home
about the artist
gallery
blog
links
contact

Archive for the ‘Art Every Day’ Category

Art Every Day 21

Saturday, November 21st, 2009

fusedglassbugs

I did a  bit of work finetuning the design of my pink 12 X 12 piece. I need to get a metallic pink look so I pulled out possible materials to achieve the look I want.

My main art adventure for the day was a trip to the Portland Audubon Society Wild Arts Festival. It is a fund raising event for the group. Art Media, a local art store, gave out 6 X 6 inch canvases to artists to create a piece to be sold at the festival. I did a small birds on a wire piece. I don’t know if I took a photo. Here is a poster of all of the pieces. Mine is in the third row, fifth from the right side.

sixXsixphotos

Here is where they were displayed:

6X6display

The great thing was that mine had already sold. A vendor near the display told be that there was a long line of people waiting to buy these when the show opened this morning.

Those cute fused glass bugs up at the top of my blog, were purchased at the show. They are each about 3 inches long. They have little holes in their front feet to hang them on the wall.

We thoroughly enjoyed looking at all of the art in this gorgeous building that was once a Montgomery Wards.

montgomeryparkatrium

audobonartshow

We saw three gorgeous birds.

A vulture:

vulture

An beautiful Owl:

owl

And a raven – so gorgeous.

raven

It is a busy week-end. Tomorrow, we go to see Rumpelstiltskin, performed by large puppets. Mia says it is a story that can be told very quickly!! But, my friend Sharon has written the play and I am sure it will not pass by that quickly!!

Art Every Day 20 and a Birthday

Friday, November 20th, 2009

blackpaintdry

paintedwhitedry

This is what the two choreographed collages looked like this morning after they were dried and ironed. The white paint almost disappeared and the black faded considerably. I worked on my pink piece for the Twelve X Twelve December challenge. I fine tuned the design that I will use. I think about the darn thing all the time, but this is good because I keep coming up with better ideas for the layout and embellishment. So I can’t really show you my art for the day.

We had a great time celebrating Milo’s birthday. We gave him a geocahce gps and several accessories. I think the family will have a good time going out hunting for the hidden caches.

Miles wanted to go to a sushi train restaurant. He likes to be able to see what he is going to eat. He ate 5 plates of California sushi and some chicken strips.

Here are some shots from the sushi restaurant.

sushitrain1

sushitrain2

miaatsushi

milesatsushi

View into the sushi kitchen. I think those are extra large rice cookers.

sushikitchenview

They tally up the prices by counting the plates and colors.

sushiprices

Then we were off to the gelato store.

gelatostore

The birthday boy lost a front tooth today. He looks so cute, but would he smile for the camera, no!!

gelatomilo

Books are like magnets for my grandchildren.

m&mreading

The gelato store makes donuts which looked ever so yummy, but I will be having my whole wheat English muffin for breakfast.

gelatodonuts

Happy birthday, little man.

littleman

Art Every Day 19

Thursday, November 19th, 2009

choreographed1

I did not have a good day today – had sort of a relapse with a really bad sinus headache and lethargy. Didn’t do much all day except veg and do some grocery shopping. After dinner (maybe it was the wine), I began to feel better.  I went down to the studio, wanting to do something. I was going to do another Expressive Drawing when I remembered something else I wanted to try.

Jason Pollen, who is the recent past president of the Surface Design Association board, in his last letter from the president gave an assignment titled, Create Two Choreographed Collages. Here are his instructions:

Materials
• 2 8-inch squares of light colored fabric
• A few small cloth fragments from your scraps
• 2 spools of contrasting colored thread for hand or machine sewing (spool and bobbin)
• A small quantity of white and black paint (acrylic or latex)
• A smallish brush
• Water and a small container for mixing the paint

Procedure
1. Sit quietly and contemplate the square of fabric and then hand- or machine-stitch two rows from edge to edge. They may or may not cross. The stitched lines may or may not be straight or sinewy.
2. Stitch two or more (not many) of your fabric bits onto this square so that they have some affinity for one another and hum in the space you have given them to dance.
3. Wet the background areas with your brush and water.
4. Paint onto this wet fabric (the background) with the tip of your brush dipped in white or black. Take your time with this and watch how the watery paint responds to capillary action.
5. Now create a second eight-inch square and proceed the same way as before. This time use the paint color you did not use in the first piece. Contrast the mood and atmosphere with the first piece.
6. Iron the pieces when dry.

This exercise is designed to make you smile.

Above, is one of my stitched pieces and here is the other.

choreographed2

Here they are with paint. I did not have time for them to dry and be ironed. Had to watch Project Runway.

choreographedwhite

choreographedblack

My paint did not really spread on the wet fabric like I expected. Maybe it was the fabric. I love the white painted piece. I am smiling just because I feel better.

I am hoping that I am at the end of whatever has been ailing me. Tomorrow, we will celebrate Milo’s 8th birthday and on Sunday, I am taking M & M to see Rumpelstiltskin performed by puppets. I also hope to get to the art show to benefit the Portland Audubon Society, on Saturday. I have a little piece in the auction.

Art Every Day 18

Wednesday, November 18th, 2009

canvasstripes

I have just about finished the paint rag collage. I fused the dyed fabric strips to the black canvas. Next, I collaged the cut up pieces, arranging and rearranging, until I was happy. I glued them down and when the glue was dry, I did simple straight line quilting, using 4 different colors of thread.

stitchedpaintragcollage

I have not finished the edges yet, but I will probably not do much as I have used black felt as the batting so I think a simple zigzag will finish it off. Here is a detail.

paintragcollagedetail

Tomorrow, I want to make a time line for all my looming deadlines. I am really excited to get to work on some of the ideas that I have.

Art Every Day 17

Tuesday, November 17th, 2009

blackcanvascollage

By this afternoon, I was feeling much better. The antibiotic and saline rinses did their jobs, and I returned to some normal activity. Did some major food shopping at Trader Joe’s; worked on the SDA website and attended a High Fiber Diet Meeting tonight.

I was itching to get back to my paint rag collage. I felt I needed something to make a more cohesive and interesting collage. I remembered some hand-dyed fabric with red and chartreuse in it.

redchartreusefabric

I cut some strips to layer under the cut pieces. I also changed the background to black canvas rather than the plain cotton fabric. I need to continue working on the arrangement of the paint rag pieces. I also want to rearrange the red and chartreuse strips. It felt good to get something done.

At the High Fiber Diet meeting, several people divulged the themes that they are developing for the Bird’s Eye View show. They all sound very interesting.

Here is the postcard for the Significant Stitching show which opens this week-end. I love the piece that is on the card.

postcard

postcardback