Working on collages, scalpel in hand and one of my friends was telling me a story about how he used to work on his grandfathers pig farm as a kid. He said his job was to sit around and hand castrate the little boy piglets with one swift, well placed cut and sometimes he’d have to do about 600 a day assembly line style.
While he was telling me I ended up making this.
I swear I didn’t do it on purpose.
Every year I have the opportunity to run away to the middle of no where, take a break from daily life, weekly blogging, and any art making at all. I love making art but I love my sanctioned break from it just as much, there is a relief to being able to put it all aside and not feel it hanging over your head. That time ends up being useful to reflect and consider the previous years efforts and loosely plan what might come next.
This year I had some time to work with JD Hastings, where we thought about ways to team up using my marks and his quilting. One of the things we tried was using some of his pre-painted sheets and layering the same design repeatedly. It’s not something I can do with my usual materials because of the thinness of magazine paper, but the thickness of the painted paper means I can trace and reuse the same squiggle as many times as we like. He took over the color choices in these while I took care of the mark making and cutting. The enduring challenge in working on these came in the form of a very numb index finger, a consequence of the pressure applied to get through the materials. It took 3 days to wear off.
Those that have been with us for awhile might remember that I am in charge of the art department for Minks to Sinks. It is essentially a giant tag sale and I spend days in my little tent pricing a few thousand frames and framed posters, and when I’m lucky a few original pieces. It’s a tight space but I’m happy to be there because without fail a monsoon hits us every sale. It’s our version of a rain dance and we often joke that we should take it on the road to drier climates because we are sure to bring the clouds with us. I took this from the safety of my spot, check it out.
It was a mess, but we all just keep our grease pencils in hand and carry on.
Every sale I allow myself to choose two pieces to bring home, it is always the very best and the very worst piece I can find. This time I think I managed to combine them, what do you think of my treasure? I think at 2 bucks you can’t beat it.
I’m still working on these minis in between experimenting with larger paper not quite ready for viewing. This color combination was provided by a beer ad. Now I wish I had more time to say something about it, but it’s Minks to Sinks again and I really need to be down at the tents getting rained on. See you guys later.
We had 8 days of no power after the hurricane, which isn’t as horrible as it sounds, but I guess maybe my next door neighbor got bored or something because he took it into his head to put on a little unwanted show for me while I was on my trampoline.
I’m not the kind of chick that gets thrown into a tizzy at the mere sight of a nude man, but there was definitely some creeper element to this situation. Trampoline time is sacred to me, it’s where I get my exercise and work out problems. It affords me the best view of my property and gives me the opportunity to monitor progress from an aerial advantage, so I was deeply annoyed at having this precious position compromised. My first thought was to move it to another location, but that is kind of impossible because it’s enormous, and I almost entirely forgot that I had it installed in place for just that reason, so lifting it anywhere was out. Screening seemed like a better idea, but I kind of hate manufactured fencing and I really didn’t want to spend money because someone else was being a dick. Or showing a dick. Whatever.
Instead I noticed that there was a small copse of trees that arced around it and thought, “why don’t I just build that up a bit?”, seemed like a workable (and free) solution. I strung some plastic cording between two trees at three levels and stood long, narrow, scavenged branches against it, then used nylon twine to bind them in an easy weave. Now wouldja look at that, a 10 foot tall fence that blends in with the natural landscape!
During the parts where the support trees were a little further apart I added some extra durability by making a chain out of the cording, in this case speaker wire was chosen for the flexibility, the plastic coating, and the ability to hold a knot.
Once the initial structure is finished I plan on going back and staggering a second layer across the front of fill in the gaps and cover all the ugly wires. Hopefully my neighbor can keep his pants on in the meantime.
During one of the discussions on how best to approach reproducing these for the internet the point was brought up that they look different at their actual size. My thought at the time was to post them larger so they would be more easily seen, but that also magnifies the flaws that aren’t as visible in person. Now I have a 17 inch screen, and I am sure that if yours is bigger, or smaller it might throw this whole idea out of whack, but if that is the case you can just grab your average 2.5 x 3.5 inch baseball trading card and imagine this image over it. They are small.
I like this one by the way, it’s going in the direction I was hoping for more of in my last post. The lines are delicate loops and the gradated pink over the gray adds an uneasiness that reminds me of glare on a photo, but which is really only the color as it is.
I’m sticking with the minis for a little while because they are giving me a platform to figure out how to eventually work with these on a larger scale, potentially by combining multiple small pieces, or finding bigger paper (posters perhaps?) and cutting that.
These are two experiments from this week where I wanted to use more limited colors, and bolder, thicker patterns. There were as always mixed results, this one below is not working.
It’s too blocky, lacks elegance, the cuts aren’t that great and the top of the perimeter is askew. It’s a big fat NO.
