The Littles

Here, at long last, are the little pieces that rose from the ashes (dust?) of the studio cleaning:

The dish and spoon stayed pretty simple: they're running away on a background drawn with watercolor pencils. Their line from the nursery rhyme, torn from a tattered story book, has been added to the canvas.

The little flower fellow is a bit more complicated: He got a silver crescent moon and a brass #2. I also decided to put a small keyhole on his canvas and I wanted some to be peering through the keyhole. I chose a photo of a very dear friend who has taught me much about the flora and fauna of Florida. I just happened to have a great picture of her taken when she was a child. It seemed appropriate to use Clauda's picture on this piece and when I reduced her to an extremely small size she fit perfectly inside the keyhole! I attached a vintage key to the copper wire on the flower.

I finished both pieces with simple wooden frames, a great technique from Claudine Hellmuth's book, "Collage Discovery Workshop" that I use a lot.

What do you think?

Winter Cleaning

I know, we're supposed to do spring cleaning, not winter cleaning. But since moving to Florida eight years ago winter seems to be a better time to do deep cleaning. It's when the weather's mild - usually - and the windows can be open. It just feels like the right time down here.

I've been doing a bit of winter cleaning in the studio, sorting through shelves and storage bins, weeding out things I can give way or list for sale on etsy.

One happy result of deep cleaning in the studio is rediscovering pieces in various stages of completion that for one reason or another got set aside. Some will pique my interest again and I set them out on my work table. When this happens I rarely finish the piece as I had originally intended; there's a new vision now.

Recently I came across this tiny plate and spoon, along with their equally tiny arms and legs. Originally I had planned on doing a piece depicting the entire "Hey Diddle Diddle" gang, but lately I have been enamoured with small works, so now the dish is going to run away with the spoon alone. I painted the faces and put stripes on the wee arms and legs. Then I wired the extremities to the bodies to give them motion. They'll go on a 3X3" canvas, something else will go on the canvas with them, not sure what yet. I'll have to let you know.

I also ran across this little baby in a hollyhock. He was already painted. In fact the hollyhock was glued to a pinback. Apparently at some point I went though a very strange pin-phase that I'm now blocking...... Anyway, the hollyhock fellow has now been coated with beeswax and attached to a beeswax coated 2.5X3.5" canvas, then wrapped with copper wire. Not sure what else will go on his canvas either, but I'll put both finished pieces in a future post.

In the meantime I'm looking forward to seeing what else I might find in the boxes and bins and what ideas these finds might spark.......

New Books!

Don't you love getting a gift certificate? I do, especially a gift certificate for books or art supplies.

Recently I was given a Barnes & Noble gift certificate. After savoring the thought of it for a few weeks the day finally came when I had time to browse and consider my selections. These books can't be chosen in haste after all, they are gift books, they must be chosen carefully!

From the front door I spied a huge book on the history of the circus.....in the sale section!! I love old circus pictures. Several oddities have been inspired by the vintage circus look; in fact there is a circus piece in the studio right now that could use some inspiration.

After looking through the circus book - yes it did look promising, but a decision can't be made that quickly - I headed back to the arts & crafts section. In addition to checking out the books in general, there were a few I wanted to look at in particular: Rice Freeman-Zackery's "Creative Time and Space: Making Room for Making Art". I also wanted to see "Who's Your Dada" by Linda and Opie Obrien and "Image Transfer Workshop" by Darlene Olivia McElroy and Sandra Duran. I was especially interested in Rice Freeman-Zackery's book. I have her "Living the Creative Live: Ideas and Inspiration from Working Artists" and I follow her blog and listen to her podcast, and I enjoy all of it, BUT, her book wasn't in stock. The other two books were available for my perusing pleasure; both looked good, especially "Who's Your Dada?". But, way up on a high shelf I spied "Art Making and Studio Spaces" by Lynne Perrella. Now, when it comes to other artist's working spaces I have to admit, I'm a bit of a voyeur. I must not be alone given the number of magazines on the subject that have cropped up in the last year or two. I generally find the magazines unsatisfying though; the spaces often look too decorated, too pretty for real work.

After finding a ladder I got the book down and thumbed through it and saw true work spaces.....enough to satisfy my voyeuristic tendencies! A book chosen!!

Back to the sale section to look at the Circus book again. It had some great pictures and illustrations - lots of inspiration there - so it had to come with me too.

A quick pass through the magazines; too many possibilities to list, but only one came home with me: "American Style". The article about collectors Jerry Slipman & Chet Robachinski caught my eye. Whenever I'm asked to speculate about what I'd do if I won $100 million in the lottery I say I'd become a collector of art and fine craft. "American Style" showcases collectors whose homes and collections I'm usually thinking of when I say that, like Slipman and Robanchinski's.

