Featute Art Friday: Sea Turtles

Art Week 2011 & practicing spontaneity

It's Art Week over here... an entire week off work from my "grown up job" when I get an entire week to make some of the art that has been rolling around in my head for the last year. I'm completely blissed out & probably seem intoxicated to anyone I come in contact with, which should make my impending trip to the art supply store pretty interesting.

It's amazing to me how quickly a few things can happen during this week off work: my stress level plummets, my energy level climbs & I become the most patient person on the planet. If I have said "hey, don't worry about it, no big deal" once, I have said it a million times. And it's only Tuesday.



One if the things I have really wanted to learn how to do, but haven't found the time to practice until now is this technique in the photos. You paint much of the background with the intent of painting around it & over it in a way that much of it actually becomes the foreground. I realize that didn't make any sense. Hey, don't worry about it... it's no big deal.

Tomorrow I'll post a finished project using this technique. I'm loving how it turned out!

36 things to do before I turn 37

This project first came to my attention while I was knee-deep in reading art blogs back in the spring- when the thought of having a blog of my own still caused me to have heart palpitations. I saw Michelle Allen's list on her blog- I love her vibrant quirky art. How could I not participate in this project, especially when I realized that I share a birthday with such an amazing artist? It also doesn't hurt that I love to make a list.

Although mine is very much based on this new creative path that I have started on over the last 2 years, you could make one of these for anything that means something to you... things to do with your family, for instance. If you decide to make one, please share- I would love to see it. You could add a link to it in a comment or email it & I would very much enjoy reading it.

Judging by my tardiness in making my '36 things' list, I probably should have included something about ending procrastination, but it didn't make the cut this year. Maybe next year. :)

Art week day 5: intution and a jar of buttons

It’s pretty amazing how well your inner voice can lead you in the right direction if you just trust yourself enough to listen. Sometimes at lunch I go to this antique store/flea market with friends. People rent booths there so the quality of what you may find varies but that’s just the way I like it. One day a few months ago, I picked up a jar of buttons and I stood there having an internal dialogue about the pros and cons of purchasing the aforementioned buttons. To be honest, there really weren’t any pros, other than I just couldn’t really make myself put them down. As a matter of full disclosure, I should point out at this juncture that I don’t sew. What would I do with a jar of buttons? They weren’t even pretty; by used button standards… they were mostly black.

A few weeks later, I was sitting at my desk wondering about the buttons. Because they only cost $3.50 and randomly popped in my head weeks later, I got in my car, went back to the store, marched down the aisle to the booth that is now the former home of the button-filled jar picked it up and went directly to the cash register. I had no idea what I would do with them, but at least now I knew where they were… on a very high shelf in my studio.

Because I don’t really need them.

Because I don’t sew.

This project with the clay hearts has been rolling around in my head for a couple of months, and like many art projects it became much more complicated as it went from theory to practice.

Over the last few days, I finally got the project figured out- except for one thing. I was having a really hard time trying to decide how to get the heart to “float” on a wire in the center of the shadow box. I knew I would run a wire through the middle, but I couldn’t figure out the best way to secure the wire to the outside… it actually needed to be run through something, then back into the wood of the shadow box. I was tired and frustrated and wondering if this was going to be one of those things that were a much better idea in my head than in reality. I leaned back in my chair, put my hands on top of my head, and looked up… where my eyes settled on the highest shelf, and a jar of mostly black buttons.

Art week day 4: juvenile probation and top-heavy hearts

Yes, I know it’s upside down. No, it isn’t supposed to be.

Yesterday I used up all of the profanity at my disposal, and I know lots of profane words. I used to be a juvenile probation officer. Hormone-riddled, angst-filled teens taught them to me, occasionally offering compound versions to which my response, “I know what those mean separately, but what to they mean when hyphenated?” was not met with any appreciation. I often thought that many of those kids had a much better grasp on the English language that given credit for… it was no easy feat to make complete sentences from profanity, conjunctions and punctuation. That’s pure talent, my friends.

So when I tell you I used up all of my ‘grown up words’ you now understand the gravity of the situation. It turns out that little homemade clay hearts are top-heavy. (Of course they are. Stupid hindsight.) I’m sure there is a fantastic metaphorical life lesson here, but I couldn’t be bothered with it after discovering that none of the seven little hearts I made have any interest in facing heavenward.

I had fun making the shadow boxes, even though it is 100 degrees outside this week.

six little top-heavy hearts...

I love the sea turtles!

Lori, here is the cat photo I promised you. :) I said yesterday the cat had stripes, I suppose these qualify more as swirls.

Art week day 3: Kathy Griffin made me cry

I didn't take many photos yesterday. I would like to blame the dying camera battery and the 'photo-bombing' cat, but the battery is rechargeable and Ron Burgundy has always liked to show up unexpectedly in photos. It's one of his favorite tricks. I just didn't often find myself reaching for the camera.

