Art-is-You Preview #1

Welcome everyone,
In my last post I promised a preview of some of the items that I will be selling at the Petaluma Art retreat: Art-is-You. You'll remember how happy I was with the results of the large commissioned piece I created a couple of months ago. If not you can read my blog post below.  At that time I was determined to create some smaller pieces.  Well above you can see my first lovely skeletal gent.  I am calling this ongoing series:  Skeletal Excavations.
Here is a full image of the entire piece.

 

 And speaking of something totally different.  How about Miss Bubbles?

 

This is also part of an ongoing series designed to allow me to use my doll sculpting skills once again.  Miss Bubble's face is hand sculpted out of Creative Paperclay. She is an elemental creature-part of her surroundings which is actually an altered vintage silver plated bowel.    Here is a close up of her face.

 

Come back tomorrow for part 2 of my Art retreat preview!

Art-Is-You Petaluma!

Hey Everyone!  

I am very excited to announce that I will participating in the Vendor Night at the Art-is-You retreat in Petaluma on Saturday September 28th.  I will have new assemblage items, altoid tin shrines, collage and some misc. jewelry and decorative ornaments as well.  I am super excited about this opportunity as well as a little intimidated.  This will be my first time selling at a big Mixed Media retreat with many nationally known artists in attendance.  Yikes!   I could use some friendly faces so if you are
going to attend the retreat please come by and say hello or stay for awhile and gab. 

In the next three months I have four shows-so I will be monstrously busy inventing new items to tempt holiday shoppers.  Here is a list of my upcoming shows:

Art is You Petaluma
Vendor Art Trunk
Saturday September 28th
Sheraton Sonoma County
745 Baywood Drive
Petaluma, CA, 94954
USA

Half Moon Bay Pumpkin Festival
October 19th and 20th
Main street HMB

Gathering Of Women Artists
November 16th
565 Fifth St, Montara.
10:00am to 4:00pm

CoCa Open Studios
November 23rd and 24th
285 Popular st.
Half Moon Bay, Ca.

Stay tuned for a little preview coming in the next couple of days of some of the items I will be offering for your delight! 

The Larger assemblage and other logistical nightmares part 2

Welcome Everyone,
In my last blog post I left you on an artistic cliffhanger. Recall that the "Bowl of Skulls " commission was looking just a little moldy.  Too much green-way too much green.  I then concluded what might correct this was some rust.  At the end of the post I was trying to gather my courage because I was afraid that I would totally ruin 6 weeks worth of work.  You can see the finished work above.  I think my initial assessment was correct and the inclusion of rust was the best thing I could have done.  The rust color broke up all that moldy green and really made the skeletal parts the focus. It also helped the beautiful shape of this bowl and the decoration at the top stand out more.
A spoonful of skulls is a fun little statement but this much larger piece really stands out and is very intense.  For some it will be too intense.  To soften the intensity and because I love the contrast of the ugly and beautiful I decided to add some jewelry type elements in the form of beads.  I stated in the previous post that the wire was both functional and decorative.  I wove the wire in and around the skeletal parts for support and added beads on the wire for beauty. Kind of like life isn't it?  Amidst all the ugliness of life there is always beauty to be found.

 

I also decided to add a pendant in the shape of a bent and rusty spoon and added wire and beads around that too. Here is the pendant.

I liked adding as the pendant another kitchen implement and thought it brought just the right touch as a decorative element as well. 
To  finish the work I glued a bit of felt to the back of the bowl so that it won't mar my buyers paint job and added a clear sealer to the entire piece.  Note to anyone using these products: the clear sealer will change the finish and color of both the rust and patina just a little.  It makes the finish a little less rough and crumbly. 
I learned alot from this project. First: large assemblages can be a logistical nightmare.  But the nightmare can be overcome by patience and a little courage.  Second: trust my instincts-they are almost always correct.
In summation: I really love this piece.  Now to see what the buyer says: will this be the piece she thought she commissioned or will it be too intense to hang on her wall?
Your guess is as good as mine but wish me luck!

The larger assemblage and other logistical nightmares

Welcome
Welcome to my logistical nightmare.
And yes its a bowl full of skulls and bones. 
But let me digress just a little.  Some time ago an art buddy of mine purchased a spoon from me dripping with skulls.  You can see it below. 

 

This piece consists of a vintage silver spoon, with skulls and beads epoxied to it. Over this I used a two part metallic paint and green patina. I really like the way this piece came together and called it " Serving Death." My art buddy liked it so well that she commissioned a larger piece to go with it-a bowl in the same vein. A large bowl.

No problem-right? 

Wrong!

First finding just the right bowl was not that easy.  But I finally purchased the silver bowl above at the Alemany flea market.  For some reason it just screamed "bowl full of skulls!" to me.  I also really liked the shell shape and the ornament on top that turned the entire shape into a tear drop rather than a circle.

The next problem with the piece? Getting a skeleton and skulls large enough to fit the scale.  And yes I am missing one large articulated Halloween skeleton these days. That skeleton has sacrificed some of its parts for the greater good-art that is.

Now that I had all the parts and the bowl most of my time was spent just preparing the metal surface.

