation with my brother-in-law to see if he had any ideas (he has worked on various walls in my house before) and he said it is most likely that drywall was put up over plaster walls and that is what I am running into.  Gah!  So I am off in search of more wall dog screws tomorrow I guess.  My poor wall -- now it matches the other one...geez.

365/2013 - Day 361

moving stuff around on the walls -- day two

I have wanted to do this for quite a while and today I finally got started.  I took down the six magnetic strips that were holding Art-o-mat art on the far wall in my studio.  I plan to put a couple more strips above the ones I hung yesterday and make more of a display with the remaining four with a couple of collections from my collection.   It'll all come together eventually.

I had to move the six roundy head/ears guys out of the way to take down the magnetic strips.  Cough, cough...I also had to do quite a bit of vacuuming...walls, floors, blinds, and the roundy head/ears guys themselves.

I started in the middle of the wall and worked out.  I have SO much art I need to put on the walls I don't think I will ever be "done"...but at least this is a start.  I have a lot of items that need to be matted/framed.  It'll all come together eventually.

"before"  with the Arto-art and a marvelous 2-part quilted piece by Leann.

The roundy head/ears guys were moved into the hallway and -- naturally -- as soon as they were all in place I needed to get into the other studio behind them.

So they all moved into the dining room a bit.

Heh...oh yeah...I forgot what the wall looked like under the magnetic strips.  I had a lot of trouble putting those first ones up.  The walls in my house are really wacky on the insides and quite often repel any attempt to drill or hammer into it.

The two big areas I will be working on over the next few days.

I started in the middle of the wall and worked my way out.

How things are looking for tonight...I am done.

There is so much to do and so much to figure out -- I realized a little while ago that this is going to be a project that will span over a few days.  I thought I was going to do it all tonight...ha ha ha.  I am so done right now.  It'll all come together eventually.

365/2013 - Day 360

displaying Arto-art

Well, I got a reply from Ikea customer services today and unfortunately, those magnetic metal strips I was looking for have been discontinued since 2009.  So -- I decided to change a small wall section in the studio to be able to put up the four strips I still have and maybe if I come across any more of them in the house somewhere I will still be able to fit them onto this wall space.  

The wall space I am re-doing today...I will relocate these other pieces in the studio somewhere.

"Measuring" the spacing for the next magnetic strip using another Arto-block to make sure there is room.

Yay -- all four magnetic strips are on the wall -- now, to fill them up!

Some of the blocks in my waiting-to-be-displayed boxes already had magnets on them from a previous installation.

Adding the magnets with Liquid Nails and using lightweight clamps for secure drying time.

Ta-daaa -- not too bad for racing the clock tonight!

I am really disappointed that those Ikea magnetic strips are no longer available.  I still don't think I want to pay the eBay prices for the two or three I found online.  I will figure something else out -- it's just that these strips are so "finished" and nice, ya know?  I still have a LOT of Art-o-mat art in my collection to display -- this is just scratching the surface!

365/2013 - Day 359

this really happened today

I kind of wish I had taken a photograph this morning when I first saw this image -- I almost did -- but I can never get the camera to "see" what I am trying to show it at times like this, so I let it go.  But I haven't really been able to ignore the image in my head so I decided to come into the studio and try to put it onto a canvas tonight.

I use the bathroom that is in my studio for many things -- including using it as a sort of spray booth for spray painting and spray varnishing and other various messy things.  The floor of the bathroom is really wrecked-looking and stained.  When I spend time in there I tend to drift a little while looking towards the floor and images surface -- like looking at clouds and making pictures, you know?  Yes I know...it is kind of strange...and maybe you're thinking "oh that poor woman has finally lost her mind", but it is what it is and it happens all the time only usually I have forgotten about any imagery once I leave the area.

This morning's image has burned itself into my brain.  The only way to describe it is like a large, lumbering bear-like creature who is swinging his arms and taking a really long stride...head up and carefree.  I tried drawing it just afterwards and then tried to forget about it.

