Monday, December 31, 2012

Hardworkin'



You can't tell, but I'm wearing polkadot tights with garters.  However, it's the sash I've been playing around with for the last couple of days off and on- It's my Art Scout Sash, utilizing found patches, hand made art buttons, very tiny rubber sharks, those little fold-over dealies they give you to wear around museums and a small but impressive pompom. 

The real news of the day is that Michael set up a very classy looking slide show for me- http://missmollymacmacmac.org/suits/ which furthers the calendar piece yet even more.  Hooray for more modes of documentation. 

Thursday, December 27, 2012

Baby Shark



So, I've been blogging a little out of order.  Here is the baby shark that I posted to Boston (still a tad wet around the ears) on Christmas eve.  Obviously the big shark is still chillin' out at the house at that point, full of candy and LOVE!  

Anyway, it, and some other work I haven't had time to blog about, are on their way.  Hope they arrive in one piece, and I hope to see them soon!

Smashy Smashy Christmas

At last, I have started smashing the Pinatas!  Or, more accurately, having the pinatas smashed for me by willing relatives on Christmas night. 



 Pictured here are a few- Alice, Abby, Owen and Gwen (and my step-mom's parrot)
I took the larger shark down to a gazebo in one of the parks I used to work in on a very snowy Christmas afternoon.  You can almost see the Columbia River off in the background on the left. After dinner I brought down cousins and fathers and kids of cousins so that we could get our smash on.



I thoroughly enjoyed (as you can hear) the smashing of my art work. I was perfectly happy that it didn't take longer than 3 minutes and 5 people to do the dirty work. I was gratified by Owen's squeals, and that later he asked me if next year we could have an even bigger pinata (he's 7). My cousin is taking the shark head back to his classroom (in rural Omack) to mount on the wall. All went exactly as planned.

I stopped by this public dumpster the next day.  So exciting to be able to watch my work go into the trash with purpose and carpet.

Thursday, December 20, 2012

Maryhill and Blue Skies...




So, I shot this video a couple months ago on the way home from Portland. The small (by comparison to the windmills) pillared building in the foreground is Maryhill Museum of Art, which, as you may notice, is in the middle of nowhere... http://www.maryhillmuseum.org/  I actually didn't make it there this year, despite my best intentions. However, I did recently visit Seattle Art Museum's stolen Centre Pompidou show "Elles"-

Glad to see we've come so far. I mean, let's face it, they are still selling sex with this exhibit card, despite their over-representation of the Guerilla Girls. Maybe you don't have to be naked to get into the SAM, but they'll exploit awkward girls in bikinis as fast as the next museum. My favorite pieces have not made it to the Google Images as of yet, but here are 2 I would have thought about putting on the postcard instead- 





I thought the Dora Maar photographs were AMAZING.  She may have gone down in history as Pablo Picasso's muse, but she certainly earned the title. 
And what is not to love about a big, hunky piece of Bourgeois?  I actually really loved the nice, gnarly piece of wood that was underneath the marble- what a pedestal! The mark of a craftsperson, that I"m obsessed with what's underneath the skirt of the art work...
But, as I said, the pieces I will remember most clearly were not to be found on the internets. Sigh.  One was this lovely, intricate geometric abstraction that had clearly had another wet painting laid on top of it, and had been collected by the pompidou in lieu of taxes posthumously. Another was right above the Bourgeois and was all blue stripes and intricate curves and s  k  i  n    ... So fortelling of the aesthetics of male genius' like Tim Burton. Someday there will be an affordable catalog, I'm sure. On second glance... 

Little Nevelson in the background...

Wednesday, December 19, 2012

Calendar Girls








I had to look some of these up for the write up on the calendar-  thought I'd share, since some are in the holiday spirit. These are all Alberto Vargas or Gil Elvgren.  The trick to telling them appart is that Elvgren liked more props.  Merry Christmas to All and to All a Goodnight!

Monday, December 17, 2012

printing press workshop

In anticipation of attending Penland I decided to kibitz on a class at Em Space on Vandercook Letterpress prining.  I've actually done the process several times over the years, but it's one of those skills that if you don't practice enough right after you learn you forget the particulars of. 


So, here's my fancy block of text.  You can see I made all sorts of faux pas-  mixing wood and metal type, etc...
And here's a detail of the actual press doing the printing. 

Fete de la Musique  is otherwise known as "World Music Day" where anyone is encouraged to make music anywhere. It's traditionally around the summer solstice.  When I visited France as a youngster it was one of the most moving things I'd ever experienced, and continues to be a tradition I wish I was musical enough to be a part of. More about how I believe this should relate to the critiquing process in future episodes. 



Shark is my Co-Pilot

Driving around Portland a week or so ago, I had this big guy as company...
at emspace...

as the pinata-ing ensued...

detail...

dah-dum-dah-dum...


all together now!

basking shark...


I then put the whole thing back into the car and went out to find a shipping company.  Which I discovered were prohibitively expensive, and so this shark came back to Richland with me.  Now He'll become a Christmas pinata for my younger cousins.  Look forward to that video in the very soon future...

mini-models




This is actually the, um, 3rd? small mock-up that I've made.  Most of the time I make larger versions, and fail on a larger scale.  These, instead, are like skill practices- the faster I can create a shark the better. Like sketching the same face over and over again, which is actually how I taught myself to draw to a certain extent. This exercise took about 25 minutes. And I was very satisfied with the result.  The little guy travelled around with me all over the place.

Saturday, December 8, 2012

Em Space Magic



Much more pinata-esque, yes?



Friday, December 7, 2012

If I was 18 now...

...there is very little chance that I actually would have gone to craft school.  I would just stay home and watched youtube videos.



So, I have the problem that the shark is looking too much like a bad museum diorama.  Not only do I not like that it isn't a GOOD diorama, but I also don't want to encourage folks to beat up on museum diorami.
Personally, I liked it more before it had eyes



But it was also gratifying today when my mentor reached out to touch the gills and she thought there would be ridges there. 

Tonite I take on adding a surface treatment more like the fringe featured in the video.  
Starting with the tail and working forward. With beer, Kyle Durrie and Rory Sparks.  Always good to surround oneself with sexier, more experienced paper artists, just in case you need them.  Also, they'll be doing fancy, for-profit work.  With, you know, clean hands and such...




Side Projects?

So, as promised, here are some of the shots that Joe did shoot on his visit last month.




Here are some of Matt's lovely distillations...


As well as some previews of the calendar pages... 






When I showed the finished products to my mentor this morning she said "I'm amazed by all the shoes..."