Bicycle by the Sea

As my last post mentioned, over the holiday weekend I was fortunate enough to be able to follow any inspiration I had at any moment I had it! I loved being able to work on my art whenever I feel motivated, which is quite different than what I'm used to-sitting at work wanting to work on a project & having my hands tied until I get out at 5. Not that I'm complaining though-there'd be no artwork if I didn't have my 8-5 to pay for it :) Anywho-about a month back I made a quick sketch on my trusty standby-the sticky note- at work. I was inspired, by goodness knows what, to create a canvas with a girl, riding a bike by the sea, with the text that I quickly scratched out on another sticky note. Here's a pic of how the idea began. When I got home I put the sticky notes in my journal, & thus began rolling the idea around for about a month, letting teh concept kind of sink in until I figured out how I actually wanted to create it.

I knew what the girl should look like more or less. I thought about scanning in images of myself when I was little-thinking perhaps I'd use my own likeness for her face. But I knew I'd illustrate her body & clothes-maybe collage it from another source like an old pattern for girls clothing. I also wasn't sure if I wanted to use real sand for a base, or use a photograph for the entire background. On top of that I had no idea how I was going to incorporate the text! Should I print it out with a specific font & then transfer it to the surface? Should I write it out w/ a Sharpie? Should I print the text out w/ the font & just use that print? All these decisions!

When I finally took stock in how much I was questioning my process I came to the conclusion I was overanalyzing, & really paralyzing any progress I was going to make. I went into my office, sat at my table, took the canvas in hand, & started experimenting. I began painting the figure for the girl, going directly from my sketch, thinking once I had that going I'd be able to figure out the rest- I was right! From then on everything pretty much fell into place.

(the text reads: "and she rode and rode and rode until the sand and the wind and the misty spray filled her hair and ears and heart with the the joy of knowing her freedom")

I used paper from an old pattern I picked up from the thrift store as a base for the canvas, as well as a surface for the text. I used stamps w/ a broken down font to print the text, & glued them to the "sand" with acid free rubber cement. I used small brads as joints for the girl (not sure if you can see them in the pics). I spray painted the girls bike, outlined it in sharpie, & stiched spokes onto the wheels with gray thread.

To create the lower half of the canvas, I enhanced the creased & uneven texture of the paper pattern with chalk, used a light wash of cream colored paint to beef up the chalk, & dusted more chalk over the wash to create a sandy look by scraping a pallette knife over the surface of my pastel. For the sky, I washed it with a grayish blue paint, again enhancing the creases in the pattern, but also allowing the pattern itself to shine through. For the clouds, I referenced some grade school science booklets I'd picked up at the thrift store as well. These booklets had all the primary groups of biology sectioned out, with pictures of animals & plants, as well as tests at the end of each section so the students could review all the information. There were clouds in one of images exeplifying conservation & I thought the design would work perfectly for my iamge of the girl with her bike by the sea. Of course I added my own touch to them & my canvas was complete! I LOVE the look & feel of the image-I couldn't be happier with the results :)

Thanksgiving Weekend

Hallelujah for 4 day holiday vacations! Not only were the Krampe & Ripka turkey days full of well spent time with the family, fantastic food, sleeping in past 8 in the morning, & basically relaxing as much as possible, but I also had a lot of time to dedicate to art! You know it's been a good weekend when your table looks like this:

Pics to come of the canvas I finished over the weekend!

Little Miss B

A couple weekends ago I got to photograph my new neice! We got some great pics-here's one of my favs :)

$4.59 for new wood screws, price of building a new laundry folding station w/o having to buy a TON of other supplies? Priceless :)

So my dryer has been dying a slow death since the day I moved into my house a little over a year & a half ago. I've been able to squeak by not buying a new one for quite a while, & over the summer I just hung my clothes out on the line to dry. I kept telling myself I was conserving energy & being kind to the planet by using the clothes line instead of the ailing dryer, but in the back of my head I knew Fall of 09 would be new dryer time. :D

I bought the new dryer last Tues, it was delivered Friday, & the weekend was a laundry extravaganza! Yes...very exciting...but being able to dry an entire batch of towels, sheets, & a comforter in 45min was fanastic! Yes I know it's sad to be so excited about a dryer but what are you gonna do? :) This brings me to the new laundry folding station.

Since I had all this dry laundry :) I needed somewhere to fold it. The previous owners had replaced the kitchen cupboards at some point & left the old ones down in the basement, so I had a good base to start from. I had also been given some large chuncks of countertop from my parents, when they redesigned their computer room, so I already had a good work surface! Using some 2x4's which came from some shelving I took apart in the old pantry, I built a base for the cupboards, attached them to the base, & then attached the counter top to the cupboards, & anchored it all to the wall. All I have to do now is buy some end caps to cover the gap's between the cupboards & the walls, & then cap off the raw 2x4 w/ some type of moulding & it'll be done! An entirely new work area for around $15 when it's all said & done. Can't beat reuse & repurpose! :)

Another new tree...sort of :)

A couple months ago my friend Christie forwarded an image from a blog she was reading. The image featured a bedroom wall painted w/ trees-a design the home owner sketched out, projected onto the wall, traced, & then painted. I LOVED the look, & decided it was just what my bedroom wall needed. I referenced some sketches I made in Colorado & free hand painted some birch trees onto one of the walls. The result was great! Just what I was looking for :)

Now fast forward a couple weeks. I had a small tree out in my backyard which at one point had been hit by lightning. It was cracking up the side, was half dead, & basically just needed to be taken down before part of it fell into the house, or I had to call in the professionals to take it down. I figured I could take some of the branches, cut them into small rounds w/ different thickness, & create an arrangement on the adjacent wall.

