Having Fun In the Summertime - except for tech issues!

Well, folks the only solution I found for my blog problem was to use Goggle Chrome as the browser for working on my blog.  Aaargh.  I do wish compatibility was the norm.  Perhaps I'll come love Google Chrome but for now I'm feeling a bit manipulated by the whole thing.    But hey, on to art....much more fun.

So sometimes I have to do a little customizing before I can do a piece.  A couple of my continuing themes are crows and doll heads - which if you know my work at all,  you have probably noticed by now.  Here I am hand-painting little white plastic doves that are meant for bridal decorations and thus, transforming them in my totem crows.

Doves Into Crows

Another special technique of mine is altering dolls heads, doll arms, legs and all sorts of other items into bisque white objects, giving them a kind of plaster effect. I achieve this by dipping the item into white ceiling paint. Ceiling paint is the magic ingredient as it is designed to cling to the ceiling and drip less. I tried to add color to the ceiling paint but it effects the 'staying' quality and doesn't produce the matte bisque effect.

Dipped Heads

Supplies on-hand, here's what emerged. 

Easy-Chair Crow Girl

Caged Crow Girl

No Crows here, but a 'dipped' doll arm anchors one's attention and yes, they are real boxes of candy cigarettes - a very non-PC item I found in bulk at a end-of-lot discount store.

 

Candy Cigarettes on TV

My friend Helen and I collaborated on this piece. The white demon faces represent one's inner judges. Although they are matte bisque white, they are not made by dipping, but by using an white air-dry clay in a rubber molds of - you got it - demon faces! Really, you can find anything you need out there on the Web.

Essence Emerging From The Judges

And to follow-up from my last post - here are some pix of the exuberant All The Apparatus from Portland.  Check out their animation/music video in my sidebar and go to AllTheApparatus.com

TWO Accordians!

AAARGH!!! Can't post images on Blogger!!!

Ah my friends, Google and Blogger are letting me down. I've been trying to share new images but for reasons I've been unable to ascertain and still without a fix, images are a no-go. A quick search on the Web shows I am not alone with the problem, but alas, answers are not yet forthcoming. But naturally, tenacious as a French Bull Dog, I'm working away at it. Stay tuned.

Had a grand time on a recent trip to the wonderful city of Portland, Oregon. Came across a fantastic group - ALL THE APPARATUS playing at the famous Portland Saturday Market. And that is a very appropos band name since they include trumpets, violins, chimes and an accordian!!

Would love to show you a pix, but for now you can check them out through live performance video at this link: http://youtu.be/d77WHWAVhNg.

Go to their website at, naturally, AllTheApparatus.com http://alltheapparatus.com/index.html

Featured Artist on ArtsyShark.com

I received a wonderful surprise in my inbox the other day - notice that I'm a featured artist on ArtsyShark - the website showcasing emerging artists!  I'm happy to join my dear friend Deb Booth [see post of March 21, 2011] as part of the ArtsyShark collection. 

ArtsyShark is the creation of Carolyn Edlund.  She's spent 20 years running her own production studio, designing and making handmade ceramic jewelry and later worked as an artist rep. ArtsyShark includes hundreds of interviews in all fields of arts and crafts, now including. my art.

Follow this link to my 'Featured Artist' page  and then explore and enjoy the rest of ArtsyShark.com and subscribe to keep interesting people and art coming into your inbox. 

The Furniture of Your Mind

I recently had a great conversation with my son, Alexander.  In the course of it, he said, 'Mom, sometimes you just have to remember to change the furniture of your mind.'  This was so germane to what we were discussing that it just broke open the inner wall I was struggling with.  This digital collage just flowed from that experience.

                                                             I love this enhanced photo of Alexander.

Remember to rearrange the furniture of your mind

Art Quotes & FreekOutVilleXpress & Elizabeth Taylor

I was bouncing around the Web the other day and came across some clever images with art/inspirationquotes included. I enjoyed them so much, I then went searching for more. Now it's time to share. If you have a favorite you'd like to pass one, please do so!

Looking for another image, I discovered the wonderfulness of FreekOutVilleXpress... a fantastic art blog, combing art, music and quotes.   The intro description sets the tone as well as this zippy freeky cat logo.   