This was more successful, the shapes were more graceful, the pop of color behind the gray pushes it forward, and keeping the thickness of lines similar kept them from competing.
I learned something here, I am not exactly sure how to articulate it but it will come back to me in peripheral awareness as new ones are made.
Yesterday JD posted a photo of his ever so slightly messy workspace on his Tumblr feed, a scene I am familiar with from occasional visits.
I’m not even going to try to lie, I looked at that photo and I wanted to fly to Berkeley just so I could clean it all up, and while I was out there I could stop by my friend Andy’s new place and probably clean something there too. I haven’t been out to visit yet but it is a pretty safe bet that there is something going on because he is the one from this post that was responsible for leaving all of this behind.
That is a lot of stuff.
I have managed to trim it down to this so far.
I actually worked on some art this week, but not enough to show you all anything. A likely story, I know, but I swear it is true. But in other news I’ll be participating in a show next week (along with Tom Bennett), and I will also be hanging it, and by hanging it I mean pointing at walls and telling sweaty guys to “put that one up there…no, more that way, um yeah. wait. no, lets put it back over here…”
Here’s the run down on the show, a fun idea built around a fictional person.
“DUC presents a pre-launch affair celebrating the Life and Times of Matvey Matveich, with original art pieces and performances.
We found the old suitcase behind an abandoned train station in Stavropol containing an old VHS, a damaged journal, and some bank statements. Upon viewing the tape we realized we had come across the belongings of a very mysterious individual.
Who is Matvey Matveich? Where is he now? Eleven artists, assembled under the order of the grand Duke, set out to discover just that.
Guest List: Co-hosted by Patrick Duffy, Jason Thome, Geoffry Payton, and Fixx Invictus.
Featuring: Alexcalibur, Fixx Invictus, Bretlan Weaver, James Curtright, Jazmine Catasus, Joanne Weaver, Therese + Joel, Toni Tiller, Tom Bennet, Paul Cupo, Gio Black Peter, Emil Martirosian, Nikita Shoshensky.
Live performance by: Alexcalibur, Joanne Weaver, and Fixx Invictus.
Theatre Bar, located in TriBeCa, is Albert Trummer’s cocktail fantasy world where Moulin Rouge meets Death & Co. A true playground for artists, and drinkers alike to meet and create the moments that make New York the extraordinary city that it is.”
More info at ducsite.com/events
Hope to see some of you there!
I am participating in a Twitter print exchange that is being organized by the very cool @laeliamitchell and 7 other people, including our own @j_d_hastings and some of our other Twitter pals some of whom I don’t know at all. I love projects like this, it’s such a fun way to connect with other artists, especially the ones I don’t know because there will be nothing but surprises arriving in the mail and I’m always excited by the prospect of fleshing out my art collection even further. Since I don’t want to spoil the surprise of what I am making for anyone else you will just have to wait*.
*There really is an art swap, and I really don’t want to spoil the surprise, but this also may or may not be a minor ruse to cover up the fact that I have no art this week. Maybe. You’ll never know for sure. But if you really have your heart set on seeing something you can go check out my ex-husbands latest project, a graphic novel just getting off the ground about the joys of being a professional bird watcher here.
This is my stab at making art this week, please note the new surface of choice. I predict that this is the onset of a new trend and soon everyone will be drawing on stryrofoam left over containers, you just wait.
When I’m not busy revolutionizing the world of art trends I’ve been putting together boxes of goodies to send out to some of my friends from my vintage windfall. Fabrics, yarns, sewing supplies, and weird things I can’t identify will soon be hitting the post office and making their way to other parts. The woman I inherited these from was unique and prolific, and I am sure she would be pleased to see these things make their way out of the attic and into the studios of other artists. First I gotta sort it all though.
This week we’ve had a change with the blog, I’m sad to say that Daniel (aka Happy Cloud) is leaving us. He said his work and interests were going in a different direction and this wasn’t a good fit for him anymore. We’ve enjoyed his company here immensely and wish him the best in his pursuits, we were lucky to have him for as long as we did.
At the same time I kinda get it because I have struggled with the same thing. I’ve got about a million projects going right now and most of them are not directly art related, at least not art with a capital A, you know fine art, the good stuff. These days I’m trying to get things renovated, start a freelance business, and just keep up with the ridiculous pace I’ve set for myself that I don’t see changing any time soon. If anything it is only going to get worse.
So I ask myself if I still fit in here too. Maybe, maybe not. I like being here, the other authors have been my friends for years and I’m really reluctant to give up this blog, I enjoy the deadline even as I bitch about it in my head every week. So now I wonder if there is a way to make this work for me even without a fine art post every week. I could link to other people’s work, that’s always a quick option, but what I’m leaning toward more than that is seeing if I can find the art in what I’m doing from week to week, because for me it’s all about the approach. The same thoughts, questions, critical processes, and design decisions take place if I am making a print, a collage, working on my house, or doing a big clean out job for someone else. More time is needed to see if it can play out or if I’m just going to bore the pants off of you with my domestic projects and potential lack of visuals. I guess we’ll find out.