Yikes!  just creating the tooth by sanding took two days!   then there was the rustable metal primer and three coats of metallic surfacer. I also drilled some holes and inserted metal wire through the bowl. The wire serves two functions: to keep the epoxy and parts from succumbing to gravity and it would also add a decorative effect.

After all the prep I spent another week just composing and positioning the skeletal parts into a pleasing composition. This was not easy because I was determined to use that wonderful ribcage and I wanted the skull to "smile".  Since the bowl is rounded fitting everything in together was impossible so I resorted to hacking off skull and ribcage parts using a cutoff wheel and my dremel. Ladies with power tools baby!

After the hacking was completed it was now time to epoxy all the parts in the bowl. Note to self: Epoxy doesn't go very far and is expensive. I wanted this composition to look almost archaeological-

like the bones were being dug up. So needless to say I used alot of extra epoxy in and around the composition.  And I was pleased with the end result if not with the $50.00 I spent to get it.

After the epoxy was totally cured it was time to add two to three more coats of metallic surfacer and then the part that really made me nervous-the green patina. Since I had to match the original piece I was forced to use a green patina that is very tempermental and a color I would never use on a larger piece of art.  (the blue patina is much easier to use by the way)  

When the green patina was on and dried I was devastated.  True to its tempermental nature the green patina was mottled and the color uneven. As my panic increased all I could think of was that I just spent 6 weeks on this piece and now it was ruined!   Yikes!  I have no idea how to fix this moldy looking mess!  

But there must be a way!   Think!

Wait I just gave myself the key to maybe fixing this piece "moldy looking". That's it!  This piece is just too green.  Too much green!

Ok Connie-take a deep breath! Have some faith in your artistic vision. 

Find your courage.

Its time to add some rust! Keep your fingers crossed guys and say a little prayer for me-I think I need it.

Come back in a couple of days to see if my idea works and some rust can save this piece.



The unusual amoungst the usual

In my rambles around Montara I have found many items that you will not find anywhere else.

A nautical themed gate.

Home surfer crossings

Colorful floats in front yards

 

 

Whalebones on the porch

 

A surfboard fence

 

As artists it is our job to find the unusual amoungst the usual.  When you walk down the street-look around you.  What can you find?

 

Time for my walk!

 

ABC swap-Printers trays-First hand off

Welcome Everyone,
Its time that I update you on the Altered Books Club's latest goings on.  Because so many of the group had vacations scheduled (except myself of course) we decided that a smaller round robin project was in order.  What we came up with was pseudo printers trays by Tim Holtz.  Each cubby in the tray was just a little bit bigger than an ATC so each hand off could be completed in a much faster time frame.
My theme this time around was " Steampunk".  And I will post a picture of it when the swap is completed. 
For the first hand off I received Cindy's tray.  She chose "Vintage Calendar" and placed vintage items in the cubbies that meant something to her personally.  She requested that I take October and she really wanted skeletons. I usually try to comply with a fellow artists request if I can but this time I just couldn't make the idea of dancing skeletons work. I have to say that Cindy's project had a great deal of the "cute factor" that normally I just don't do well with.  Most people will tell you "Connie doesn't do cute"  Ask me to do grungy, aged, crusty,edgy or bloody and I'm good.  But ask me to do cute and you might as well plunge a knife in my heart. Which would make a great Halloween cubby by the way!
I just couldn't make the "cute" skeleton thing work for me.  Sorry Cindy but I tried.  So what was I to do now? Search the web of course!
My search brought up a wonderfully creepy picture of two pumpkin head children in Victorian clothing. It was perfect-creepy pumpkin children was right up my alley.  Not only that but since we are close to Half Moon Bay a pumpkin theme was totally appropriate! That's cute right?!
Now I was in business!
Cindy's one rule is that we use tiny vintage postcards to sign our name on in each cubby.  So I did this but partially covered up the postcard with a retro vintage Halloween polka dot fabric.  And so that I put something really vintage and personal to myself I added some black rick rack that my mother added to a Halloween costume of mine about a hundred years ago.  On top of the fabric I collaged my creepy Pumpkin photo.  I then created some miniatures: a witches broom, some tiny jack o'lanterns and a witches hat.  I added some dead moss and a spider there you have it!  One Halloween cubby that combined creepy for me and cute for Cindy.  You can see my finished cubby below.

Cheers!
And please guys no more cute.

In memorandum-Dynamo

I guess I am writing this in an effort to find some calm.  About an hour ago I lost my sweet little Jack Russell Terrier-Dynamo.
For the past 6 months Dyna had been battling renal failure and about a week ago she started to lose that battle.  Today at the vet she went into acute renal distress with so much pain and confusion that we had no choice but to put her to sleep.  She died in my arms.
I knew when she was first diagnosed that the end was near and I must be ready for it.  But if there is any lesson to be learned from death its that you can never be ready. Loss of those you love is always painful and must be endured because that's what it means to be human.

I want to sincerely thank Dr. Laura McKinney for having the courage and care to try a new therapy.  So many these days wouldn't even bother. By doing do Dr. Mckinney gave us an extra month to be together.

Words are indeed paltry things and I cannot adequately express just how much my heart hurts.

Sleep in peace little one.  You are much loved and will be missed.

Sleep in peace Dynamo.