I make art. You look at it. ‘Kay? Hey Everybody! Or those of you who have somehow accidentally stumbled upon this page. Welcome to Freakoutville Xpress. What’s happening here is a whole lot of art work and occasional short compositions about stuff. It’s not like I have a master plan… yet

Check it out at http://freakoutville.wordpress.com



And finally, Goodbyes & Memories to Elizabeth Taylor a grand dame, a regular gal and a tough cookie, who lived out loud. 

“I adore wearing gems, but not because they are mine. You can’t possess radiance, you can only admire it.” -Elizabeth Taylor

 above quote & Image from freekoutville Xpress - click on the quote to go to Freeoutville

Fini

 

 

Deb Booth is a featured artist at ArtsyShark.com

My dear friend Deb Booth of DifferentLightStudio.com has been chosen as a featured artist at ArtsyShark, a website for emerging artists. Follow this link to see her art and to read how she shares about her work.

Visit Deb's website or catch a one of her lovely, meditative videos on YouTube to see more.

Deb also is a featured artist during March and April 2011 at Oasis Gallery in Harrisonburg, Virginia during March and April 2011. You will be delighted.

Cool Old-School Animation

I used to be an active animation fan. This is way before Animae & CGI, when animation was hand-drawn and filmed on cells, one at a time. Perry Fitzhugh aka JP Folly @ FollyProductions.com and I attended many an showing of obscure films and film festivals. Our friend Sam Kessler created wonderful short films in this genre, most notably Creepy Blues -which you can see below.

I came across Stephen Meer's animation through using his wonderful, ecletic and unique rubberr stamps - hand-drawn. See more of Stephen at meerimage.com

SO - enjoy Stephen Meer's Salmon Deadly Sins - Gluttony



AND Sam' Kessler's Creepy Blues

Shoes!

Sometimes you just go with the flow - and these shoes came in just that way. One of the 'Art Girls' walked into the studio awhile ago with a pair of fantastic, white fabric shoes from Italy. Her friend was a cellist and had these as 'stage' shoes, but changed-up her outfits often, so these beauties got to become art, since fortunately no one else could wear them! I was totally inspired.
This piece came together in a flash. Her lovely head appeared from a stash of baby doll heads- her lovely woman countenance the only one in the group. White roses emerged from the flower baskets and the pearls appeared from the bottom of the glitter basket instead of the jewelry basket where they should have been. Everything just came to hand and she's become a favorite.


Pearlized Rose - altered shoe


The lovely brown peau de soie shoe emerged from the top of a cabinet while I was looking for something else. Brown - hmmm, not my usual color. But brown led the day. Velvety leaves revealed themselves hiding behind stems of flowers. The doll head's abundant hair seemed to just flow over the shoe and so atypically, the hair stayed. I found the doll face a little too 'girlish' but painting her lips dark brown and masking her eyes seemed to change things enough. The sheer golden brown ribbon, though, was the final touch - linking everything together and adding a touch of mystery as it also masks the 'girl' energy.










Copper Estelle -altered shoe

Happiest Holidays kiddos!

Grant Wood - a Re-Disovered Appreciation

I recently read a NY Times book review of a new biography of Grant Wood, most famously known for [and perhaps limited by] his iconic portrait of a farm couple, American Gothic.

I was surprised to learn that in his own time he was denigrated as a 'regionalist' and a ' progragandist for conservative values.' He was, to me absurdly, 'accused of fostering a shrill nationalism that was actually compared to the unalloyed evil of the Third Reich. After the war, the art historian H. W. Janson asserted that “the Regionalist credo could be matched more or less verbatim from the writings of Nazi experts on art.” In 1962, when Janson published his now classic textbook on the history of Western art, he made no mention of Wood.'

In all this, I got book of Grant Wood from the library, [Grant Wood - The Regionalist Vision, Wanda Corn] and was astounded to discover many instances of art that, to me, moved far from the categories of 'regionalist' and 'representational' to a wonderfully skewed, and at times surreal touch. Some of which I'd like to share here.



January

Return from Bohemia - did the clan haunt him and call him home?




My favorite, Death on Ridge Road







Plaid Sweater - I love his truculent expression












His sister, NanWood - I love the Chicken & Egg touch


Woman with Plants


The reviewer quoted Grant Wood as saying, 'All the really good ideas I've ever had came to me while was milking a cow.' The reviewer stated this as 'somewhat goofily, Wood's most famous statement.' I thought that the reviewer probably has never milked a cow, because I could readily see how in the rhythm and focus of milking, the 'back processor' is free to roam and yes, 'really good ideas' could easily emerge.