My gift certificate was well spent I think, don't you agree?

Blue Moon

There's a Blue Moon tonight. My favorite art work of my own is titled "Blue Moon". It was conceived at the American Craft Council, Sarasota, Florida show, in 2002. My business name was Silver Moon Studio. Across the aisle was a potter who called his business Blue Moon Studio. During the course of the show he explained that he and his wife (and fellow potter) had found their farm in upstate New York, with a pottery studio already built on it, on the day of a blue moon.

I was sitting in my booth thinking about a blue moon being the second full moon in a month when it occurred to me that, no, it would simply be a very sad moon. I did some quick sketches right away and had intended to share them with you, but I have misplaced the sketchbook I was using at the time. Anyway, I did not follow the sketches very closely. I very rarely do. The piece didn't come to fruition right away; I finished him in 2006.

He was sculpted in Creative Paperclay with a wood and wire armature. His clothing was also made of paperclay with acrylic paint and silver leaf. I knew that he would be wear all shades of blue with some purple. I didn't plan on the red tie. It was a last minute decision. It was his choice and it is out of character for him, but he wears it any way because it was a gift from the sun.

"Blue Moon" is living in the Atlanta area. He found a new home when we were there for the American Craft Council Show in March 2008.

Happy New Year!

Magic

Are you familiar with the work of painter Chuck Close? I had the pleasure of seeing some of his work at the Salvador Dali Museum in St Petersburg, Florida, a few years ago and I was enthralled.

For those of you who don't know, he does facial studies on a huge scale. From a distance they are realistically painted faces - his early work was photo realistic - but up close they turn into a grid of abstract squares. They change as one walks across the room. There is a definite element of magic.

There are a couple of programs about Chuck Close that the Sundance and Ovation TV channels (PBS too?) show, check them out if you get a chance. In addition to telling about Mr. Closes' life and some of his philosophy, they show him creating his magic. I watched Chuck CLOSE, a Film by Marion Cajori last night. I could watch it over and over. Between interviews the film follows the progress of one painting.

There are clips of the artist working and as the the camera pans in and out you can catch that moment of magic where abstraction turns into light or shadow on the plane of a face.

I find it thrilling. Perhaps you will too.

The book completed!

With silhouettes cut from all of the pages it was time to make the book stand.

This proved to be a bit of a challenge. I had drilled dowels into the base thinking I could simply attach chipboard to the dowels and glue the spine of the book to the chipboard. It seemed like a good idea at the time. I applied the glue and held the book in place........and I held the book in place........and I held the book in place........well anyway, I held it a long time, but it didn't matter, the book had gotten too fragile and the spine was disintegrating. The glue held it to the chipboard at the bottom, but not at the top, so the book slumped.

Yikes! The figure couldn't sit on the book if it was slumping. Heck, the silhouettes couldn't even fan out! Time was running out, I needed to get the piece finished in time for the show and I couldn't sculpt the figure until I had the book standing so I could see how its legs would sit on the book. After a few minutes of panicking I decided I might be able to drill a couple of holes through the book, then wire it to the dowels. If you are ever going to drill through a book I recommend doing it while the book is laying down, it will be much easier I'm sure. It wasn't easy, but it worked!!

I had the head and torso and hands of the figure sculpted, now I was able to sculpt the legs and arms in the position I had in mind.

The piece made it to Still Life in G Gallery in the Village of the Arts in Bradenton, Florida in time for the show. I wasn't completely happy with it when I finished, but I ran out of time and I had to stop working on it. It's the base I'm not happy with. I asked people to give me the names of characters they remember from books they've read and I wrote the names, along with the quote on the base, but it's all too pale I think. There's no contrast. Deb McKeever, the owner of the gallery is going to invite visitors to the show to add names to the base. If I'm still unhappy with it when it comes home I can always work on it some more!

Does Santa have to be dressed in traditional colors?

Blue Santa? Turquoise Santa? Acid green Santa? What do you think, can it really be Santa dressed in these non-traditional colors? After seeing these colors in the stores and in the Christmas issues of several magazines I was inspired to dress this year's troop of Santas in bright, non-traditional colors (you can see how they started life in the July 28th post, "in the studio (at last)"). I listed this group of cheery fellows in my shop on etsy - http://www.olivamoon.etsy.com/ . Only the red one has sold, and it was sold before they were listed on etsy. Now, I admit that I did finish them late, I didn't list them until December 2nd, so I'm unsure if they haven't sold because of the late listing, or if the bright colors don't appeal to people.

So, what do you think, does Santa have to be dressed in traditional colors?