Tonight I came into the studio in search of a canvas to repurpose with the image.  While I have always really liked this calf-guy in what looks like a ornately medalled military coat, I have never been able to get any farther on it.  I turned the canvas end over end and oh-my-goodness...the bear-like creature was THERE!  Nearly as good as he was on the bathroom floor.

The calf-guy.

The untouched canvas upside down from the calf-guy.

Chalk outline...the surface is too bumpy for the big piece of chalk I have...can't get a good outline.

I went back in with a dark green colored pencil.

When I tried to sketch this guy this morning I couldn't get his legs right.  Tonight on the canvas the legs are great.  I am going to try to photograph the floor image tomorrow morning (the light isn't right at this time).  I really hope he is still there because his face was pretty detailed...either way, I am going to figure this guy out.

365/2013 - Day 358

a bit of Art-o-mat production mode

Today I put 21 heads/bodies combos together...I believe I have 43 Animal People assembled right now (including 3 from the last go round).  I am making a batch of 100 collaged blocks for my Animal People series for Art-o-mat.  The first 50 (or so) will be these cat girls, then I will move on to dog guys...and a few animal kids (puppies/kittens).

Upside down on the right side of the photo above, these assembled cat girls need trimming now.

Today's output.

The cat girl in the red dress is teensy...the other one is a more comfortable size to work with.

This is about the average size once all of the collages in the series are collected...this will be a batch of 100 collaged blocks for my Animal People series for Art-o-mat.

Oops...forgot to trim this one!

43 done to this stage!

And I have a growing stash of larger pieces that won't work for the Art-o-mat blocks.  I will use them in other projects eventually.

I think I am done for tonight!

365/2013 - Day 357

keeping busy

Late this morning Sue and Pepper came over so that Pepper could replace the venting on my clothes dryer -- it was so full of lint and the dryer hasn't been working properly.  (I hope that is all it is.)  When they left I put up the broom/mop/etc. holder in the laundry area.  It is so funny to me how excited I was to finally get that holder and a new dust pan and whisk broom.

Later in the afternoon I rearranged some artwork on a couple of walls to be able to hang the three Kate Paul drawings and the Janet Szeto block print that I purchased from the "[small] Works Exhibit" at the Northville Art House.

And then I was still in the mood to hang stuff and when I went to find the remaining magnetic strips that I got at Ikea when I first moved to this house I was sadly disappointed to find I only have three strips left.  I wanted to put magnets on the backs of a whole bunch of Art-o-mat pieces to add to my collection.  But with only three I can't really make an arrangement on the wall until I can come up with more of the strips (or something to replace them) -- I looked at Ikea online and they no longer seem to have the Spontan magnetic strips.  When I bought them originally (about 5 years ago) they were under $5 each (probably closer to $3) and the only place I could locate some today was on eBay and they only had 2 and they were listed at $16+ each.  What?  Oh well.  I emailed customer service at Ikea with a description and a couple of photos of the item.  I hope that I get good news from Ikea sometime soon.

This is the initial batch of Art-o-mat art that I would really love to display.  Three boxes FULL plus that tray.  I have a couple more bins of loose arto pieces to go through...this is scratching the surface of a pretty longtime collection.

I put magnets on the back of the Art-o-mat blocks and put them on the magnetic strips.

The Spontan magnetic strip from Ikea.

Ikea has magnetic knife racks listed now that are the closest thing I could find that would probably do just as well but they are $15 each.  MUCH more than I had in mind to spend.  I will keep looking.  I have a couple of ideas that might work, but now this is put on hold.  I have plenty of magnets, etc. but what is the point until I can find a new holder.

One long stretch of my Arto-collection.

Two more stretches of Arto-pieces.

This evening I got started on the matching up of bodies to animal heads for my Animal People series for Art-o-mat.  Frankly, it is a bit of a pain to get started and get the "feel" back for finding the right size head and the right expression, but once I get going it is so satisfying.  I love making Animal People.  

Heads & bodies drying.

 

I like this cat girl a lot.

Some of these will end up as Animal People for my Art-o-mat series...some won't make the cut because they are too large for the block or I am just not happy with the head/body/expression combo...others will work out great.