Painting for Artstock!

Had a great time today painting tablecloths with some of the artists from High Hand.  They will be used at the Artstock Reception!  I've been focused on making jewelry and mixed media lately so it was fun to play with paint for a change. 

Artstock Entries 2013

Finished my pieces for Artstock.  One piece is a bronze I made several years ago.  After the first and only show I entered it in a weld broke while I was transporting it home so it's been residing under my art table since then.  After getting the weld repaired and a little TLC it is ready for viewing once again.  I re-christened it "Theta".  My son suggested it.  It has something to do with a polar graph that creates a spiral.....did I mention that I that my husband and sons are all math/scientists?




This piece started with a ceramic figure I made a few years back but never glazed.  I painted it with metallic/opalescent acrylic paints and finished with a satin varnish.  The base is a piece of wood from a stump we chopped out of the backyard a few months ago.  I usually start with materials that interest me and work out my point of view as the artwork starts taking shape. I didn't really know where I wanted to go with this piece until I put the two together and got a strong earth mother vibe.   At this point it didn't look finished.  I wanted something more around the head that wouldn't detract from the figure and had a "nature" feel.  After digging through my stash of odds and ends and not being very inspired I was getting a little desperate.  I finally found a small metal wall sculpture I had picked up at a thrift store ages ago and cut off a piece that seemed to do the trick.  A scrap of bronze a little gold paint and some varnish on the base pulled it together and I called it done.





If I had more time I may have adjusted a few things but the deadline had arrived and it was time to submit.  I was just glad the glue and paint was mostly dry and it was staying together.  I liked the idea of mother nature but it didn't quite work for me as a name.  I finally decided on "Gaia", the Greek personification of Earth and the mother of all things.

Bumping up to the deadline

 
Working on some sculptures for the High Hand Artstock Show.  The entry deadline is tomorrow.  It would be nice not to always be in such a rush trying to my work done at the last minute but I seem to get more creative when I'm in semi-panic mode.  I've got to work on changing that dynamic. I'm sure it's not good for me and it's probably  annoying to everyone who gets there stuff done on time.....or early.  We'll see how I do next time.

Gone Too Soon.....

This is what can happen when there's a new puppy in the house and you don't put your things away.  The frustrating part is that he had new chew toys and a full bowl of food when he did it.  If he'd eaten a left and a right I could get creative and wear one of each!

The Eye of the Beholder......

I sold a mixed media collage at the High Hand Gallery today!  I was excited that I had sold something but I feel especially good knowing it went to someone who really appreciated it.  The woman who it belongs to now is visually impaired and was very excited to find art that she could experience through touch.  She liked that the fan moves.

Although many of my art pieces are dimensional because I work with found objects I hadn't really thought much about the tactile aspect of my art.  I should have, especially after teaching a visual art residency to a visually impaired class.  At the time I was mostly concerned about the my student's experience making art while not being able to see and I didn't think about how they would enjoy and experience the artwork after it was made.  Even though I'm a "visual" artist I think I'll have to keep in mind that people "see" in different ways.