Here's what to do:
1. Take different width branches & cut them into rounds. Vary the size & thicknesses of each round. I used my miter saw, but whatever saw you can cut a 90 degree angle with will do the trick
2. Lay each piece out to dry, mine took two weeks
3. Making sure each piece is dry & clear of sawdust, use heavy duty mounting squares to adhere each round to the wall. The qty of squares for each piece depends on the size of the round. The largest ones I had used 4 & the smallest 1
4. Here comes the easy part-arrange them however you like & you're done!

The final result ended up looking better than I could've imagined! Modern, whimsical, & a great paraody between the painted trees on the wall & the sections of real tree on the wall. Plus, & this is the best part, it was practically free! Only $3.62 for the mounting squares-can't beat that :)

Latest Project (sorry about the crappy iphone pics)

The other day I was looking through some fashion photography websites & got inspired by the dark humor vibe I was getting from the images, along with the fashion. I whipped out my trusty yellow lined paper I have sitting on my desk & sketched out a quick idea for a triptych!

My basic idea was a play on little red riding hood & her wolfy nemisis. I wanted the triptych to have a lot of childlike qualities-the reference to little red riding hood, the cartoon-ish look of the characters-but also posses adult themed topics.

I wanted 3 panels: the first with her hiding, the 2nd with her reprimanding the wolf, & the 3rd with them walking away together. Although I had an idea of what I wanted the images to look

like, I didn't know what I wanted to use, other than canvas as the base, for materials.

At first I thought to use a collage of squares cut directly from the original inspiration-fashion magazines! Using the magazines would lend themselves to questions for the viewer: What do these magazines speak to? How do women shape themselves in reference to these pages of colorful images? Are these magazines used to build some type of confidence or is it fiction? While the layers of the collages lend themselves to interpretation as well. Detailed, precise, densely placed details ask to be paid more attention than the largely cut & open pieces.

So I bought a couple magazines & used others that I had & created the first canvas background & characters using entirely magazine clippings. The look ended up being too dense & busy to really distinguish the characters from the bkgrd. Although I really liked the look of the characters, I the background just wasn't giving me the look & feel that I wanted. I also felt like I'd strayed a little too far away from my original idea of childlike imagery.

The technique I came up with, was a more illustrative look with pastels, water color, & water. I sketched the shape of the tree's with pastels, & thinking I'd fill in the difference with water color, the water mixed with the chalk & became almost paint-like. A result I wasn't expecting, but it ended up looking great!! I took the characters I'd created with magazine clippings & made them look a little more sketchy by drawing on them with oil pastels, which I feel incorporated each character into the background technique a little better.

I really like how the glozzy magazine finish plays off the pastel, matte finish of the duotone background. One down, three more to go!!

While I LOVE the look of the first canvas, I'm playing around with adding slightly more color to the bkgrd as the panels progress. On the second canvas bkgrd I added a small amount of slate blue to the sky & a small amount of olive green to the grass, perhaps to lighten the mood slightly, but I haven't yet determined if that's how I'm going to leave it. I might remove the color & replace it with the same colors of the first canvas to emphasize the characters more, rather than the background.

I'm also playing around with illustrating the characters for this panel. The only real reason being this may give the panels another layer of visual appeal.

I also typed up some text to go along with the imagery, another aspect I've yet to come to terms with how I'm going to execute it. I'm not sure if I'm going to use a handwritten font & transfer it onto the canvas somehow, or hand write it myself. I also haven't decided whether I'm going to write it on the canvases themselves, create panels to go under them, or perhaps matte the images & put the text on the matt, I'm not sure, but each canvas will have text to go with it.

The text for the first panel is:

he looked at her and growled...
a deep seated fear began to crawl from the dark hollow within her

damp clammy & blurry

The 2nd panel text will be:

her mind recoiled but her heart refused

scorching light coursed through the darkness
broke through the rattling

The 3rd panel will be:

there’s no need she said

and he acquiesced

The language offers another aspect of adult reference. I think we all have some type of history or fear within us, although most of us learn to hide & keep secret whatever that may be. The child in my images shares the common thread of doubt & dread, as well as the determination not to succumb to the fear, either real or imagined. I enjoy playing around with these themes because I feel like they're universal. Everyone knows doubt, everyone knows a sense or need to stand up for themselves & be heard, & I feel like everyone has felt some kind of success or triumph over dark times or feelings.

Anyways-this is the project I'm playing around with right now, who knows what it'll look like by the end but here it is at the moment!