We watched 'Kathy Griffin: My Life on the D List' last night and she talked about her dog Chance dying. He was 13. She was really sweet about him and she focused part of the show on her search for another dog once some time had passed and she felt that she was ready. I'm awfully sorry about her dog but I'm so thankful that she is so dedicated to saving shelter dogs. She had a dog trainer bring her 3 that they thought might be a good fit with Pom Pom, her lab... and I knew which one she would pick the moment she met them all. His name is Larry and I hope he is very happy in his new home.

I also hope someone somewhere saw that show and started a discussion with their family about saving a dog or cat. It really is the best feeling in the world.

Art week day 2: hearts and mud pies

I allowed myself to forget how much I loved taking my first pottery class until I started playing in this air-dry clay on Monday. Making something beautiful from a blob of mud is so satisfying and the act of squishing the mud in my hands makes me feel like a kid again. Mud pies anyone?

This project with the hearts is making me happy- it’s one of those that began as a small idea and has grown exponentially. Just wait and see- I suspect these will get gradually more meaningful and complex.

The art with the birds is an effort at mixed-media collage. I only know enough about this process to be dangerous at this point… it has been a learning process and the next one will occur in a different order. The subject matter is cool- I like that the birds are in flight.

The method of paint application used for the sea turtles is new to me and I could use some practice. It comes from the book ‘Acrylic Revolution’, which is an encyclopedia for acrylic artists. I could write an entire post on this book- I’ll make a note of it when I use it for something in a project.

There are two other projects I started this week- I’m starting my very first ever art journal. I have all of the pages ‘watercolored’ and I’m getting ready to start the collage and edge treatments.

There is also a cat painting… NOT a commission, just a random white cat with multi-colored stripes.

The commissions are still hiding under a blanket in the hall. :)

Art week day 1... unfinished art 'hide and seek'

What is it, you ask? I’ll let you know as soon as I figure it out. What I would like to know is this- why is that my mother’s hand holding my little heart sculpture, when I distinctly remember photographing it in my own hand?

When I went into the studio Monday morning, the first thing I did was remove all the commissioned pet portraits. I can’t take a 5 day vacation from them when they are all staring at me, now can I?

I put them in the hall.

I continued to try to avert my eyes and fight off the urge to apologize to them every time I walked by.

I covered them with a blanket.

The prospect of hanging out in my studio for 5 days and just making whatever I want had me so excited that I immediately started 5 projects. A gnat on methamphetamines has nothing on my non-existent attention span. Here are photos of a couple of the projects in process.

Anticipation and the paint brush thief

This is Ron Burgundy. If there is such a thing as anticipatory stardom, he has it. There have been lots of anticipatory feelings around here this weekend… not much painting but lots of anticipation.

Here, Ron Burgundy anticipates the opportunity to steal his favorite paint brush, which he hopes to spirit away to some corner where he can contentedly chew on the bristles in peace. I feel quite certain that he spends at least part of each day thinking about this paint brush. Ron has good taste and unfortunately only goes for the best paint brushes, so the door to the studio stays closed when I’m not in there. I’m contemplating buying him a paintbrush of his very own for Christmas. This will be more likely to happen if he stops causing property damage in my house, which does not lead me to have warm and fuzzy feelings about him. Today’s score: Ron Burgundy 1, ficus tree 0.

Friday, there was anticipation surrounding a book that finally arrived from Amazon… ‘The Happiness Project’ by Gretchen Rubin. I’ve been reading her blog for months and finally treated myself to the book. There were two avid readers in my office when the book arrived and when I opened it, everyone put down their coffee and applauded. That’s what we bookish types do when a cool new book enters the room. We cheer for it and pass it around and someone reads random bits aloud. If books had self-esteem, this one should be feeling pretty good about itself right now.

The weekend started with a surprise party, where anticipation almost seems to hang in the air- as if you should be able to reach out and touch it & there actually be something there to feel. The party was for ‘Gram’, the grandmother of one of my friends. Gram is unbelievably creative- I really wish I had known her my whole life. Here’s a direct quote, “I recycled before recycling was cool.” Priceless. I couldn’t make this stuff up.

Next came the anticipation of a car purchase. It wasn’t a car for me, but because I was along for the ride, I’m claiming vicarious anticipation.

Lastly, I have felt lots of anticipation surrounding ‘Art Week 2010’. If you are wondering why I gave it a title (albeit a boring one) with the year in it, that is to encourage me to make an annual event of it. A friend asked me Saturday, with a twinkle in her pretty blue eyes if I would be posting photos of what I work on this week. Why yes… I will. Now who is feeling the vicarious anticipation?