This week the weather decided to turn rainy so I had the opportunity to get back to cutting up some paper. I worked a little bit on JD’s book that I have had in my possession for far too long, but got a little stuck so moved on to something else. For awhile I have been thinking about exploring the layering of some very fine lined pieces in much more subtle color choices. This is one that is in progress and needs a few more layers to pull it together, but in the end I am hoping it will evoke some kind of floral
something or other.
I’ve been busy busy busy lately. My friend has decided to get rid of one of his houses and invited me to raid it for plants/rocks/supplies and since all those things, especially plants, are expensive I’m going to happily take him up on it. What it means is I spend most days right now loading up The Pig (my Chevette) going over to his house digging up plants and rocks and moving them to my house. Repeat.
So far I’ve moved about 60 plants, and I probably have another 70 or so to go, and since this doesn’t leave a lot of time to cut paper and make collages I am going to label this a design project and post it here. Title – My House, Size – 2.25 acres, Medium – Mixed Media.
This is my little cat house, which I have posted on Twitter before, but it’s had some changes and has now been landscaped with some variegated shrubs and a lot of Hosta, which hopefully the deer won’t eat. I swapped out the previous “deck” for a more natural wood plank. I’m thinking a few more plants and rocks, and maybe a slate walkway leading up to the plank.
This is a piece of woven metal that was gifted to me which I have decided to incorporate as a lattice for some climbing plants and a little Vinca will be coming soon too.
And this is where some new shrubs, Rhododendron and Azaleas were dug in and now I need to make a rock retaining wall along that dark dirt line. Hopefully it will be finished today.
I might send this in for this.
Adult coloring book. Click the images to be magically transported.
I am stuck in bed under a haze of cold medicine, so I’m gonna phone this one in, it’s back from our early ATC rampage and it is called Angels With Commitment Issues. Maybe there will be more later, I don’t know, I’ll let the Nyquil decide.
I think I may have mentioned that twice a year I serve as the chairman of the art department for Minks To Sinks, a local charity tag sale of enormous proportions. It’s so popular that people start lining up hours in advance on opening day, and the line stretches around the block (not an easy feat since we don’t even have blocks in Wilton), and when the gates open there is stampede of people behaving more like wild bulls. I have yet to see any of these excited shoppers head straight to the art tent, which is a shame because I happen to know there are some real goodies in there. Here are some highlights, two of the best, and a few best of the worst.
This was one of the nicer pieces, an original brush painting by James Yeh-Jau Liu.
The back plate.
Here is another one of my favorites, an early William Matthews print.
I liked them both, but the aren’t nearly as fun as these two vintage paint by number boxers.
I was tempted to grab this one myself for my collection of hideous paintings of children, but ultimately I resisted.
I am sure some hipster snapped this baby right up – with a bonus sneak peek at my fab leopard print rain slicker in the reflection!
That’s all for now, October will bring the next round of treats from the tents, see you then!
A few weeks ago @laeliamitchell sent me a pretty little handmade art book and so now it is my turn to return the favor. Kind of wish I had a better picture but this will have to do for now.
5 by 7.75 inches, magazine paper on cardboard
Space has a lot to do with how we think and create, and sometimes when the space gets extra messy the brain will follow shortly after and it can interfere with the art making process. I am currently in the middle of a major clean up at my place and needed a break so when I saw an exclamation of exasperation from our own Steph about the state of her studio I hopped in my car and headed up to Massachusetts. For me it’s always more fun to clean up someone else’s mess and I’ll take any excuse to hang out with Steph, something I don’t get to do nearly enough of.
So here is what we were working with.
Six hours, 47 cups of tea, and a lot of gossip later, we had this.
Lots of space, some new floor covering, and everything is labeled and findable. I wish I had gotten a shot of the desk/shelf area because it’s where we saw the most space made, but I spaced and only took this one. Ah well. My hope is that with all the new room that Steph with make a whole bunch of those yummy spinning balls. What’s fun for me was midway through the process I realized I’ve gotten my mitts on four out of six Darteboard studios. So Jason and Daniel, if I ever find myself in your part of the world and you have a little clutter to sort out I have a perfect record I’m looking to tick off…
Agora Gallery - the proud sponsor of the Chelsea International Fine Art Competition, which offers contemporary artists the opportunity to show their original art at one the most acclaimed juried art shows in Chelsea, New York’s art galleries district.
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darteboard
jdhastings
ssstephg
Tom Bennett
Toni Tiller
Jason Gray
probrucer
laelia e. mitchell
galinatodorova
